AN:

This AU story starts from the moment in DH when Harry, Ron and Hermione are about to apparate from the Ministry with the locket. Yaxley reaches them, as he does in the book, but he successfully manages to pull Harry out of apparation. The story follows the events of Harry's public arrest.

The first chapter was written a year or so ago and the story built up from there.

There are dark themes in this fic. Please heed the rating for this fic. It's intentional.

10th September 15:14

There was a noise in the cubicle behind them; Harry looked around; Yaxley had just appeared.

"We have to go!" Hermione squeaked shrilly. Her hand seized Harry's tightly and she turned on the spot.

Just as he moved into the suffocating darkness, someone grabbed his other arm. He had the horrible sensation of being pulled in opposite directions while at the same time being suffocated. The pressure eased suddenly with a flash of purple light that lingered, burned into his retinas. He felt Hermione's hand leave his and he appeared suddenly. He was rolling from the momentum of being evicted from the apparation. He came to a halt face down, staring at black and white tiles.

"Stand back!" a voice cried out. Harry rolled to his feet, looking around at the shocked faces of the Ministry employees who had been waiting to get into work, only to see a bizarre flight of people Disapparating and Apparating back.

Silence rang in his ears for a moment, eyes fixed on the one that shouted. Yaxley. So the Death Eater managed to pull Harry back. He was lucky they weren't splinched.

Harry eyed the exit, seeing the queue at his back.

"Imposter… how dare you have the gall to come here?" Yaxley growled, scowling at Harry, who now had his wand out. Harry squinted, vision blurring.

No, the potion! If his eyesight was worsening, then the potion was wearing off.

Harry glanced to where Hermione and Ron had been moments before. He hoped they didn't come back. They were safe and with the horcrux. At least that part of the plan had worked!

"Stupefy!" Harry's voice no longer rumbled in Runcorn's baritone. His spell deflected off Yaxley's shield charm, cracking into a sink. Those near yelped in surprise.

Harry darted backwards. He had to get out, back into the open. If he was changing back…

"No! Don't let him escape! He's a traitor to the Ministry!"

Harry reached the door, which slammed shut in his face, close to striking his nose. He glanced, seeing some wands appearing. As he turned, he saw Yaxley's eyes widened as he saw his face.

"Potter," he murmured.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry took advantage of Yaxley's surprise. His wand sailed out his hand.

But the threat wasn't gone. Harry was alone in a room full of ministry workers, all terrified for their families, and here was the criminal Harry Potter, whose arrest would grant them favour… security.

"Don't do this," he murmured, counting. Ten to one. Each of which were qualified wizards. "That man is a Death Eater… he works for-."

There was a flash. Harry was suddenly rocketing back and his back slammed into the door. He raised his wand to protect himself, but it flew out his hand. Someone had disarmed him.

"What are you doing? I'm on your side!" he yelled at them.

"You've done the Ministry a great service. I will see to it personally that you are rewarded for your loyalty," Yaxley said, sweeping a gaze over to who had been responsible for disarming Harry before snatching his wand up from the floor where Harry had disarmed him.

Harry reached for the handle. He could run, but how far would he get without a wand? The Ministry knew he was here. What could one wandless seventeen year old do against them?

Yaxley faced him. Harry recoiled instinctively, knowing what would happen next.

"Crucio!"

Even though he knew what to expect, the sensation of total agony ripped all thoughts from his head. It felt like every nerve ending was exposed to a flame, all over, his skin and under, inside. He clamped his jaw shut, his scream tucked into his throat as he slid down the door, spasming.

The curse lasted barely three seconds. He opened his streaming eyes, surprised that it was so quick. He couldn't see the expressions of the onlookers, his vision so poor that they were just colourful blurs, but the silence was telling enough.

"Inform them that I have secured Potter and to prepare." Yaxley said to the silent crowd. There was a hesitation. "Now!"

Harry could see his wand on the floor. With Yaxley distracted, it was his only chance. He dived for it.

Bang. He was flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling.

He could hear the Ministry workers leaving, popping as they stepped into the toilets in a hurry to get away. Harry rolled to his side, dazed from the impediment charm.

"Looking for this?" Yaxley asked. Harry looked up, seeing the Death Eater standing over him, holding his phoenix core wand. "All this time, all this effort trying to find you, and you deliver yourself. The Dark Lord will be most… amused."

"Then call him," Harry growled, "or will that ruin the illusion of who's really running things here?"

Yaxley's brutish face relaxed into a smile. He twirled Harry's wand in his hand. It was so close…

"All in good time," he said quietly, "the Dark Lord will know soon enough."

"Not been in his inner circle long, have you? He wants me dead… now, not tomorrow, not next week," Harry said through a clenched jaw, glaring at the man. He had no idea why he was doing this, persuading Yaxley to get him killed?

Because if he was dead, he couldn't speak. He could keep his secrets to the grave before having them tortured out of him.

"Shut it, half-blood." Yaxley kicked him in the stomach, knocking the air from his lungs. "Immobilus!"

A force pressed down on Harry's body, making it feel like his arms and legs weighed hundreds of times more than they did. He strained, barely able to lift his head a millimetre from the ground. He could do nothing as Yaxley rolled him over to his front and summoned cords which he bound around his wrists. He felt like his entire body was in a vice.

Yaxley let him go and the pressure lifted. Yaxley dragged him to his feet and nearly stumbled on the edges of the too-long, too big robes.

"Reducio!" The robes shrunk in, fitting better around Harry's smaller frame. "Now where are your glasses, Potter?" He frisked through Harry's robes and felt the pouch around his neck. He pulled it free, frowning at the fluffy pouch. Harry's eyes widened in dismay, giving away its importance. Yaxley smirked and pocketed it, along with his wand.

"No glasses?"

"Lost them. Might turn up in lost property," Harry said, starting to panic now. He had no idea what he was saying. Harry's mind raced. How was he going to get himself out of this? Yaxley pushed him forwards, making him walk towards one of the toilet cubicles. Back into the Ministry.

And, by extension, into Voldemort's clutches. At the thought, Harry slammed his feet down and jerked back against Yaxley. The man didn't expect the sudden movement and his grip slipped. Harry pulled himself free from his grip, rolling sideways along the wall, seeing the glimpse of freedom.

He was thinking illogically now. What did he really think he could achieve without his wand, hands now tied behind his back? Soon enough, Yaxley regained his footing, grabbed Harry by the back of his robes and slammed him hard into the wall. Harry's nose cracked against the tiles.

"Enough." He growled at Harry, then pushed him ahead. Harry was dazed with pain, feeling the blood trickling from his nose, as Yaxley forced him over to the porcelain portal.

With Yaxley's fingers digging into his upper arms, his weight pressed into him, he had no choice but to enter the portal. Green flames flushed over them and they reemerged in the atrium.

A loud buzz of activity welcomed them. When the light faded, Harry blinked and saw the atrium, now packed with people. Ministry security were holding back a thickening crowd. So many faces were looking his way. So many voices filled his ears.

Yaxley pushed Harry in the back, forcing him to stumble into a waiting throng of wizards. They might be wearing Ministry security robes, but just one glance at them told him that they were new to Ministry work, not bureaucrats with stellar N.E.W.T.S but thugs with wands. Harry's arms were instantly seized, dwarfed as they held him, holding him still.

Harry's heart was thundering in his ears, almost drowning out the gasping voices he could hear in the overall din of the room. He heard his own name being repeated in shocked tones.

Yaxley heard them as well.

"Contain this. Potter's public presence will cause complications," Harry heard Yaxley say to the security guards. The way that some of them peeled off to head to the crowd told Harry enough about them. They were an auxiliary of the Death Eaters. Their enforcers within the Ministry.

Wands poked him in the back. Harry had little choice but to be forced into a march. He looked around desperately for a way out of this situation. Every attempt of shaking the vice-like hands from his arms failed.

"Ah, excellent, you caught one, Yaxley."

That voice. Harry heard it immediately over the others and felt his heart shudder in his chest.

No, not her. Anyone but her.

He saw Umbridge pushing towards them. When her eyes zipped onto Harry, she halted in her footsteps.

"Not just anyone," Yaxley said as they neared her. Her eyes were wide, Harry realised, wide with complete surprise. "I'm taking him to the Row. The sooner he's out of the way and secured, the better."

Her gaze then roved onto Yaxley. When it was clear that they weren't stopping for her, she hurried in step next to him.

"Is it really him?" She asked under her breath.

"I have his wand," Yaxley replied, impatient. "It is him."

She smiled, her tiny sharp teeth making her look almost goblin in appearance. She then rounded onto Harry, grasping his shoulder and digging her fingers into it painfully.

"I can't wait to see you suffer," she hissed into his ear.

"Not here," Yaxley said, moving between Harry and the clearly incensed Umbridge. "Away from the public."

She ignored him, zoning on the blood that was pouring from Harry's broken nose. "Tsk tsk, you're in a bit of a state. Here."

She pulled a handkerchief from the folds of her robes. As she did, the locket swung free at the movement. The fake that Hermione had replaced the horcrux with. Harry's eyes instantly snagged onto it.

She doesn't know it's gone!

She then wiped at his face, distracting him, as she mopped up the blood on his face gently.

"Madam Umbridge-," Yaxley was behind her.

"Potter? That's Harry Potter."

"Did he hand himself in?"

"We need to get him out of sight right now."

Umbridge smiled, lowering the handkerchief, and met Harry's eyes. He twisted his hands behind his back, desperate to free himself.

"Very well. I'm sure we'll be reacquainted properly in due time."

He knew that look in her eyes. In a moment, he was back in Hogwarts, to a time two years ago when she grabbed his hand in hers to examine her handiwork and smiled through her too-small teeth. A look of satisfaction, relishing in his anguish.

"Harry Potter!"

"No!"

"You bastards! Let him go!"

"No! Not you, Harry!"

Yaxley wheeled around at once. "Control that right now!" He barked at his henchmen. Harry twisted around to see who had shouted. He didn't know the voices, but they risked a lot to call out to him.

When he saw the first curse flying into the crowd, he gaped. Screams then started from the crowd as the angered shouts turned quickly to panic.

Then a stunner suddenly ripped through their ranks, hitting one of the henchmen. He collapsed to the ground at Yaxley's feet. The Death Eater snarled, drawing his wand.

Yaxley snarled, his wand now out.

"Get him in the cells. NOW!"

Harry's shoulders were almost wrenched out his sockets as he was forcefully turned around and dragged away. His feet slipped and slid under him as he struggled to stop them. He thrashed in their grip, desperate to see the fight that had suddenly broken out between the civilians and the Ministry workers. To his horror, he saw flashes of green light.

"NO!"

"Shut it!" Someone hit him hard in the stomach. They reached the elevators. None of them were open. A spell cracked into the wall above them.

Harry twisted desperately in the grasp of his captors. He thought back to the days of being cornered by Dudley's gang, of having his arms held while Dudley treated him like a human punching bag. He fought back too, sometimes…

Harry looked down to the man who stood at his right, seeing his knee in reach. He kicked as hard as he could. His attack surprised the man and his grip loosened enough for Harry to wrench himself free.

"I'm not going with you without a fight!" He growled at them, twisting to face the guard that still held him. He used the momentum to launch himself up and headbutted the man in the face.

"Ah, you shit!"

Harry dropped to his knees, suddenly freed. His head throbbed from the impact. It had been a while since he'd done any muggle duelling, not that playground fighting was much of a style. His nose was definitely in a bad way now. Fresh blood ran over his lip.

Run!

He staggered to his feet, putting paces between him and the guards. They both noticed at the same time what had happened and their wands were out.

Harry backed away, then by some miracle, an elevator door opened. He jumped through it, desperately slamming his arm into the buttons to pick any floor.

"Come on!"

Just as the doors shut, the guards were there. One got his arm into between the gates. Harry growled, kicking out at the man's arm to clear it. He could see the fight nearing an end in the atrium. Only a couple spells shot through the space.

Then the guard poked his wand through the gate.

"Crucio!"

It hit Harry square on and he collapsed to the elevator floor with a yell of pain. It didn't last long, showing the ability of the guard, or lack thereof. It was enough however for the guard to wrench open the doors.

Harry stared up at him with wide eyes.

"No…"

"Stupefy."

"What do we do?"

The question had been repeated many times. Out loud and in his head. Every time it had been met with silence. A stunned silence that was becoming more and more unpleasant.

Ron had long since stopped pacing. He now just stood, staring. The space that should have a person there, full of ideas, full of… something. Instead, it was just a space, a void, a terrifying truth that sent a bolt of fear through him.

They had left Harry behind.

He heard a door opening upstairs. For a split second, he thought it was Harry leaving the bathroom, but then he remembered. Harry wasn't there.

Hermione descended the stairs slowly, her hair hanging limp from a braid that she'd tied to contain the frizz. She spotted Ron just standing there and walked up to him. She just enveloped him in her arms. He didn't react, still staring at the void.

"He'll want us to keep going, Ron," she whispered to him, her voice reverberating in his chest.

"We have to go back for him."

Hermione sighed, just like she did the first time he said that.

"You know we can't. We don't even know if-."

"No. No, don't say that." He hissed. "Harry is still alive. I… I know he is." He clenched his fists. "There's been no news."

She pulled away, but left her hands on his shoulders, searching his face, "Ron..."

Ron dragged his stare from the void.

"My dad. He was at the Ministry today. He might know something… where they're holding him."

"He's either at the Ministry still, in Azkaban or some other stronghold we don't know about. Ron, we barely made it out ourselves. If we stood a chance, maybe… but right now, we have this." She pulled at the chain around Ron's neck, freeing the locket from where he had stuck it under his robes. He had forgotten that he was wearing it. He took it from Hermione when they arrived at Grimmauld Place.

"Yeah, and we don't know what to do with it. Or where the others are. We're right back where we were. Worse than where we were."

Ron closed his eyes. He thought of that flash of purple light.

"No… we can't leave him, Hermione." He gently pulled the locket from her hands. "How could we ever live with ourselves?"

"But the horcruxes, the mission…"

"Look, what do you think Harry would do if he was here and one of us was still there?" He demanded strongly. He waved at the door. "Do you think he would have even waited before running back?"

"Yeah and he would have got himself caught too."

"Probably. And that's why we have to get him back."

Hermione shook her head, but he could see that she was thinking, her mind wildly working. "There's no time. There's just us."

"No there isn't," he said. Hermione looked at him, frowning. He gave her a smile, face muscles feeling weird after hours of not using them. "We have the Order."

The office of the Minister for Magic changed often between terms, suiting the personal tastes of the Minister with the title. However this time, it had been decorated for the person who didn't officially hold the position. It suited the puppet-master who dangled the strings in the shadows.

The dark green rug that covered the dark wood floor was of fine make, silver thread woven into a motif of serpents. The desk that dominated the room was a magnificent custom piece, the legs of which detailed snakes that curled around the mahogany legs. Standing at the desk, hands flat on the leather writing surface, stood a man in dark robes, blonde hair a little dishevelled.

"I hope you've prepared a good explanation for me, Yaxley."

At the cold voice, Yaxley started in shock, but he didn't turn, not immediately. He stiffened, as if composing himself, then turned.

He sunk to his knees, prostrating himself.

"My Lord."

"Up. I have no time for simpering." Yaxley hesitated, then rose to his feet. He paused as he saw the giant serpent encircling his master.

"As you have no doubt heard, my Lord, Harry Potter is securely locked in our highest security cell in the building."

"I heard, but not from you. You were, were you not, the one that took Potter into Ministry custody?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Do you not recall me telling all my Death Eaters that if they secure the boy, they are to inform me, at once?"

"I…"

"They were very clear instructions, I thought. You were supposed to take his wand, secure him, then bring it to my attention."

"He attacked the Ministry - publicly."

"Yet no one knew it was him until you marched him through the Ministry like a trophy caught on a hunt." Voldemort paused, stooping down to lightly caress the large snake on the head. "Like a prize catch."

Yaxley saw the danger the moment Voldemort touched his snake. He quickly turned to his desk, taking a wand that he had left there and knelt down before Voldemort, presenting it.

"I… I beg your forgiveness. I misunderstood your orders and believed that Potter's capture, then detention in the most secure place within the Ministry, was the best place to keep him for your… pleasure."

"Hmm… "

"In one of the same cells that were once used by aurors to hold our enlightened brethren before their trials. I believe Bellatrix was contained in the one we've used for Potter."

"I'm sure that will entertain her."

"I… I beg, please spare my life and take… take this. It is Potter's wand."

Voldemort crossed the threshold, Nagini slithering after him. Yaxley quickly bowed his head at the master's proximity. The spindly long fingers took the wand from his hands.

Nagini hissed.

"The wand…" she said.

"Yes, Nagini… strange. I can feel the connection, but none of that power it had displayed when I tried to kill the boy last month."

"It is just a wand."

"Now it is mine."

Voldemort caressed the wand in his hands, thinking to himself as he noted the smudges on the wood. He gripped it in his right hand for a moment, feeling the power within it, but it was just a wand's power, nothing special.

He flashed his red-eyed gaze to Yaxley, pointing the wand at him.

"Crucio."

The man buckled and rolled on his back, yelling as he was tormented, limbs locked in an unending spasm.

Voldemort lifted the curse and admired the wand. It responded to him as well as his own brother wand.

Yaxley crawled onto his knees, breathing heavily.

"You may keep your life, Yaxley."

The man gasped with relief. "Than-thank you, my lord."

"As much as you've made things more… complicated with your handling the boy, I do appreciate that you've succeeded where I, and others, have failed."

Voldemort paced around the prostrate man, robes flicking around him, silk snapping.

"Tell me, did you learn why the boy was at the Ministry in the first place?"

"We… are yet to determine the purpose of their presence," Yaxley said haltingly, wincing as he admitted to a degree of incompetence.

"Potter has never shown unnecessary recklessness before." Voldemort stopped his pacing, looking down at the wand now in his hands. "To dare risk himself so openly… I admit myself curious."

"Of course, I will deal with him myself in the end, but… perhaps it is best to learn of his motivations first." He looked back up at Yaxley, who quickly lowered his head in deference. "I will give you the chance to make up for your mishandling of the boy, Yaxley. Perhaps by the time you are done, I will be convinced that this was the better course of action."

"Use all measures at your disposal, but be very careful with how you handle him. Alone he poses little threat, but, as you saw today, he has an effect on people. Keep him contained. Control those that have access to him."

"My lord… am I to understand that you are giving me permission to… interrogate the boy?"

Voldemort caressed the boy's wand in his hands. "Yes, interrogation only. His mind, and his life, belong to me now. No legilimency - is that understood?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Then it is settled. I will come for the boy in a few days' time," he stooped down so his bright red eyes were level with Yaxley, "and if I find that you have learned nothing in that time, I will be dissatisfied."

"I understand, my lord."

"Be sure that you do."

AN: Half of this chapter will have tonal differences as it was written a while ago. From here on, the flow will be different and, I hope, improved.