OMG don't look now but its an update. Rather longer one, for me anyway. I felt bad about the cliffy so I figures I would post this. My lovely beta got it legible rather quickly too, so here it is.

I don't own Harry Potter, which is why I am not worth almost a billion dollars. Sucks to be me.

Warning- Same as the last 38 chapters. Not to mention I have basically all my adult items in the first chapter, so its kind of hard to miss.

Now on with the show, or at least the story.

Chapter 39

A dull red glow forced its way through Harry' s consciousness, its light forcing its way past the protection of his eye lids. Stirring slightly Harry opened his eyes to the dull red glow, wondering why his cousin's alarm clock was in his room, before past events caught up with him.

Jerking up he discovered that the glowing wasn't coming from any alarm clock but instead a cluster of glowing, red runes carved in a series of circles. The four inner most circles glowed a brighter red while the following two circles let off a dark, almost blood red glow. The last circle of runes was so dark red it appeared black.

While Harry hadn't taken the Runes class, he had delved into the area during one of his studies and he knew enough to know that these weren't the standard runes taught in school, and that they meant big trouble for him.

Looking around he noted that his wrists were bound by some sort of cuffs made of dull silver and covered in similar runes and his wand was unsurprising not anywhere in sight. He was alone in the small room, which was completely bare, besides the runes and a metal door. Not even a window broke up the repetitive sight of stones.

Standing with some difficulty thanks to the cuffs, he made his way to the door. He wasn't surprised to find that the door was locked; his luck was far too bad for anything else. So basically he was stuck in a room full of creepy glowing runes, that did Merlin knows what, with no clue where his lover and Lucius were and a potentially very dangerous Dark Lord no doubt lurking around, not to mention the bloody rat.

Well, first things first, getting these cuffs off was a priority. Anything he could do to disrupt whatever ritual this was supposed to be the better off he would probably be. It would be a rather interesting test of his wandless magic and runes skills. He'd always been good at trials by fire; hopefully this time would be no different.

In roughly under an hour, he had managed to cause some decent damage and the cuffs lay on the floor. Thinking that it would gain him an advantage if they thought he was still chained, he slipped them into a pocket. Fortunately there had been no interruptions, either he was being under estimated or his higher pain tolerance had allowed him to recover more quickly than the norm. He was betting it was a mix of the two. Still while he appreciated the time to plan, the waiting was setting him on edge.

Fortunately for his nerves if not his continued health, the door swung open a few minutes later and wary emerald eyes met twinkling blue.

"Dumbledore," the teen gasped in shock, barely keeping from stepping forward out of his crouch and revealing that the cuffs had been shattered. The headmaster stepped into the room, wearing a rather garish set of gold and red robes that were so bright they were blinding. Suddenly a few things clicked in Harry's head, such as Peter Pettigrew's weird behavior and Voldemort's rambling.

"The Dark Lord was never there was he?" Harry asked the headmaster warily. The man's eyes twinkled even brighter, which was answer enough for Harry. However, he doubted that the Headmaster would pass up a chance to launch into a speech.

"Ah, yes, it was a brilliant scheme on my part. You see Peter has been working for me for some time now. It was on my command that he sold out your parents, as well as passing on the so called request from Tom. It was of course a trap to lure you out, and you fell for it so easily" Dumbledore explained gleefully, much to Harry's annoyance.

"So you dragged us out there just to trap us?" Harry asked, the Slytherin part of his personality taking over. The more information he could get the better and it wasn't like Dumbles didn't like to talk. Maybe he could find out what the man was planning and where the others were.

"No, my boy, there was more to it than that. I told you the truth earlier about finding traces of magic, though it was Voldemort's and not mine. And of course I don't intend to use it to track him. I did mention that there were other uses. It was actually my old friend Gellert who discovered the other uses. He was quite brilliant, sadly he got too pretentious and tried to take control and I had to get rid of him, such a waste." Dumbledore murmured looking rather disappointed. Harry resisted an urge to roll his eyes.

"Using his discovery he altered an old vengeance ritual to work with the magic," Dumbledore continued, clearly not noticing his audience's annoyance at the babbling, "that would allow him to strip a wizard of his magic, making him little more than a squib. Of course it's not as simple as has just getting a trace. The ritual also requires the use of both the trace and someone who has been effected long term by a spell cast on them by the wizard the trace originated from. And of course there is a major drawback; you see the original ritual drains the life of the caster, quite the price for vengeance. Gellert managed to change it so a second person could cast the ritual using the one bearing the traces of magic as a sacrifice." Dumbledore explained. Harry paled slightly glancing down at the circle.

"Yes my boy, I'm sad to say that it will be necessary to sacrifice you to in order to defeat the Dark Lord," Dumbledore stated, not looking the least bit sad at all, "However I will ensure that you do not die in vain. You will be remembered as the one who helped me defeat the Dark Lord."

Harry's thoughts raced as he tried to remember everything he could about rituals, especially vengeance rituals. Most rituals were very rigid, and a single item missed or the smallest of mistakes could cause them to fail and the consciences could be dire. Changing them could be very difficult, especially the more complex ones, which was no doubt why Gellert wasn't able to alter much.

Unfortunately Dumbles wasn't likely to sit back and let him screw something up. He didn't doubt for a second that the man was skilled and had no doubt used multiple rituals, including this one, before. However it was also clear that the man severely under estimated him.

"What happened to Severus and Lucius?" Harry asked, both out of concern and to keep Dumbledore focused on talking. He didn't think the man had killed them, at least not yet, they would make better hostages than corpses.

"Ah yes, your two companions. I must admit I'm quite disappointed in the company you are keeping. They are both locked in a dungeon, no doubt still unconscious. They are far too useful for me to simply throw away. Besides if I killed Lucius now his influence and money would just fall to his son, who would no doubt take his father's place as a thorn in my side. If I keep him alive I can use him to manipulate his son into doing my bidding. As for Severus, well let's just say I have plans for him. He will suffer for his betrayal." Dumbledore answered eyes sparkling brilliantly, a smirk on his face.

"Now, we have chatted long enough. It's time to finish this." Dumbledore murmured. Sensing his chance Harry rushed the man, bowling him over. The two crumpled to the ground in a heap. Before Harry could do anything more he was frozen with a spell and moved to the center of the circles. Dumbledore stood, rage distorting his grandfatherly image.

The man placed his hands together and began to murmur. Unable to move Harry could do nothing but watch as the man started chanting. The runes started to glow brighter and brighter and gold bled into the glow. Magic the color of gold started to rise up and spiral around Harry. Dumbledore reached the end of the chant, dropping his hands to his sides as he watched Harry with murderous glee as a single brilliant red line of magic separated itself from the top of the gold spiral and drifted down.

Suddenly it shot out like an arrow and headed towards Harry at a blinding speed. A second before it struck the teen it suddenly veered off course and slammed into Dumbledore's chest. The older man brought his hands up to where the magic had pierced him in shock. Blood coated his hands as the spiral's magic turned black and collapsed upon itself, unable to complete its purpose without the required elements. With its caster near death, the spell holding Harry released.

"How?" the headmaster whispered as he sank to his knees, life draining from him much like the blood running down the front of his robes. Harry shook his head and held out his arms, drawing the man's attention to a detail he had missed.

"I slipped the cuffs that you had placed on me into the pocket of your robe when I rushed you. I knew, once you explained the origin of the ritual that Gellert would have to have added some elements in order to ensure that it took the life of the person intended, since it would have been far easier than trying to rework the whole ritual." Harry explained coolly, "And it was easy enough to slip them into your pocket without you noticing since I spent most of my childhood having to steal food from the Dursley's if I wanted to eat."

"You never saw me as anything more than a pawn that you could manipulate, incapable of acting on my own. You underestimated what I was capable of. Of course it hardly matters now." The younger man murmured softly as he looked down at the form no longer breathing. Sighing he leaned down and with a look of disgust he searched the man's pockets. To his relief he found his wand as well as two more he was sure belonged to Severus and Lucius.

It took a while to find where Severus and Lucius where being kept. The place, which Harry suspected was the ruins of an abandoned castle that once belonged to Gellert, was like a stone maze. Most of the place was in ruins however he had discovered several stone carvings that depicted a symbol Harry was pretty sure was the former Dark Lord's family crest.

After about two hours of searching he found the dungeon. Rolling his eyes at the cliché he entered the rather dark and dank room. With his wand in front of him, he peered into the cells. Fortunately he found the pair chained up in the third one, the skeletons weren't really doing much for his nerves.

After several failed attempts he managed to open the door with a loud crash, using a simple charm to rust metal, causing the hinges to collapse. Shaking his head over the fact that someone had spelled the doors to withstand force and locking spells but had missed something so obvious he went to check on the two men.

As he stepped closer ebony eyes opened to meet his. Relieved, the Gryffindor rushed forward and hugged his lover.

"Harry?" Severus gasped in surprise as the teen clung to him. Lucius's eyes snapped open at the teen's name. Harry snickered, leave it to Slytherins to take advantage of every opportunity they could. Not that he was sure that faking unconsciousness made much difference when chained to a wall.

"Perhaps you can these bloody things off us?" Lucius demanded, looking every bit the indignant Lord, despite the fact that he was chained to the wall. Harry snorted, stepping back he allowed his eyes to travel down his lovers form.

"I don't know. I rather enjoy the view." Harry murmured, trying not to blush at the suggestiveness of his own words. The man did look rather tempting, his hair in disarray, body pulled taunt by the limited slack the chains gave him.

"If you don't get us down from here now brat, I am going to bend you over my knee and give you a through spanking the first chance I get," Severus whispered dangerously, his voice echoing through the silent room. Unable to stop himself, the younger man blushed a brilliant red, as the image lodged itself in his mind. Without further ado he went about the task of getting the two men free, using the same spell he had used on the door.

"What happened to you after we were knocked unconscious," Severus asked softly as he rubbed his sore wrists. Shattering the final cuff that had been adorning Lucius's leg, Harry turned to the dark haired man.

"It was Dumbledore, he set us up using Peter and disguised himself as Gramps to get us to lower our guard." Harry explained, getting nods from both men. Severus gestured for him to continue.

"He was after me and a trace of my grandfather's magic in order to perform a vengeance ritual Grindelwald altered that would have stripped the Dark Lord's magic and killed me in the process. Unfortunately for Dumbledore I managed to remove the cuffs that designated me as one whose life force the ritual was supposed to drain, and managed to slip them into his pocket. The ritual killed him then collapsed because it didn't have the elements it needed to find its intended target. This was because Dumbledore ended up as the sacrifice and he didn't bear the marks of the Dark Lord's magic needed to complete the ritual" Harry finished, smirking as he recalled how he had managed to trick Dumbledore into basically causing his own downfall.

"As interesting as this is, and as relieved as I am to find that the old coot is finally dead and that the Dark Lord hasn't suddenly gone of his rocker, I really suggest we discuss this later. The décor of this place is dreadful, and these robes are completely ruined. If I spend much more time in this accursed place I fear I will end up as mad as the headmaster." Lucius interrupted, glaring at the dirty cell, like it had personally offended him.

"I'm sorry your highness's delicate sensibility is offended by a bit of dirt, however if you would recall, our wands were taken from us." Severus sneered, rolling his eyes at his best friend's theatrics. Slapping his hand against his head at his forgetfulness, Harry withdrew the wands from his breast pocket. Both men looked extremely relieved to have them back.

"Where were they?" Severus asked his lover curiously, causing the green eyed man to grin viciously.

"Dumbledore had them in a pocket. It was just a hunch I had. Turns out I was right. Rather disturbing rummaging around a dead man's robes though" the younger man explained, shuddering slightly as he recalled searching the old coots clothing.

"He really was an arrogant fool. Only a conceited idiot would have brought the enemy's wand with them and risk them managing to get their hands on it. He must have believed you didn't have a chance of overpowering or outsmarting him." Severus murmured in disbelief.

"Do you think that Dumbledore did his own decorating? While the dungeon strikes me as his style, the place lacks the garish colour's the man favoured!" Lucius stated, his voice dripping with sarcasm, the man's annoyance at the fact that they had not left yet as clear as the cobwebs currently hanging from the ceiling of the cell.

"Fine, we can leave. We need to report to the dark lord about what has transpired any way," Severus said sighing. Harry's eyes lit up with a thought.

"What do you think Gramps is going to do to Peter when he gets his hands on him" the teen asked, looking almost gleeful.

"I can't imagine it will be quick," Severus answered thoughtfully, his eyes gleaming, "perhaps he will allow us to help."

"Well there is only one way to find out," Lucius said smirking. Severus wrapped his arms around the teen and the three of them disappeared with a loud crack, easily apparating through the tattered remains of the wards that had fallen with their caster.

Well I hope that eased some people's minds. I kind of thought the ritual blowing up was a bit predictable but I'd like to think most people didn't see the whole slipping the cuffs in a pocket a mile away.

Please review, I kinda wanna see if I can get this to 2000 reviews before its done. And look it does sometimes work, after all you got this chapter pretty quick. LOL i felt sooo guilt after looking through the reviews.