I thought since I have not posted in so long that you might like to have another chapter right away. I also thought that you would be interested to know what Jem was doing in the last chapter. That's what this is.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Chapter 13
She broke through the Dark Palace's Apparition wards and landed in the middle of her father's meeting room. On the table.
Luckily the only people in the room happened to be her father, all three Malfoys, Bellatrix, and Severus.
Severus had been saying something like "-is currently being held in the Order hea-"
Jem skidded across the table and flew through the window, crashing into a pine tree outside.
Even as she was succumbing to unconsciousness she heard her father say in a sarcastic tone, "Clearly, not anymore."
Then everything went black. But being who she was, she didn't stay out for very long. She awoke as she was being lowered onto her bed by her father, who didn't look pleased.
Jem stared at him, waiting for him to say something.
After a solid minute of awkward silence, her father spoke in a deadly quiet voice.
"Fourteen years."
Jem's eyebrows creased in confusion and her father continued, "Fourteen out of your fifteen years, you have been training to be my heir. You have been my daughter and student for your whole life, and yet you failed."
During the time that her father was talking his voice never raised or became malicious. Still, Jem felt shame wash over her.
"I would like to know how. How was it possible that you failed?"
Jem launched into a report about her mission. When she got to the part where she was discovered she simply said, "A spy. There was a spy, who had Dumbledore place wards against our signals."
"I see. We will have to find out who it was, continue." Jem continued to tell him everything that she had learned. She sucked every detail out of her memories and sent them to her father through their link.
"Father, I found this," she handed him the locket, that she had managed to hang onto.
For the first time in a long time, her father showed anger.
"How did you find it?" he asked in a strained voice.
"The house-elf had it." Jem told her father the story that Kreacher had told in the minutes before her departure.
Promptly all of the windows in the room shattered. The table cracked and the curtains fell from their hinges.
Startled, Jem looked to her father, who was shaking in fury. She had only seen her father like this once.
Flashback
Lucius Malfoy knelt at his master's feet.
"My Lord, I didn't know this would happen. I didn't realize-"
"You disobeyed me." The Dark Lord's hands were shaking, clutching his wand in white fury. "THIS WILL NOT STAND!"
"My Lord-"
"Was that your intention? Were you trying to defeat me, I, who has conquered even death?" The Dark Lord's voice had calmed, but it had an edge of pure evil. To Lucius, it was even scarier than the screams.
"You were trying to defeat me, after all I have given you? YOU FOOL!"
The windows of the Dark Lord's study shattered. The wind picked up, swirling books and quills around them.
"My Lord, I have been your most faithful follower, your most devoted servant…" Lucius was clutching at the Dark Lord's robes now, sobbing in his terror.
"And now, Lucius," He laughed a high, cold, insane laugh. "You will pay for your disobedience."
"Father?" The innocent face of a girl peeked into the doorway, eyes wide.
He raised his wand, fury exploding from the depths of his soul. Sparks flew from the end of his wand. "AVADA-"
"NOOO!" Jem flew in front of Lucius. "Father! Don't do this!"
"EVEN MY OWN DAUGHTER DISOBEYS ME?" Her father's eyes were red as blood. "YOU SHALL BOTH BE PUNISHED!"
"No." Jem stood, pushing away her emotions until her face showed nothing but calm respect. "Father, you have told me many times before to master my emotions. Now, I must ask you to master yours."
The wind died. Everything dropped to the floor, and ever so slowly, the Dark Lord lowered his wand.
"Insolent girl," he said, though his voice had none of the hatred it possessed before. "You realize you will have to be punished for this."
"I do, Father, and I accept it. I just wanted to help. I know how it feels to lose control of your emotions." Jem lost some of her grip on her feelings, allowing her sympathy to show on her face.
"You know nothing of how I feel," her father said quietly.
Jem hoisted Lucius onto her back and slunk out of the study. She knew when her father needed time alone.
"Th-thank you," Lucius muttered. He stood rather shakily.
"Draco has been kind to me. If not for him, I would have let you die, as you let a part of my father die," Jem admitted. "How, in any way, did you think it best to give a piece of the Dark Lord's soul to an eleven-year-old girl wandering right into Dumbledore's clutches?"
Lucius didn't answer.
"You don't know how lucky you are to have Draco as a son."
With that, Jem strode down the corridor to await her punishment.
End flashback
"I will do something about this!"
Her father swept out of the room, cracking the floor as he walked. Her scar burned painfully as it did whenever he was really emotional.
Jem was left in the room with nothing to do. She repaired everything with her magic. Jem then headed down to the training rooms. She did triple the work she normally did to make up for lost time. By the end of the sessions, she was cursing herself. She had tremendous strength, but such strength needed to be maintained carefully.
Her days in the Order headquarters had set her back. She spit on the ground and headed back up to her room. Well, she tried to, but her father stopped her. He had been observing her and she had not noticed.
"Your effort was acceptable, but the results were dismal. You may spend the next two days in pain training."
Jem nodded her head, knowing that she would not eat or sleep for the next two days. As she continued down the hallway his voice stopped her again.
"I am proud of you, though. That was quite the story you made up at the headquarters."
Jem glowed. Her father's praise would make pain training all worth it.
She stepped into the massive golden dome and it immediately filled with a golden smoke with a tinge of green. The floor slid back and she fell down until she was in the bottom of a giant golden sphere.
It allowed her to run and run, and never run out of room. The sphere rolled and shook, simulating whatever the smoke was making her see and feel.
She felt the familiar feeling of the tingling smoke taking effect. Soon she was no longer in the sphere but a cold cell. Her torturer was masked and wearing all black. Behind him was a row of torture devices. Jem recognized them all, as she had used them before.
Three hours later the simulation moved on, after Jem lay bloody on the floor, but she had not screamed at all. In fact she had hardly flinched.
Days later she lay there as the smoke disappeared. In the last two days she had been chased by wolves, caught in a hurricane, tossed into lava, tortured, kidnapped, thrown in acid, and digested by a dragon.
She had broken most of the bones in her body and had bruises everywhere. The puddle of red around her grew. She knew it wouldn't be long until she was dead.
As always a blue mist filled the room. Jem braced herself. Her father, being who he was, had created a mist that healed your every injury. In the most painful way possible.
The mist hit her and she screamed. That was the only time she ever screamed; during the healing.
It was intense. There was more pain than fifty Crucios could make, even if they were all her father's.
It went on for hours until her voice was raw from screaming. Finally, as the last bone snapped into place, the floor slid back in, transforming the sphere back into a dome. The problem was that she was laying on the bottom of the sphere and was now upside down.
The sphere flipped around, and she fell onto the hardwood floor. She scrambled out of the door before the mist could heal her now-bruised back.
She sat down outside of the dome, shuddered, and promptly fell asleep. She hadn't slept since the night before she was taken by the Order. Normally she could stay awake longer, but with all of the pain training, she was toast.
Her father found her like that several hours later. He chuckled and sent a quick stinging hex at her to wake her up.
Jem felt a sting on her hand and jumped five feet in the air. Literally. Her father laughed at her and handed her a potion bottle.
"Drink," he said. Jem didn't question it and downed the whole bottle in one gulp. Then she looked at her father expectantly, wondering what it had been. She had been able to identify all of the ingredients. It was the combination that stumped her. She had never seen anything like it before.
"Figure it out," was all she got for help.
After several minutes of analyzing, she could conclude that the potion had one of three purposes.
"It could either make the drinker see colors differently, which I don't yet, it could make me stronger, or it could prolong my life?" she had turned her answer into a question.
"If I had churned it once more your first theory would be correct. However, you mixed up the last two," the Dark Lord paused before he continued, "The potion will prolong your strength, as well as other abilities."
Seeing as his daughter still wasn't getting it he added, "If you don't train for a few days, weeks, months, or years...your strength and abilities will remain the same."
Understanding dawned on Jem's face.
"Seeing as you will be going on more missions," her father said, "you will have less time to train, so this was a necessary step."
Jem nodded, and was about to say something before her scar burned and the Dark Lord tensed.
"Go get ready, there's trouble at the Ministry!" her father commanded. In other situations the Dark Lord himself would have gone, but strategy was important. If he went right away and started losing, there was nothing he could do. If they started without him, he could turn up halfway through and scare the living daylights out of people, giving them an advantage.
He had also theorized that her cover had been blown, and that this was possibly a trap to catch her again. He knew that even if they caught her, they would have to send her to Azkaban where she could easily escape.
While he would hate to lose his daughter again, he knew that having her there would be a tremendous advantage.
Jem got ready quickly, and reported to her father for what she was supposed to do.
"The fools are trying to undo our control on the Ministry. The time to take over the Ministry completely is now!" her father bellowed. "Take these idiots with you!"
He motioned at the Death Eaters assembled behind Jem. Jem thought privately that calling someone an idiot before battle was probably not the best motivator.
Jem Apparated to the Ministry, where she was surprised by the sight of the Minister hanging limply on the back of Sirius Black. Perfect, she thought. The mist had hurt, but it had done the trick. Full of energy and eager to please her father, she was itching for a fight.
"Don't worry, Minister. I'll save you," she said with a smile.
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