Chapter 14: Riddle Revisited
The night stretched before him. But it wasn't quiet. The wind blew rain from ruffling leaves and branches. Night birds cawed in foul voices. Shadows whipped from his line of sight.
A chilling thought came to Harry. What if the portal was only designed to be used once?
Harry held his wand near the stone and felt the small pull; he quickly withdrew in relief. He wouldn't go back now, but the spell was still working for him. He could leave this way.
Harry held his breath as he turned toward the house, but the lit windows were eerily absent of shadows and movement. He stepped back, feet squishing in the mud, his fingers touching cold stone. Tom Riddle, Sr. marked the darkness for eternity. Harry looked about. The Order of the Phoenix had not arrived. Where were they? What was taking so long?
Harry flashed his wand light over the trees. Where had he been? There. And Snape--that tree opposite. The length of rope still lay where it had fallen. A shadow, which he hoped was the hilt of Snape's wand, drew a dark mark on the tree. Harry trod cautiously through the mulch and shone his wand light upon the bark.
The light revealed not the wand hilt as he had hoped. Instead, there was only a dried wash of blood surrounding a deep hole where the wand had been. The wand itself was gone.
"No," he breathed. That could only mean...
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
Harry's wand was jerked from his hand. It arched high into the air and fell into the hand of Bellatrix LaStrange.
She let out an unearthly cackle. "Come looking for something, little Potter? These, maybe?" Bella held up two wands triumphantly. One was his own precious holly, the other Snape's inflexible black. "Stupify!" she shouted and Harry was knocked from his feet.
"Harry Potter!" She laughed. "I'm glad you decided to play after all. Thank you for letting me be the one who will escort you back to the Dark Lord!"
Bella picked her way around a puddle toward him. "My timing coming down here was a bit of an accident, you see. After you, hum, left, Lucius got himself in quite a speck of trouble. My Lord Voldemort is not a bit happy that he tried to kill you, not when he so much wishes you alive. Fortunately Lucius only hit Snape. We all had a bit of a lesson from it, though."
Bella pouted and rubbed her arm over the Dark Mark. "But then I thought it was strange, all that to-do between you and dear Professor Snape, just as you were leaving. He seemed so uneager to follow you, where ever it was you went!" Bella crossed the wands behind her back and swayed her hips. "So I strolled down here to see what all the fuss was about. And guess what I found? A souvenir just for me!" She put the black wand to her lips, then slipped it into her robe.
Bella turned her back on Harry and addressed him over her shoulder. "Just as I thought I ought to be leaving, out of nowhere, you appear! Just like that!" She blasted Harry off his feet with his own wand. "Did you come for Sevie's little wandie?" She fluttered her eyelids at him.
Her eyes suddenly opened wide. "But Snape didn't come for it himself, did he?"
Harry shook his head and stared around. Where were the Order? Where was Dumbledore?
Bella put on a very sad face. "Oh, Lucius! I will have to congratulate him after all! A pity Snape couldn't have suffered more before he died!" Bella laughed crazily.
Harry glared at her defiantly. "Professor Snape isn't dead! It'd take more than a killing curse to get rid of him! He's more of a wizard than you'll ever be!" He stopped short. Bella was staring at him, quite open mouthed.
"Not dead? That snake! We all knew he was a traitor, but..." Bella grabbed the front of Harry's robe. "Did he use Dark Magic, as my lord designed? Will he come back to us?"
"No!" Harry shouted. "Voldemort's lost Snape forever!"
"How? How?" She demanded. She shoved her Dark Mark into Harry's face. "These will kill us if they're removed! How did he do it?"
"Friends!" Harry lifted his chin defiantly.
Bella laughed quite histrionically. "Friends? What friends?"
She searched his face. "You? Not Dumbledore? I had the impression you didn't like Severus that much." She flung her hair. "But then again, who does? Not much there worth liking."
Harry wasn't listening. He was staring feverishly at the wand in her hand, trying to think of some way to get it from her. Would Accio work? Bella blasted the ground near his feet. "Don't even think it!" she giggled.
Her voice became unexpectedly sly. She began to pant. "So, Severus' wand has something important in it! So valuable you came yourself to keep it out of my Lord's hands. What great secret does it hold, that it's so valuable to you?" She pulled out Snape's wand and raised Harry's to it. "Shall we find out?"
"No!" Harry lunged at her.
Bella sprawled and the wands bounded from her hand, popping across the uneven landscape.
Harry shoved her again as he lurched after his wand. His fingers closed around the handle--and pain exploded in the back of his head. He fell forward into the mud.
Lucius Malfoy poked at Harry with his silver-tipped cane, then turned to offer his hand to Bellatrix. He pulled her to her feet with a smile. "I may begin to see how Muggles get on so well without magic," he professed. Lucius pulled his gloves on, finger by finger.