Being separated from Voldemort was getting harder and harder to bear. Looking down at himself, Harry realized he was in nothing but rags. Was he in Cinderella again? That couldn't be right. Where ever he was he hoped to get out of there soon. He tentatively walked around what he assumed was a castle, trying to locate anyone. This fairy tale wouldn't end if he just sat around the entire time.
He entered a room that was almost completely empty, except for a giant mirror hanging from one of the walls. He slowly approached it, he could tell already it wasn't normal. It was shimmering and appeared to be rippling as well. He didn't know how that was possible. Maybe going near it wouldn't be such a good idea.
Before he could move closer to the mirror he heard a voice behind him, a voice that sent shivers down his spine. "Oy, Potter! What are you doing here? You aren't allowed to be in this room. That mirror is mine! Do I need to teach you a lesson?" Harry whirled around, seeing an irate Dudley a few feet away. Harry had to try very hard to keep from laughing, or even smiling. There was dudley, wearing a frilly dress. It was exceedingly hard not to react to Dudley's appearance. He just had to make sure he wasn't around him all that long, or else his resolve would break. Afterall, he didn't fancy getting a beating from the bigger boy.
Harry thought it odd at first that Dudley wasn't questioning what was going on, but his cousin had always been a bit of an oaf. As Dudley came closer, Harry found himself instinctively backing away. He would not allow Dudley to torment and hurt him here. He got enough of that in the real world. Before Dudley could reach him, Harry was running out of the room. Thankfully, it did not seem Dudley was pursuing him. Maybe Dudley had grown tired of chasing him after all these years? Whatever the reason, he was glad for it, at the moment anyway.
Dudley on the other hand had moved toward the mirror. He had business to attend to with it. He didn't understand why the strange voice had asked him to talk with this mirror, but he didn't want to anger it. "Mirror, tell me, what is going on." He thought it odd to be talking to a mirror, mirrors couldn't talk back, but the voice said it would.
After a few seconds of not getting a response from the mirror he started to get annoyed. "Stupid piece of junk, can't even do what it is supposed to do." He kicked it and backed away fuming. How was he supposed to get out of here if the dumb thing wouldn't talk? It was then that he realized he had to utter that phrase the voice had said. But what was it again? It took him 30 minutes to finally get the phrase down, but it was purely by accident.
He spoke the magic words, "mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" Dudley took a few steps back when he saw the face of his mother appear from the mirror. Mirrors were not supposed to do that! "Now Dudikins, you know I would want you to be the fairest, but I am being told I have to tell you it is Harry. It isn't me saying this sweetums, just remember that." When his mother disappeared a picture of Harry formed. Dudley broke out into laughter. How could Potter be seen as the fairest one of them all? That was ridiculous.
The more he thought about it the more it started to irk him. Why did Potter get to be more beautiful than him? He was the one that was supposed to get everything! He stormed out of the room, running into someone along the way. He wasn't sure who they were, but they were going to fix this. He grabbed them roughly by the shirt. "You! You will take Harry out to the woods and kill him! If you don't I will pummel you into the ground!" Dudley pushed the guy away and continued walking on, feeling much better about himself.
Neville on the other hand was mortified. He couldn't kill Harry! What was he going to do? This was terrible! Neville searched for Harry, finding him an hour later. Harry didn't look pleased to be found. "Harry! I am so glad I found you! Some large guy said he wants me to kill you! I can't do that! We have to get you out of here and somewhere safe!" Harry felt like laughing. There was no where safe in these fairy tales, but he complied with Neville, at least out there Dudley couldn't kill him.
Once they were at the edge of the woods Neville stopped. "I have to go back, Harry. If I don't he may come looking for you. I need to tell him you are dead." Neville felt uneasy with this whole situation, he didn't want to be apart of any of this.
Harry frowned but nodded. He went over to Neville and gave him a hug. "Thank you for everything Neville. I couldn't have done this without you. You are a true friend." Harry flashed him a smile and ran into the woods. Neville felt terrible leaving Harry like this, but he didn't have much choice. With a heavy heart, he turned around and headed back to the castle.
It felt like forever before Harry finally left the woods. His feet ached and he really need to get some rest. It was almost nightfall. When he saw a small cottage he thought he might be in luck. However, with the way the fairy tales had been going he was quite wary of this little cottage. He slowly and quietly approached it, peering into one of the windows. It looked like no one was home at the moment. Should he go in? Harry worried his bottom lip between his teeth.
Harry took a deep breath and headed for the door. If he found this cottage, something had to happen here eventually. With a shaky hand he tried the door knob, much to his surprise it was unlocked. Harry hesitantly walked into the house, clutching his sides. He really hoped nothing terrible would happen here.
He searched the bottom floor just to make sure no one was in fact there, then he proceeded to check the upstairs. There was only room on the second floor, it appeared to be a bedroom. What was strange was the seven beds that were there. That was a lot of people to share one room. He tried to find any indication who they were, but could not find one.
Finding himself too tired to care who would find him when he woke, he laid down upon one of the beds. He would deal with everything in the morning. If something went wrong, Voldemort would find him. He always did.
When Harry woke it was due to very cold water being poured over his head. When he was able to get his senses back he realized he was tied to a chair. The second thing he realized was his mouth was covered by tape. Oh great, just what I needed, Harry thought. Upon closer inspection of the room, he begrudgingly realized he was surrounded by Weasleys and Hermione. This was not his day. Technically, nothing had gone his way since he entered these fairy tales. He dreaded where the topics of these conversations would go, if he could even call them that. It was likely to be a shouting match and he would have no say whatsoever.
"HARRY POTTER!" Ginny Weasley squealed. "How could you leave me for that slime ball? You are MINE! You have to marry Me! Don't think I didn't realize how you look at him!" Ginny slapped Harry across the face and began shaking him.
Molly Weasley patted her daughter on the shoulder comfortingly. "Ginny dear, please let me speak with him." Ginny backed away from Harry and a stern looking Molly turned to Harry. "No Harry, it isn't nice to play with my dear Ginny's heart. I can not accept nor understand how you could even fathom to like a monster like you-know-who. Or that you could like men, dear stop this ridiculousness. I know teens like to rebel, but pretending to be gay is not the way to go." Molly shook her head in disappointment.
Arthur sighed in exasperation. The women in this family were crazy. "Dear…" Before he could get another word in Molly was interrupting him. "Arthur! Do not try to condone his actions! I know you are a sweet man, but this is not something I will allow!" Arthur knew he couldn't win against her, he never could. With one last sympathetic look at Harry, he walked out of the room.
Ron had waited long enough, his face completely red, he approached Harry. "I don't know how I could have ever been friends with the like of you! You make me sick! You have become evil in all ways! First you parade around with Voldemort, now you like men! I thought I knew you, apparently I was wrong. You disgust me!" Ron punched Harry in the gut, making Harry gasp for air. "I never want to see your ugly face again!" Hermione nodded in affirmation. She had thought Harry her friend, but everything he had done in these fairy tales had made her second guess who he was. She did not like what she saw. Ron grabbed Hermione's hand and they walked out of the room.
Molly tsked and shook her head. "What am I going to do with you? All of this behavior is so odd for you. Not even your own friends recognize you." Then a thought hit her and she got excited. "I know! He must have put a spell on you! That must be it. Oh Harry dear, all this time we thought you had gone mad, this explains it all! You are under his control! We will find a way to free you! You will see!" Molly hurried away, looking for a miracle cure. Harry just looked on in disbelief and disgust. How had he been friends with these people.
The twins approached Harry, looking angry, yet sympathetic at the same time. "Harry Mate, we don't mind" "that you are gay" "we are as well" "but we would never tell" "mom that," "we aren't insane". "We see you" "as a brother" "Harry" "and we want" "to help you," "we are just disappointed" "you didn't explain before," "you can trust us Harry." "Had we known what was going on" "we would have backed you up." "Maybe one day" "you will trust us enough" "to tell us everything." They gently patted Harry on the shoulder and walked away. Harry felt ashamed in that moment for not trusting them enough. They had helped him a lot over the years. They were nicer to him than they were to their own siblings. When this was all over he would make it up to them.
It felt like he had been sitting there for hours until there was a knock on the door. He tried to turn his head and see when Molly answered the door, but it was to no avail. Not that it mattered, he would recognize that voice anywhere. It was Dudley. Harry groaned, this would not end well.
Dudley entered the room, pushing by Molly. He approached Harry, glaring at him vehemently. "I heard from my mirror that he was not actually dead so I came here to see to it myself." How could that boy lie to him?! Later he would have to kill that boy too.
Molly came rushing over. "Kill him dear? Oh no, we want to help cure him, not kill him." Molly stood protectively in front of Harry, which Harry found slightly amusing. "He is under a spell and we must fix him up so he can return to normal!"
Dudley rolled his eyes. "Well, you see, I am not actually going to kill him. I could only find one potion and it doesn't let you kill the person. I would kill him myself, but I don't want to get dirty. I find this to be a more fitting punishment anyway, I have soaked an apple in the potion and it will put him in an endless sleep." Harry wondered how many times Dudley had to do the potion before he got it right. That made harry worried, what if he hadn't done it right and the apple would actually kill him? "Think of it this way, you can put him to sleep, and then he won't be able to run away. Then you can have all the time you need to find a cure." Dudley stated matter of factly.
Molly seemed to like this idea. "Oh that is wonderful!" She took the apple from Dudley and came towards Harry. "Harry! You must eat this!" She removed the tape from his mouth and pushed the apple against his lips. Harry refused to open his mouth. He would not eat that thing! "Harry Potter! If you do not eat this, I will force it down your throat!" He wasn't crazy enough to willing eat that thing, there was no way she was going to get him to open his mouth.
Molly stalked off into the kitchen. Harry began to worry what exactly she was doing in there. When she returned Ron, Ginny, and Hermione were with her. She had also cut off a piece of the apple. Was she going to shove the thing down his throat? Harry tried to break free, but his efforts were futile. Hermione plugged Harry's nose while Ron and Ginny held Harry's head in place.
Harry began to panic, he didn't want that thing in his mouth, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get them to stop what they were doing, he had to relent and open his mouth. The next thing he knew the apple piece was shoved in his mouth and they were moving his jaw up and down forcing him to chew it. After which they tilted his head back and made sure he kept his mouth shut. They still hadn't released his nose, were they going to wait until he passed out or hope that he would swallow? If this didn't work would they end up trying something worse? Harry didn't like the idea of being tortured. Besides, this was supposed to happen, right? So, while put himself through even more pain.
Reluctantly, he finally swallowed the stupid apple. The others stepped away, looking very pleased with themselves. Harry just growled at them. He was about to start shouting at them when everything began to get blurry. He hadn't expected it to start this quickly. He needed Voldemort, he didn't want to sleep forever. Harry's eyelids began to droop, feeling heavier and heavier. He hated these people for doing this to him. He would get his revenge, one day. His last thoughts were of Voldemort coming to his rescue.
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Voldemort had been riding along the countryside for quite some time, searching anything or anyone. Why had the fairytale placed him in the middle of nowhere? How was he supposed to do anything when there was nothing around. With each passing hour his mood grew more sour. This was stupid and pointless! At this rate he was never going to find Harry.
As if to answer his prayers a boy, looking to be around Harry's age ran towards him. "Sir! You are V...Voldemort, right?" Voldemort raised an eyebrow and inclined his head. The boy seemed quite relieved, which did not quell Voldemort's worry over Harry. "I am Neville Longbottom, I am a friend of Harry's. There is this boy that is out to kill him! I saw him run from the castle with an apple!" Voldemort looked at Neville like he had two heads. Why would an apple kill his Harry. Then it dawned on him, there was only one story that used an apple.
When Neville was about to continue he shushed the boy. "There is no further need to explain the situation. Just take me to where he is." He watched the boy squirm a little. "Boy, spit it out! I don't have all day! Either show me where Harry is, or leave!"
Neville sighed and scratched the back of his head. "I don't know exactly where he is… I just helped him to the forest. After that we separated." Neville twiddled his fingers nervously. He didn't want Voldemort to be angry with him. He had more preoccupied with finding someone to help Harry, that he hadn't thought of following the boy that was after Harry.
Voldemort pinched the bridge of his nose. This was terrible, he still didn't know where Harry was, but at least now he knew where to start. "Then take me to the forest, I should be able to find him from there." Voldemort pulled Neville up onto the horse with him, he didn't have time to go slow. "Now, tell me which way to go". Neville pointed off into the distance and they rode on for about 10 minutes until they finally reached the forest. Neville hopped down and backed away. Voldemort sent a curt nod to Neville. "Thank you for your assistance." It hurt him to say that. He didn't thank people, he ordered people, but if he was rude to this boy, he knew he would never hear the end of it from Harry.
Voldemort rode off into the forest, leaving a shocked Neville behind. It was about five minutes later until he came upon a small cottage. He dismounted and banged on the door. When there was no response he entered the establishment to find no one inside. His eye twitched slightly and he left the house. He walked around to the back of the house and saw a group gathered around a long stone pedestal. As he got closer he realized they were Weasley's, the Granger girl, and a boy in a dress. That must be the one Neville had spoken about. He didn't even question the dress at this point, the fairy tale had done stranger things than this.
They looked up at the heard him coming closer, realizing who he was they began to freak out. "Stay away from him! We will free him from your taint!" Molly Weasley stated maliciously. Voldemort narrowed his eyes. No one talked to him like that. However, before he could approach further, the Weasley twins spoke up.
"Mother," "this isn't our fight" "we must go," "this is between" "Voldemort, and the boy" "in the strange dress." Their mother began to retort, but Fred silenced her with his finger. "All of us" "have to go." "I know you want" "to be apart of this, but" "Fate has stated" "that we are not to interfere." "Who knows what" "will happen" "if we do." "Let us go back inside" "and wait and see" "how this all turns out." None of them looked happy by this announcement, but they were all scared of that voice than they were of what was going on here.
Fred and George sent a wink in Voldemort's direction before ushering the others inside. All that was left was Dudley and Voldemort. It was at that moment that Voldemort saw Harry's still form upon the pedestal. He began to run over, forgetting all about Dudley. He checked Harry's pulse and was relieved to find one. He wasn't dead! Now all he had to do was wake him. Before he could lower his head and give the faithful kiss, he was interrupted by the boy.
"Don't you dare touch that freak! I won't let you wake him!" Dudley pulls out a sword and runs at Voldemort. Voldemort wonders where in the world he had been keeping that thing, but doesn't get to ponder on it long. He quickly unsheathes his own sword. As he fights the boy, the boy gets further and further infuriated. Dudley is losing horribly. He already has a few scratches from Voldemort's sword. In his anger he makes it so electricity forms around the sword. How he did that he has no idea. He grins evilly and swings his sword at Voldemort, who quickly dodges it.
Voldemort isn't sure what to do, he looks around for anything that might help. A smirk forms on his face as he sees a well nearby. If he can get the boy close enough and push him in, that should end the little bastard. Voldemort continues to avoid Dudley's new sword, slowly backing towards the well. Once his legs hit the well, he readies himself to move out of the way.
Dudley's grin widens. "I have you now, you have no where to go. I will end you, you freak!" Dudley swings down his sword, just missing Voldemort, who has jumped out of the way. Voldemort quickly goes behind dudley and kicks him into the well. Dudley gives out a girlish scream and that is the last that is heard from him.
Voldemort starts to strut over to Harry proudly. He did very well if he says so himself. He stops strutting when he realizes there is no one around to see his triumph, he is just making a fool out of himself. He shakes his head and moves closer to Harry. He gently takes Harry's hand into his own. "Please let this work" He whispers under his breath. He leans down and plants a gentle kiss upon Harry's lips. He slowly lifts his head and waits with bated breath.
When he sees Harry's eyes open he is filled with elation. He hugs Harry to himself. He is never going to let him go. "If I had my way I would never let you out of my sight again." Voldemort slowly lets Harry go and cups his face. "It was a pain to find you."
Harry rolls his eyes, but leans into the hand holding his face. "You complain about everything." Harry smiles warmly up at him. "But I wouldn't have it any other way." Harry closes his eyes and focuses on the feel of Voldemort's hand. He didn't want this moment to end.