The World Without Me

Chapter 29: Three

"Tell me Malfoy why I don't have Gringottsss' power within my grassp thiss very moment."

The aristocratic blonde winced and shuddered beneath his mask at the sibilant voice laced with venom…fitting for the Lord of Snakes. Or was he really? Nagini had apparently betrayed Voldemort…No. Better not go along this trail of though less his Lord read them.

Groveling was the only thing Lucius could do right now but he knew that it was a kind of rhetorical question because he knew that whatever answer he gave his Lord would let him taste a Cruciatus or two, and not responding was certainly out of the question.

Either he took too long to answer or his Lord was (bad) humoring him because a tight fist hit the armchair. "It's because thisss plan had flawss, Luciusss! The damn Potter boy! CRUCIO!"

Draco whimpered behind his screaming father but did not move to help.

"Finite Incantatum."

A careless wave of the hand, a careless tone of voice.

"And tell me, dear Luciusss, who came up with thiss brilliant idea to take possession of the powercore of Gringottss, which inevitably cossst me FIVE Vampiress allies, Lordss and Childes from their own ressspective Housesss?"

Lucius kept silent this time and braced himself for the worst. Of course, it came in the form of another Cruciatus curse, which left him weak and slightly disoriented when it was finally lifted.

"You are lucky I need ALL the alliesss I can get for this because I would have put you out of your misery a long time ago. Luciusss, Luciusss, what hasss become of you?"

Voldemort got up and walked gracefully to his shaking servant, bringing up a well manicured hand to lift the chin of the blonde man. "You were once magnificent, an unequalled strategisst and a masster of torture. Look at you now, trembling in fear inssstead of excitement and bloodlussst."

He let Malfoy go rather harshly, who immediately stumbled on his knees after being released from the vice-grip on his chin, and then looked at all the present Death Eaters.

"Look at all of you! I see nothing but a bunch of weak, dare I call you that, Wizardss! No longer do you hold your head up high, no longer do you walk with a sstraight back! You cower and hesitate when you should dessstroy and kill! Ohhh, what hass become of my Dark Army? Or was there ever ssuch an army?" came the hissed lament.

Voldemort did something very un-Voldemort like; he practically dropped on his throne-like chair and hid his face in his hand, an elbow on the armrest the only support he had if he didn't want to drop out of the chair unceremoniously.

Many Death Eaters fidgeted in shame. Their Lord was right. Since the Potter boy arrived, many things started to go completely haywire.

The loss of many allied forces, the biggest of them all being the Werewolves, for once. Voldemort was able to prevent the complete desertion of the Werewolves from their ranks but the loss of Fenrir Greyback had made quite a few of the beasts turn their backs on them.

There was also the loss of many of their own comrades at the hands…no, at the bite of Nagini. The loss of their Master's own pet familiar; nobody liked the meddling snake from the start but it had been damn useful for spying.

The plan on invading the Forbidden Forest was burned to ashes even before it really started.

And then the Dementors' numbers had greatly diminished as well.

Now the boy was threatening their Lord's liaison with the Vampires!

"No my Lord! We are not beaten yet!" a courageously foolish voice shouted from the Death Eater group.

Silence ensued.

Thick and unbearable silence.

Every head turned towards the masked fool, then slowly to Voldemort. He was watching his Death Eaters with an unreadable expression, a dangerous yet encouraging glint in his red eyes.

Seeing as he wasn't going to hex the babbling fool, the others slowly started to follow the example, thinking that it was what their Lord needed to hear.

"He is right!" a voice shouted from somewhere to the left.

"We still have our brethren from other countries!" another voiced from the right.

Soon their enthusiasm to fight was rekindled and they all started to rejoice and talk and shout about the next war.

An explosion-like sound made everyone jump and all eyes turned upwards to admire the green snake coiling around the skull in veneration.

Voldemort stood up from his throne and all eyes laid on him in an instant. "If that iss what you all wish then who am I to deter you from your goal? Fine! A war you want, a war you'll get! I want every available Death Eater here in three daysss!"

The Death Eaters shouted in joy and chanted their veneration of the Darkest Lord of all time. Voldemort massaged his temples. "Why are you all dallying here about? Get out and do asss I ordered, you pathetic lot of moronsss!"

Everyone scurried away in a matter of minutes, the insult seemingly having no effect whatsoever to deter their renewed enthusiasm.

………………………………………

"…And then the Dragon soared through the dark skies and annihilated the Vampires and scattered the Dementors to high winds!"

A chorus of impressionable youngsters resounded in excitement while the adults chuckled at Orion's story telling and wide gesticulation, a rare sight coming from the usually calm Centaur.

"Looks like you've had quite the adventure, young one, and a dangerous one at that. Maybe it would have been better if you had stayed here with us."

Orion made a face and winced slightly when Xi continued to disinfect his wounds. The black female huffed elegantly. "He is old enough to fight. He has been trained and you know that war is inevitable. It was only a matter of time before he was subjected to it."

"Then why were we not asked to participate?" Mathias of the Red Clan asked with slight jealousy in his tone. Clearly he was upset that he missed the action and surely a chance to prove himself to his peers.

Bane pounded the ground a couple of times. "Do not be so hasty. You will get your chance to fight and surely you will not find it as pleasing as you think."

Harry, who was standing beside the injured Centaur, nodded to Bane's reasoning. "Orion was just standing there at the right time, although he was spying upon us more than anything else."

Orion's cheeks reddened slightly in embarrassment when the children tried to hide their laughter.

"And besides, Bane has a good point. You may be eager now but you'll regret it later when you're on the battlefield. This is nothing like your spars when you train. People die or are gravely injured, there's blood everywhere and screams and chaos. You don't know who your friends are or who your enemies are at times because there's so much noise and so many people around you that you just don't have the time to differentiate them all. And you constantly have to be on alert because you never know whether you'll live through it or not. And then there's the fact that you never know how many of your friends and family members will perish amongst the war heroes until you discover their bodies scattered about, their eyes open yet unseeing…"

Harry's voice became faint as he got lost in his own memories, his usually green eyes glazed over as he recalled his war's gruesome happenings.

Mathias fidgeted, his sour mood completely vanishing to make way for uncertainty. The others kept quiet and adverted their gaze from Harry as he gave off waves of anger, anguish and lonesomeness. Their empathy could not take this kind of emotions very well and it was with a heavy heart that Orion put a hand on Harry's shoulder gently to make him snap out of the horrors of his past.

The boy blinked but did not say anything. Not even his eyes betrayed his feelings and he stepped away from the herd a little and walked to the door of the Room of Requirements. "Harry?" Orion started uncertainly only to be waved off by said boy.

"I want to see Sirius and Remus in the Hospital Wing and then I'm going to take a nap. I advise you to do the same. I'll see you all later."

And with that he was gone.

"…Will he be alright?" Vega of the Blond Clan asked tentatively after a moment of silence.

"He will be. T'is only natural that he wants to see the closest people to him, especially when said people died where he is from. I assure you it will not weaken his resolve but only amplify it to serve for his needs. He is a strong boy, a strong human with a good head on his shoulders," Firenze said as he put a hand on Vega's back.

She stiffened and a small patch of red appeared on her cheeks, making Mathias and his friends snicker. Firenze blinked and took his hand back. Vega looked between said hand and her snickering friends and gave them a glare to remember. They quickly learned to keep their mouth shut.

Jihl of the Black Clan rasped his throat after another moment of silence. "Hum, well then, I suppose you should go rest for a while to let your wounds heal correctly. We will call for you if trouble arises."

"But I still have to clean my sword…"

A small hand patted one of his legs and Orion looked down to Trix, the small fifteen years old parentless foal. "Can I do it?" he asked slowly, surprising the others about his sudden forwardness.

Orion blinked and opened his mouth, closed it and then gazed quickly to Xi who was the female in command of the Black herd. Said female nodded with a tender smile and Van, the seventy-five years old whom Trix had developed brotherly feelings for, told him that it was great for Trix to want to participate in his own way since he was too young to do battle.

"If you put it this way then. Here you go, just be careful not to hurt yourself with it."

The young foal nodded enthusiastically and galloped away to find a source of water to clean the sword. Van laughed at the youngster's eagerness and followed Trix in a slower pace. "Not so fast or you will trip and hurt yourself! You have time!"

Orion shook his head in amusement and bid the others goodbye. He found a nice looking tree that gave off enough shade and lay down at the base, falling asleep in seconds to the sound of chirping birds.

……………………………………………………

The curious students who were blocking the way parted immediately when Harry walked in their line of vision. The Weasley twins sent them dally dallying away as soon as they saw his facial expression.

"Harry! What happened to you?"

"Yeah! You are as bloody as the rest of them!"

Harry sighed. "It's of no importance now. How are things in the Hospital Wing?"

"T'was still hectic a couple of minutes ago-"

"-but now things have calmed down. Snape-"

"-was here also, trying to shove a couple of potions down Professor Black's throat when he woke up-"

"-but he refused vehemently and they had to stun him to make him take it. T'was-"

"-hilarious. If a little bloody. Everybody who's not injured is gone now."

Both redheads grinned despite the tense situation. Harry sighed, trying to shake off a headache that promised to be unrelenting. "Alright. Can you do me a favor? Please lock the door when I'm in. I don't wish to be disturbed by any more curious onlookers and I'm certain they wish to have some privacy to heal."

George and Fred nodded, a tint of pink underneath their freckled cheeks. After all, they had been spying upon the current victims of Poppy Pomfrey, too.

"Of course, our dear partner in crime! Anything for you!"

"Yes, anything indeed, oh great secret Investor of ours!"

Harry chuckled tiredly. "Good. One last thing…" his face regained a frighteningly serious expression. "Tell everyone to train seriously for this war."

The twins' smiles dampened and a chorus of "yes" was the last thing Harry heard before they closed and locked the doors of the Hospital Wing. Harry closed his eyes, relieved at the sudden silence, until he heard his name being called in a hushed voice.

"Harry?"

"Remus? You're awake? Were we talking too loudly?" Harry approached Lupin's bed; the man was now slowly propping himself up and leaning on the pillows.

"Nah. I was only resting a little. It was either this or suffer Sirius' fate. Poppy gave him a strong dose of Sleeping Potion before she took the stunner off." Remus' eyes lit up when Harry rolled his eyes.

"Why don't I have any troubles believing you?"

Remus smiled gently and patted his bed for Harry to sit on. The boy didn't waste his time and sat right beside him, leaning on the man a bit.

"Don't roll your eyes. He wanted to get away because he wanted to see you first. You know he cares, right? We both do."

Harry let Remus pull him against his chest and leaned his back more fully into the warmth. The man's roughened hand then proceeded to lightly pet his hair. Harry sighed and relaxed completely, the day's event suddenly taking its toll.

"Yes, I know. And you both know that you are the most important people in my life, right?"

Harry felt the man nod and tighten his hold.

When the sudden silence became unbearable, Harry asked about the others.

"They're all sleeping. No one's in danger. Poppy did had to ask for a little extra help from one of St-Mungo's nurses who has taken residence here to treat Hestia's bite but as you said she'll only be a little anemic for a couple of days and sun-shy. Actually that's why the curtains are closed; normally we would have slept even through daylight but it made Hestia squirm so Poppy shut them."

"I'm glad…"

Silence again.

Harry tried to prevent a yawn but failed miserably, making Remus chuckle lightly. The older man repositioned himself so that he was lying on his back and motioned for Harry to lie down beside him. "Come on, we better rest for a bit or Poppy'll have our heads. And unlike you, my old age is starting to show. I'm not as young as I used to be, you know."

Harry lay on his side, using Remus' arm as a pillow and the man's body warmth as a blanket. "You liar," Harry muttered before yawning again, "you're not -that- old and Werewolves actually have a longer living span than us."

The man chuckled again, his chest rising slightly with each breath. "You got me there, cub. Now sleep, we'll both need it."

Harry nodded, spared a glance towards his Godfather who was sleeping in a bed nearby and let the man's calming breathing lull him to sleep.

………………………………………………………………………

Harry woke up several hours later with a silent gasp. His human source of heat was gone; instead a blanket had been put on him. Getting up, he looked around and noticed all the others were still here. Remus was the only one who had got up. He strolled to Sirius who was snoring softly and sat down beside his Godfather's sleeping body, petting the long black hair softly.

Harry's eyes softened and he kissed Sirius' brow, partially hugging the man in the process. "I won't let anything happen to you or Remus, I promise. I'll do anything in my power to protect you both and Hogwarts…" Harry stood up and proceeded to unlock the door of the Hospital Wing, "…even if I have to give my life to succeed…"

He smiled determinedly and turned around. "But if I go down, I won't be without one hell of a fight and I'll bring Tom with me."

He placed a Disillusion charm on himself and used a secret passage leading to the second floor. Moaning Myrtle screamed in fright when the wall in the back of her cubicle opened and she plunged in the toilet, splashing water everywhere with the force of her dive.

Harry ignored her and went directly to the sink. "Open."

Nagini poked her head out of his shirt and he smiled at her and petted her head.

"Finite Incantatem." The Disillusion charm wore off.

"Wingardium Leviosa." Using the charm on himself, he was able to slowly get down the pipe before it closed off again.

About ten minutes later Harry was standing in front of Salazar Slytherin's statue. He invoked the great Basilisk and Salazar slid down the mouth when it opened. "Ahh, Masster Harry. I wass beginning to wonder when you would come sssee me. You look well, asss doess Nagini."

Nagini bowed her thanks in a snake-like way, Harry imitating her. "We have you to thank for that, don't we? But how did you know where I wass and how did you get there? Diagon Alley isss a long way from here," Harry hissed to his third companion, the first and second being Hedwig and Nagini respectively.

His thought swiveled to his pet owl that must be waiting for him in his own quarters but Harry was brought back to the living when Salazar spoke again.

"I hope you did not think I ssslithered my way there out in the open. The only way I can travel with sstealth is by tunnelss. Ssso if there are no tunnelss, I create some. I have made many pathwayss underground ssince you have firsst come to ssee me. I can ssprout out of the ground almosst anywhere around the casstle, making it useful for ssurprise attacksss. Asss for Diagon Alley, I also followed you underground, creating the tunnel towards the direction I felt you. Think of it asss a bond of ssome sssort. I could not let you go ssso far without a major kind of protection."

Harry put a hand on the Basilisk's nose. "Well, I thank you for following me. I did not think there would be Vampiress outside and without you Charlie and I would have been Dragon-food."

Salazar scoffed and sprouted something unintelligible about Dragons and their high and mighty attitude. Nagini agreed whole-heartedly, making Harry blink at the both of them and laugh out loud at their seriousness.

"Ssalazar, it'ss good that you thought about the tunnelss in advance. We'll need them now more than ever. Be prepared, I will ssummon you when it'ss time."

The Basilisk acquiesced and Harry bid it good bye, going back to the surface by the same way he got down. As soon as the entryway closed, Fawkes appeared in a burst of fire. Harry extended his arm and the Phoenix used it as a perch. "Hey Fawkes. Is there an Order meeting in Dumbledore's office?"

The magical bird thrilled in negative. 'Hm, so I'm only being summoned by the Headmaster…'

"Can you make us apparate there?"

Fawkes thrilled again and they disappeared in a burst of fire.

………………

Albus was sucking on a Lemon Drop when they reappeared. The old man offered Harry some, which he politely declined, and he refused to sit down.

"Very well, Harry. I invoked you here because I wanted to know what happened in Gringotts. You and Charlie Weasley got out pretty much unscathed after having to face a Dragon. I invited Mister Weasley before you and he told me that there was something else below your feet that made the Dragon calm down. The dear boy himself was pretty nervous when he told me this. To my knowledge there isn't anything else guarding Gringotts so I was wondering if you knew something."

Harry stayed calm under the watchful gaze of the Headmaster and lifted an eyebrow when he felt a tendril of Legilimency brushing against his very solid and unrelenting mental wall.

Albus looked at him sheepishly and shrugged. "T'was worth a try. But seriously, do you know something about what happened?"

Harry sighed. "Whatever happened was beneficial and kept us alive, leave it at that. Now it's my turn to ask you something. Are the people here prepared for this war?..." Harry's face darkened considerably. "Because we have three days."

Albus' eyes widened. "Are you certain? How do you know this?"

Harry shook his head. "I know. I just know. So, are we ready?"

The old man looked suddenly his age. "I will tell the others to accelerate their training regiment. If you want to see Remus he is currently in the Great Hall."

Harry nodded. "Do so, but let them sleep also. A tired Wizard is a dead Wizard. And thanks for the info."

"Of course. Good day Mister Potter."

Harry nodded to the man, gazed surreptitiously towards Nigellus' portrait and walked out.

----------------------

He was on the way to see his Werewolf friend when halfway there two hands shot out of a shadowed corner and grabbed him from behind, making it impossible for him to speak or grab his wand to point it at the intruder.

"Don't move."

Harry froze and narrowed his eyes when he recognized the voice of Charlie Weasley.

"I want to know where you were. I'm taking my hand away from your mouth; take it in consideration that my wand is pointed at your throat. Scream and I'll bind and shut you up so fast that you won't even see it coming."

The hand on his mouth slowly retracted.

Harry scoffed lightly. "I'm above screaming, Charlie. What do you think you're doing-"

The hand around his arms and torso stiffened and the other boy's wand dug slightly in his throat. "Don't evade the question."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I was in Dumbledore's office."

The wand dug a little deeper. Harry forced himself not to wince.

"Don't play with me. Where were you right before that? Dumbledore asked to see me right before you. He told me he wanted to see you afterwards to ask you the same questions he did me. What neither of you took in consideration is that away from the Headmaster's eyes but near mine, right on the edge of his desk, there was the Marauder's Map. I saw your name come down the Hospital Wing but it suddenly disappeared on the second floor. Where were you?"

Harry mentally cussed.

"Hogwarts bears many secrets, Charlie. I merely keep those I know as much as I can."

Charlie knew it was the only answer he would receive to this question.

"Then tell me what happened in Gringotts!" he whispered harshly. "And don't sprout the lie that you don't know! Whatever thing that was down there was threatening enough to scare a Dragon into submission! It scared me shitless! Fuck I'm still scared! But you! You didn't even bat an eyelash! You know what that thing was! Goddammit Potter! If you pose a threat to my family I will eviscerate you!"

'So this is what it's all about. I commend Charlie for loving his family so much. Especially since he got enough balls to threaten me. He! He! Too bad it's not working as well as it should.'

Harry chuckled, making the wand dig deeper again. Harry completely ignored the threat.

"Why won't you cooperate? Damn! My wand is pointed on your neck and ready to be used!"

Harry closed his eyes and smirked. "I don't know. Probably because Nagini is out and waiting for my order to bite your arm off."

Charlie's eyes widened and he pushed Harry away from him with a yelp. The snake really was out and whereas it had kept quiet while preparing to attack, now it was hissing quite menacingly.

The green eyed boy sighed and put a hand on Nagini's head to stop her hissing fit.

"I commend you, Charlie. Not many people have the balls to attack me. But it's futile. I'm on the side of light even though I am a –gray- Wizard. I do specialize in the Dark Arts but I would never intentionally harm a Weasley. Do you know why? Because I considered you as family, and I still do, even if we're not as close here as we were in my old world. You try to protect your family and I admire that."

Harry breathed out.

"Charlie, what happened in Gringotts will happen again if my life is threatened on the battlefield, which it will. You can call it my…guardian, if you will. It will pose no threat to you if you pose no threat to me."

Charlie finally relaxed. "I…I'm sorry. But I had to have some answers. I won't allow my family to be harmed."

Harry nodded and turned around. "What I told Dumbledore I will tell you: we have three days, no more, no less. You better prepare yourself."

"Three days! That's not enough!"

Harry started to walk away. "I know. Dumbledore knows. But this is all we have. But let me tell you this: Hogwarts knows how to defend herself."

Charlie looked puzzled and as Harry rounded a corner the green eyed boy turned his head to glance at him one last time. "Oh, and one more thing. Some time or the other it will be better for you to close your eyes on the battlefield. Bye Charlie, train well."

And with that, Harry was gone for the redhead's sight.

"What the hell did he mean by that? Close my eyes? Is he nuts? I'll die if I close my eyes! He's so weird…" Charlie muttered before going to train with his brother Bill who was waiting for him in a classroom.

…………………………………………………

Harry joined Remus in the Great Hall after saying hello to his friends and he explained their predicament.

"So we have three days…"

Remus put some distance between Harry and him and pointed his wand towards his charge. "Then train with me, cub. Let's show the Dark Lord that we will not go down without a fight!" the Werewolf said vehemently.

The people who were listening watched in awe as Harry and Remus bowed and started to fire spell after spell, curse after curse. Some students took notes, like Hermione, and some winced at some obviously dark spells being used.

Snape joined the fray and offered to duel against the winner.

Everyone's training restarted and they all doubled their efforts.

Harry evaded a Septumsempra from Snape and crouched on the ground like a predator. 'We won't lose!' He then transformed into his Animagus form and attacked the Potions Master with renewed vigor.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Finally another chapter! Gah, they're becoming tougher and tougher to write. I hate doing war scenes. They're a b!tch to write but I won't have a choice. As for the time it's taking me to write, the explanations are on my Yahoo page "Eternal Expectations" (check in my bio). I'm too lazy right now to write them.

Constructive or-and encouraging reviews are welcome! Wow, I got 2883 of them! I'll breach the 3000 soon! –faints-

Flamers will be ignored and probably bitched and killed by the rest of my faithful reviewers. Anyway, if they hate it so much why do they read the whole story and then take the time to write me back? It's only augmenting my numbers of reviews anyway, hah! (Though I have very few flaming friends, thank God :)

Well, I hope you all liked! And don't kill Charlie, he had good intentions…

Eternal Cosmos

XXX