- A Different Beginning
The room was brightly lit from the fires of torches that were evenly spaced on the stone walls. Death Eaters in their dark robes and white masks filled the room. All of them looked towards the one that they called 'master.'
"Nott! Take some men with you and bring me the Potter and Longbottom children, I don't care what you do to the parents. I will not allow some silly prophecy to threaten me."
"Yes master." Avery said with reverence bending down to kiss the hem of his masters' robes before returning to his place amongst the other Death Eaters.
" Malfoy! Bring me the Trelawney woman. Dumbledore must not get his hands on her. She may be of use in the future. Bring her back to me unharmed."
"Of course My Lord." Malfoy replied with a short bow and barley concealed haughty demeanor.
"Goyle, how is it that you managed to get thrown out of the pub just as the most important part of the prophecy was being made? I should punish you for your incompetence. Are you positive that Dumbledore left before that woman had her vision? It would not do for the other side to have an inkling of what is happening. A silly prophecy will not stop me. I will not allow anyone to rise up and even consider the possibility of defeating me." Turning, he pointed his wand at Goyle and calmly said, "Crucio."
Goyle was gasping in pain on the floor when the curse was finally lifted. "Master… I won't fail you again."
"See that you don't or I won't be so generous in my punishments. Next time do not be so careless when you are spying. A pure blood wizard should never have to stand the indignity of being thrown out of anywhere."
"Go now, bring me the woman and the brats immediately!" Voldemort declared, dismissing his Death Eaters so that they could go about their assigned tasks.
Standing within the group of Death Eaters, Severus Snape knew that he needed to inform Professor Dumbledore as soon as he could of what had just happened. Unfortunately, it would probably be too late by then for the children and Trelawney.
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"Are you sure Severus? There couldn't be some mistake?" Albus Dumbledore asked with a rarely seen serious look.
"No Albus, Goyle does not have enough of an imagination to make something like this up. He said that he heard the prophecy while in Hogs Head last night. Nott has been given the task of getting the Potter and Longbottom children. Malfoy has been told to bring Trelawney to him." Finished Snape as he looked intently at his old headmaster.
"Very well then. I will have to inform the Potters and the Longbottom's that they will need to go into hiding for the time being."
"It is too late for that. Nott and Malfoy are out there as we speak carrying out their tasks!"
"Of course, then we must faster in informing the families of their imminent danger. Severus, I want you to stay here, no point in you going where you could be discovered."
"Of course Albus." He stated dryly knowing that his position as a spy prevented him from helping out in any obvious way. His life and that of so many others would be jeopardized if he were to ever be indiscreet for even a moment.
Quickly Albus Dumbledore went to his fire to make the necessary fire calls that would hopefully save three lives.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"What is taking you so long? It was a fairly simple assignment and yet you can't even seem to do it. Crucio." With that he watched as Lucius Malfoy fell to the floor writhing and screaming in pain. After only a few moments Voldemort lifted the curse and continued to speak while Lucius lay panting on the ground.
"Does anyone have any information that might be useful to me?" Voldemort asked in a deceptively quiet voice.
Having pulling himself up to a kneeling position in front of his master Lucius answered. "Master, somehow Dumbledore and his group found out about Trelawney. They got to her before I could."
"Silence!" Voldemort said once again in that dangerously quiet voice. "I don't need to hear excuses of your ineptitude. Nott, I hope that you have better news for me than Malfoy did."
"Y-yes master," he stuttered, "I have gotten the Potter child for you."
"And the Longbottom child?"
"We couldn't find him, the house was empty when we arrived."
"You disappoint me Nott, I expected better, Crucio."
Nott fell to the floor screaming in agony as his master stood by watching him dispassionately.
"I want the Longbottom child brought to me!" He spoke in such a quiet voice that his Death Eaters had to strain to hear him, "I will not accept failure. You all know what happens to those who fail me." He said, his tone causing all that could hear him to shiver in fear.
"Now bring me the Potter child," Voldemort asked almost jovially after lifting the curse.
Cries filled the room as a very young and frightened child was brought in.
"Bellatrix!"
"Yes, My Master?"
"Would you like to do the honors? Please do take you time, I wouldn't want there to be any doubt that this child could not possibly defeat me."
"Of course My Master, it would be a great pleasure." She said with a cold look of delight on her face.
In the background Severus Snape watched in horror as Bellatrix Lestrange started torturing the one-year old child.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The room was filled with sleepy members of the Order of the Phoenix as they waited for their leader to open the meeting and tell them what was so important that they had been summoned to their meeting place in the middle of the night.
"I have made a grave error." Dumbledore began somberly.
The room was silent as he made this shocking announcement.
"Earlier tonight, one of my spies informed me of a prophecy that Voldemort has gotten his hands on. In it, it spoke of one who would destroy him. There was an option on whom it could be. I sent some Order members to save the children mentioned and the Seer but alas, they were not able to save one of the children. Unfortunately, we will not know which of the children was the one mention in the prophecy until they are older and since one of them is dead… I fear that our chances of defeating him could have been destroyed. I did not act fast enough to prevent this tragedy." Dumbledore looked somber as he made this announcement.
"What exactly was this prophecy and what has happened to the other child?" Mundungus Fletcher asked. For once, not looking like he had crawled out of a gutter.
"I will allow Severus Snape to answer your questions since he was actually there when Voldemort learned of the prophecy." He stated gravely, sitting down to give Snape control of the meeting.
Glaring at Dumbledore, Snape rose to begin his account of the night. "Last evening," he began in a melodious voice, "a Mister Gregory Goyle was drinking at Hogs Head, while there he overheard a Miss Sybil Trelawney speaking to herself while appearing to be in a trance. He heard her declare;"
'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but….'"
"Unfortunately or fortunately, this is where Mister Goyle managed to get himself thrown out of the pub for causing a disturbance. The Dark Lord does not know what the rest of the prophecy said and as you all well know, Seers never remember prophecies after they have said them. Even if we do have Trelawney, we may never know what else was in that particular prophecy." Snape said while looking at the other Order members with barley concealed contempt.
"Immediately after Voldemort," Snape ignored the gasps that some of gathered people made at the mention of that name, "sent his Death Eaters to gather Trelawney and the ones mentioned in the prophecy. As it turns out, the two mentioned are just babies. One was Harry Potter, and the other Neville Longbottom. Voldemort's Death Eaters only managed to get him Harry Potter and he is now dead. The Dark Lord wants Longbottom dead as well to guarantee his survival."
During his entire recitation, no one spoke or interrupted but now that he had finished the room filled with questions.
"How did Potter die?" "What do you mean 'marked'?" "Where's Trelawney?" "Where's the Longbottom child?"
"Are you sure this is a real prophecy?"
The last question came from Sirius Black. "She was a flake while we were in school together and I doubt that she has changed much since. She's never had a real prophecy before, what makes you think that this is one?" He asked. The death of his Godson and the unknown whereabouts of his best friend were making him very blunt.
"Of course I am," Snape replied scathingly, "I would not have brought this up if I weren't sure. To answer the rest of the questions, Voldemort had one of the Lestrange's torture the child until he was almost dead; he did the final honors himself. The odd part came when he used the Killing Curse. It hit the child but then seemed to rebound back to him but died out before the curse reached him. The curse left a lightning-bolt shaped wound on the child's forehead. As for the rest, I don't know where they are but I'm sure that Albus could enlighten us all." Looking at Dumbledore, Snape gracefully sat down and gave control of the meeting back to him.
"Thank you for that enlightening summary Severus, now as to Trelawney and the Longbottom's, they have all been put under the Fidelius charm. I don't know how long that they will be in hiding for but for now I deem that it will be safer for them to stay hidden for as long as possible. Hopefully the prophecy was wrong and we will find a way to defeat Voldemort. With the hope that we have the child mentioned in the prophecy, we may still have some hope left."
"So, James, Lilly and Harry really are dead then." Sirius said dejectedly.
"Yes, I'm afraid so." Dumbledore stated sadly. "You should all go home. Tomorrow we will deal with the consequences of this night."
As everyone got up to leave, Albus Dumbledore experienced a feeling of foreboding. Tonight's deaths would have more far-reaching consequences than he even wanted to acknowledge.
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