Author's Notes: WELP looks like my goal of a chapter every two months isn't going so hot. Sorry about that. As always though, you can follow me on twitter for the latest updates/excuses about why I'm taking so long with the next update. Supremostories is the twitter name, follow me!
Also, don't forget to leave me a review! I'm so much more motivated to write when I get bunches of those, so please keep 'em coming!
Lastly, this story crossed a quarter-million (that's 250,000 fulks) hits all time between the last chapter and this one. I just want to thank everyone so so much for sticking with me through the years, the response has frankly been beyond my wildest dreams when I started.
Disclaimer: I'm just not JKR, m'kay? She's the one that owns all this.
Chapter Ten: What Do You Think, Potter?
There was something very unnerving about standing alone in the Dark Lord's throne room, Bellatrix Lestrange thought. She whipped her head around to look behind her to make certain there was no one else in the room. Of course, there was not. Bellatrix shook herself mentally for her stupidity; this was at least the fourth time she had pulled that move.
Bellatrix turned her attention to the obsidian throne in the middle of the room. It was a masterpiece, a looming monument to the Dark. Bellatrix felt her skin tingle as she focused in on it and thought of its future; how from this very seat, her master would one day rule all Europe. She smiled and licked the points of her canines, relishing her fantasy, overcome by her desire to serve as her master's right hand until the end of her days. But of course, there won't be an end of days for me, thought Bellatrix. Surely it is only a matter of time before my master shares the secrets of immortality. Her smile grew wider.
At long last, Bellatrix heard the click of the secret door in the Malfoy drawing room floor and saw the bottom half of her lord come gliding down the stairs into the throne room. The half-mad witch began to lower herself into the typical bow when something in her peripheral vision stopped her dead cold. A second figure was descending the stairs with her master; and here, "with" was the key preposition: the figure was not trailing behind the Dark Lord as was customary, bur rather walked alongside the Dark Lord. In all her years of service, Bellatrix could not remember a single time anyone had been granted this honor. So great was her shock that Bellatrix nearly didn't assume the traditional bow quickly enough, a nearly unforgivable sin in Lord Voldemort's ranks.
"Rise, Bella," intoned Voldemort. The Dark Lord's tone was threatening, but on the inside he was elated; he had just won a 100 Galleon bet with Harry about whether or not Bella would be able recover her senses quickly enough to bow before the pair got down the stairs.
Bellatrix rose as her Lord commanded and for the first time got a full look at his…companion? What a strange word to use in reference to the Dark Lord. The newcomer was of average height and clad in dark robes bearing a strange insignia: like the Dark Mark it featured a snake and a skull, but instead of growing out of the skull's jaw like a tongue, the snake on this mark – a cobra – wrapped around the skull's forehead and then rose from behind the parietal bone, flaring its hood and baring its fangs. A simple gold crown adorned the top of the cobra's head. The man's hood was raised and cast a pitch-black shadow that completely obscured his face, except for two sickly green triangular slits, which glowed malevolently from the depths of the hood, where Bellatrix supposed his real eyes must be. The effect was clearly magical in origin, but that knowledge did nothing to dispel the unsettled feeling Bellatrix got from looking at the man…there was just something wrong about this character, whoever he was. Bellatrix chose instead to fix her old master with a quizzical look. Normally, she wouldn't have dared to look at him this way, but this was clearly not a normal meeting.
"My Lord," said Bellatrix with as much reverence as she could muster, given the circumstances. "May I ask who your…guest is?"
"You may," the Dark Lord allowed. "This is…" and here Voldemort paused, glancing briefly in Harry's direction. For all the planning the two had done in the three days since Harry had revealed the prophecy to him, they had somehow overlooked the issue of what the Death Eaters would call the boy. Voldemort felt a message come through the connection he shared with Harry and agreed with the teen's assessment.
"This is your new master," Voldemort concluded. "As far as you are concerned, he is my equal. You will obey and serve him without question, as you would me."
"My new master," Bellatrix protested, her voice approaching a wail. "But my Lord, I swore an oath to you, not this person! He does not even bear the Dark Mark!"
Voldemort gazed impassively at Bellatrix for the barest of seconds and then nodded discreetly at Harry. In the blink of an eye, the disguised teen's want was in his hand and two electric blue bolts were hurtling at Bellatrix' knees. The veteran Death Eater was caught too off-guard to dodge and the curses struck true, pulverizing all the bone and connective tissue in her knees. In the Muggle world, this injury would leave her crippled for life; as it was, it would merely leave her immobilized and in excruciating pain until Voldemort saw fit to have his house-elves heal her.
"All attempts at insubordination will be treated most harshly," said Harry over the screams of the fallen woman. He cast a temporary pain relief charm so that Bellatrix could regain enough of her mental faculties to comprehend him.
"You will be charged primarily with instructing two of my lieutenants in stealth, tracking, and deception." At this, Harry motioned with his hand and two figures materialized behind him. They were clad in the same dark robes from which they peered out with the same glowing green eyes. They were only distinguishable from Harry by the color of the crowns on the heads of the cobras on the insignia; theirs were silver rather than gold.
Harry waited for some sort of acknowledgment of her orders from Bellatrix but received none. Quickly growing impatient with the woman, Harry canceled his pain relief charm and allowed Bellatrix to scream herself hoarse before reapplying it.
"Do you understand, Bella?" Harry asked, sneering the familiar form of her name with as much contempt as he could muster, and Bellatrix noticed for the first time the voice of her tormentor: high-pitched, cold and cruel, very nearly the same as the Dark Lord's.
"I understand," said Bellatrix, though she did not bother to hide the derision in her voice. This was a mistake.
"I understand, what?" thundered Harry, though the charm disguising his voice altered it into a harsh, dangerous whisper. When Bellatrix did not answer, Harry lashed out; another blue bolt shot from Harry's wand and struck the wicked witch directly in the chest, splitting her sternum in two.
"I understand, Master!" Bellatrix screamed out in panic, feeling her bones grind together and laboring to keep breathing as she felt her chest cavity slowly collapse.
Harry made no motion to aid Bellatrix and neither did Voldemort. Both knew that if their partnership was to work, Harry had to establish complete dominance over Bellatrix. He had to break the woman here and now or he could not hope to hold sway over the other Death Eaters.
Harry conjured a small boulder and levitated it to a spot ten feet above the witch's head. "We aren't going to have problems, are we Bella?" he asked, breathing as much false innocence as he could into his hiss of a voice. "We aren't going to need to find a new teacher for my lieutenants, are we?"
"N-no, Master!" choked out Bellatrix, for whom breathing was now getting quite difficult.
"Are you suuuuuure?" Harry's voice came as close to a sadistic coo as the charm would allow. Before Bellatrix could respond, Harry repositioned the boulder to be over Bellatrix' right ankle and dropped it, allowing himself to wince at the crunch it made and the witch's subsequent tortured, somewhat constricted screams.
"Yes I'm sure, Master!" Bellatrix cried. She had known terrible pain from Voldemort's wand before, but the terror of a slow, horrible death at the hands of this stranger was wreaking havoc on her psyche in ways Voldemort's punishments never had.
Harry levitated the boulder again and positioned it once more over Bellatrix' head, this time over twenty feet in the air. "That is good," he purred dangerously. "I am glad to leave the training of my lieutenants in your capable hands.
"But know this, Bella. I am holding you accountable for how well they learn. Responsibility for any failures they might have will fall," and here Harry paused and released the boulder, stopping its fall mere inches above Bellatrix' head, "onto you."
Bellatrix gulped and simply nodded her head as fervently as she could; she desired nothing more than to get away from her mysterious tormentor. "I won't let you down, Master," she croaked.
Voldemort sensed that Bellatrix had been thoroughly conquered. "Elf!" he called, and his personal house elf, Jiff, appeared instantly. "Take Bellatrix away and mend her. Go see Snape too, I imagine you'll be needing some of his stores of Skelegrow." The elf nodded and a second later, disappeared along with Bellatrix' broken frame.
As soon as they were gone, Voldemort turned to Harry. "I must say, you have an interesting style, Potter. Why didn't you just Cruciate her?"
"I'm not skilled enough with that," Harry said, canceling the various glamour charms on his robes and person and lowering his hood. "I didn't want to risk permanently damaging her."
Voldemort smirked.
"But in any event, I'm sure she's been conditioned to the Cruciatus curse," said Harry, shooting a warning glare at Voldemort as he did so. "Given that, I think my method was more effective."
"Fair enough," said Voldemort, who in truth had been impressed with the ruthlessness and simplicity of Harry's attack. "This time again tomorrow?"
"Indeed," said Harry, grinning at the older wizard. He turned to Blaise and Hermione, who for some reason had not undone their glamours. "Ladies," he said, and with the activation of a Portkey, they were all gone.
"Pretty sickening, Harry," said Blaise. "I wish you wouldn't do that again."
"She'll be fine."
Blaise laughed. "No, I wasn't talking about Bellatrix, Merlin knows that bitch deserves everything she got and more. I meant this quiche, it's simply dreadful cold. Maybe remember to leave a warming charm next time?"
"Take your complaints up with Tonks, she's the one who's supposed to be in charge of domestic stuff while we're out," Harry said with mock irritation, gesturing across the kitchen table to the empty seat at Blaise's left, where Tonks normally sat. "Where is she anyway?"
"Probably at the Atoll putting finishing touches on the huts."
"Right."
Silence fell over the group. After a few minutes of quiet broken only by the scrape of forks on plates, Hermione spoke up.
"He's bloody scary," she said in an uncharacteristically small voice.
"The stuff of nightmares," agreed Blaise. "You sort of expect that the stories are all overblown, you know? You think that there's no way anyone could be that monstrous, no way he could actually have red eyes and a face like a snake, but he does. Thank Merlin we had those glamours on, knowing he couldn't see me was the only thing keeping me sane."
"Here's the thing about Voldemort," said Harry. "You have to remember that underneath it all, he's still basically the same as anyone else. I know, I know," he said, holding up his hands to forestall the girls' protests. "He doesn't look human, and he's certainly committed countless inhuman crimes. But you know what we talked about most often the past three days?"
"His schemes to take over the world?" guessed Blaise.
Harry gave a small laugh. "No. We talked about Quidditch."
"Quidditch?"
"Yeah, Quidditch. He's a Tornadoes fan."
"You're joking," breathed Hermione.
"I'm not. He's actually quite knowledgeable. You ever wonder why he's never attacked a Quidditch match, even though that's an amazingly obvious target? He knows that if he did, they'd suspend the league indefinitely and he'd have to start following the Continental leagues and, 'Doubt I want to spend my day watching those duffers,'" Harry hissed in a perfect imitation of the Dark Lord.
Blaise gave a brief snort of laughter. "What does he think about you, then?"
"He said something about wanting to Imperius the Tornadoes' general manager to make sure they signed me…"
"Do you think he will," asked Hermione.
Harry just shrugged. There was another long silence.
"Well anyways," said Blaise, as she finished her quiche. "Let's get a move on shall we? I know that I'd like to see this Atoll before the others come tomorrow morning."
"Alright," said Harry. He bellowed for Kreacher and the house elf appeared with a crack, once again without the usual aggressive muttering. Harry commanded the elf to take the group to Alphard's Atoll and with a snap of Kreacher's fingers, the three were off.
Harry found himself on the most idyllic beach imaginable. The pure white sand stretched across the edge of the island, 30 yards wide, and felt cool on his feet. The water was a light blue that blended almost perfectly with the sky above, so well that it was difficult to make out the horizon. The interior side of the beach was lined with palm trees: squat, pineapple-like royals; tall, skinny queens; and bunches of short, skinny, yellow butterfly palms, with trunks perfectly spaced for a hammock. Beyond the trees was a dense, emerald green forest, teeming with all manner of tropical plants. A sandy path cut through the forest, beside which a painted wooden sign bore the legend, "Welcome to Alphard's Atoll."
Blaise and Hermione squealed with delight, and made motions to suggest they were about to collapse with pleasure. Kreacher started to cry, bemoaning his existence and pleading with long-dead Black family members to forgive him for befouling this paradise with half-bloods and other nasty adjectives for Harry's company. For his part, Harry was floored, but kept enough wits about him to steer his friends and elf down the path. They walked through the jungle for five minutes, the girls cooing with joy at every flower they passed and Harry gazing curiously at a monkey that had taken to following them. Eventually the path opened out into a sandy clearing, where a gorgeous white villa stood, surrounded by paths that led elsewhere in the forest.
Harry let out a low whistle. "Yeah, this'll do," he said, transfixed by the sight of his new home.
"Business, Harry," said Blaise reprovingly, though she too was gazing in awe at beautiful villa.
"Yes, we've got to find Tonks and then go collect the others," said Hermione absently.
"You thought she was at the huts, right Blaise," Harry asked, still unable to tear his eyes away.
"Yeah, they're over that way I think," she replied, pointing to nowhere in particular.
"We should go then."
"Yeah."
No one moved.
"Oh, you lot are too funny," called Tonks, seemingly from a fair distance away. Harry looked over and saw the pink-haired Auror strolling up a path to the right of the villa. "Close your mouths and stanch your drooling, would you please? Wouldn't want to foul up Harry's beach."
"How'd you know we were here," asked Harry, recovering himself and walking over to meet Tonks halfway. Blaise and Hermione reluctantly followed.
"Set up a quick proximity ward on the beach to let me know when anyone arrived," said Tonks. "Have I not taught you to do that yet? Has Moody not? Has He not?"
Harry shook his head.
"You must remind me to, Harry. It's very standard operating procedure to set up a proximity ward before beginning a mission of any sort, it'll allow you to know instantly if anyone else arrives on the scene. Whether its reinforcements for your side or theirs, or if it's just innocent bystanders, its invaluable information."
Harry nodded, instantly seeing the utility of such a spell.
"But we should go, yeah? Time to collect everyone," said Tonks, returning to the business at hand. "You'll wait here?"
Harry nodded again and watched as Blaise and Hermione each grabbed hold of one of Tonks' arms. A brief fantasy flicked across Harry's mind before Tonks Apparated the group away. Harry smirked to himself, walked back down to the beach and conjured a hammock to wait for the first of his new followers to arrive.
"Oh, I can't believe it!" raged Bellatrix from her bed. The physical pain from that morning's torture session had been quelled by Snape's excellent potion, but the psychological wounds were fresh as ever.
"Nearly 30 years of dedicated service!" she wailed at the Potions Master, who was standing at a counter to the left of her bed, putting the finishing touches of a second dose for her. "And how does he repay me? By making some anonymous bit of scum second-in-command? By having me tortured? What a crock of bullshit!"
"You're coming close to treason, Bella," Snape reminded the dark witch reflexively as he approached her bedside. Upon actually registering what Bellatrix had said, however, he stopped mid-stride and fixed the witch with a hard look.
"You mean to say that the Dark Lord didn't do this to you," he asked slowly.
"No! My – or I suppose our – new Master did, haven't you been listening?"
"Truthfully? No, I was just letting you rant," Snape smirked, handing her a goblet of potion. "Tell me about our new Master."
Ten minutes later, Harry smiled as he saw Katie Bell stumble into existence at the waterline and shriek as a small wave collided with the back of her calves.
"Over here," he called, getting up from the hammock. Katie looked up and smiled, casting a quick drying charm on herself as she jogged over to meet him.
"Oh, Harry this place is wonderful!" she exclaimed, giving her former teammate a hug as she arrived at his side and looking at the scenery around her. "It's really all yours?"
"All mine," he confirmed. "Shall we get you settled in, then? We've got a bunch of people coming in pretty soon."
Harry led her back up the path through the forest and began filling her in. "So, this is where you'll be staying for the rest of the month until Hogwarts starts up again. Aside from you and me, there will be eleven others living on the Atoll."
"Anyone I don't know," Katie inquired.
Harry thought for a moment. "I suppose you haven't ever met Auror Tonks, have you?"
"No," said Katie, trailing off slyly, and Harry thought he knew what was coming. "The name sounds familiar though…has she ever been in the paper?"
"Har har," Harry said, rolling his eyes as Katie smirked at his discomfort, "The other you might not have met before is a Slytherin girl from my year named Blaise Zabini. Everyone else was in the D.A."
"Yeah, I've seen her around the castle a couple times. And perhaps on one or two other occasions." Katie smirked again. "How are things going with her then? She's a bloody fine catch."
"Wh-" Harry started, but caught himself. He had nearly forgotten about the show he and Blaise had put on in Diagon Alley. "Er, it's going brilliantly," he amended. "Blaise is a very nice girl and, well, we're having a lot of fun."
"Oh I'll bet you are."
"Anyhow," he began again with an edge to his voice, "I, along with Blaise, Tonks and Hermione will be living in the main villa, which we'll come upon in a minute or two."
"Kinky, Harry. I mean, I'd heard gossip about Blaise around the castle, but I had no idea she'd be up for –"
" –Stuff it," Harry interjected.
"Thanks, but it sounds like you do enough for the both of us," returned Katie without missing a beat.
Harry sighed and dropped the issue as they entered the sandy clearing where the villa stood. It was his turn to smirk as Katie's jaw went slack at the sight of it.
"So yeah, this is the villa where the four of us will be," Harry said with as much nonchalance as he could muster.
"Bloody hell, Harry! Nice digs!"
"Yeah its OK," he said, grabbing Katie's arm and pulling her along. "Come on then, your place is this way."
Harry led Katie around the clearing to the right side of the villa, where another sandy path led off into the jungle. It was a brief walk this time before they reached another white sand beach, identical to the first one except for a somewhat long, light brown bridge that led to another shore Harry could make out in the distance. As they walked across the bridge, Harry caught something in his peripheral vision and turned to look just in time to see the tip of a massive blue-green scaly tail flash out of and back into the water. They weren't kidding about the Sea Serpents, he thought.
As they came further across the bridge, Harry began to make out the guest huts. There were 50 of them, identical light brown bungalows raised on stilts. Each had a wide, generous porch with an assortment of lounge chairs and wide, panoramic widows that wrapped around both side corners and exposed a bright living room.
"So you'll be living in one of these," said Harry, grinning at Katie. His former teammate had once again gone slack at the jaw. "Go ahead and pick whichever one you like best and then you can just hang out and do whatever you want. The others will be trickling in one or two at a time for the next few hours, so it would be a big help to me if you could show people back to here if I'm away with someone else when they arrive, but if you don't want to do that there's a map of the Atoll and all of its amenities in your hut. The only thing I'd ask you to leave alone for now is the dueling simulator; I'll want to show that to everyone at once. Also, there's a meeting for everyone in the villa's dining hall at 7:00, so don't forget to be there."
Harry left Katie nodding mutely on the beach and headed back to the main island, where he was sure at least two more new arrivals were waiting for him. One down, eight to go. This was shaping up to be a long day.
"Welcome everyone," Harry said. It was seven o'clock and, as promised, all of Harry's followers were arranged around the table in the cream-white dining room of his villa. Until now, the crowd had been buzzing excitedly about their first day in Harry's tropical paradise: the Quidditch pitch, the beaches, the extensive game room in the villa, the lush paths through the forest teeming with exotic animals. But at the first sound of Harry's voice, the crowd had gone instantly silent and Harry was once again stunned by his ability to command the attention of a crowd. A comparison of himself to Professor Snape came unbidden into his mind, but Harry quickly banished the thought. Classrooms quieted for Snape out of simple fear for the bat-like man; Harry was determined to earn respect.
"I hope you all are having a good first day here," Harry continued, somewhat nervously. A general murmur of agreement worked its way through the group. "This Atoll is a truly remarkable place, and I'm so glad that I can share it with you all.
"But now, I'm afraid, it is time to get down to business. Hermione, has everyone here already made the Unbreakable Vow?"
"Yes, they've all sworn to not reveal the existence of this island or anything you discuss here tonight."
"Brilliant," Harry said. "Well then, I've got sort of a speech to give to you all, so if you'll bear with me..." Harry trailed off, unfurling a folded sheet of parchment from pocket of his shorts and began to read from it.
"You are all here because I am looking to create my own front in this war against Voldemort. I am looking to the lot of you to be the first on my side. I have asked all of you here because I have respect for your individual skills and potential to become expert witches and wizards and because I have confidence in your personal affection for and loyalty to me. I would be deeply honored and grateful if each and every one of you would join me.
"But before I can ask you to make that commitment, I feel I have an obligation to make you aware of the facts to the greatest extent possible, so that you may make an informed decision. If after hearing what I have to say, you do not wish to join with me, I will not hold it against you."
Harry looked up from the parchment at this point and eyed the crowd. "I really mean that," he said. "If you decide you want to back out tonight there will be no hard feelings or repercussions of any kind. Joining me will be a life-altering decision, and if you have any doubts that can't be resoled tonight, you shouldn't stay." He looked around the table to see that everyone understood, then returned to his speech.
"I'm sure that many of you already suspect that one way or another, I will be an essential player in the war against Voldemort. I can tell you now that your suspicions are well-founded. Seventeen years ago, a prophecy was made that states that if Voldemort is to be defeated, I must be the one to kill him. The prophecy also states that if I succeed in killing Voldemort, I will rule the wizarding world for some unspecified period of time - I may have control for just an hour or for the rest of my life, or for any amount of time in between."
Harry paused for a moment to allow this information to sink in before resuming. "Headmaster Dumbledore is aware of this prophecy. However, he has intentionally attempted to hide its existence from me. He believes that if I knowingly fulfill the prophecy and defeat Voldemort, I will inevitably use the power I attain to rule as the first truly successful Dark Lord. I am certain that if I do defeat Voldemort, Dumbledore will try to kill me himself in an attempt to preempt what he sees as my inevitable reign of terror.
"Obviously, I cannot allow that. I believe that the prophecy does not necessarily condemn me to be a Dark Lord, and that with proper preparation and training, I can defeat Voldemort and retain my humanity. I have already set into motion a plan to kill Voldemort and if it is successful, Voldemort will be dead within seven months."
An excited bit of chattering swept through the crowd at this. Harry paused too let the commotion die down before continuing.
"I believe that the prophecy presents me with an unprecedented opportunity to reform the wizarding world. We all know about the various injustices of this society: institutionalized discrimination against Muggle-borns and, to some lesser extent, half-bloods; the subjugation of part-humans and other sentient magical species; the exploitation and persecution of Muggles; our fundamentally undemocratic system of government; the routine suppression of essential liberties and government control of the press. Ours is among the last magical governments in the world that still adheres to these antiquated, immoral practices. If we were Muggles, the Americans would have invaded us long ago and forced us to change our ways. But we're not Muggles, so change for us must come from within.
"So this is what I ask of you. I'll need your help to defeat Voldemort and the Death Eaters, and if Dumbledore cannot be made to see reason, I'll need your help to defend myself against him and the Order of the Phoenix, the secret group he controls. But above all, I need your help over the next seven months to smooth the way for my transition to power. I cannot say that our methods will be strictly legal; we have members of the Wizengamot and ministers of government to coerce and remove. We may even be forced to kidnap or kill people, though I desperately hope it does not come to that. We will be in the business of killing Death Eaters.
"If you choose to join me, you will spend the next month before school living here, learning advanced techniques in dueling, stealth and tracking, interrogation, and a number of other pertinent areas of magic from Auror Tonks, Hermione, Blaise, and myself along with a couple other older members of the Order of the Phoenix I've managed to bring over to my side. We may begin running missions this month, but I sort of doubt it. I will not send you out into the field until I'm satisfied that you're adequately prepared."
Harry looked up from his parchment once more and refolded it. "So that's basically it," he said. "I really desperately would like all of you to join me, but again I'd completely understand if any of you wouldn't want to. Does anyone have any questions?"
Silence reigned for a moment as everyone collected their thoughts. Finally, Angelina spoke up. "You talked about what will be going on for the next month, but what will happen once Hogwarts starts up again?"
"That's a good question," Harry said. "It's my understanding that you and Alicia don't have jobs yet, correct?"
Both graduated Chasers nodded their heads, with Alicia muttering, "bloody Voldemort ruining the economy," under her breath.
"Then you're both welcome to stay here and continue to train directly under me," said Harry. "Fred and George will go back to their shop – it would just be too conspicuous if they left that store of theirs for good – but they'll come by for continued training hopefully a couple times a week."
"And the rest of us," asked Ernie Macmillan. "What will we do?"
Harry smiled as he answered, pleased that Ernie had chosen to use "will" rather than "would" in that sentence. "You will train at Hogwarts under Hermione and Blaise. Hopefully as far as Dumbledore will know, you lot are merely continuing the DA."
"What qualifies Blaise and Hermione to teach us this stuff," asked Dean. "No offense," he added hastily, "but I didn't know they were experts in advanced dueling or anything of the like."
"None taken, that's definitely fair to ask," said Blaise. "Hermione and I – as well as Harry, for that matter – have recently begun tutelage under some very powerful and knowledgeable wizards. We'll be –"
"Unspeakables?" interjected Neville. "I know your dad's one."
Everyone gaped at Neville. "How…" Blaise began, but Harry cut her off.
"We really can't say," he said, winking for effect. He had no idea how Neville knew about Blaise' father, but his outburst had worked perfectly in their favor.
"I'm sorry," said Neville, who actually sounded more excited than he did contrite. "I saw you with Harry in the paper and started ranting about how evil Slytherins are but Gran told me your family wasn't all bad, she said our parents used to work together before, well…" he trailed off suddenly, sobering at the memory of his parents.
"I'm sorry," he said, sincerely this time. "I probably shouldn't have said anything. I just get excited sometimes."
"It's OK, Neville," said Harry. "Just be more careful in the future, yeah?"
Neville nodded and there was another moment of silence. This time, it was Alicia who broke through. "Can you tell us the prophecy, Harry? Word for word? I'd like to be able to make my own judgment if you're fated to evil or not…"
Harry shook his head sadly. "Maybe one day," he said. "But both Voldemort and some people who work for him can break into minds, and it would be a disaster if he found out about the prophecy. I've told you about it in general terms because you have to be able to make an informed decision, but I just can't risk him knowing the exact text. I understand if this is a dealbreaker."
Alicia quickly shook her head. "No, I understand," she said. Nobody spoke again for s long time.
"Is that it then," asked Harry. "No more questions?"
"I've heard everything I need to and I've made up me mind," said Seamus. "You say you're going to defeat You-Know-Who, then I want to do everything I can to help you kill the bastard. You say you're gonna change the world, then I want to help you do that too. Mum's told me all the jobs I can never have on account of me dad. It ain't right. I said it before and I'll say it again, I'm with ya 'til the end, Harry."
"Thanks, Seamus," said Harry and with a smile, he nodded to Hermione.
The bushy-haired witch produced a parchment bearing the signatures of herself, Blaise and Tonks and handed it and a quill to Seamus. "This is a magically binding oath of loyalty to Harry. If you sign it and betray us, the consequences will be much worse than just some pimples on your forehead."
Unperturbed, Seamus slapped the parchment on the dining table and quickly signed his name. "Done and done," he said.
Within five minutes, everyone at the table had signed. Harry thanked them all profusely and called for Kreacher to bring them dinner. After the meal, Harry and the rest headed out into the rest of the Atoll to truly enjoy it for the last time before training began.
Several hours of drunk Quidditch and other reckless merrymaking later, Harry retired to the massive master suite of the villa. He parted the white curtains of his large four-poster bed collapsed onto its generous, plush mattress. Struck by sudden inspiration, he reached into the breast pocket of his tropical pink silk shirt. A stupid, sloppy grin spread out over his face as he read its contents
Upon my life and magic, I do solemnly pledge my loyalty to Lord Harry James Black-Potter. I swear, upon my life and magic, to follow his command, to keep his secrets, and to support him to the best of my ability in his fight against Lord Voldemort. I pledge this loyalty of my own free will and volition, in full knowledge of the risks and consequences of my pledge. So mote it be.
Hermione Granger
Blaise Zabini
Nymphadora Tonks
Seamus Finnegan
Dean Thomas
Katie Bell
Fred Weasley
George Weasley
Angelina Johnson
Alicia Spinnet
Ernie Macmillan
Neville Longbottom
It might just have been the firewhiskey, but Harry's heart swelled as he read the list. He kept reading the names over and over again; he couldn't put the parchment down. Twelve people, twelve people who care enough to pledge their lives to me. Harry For the first time in his life, Harry felt there were people that truly had his back through thick and thin. A family, he thought, and his grin grew even wider.
Harry felt a prickling on the side of his neck indicating that he was no longer alone. He turned to look and saw Blaise standing off to the side of the bed. How she had entered the room without him noticing he did not know.
"Blaise," he slurred in surprise, "what're you doin here?"
"Maintaining appearances," she said, smiling beautifully. "They all think we're together, remember?"
"Right," he said. "Well where will you sleep then? There's only one bed in here?" Harry ended the sentence as a question as he leaned up to ensure that there was indeed only one bed, but quickly lay back down as the sudden movement caused his head to ache and his vision to swim.
Blaise giggled and took a step closer to the bed. "Oh, I don't know," she said slowly. "I did have one idea…"
"Wha's zat?"
"You know that was quite a speech you gave today," she said with a low voice.
"I'd hope you'd think so, seeing as how you wrote it," said Harry, giggling, not noticing the sudden shift in topic.
Blaise ignored him at took another step towards the bed. "You know you're quite sexy when you take charge like that," she nearly purred.
Harry carefully leaned his head up at this and could not help but look up and down her body, suddenly completely clear-headed. He relished the tone of her legs as the disappeared into her rather short skirt, the slight curve of her hips and the hints of the sides of her breasts revealed by her blouse. He looked back into her eyes, which had gone dark and heavily lidded, and gulped.
"Is that so," he whispered, not trusting his full voice.
Blaise closed the distance between them and leaned over him, her face hovering inches above his. "What do you think, Potter?"
Harry couldn't think. He didn't for the rest of the night. And when he finally passed out early the next morning, his mind could only focus on one word: Bliss.
Severus Snape was running through the darkened halls of Hogwarts castle. He couldn't remember ever moving so quickly in his life. Nothing would stand in his way – not Peeves, whom he Banished to the dungeons; not Mrs. Norris, whom he kicked when she hissed disapprovingly at him; not even Argus Filch himself, who lay under a Full-Body Bind in Snape's wake. He shouted the password at the gargoyles guarding the Headmaster's office and took the spiral staircase three steps at a time before bursting through Dumbledore's door.
"Ah, Severus. How can I help you," asked Dumbledore serenely.
"The Dark Lord has named a new second-in-command," Snape wheezed, not bothering to catch his breath. "And I think it's Potter."
Author's Note: Things are getting cooking! In my last author's note I said that I'd probably clear up a lot of ambiguous stuff from the last chapter in this chapter. But then I decided not to, because frankly it's more fun that way. Also, I believe this is my longest chapter already even without those bits, sooo yeah.
-Speaking of fun, H/Fem!Blaise is heaps of fun, am I right? Dunno exactly how long I'll keep that going for, but I feel comfortable telling you that this relationship will not last through the end of the fic. It may even end tragically...we'll see :)
On to the reviews! As usual, I have selected the best reviewers from the last chapter and am responding to them here in an effort to make the lot of you leave longer/more thoughtful reviews in hopes of seeing your name published. This time, there were a lot of "great chapter, please update soon"-type reviews, which obviously I love and make me smile, but they don't really give me anything to talk about in here lol. So I've only keyed on three reviews individually for this chapter instead of my normal five. In no particular order...
To demonicnargles: Well, first and foremost, I needed to make the Blacks rich enough that they own an Atoll off Tunisia, lol. Like I say in my profile, Alphard's Atoll is stolen from a similar locale that Lady Alchymia used in Harry Potter and the Emerald Tablet. I simply love it...it's a safe place outside the country that explains where precisely Sirius was sending tropical birds from in Goblet of Fire, and as you'll see, it will play a central role in RotA, FAR beyond its mere present status as a fun place for Harry to train up the rest of his crew. But Harry will be putting his money to work in other ways...you'll see. I'm glad you like Fem!Blaise and my Voldemort...like I've said before, my Voldemort is truly the thing I'm most proud of in this fic. Its a shame we didn't get much of him this chapter :( Thanks for the review!
To YamiNoTomoyo: I don't have any particular plans for Hedwig in this story. Its a shame because a number of my favorite fics have absolutely brilliant characterizations of her, but I feel like I've already got so many strings of characters to bring together, I don't really want to have to deal with another one. Plus I feel like I'd just genuinely be ripping off other authors I love if I did use Hedwig a lot. In case you haven't read it, Harry Potter and the Summer of Change by lorddwar has a brilliant Hedwig.
(separating this out into its own paragraph so more people will see) Voldemort absolutely does double-check Harry to confirm the prophecy, although that part obviously hasn't gone into the story yet. The three-day gap between the end of Chapter 9 and the beginning of this one is so key.
And actually I've never had a pumpkin-spice latte lol. My girlfriend swears by them though and it fit with the pumpkin-flavored-things obsession wizards in HP canon seem to have lol. Voldemort's love of lattes (and his love of sports, and his sleep schedule, and his fondness for prop betting, and just about everything that else that makes him unique lol) comes directly from my own personality. And you're welcome for the speedy (for you) update last time, sorry this one took 7 months lol.
To lycus: I'm glad you enjoyed the distinction there. One of the reasons killing those guards was so important was because the memory of how bad it felt will be part of what keeps (or attempts to keep) Harry human.
And lycus brings me to my last point. A few reviewers - namely PerfesserN, the dragonBARD, and Fugatad - expressed dismay that I had Harry kill the two security guards in the last chapter and PerfesserN even said that he'll no longer be reading RotA because of it. Obviously everyone is entitled to their opinion and I had a feeling going in that the last chapter might cost me some readers because of ts content. But I hope everyone else understands the theme I was exploring in that chapter and will continue to explore as RotA unfolds. RotA is a story about making the truly difficult choices, about sacrificing personal comfort and peace of mind for the sake of the larger good, about how close to the brink you can push yourself without falling off the cliff. The imagery in the last chapter surrounding the murder of the two guards is specifically designed to evoke the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which in my mind are the epitome of such a truly agonizing choice. And I thought I did a good job of showing how much the murders affected Harry, regardless of how important they were. I'm not turning Harry into a monster, just into a realist who does what he has to.
I'd be lying if I said Harry (and I) didn't have a lot of fun torturing Bella tho. :) we both hate her.
That's all for this chapter, hope you'll all write nice reviews! Don't forget to follow me on twitter Supremostories and hopefully I'll get the next chappie out before May lol