"…Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

I shall fear no evil, for you are with me…"

-Psalms 23:4

Voldemort's Castle

Harry went back to his room after the meeting with the Malfoys. Lucius has told him that attacking the castle today would be foolish due to the natural barriers to entry made by the owner's state of mind. Wulfric would certainly be on the alert less and less as time went by. Harry had countered this argument by saying that Ginny might be hurt, but Lucius agreed that waiting only one more day would be the prudent thing to do, and that he wouldn't go with Harry if he refused.

Resigned that Lucius' knowledge of the castle would be paramount in a rescue attempt, he folded to that one demand and returned to his bed. He tried so desperately to turn his brain off, but images of Ginny danced and fell through his mind of their own accord. He constantly saw flashes of his wife's mangled body and the sound of her blood-curdling screams. After several hours of horrible sleep in which he was awake for the majority of the time, he finally got out of bed and dressed very expertly.

He knew he was going to be visiting Voldemort's Castle, and he was going to arm himself to the teeth. He slipped the vial of Otseptine into his cloak's left pocket while placing the vial of Reptomore in his right pocket. His wand was stowed, not in his clothing, but clinched in his right hand. He still couldn't believe that he had sat around an entire night, but as he reassured himself over and over again, he didn't know where he was going, and if Lucius was refusing to go then Harry couldn't do anything about it. He just missed Ginny. He wanted to talk to her. Therefore, once he was up and dressed, he made quickly for Minerva's office where Albus' portrait, once again, was empty. However, Malfoy was already there, and to Harry's disappointment, Ron and Hermione.

"What are you two doing here?"

"Harry, please. This time it's not just about being with you 'til the end. It's about Ginny. She's Ron's sister, my best friend, and your wife. We all care." Hermione was incredibly calm. Harry could still feel himself vibrating with a mixture of anxiety and rage.

"Ok, well, let's get this show on the road. Lucius?" He turned to Malfoy.

"Very well. If you three are ready…"

"We are!" Harry responded quickly.

"…Then follow me." They all left the office in complete silence. It continued through the castle and the grounds until they all held hands as a group. Lucius turned on the spot, and the three of them Side-Along Apparated with him into a very different terrain.

There was no grass. There were no trees or mountains. There was no relief from the flat earth stretching in every direction. There was a tan dirt underneath their feet and it seemed to be the only thing to look at for miles around except for the only man-made object in the area.



They were probably a few minutes of walking away from the structure, which made sense to Harry, because Voldemort was certain to have applied an Anti-Apparation ward around his castle. After the initial inspection of the surrounding area, the four of them finally took in the castle itself. It appeared that Tom Riddle wanted his own stronghold to be a sort of anti-Hogwarts. Whereas Nurmengard gained its entrants' fears through sheer height and darkness, Voldemort had been much more deliberate in his approach here.

"He built it himself with the help of the Knights of Walpurgis, the forerunners to the Death Eaters." Lucius commented as they all continued walking along. Harry was waiting for the sign that he knew was going to come eventually. He also knew he shouldn't act before then…

Hogwarts Castle had many turrets and towers and halls and corridors that were all of different height, different length, and sometimes different color. There were different parts of the grounds that housed Quidditch pitches and greenhouses, but here there was nothing but the castle. The dirt around it appeared like an old battlefield where the ground itself had been a part of some great destructive force. Even the castle, now that they were getting closer, looked like burnt pieces of charcoal had been fused together and made strong again. The entire landscape and architecture gave this place an air of death and destruction. The building itself was perfectly geometric. There was no dynamic to this place, no array of colors and styles. There were three ramparts and the three vertices of this triangular cylinder which stood no more than five or six stories tall.

However, as if he felt obliged to add them, there were a few pieces on the front wall that had an obvious significance.

Harry first thought foolishly of old gargoyles like the ones that guarded Albus' office and adorned old Renaissance period buildings. He remembered reading about them being sculpted there as protection from evil spirits, even though they themselves seemed to harbor ancient and magical torment inside. There were two of these sculptures above the front entrance. Each must have been ten feet tall hanging about twenty feet off the ground and as Harry recalled the snakes in the Chamber of Secrets, these 'things' seemed to be alive. With grotesque wings and undulating bodies that were neither reptilian or bird-like, the two protectors eyes were set with a bright yellow stone that was not as dark as gold but not as light as canaries, but altogether shimmering and frightening.

Harry looked at the others as Lucius calmly raised his wand (whose ever wand it was), and muttered something underneath his own breath. Harry took offense to Malfoy keeping things from them until the two gargoyles sprung to life, surveyed the four of them, and then returned to their perches, and unless Harry was mistaken, they seemed to be a little calmer, though still again, than before.

"Ok, they have granted us access."

"They?" Ron was incredulous.

"Voldemort's charms on this place were very strong, even with his death. There is an almost certain chance that Speer will not have been able to change much of the magic of this place, much the same as Hogwarts would not simply turn itself over to a new headmaster on a whim."

"That's reassuring? That Voldemort is still in control?" Ron was still questioning him.

"Yes." Harry answered. "If you know what's coming, it's much easier to control the situation."

"Impressive, Potter." Lucius hissed.

"Shut up. Let's just get on with it." His forgiveness of the ex-Death Eater had definitely been put on hold until Ginny's safe return.

After that quick snap, the four of them walked up to the front doors and pushed them open. There was no spell, no trap, and no feat of strength necessary to enter this castle, but Harry had expected this. The cave which he and Albus had visited was not guarded very well until you got to the potion guarding his Horcrux. Harry, therefore, assumed that this would be the case inside the castle itself. Tom Riddle always placed much more importance on single areas or single ideas instead of looking to balance his defenses and indeed his own life. Once the four of them were inside, the doors slammed shut behind them, plunging them into semi-darkness.

"Lumos!" All four of them said simultaneously. Instantly, they could see around the entrance chamber. Harry was trying his best to concentrate on something other than Ginny in pain, still waiting for the signal from his wand, and hoping that he would be able to find secret entrances the same way Albus could. Of course, he thought, Lucius probably knows most of the secrets, at least enough to help.

Harry, with the hall now illuminated, looked to his right and saw a corridor lead off for about fifty yards. He then looked to his left and saw a matching hallway. As much as he didn't want to say the words that came to him in that moment, they had no other choice. "Let's split up."

"No, Harry. He's not going to do anything to her. He needs her alive, and so we should stick together and find her as a group, much stronger than on our own." Hermione objected to the plan, but seemed to be working out some problem she had been given about the castle at the same time.

"Harry is right." Lucius answered. "This castle is a maze to any unwanted visitors. And I'm not talking about a physical maze." He added seeing Ron's mouth opening. "The corridors themselves shift as you walk along them. One second you'll be walking west and without even knowing it, the entire corridor will swap locations with another. The only way to defeat the maze is to keep in contact somehow. I have already asked Mrs. Weasley to bring something along for that very purpose." He then nodded at Hermione who began rummaging around her cloak. Two seconds later, her hand emerged holding four gold coins.

She began explaining at once. "The Protean Charm on these coins has changed to provide instantaneous site-to-site Apparation within the castle."

"Normally, this place would not allow such magic, but some of its potency will have diminished since the Dark Lord's death. Therefore, upon finding the entrance to the main chamber, tap the coin with your wand, and the other three people will join you instantly."

"How do we know we found the right spot?" Ron asked.

"You'll know." He hissed once again.



"Ok, well, let's get on with it." Harry was ready to proceed, feeling much better about this mission than he thought he would.

"Yes, Mr. Potter and myself will take the right while you two take the left…" Lucius started.

"Ok…" Ron seemed hesitant, but questioning his wife's magical abilities right now was probably the worst idea in the world, and if he was honest with himself, he would rather be with her and not worrying about her instead.

With that, Harry watched as Ron and Hermione turned their wands to light the hallway to his left and disappear into the darkness of the castle. Revolving on the spot to face Lucius and the corridor to the right, he began walking forward. "Wait, Harry."

"What is it?" He was somewhere between anxiety, excitement, and impatience.

"I don't know what you think about me, but I do know this place better than anyone else, and if the time comes for me to have to do something I would rather not, I don't want you to stop me."

"Ok…" Harry's mind, which was focusing on Ginny again, didn't really comprehend the possible magnitude of Lucius' statement. "Let's go."

"Very well." He replied.

A/N: Short chapter, but you know me, raise the tension then make y'all wait…