The Nightmare Man
Summary: In the depths of the Ministry, there is a cell for the world's most dangerous man… and he wants out.
Pairing/s: None.
Warnings: Time travel, OOC-characters, Light!bashing, Twisted!Harry, Evil!Harry, violence, mention of gore. Yeah, stuff like that.
Disclaimers: I don't own Harry Potter nor do I make any money writing this.
-o-
Edited 2020
-o-
Chapter Twelve
Harrison knew Bellatrix would attack him at some point, and was just waiting for her to make her move. Because he wasn't respecting Voldemort in the same way she did, and she was crazy enough to want to hurt him for it.
But what happened was actually a bit unexpected.
"A duel?" he said. "Us two, having a duel?"
"Yes," Bellatrix replied. "To unconsciousness, or death if you prefer it."
"I mean, I'm fine with death, you wouldn't be the first idiot I killed."
Voldemort looked at the two of them.
"Unless you disapprove, Voldemort," Harrison said. "I'm not used to allies, but I won't kill her if you don't want me to."
"It's better to have this done," Voldemort replied. "But remember, Bellatrix. You asked for this. No one will save you."
"Then no one will try to save him, my lord," Bellatrix replied. "The bastard!"
"Not very original," Harrison told her. "I've been called a bastard since I was twenty-two."
He patted the pockets of his robes, and then said to Bellatrix:
"I don't have a wand, do you object to me fighting without one?"
"No," she replied.
"Good, because I'm not sure where my wands are right now. Do you know, Lucian?"
"Unless they are in your room, then the attic. Everything you lose tends to end up there eventually."
"Better have a look."
"You never use them, master."
"Doesn't mean I want them gone."
"Please have this duel outside," Voldemort said. "I'd rather not have my manor destroyed."
"Entrails in the chandelier…" Lucian muttered.
"That was one duel, Lucian, let it go," Harrison replied.
"And the ballroom… that poor ballroom."
"A few scorch marks on the walls is hardly complete destruction."
Death Eaters were gathering, and many followed outside. Some sneered at the Nightmare Lord, their masks off, while others seemed just curious. Bellatrix was confident, and Harrison wondered why. She should be aware of his power to some degree. Was she in denial?
Should he kill her? That would be easy. He could humiliate her instead, that was funnier. Especially if he used one of his tricks that didn't require much of duel. She wanted a duel, a real fight, and he could win while also not giving her that.
Or he could kill her. Harrison looked down at his robes. Would Elise yell at him if he destroyed these ones? Probably. But he could just go and get more.
Because killing her would get rid of any future problems he might have with her. However, humiliating her in front of Death Eaters who knew her to be a powerful witch in her own right… that was the funnier option.
Bellatrix had her wand ready. Harrison gave her a mocking, small bow, and Lucian raised a shield. Others followed in his wake, and Voldemort glanced between the two of them before saying:
"Begin."
"Crucio!"
Bellatrix wasted no time, but Harrison anticipated it and flicked his hand. The Cruciatus spell went flying up in the air. Bellatrix didn't let that deter her, and responded with a series of non-verbal spells. Harrison let them come, and threw out his arm.
The spells were thrown away, with his magic washing over the shields. The shields shimmered in the air for a few moments, a crack appearing here and there. Harrison turned to look at Bellatrix and smiled.
That had her sprinting. She was quick on her feet, he had to admit as he deflected spells she threw at him in rapid succession. He kept throwing them aside, using raw magic that lit his nerves along his arm on fire.
"Fight back!" she screamed.
"Nothing says I have to," he replied. "It's funnier to do this."
"Crucio!"
He stopped the spell before it reached him, and closed his hand into a fist. The Cruciatus spell shrank into nothing.
"Besides, it's over too quickly if I fight back," he continued.
"How dare you! Fight!"
"Oh, fine, if you insist."
The air around him filled with his magic, and he flicked his hand to the side. Magic grabbed Bellatrix and she was sent flying. The Death Eaters scattered, and she slammed into a wall to a building near the manor. The ring was broken and Harrison began to walk.
"Are you doing alright down there?" he asked.
Bellatrix got off the ground, steadied herself and then moved her wand. He recognized the movement before she even called it out:
"Avada Kedavra!"
He let it hit. It was a risky move, because the Killing Curse was unpredictable when it came to him. Sometimes he blacked out. Other times he was gone for a second or two.
This time, there was the pain. He was pushed back, but channelled magic to his legs so he didn't fall over. He stopped and grinned at her. Bellatrix faltered a bit, and Harrison saw Death Eaters glancing amongst themselves.
"What, don't tell me that broke your spirit?" Harrison asked Bellatrix.
She yelled and began to run. She cast a series of spells, and again Harrison flicked them away. One got close, and he dodged it. A tap of his foot to the ground had magic enter beneath the earth, following his footsteps. Roots began to grow. Lucian backed off a bit more, and Voldemort was looking at the ground but the Dark Lord wouldn't be able to tell where the attack would come from.
Still, she fought hard for someone who just saw her opponent take a Killing Curse to the chest and survive it. Did she think she could win? Well, if she could knock him unconscious, she would win the duel.
"You aren't even attacking!" Bellatrix taunted. "Don't you know any offensive spells, or are you just that useless?!"
She began to laugh, and now Harrison didn't mind people laughing in battles. It was very effective to make people lose composure but he did have issues with people laughing at him. He had been the laughing-stock to some people for most of his childhood and teenage years, and some things from the past just… stayed.
He didn't like people laughing at him. So he snapped his fingers and a root came out of the ground, grabbing her ankles so she couldn't runt away. Then he formed a spell in his mind, let it take shape in his palm and then he threw it at her.
The spell was a churning red, not like the Cruciatus but more like molten lava. It struck her in the chest and Bellatrix's laugh turned into a shriek. She was released the root and fell to the ground, slapping her hands against the magic and kicking her legs. Harrison smiled.
"Are you having fun?" he called over her screaming. "You should be having fun, it's a funny spell."
She clawed at her neck, throwing her head back and forth.
"You're not hurt, you know," Harrison said loudly and her wild eyes found his. "The spell just tricks your body into believing you're hurt."
The human body was a strange creation. Nerve endings sending the wrong signals to the brain, and everything in the body went haywire. So as long as the spell was on Bellatrix she would be in pain. When he lifted it, she wouldn't have a single mark on her. Only the experience.
Now more Death Eaters were backing away. Lucian remained where he was, arms crossed and Voldemort walked over to him.
"Interesting spell," Harrison heard Voldemort say. "It tricks you into thinking you're in pain?"
"Immense pain," Lucian replied. "Master thinks it's funny."
"It is," Harrison said. "Would you like to learn it, Voldemort?"
"Only a fool would say no," Voldemort replied.
"Alright then. Now look when I lift it from her…"
Once the spell was gone Bellatrix immediately rolled over to her side, gasping for air. But there was no injury on her. She slowly stood up, glaring at him.
"That's a cowardly spell," she spat out.
"Is it?" Harrison asked. "Cornelius didn't think so when I used it on him. Or those bounty hunters during the thirteenth century… at least I think it was the thirteenth century. Could've been the fourteenth as well. Anyway, those bounty hunters just screamed their heads off. Like you just did, little girl."
"Don't call me that! Crucio!"
Harrison flicked it away.
"Is that the spell you always return to?" he asked. "How utterly boring."
"I'm not done yet!"
"Well, I'm quite done," Harrison said. "You're boring, little girl."
She bristled, but still didn't give up. Her speed was still good, and quite a magical reserve since she just kept firing spells at him. Harrison raised a shield for the first time since the duel began but a few bounced off and came round again. He frowned. They were targeted specifically at him?
He tried to flick them away. They returned once more, and Bellatrix grinned. So they had to hit him before they disappeared.
"How tedious," he muttered.
Better get it over with. He took down the shield and let the spells him. One tore at his skin. Another burned his insides. A third made his nerves shriek. He felt his skin burning, heard it sizzling and his robes burned away in places, exposing his damaged flesh.
The last of the spells vanished and he was left standing amongst heavy smoke, barely able to see Bellatrix. She stood some distance away and said:
"How about that, fake lord?!"
She truly believed it. Even with him being hit with the Killing Curse, she didn't look at him and saw something powerful. It was meaningless to talk her out of it. So he wouldn't.
Instead he cleared the smoke away.
"Master!"
Harrison held a hand up, and Lucian stayed in place. People drew back, staring at him. His jaw had been exposed, his skin and flesh burned away, and ran a finger over the gleaming bone. When Bellatrix realized he wasn't very bothered by his injuries, she took a step back.
Blood was oozing out of his wounds, and one of his lungs had been damaged enough that it wouldn't work properly. He moved his magic to the lung, channelling magic to it.
"Were those spells supposed to kill me?" he asked. "Kill me where the Killing Curse failed? Nice try, I suppose I should say."
He wouldn't kill her. Humiliating her in front of her fellow Death Eaters was still the funnier option, despite the injuries she had dealt him. If she was troublesome afterwards, he'd kill her. So Harrison gathered his magic. It surged through the air, and made the earth around him tremble.
It was a spell that used perhaps too much magic, but he still liked to use it on troublesome people. It was a larger variant of his earlier spell, not meant to physically harm anyone, but more torment them mentally for days, even weeks to come. Make them believe they were in pain, and surround them with their worst nightmares, unable to escape even for a second.
Lucian backed up, pulling Voldemort with him. Harrison grinned.
"I won't lose to you," Bellatrix said to him. "Once you're down, our lord will see you're not what you've tricked him to believe you are!"
"Oh, what a loyal servant you are… calling your lord a fool to his face."
Harrison opened his mouth wide and gagged. A red, thick liquid came out of his mouth and Bellatrix looked disgusted. It looked like blood, but instead of falling to the ground it moved to hover in the air around him. He repeated this several times, his body protesting the violent heaving, but finally he had a sufficient amount to cover Bellatrix with.
"Are you playing theatrics now?" Bellatrix said. "That's not a spell, it's just an attempt to scare people!"
"Brave of you to say it, when you've never seen this before."
He moved his arm, and the red liquid moved into a wide circle. Bellatrix pointed her wand at him.
"You're the one who's injured," she hissed.
"I know," Harrison replied. "Elise is going to be angry I ruined another outfit, but I'll just blame it on you."
He prodded at some burnt skin near his mouth and tore it off.
"Oh, you never really touch your teeth from this side," he said, poking at them.
"You won't win!"
"I've already won. Don't you see?"
Bellatrix began to walk towards him, and he smiled wider.
"You don't even think about it," he said. "But I usually talk when performing this spell. Because then people are so busy with me they don't notice the liquid is no longer in a wide circle."
Said liquid moved and wrapped itself around her leg. Bellatrix shouted:
"Bombarda!"
Nothing happened to the liquid. Instead it moved around her hips, wounding tighter around her.
"Bombarda Maxima!"
Still nothing, and her wand arm was wrapped. Harrison waited, head tilted. Any moment now…
Bellatrix's scream made several Death Eaters react with surprise. She tore at the red liquid, now solidifying around her. A few stared as she broke all nails on one hand to get the liquid off. She was shrieking.
"Help me!"
The call seemed to shock most of them. Harrison wasn't that surprised. Bellatrix didn't strike him as a person who ever called for help me.
"Please, stop it, stop it, STOP!"
The liquid was solid as stone, yet she still tried to get it off. A sharp snap, and Bellatrix's pointer finger was now bent in the wrong direction. One of her eyes were still visible, wide open and scared.
Her remaining arm was folded in and she was completely covered. The red liquid turned darker and gained the surface of stone before falling to the ground with such force and weight the ground shook beneath their feet.
"She's not unconscious, nor is she dead," Harrison said. "So does it make the duel a draw, Voldemort?"
"You're still standing," Voldemort said. "And free. How long will she be in there?"
"Until it breaks open."
"And when will that be?"
"Oh, I have no idea. Maybe it's up to her."
"Can we move it?" one Death Eater said.
"You won't be able to," Harrison said. "I saw one try once. He didn't get sucked in, but he did leave the place with fewer limbs than he started out with. Care to see what will happen this time?"
No one said anything.
"I guess I won then," Harrison said to Voldemort. "Now excuse me, while it was fun to feel the wind against my jaw bone, that wind is now drying out my mouth and that's annoying. See you later."
With that he motioned Lucian over, grabbed him and Apparated.
-o-
Lucian wasn't very pleased, it turned out, as the first thing he did was trying to find Elise. She wasn't at home, so second person was Severus. Once Lucian found out where Severus was, he dragged Harrison with him to the dungeons.
"I'll heal on my own, I always do," Harrison complained.
Severus looked up from a journal he was writing in, and stared.
"Master has been an idiot, Severus, do you have any fast-acting healing potions?"
"I'm fine, Lucian."
"Fine? Fine? I can see your teeth through your cheek, on the account of your skin and flesh being burnt off!"
"There's not need to poke at them to make that point clear, I know very well they're exposed. Oh."
"Oh, what?" Lucian said.
"My lung's fine now," Harrison said.
"You mean it wasn't before?!"
"Is it really safe to let him go outside unsupervised?" Severus asked Lucian.
"I'm the oldest person in this manor, I do not need supervision," Harrison replied.
"Yes, you do, master," Lucian said. "How dare that woman put all those wounds on you?"
"It was a duel, Lucian, wounds usually happens when you have duels."
"Woman?" Severus said.
"Bellatrix," Harrison explained. "I won. Now, this whole thing with my cheek kind of gone is getting old, and also, I'm starting to drool and that's just not on."
"Doesn't he feel pain?" Severus asked Lucian.
"Yes, he does, he just ignores it like an idiot."
"Don't call me an idiot. Now fix the cheek."
Harrison began to complain when Severus began by cleaning the wounds:
"They still heal just fine even without cleaning them."
"Master, with all due respect, shut up," Lucian told him. "Sit still, don't poke, and let Severus clean."
"Fine."
"Stop talking," Severus said.
He cleaned the wounds, handed over healing potions and Harrison could try and direct magic to the jaw, but decided to drink the potions instead. He had to tilt his head awkwardly in order to not let them spill out of his cheek, but Lucian and Severus wouldn't tell.
"Alright, it stings now," he informed Severus. "See, it's because you cleaned them. They didn't sting before you cleaned them."
"Then don't get hurt next time."
"It was an annoying spell!"
"I'm quite certain you could have gotten rid of it. What was it anyway?"
"Set to hit me. I tried to get it away from me, but it came back twice and it would have been annoying to keep trying so I let it hit me instead."
"Lucian…" Severus said. "Is he an idiot?"
"From time to time."
"I'm sitting right here you know," Harrison said. "Well? When will the wounds stop being all stingy?"
"Don't speak too much for the rest of the day," Severus said. "Just let the potions and your magic to their job, and you should be healed by tonight. The burns will keep stinging for a bit, it's the cream also doing its job."
"Don't like it."
"Stop speaking. Depending on how fast you heal, I might have to reapply it later."
Harrison nodded and then, because he couldn't just listen, he said:
"Where's Angel?"
Severus threw up his hands. Lucian nodded emphatically.
"Don't speak," Severus hissed. "Also, she's fine. There's an alert if she wakes up."
"Why not call her Angela?" Lucian wondered.
"It's Angel," Harrison persisted.
"Stop. Speaking. Master. You're wasting my efforts. Go and wipe the blood off, don't you dare take a shower and wash all the cream away. Then rest. Even Dark Lords rests when they're injured. Now shoo, leave me be."
Harrison pointed at the cauldrons behind the potions master.
"Yes, I was making potions."
Harrison pointed upwards.
"You don't have a room upstairs for potions making," Severus said.
Harrison frowned.
"Oh, for Merlin's sake, don't tell me he just made potions wherever he damn felt like it," Severus said to Lucian.
"He made one on the floor in the main hallway once," Lucian said. "He only lost three fingers that time."
"He's forbidden from making potions," Severus replied.
"You don't think we've tried that?"
Harrison huffed and left them both, which meant he was soon shadowed by Lucian. Harrison, for once, did as he was told and wiped the blood away and redressed while he was at it. Lucian came into the bedroom just as he was finished. Harrison knew he could heal fast, but for some reason, it wasn't working properly right now. Was it because of his imprisonment? He felt that his magic was a bit slow to come back in full force.
As it was, his jaw was throbbing, and the burns were just plain painful now.
"Master."
Lucian held up a bottle of pain reliever.
"You're not going to rest otherwise, are you?"
Probably not. So Harrison took it and drank it all before carefully getting into bed. Bit stupid to get all these injuries by a single person, who compared to him wasn't all that powerful, but Harrison was stupid. And reckless. If he had been smart, he wouldn't have let himself get captured all those years ago.
"Master, rest indicates one should close their eyes."
Harrison rolled his.
"Please do not dislodge your eyes from your eye sockets, master."
"Can a person do that?"
"Do not attempt it," Lucian said with a sigh. "Look at you, master. How dare she put all those wounds on you?"
"Because I'm an idiot," Harrison replied.
"It doesn't mean I'll forgive her."
"Well, if it makes you feel better she's currently suffering in a shell I made out of liquid I puked up."
"That bit was gross, but you do love it when it's grossing people out."
"It's so nice seeing people disgusted at what I do."
"You keep talking, master."
"You keep talking to me."
Lucian glared at him. Harrison shrugged and reached out to pat his arm a few times.
"Thank you, master," Lucian said. "Now keep quiet and go to sleep. I may not be anywhere near as strong as you, master, but I will find a way to bind you to the bed if you don't."
Harrison had no doubts that Lucian would do that, and so he rolled over to his stomach and settled in. He turned his damaged cheek up, and finally closed his eyes. He should really stop letting himself get injured, but he wasn't sure he could make himself stop having his guard down. Because he was stupid.
Thankfully, those kind of thoughts didn't keep him up and in the end he was asleep before Lucian left the room.
-o-
The search for Lily Potter, as well as Petunia and Vernon Dursley didn't cease, but with no clues the trail went cold. There was nothing, not a whiff of Lily's magic, not a single witness that had seen Petunia or her husband been taken from their house.
Hogsmeade, rebuilt after the latest raid, lay quiet in the early hours of the night. A snowfall earlier that day had covered the grounds and houses in a layer of white, enough to lift people's spirits and make them look forward to Yule. It wasn't far off now, and some were determined to not let the recent actions of the Dark Lord Voldemort keep them low. Their side would not lose to Voldemort and his Death Eaters!
No one was out, and most houses were dark. A light snowfall began. Those who were still awake noticed nothing amiss outside, and how could they? The being outside had no magical signal, and therefore did not send off any warnings signals.
Of course, there was also no life whatsoever to detect either.
The steps were heavy, stumbling, but the snow masked them well. The feet were bare and trailed blood through the pristine snow. The toes were near blackened. The legs were in slightly better shape, just scrapes and small cuts along with specks of blood. But the skin was very pale.
It was a woman, wearing a Muggle dress with long sleeves and in the modest colour of beige. It was ripped in places, blood all over it, and wounds covering the torso. There was a gaping hole in the chest, and the heart was missing.
Having her heart removed was what finally killed Petunia Dursley. Yet through Hogsmeade her body walked; had she realized what kind of village she was in, she would have hated it. Perhaps even more after being taken by Harrison. But her awareness was gone; her gaze was empty.
Her jaw was hanging loose, making her face look slack. There was no tongue; the amount of blood that was splattered around her mouth and down her chin told the story of the tongue being ripped out while she was still alive and struggling. The eyes found Hogwarts in the distance, and her head tilted. Her arms hung by her sides.
"You there! Turn around slowly."
A young witch stood some distance away, wand aimed at Petunia. Petunia slowly turned. The eyes shifted to the wand, and a command sparked to life.
She roared, and took off in a sprint. There was no tongue, but plenty of teeth to sink into the woman's neck. Petunia bit in, jaw clenching and tore through skin and muscles. Her eyes rolled up and she threw her head back, ripping the woman's neck open.
The screaming woke Hogsmeade up within minutes. Alerts were sent to the headmaster's office, and in turn Dumbledore alerted Order members and Aurors before moving towards the village, wand ready and heart pumping.
By the time he made it down the young witch lay dead on the ground, eyes staring up at the dark sky. Her throat was torn and blood was cast in a wide circle around her. As Dumbledore looked around, he saw more bodies. People who had heard the screaming most likely, and tried to help.
"Mr Dumbledore!" someone called out. "We caught the attacker, but something's wrong with the woman! She's completely rabid!"
Dumbledore followed the man at great haste, but stopped short when he saw who it was. Petunia was snarling like a wild beast, drenched in blood and fighting against the ropes that held her bound.
"How…" he began. "No…"
The Order arrived, wands out and ready, when the first witch to be killed twitched back to… not life, but something not dead. She rose from the snow, eyes milked over, wand in her hand. She growled.
As she rose, so did the others. As if Petunia's bite had brought them under some sort of control after their deaths. But they didn't have just their teeth, like Petunia. They had wands, and magic, and knew how to use both.
The first spell flew out, and the Order engaged in a fight with the dead. They moved erratically, and the young witch Dumbledore had first seen jumped straight up in the air, several feet, only to land on a villager with enough force to break their neck. The mouth stretched into a grin, and she came running towards Dumbledore.
He blocked the spells as well as the physical attacks, and finally brought her down by separating her upper and lower half. Her upper body landed with a thump some feet away, while the legs crumbled before Dumbledore. She twitched for a bit, starting to get up but then she shuddered and fell back onto the ground. Her grip around the wand slackened.
The others had been brought down but the tranquil scene of Hogsmeade covered in fresh snowfall was now replaced with blood and corpses. Petunia Dursley was still struggling. Dumbledore walked over to her.
"Petunia," he said. "Petunia!"
Her neck cracked when she turned to look at him. Her mouth worked soundlessly; two teeth were gone, like someone had punched her in the face.
"She's not alive," a man said. "There's no pulse or anything, Mr Dumbledore. But she's moving and all, how's that possible?"
"Petunia," he repeated. "Who did this to you?"
Petunia blinked. Her mouth opened again, and she gagged. Something black oozed past her lips.
"The… monst…" Her words were slurred due to her not having a tongue anymore. "Cold eyes… monster, a nightmare…"
Her eyes widened and her spine cracked. She threw her head back and howled, breaking through the ropes. Someone fired a spell at her, but she twisted away and started laughing. Dumbledore recognized that laughter, even with Petunia's voice.
She looked at him. Cold, green eyes stared at him, and the Nightmare Lord grinned through Petunia's body.
"Do you like my present?" he asked with her mouth. "Blood and snow looks so pretty together."
"What have you done to her?" Dumbledore said.
"Don't you have eyes to look with, boy?" the Nightmare Lord said. "Have a look at what I did."
The green vanished, and Petunia's eyes rolled up as the grin slipped away. She fell to her knees, gurgling before her head tilted backwards, her body slumping down. But just as Dumbledore moved closer, she looked at him.
"You can't kill him," she said.
"How can she even speak, if she's dead?" Shacklebolt said. "Albus, her heart's missing."
"Why did you let him kill my son?" Petunia spat. "You're useless!"
She jumped at him, but before Shacklebolt could wrestle her away something left. Something magical, and yet undetected until the moment it vanished from Petunia's body. Immediately, her eyes grew dim and her body went limp. Shacklebolt lowered her to the ground, and she was gone.
"What happened?" someone asked.
"She's gone," Shacklebolt replied.
"But how was she controlled? Who did it? Was it You-Know-Who?"
It wasn't. How the Nightmare Lord could control corpses that precisely, to the point the people said corpse killed rose again, Dumbledore didn't know. But why did he send Petunia here? Was there a purpose?
"Try to find out how she got here," Dumbledore told Shacklebolt. "If possible, find a trace of the Nightmare Lord."
Was Petunia some sort of message? He said present. But that could be about the killing, about defiling the village once more. What was the Nightmare Lord's goal? Killing Petunia? Kidnapping Lily Potter? But for what reason?
Dumbledore couldn't make sense of what the Nightmare Lord was planning. Voldemort had a clear goal, something they could work against. But the Nightmare Lord didn't seem to have any goals beyond creating as much chaos as he could.
To be continued…
Chapter thirteen: Lily's return! Will she speak about what happened? And also, Harrison has decided it's time to call for his children. Oh yes, the Dementors are going home.
See you later,
Tiro
