AN: The story is going to pick up a lot in the next few chapters.
Disclaimer: See Chapter Two.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland, 12/15/1975, 19:28
Tonight was the night, he had been preparing for this night for over a week now.
The hardest part had been explaining to Andromeda what he was planning to do. She had been very upset to know he was basically laying siege to an old pureblood manor single handedly. He had flat-out refused to let her accompany him, he couldn't put her pregnancy at risk.
He would treat this like an assassination mission, he was going to try and ambush 'Lord Malfoy'. That was the plan anyway.
He started making his way out the school, he had noticed lately since he had received the message from 'Greengrass', that the boy or one of his year mates would tail him whenever he was in the school.
True to form he had caught sight of 'Markus Mulciber' who was trying to be sneaky, following him about thirty feet down the hallway. The boy certainly wasn't smart enough to silence his feet and that wasn't even mentioning the fact that he didn't think to disillusion himself.
Harry had pondered what to do about 'Voldemort's ' invitation for a meeting. He knew for a fact that there was no way he could spring any type of trap. Tom was far too careful for any such ploy, and Harry had no wish to walk himself into a trap. So for the time being he ignored it, hoping his lack of response would be taken for what it was a refusal.
Reaching the ground floor he walked out the doors of the castle leaving Mr. Mulciber behind.
'It's to bad I can't start picking students off before they become a problem for society. There were around two dozen current students who had become death eaters in his time.
Still there were plenty of targets ripe for the picking one of which he was about to move on tonight.
Yes 'The Reaper' had been quiet long enough. It was about time he visited some of the 'Purebloods' he had been itching to kill since he arrived in this time period.
He reached the gates and disparated away to his first target.
/C.o.t.R\
Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, England, 12/15/1975, 19:45
Abraxus Malfoy was not having a good couple of years. Since nineteen seventy-three he had had a run of bad luck, and it all started with his idiot son striking his intended in front of a member of her family. 'Hadrian Black' took exception to Lucius striking his sister in law. A confrontation ensued and his heir was badly injured.
Hadrian was a half-blood so he thought he could demand satisfaction from Lord Black, It turned out 'Hadrian' was protected by magical contract to protect the house of Black.
Worse still 'Lord Black' had canceled the 'Marriage contract', his heir had struck Narcissa and Lord Black would not have his grand daughter mistreated by a member of a lesser house.
After word got out about the circumstances of the contract cancelation and Lucius' treatment of his betrothed. No old family in Britan would agree to a marriage arrangement with house Malfoy.
This year had started out looking promising, the Dark Lord would make his move at the 'Summer Solstice Celebration'.
The attack had been a complete disaster, he had barely escaped those two psycho's in gray robes and most of the men he was put in charge of had been cut down like wheat.
Then a couple of days later the news that the Dementors had been destroyed had been a crushing blow. The Dark Lord had hoped that he could bring them to work with him, they would have been a major boon.
It took months to get past those two setbacks, but the 'Halloween' attack on "Hogsmeade" was very successful.
Unfortunately that's when things went to shit again, his son and those two trolls he insisted were very useful had to go and embarrass the Dark Lord and get themselves killed by some primitive muggle weapon.
Two days after they had left 'Hogsmeade' victorious his son had to go make the 'Death Eaters' appear as incompetent morons.
Now the Malfoy line was doomed, he had made plans to find him a match for Lucius over 'Yule', the Malfoy name still had some weight in France.
Now he knew his line had come to an end, sighing he took another drag from his glass of bourbon, The sound of his alarm wards screeching loudly through his study had him spewing his drink all over his mahogany desk.
Jumping to his feet he ran to the window looking for any sign of activity and he saw a single man in a gray hooded robes strolling up the drive. Running to the fireplace he threw 'Floo Powder" into the fire only for nothing to happen. Damn this was bad he tried aparating only for him to feel a barrier that he could not pass through.
He was trapped and could not communicate for help. Then an idea struck, him his mark. If he touched his finger to it, there would be a distress signal sent to the Dark Lord.
Pulling back his sleeve he placed his index finger to the mark and pushed his magic into it, still looking out the window he seen people in black robes and white masks appear at his front gate a few minutes later, he was saved!
/C.o.t.R\
Nott Manor, Nottingham, England
Voldemort felt a distress signal through his mental connection to the 'Dark Mark' and sent 'Thorfinn Rowle' and ten of his younger Death Eaters to investigate what was going on at Malfoy Manor.
Though he strongly suspected it was a Ministry raid. Abraxus was not in his good graces at the moment, so he didn't feel the need to make a personal appearance.
/C.o.t.R\
Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, Ten minutes earlier
Harry arrived where he remembered the manor to be from that visit all those years ago. Taking a moment he began casting detection spells to try and figure out what he would be working against.
There was the usual anti aparation wards, you couldn't aparate in but there was no restriction on out gong aparition.
Then there was identifier ward coupled with a physical barrier ward. Those two combined were also very common, you could not physically cross the ward line if you were not keyed in by the owner of the property, or in this case you could enter by presenting your 'Dark Mark'.
Finally there was the defense wards, wards as in plural, plural as in a bunch of fucking defense wards. They did everything from mild pain all the way to rotting the flesh off your bones and everything in between.
Harry's original plan had been to use the 'Wormhole' he had requested from Gringotts, but the device only worked once. Since stealth really wasn't an issue anymore, he thought he would save it for something special.
So he would have to brute force his way in, well he might as well get crackin.
He started slowly weaving a very complex wand motion over the ward, prying the wards open strand by strand and forcefully opening a gap in the defensive wards. This actually wasn't a difficult spell to pull off it just took a lot of power to pry the different wards apart, he next started weaving the strands of the physical barrier ward into the already formed hole and pushed them open. Harry could only make a four foot gap before he couldn't push the two very powerful wards any further apart.
Keeping his concentration on holding the spell he leapt through the gap and slowly released pressure as the gap closed itself.
Reaching into his inner robe pocket he removed a 'Pepper-Up Potion' and downed it. He went ahead and raised his hood, concealing his face and waited a moment for the potion to take effect.
Then he started searching for the 'Wardstones', he couldn't place transportation wards over an area this big so he would have to piggy back them off the manor wards.
Taking a muggle compass out of his pocket he quickly followed it to the Northern most point of the property. 'Wardstones" used the points of a compass so it wasn't hard to find the North stone.
Kneeling down by the "wardstone he placed a pre-prepared stone he had spent the last week making, (it would stop all transportation in or out of the area of the wards, it would even interfere with the Floo connection.) on top of the northern stone and channeled his magic into the new stone, the stone seemed to glow cherry red and fuse to the Northern Wardstone. Alarms started sounding his use of magic had set off the internal detection Wards off.
That wasn't really a concern though he had already done what he needed stealthily now it was time to get to work. strolling down the main path he could see a shadow in front of the second floor window. Lord Malfoy knew he was coming, obviously the ambush plan was scrapped.
He had almost made it to the front door when he heard the pops of aparition down at the gates. he counted at least a dozen arrivals. Shaking his head he entered the house he would have to deal with them after he accomplished his mission.
Stopping in the door way he had a wonderful nasty idea, remembering a spell he had found in 'Serpent Battle Magicks' the book he recovered from the 'Chamber of Secrets'.
He raised his wand and chanted an ancient Parseltongue spell.
"Come forth mighty serpent of the Earth, Strike thy Enemies should they try and pass make them prove their worth, let none live show no fear, serve me well Teraserpen!' Harry finished the chant in a near scream thought it just sounded like loud hissing to any non-parselmouths.
A large beam of lime green light left his wand and struck the earth towards the middle of the lawn next to the path leading to the gate, the ground seemed to rumble and mound up around where his spell struck. this spell would generate a massive serpent that would attack from beneath the ground, anyone the caster deemed as an enemy. It was created for use on a battle field so the Malfoy's lawn was a perfect place to test it.
Turning back into the house he headed up the stairs to Abraxus Malfoy's study, the door was locked and sealed with a 'Colloportus' spell and probably a curse or two. Walking right beside the door he aimed his wand at the wall next to it and cast 'Bombarda Maxima' a ten foot section of the wall was blasted into Lord Malfoy's study.
Stepping through the hole and walking in front of the door he cast a strong "reparo' and watched the pieces of the wall fly back into place an seal itself good as new.
Taking a look around he saw the room was rather large with a very large desk in the center of the room and large bookcases, lining both side walls there was also a large floor to ceiling window overlooking the grounds, they must have been enchanted to be unbreakable since there seemed to be blood smears on the window about face height and Harry had a feeling his entrance had blasted Lord Malfoy rather forcefully into the window.
Hearing a groan he looked to the floor under the window an saw a very dazed Lord Malfoy crumpled on the floor.
Summoning Malfoy's wand he pocketed it before walking over and kneeling in front of the man.
"Hello Lord Malfoy I need some information from you then I'll be on my way" Harry said in the most menacing voice he could.
Judging by the fear reflected back at him in Lord Malfoy's eyes, he had succeeded in intimidating the balding old man. "Wh-What do you want from? Who are you? Malfoy stammered out.
"I want a Diary with the name "Tom M. Riddle" on the cover, as for who I am. I am the Reaper" Harry answered simply.
"It's in my desk drawer, please don't hurt me. I can pay you if that's what it takes. Please just let me go." Malfoy begged him.
Standing up Harry walked back to the desk and scanned it with his wand and instantly located where the diary was, opening the bottom most drawer it was laying on the bottom and he could clearly see the name 'Tom M. Riddle' on the cover. Taking his dagger that was loaded with Basilisk venom he stabbed it through the cover clean into the bottom of the drawer underneath it. There was an inhuman blood curdling shriek and black smoke rose from the diary before before thinning and seeming to vanish far quicker than normal smoke.
Harry pocketed the Destroyed Diary before walking over to 'Lord Malfoy.'
"Thank you for your help Lord Malfoy, You have been most helpful 'Avada Kedavra'.
Harry cast the spell and watched Abraxus's eyes go blank. The man had been a coward an Harry kind of felt proud if himself for finishing off the Malfoy line.
Suddenly Harry heard screaming and hasty spell fire, Harry chuckled spell fire would be usless against the 'Tera Serpent' it fought from under the ground and only coming up to strike.
Looking out the window he saw eight men sprinting towards the manor, suddenly the ground seemed to explode underneath a man toward the back of the pack and the head of a massive serpent latched on to him and dragged him under the ground.
Canceling the spells on the door was easy fron the onside using Malfoy's wand. Once in the hallway he threw the wand over his shoulder and made his way out.
Heading down the stairs he prepared to take out the guests who were about to enter the manor. He raised his wand and waited for the door to open.
He didn't have to wait long the door was flung open and six men rushed in panting "what the fuck was that thing?' a large man asked out loud.
"A 'Tera Serpent" creature of myth, long since forgotten by wizard kind' Harry told the men cheerily.
They all jumped and spun to face him.
"You!' the Largest man of the group. exclaimed.
"Indeed, I required a meeting with Abraxus, I didn't know there would be more guests so I sent my little friend out there to entertain you while I finished up with Lord Malfoy." Harry said in a mocking imitation of a pureblood host.
"That monster killed six of my friends." one of the smaller masked minions exclaimed.
Instead of continuing the back and forth Harrry cast 'Avada Kedavra' verbally followed by a nonverbal 'decapitare' chaining the two spells together. In less than a second the green spell struck the largest Death Eater who collapsed. the decapitation spell struck a man to the far right of the group whose head rolled off across the marble floor of the entry hall.
The other four began firing at the man in grey and harry was forced to fall back to a cover position, and return fire. the spells from the death eaters were quickly turning his cover behind a marble statue plinth to gravel deciding to try the trick he used on Sirius in training he cast the thick white fog on the hall and watched as the room became completely white. Disillusioning himself and silencing his feet he crept up on the panicked Death Eaters and drew his dagger, he cast 'Homo Revelio' and located his first target and quickly jabbing the poisoned blade in his stomach before hastily moving away to the other side of the room.
The man screamed and was struck multiple times by spell fire from his panicking comrades. Not needing the human location spell to find his next target since the spell fire gave it away, he struck out with his blade this time catching his victim in the throat the man gurgled on his own blood and collapsed with a soft thump.
Harry was moving in on his next target when the last man finally figured out the counter curse to the fog. The fog quickly cleared away and Harry about was four feet from his next victim when the fog cleared so he quickly cast a piercing hex. The man didn't even get a chance to spot his disillusioned outline before the spell struck him in the face and sprayed grey matter out the back of his head.
Firing the spell gave away his position to the last Death Eater, and Harry had to hastily roll away from a killing curse.
Harry engaged him and quickly realized this man was very good, his speed was phenomenal and was able to dodge Harry's spells quite easily. The only person that could even compare to his opponent was when he used to spar with 'Banshee', she was a also very fast, and difficult to beat.
Still harry was trained by the best and had a trick or two up his sleeve, like Dumbledore he could channel his magic into his body to speed up his movements. 'This was kind of cheating but but 'all was fair in love and war'.
Harry forced his magic to every part of his body and his speed increased significantly. He started parrying spells faster and sending spells in return his opponent could barely dodge.
Harry started advancing on his opponent closing the distance between them, the Death eater started panicking and throwing his spells so erratically that Harry didn't even have to dodge as they would miss him completely. Harry had not stopped firing as he closed the distance and his opponent was really having to work very hard to avoid Harry's spell fire. Harry decided it was time to end this, the man's was very skilled but he wasn't good under pressure. Channeling his magic like this was very draining so he wanted this over with.
Harry fired three piercing Hexes silently one at the Death Eater on one to each side of him. The man dodged the one coming at him and stepped right into the spell coming from his left. It struck him in the stomach and exited on the left side of his lower back. His opponent collapsed holding his stomach while blood seeped through his fingers and out the gaping hole in his back. Walking over to the downed man who was whimpering in pain, Harry removed his mask.
Harry gaped, looking up at him was the terrified eyes of Damien Greengrass, how he got here Harry had no idea. He was supposed to be at Hogwarts, he had in fact seen him earlier that evening in his Transfiguration Tutoring class.
Looking into the pained eyes of his student he cast 'Legillimens'.
He saw the Greengrass Heir sneaking out of the school through a passage behind a large mirror, digging deeper he saw him leaving the castle on several occasions. The most notable was when Voldemort passed Damien the message to deliver.
Pulling from the boys mind he drew his wand and cast 'Avada Kedavra' killing his student, As Long Blade rightfully said It was best to leave no witnesses.
Sighing he walked from the house to the lawn, he was greeted by the large head of a snake rising from the earth, the snakes neck was about three feet in diameter and it's skin was very bumpy like that of a toad and it's coloring was similar a muddy brown. It didn't have eyes and it's snout was long and flat when it was closed. When it opened its mouth it was quite wide like an alligators.
'You have done well my friend all of our enemies have fallen' Harry told the snake as he run his hand over its bumpy snout.
'Yes the cowardly humans fled before my might, but I beg you I wish to return to my home.' The serpent told him.
'Very well...Harry raised his wand and chanted "Your task is done, return to the your nesting grounds TeraSerpen".
Paesetongue spells seemed to have no incantations they had weird chants and the casters will to power them. The same lime green light left his wand and formed a fog of green smoke that settled over the serpent hiding it from view the fog dissipated taking the serpent with it.
Harry walked back to the ward stone and channeled magic into his piggy back wardstone and gently removed it. He could feel his transportation wards come down, he placed it in his pocket then disparated leaving 'Malfoy Manor' job complete.
/C.o.t.R\
Gringotts, Diagon Alley, London
Harry appeared on the steps of the bank still dressed in his gray hooded robes. walking up to the counter he waited for the goblin to notice he was there.
The goblin did a double take and about fell of his stool, he was very familiar with the description of 'The Reaper.'
The goblin finally got his wits, and asked hesitantly "Can I help you?"
"Yes I have an appointment with Long Blade." Harry said simply.
Pain Bearer's eyes widened just who had 'Long Blade' pissed of enough to warrant a visit from 'The Reaper'. 'Still better him than me' Pain Bearer thought as he slid off the stool.
"Right this way sir." Pain Bearer said courteously.
Harry nodded and followed the Goblin to Long Blade's office. The goblin knocked and stuck his head in and a minute later turned back and said sadly 'He is ready to see you now, have a good day sir." Pain Bearer said before leaving back down the hallway.
Entering the office harry didn't say a word just slid 'Long Blade' the diary. Long Blade picked up the Diary and run his hand over it.
After a moment the goblin grinned "Well done any complications Mr. Black?"
Harry lowered his hood and took a seat across from Long Blade before answering. "A few, Abraxus was able to call in reinforcements, so I ended up having to kill quite a few more than expected." Harry answered tiredly'
"Well I am glad you completed the mission, now he only has the one anchor left and he's keeping that one close to him." Long Blade told him'
"I ended up having to kill one of my students tonight Long Blade." Harry admitted conflictedly.
"A student was at 'Malfoy Manor'?' Long Blade asked shocked.
"He arrived with the reinforcements, he was one of the best I've fought so far." Harry admitted.
"I am sorry to hear of this, the young can often times be very foolish" Long Blade confided.
Harry nodded at his accountant before rising "It has been a long night I believe it's time I went home. Let me know if any new information arises." Harry told him heading for the door.
"Of course, it was a pleasure as always Mr. Black good evening." long Blade bid him.
Harry left his office deep in thought, he was going home maybe Andy can help him put this in perspective. He had just been thinking earlier tonight, how great it would be to take out some of the future Death Eaters still in school before they became a danger. Though after seeing Damien Greengrass bleeding out on the floor of Malfoy Manor, He now just hoped he could stop them from becoming what they had in his timeline. Even if it was a fools hope.
/C.o.t.R\
Nott Manor, Nottingham, England, 12/15/1975, 22:00
Voldemort was getting impatient, he had sent Rowle and his team to 'Malfoy Manor' over two hours ago and had heard no news so far.
Summoning Bellatix to his throne room he gave her orders "Go straight to Malfoy Manor tell me what you see and report back within thirty Minutes"
"Yes my Lord" she bowed before hurrying to complete her task.
The wait was quite vexing it seemed the clock wasn't moving fast enough but after twenty minutes she returned and walked to his throne before kneeling at his feet waiting for permission to speak.
"What news do you have for me Bellatrix?" he asked her simply.
"Malfoy is dead as well as the team my lord." She answered him dutifully.
"Thank you Bella are the Aurors on scene yet?" he inquired.
"No the House was empty Master." Was her immediate reply.
"Very well you may leave" he told her dismissively.
She bowed her head before rising and quickly leaving his chambers,
'Abraxus had one of my Anchors, I have to retrieve it before the Aurors process the scene. Rising he made his way from the throne room strolling towards the ward line, his servants bowed respectfully as he passed them in the halls. He reached the main door and swiftly crossed the grounds finally reaching the main gate he spun on the spot and disaparated away.
/C.o.t.R\
Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire,England, England
Arriving at the main gates of Malfoy Manor he strolled through noticing the torn up lawn an body parts protruding from the earth. Strolling through to the main doors he saw six bodies laying in the entry hall including 'Thorfinn Rowle' and young 'Damien Greengrass' who would have been a great asset he was very skilled. Shaking his head at the waste of such potiential, he made his way up to the 'Lords Study' on the second floor. He knew Abraxus kept the Diary in the bottom drawer of his desk.
Walking over to the desk an sparing Malfoy a glance he opened the drawer only to feel fury course through his veins.
There was a hole shaped like a knife blade in the bottom of the drawer, drying black ooze coated the bottom of the drawer. Someone had destroyed his Horcrux, someone came here specifically for this. The only reason anyone would tip there hand like this is if they found the others. He would check his hiding places but he had a bad feeling they were already gone. Someone would most definitely pay for this.
