Reviews.
Guest.
Harry and Mason have met, they just don't talk much because they have next to nothing in common. They will have a few talks one of which is this chapter but I have no intention of having Damien become Potter's pal they just aren't compatible people. Harry's a hero, and Damien is at best an anti-hero willing to kill to bring about the chances he wants and at worse a megalomaniac villain bent of world conquest. People so different don't make good friends.
Tylermech66
I read what you posted so far. I haven't seen enough to make a judgement yet.
Lord Edric
Magical fire might be easier to handle or maybe the twist is that its not really lava at all. Fake lava that the champions don't know is fake could be just as scary as the real stuff.
Glad you liked Umbridge's death.
JakeCrown
That was both poetic and a little scary. If I ever have need a serial killer character I now know what to call him.
Hypnosis Writer
Its a little of both actually.
Z2010Deadmeat
Indeed Umbridge is worse than Voldemort. Although there isn't much difference really they are both evil, sadistic monsters.
mmsbddvr
I didn't put the chapter in bold or mess with the spacing. I don't know why that happened.
That's not the characters name either.
I'm trying to update my other stories but I'm not inspired to write for them.
Winter Feline
Umbridge's disappearance will have a lot of people concerned that's for sure. It should have a long term effect as well assuming the war gets that far. Voldemort is likely to blame one of his few remaining Death Eaters and when none of them confess he'll get very mad.
Funny thing is Umbridge might not even be dead the huge frog thing might of thrown her up. I know I would have. Still it would be extremely unpleasant, and no less than she deserves. She hasn't got any magic or political power now so she's no threat to anyone.
Damien trusts the twins because they are more like him than anyone else he knows. They want what they want and they will do what they have to get it. Damien understands this and he knows that as long as he has what they want (even if he doesn't know exactly what that is right now) they won't risk making him mad. Plus the Carrows know that Damien would do to them what he did to Umbridge if they dare to betray him.
Hermione & Luna love Damien but love can make people do silly things. Your more likely to betray a loved one than someone you fear.
The First Gothic. Book One. A Wizard In Training. Part 36.
The Great Hall. Hogwarts School. The Wizarding World.
Since it was the Easter holidays things were rather quiet at the school even during meal times.
This was because so many of the students had stayed at the school over Christmas due to the Yule Ball. Due to that event next to none of them had stayed over Easter. So this meant that most of the tables were gone and all the students still in the school were eating together.
Of the Outcasts only myself and the Carrow twins were currently in the school. I'd been invited to spend the week at a number of places but I'd declined using my need to catch up on my school work as an excuse not to go.
Truthfully I had actually spent quite a bit of time doing school work but that wasn't the real reason for staying. With the school next to empty it was much easier to sneak out.
Just last night I'd gone out in order to further advanced my plans. By killing Dolores Umbridge I'd taken one more step towards my goal of creating a more just and fair Ministry of Magic.
Originally I had thought that I might have to destroy the Ministry utterly These days I was thinking that I might not have to after all, as with so many Purebloods now dead the Ministry had no choice but to move Half Bloods into those now vacant positions.
Admittedly it wasn't much but it was a step in the right direction at least and it was something I could take advantage of personally as I was a Half Blood (officially) and with so many positions opening up for the middle class Half Bloods a rich one like me could get quite the high ranking job if I desired.
Not that I actually wanted such a job but if I changed my mind later this situation would help if I decided to go about changing the Ministry from within rather than take it down from the outside.
One of the Carrows, who were sitting to each side of me, passed me today's paper while the other buttered my toast.
I found their actions rather odd as neither Luna or Hermione ever did stuff like this, and they both loved me. I could only assume that the twins wanted something more from me, only I had no idea what that was.
The twins were getting some odd looks from both the staff and the few other students in the hall. Including Potter who was staring at me for some reason.
When I checked out the front page I discovered that it might not be me he was looking at but rather the paper I'd been holding.
The Prophet had a lot to say on the disappearance of Madam Umbridge, but next to nothing to actually report as no one but three members of the Outcasts currently in the school really knew what had happened.
Still speculation was rampant to say the least and the Prophet's reporter had put together the clues I had left behind just as I had hoped the Aurors would.
Death Eaters were blamed due to the Dark Mark which had been found over the Umbridge Estate. According to the paper only Voldemort's followers knew how to create the Dark Mark so for the writer of the article it was clear that Death Eaters were behind what was being called a kidnapping.
I was of course very pleased by this as the Death Eaters getting the blame had been part of my plan, but I was careful to hide my smile. It wouldn't do for the wand wavers at the school to think that I supported the actions of the Mort Munchers in anyway.
Admittedly I was somewhat disappointed that no one was saying that Voldemort was back. The paper speculated that the Death Eaters might have a new leader but nothing else was said on the subject. Fudge clearly had some major influence over the paper.
I thought it very strange that Dumbledore wasn't shouting about the return of Riddle from the rooftops and neither was Potter despite the fact that he must know due to his scar.
Then again Hermione had told me that Potter had told her the scar was fading, so perhaps the mental connection was broken.
How this had happened I could only imagine. I knew that it was possible to undo a Horcrux the creator simply had to feel genuine remorse for killing whoever it was who had died to create the Horcrux but Riddle couldn't feel remorse, he wasn't capable of that sort of feeling.
So how could the bit of soul inside Harry have been extracted?
I had planned to do such a thing myself. I'd learnt the magic required for such a deed while in Skyrim. My intention had been to extract the bit of soul inside The-Boy-Who-Lived and place it inside a Soul Gem.
This action would of made Harry's self sacrifice unnecessary, but I got the impression that someone had beaten me to the punch as it were.
I figured that is was for the best. If I was honest with myself I hadn't been looking forward to undertaking my planned action as I had no idea if it would of worked in practice. The theory was sound and I could extract complete animal souls and even put them back with the creature being no worse off for the experience, but a divided soul was trickier. The soul was not meant to be cut up it was suppose to stay whole.
"Damien".
I turned my head upwards to find the lad I'd been thinking of was now standing on the other side of the table.
"Potter" I replied curtly while pretending not to care that he was trying to engage me in conversation.
"I want to talk to you about Hermione".
While he might want to do that, but I didn't.
"What about Hermione?" I asked while trying to sound disinterested.
"I want to know what's going on with her".
Well that was a bit vague.
"Do you mean in general or did you have something in particular about her that you wished to discuss".
What I actually meant was. 'Is this about her or is it about me and her'.
"I just want to know how she is" clarified the boy hero "if she's happy or not".
Well that at least gave me somewhere to start.
"Leave us" I commanded and the Carrow twins did as they were told and left Potter and I to talk.
Harry was rather surprised by their obedience, but he said nothing about it he even obeyed me when I told him to sit down.
Since we were at the end of the single large table set out for the students there was little chance of us being overheard but I cast the privacy charm out of habit if nothing else.
"Right then" I said more causally while folding the newspaper "let's talk about Hermione".
Granger Residence. England. The Muggle World.
Currently the girl being discussed up in Scotland was at her family home many miles south of Hogwarts.
For once it wasn't raining, in fact it was quite pleasant outside, but Hermione had no desire what so ever to go outside. Mostly this was because outside was full of children who'd picked on in Primary School, but it was also because she was reading the morning paper and that was important to her.
"Sheogorath" the teen muttered.
The article mentioned that name a few times. Something about it bugged the youngest Granger to no end. She'd heard the name before but couldn't quite remember when.
Entire insane asylums scattered across the world, including the infamous Arkham Asylum, were now empty. Patients had vanished late in the night and the only thing they had in common was that they had all confessed to being worshippers of what they called the Mad God.
While there were few facts to the paper's story there was a lot of speculation both in the paper and on the radio. Hermione had taken careful note of it all but she wasn't one to take speculation seriously, she needed facts. The problem was that she couldn't find them.
Normally she'd be in the school library by now attempting to learn more but she was at home for the week as Damien had encouraged her to spend more time with her parents.
When Damien had advised her to go home for the Easter holidays she'd argued against the idea, but her lover had pointed out that as she got older she'd find that she had less in common with her Muggle family and they could grow apart. If so then it was best to spend time with them now.
Still the teenage girl longed to be back at school. Mostly because there was still so much to learn, but also because she missed her boyfriend/secret husband.
She'd tried calling him on the communication mirror she always carried on her person but he hadn't answered. She assumed that he was either having breakfast or that he was still in bed. Boys tended to like a lie in after all.
Hermione took a sip of her morning coffee and started to think about what she was going to do today. Her parents were at work running their dental practice, so she wouldn't see them until this evening which gave her most of the day to do whatever she pleased.
Not that she could do what pleased her. For that to happen Damien would have to be with her.
She'd invited him to stay at her home over Easter but he'd declined stating that he needed to catch up on his school work. If that was an excuse or not Hermione didn't know.
He might of just wanted to get out of meeting his girlfriend's parents. Hermione could understand that. Her own Dad had told her that he had dreaded meeting her Mother's family for the first time.
Well he wouldn't be able to avoid it for too long. Hermione planned to invite Damien to stay for a couple of weeks over the summer. There was no way she'd let the young wizard get out of that, not if he wanted to see her naked again.
Wanting to distract herself from the mix of boredom and loneness she was feeling Hermione started to read the Daily Prophet.
At once the headline caught her eye.
Death Eaters Kidnap Senior Undersectary!
The picture showed the Dark Mark floating in the sky above what Hermione assumed to be the Undersectrary's country home.
The teenage girl frowned as she read the article. Most of it wasn't very helpful but the clues added up and the reporter didn't sugercoat the facts. The Death Eaters were active.
Hermione knew more than most about what was going. Dumbledore had told Harry, who had of course told her, that Voldemort had returned. The so-called Dark Lord had, until now it seemed, been keeping a low profile in order to gather his forces before once more bringing terror to Britain.
Now that stage seemed to be over. Voldemort was openly attacking people. You-Know-Who hadn't been seen publicly but his Death Eaters had used the Dark Mark so they weren't hiding their activities any longer. It was just a matter of time now before the deaths started.
Naturally this concerned Hermione, in fact it scared her quite a bit. She wasn't that worried about herself as she be safe at school, but in the last war families of Muggleborns attending Hogwarts had been targeted making a lot of orphans.
She was more worried about her friend Harry. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named would come after Harry and anyone with him would be in danger. But there wasn't anything she could really do about it. At least not yet anyway.
Despite all the badness going on in the world Hermione had to admit that underneath it all she was happier than she had ever been in her life. She had friends, a boy who liked her and a bright future ahead.
Things really could be a lot worse for her and she was happy with what she had.
The Great Hall. Hogwarts School. The Wizarding World.
"So she's happy then" summarised the Boy-Who-Lived.
Potter had just sat there listening to what I had could say about his friend and her life, and that was all he got from it.
I really couldn't understand Harry Potter. He couldn't be as stupid as he looked but it didn't seem to be an act either. He could just be incredibly naïve but that didn't seem possible given his childhood. He should know that people aren't really kind hearted, and that adults don't always have a child's best interests at heart.
"Yes" I finally agreed "she's happy".
With that the boy hero left and I sat there wondering if he'd been probing me for information in a far more subtle method than I could detect. Potter could be a lot more sneaky than he seemed.
Then again he really could just be a dunderhead. I had no way of knowing and I didn't care enough about the Boy-Who-Lived to bother to find out.
The guy was so average in intelligence and wit that I just couldn't bring myself to care. For all his fame and glory, he wasn't very interesting in person and seemed to no ambitions as far as I could see.
Only the fact that I took oath compelled me to help him out at all, and that would only be in effect until Riddle was dealt with. After that I might end up killing him myself as Dumbledore would oppose me and Potter was his man after all.
Still I had to wonder if that was why I was keeping my distance?
At first I'd stayed away from the Chosen One because I didn't want to mess up events too much, but that excuse had stopped being valid long ago. Aside from that the main reason why I'd kept my distance was Dumbledore.
I didn't want to do anything that would draw even more of the Headmaster's attention towards me and making friends with his weapon would certainly do that. However that reason wasn't really valid any longer as I had drawn the Old Man's eye, even without meaning to.
Anyone else from my world who found themselves in my position would try to befriend Harry Potter, but not me. Maybe it was because I just couldn't relate to heroes. I'd lost of my affection for good guys as a child. I wasn't capable of understanding what motivates a hero because I don't feel the same things they do.
Yes I understood that sometimes you have to do what's right rather than easy, and I was also willing to put myself at risk to aid those I cared about but I couldn't imagine doing that so openly nor could I endanger myself for people I didn't know. I'd never understand what drives heroes to protect people who can't be bothered to try and protect themselves.
In my view any society that needed a hero like Potter was a society that should be allowed to fall. Any group of people who relied on teenage boys to save them weren't worth saving.
The only reason I was even bothering to try and make this world a better place was because of the prophecy. I knew that it was never a good idea to ignore what fate had planned and I knew that the more one tried to escape their fate the more likely it was that you'd end up bringing it about in the worse possible way. It was best accept one's destiny and try to complete it as quickly and as smartly as possible so you could get on with your life.
Potter seemed to sort of go with the flow as it were. Which wasn't such a bad idea really. I'd bet it was a lot less stressful than my life. I seemed to spend an amazing amount of time planning my future and scheming about how to bring about the changes I desired. Which wasn't really necessary as prophecies rarely come with any sort of time limit. I'd do what fate demanded in the end so why worry about it too much?
Maybe on some level Potter knew this, and that was why he didn't worry about things like destiny too much.
Now I was starting to see why the likes of Dumbledore and Snape went to the trouble of learning to scan people's surface thoughts. Most people are easy to understand and therefore also easy to manipulate. Hermione for all her intelligence is easy to figure out and can be made to dance like a puppet on strings if you know how to motivate her.
As for Potter well he is either as simple as he looks or far more complex than he appears. It would easily for me to assume that he is stupid but I got the sense that this would be a mistake.
As the old say goes 'never judge a book by its cover' and I wasn't too proud to admit that I had done that with Harry Potter.
With a sigh I started eating my breakfast and tried to think about something else.
My thoughts about the Boy-Who-Lived weren't getting me anywhere, my opinion on him kept changing the more I mused about him and really he just wasn't worth the headache I'd get if I tried to figure him out. To get the bottom of things I'd either have to read his mind or come out and ask him why he wasn't anything like the person he should be given his childhood.
I really just didn't understand heroes.
Author Note: That chapter was mostly about how I don't understand Harry Potter at all. I never understood why he became a hero. In my experience abused children mostly become bullies and then later abusive adults. Which is why Voldemort makes sense to me. I bet its something to do with being a good person some people just seem to be good no matter what. I'll never understand it.