The God of Death: Black Beginning

by I Am Atrocity

Voldemort kidnapped Harry that fateful Hallowe'en night and raised him up as his assassin. Years later, Harry is sent on a mission that will change the Wizarding World forever. Treachery and ambition go hand-in-hand, and no one is safe. Beset on all sides, Harry must fight to survive and carve his name on the face of history with a legacy of fire and blood.. DARK!Harry.

37. There Are No Heroes Here

XXXVII. There Are No Heroes Here, Part I

Hermione's and hands flew to her mouth in horror. "No. What are they thinking?"

Harry laughed humorlessly. "They aren't thinking, and that's the problem. On top of everything, Nymphadora has been roped into the Order's plan by Kingsley and Sirius."

"They can't possibly hope to defeat him," Hermione said. "Without the Horcruxes being destroyed he's essentially immortal. Even if they destroy his body he'll just come back again and again. Oh, Harry, we have to stop them before they ruin everything!"

Harry ran a hand through his hair. "I know, Hermione, I know. Not to mention that Barty will tear them apart before they even get close to the Dark Lord."

Hermione nodded her head in agreement. She had seen that man fight and knew very well how accurate Harry's statement was. The man had killed Mad-Eye Moody for crying out loud, and Moody was no push over, having garnered a hard-earned reputation as one of the best dark wizard killers in the world.

"We need to help them," Lily said.

Both teens looked at her with raised brows. Hermione was the one to speak though. "We really don't. They've more than shown that we are their enemies. The only persons we owe anything to are the Twins and that's just because they've given us indirect aid." Hermione sighed. "But they have Tonks. We can't let the Order drag her off to her death, Harry, she's one of ours."

Harry nodded. "All right. Get some parchment, write a letter to both Xeno and Charlie. Tell them to all gather at Shell Cottage."

Hermione nodded and opened one of the drawers of the desk and pulled out parchment, quill and ink. She began scribbling furiously while Rune hopped about on the desktop in an impatient manner.

"We'll meet up with them soon enough, but there's someone I need to go see before we do. Scratch those letters, Hermione, love, I want you and mum to go ahead and meet up with the others. Tell them what's going on and make sure everyone is ready for when I get there. We'll meet up with Nymphadora at Malfoy Manor within the hour."

Hermione huffed and wadded up the notes she had been writing, tossing them carelessly to the floor. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"To get another ally on our side," he said summoning his wand and holster to his hand and fastening it around his forearm. "I think I know someone who deserves as much a shot at the Death Eaters as we do."

Hermione's eyes showed understanding. "Peasegood," she said. It was not a guess.

Harry nodded. "Got it in one. He fought well at the graveyard and I severely doubt that his need for vengeance has been sated. I'm counting on that blood-lust to bring him to our side."

Hermione nodded. "And if he doesn't agree?"

Harry shrugged. "Then he didn't love his family and can rot for all I care." He pulled on his boots and gloves, then donned a long-sleeved black shirt that would allow maximum freedom of movement while also protecting him from the elements. "Right. Dobby! Kreacher!"

The familiar double pop of the two Elves appearing was heard and they both bowed.

"Yes, Master?"

"Mr. Harry Potter Sir has called Dobby?"

"Kreacher, take Hermione and my mother to Shell Cottage. Stay with them in case they need anything." Kreacher bowed again and offered his hands to the two women. Lily took it after making sure she had her wand.

Hermione went over to Harry and kissed him after only a second of hesitation. Harry carefully placed his hands on her hips and returned the short embrace. "Be careful, Harry. We don't know enough about Peasegood to know if he'll help us."

Harry nodded. "I will. Go on now. I'll be there soon."

Hermione bit her lip with worry but went to Kreacher and the three of them disappeared.

"All right, Dobby. I need to get to the Peasegood House. Can you manage that for me?"

"Of course, Mr. Harry Potter Sir, I'm an Elf!" Dobby replied with aplomb.

Harry smiled fondly at his most constant companion. "Yes you are, my friend." He held out his hand to Dobby. "Shall we?"

Dobby recovered quickly from being called 'friend' by the 'Great Mr. Harry Potter Sir' and took the proffered limb.

The surroundings blurred and then came into focus as Harry found himself standing in the entrance hall of a manor house. The interior was weathered-looking stained wood with a destinctly saxon feel to the whole place. War horns and weapons adorned the walls and a banner bearing the image of a set of scales framed by plant stalks of some kind, flanked by particularly Nordic-style dragons like those that were fitted to the prow of Saxon and Viking Longships.

That was the sigil of House Peasegood, and the plants were pea plants, from which the family drew their name.

Well, at least he knew he was in the right place.

He walked further into the house, making sure to keep his guard up. There was no telling how Peasegood would react to Harry showing up in his house unannounced.

"Homenum Revelio."

An invisible wave of magic pulsed out from Harry as he cast this spell and a moment later, he could see a glowing pale orb floating behind a wall up ahead of him. After a second, the glow vanished.

Harry strode carefully forward, taking steady steps and making sure his footfalls were as quiet as he could make them while wearing boots and walking on a stone floor; luckily there was a long carpet in the center of the walkway but his heels still made a solid thump with every step.

He reached a door that led to the general area he had seen the orb in and eased the door open. He peered inside, seeing no one there. Had he gone to the wrong room? There was another down the hall, he could see the door from here, but he was sure it was this one.

He stepped into the room, just to make sure and instantly found himself slammed up against the wall with a wand pressed against his throat. "Is that death I hear stalking me?" Arnold growled, teeth bared and his eyes somewhat wild. "What are you doing here, Mr. Potter? Or should I call you the God of Death?" There was a stink about him that told of whiskey consumption; and quite a bit of it, and recently. His eyes, however, were clear and focused, so he was not drunk.

"I have a proposition for you, Mr. Peasegood," Harry said, deciding that it was best to just get to the point.

Peasegood pressed the wand a little harder against his throat. "You aren't selling anything I want, boy."

Harry smirked. "Oh, I don't know about that. How does the chance to finally bring down the bastards responsible for the death of your family sound?"

Peasegood glared. "I already killed those hooded bastard that day in the graveyard. Fitting, don't you think? I hope my family got to enjoy the show and know that I avenged them."

Harry gave him a sympathetic look. "Then why are you drinking so heavily?" His voice was soft but stern. "You can't deny it. I can smell it."

Peasegood lowered his wand and stepped away from Harry, convinced that he wasn't a threat; not to him. Not anymore.

"It hasn't gone away, has it?" Harry asked. "Not the pain; no, that never will. But the anger, the rage. Your heart still calls for vengeance, despite your mind telling you that you already had it."

Peasegood glared at him, his long hair falling in a slightly tangled curtain around his face. "What do you know about it?" he snapped harshly.

Harry met the gaze calmly. "More than you think."

A look of understand passed over Arnold's features. "The girl. Granger." Harry nodded. Peasegood gave a short humorless chuckle. "I heard what happened at the Weasley house. Official word is that it was you who killed them and that there was no motive except that they were a 'light' family, and you are a Death Eater piece of shit." Harry raised a brow at this. "But I know better." He tapped his nose. "I can read evidence, see the photos. The motive is spelled out right there for all to see. R-A-P-I-S-T; how anyone could miss that is beyond my ken. If someone had done that to my woman, I'd kill them too. If they hurt my family in any way, I would make them suffer." As he said this he picked of a small glass of amber liquid and downed in a single swallow after sniffing it.

Harry saw his opening and took it easily. "Then grab your wand and let's go make the bastards suffer."

Arnold smiled a smile that displayed absolutely no happiness. "Will it make the pain stop?"

Harry shook his head. "No, but it will feel damn good."

Arnold cocked his head in an 'all right' manner. "Good enough. Lead the way, Mr. Potter."

"You can call me Harry," Harry told him. "Everyone else does. Besides, Mr. Potter is my father, and I honestly hate the man."

Arnold shrugged. "Fair enough. I'm Arnold, but my friends call me Arnie; or they would if I had any of those left."

Harry clapped him on the shoulder. "You got me, Arnie. Now come on."

"I'll take what I can get," Arnie shrugged, making Harry smirk.

"Dobby!"

"Mr. Harry Potter Sir is calling Dobby?"

"Yes, Dobby. I need you to take our new friend and I to where the others are at. Can you do that, my friend?" Harry knew he could, he just felt like making the Elf feel good, just in case things took a turn for the worst and he came down with a bad case of death today.

Dobby held out a hand to both of them. "Yes, Mr. Harry Potter Sir!"

Arnie looked at Dobby skeptically as he tied his hair half-up and out of his face. "Well, at least someone is enthusiastic about all this." He took Dobby offered hand after receiving a small glare from Harry.

With a pop, they were both transported to a small stretch of magically hidden beach on the outskirts of Tinworth, Cornwall.

Harry wondered why they were outside rather than in the Cottage but he realized that Dobby had had the foresight to not drop him and a relative stranger right into the middle of a bunch of battle-ready witches and wizards. He could see them all inside through the open windows.

Peasegood was looking around. "Nice place. This where you live?"

Harry shook his head as the two men marched toward the house. "No. I live in a hole in the ground."

Arnie raised a brow. "You're joking right?"

Harry shook his head again. "No."

Harry strode up to the door of the Cottage and knocked on it, deciding it was best not to just barge in, for the same reasons that Dobby had not dropped them inside.

The opened and he and Arnie found themselves on the business end of several wands. "What was I doing the first time we met?" Hermione demanded, her wand in Harry's face.

Harry raised a his brow. "Looking at a Love Potion in Fred and George's shop?"

Hermione frowned. "Are you asking or telling me?"

Harry looked around at them all in concern. "Telling?"

Hermione huffed. "Damn it, Harry."

"What were the first words I spoke to you?" Bill asked.

Harry decided to play along. "'We haven't properly met, I'm Bill.'"

Bill nodded and lowered his wand, Charlie and Fleur doing the same. Hermione turned hers on Arnie. "What were the first words you spoke to Harry and I and what did we respond with?"

Arnie looked at Harry, who shrugged to show he didn't know what this was all about either, then back to the brown-haired girl. "I asked who you two were. You answered, well Harry answered, 'friends of the family'. Now, you wanna get that wand out of my face?" His voice wasn't threatening, just annoyed.

Hermione nodded and lowered her wand and stepped back to allow the two men to enter.

Harry stepped inside and saw Luna and Xeno standing by the fireplace. "Xeno," Harry greeted grasping the man's hand. "It's good to see you again."

"Likewise, Harry," Xeno replied.

Luna came over and gave Harry a warm hug. "Glad to see you back in the world of the living. According to Hermione, it was a bit touch and go for a bit. Don't worry, I knew you wouldn't just go and die on us. You're too stubborn for that." She smiled at the slightly backhanded compliment she had just delivered.

"Thanks, Luna," Harry replied, looking at a perplexed Hermione. She gave him a general gesture of 'I don't know, it's Luna', which basically cleared things up quite nicely. "So, now that we're all here, we need to go. I assume Hermione filled you in?" Everyone nodded, except Peasegood. "So, I hoping we still have time to head off the Order but if not, our main priority is to take out as many of the Death Eaters as we can with as little loss of life on our side. I also want to try and avoid a direct fight with Voldemort, because despite the Order's seeming belief here, we are not ready for that, and the Order will never be ready for that."

"Speaking of the Order," Charlie cut in. "What's our stance toward them in this battle? Friend or foe?"

Harry frowned. "Foe. I'm not asking you to kill your family members, guys, but if they have to be put down, don't hesitate to stun or petrify them. Get them out of the way, but only if they are hostile toward you. Anyone not here or with the Order is a dead man walking, you got me? I don't want prisoners at the end of this, shoot to kill, with one notable exception; if you see Barty, I want him alive."

"Barty Crouch Jr.?" Arnie asked, arms crossed as he listened to Harry's rules of engagement.

Harry nodded. "Yes. He has something of mine that I need back and I need him alive to learn where it is hidden. Now, you have your orders, any questions? No? Good. Enough chit-chat then. Let's go. Dobby! Kreacher!"

The two Elves appeared and bowed, giving their usual greetings and shooting annoyed glances at each other; well, Kreacher did.

"There are nine of us here, so we'll have to make multiple trips. Charlie, you're with me, Xeno, you and Hermione follow right with us." Harry took Dobby's hand while Charlie took the other.

They disappeared and reappeared outside the gates of Malfoy Manor. It was quiet, so Harry looked around, trying to see if the Order was here yet. They weren't. Good, they had gotten here ahead of them.

A second later, Hermione and Xeno appeared right next to them with Kreacher. "Dobby, Kreacher, bring the others, quickly."

The two Elves disappeared again and a moment later returned with Arnie, Bill, Luna and Lily. A moment later, Fleur joined them as well.

"All right, it doesn't look like the Order is here yet," Harry said.

Before he even finished speaking there was a loud explosion by the front gates and the two Death Eaters there were consumed in a ball of fire. A second later, the ward surrounding the house shattered.

"Well, they're here now," Bill commented dryly.

"How did they do that? I've never seen someone destroy a ward like that!" Xeno murmured.

A moment later, a group of people came rushing out of the trees nearby and into the breach they had created. Harry saw James, Sirius, Remus, Arthur, Percy, Fred and George, McGonagall, Hagrid, Kingsley, Nymphadora, and Molly all running full-pelt into the grounds of Malfoy Manor. There was also another wizard who was making his way at a slower but steady pace. He was old with long grey hair and a beard that reached down to the bottom of his chest. He carried himself with an ease of movement and a confidence that reminded Harry of Dumbledore.

"Aberforth," Hermione gasped. "That explains it. I should have guessed it was him."

"That is Albus' brother?" Harry asked, looking to his lover for confirmation.

Hermione nodded. "He usually stays out of the fight. Prefers to just tend his bar in peace. I don't know how they got him out here today but if he's here then they are at least serious about this battle. Aberforth was like his brother. He prefers action over talk and I will admit that he is much more like you than most would admit."

Harry looked questioningly at her. "How so?"

"He stopped coming to meetings after he and Dumbledore got into an argument about how to draw the Death Eaters out. Dumbledore wanted to take a wait and watch approach, but Aberforth wanted to use their children as hostages. Said it would be easy to do during the school year with a lot of them being there in Slytherin. Needless to say, it didn't go over well. He didn't even show up to Dumbledore's funeral."

"Can we discuss all of this later?" Peasegood interrupted. "We've got a battle to join and Death Eaters to kill."

Harry nodded waved them forward, grasping Hermione's arm, holding her back. "Be careful in there. Shoot to kill, okay? Stay low, keep your head down and don't stay in one place for too long."

Hermione nodded, biting her lower lip. "Okay." Harry made to stand and follow the others but Hermione grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "Harry, you be careful too. Don't...don't try to be a hero."

Harry smiled and kissed her tenderly. "Don't worry, my love. There are no heroes here."

They stood and rushed through the gap in the fence, wands drawn. The battle was already raging at full swing with dozens of low-level Death Eaters having been sent out to meet the advancing Order. It would seen that Voldemort that kept some back from the battle at the graveyard; smart.

Now, if there was one word to describe a Wizarding battle, it would be chaos. Pure, brilliant chaos. Balls and beams of light in every color imaginable and some that didn't have color at all, where flying in all directions and it was only by some skill and grace that one wasn't hit as soon as entering the fray.

Harry's first move upon entering this battle was to cast a cutting curse point-blank into a Death Eater's throat with enough power to send his head toppling to the ground before running deeper into the mass of fighters. To the left and right, he fired spells, wandless with one hand, the Elder Wand in the other.

He and Hermione were quickly swallowed up and separated by the clashing forces and Harry found himself in the midst of black cloaks, firing at all that moved. He was avoiding using Killing Curses in this mess. The last thing he wanted was for a stray blast of green to miss its target and accidentally strike one of his own fighters. He had too few allies as it was, and he couldn't afford to lose more due to carelessness.

Another cutting curse laid low a nameless masked fighter, then another. He heard a cry and turned to see Nymphadora trying to hold off three Death Eaters at once and her shoulder was coated in blood.

Harry made his way toward her, cutting down another Mask and sidestepping some poor fool who had been been hit with an entrails expelling curse and was now doubled over on the ground puking his guts up, literally. He reached her as she was trying to hold them off with a shield but it was in danger of shattering. A silent Reductor sent one of them to the ground with a hole blasted through his head and two quick cutting curses saw the final two to the afterlife.

"You all right?" he called to Nymphadora as he turned about and deflected a curse that had been sent at his unprotected back; the fool who fired it had screamed the curse, alerting Harry just in time. He blasted the man dead without a thought and cut down another Death Eater.

Nymphadora came up beside him and rejoined the fight. "I'm fine." She parried a dangerous-looking red curse. "You?"

Harry blasted a charging Death Eater in the knee, then grabbed his head, twisted and snapped the neck. He let the man fall dead at his feet and raised a shield to block a volley of curses. "Can't really complain," he said, slitting a man's throat with the cutting curse.

"I'm totally glad you all got my message." She ducked a Killing Curse, which flew over her head and killed another Death Eater, giving Harry justification for not using the curse right now. "This is suicide!"

Harry grabbed Nymphadora by the scruff of her neck and yanked her back just as a Killing Curse flew by where her head had just been.

"Thanks!"

"Your friends have a death wish?" He batted a bone-breaker hex back at its caster, who collapsed in a heap as it impacted his collarbone.

"More like just stupid," Nymphadora said, her shield absorbing a stunner that Arthur had aimed a bit wide.

"They're using non-lethal spells," Harry said with some disgust as he killed another man. "How many bloody Death Eaters does this bastard have left!"

More and more of the masked fools kept joining the battle. Every time Harry or one of the others cut one down, two more appeared. He spied Hermione nearby as she unleashed a blasting curse directly into a Death Eater's face, his or her head exploding in a shower of blood, gore, grey matter and skull fragment.

If Harry was being honest, he was quite proud of his beloved. She had proven to be stronger than either of them had expected. Her killing of Ron Weasley had been a moment of truth. She had been confronted with her own darkness and true to his own words, had found something of herself there that she was now channeling into the battle. The girl who had been so horrified at seeing him kill a man in Knockturn Alley was gone, replaced by the woman with the spirit of a wolf and the ferocity to match.

Another Killing Curse flew by and Harry growled. He cut the man's throat and then before he could fall, levitated the corpse into the air and launched into another group of Death Eaters heading their way.

He followed that up with a Bombarda Maxima that impacted the group as they struggled to get back to their feet. Most were killed by the blast, but a few lay screaming with whole body parts missing.

Nymphadora was no longer at his side and he was not sure when she had become separated from him but a moment later he saw a explosion of black smoke to his left. Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. Not a second later, the twins came running out of the cloud, throwing Parthian Shots back into the darkness.

The cloud did not linger as long as it had in the Battle of Cross Hill as this was in the open and there was a breeze. The powder and the magical darkness it created soon cleared but when it did, the Twins were wishing that it hadn't.

"Damn, I thought for sure we hit him, George," Fred muttered, looking at the advancing form of Fenrir Greyback.

"Contrariwise, Fred, I fear we may have just angered him," George returned.

They both fired stunners at the werewolf, who was thankfully still in human form as this battle was taking place in the daylight and the full moon had been a few days ago. The red balls of magic hit Fenrir in the chest but he paused for only a second before he was advancing on them again, his wand held at the ready.

He fired a Killing Curse at one of the twins who barely managed to avoid it, but it was followed up with a blasting hex that sent him tumbling head over heels to land in a motionless heap nearby. The other twin, cried out and ran to check on his brother but a cutting curse struck him across the back, felling him too.

Harry looked at the two fallen Weasleys with a blank expression. He didn't know if they were dead or not but if he didn't want to join them he needed to fight. He reached inside his vest where his second wand was kept. He had lost his original wand again at the Department of Mysteries but he had taken Dolohov's wand at the end of that same battle. It didn't work as well for him as his own wand or the Elder Wand did but it would have to do.

Fenrir saw him and growled, grinning like the cat who ate the canary. "Well, well, well, the wayward son returns."

Harry didn't say anything back, just focused his magic and gave both wands a sharp flick, causing two ropes of fire to extend out, one from each wand. He had last used this technique against Remus the previous year. He hoped it would have as much effect on the unturned werewolf as it had the transformed.

Greyback looked at the fire with fear in his eyes, which made Harry smirk. "What's the matter, Greyback? Afraid of a little fire?"

Not bothering to give the werewolf time to respond, Harry lashed out with the whip in his right hand, the rope of flame arching out and snapping harshly against Greyback's cheek. He howled in rage and pain as he recoiled from the blow.

Greyback raised his wand and glared, his cheek now a violent shade of crimson. "Avada Kedavra!"

The green spell raced toward Harry but he sidestepped it nimbly and struck out again with one of the whips, catching Greyback in the same cheek again.

Now, sufficiently angered, Greyback roared and charged Harry, all thoughts of using his magic abandoned as he resorted to his preferred method of combat: his teeth and claws and brute strength.

Harry knew that he could never hope to match Greyback blow for blow and he stood no chance in a conflict of strength. It was lucky for him that he possessed the two skills needed to take the behemoth down. Speed and intelligence; two attributes Greyback was not particularly graced with. He had speed when in wolf form, but there was no full moon to save him this time.

Harry lashed out with whips as Greyback charged him, roaring his challenge to the heavens as he came, the tongues of flames snapping out to harass and wound the beast. There was no blood, as the flames cauterized all marks they made so he could not rely on Greyback being gradually weakened by steady blood-loss but the pain would make him angry and the anger would make him more aggressive and that aggression would make him reckless; stupid.

Harry dove to the side and tucked into a roll that brought him back to his feet as Greyback made to pounce on him. Coming out of the roll, Harry snapped a whip across Fenrir's back, eliciting another howl of pain from the hulking Lycanthrope.

"BASTARD!" Fenrir roared, launching himself at Harry again.

Harry dodged the attack and struck again at his opponent's exposed back. He snapped the other whip and willed it to wrap around Greyback's leg, then gave it a sharp tug, using the forward momentum of Greyback's charge against him, tearing his feet from beneath him. Harry ended the flame spell that created the whip and quickly took aim with a cutting curse to Fenrir's head. However, Greyback managed to struggle just enough that the curse hit his shoulder instead.

Harry cursed and took aim again, but Greyback, showing great resilience, grabbed hold of Harry's fire whip and gave it a tug of his own, dragging Harry off of his own feet toward him. Harry held tight to his wand, not daring to let it go. The last thing that needed to happen was for Greyback of all people to get his hands on the Elder Wand. He canceled the whip and it vanished from the werewolf's hand, leaving Harry laying face-down on the ground a few feet in front of him.

"I'm gonna tear you limb-from-limb, boy," Greyback said, gaining his feet and stalking toward his fallen foe. "Imagine how the Dark Lord will reward me when I kill you. I'll have done what that fool Crouch could never do. I'm gonna kill the God of Death!"

Harry fired another cutting curse at Greyback's neck but the werewolf batted it aside as if it were no more than a mildly annoying fly.

Harry cursed as he regained his feet and settled into his dueling stance, two wands trained on the grotesque behemoth before him.

Greyback growled. "Avada-"

"Diffendo!"

The cutting curse slashed Greyback across the face, spraying blood into the grass at their feet.

Harry looked at his unlikely savior and nodded his thanks. Bill returned the motion and fired again at Greyback, his next curse cutting the werewolf in the chest.

Greyback roared and moved his hand away from his face, where it had been covering the wound Bill had inflicted. Blood gushed down his cheek and nose, one eye now missing thanks to Bill.

"You just made a big mistake, boy!" Greyback sneered.

Bill snorted and ran his thumb against his own facial scars, given to him in the Battle at Hogwarts by Greyback himself. "Just returning the favor, cur."

"I remember you," Fenrir said, peering at Bill with his one remaining eye. "I should have killed you when I had the chance."

Bill smirked. "You tried, and my brother kicked your ass"

"Well, you brother won't save you this time," Fenrir growled advancing on him.

"He won't have to," Bill fired a cutting curse. "I've got the God of Death on my side."

Harry smirked too and joined Bill in unleashing a hail of cutting curses on the werewolf, whose shield was quickly overpowered and his body was soon a mess of cuts and slashes.

Yet still be came at them, spurred on by a rage and blood-lust to rival even the most vicious of killers.

"Bastard just doesn't know when to give up and die!" Bill slashed again.

"He's not much for the brains department." Harry parried a return curse.

"You aren't holding back again are you?" Bill ducked a Killing Curse.

"I am." Harry sliced at Greyback's throat with a curse.

"Well, don't do that!" Bill landed a blow against their foe.

Harry sighed. "All right, all right. Guard me."

Harry stepped back and Bill held off Fenrir alone for a moment. Harry focused his magic and began to expel it into a aura around himself. "Ādrædan!"

The aura exploded outward, encompassing the entirety of the three combating forces. Suddenly, the Death Eaters and the Order all collapsed to the ground, screaming and holding their heads, their eyes going wide and then began thrashing about as if trying to escape from some unseen terror.

In front of them, Greyback was in the same state, as he lay on the ground, curled up in a ball and trying to protect his face and neck from an unseen attacker.

Bill looked around at the effect that Harry had just unleashed and his mouth fell open in awe. "What on earth did you just do?"

Harry smiled tiredly, swaying lightly on his feet. "Dread spell. Advanced Illusion magic. Took me forever to get that right. Now, if you don't mind, could you start killing all these bastards before they get up? The spell won't last long." Harry pointed his wand at Greyback. "Avada Kedavra!"

The spell struck the werewolf in the side and he suddenly ceased moving.

Bill started going around cutting throats with the cutting curse. Around them, the others still standing started doing the same. Soon, all of the Death Eaters in the lawn of Malfoy Manor were laying lifeless, their blood staining the ground a deep shade of crimson. By then, the effects of the Dread had worn off and the Order were now struggling back to their feet.

"What the blood hell was that?" Sirius shouted, looking around at all the dead bodies. His gaze settled on Harry and he marched over to his, his eyes ablaze. "What the hell did you just do?"

Bill stepped between the tired Harry and the angry Auror. "He just saved your lives," Bill snapped. "He save all of our lives." He waved a hand around at the dead Death Eaters. "We were outnumbered and outmatched. We could have all died because you lot decided to be stupid and initiate a direct assault against Voldemort's stronghold. Are you all bloody stupid?"

Sirius snarled and took a swing at Bill, but Charlie stepped in and with a quick twist had Sirius on the ground. "Calm down, both of you."

Hermione was now standing next to Harry, supporting him as he leaned on her a bit, breathing somewhat heavily at the amount of magic power he had just burned through.

"I don't know what Harry just did," Charlie admitted. "But it won us this battle. Now, I think we should get the hell out of here while we can. Get our wounded to safety and come back another day." He walked over and began checking on the fallen Fred and George, whom Molly, Arthur and Percy had just noticed and were now running over as well.

Harry looked Hermione over for any injuries but besides a bit of dirt and blood smeared across her face and clothes, he could see nothing of note. The blood clearly wasn't her own. He felt a swell of pride at his beloved.

"The boy is right," a new voice said, and Harry looked over to see Aberforth step into the small circle that had formed around Harry and Hermione. "We have won the day, let us go back and regroup." He looked at Harry. "That was some impressive magic there, boy. But, I would expect no less from the man who killed my fool brother."

Harry smiled. "Just don't ask me to do it again. It might kill me, I think." He chuckled like it was the funniest thing in the world. No one else laughed and no one else saw the humor in it at all; but they weren't Harry so that didn't matter.

Aberforth just gave him a nod and tried to apparate out, only he couldn't. He tried again, same result.

"Bollocks," Harry cursed realizing what was happening. "We're trapped in." He glared at James and Sirius. "I don't care if this was your idea or not, but I'm blaming you. Any of us that die today, that blood is on your hands, bastards."

He shifted his weight off of Hermione and looked around. He couldn't see anyone, but that didn't mean that they weren't there.

"Come out, Barty!" he yelled. "I know this is you!"

"Like a bunch of mice into a trap," Barty's voice spoke from the side and they all turned to find him suddenly standing behind Nymphadora with his wand pressed against her throat. "Wands down, I think, yes?" He pressed the wand harder against Nymphadora's neck, causing the young woman to tense up even more than she already was.

"Don't do it, guys!" Nymphadora told them, shaking her head a fraction.

"Shut up," Barty snapped, his head right against hers to minimalize the target it presented. "Make a single move and I kill her, you understand. Then my friends will kill you." He grinned savagely.

Harry looked around and realized that they were surrounded. The Carrows, the LeStrange brothers, Yaxley, Wormtail, Mulciber...

"Damn," Harry muttered. He dropped Dolohov's wand into the grass and subtly hid the Elder Wand up his sleeve behind the cover of Hermione's body, which was partially between him and Barty.

One by one the others tossed down their wands too.

"There, now, that wasn't so hard was it?" He shoved Nymphadora aside after taking her own wand from her hand and summoned all of the wands to him, handing them off to Rabastan. "Taken them to the dungeons," Barty ordered. He grabbed a handful of Hermione's hair. "Except this one," he said, looking Harry in the eye as he made to attack Barty. His wand against Hermione's neck stopped him short. "I'd like a private word with this one. Put our wayward brother in his hole and make sure to lock it from the outside." The LeStrange brothers took hold of Harry, who shoved Rodolphus and punched Rabastan before he felt his body stiffen up in a full-body bind. Barty tsked at him. "Take them away."

They began to carry Harry away but Barty called out to them to stop.

He walked up to Harry and reached to his right sleeve, plucking the Elder Wand out of it. "Nice try, mate. But, no dice." He waved them on and went back to where Hermione was being held by Alecto. He took her back and pressed his wand against her back, urging her forward.

Harry and the others were marched, or carried in the case of Harry, Fred and George, into the house and down into the basement, then further still into the dungeons. The others were all shoved into barred cells while Harry was carried down the spiral steps to his old cave and tossed onto the earth floor unceremoniously before he heard the door far above him close solidly and the locks all slide into place.

He was left in the pitch darkness, and for the first time he was not comfortable with it.

XXXX

Hermione yelped as Barty suddenly pushed her through a doorway into what appeared to be a bedroom. He closed the door behind them and secured it with the lock. Hermione backed away from him, her entire being on high alert as memories of the last time she had been alone with a man who wasn't Harry came rushing back. She'd be damned if she let something like that happen to her again. She'd die first.

But, Barty didn't so much as look at her as he went about the room, erecting privacy wards and other such protections.

Hermione gulped and felt her heart-rate increase, her breathing picked up too. No one be able to hear her scream now.

Barty went to the window and opened it up, securing it with a hook then made sure that the curtains were tied back. He then picked up a small glass orb and touched his wand to it and it began to glow a brilliant blue. He set the orb on the windowsill and turned back to face her. Hermione wondered what the orb did, what purpose it served and how it worked. Her musing allowing her to alleviate some of her mounting fear, though not by much. She was still stuck in a room with a vicious, cold-blooded killer.

She took the moment to study Barty himself. She had been in his presence before but never truly looked at him. He was tall and thin, almost lanky, and he carried himself with an ease and grace that reminded her of a big cat; smooth and agile.

His hair was a shade or two lighter than Harry's and worn short and stylishly combed. Whereas last time she had seen him he had been cleanly shaven he now sported a shadow of stubble.

He was dressed in a dark suit; black blazer, black waistcoat, deep purple shirt and a darker purple tie, with a coal grey scarf draped around him neck. All in all, she could see where Harry had picked up his dress sense.

"What do you want with me?" Hermione demanded, since Barty seemed content to just wander around the room messing with various things while ignoring her completely.

Barty paused and looked at her almost like he had forgotten that she was there. He held her gaze for a moment then turned away and went about doing what he was doing before; nothing. He sat down in a chair and crossed his legs, eyes toward the window and the small blue orb.

Hermione frowned at the blatant dismissal and general lack of anything nefarious happening. Not that she wanted him to do anything but she was just confused and thrown off by his behavior. He had said he wanted a word with her, and she had taken that as code for he wanted to take her and assault, defile and generally have his wicked way with her to hurt Harry. Now she wasn't so sure. If he wanted to actually speak to her, he wasn't doing that either, so what the hell is going on?

Finally, without even looking at her, he spoke for the first time since entering the room. "There's a bathroom right through there were you can clean yourself up. Go on." She felt a small wave of magic hit her and before she even realized it she was stepping into the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

Hermione leaned against the door after flicking the lock into place. Why had he wanted her to come in here? Was he planning something that required her to be clean? Oh, gods, was he going to...but only after she had cleaned all of the blood and dirt off of herself? She felt herself shiver as memories of Ron and his actions sprang to the forefront of her mind. Was Barty going to do the same? She wasn't sure she had the strength to fight him off if he did. He was no Ron Weasley; no he was infinitely more dangerous.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she admitted that she did look a right mess. But the charm – whatever it was – was only to get her into the bathroom, it didn't last past that point. She wasn't feeling the unstoppable need or desire to wash or bathe. Maybe he had just added the charm because he knew that she would argue or try to divert the conversation otherwise.

She was actually a bit surprised that the charm had worked on her. It was extremely difficult to influence others wills in general but the magic had to be subtle. On top of that, it was not very effective on those of strong mind or will and Hermione had excellent Occlumency shields thanks to Harry helping her learn it over time during the school year and afterward at Grimmauld. She chalked it up to her being already confused and too tired to resist it. Or maybe he was just really good at it.

Deciding that there was nothing for it, she stripped off her outer layer of clothing until she was standing in naught but her knickers and went to the sink. She looked at it, then over to the bathtub, then to the door. She would prefer a bath but all that stood between her and that bastard out there was a door with a lock and he had a wand so that would do little to hold him at bay should he decide that he was indeed going to take advantage of her.

Deciding to forgo the bath she picked up a towel and turned on the sink, soaking the towel in the warm water then using it to scrub her face, hands and neck clean. After than she did a quick scrub of the rest of her body and then donned her clothes again, grimacing at the blood staining them. But, there was nothing for it. She was not going to go back out there without her clothes – she'd rather die – and she could do nothing for the clothes without her wand, which was in Barty's possession.

As she thought this, the gravity and hopelessness of her situation slammed into her like a ton of bricks and she felt her knees buckle. She was a prisoner now. Harry was a prisoner now. All of them, her old friends and teachers, her friends, her loved ones; they were all prisoners now and would undoubtedly be tortured and killed by Voldemort. Before she could stop herself, a choked sob escaped her and she curled up into a ball, her body shaking as she sobbed pitifully on the floor. They had lost.

She wasn't sure how long she had been down there but she suddenly felt a pair of strong arms lift her up off the floor and carry her back out into the bedroom. She knew it had to be Barty, but she hadn't even heard him come in. She was too weak now that she had cried herself into exhaustion to even fight back as he carried her like a child to the bed and laid her down.

"Well, we can't have that now can we. Tergeo," she heard him say and felt the blood and dirt vanish from her clothing. "Better. Can't have them thinking that I'm mistreating you now can we?"

Hermione wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. "What?"

Barty chuckled as he retook his seat. "What? Did you think I was going to molest you or something? I'm a great many things, Miss Granger, but a rapist I am not. And quite frankly, I'm insulted that you would think so lowly of me, given that I've just saved your life and the life of all of your friends."

Hermione glared. "Saved? You didn't save us. You've killed us all." Barty raised a brow as if to tell her that he had no idea what she was talking about. So, Hermione continued. "What do you think will happen to us all? What? We'll just live happily ever after in a cell? No, Voldemort will kill us, all of us."

Barty waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "No, he won't."

Hermione sat up now and snapped, "Yes he will. It's what he does."

Barty grimaced. "True. But, I can assure you that that will not be happening to you or your friends."

Hermione looked at him like she thought he was stupid. "And how is that?"

Barty smiled at her, and it was equal parts terrifying and encouraging. "Because, dear sister, he'll be too dead to do anything at all." He looked out the window again while Hermione tried to figure out what he was saying and why he had referred to her as 'sister'. "Just waiting on an old friend and everything will be made clear."

After that, they fell into silence. Hermione laid herself back down on the bed and looked around the room. It was a nice room, clean and open and far too lavishly decorated for her taste but one thing she did notice was that aside from the small orb, there was a distinct lack of personal objects in the room. No books, no pictures, no paintings, no clothes, grooming utensils. Nothing. There hadn't even been a toothbrush in the bathroom and only a couple of towels. It was like no lived in this room at all.

"Is this your room?" Hermione asked finally, the silence beginning to feel oppressive. She'd rather be locked up with Harry than up here in this gilded cage, locked inside with a killer whose motives were so back and forth and his allegiance constantly in question.

Barty looked at her briefly, then turned back to the window and Hermione thought that he wasn't going to answer her for a minute. "No. This is Harry's room. Well, it used to be. Now it belongs to no one. My room is down the hall."

Hermione looked at the room again, trying to imagine Harry living in here. It just didn't fit at all. It was too light in this room. Too open. Harry preferred the dark and the cave-like spaces.

"If you're trying to picture him living in here, don't bother," Barty cut off her train of thought. "He never slept in here. Couldn't stand the sunlight shining in. No, he slept down in the dungeons. From the day he arrived here until the day he left."

Hermione nodded, having expected that. She wondered if that was where they had put Harry. She had heard Barty say something about putting him down in his hole.

"Is that where he is now?"

"Yes," Barty answered. "My body-bind should have worn off by now and he'll be up and about. No doubt we'll be seeing him again soon. Probably. With a little help that is."

Hermione frowned. Help? Then it clicked. "Dobby."

When the little Elf did not appear, Hermione became concerned that Barty had set up a ward to prevent House Elves from getting in. She didn't know of any such ward but perhaps he had created it.

"Yes, that would be the sensible route, wouldn't it? Well, he could call Kreacher, I suppose..nah, probably Dobby. Well," he went back and forth arguing the merits of either choice to himself while Hermione watched with an expression of near-horror as she came to realize that she was stuck in a room with a madman. "I'm gonna go with Dobby," he finally decided. "He likes that Elf. I like that Elf. He's a good Elf. He was wasted with the Malfoys. Luckily, old Lucy let Harry buy him off of him. Never seen an Elf so happy as when Harry bonded with Dobby."

"But why leave Harry somewhere where he can easily escape from?" Hermione asked, completely flummoxed.

Barty looked at her in disappointment. "Why, indeed? And here Harry was all talking up how smart you are. I must admit I am not really seeing it."

Hermione glared at him but her mind was working over what he had just told her. Harry was captured but with an easy and ready means to free himself, and the others if he saw fit, while she herself was up here, out of harms way and...protected. Her eyes widened.

"There you go," Barty grinned, seeing the realization dawn in her eyes. "Took you long enough but better late than never, I say; unless being late will have dire consequences, then it's not only a bad thing, it's just plain rude."

Hermione ignored his ranting. "You're trying to help Harry," she said.

Barty looked at her as if she were slow. "Yes, I do believe we already established that."

Hermione wasn't listening to him though. She was too busy trying to rationalize and what she had just figured out. "All this time, you've been playing both sides. Fighting for Voldemort but making sure Harry stayed alive all the while." Her gaze hardened. "You bastard. You could have said something to him. He's spent this whole time worrying because he didn't want to have to kill his best friend! You could have told him!"

Barty sighed and leaned back in the chair. "Honestly, it was for the best that Harry didn't know. He would have insisted I come over to his side openly and I just couldn't have that. I am in too good a spot here to let that advantage slip. If I was here and Harry didn't know I was on his side I could operate more freely and-"

"You let him think you were against him! He could have killed you! You could have killed him!" Hermione could feel hot tears pricking at her eyes.

"I didn't bloody plan it that way!" Barty snapped. "I had intended to set it all in motion that night at Hogwarts. Harry would come back with me and we'd find a way to destroy those foul Horcruxes and then kill the Dark Lord together! But then, Bellatrix, the mad bitch, had to go and fuck it all up by killing his little brother and in turn Harry slaughtered her! I couldn't bring him back after that. The Dark Lord would have killed him on the spot. Bellatrix was his favorite and he would not have accepted Harry's reason for killing her. What started out as a simple, straightforward plan turned into a real clusterfuck in the space of a few bloody minutes!"

He took a deep breath once he realized he was shouting. "I had to reevaluate the plan. Figure out something new. I tried again in the Department of Mysteries. I had you all captured and Harry incapacitated. That bloody arm of his was a bit of a wild card but I got rid of that easily enough. If he had kept it I would never have been able to convince the Dark Lord that I had actually caught him. He'd have smelled the trap a mile away. But then that damned Order had to come in and muck it all up again. At least I was able to take that bastard Mad-Eye out but we took considerable losses and the Dark Lord was none too pleased. I haven't been crucioed like that in ages. It's lucky he didn't kill me! He wanted to but he also knew that I'm his best now that Bellatrix is dead so he had no real choice in the matter. I had a backup plan in order for that occasion and I'm damned glad I didn't have to use it."

"What backup plan?" Hermione asked. She was to thrown off by all that she had just learned to say anything else. She understood why Barty couldn't be open in those cases. The other Death Eaters were present at the Ministry and at Hogwarts he had been too caught off guard by Harry's actions to properly plan on his feet. At the graveyard she had seen him kneeling over Harry but not killing him. Had he been planning to take him with him then, before she stepped in?

Barty opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by a familiar, avian cry. "Finally," Barty muttered, getting to his feet.

Hermione gasped as Rune the Raven flew in through the window and landed on blue orb on the sill. "Rune? What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, looking at the bird.

Rune cawed in that way he had that sounded so much like laughter, then before her eyes, he began to grow in size until she was no longer looking at a raven but a dark-haired man in black robes.

Hermione's jaw fell open and she gaped at the man, her mind running in circles trying to figure out what in the hell had just happened. "I...I...I..."

The man smirked, not unkindly. "Well, that's a new one. A speechless Hermione Granger."

Hermione continued to gape. "You...you.."

"I think you broke her," Barty said with some concern as he too looked at the skipping record player that was Hermione Jane Granger.

Hermione finally snapped out of her reverie and found her voice. "You're a man?"

The man chuckled and made a show of looking down at his body. "Last time I checked."

Hermione glared, making him smile even more. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded.

The man smiled and brushed a hand through his shoulder-length dark hair, his steel-blue eyes meeting hers. "My name is Regulus Black."

XXXX

Note: Regulus is portrayed in my head by James McAvoy as he appears in the X-Men films as young Charles Xavier.

XXXX

XXXVII-2. There Are No Heroes Here, Part II

Harry groaned with relief as he felt Barty's body-bind release, allowing him full control of his being again. He sat up with a hiss and pressed a hand to his head. He was so tired after unleashing a Dread aura on so many targets, but he couldn't allow himself the time to properly rest; had it been a single or even a handful of targets, he would have been no worse for wear but as it was he was severely drained. He had to get out here. He had to find Hermione. He had to kill Barty and get back those damned Horcruxes. He had to kill Voldemort. Damn it all, he had to bloody end this.

His arms were shaking as he pushed himself up and managed to get his feet beneath him. Swaying slightly, he fell against the rough earthen wall of the cave he had once called home. He had heard the door up the stairs being locked so there was no point in just walking up there and opening it. He could unlock it, maybe, but he had charmed those locks to be resistant to such things during his time here. And even then, there was likely to be someone on guard up there and he was in no state to fight without his wand; he excelled at wandless magic but it still required more power than using a wand to focus and filter the magic.

The answer, he realized, was blindingly simple and obvious. No matter what wards he or the others had set up, there was one thing that was not prevented from entering: House Elves. He had left it open to them so Dobby could come and go at will, the Death Eaters would not ward against them because they didn't know how and didn't consider House Elves to be a threat to them. Barty had long ago developed a way to keep House Elves out but had kept that secret between the two of them; not even Voldemort knew about it, not that he would think it necessary as he too thought of the powerful magical beings as weak and far beneath wizards and no threat whatsoever.

"Dobby!" Harry called out, not bothering to stay quiet. The room was warded so that no sound from inside could be heard outside.

A small pop announced the arrival of Harry's loyal servant and friend. "Mister Harry Potter Sir has called Dobby?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, Dobby, I did. I need a couple of things from you now, my friend. First thing, I need some Pepperup and a few Stamina Potions. Quickly, please."

Dobby bowed again. "Yes Mister Harry Potter Sir." Another pop and he was gone, only to returned with the same tell-tale pop as before with several bottles in his arms.

He handed the Pepperup to Harry first who downed it quickly, feeling the warmth seep into his bones and warm him up from the inside out. "Ah, I needed that. After spending so long in an actual room and sleeping in a warm bed I had forgotten how cold it was down here. Now, the Vitamix, if you please." He took several phials of a brilliant, electric blue potion and drank them down.

Vitamix was an easily brewed potion with some interesting ingredients. Root of Asphodel and Wormwood were normally used to create the Draught of Living Death, along with a few other ingredients, but add in some Aconite – or Monkshood or Wolfsbane as it was commonly called – it in itself quite toxic and one found themselves with a significant boost in energy. Harry drank three of them before he felt himself better than new.

"All right," he sighed, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Now, I need to get out of here, Dobby. Can you pop us both up to the corridor outside?"

Dobby nodded eagerly. "Yes, Mister Harry Potter Sir!" He took Harry's hand and the two of them vanished, only to reappear just outside the door to the cell they had just been in. He was surprised to find that there was no one on guard up here.

"Are there any guards in the dungeons?" Harry asked the little Elf.

Dobby popped away briefly then reappeared in front of him. "There is being two, Mister Harry Potter Sir."

"Which ones?" Harry pressed.

"It is being the twins. The bad man and woman," Dobby answered.

Harry hissed. "The Carrows." He pondered for a long moment then nodded. "All right. I can take them. But, while I engage them, I want you to free the others. Got that?"

Dobby nodded with determination. "Yes, Mister Harry Potter Sir."

The little Elf vanished again and Harry crept down the corridor and into the dungeons. He took quick stock of the situation and began to formulate his plan. He could take the Carrows down simultaneously with another Dread and then kill them, but without a wand the drain would be steep, nowhere near as steep as earlier but he needed all of the strength and energy he could muster if he was to fight Voldemort and even then he was not sure he had the power to do so, Prophecy or no.

He peered over the top of the short staircase that led up from the lowest level, where his cave was, into the dungeon proper and noted that the Carrows were standing in front of a cell, he couldn't see who was in it though from here.

Originally, there had only been a single cell that took up the entire lowest level of the basement, all the prisoners stuffed together in one room, unchained and just left to their own devices. This had changed after an escape was attempted when a group of prisoners all overpowered a pair of Death Eaters who were sent to bring one of the prisoners up for questioning. All the escapees had been put down with extreme prejudice and after that, Voldemort had ordered proper cells be built, styled after the cells in Azkaban, which Lucius had seen on several occasions in his time working with the Ministry. Now, they kept no more than two to a cell at a time and there were some thirty cells, so they could easily have divided up the Order and Harry's friends with one person per cell and still have plenty of room left over.

Down the center of the corridor, which the cells flanked, there were stone pillars spaced every twenty feet or so for support.

Harry darted out and pressed his back against the nearest pillar. He had to get the Carrows away from the cells so that Dobby could unlock them all.

He froze when he heard a whimpering sound from the nearest cell. He glanced over and his eyes narrowed as he saw a girl, no more than eight, curled up in the corner wearing what resembled a dirty pillowcase, much like how Dobby had been dressed when Harry first met him. He felt his blood boil at the obvious signs of torture on the girl; her limbs shook with the residual effects of frequent Cruciatus exposure and there was blood staining her 'garment'. He didn't see any open wounds and he shuddered to think of what had been done to the girl.

She looked up then and saw him, her eyes widening and she tried to shuffle back further, but her back was already against the wall and she just began to sob harder.

The boiling in his blood stilled into an icy calm. He knew that the Carrows were sadistic and not above such things. Whether it was them or not, he intended to make them pay, and then the rest would follow them to the grave. He was done letting Voldemort and his followers pervert the world with their presence.

He crouched down and picked up a loose bit of stone on the floor and gently tossed it against the rails of the opposite cell, which was vacant, resulting in a resounding clang that echoed off the stone walls and easily carried down to the Carrows.

He heard a brief bit of conversation between the two twins which ended in Alecto being sent down to see what the sound was while Amycus stood guard by the exit. Harry bared his teeth in a silent snarl as the heard the approaching footsteps of the female Carrow – one might have said the 'fairer' Carrow but that would have been a lie; there was nothing fair about either of the sick, foul facsimiles of human-kind.

Harry braced himself, his muscles tensed and ready to spring into action as the footsteps grew nearer and nearer. He recognized the stride easily enough and confirmed to himself that yes it was indeed Alecto; she actually had a heavier stride than her brother; where Amycus walked with purpose and relative ease, Alecto stomped and lumbered in a misguided attempt to portray danger and power; such a thing may work on a weak, defenseless commoner, but Harry was none of those things and knew that even without a wand he could easily take Alecto down.

As soon as the first bit of Alecto came into sight around the pillar, he struck.

He pounced out from behind the pillar and struck Alecto in the throat, cutting off any call for help or curse she may utter, then he dragged her into his cover and applied pressure to her already wounded windpipe, cutting off her air supply. As was the case with most who were being choked, she tried to pry his forearm away, not thinking to strike his exposed and unprotected body or curse him. He took advantage of the her momentary lack of clarity and wrenched her wand away from her. Her eyes widened as she realized that she no longer had a means to defend herself from him; she again made the mistake many a pureblood wizard had made: she forgot that physical force was a viable option in a fight. Such a thing was taught to be beneath wizards and a 'barbaric muggle action' from a very young age, which is why Harry had insisted on learning some of it. Barty knew some hand-to-hand combat techniques and had taught them to him; Barty only learned them himself because he 'admired the savagery in it'.

Alecto clawed uselessly at Harry's hand as he continued to choke the life from her until finally her arms fell limp at her sides and her eyes stared wide and bulging, and unblinking, back at him. Just to be sure that she was really dead, Harry pressed the wand to her and uttered a quiet "Avada Kedavra".

"Sister," Amycus called out from the far end of the corridor. "Everything all right down there?"

Harry stood to full height, knowing that Amycus would come to investigate the bright green flash he had seen when his sister didn't answer him back.

"Sister?" Amycus called again, an edge now evident in his tone as he grew worried by the lack of response he was getting.

So predictable, so dead, Harry thought as he heard the first footsteps coming in his direction.

He held his position and his breath as Amycus drew nearer. He conjured a long thin length of thin wire connected on either end to a bit of wood into his hands and stuffed the wand away for later use; it would drain him more to use a curse, particularly an Unforgivable, than it would to do things the 'muggle way'. He gripped the wired in both hands by the wooden handles and waited.

Amycus drew nearer still, his footsteps slow and cautious as he called out for his sister again. When Harry determined that he was just on the other side of the pillar he was hiding behind he began to inch around in the opposite direction, keeping himself to the far side from where Amycus was standing.

Finally Amycus saw the body of his sister laying dead on the floor and froze in place. Harry seized his moment and lunged, looping the wire around Amycus' throat and then turning swiftly so that his back was against the taller, older man's, then bent forward, pulling the wire taut. A rasping, gurgling sound met his ears as Amycus struggled, the razor wire cutting deeper into his flesh with every little movement.

Harry pulled tighter and tighter, feeling the hot, sticky blood soak his shoulders, neck and back, even some in his hair. Still he pulled, cutting deeper and deeper with the wire until he felt it hit bone. By this point, Amycus had stopped fighting and did little more than twitch every so often, and even that stopped soon after as Harry let go of one of the handles and the body fell to the floor, the wire no longer hitting nerves that caused parts of the body to jerk. He ripped the wire free from the body and it gave one final twitch before falling still.

He looked down at his handiwork with a sense of grim satisfaction. The bastards had deserved to suffer and so they had. And he still had plenty of energy left afterward. All in all, it had worked out quite well. He sent a silent thank you to that bastard Barty for making him sit through all of those muggle films, particularly the spy and gangster ones – The Godfather had truly been a piece of art.

A series of clanking sounds filled the air and one by one the cell doors began opening. Charlie stepped out of one nearby and took in the sight of the two Carrows dead at Harry's feet and the bloody garrote still held in Harry's hand. He raised a brow and nodded his approval. He bent down and picked up Amycus' fallen wand, holding it tightly in his hand for later use.

Arnold Peasegood took in the sight with a smile that said he was more than happy that more Death Eaters had gone to the void.

Bill joined them with Fleur and the French woman looked at the gruesome sight and turned away, retching. Bill too looked a bit green in the face.

To distract the gentle woman, Harry asked her to go and check on the little girl in the cell in the back. Calling on Dobby to take the two of them to a secure location, along with any other prisoners who were not Order members.

Nymphadora and Lily were standing a bit away from them, taking in the scene.

"Hey!" Sirius yelled from the cell where he and Remus were locked up still. "Let us out!"

Harry eyed him distastefully. "No, I think I like you just where you are." He didn't see any advantage in letting his enemies out to cause more trouble. It was their fault that they were in this mess in the first place. He decided to tell them as much. "You're the reason we're all in this mess," he growled, stalking toward where the Auror was glaring from behind the bars. "If you idiots had listened to me and followed the plan back when we were all at Grimmauld, none of this would have happened. So, no, I don't think I'll be letting any of you out. Just stay here, out of the way, where you belong."

He didn't wait for a response and began walking toward the exit from the dungeons. He didn't have time to waste bothering with these fools. Hermione was up there somewhere with Barty, who was doing gods know what to her. He felt his blood run cold at the mere idea that he could be harming her, or worse.

He took the stairs two at a time, and he could hear several sets of feet following him.

"What's the plan, Harry?" Charlie asked from just behind him as they climbed.

"We get up there, find Hermione, take down the Death Eaters, kill them, find the Horcruxes and then kill Barty. Then we kill Voldemort." Harry drew the wand he had stolen from Alecto and blasted the door ahead of him off of its hinges with a snarled "Reducto!"

The eight of them found themselves in the entrance hall of the manor and Harry led them to the stairs that acted as the closest point of access to the residential area of the house; where all of the bedrooms and such were located.

"Do you have any specifics for that plan?" Bill asked.

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Barty will have undoubtedly taken Hermione to his room, up on the third floor. We go there, we break in, save Hermione, get the Horcruxes from Barty in whatever way we have to, then we destroy them with Fiendfyre."

"You're sure Barty would take her up here?" Lily asked, concern coloring her tone. Harry could only guess what sort of horrible fate she was imagining for her son's beloved at the hands of his former best friend.

"Yeah, he would," Harry growled, signaling an end to the discussion.

Harry was halfway up the stairs when a shout was heard behind them. He and the others all turned round to find Yaxley and Mulciber aiming their wands at them. Harry barely had time to drop into a crouch as the sickly green of the Killing Curse sailed unnervingly close to his head.

Charlie and Bill jumped away from where they had been standing as a second curse sailed between them. Harry aimed his wand at them and shouted out the incantation for the curse Snape had taught him before going to Hogwarts. "Sectumsempra!"

The curse struck Yaxley, shredding the front of his robes as a multitude of slashes lanced through him. He fell to the ground with a strangled cry, blood quickly staining the front of his body and pooling around him as he gasped and moaned, one of the cuts having struck his neck, where the artery was.

Mulciber looked at his fallen comrade with shock and dove behind the corner at the base of the stairs as Harry shot a Killing Curse at him.

Harry cursed as the Death Eater dodged his attack. Charlie had his own stolen wand at the ready and turned to Harry after firing a spell at Mulciber, who had poked his head out to try and aim a curse at them. "You lot get going and find Hermione," he said, firing another curse to keep the Death Eater at bay. "I'll handle this one."

Harry nodded and without another word took off up the stairs once more. The others were a bit more hesitant to leave one of their own behind to deal with the threat alone, but as none of them had wands and weren't as proficient with wandless magic as Harry was, they decided that they had best go ahead and follow his lead.

Harry bolted up the stairs and to the first landing up from the ground floor. He ran full-pelt down the corridor, the others struggling to keep up behind him but he didn't slow even for a second as he reached the next set of stairs that led up to the second landing from the ground. Only one more to go. He took the final flight of stairs two at a time and soon found himself standing outside the door of Barty's room at Malfoy Manor. He knew that the man rarely used it, usually having gone to his family home in the evenings to keep up appearances and check on his mother, but now that his mother was dead and he had been outed as a Death Eater, Harry was sure that Barty would be staying here full time now.

It wasn't much a surprise that Malfoy Manor was still the center of Voldemort's operation after the capture of both Draco and Lucius. The Malfoys were too clever by far to let the rest of their allies get caught here. The house was cleared and by the time the Ministry came along to search the place, there had been no evidence that Voldemort had ever even so much as looked at the place. The dungeons would have been cleared of prisoners – probably temporarily taken to one of the others' houses – and the existence of it was not such an odd thing, given how old the house was and that it was once legal to take your enemies captive; no one would question why the Malfoys had a dungeon.

What was a surprise was that they had the funds to keep the house going with all of its residents. After Lucius was captured, his assets would have been frozen by Gringotts and all funds from the Malfoy vaults would have ceased being available. Perhaps the LeStranges or Yaxley had taken up the role of primary providers of gold. Narcissa certainly couldn't have done so, as she was no longer a member of House Black, something Harry had seen to early on, and she didn't have a personal vault.

Harry blasted the door off the hinges and stormed into the room, wand raised and glanced about.

It was empty.

He cursed and lashed out with his magic, shattering the window and splintering the door to the bathroom along with the writing desk and wooden bed-frame.

"She's not in here," Lily said, stepping in behind him, looking around. Her expression was one of deep-rooted worry and her eyes were glistening with unshed tears as she again conjured up images of what could be befalling poor Hermione at the hands of that madman.

Harry's nostrils flared. Where the hell had Barty taken her?

He turned on his heel without a word and marched down the hall a ways, stopping in front of what had been his own room. He reached out and grasped the handle, turning it easily and pushing it open. He didn't think that they would be in here but it would be foolish not to check. After all, it would be something Barty would do, taking Hermione to a place that was once Harry's territory as a way of further insulting Harry in his seeming defeat.

The room was empty too.

Not that he had expected anything less, but he still felt a pang of fear in his chest as he wracked his brain for anywhere else he could have taken her.

A cold, icy weight settled in his chest as he suddenly had a thought. What if he had taken her directly to Voldemort? He felt his hand clench into a tight fist and his teeth ground together.

"What's that?" his mother asked from beside him, having again followed him inside while the others stood guard outside.

Harry looked at her with a question in his eyes and she pointed at his desk. Harry followed her finger and his gaze settled in a small, glowing blue orb. Curious, he stalked across the room and looked down at it. He had never seen this item before and he knew for a fact that it was not his. Someone had to have left it there on purpose for him to find; it was the only thing that made sense. This was further supported by the fact that he now noticed that it was sitting atop something.

He lifted the orb off the desk and then took the piece of parchment that was beneath it and unfolded it. He recognized the handwriting instantly. It was Hermione's.

There were only two words written there:

Throne Room

Harry cursed against and smashed the blue orb into the desk, the fragile ball shattering upon impact and releasing a small burst of magic as the glow escaped it, dissipating into a fog that escaped out the window like a small wraith.

"What is it?" Lily asked, coming to his side and placing a gentle hand on his arm. Harry silently held the parchment up to her and she took it from him, reading it. Her eyes widened and the tears finally slipped out, rolling down her cheeks like condensation on a cool glass of water on hot day. "Oh, my dear girl..."

Harry straightened up and began to walk out of the room, his countenance eerily calm.

"Where's Hermione?" Luna asked, looking up at him. Harry knew that she could get the answers straight from his mind if she wished, but she had long ago promised to never again do that to him or Hermione without their permission.

Harry took a deep breath, trying to calm himself somewhat. It didn't work. "He's taken her to the throne room. To Voldemort."

There was a general gasp of horror as Harry's words sank in. If Hermione had been taken to Voldemort, there was a chance that she was already dead.

Harry knew better. He wouldn't kill her, not yet. No, it was all a trap. She was the bait and lure and he was the fish they sought to entice. And he was going to bite, hook, line and sinker. He had to, there was no other way around it. He had to go and get her out of there if at all possible. He had to kill Voldemort. They were forcing a confrontation and he had to oblige.

"He won't kill her," Charlie said, walking up to them.

Harry looked at him, not having seen him rejoin them. "Everything taken care of down there?"

Charlie nodded. "Died begging for his life," he told him.

Harry inclined his head in approval. "You get their wands?"

Charlie held up one. "The other one broke in the fight."

"Give it to Nymphadora," Harry said, gesturing to the currently purple-haired auror. Tonks accepted the wand with a nod of thanks.

"What do you mean he won't kill her?" Nymphadora demanded. "This is Voldemort we're talking about!"

Harry nodded. "Barty won't let him kill her. Not yet."

"She's bait," Luna said, her voice actually horrified and not the usual dreamy lilt it usually was.

Xenophilius was in agreement with his daughter. "I believe Luna is correct. He'll use her to draw you into the open."

"Sounds like something these bastards would pull," Peasegood agreed.

"But how would they even know that we escaped?" Nymphadora asked.

"Barty," Harry informed her. "He'll know that I will have used a House Elf to get out. Voldemort doesn't consider House Elves a threat, thinks they're lesser beings and should worship wizards. Barty knows better that they can move freely about while we are restricted by the wards."

"What do we do?" Bill asked, holding up his hands to show that they had no wands.

Harry opened his mouth to answer but the sound of an infant crying stopped him short and drew the attention of everyone else to the end of the hall. Harry looked down at the place the sound was coming from and frowned. That was Draco's room.

He began walking in that direction, wand held ready in his hand. Charlie followed a step behind. Tonks stayed back to guard their backs.

"Be careful," Lily cautioned. "It could be a trap."

Harry tilted his head as he and Charlie advanced ahead of the others. "I don't think so."

Harry reached the door and turned the handle, pushing it open slowly, letting it glide open of its own accord after a small bit of pressure from him. The cry became louder following the removal of this barrier. There was also a voice, speaking in low, calming tones.

"Shh," the voiced cooed. "It's all right. Mummy's here. Shh."

Harry's eyes narrowed at the voice. He knew that voice.

"Is he hungry?" a second voice asked. That was Narcissa.

"I think so, but the elves aren't coming when I call them," the first voice said. That was Pansy.

Harry stepped into the room and Charlie covered his back.

The two women were standing next to a child's crib and Pansy had the small infant held lovingly to her breast as its cries diminished a bit. Narcissa was conjuring a small bottle of milk and heating it with her wand, grumbling about useless servants.

Harry took in the scene with a light sneer. "What's this? Another Malfoy bastard to pollute the world?"

The two women gasped and turned toward him in shock. "You? What are you doing here?" Narcissa demanded, her voice dripping with venom.

Harry smirked. "I came here to kill your filthy master, Narcissa. Now, unless you and the blonde beast there," he gestured the infant, "want join him in the grave I would suggest you shut your mouth and give me that wand." To prove his point, he pointed the wand at Pansy and the baby. He didn't kill children but Narcissa didn't know that; she'd never taken the time to learn about him, seeing him as a weapon like Voldemort did; at least Voldemort had pretended to care.

Pansy was a different story though. "Harry," she whimpered, trying to shield her child from his view. "You don't kill children," she said, pointed out the truth of the matter.

Harry scowled at her, making her flinch back from him. "You're right, Pansy, I don't. But I have no qualms about making that child an orphan here and now. I don't want to hurt you, Pansy. You at least tried to help me at times, but you've tied yourself to the Malfoys in the worst way and I'm afraid I cannot forgive them for their betrayal of me."

"We didn't not betray you!" Narcissa yelled. "You turned your back on-"

"Avada Kedavra," Harry muttered in an annoyed tone, the green spell hitting Narcissa in the chest and dropping her like a sack of potatoes and cutting off her ignorant rant before it could really get started. "One grandparent down."

Pansy yelped in fright at the sight and turned away, clutching her once-again crying son to her chest with the obvious natural protectiveness of a mother.

Harry motioned for Charlie to go and retrieve her wand from her body. The bearded redhead did so without a word, kicking her body over and plucking the rod of wood out of her fingers. He walked back over to Harry and offered it to him, but Harry motioned for him to hold on to it.

"Give that to Xenophilius," he told him. "We'll need another wand on our side."

Charlie nodded. "All right." He then stepped out of the room to deliver the wand to the chosen member of their team.

Harry approached Pansy and turned her about with a gentleness that surprised even him. She looked at him with fear in her eyes and tears streaming down her cheeks. "Please don't kill me, Harry," she pleaded. "Please, I don't want to die. I don't want to leave my son. Please..."

Harry frowned and looked down at the child, crying in his mother's arms. He holstered his wand and reached out, lifting the child away from her arms. She let him, fearing what he may do if she fought.

Harry cradled the child in his own arms and the infant began to settle. "I told you to stay out of my way, Pansy." He gently stroked the soft, rosy, round cheek.

Pansy nodded. "I did, Harry. I did."

Harry sighed. "I know."

He looked down at the boy in his arms, who stared back with the blue eyes that all infants shared. He felt a sense of sadness and sympathy for the child. To have been born into the family he had. To be born in the midst of all of this mess. It reminded him of himself...

"What is his name?" he asked, running a finger over the boy's forehead. The child reached up with a fat little fist and wrapped his fingers around one of Harry's own.

"Scorpius," Pansy answered. "Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. Draco named him before he was captured. Named for his favorite constellation and Hyperion after one of his ancestors."

Harry nodded. "When I told you to take care of Draco, I wasn't expecting this."

Pansy blushed. "It just sort of happened. Draco is a good man, when you get past the petulant exterior."

Harry resisted the urge to snort. "I'll bet." He handed the child back to its mother and turned away, walking to the door. "Mum, Luna, get in here."

He walked back to Pansy with his mother and friend in tow. Lily saw the child and gasped, going to him. She noticed the bottle laying on the floor where it had been dropped when Harry killed Narcissa. She picked up and tested the warmth, then offered it to Pansy, who took it gratefully and began feeding her son with it.

"Where is your wand, Pansy?" Harry asked.

Pansy gestured with her head toward the bedside table. Luna skipped over and picked it up, handing it to Harry.

"I can't let you escape, Pansy. You and your son will be too valuable in controlling Draco and Lucius when they get out. And I have no doubts that they will get out sooner or later."

Pansy hung her head. "I understand."

Harry nodded. "Dobby."

The little Elf appeared and bowed to Harry while giving his usual greeting.

"Dobby, take Pansy and her son to Shell Cottage, where Fleur is. Mum and Luna too. Things are about to get a bit crazy and there aren't enough wands to go around.

"Harry," Lily protested. "We can still help."

Harry was going to retort but Luna beat him to it. "Don't worry, Lily," she said. "We are helping."

"The hell we are," Nymphadora snapped. "He just wants us out of the way because we're girls! You gonna send me away too?"

Harry gave a look that told her to quit being stupid. "Don't be sexist, Nymphadora. It doesn't suit you. Luna isn't a fighter," the blonde girl nodded, "mum can help with Pansy and Scorpius," Lily smiled at the mother and child in question, "and you, I'm not sending you away, so calm down. But if I was, i'd my reasons."

"Like what?" Nymphadora crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

"...well, you're clumsy. I'm sorry, there's no other way to say it. Peasegood is a better fighter than you."

"He's just an Obliviator!" she countered. "I'm an Auror!"

Harry glared at her. "It doesn't change the fact that you have two left feet. One mistake in this fight and you'll be dead. That's all there is to it. Keep arguing and you will go, and you'll be making the trip in a magically induced coma if you try to fight me."

Nymphadora glared at him but held her tongue while Dobby took the others away. Once they were all gone, Harry walked out of the room. He held Pansy's wand out to Arnold. "Here, take this."

Arnold took the wand tested its weight in his hand, nodded that it was okay. "What's the plan?"

Harry started marching down the hallway, back the way they had come. "We're going to go to the Dining Room, that's where the 'Throne Room' is. Voldemort always did like to pretend he was more important than he is. Now, I'm sure we'll run into the LeStrange brothers on the way. They're probably guarding the Dining Room from the outside. We'll have to take them out before we go in, and when we do we can get Bill a wand."

Bill and Charlie exchanged glances then looked at Tonks. "We'll take care of them," the elder brother volunteered, inclining his head to the now more-visibly calm auror.

Harry waved a hand to signal that he had heard them. "Arnold, Xeno, you're with me then. When we go in, I want you two to hang back. Stay along the edges of the room. If you are out of the way, he'll probably ignore you in favor of myself. It will give us an advantage when everything goes to hell. Bill, Charlie, Nymphadora when you finish with the brothers, I want you three to do the same as these two. Got it?"

Bill, Tonks and Charlie voiced their understanding.

"And if one of you gets a clear shot at the damned snake, take it. It's a Horcrux. I don't know where the others are but killing Voldemort's physical form will be enough to buy us time to find them all again." He sighed. "Its a worst-case scenario but its the only option we have at this point."

By now they had arrived back on the ground floor and were making their way toward a small alcove that turned out to be the entrance to the Dining Room. As Harry had predicted, the LeStrange brothers were stationed on either side of the doors.

The group came to a stop as the brothers saw them. They drew their wands and took up dueling stances. "You don't want to be doing this, Harry," Rabastan told him, leveling his wand at Harry.

Harry smirked. "No, I really think I do. Step aside Rabastan, Rodolphus, and I'll let you live."

Rodolphus shook his head. "Can't do that."

Harry shook his head sadly. "After everything Voldemort has done to you and your family, you still sit under his thumb. Come on, Rodolphus, he fucked your wife, daily. He made a mockery of your marriage and the Pureblood laws that you all hold so dear. Do you really want to die defending him?"

Rodolphus winced at the reminder of his wife's infidelity. "It's what she would have done. I loved my wife and you killed her. He may have taken her heart, but you took her life."

"Besides," Rabastan said, not looking like he really agreed with his brother but he was too loyal to his family to leave him to face them alone. "We aren't afraid to die."

Harry smiled darkly. "How would you know? You haven't tried it yet." He raised his hand. "Bill, Charlie, Nymphadora, take care of these two for me."

The two Weasleys and one auror jumped into action, throwing curses at the other siblings. Harry raised a shield and ushered Arnold and Xeno after him They edged between the dueling pairs and Harry pushed open the doors of the Dining Room, then closing them behind him after the other two had entered.

Harry turned to the room, scanning it while Arnold and Xeno did as they had planned and made themselves part of the environment, even going so far as to Disillusion themselves.

At first, he thought that there was no one there, but he was wrong. He spied the form of Voldemort sitting calming at the table in his 'throne'. But there was no Hermione, and no Barty. As far as anyone looking in could tell, it was just Harry and the man who had pretended to love him like a father.

Another things that struck him was that there was music playing from an old gramophone in the corner. He recognized the music easily enough. Chopin. One of his nocturnes, but which one he wasn't sure, he wasn't so well versed in the music to be able to tell just from hearing a bit of it. Little known fact about the Dark Lord, he enjoyed muggle classical music.

"Harry, my son," Voldemort greeted him genially, smiling that cold empty smile that he thought looked loving. "You've returned at last. Please, join me." He motioned toward one of the chairs at the table.

Harry took another glance around, confused as to what was going on, then walked over and took a seat, keeping his wand in his hand.

Voldemort looked at him, still smiling, then down at the table. "This won't do." He waved his hand and the table transformed into a smaller, round table. He waved his hand again and a teapot and cups appeared on the table between them, pouring and preparing itself. All the while, Voldemort looked at him with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"How have you been, my son?" Voldemort asked as the milk was added to the two cups.

Harry glared back at him. "Why do you care?"

Voldemort looked at him like he was wounded. "You are my son, Harry. Why wouldn't I care?"

Harry scoffed. "You aren't my father, Tom," Voldemort's eyes narrowed at the use of his birth name, "you never were. You lied to me my entire life."

Voldemort raised a brow. "Did I now? And how do you figure that? I never kept the truth of how you came to be here a secret. You knew who your birth parents were and you knew that they abandoned you. So, how did I lie?"

"You never loved me," Harry told him. "You just pretended to. And I believed it for a while. But when I got older, I saw through those lies. I learned to lie, so of course I recognized it when I saw it."

Voldemort lifted his cup of tea and took a sip. "Yes, well, I did what I thought was best for you."

"You're lying again," Harry said, ignoring the cup of tea offered to him. "You did what was best for you, not me. I was your tool. A weapon to be controlled and aimed wherever you wished. I was just your puppet and you pulled those strings without a single bit of care or remorse for what you did to me or made me do."

"I made accommodations for some of your more idealistic feelings. I respected your code. No children. No innocents. I could have had you do these things, and had you refused, I would have killed you, but I didn't do either of those things. I accepted that there were some lines that you just wouldn't cross and let you have your way." Voldemort sipped his tea. "You were hardly a puppet. A weapon, yes, but let's be honest, that was what you were born to be. I just happened to get to you before the light could. Trust me, if you have grown up under Dumbledore's eye, you would have had an even worse time of it. I would not be surprised if he had found a way to make sure you were raised up like a lamb for slaughter. Did I do that to you? No, I made you a wolf."

Harry glared at him. "You tortured me," he whispered.

Voldemort smirked. "You remember that do you? Hm. Yes, I did, but can you blame me? You came out better for it. Before you were even a teen you already had a pain threshold to rival the toughest of my followers."

"I was a child!" Harry snapped. "I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know why I was being hurt, or where I was. I didn't understand. Then, you blocked my memory of it. I understand now though. You were afraid of me. That Prophecy. You didn't know all of it did you? You sought to break me and hurt your enemies. Well, you ended up making me into the very things you sought to destroy. You made me the instrument of your destruction."

Voldemort studied him silently during the silence that followed his words. Finally, he said. "The Prophecy, yes. I did not know all of it. That slippery snake, Severus withheld the whole thing from me. Kept it secret so that I wouldn't kill him; considering he had information I needed. However, you killed him, and I needed to know all of it. That's why arranged that little venture into the Department of Mysteries. Luckily, you took the bait, just as Barty said you would."

"How did you know I killed Snape before I had even done it? The Order said that you had been talking about something in the Department of Mysteries before I even met with them."

"Well, I expected it of you. I raised you, Harry. I know you better than you know yourself." The Dark Lord refilled his cup. "Besides, I know when one of my Marked Death Eaters dies. I feel it. You are all connected to me." He took another sip. "I must admit I was surprised to learn that you were alive after I felt you die. Removing the Mark was a risky move, my boy. I admit that I underestimated your resourcefulness, and I admire your will to live. It rivals my own. Now, tell me about this Prophecy."

Harry looked at him blankly for a long moment. He was weighing the pros and cons of telling him the whole thing. He was tempted to just go on the attack but decided against it for the time being. He didn't know yet where Hermione was and he had to try and steer the conversation that way, but if he just changed the subject suddenly, Voldemort would know something was up.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...born to those who have thrice defied him...born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord shall Mark him as his equal...but he shall have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die by the hand of the other...for neither can live while the other survives...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

Harry rubbed the place where his Dark Mark had once been. "You see, you made me. You Marked me. And now, one of us has to die."

Voldemort nodded. "I fear you are correct. I only knew the first three lines. You are right, Harry. I chose you. It was either you or the Longbottom boy, but I chose you. I had planned to kill you that night, but something stayed my hand. I know now that it was destiny." He set his cup aside. Harry had not touched his at all. "However, I see another way out. Come back home, son. Together, we will be unstoppable, just as we once were. But, with the Prophecy says, we must die by the other's hand. If we don't kill each other, we'll be invincible. Immortal."

Harry shook his head. "That's your fear, not mine. I don't wish to be immortal. I'm not afraid to die."

"All men fear death, Harry," Voldemort countered. "It is an inborn fear. We strive for life, for power and for immortality."

Harry shook his head. "No, it is the unknown that we fear. But you, you fear death, you fear the darkness. You are nothing but a scared little boy inside a grown man's body."

Voldemort's smile fell away and he glared at Harry. "I do not fear the dark, boy. I control it. I am the dark."

Harry smirked. "Who are you trying to convince? Me? Or yourself? You will never understand or be a part of the dark like I am. You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it; molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, and by then it was nothing to me but blinding!*" He slammed his fist down on the table between them. "Think about it. I've torn your organization to shreds. Killed most of your followers, and those that yet live are locked away in a living hell. A place even your long arm cannot reach them. Even with your manipulations, I still have reduced you to nothing. The shadows betray you because they belong to me!"

Voldemort stood up and Harry followed suit, wand held ready in his hand. Voldemort looked down on him from his considerable height but Harry was not intimidated. "So be it then. The Boy-Who-Lived, come to die." He sneered as he drew his wand, the pale, slender strip of wood gleaming in the relative darkness of the room.

Evening was upon them and the only light came from the fireplace and a few candles. Harry glanced at the fireplace and saw that the fake Horcrux was still there. Or at least he hoped it was the fake and that Voldemort didn't know that he knew. He didn't hold out much hope for that, but he had a little. Barty was a true Slytherin and wouldn't give up an advantage, even it was over his master; especially if it was over his master.

"I should have killed you when you were a baby," Voldemort continued, still not raising his wand.

Harry nodded. "Yes, you should have. But you didn't. Your arrogance got the better of you, Tom. You thought you could deny fate. Destiny. Unfortunately, whether we believe it or not, we are slaves to it. Once we know our fate we are doomed to it. By trying to prevent the Prophecy, you only assured its fulfillment."

Voldemort's lip curled in an angry sneer. "Be that as it may be, boy, you will not leave here alive. You are no match for me, and your friends won't save you!" As he snarled the last word, he made a sudden slashing motion with his wand and a powerful shock-wave of magic exploded out from him, reducing the table and both chairs to kindling.

Harry barely had time to react as he threw up the strongest shield he could manage, and even then he was still thrown backwards to land hard on the floor, the breath rushing from his lungs at the impact.

Harry gasped and groaned as he fought to catch his breath and return to his feet. Voldemort's cold laugh filled the room and Harry looked back at him as he got his feet back under him. He cast a quick glance around and saw Xeno and Arnold laying on the floor, not moving.

"Oh, they aren't dead yet," Voldemort told him, stalking forward like a cat who had found a bird with a broken wing. "They'll suffer first for daring to think they could stand against me. Then, they will all die. Just as you will do. But first, Crucio!"

Harry screamed as his body was suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling like he was being consumed by invisible fires. He thrashed and twitched, his eyes screwed shut against the agony.

"Well, this brings back memories," Voldemort said, looking down at Harry with malice in his eyes. "I seem to recall being in this position before. Yes, you were but a child then. Oh, how time does fly." As if to emphasize this metaphor, he flicked his wand and Harry was once again sailing through the air. This time, he crashed against the wall before falling back to the floor.

He whimpered as he felt the Cruciatus lift off of him but the dual impact of the wall and floor did little to alleviate his suffering.

"You call me arrogant," Voldemort hissed, lifting Harry back off the ground and pulling him across the room toward him with magic. "How hypocritical. You walk in here," he slammed Harry against the ground, then lifted him back up, "you insult me," he slammed him again, "you boast," and again, "you sing your own praises," and again, "you act so superior," and again, "but you are nothing. Nothing but a weak," slam, "pathetic," slam, "ungrateful," slam, "child!" He dropped Harry to the ground with a lazy wave of his wand. "You dare to stand against your master? I created you. Without me, you are nothing."

Harry was amazing that he had somehow managed to keep a hold on his wand through all of that. He crawled weakly trying to push himself up off the ground. Voldemort watch him with a look of sadistic amusement on his face.

He pointed his wand at Harry and opened his mouth, just then the doors opened and Nymphadora, Bill and Charlie entered. They took one look at Harry and the others all downed on the floor and immediately began throwing curses at Voldemort, who batted them all aside with barely a flick of his wrist.

"Fools," the Dark Lord scoffed, downing the three of them with a silent blast of magic that threw them against the walls in opposite directions of each other.

By now, Harry had managed to get to his knees. He could feel blood dripping down his face and into his eyes from a wound on his head. He was also pretty sure that his nose was bleeding. Curious, he lifted a shaking hand up to his face and touched it, feeling the warm, sticky blood there. He lifted his hand back and found it covered in red.

He looked up and found Voldemort standing over him. "You cannot beat me, Harry, and you know it." He knelt down in front of Harry and grabbed him by the hair, dragging him forward so that he could whisper in his ear. "Just give up," he said, his voice soft and enticing, almost loving. "Just lay back and accept your defeat. I'll make it quick. Painless. Lord Voldemort is merciful. It can all come to an end, just say it. Say you surrender. Ask me for mercy, and I shall give it. I'll even spare that filthy little mudblood of yours. Just give up."

Harry listened to the voice in his ear but for whatever reason, he could not bring himself to heed it. It whispered and promised of peace, the eternal rest, the sweet release of death from this hell that was life, but he refused to answer it. He had too much to live for. He couldn't just lay down and die. Not now.

Voldemort leaned back and looked his would-be son in the eyes. He could see the defiance there. "It would appear that your body will be broken first, and then I shall have to crush your spirit. You will die, oh yes, but not yet. First, you shall watch all of your friends die, one by one. Then, lastly, I shall take your mudblood like the whore she is, right in front of you. And you will watch. Then, when I have had my way, she shall die, and you will follow." His eyes were cold and cruel and Harry had no doubts that this was no empty threat.

Harry tried to respond, but his throat was dry and he couldn't get his tongue to work.

"Who shall we kill first?" Voldemort asked, standing back up. He flicked his wand and Nymphadora was dragged across the floor to lay at his feet. She cried out as she lost her wand and was left staring up at the face of Lord Voldemort. He aimed his own wand down at her and she whimpered, unable to move.

"Harry," she called out, her voice pleading with him to help her.

Harry raised his wand to do so but Voldemort was faster and batted him down before turning back to the young auror.

Though she would later deny it, Nymphadora Tonks began to cry in fear. "Any last words before I kill you, little one?"

Her lip trembled and her voice failed her, but, she was saved from responding by a familiar sound. A raven's cry.

Voldemort looked up at the black bird as it soared into the room and settled on a bit of broken furniture. It looked at Voldemort and cawed loudly, clicking its beak.

Voldemort looked at the bird as if he had seen a ghost. "You. You dare return here?"

Harry was confused as the bird laughed back in its unnervingly human way. Then, before his eyes, the bird began to grow until it was no longer a bird, but a man. A man with long dark hair and beard, with pale skin and steely eyes. And a scar on his forehead, small and faint, in the shape of a rune.

"Regulus," Harry whispered, looking at the man he had long believed to be dead.

Regulus glanced at Harry but didn't say anything, not taking his eyes off of the Dark Lord for long.

"It would seem that rumors of your demise have been greatly exaggerated," Voldemort sneered, looking at the wayward Death Eater.

"You should know better than to listen to rumors, Tom," Regulus countered.

Voldemort laughed. "Even now you stand defiant, but you are unarmed."

"Unarmed, perhaps, but alone he is not!" another voice called out from behind them.

Harry and Voldemort both looked over to see Barty standing in the doorway with a leather sack in his hand and the dead form of Nagini laying on the floor at his feet. Harry looked behind him, trying to see if Hermione were with him, but she was nowhere to be seen. Where was she?

Barty kicked the dead snake. "Sorry about that, but she was awfully ugly. Bloody bint tried to bite me." He tsked in mock sadness. "Such a shame. I liked her...eh, not really. I shouldn't lie like that. Reggie is always nagging me about that bad habit."

"Barty Crouch," Voldemort said dangerously. "You dare to betray me?"

Barty shrugged. "You say dare like it was some big thing. Quite easy really. You're a right bastard." He tossed the bag he was carrying on the floor, the contents spilling out onto the stones. It was the Horcruxes. "Now, I think you've lived long enough, wouldn't you say so, Reggie?" He drew his wand and pointed it at the Horcruxes. "Fiendfyre!"

A spout of demonic flame spewed forth from the end of the wand and took the form of a serpent, then coiled itself around the Horcruxes. The room was suddenly filled with screaming. Each of the Horcruxes were letting out a terrible wailing and Voldemort himself added to the din by loosing an enraged roar as his soul anchors were consumed and reduced to nothing.

A sudden rumbled shook the entire building.

Regulus looked at the dust that was now falling from the ceiling. "The Aurors are here," he said. He looked at Harry. "Time to finish it."

Voldemort barely dodged as Regulus fired a silent, wandless Killing Curse at him, he turned toward the former Death Eater with rage in his eyes. "I WILL KILL YOU ALL!"

His murderous shout was cut short as a flash of green light struck him from behind. Voldemort's eyes went wide as the light left them and then collapsed to the floor, his wand clattering out of his lifeless fingers.

Harry lowered his retrieved wand and let it slip between his own fingers to the ground. It was over. Finally, it was all over. Voldemort was dead. At last...he was free.

"Bloody hell!"

Barty's concerned shout drew his attention away from the corpse of his enemy. The Fiendfyre, it seemed, was no longer under his control and was now spreading through the room. He cursed and threw his wand away, the flames still spouting from the end in a steady stream. He drew another wand, the Elder Wand, and began levitating the fallen forms of Bill, Charlie, Xeno and Arnold out of the room. He rushed out with them and then returned a moment later, lifting Nymphadora up and leading her out as well while she leaned heavily against him.

While he was gone, Regulus went to Harry and lifted him off the ground with a pair of strong hands, stopping momentarily and picking something up off the floor and stuffing it in his pocket.

"You're dead," Harry managed to whisper as he leaned on his old friend. He could feel tears in his eyes.

Regulus looked a bit guilty but he pulled one of Harry's arms around him and began to carry him out of the room as the flames spread even further. "I'll explain it all later, Harry, I promise."

Barty met them at the doorway and took Harry's other arm and the two men all but carried him out of the burning house. Harry looked around through half-closed eyes and realized that everyone was already out here. All of those that had been in the dungeon still were freed and on the lawn.

"Where's Hermione?" Harry managed to ask. His entire body hurt and he was sure he had more than one broken bone from the beating he had received at Voldemort's hand, but none of that was important; he had to know that she was safe.

"She's safe, mate," Barty assured him. "Regulus and I made sure of it. That Elf of yours took her somewhere safe."

There was another great rumble and Harry saw the wards surrounding the house crumble. The three men looked up at the receding dome of magic that was now visible in its destruction. Harry remembered Regulus saying something about Aurors being here and wondered how they had known where to come.

Barty looked across at Regulus. "You need to get out of here, brother. You can't be caught here."

Regulus shook his head. "I'm not leaving you two again. I've stayed in the shadows long enough."

Barty growled. "Don't be stupid. You know what will happen if you're caught. They'll lock us up in Azkaban for sure. Or they'll just kill us. I'd rather one of us at least make it out of here. The Aurors will have already set up their own wards to keep us from getting away, but you can escape, as Rune. Go!"

Regulus looked at his best friend and then at the boy who he had been watching over for so long now. He had a pained expression on his face. Finally, he nodded and pulled out from under Harry's arm. He grabbed Harry by the face with both hands and looked him in the eyes. "You did good, kid. You did good." He touched his forehead to Harry's, took the Elder Wand from Barty, then stepped back, shrinking into the form of Rune the Raven, cawed once, then took flight, disappearing into the distance.

Before Harry had time to wonder where he was going, he and Barty were surrounded on all sides by Aurors, wands trained on them. Harry was too hurt and tired to even think about resisting as Savage walked up to him. "It's all over, Harry," the tall, long-haired Auror said, looking down at him and Barty.

He motioned with his hand and suddenly Harry felt himself being yanked away from Barty. Without the support, he dropped to his knees and he felt himself being bound with magic-suppressing shackles. "Sorry, mate," Harry heard a familiar Welsh accent say from behind him and caught a faint scent of cigarette smoke. Robards. He looked over and saw Barty being shackled by Proudfoot. He met his best friend turned enemy turned savior's eyes and silently sent him a thank you before he felt the darkness creep in on the edges of his vision. Without his magic to sustain him, he was fading fast into exhaustion. Blinking to try and keep himself conscious, he saw a rat crawling away into the grass and frowned. He shook his head, thinking he must be hallucinating. His last thought before he lost consciousness was of Hermione and whether she was really safe.

XXXX

A/N: All right. There's still an epilogue to go which will detail the trial of Harry and his sentencing. I want to thank everyone who stuck with me this far and hope to see you all when my next story is ready. I'll be working on the sequel to this, but I'm not sure when it will be ready. I have trouble with sequels and I want to make sure its the best I can make it.

*The line from The Dark Knight Rises was a left over piece from when this story was in answer to a challenge called the "Darkness is my ally challenge", that line was part of the challenge and I decided to go ahead and leave it in in reference to that, and because it's just an awesome line.

As always: Leave me some love!