Harry Potter and the Dark Sigil
Chapter One: The Dark Lord's Vengeance
By: Harry's Mum Lily
Disclaimer: I own none of J.K.s wonderful characters. I only own this plot which came to my in the middle of the night. This is set in Harry's fifth year in case you're wondering. I know that there are a lot of 5th year stories out there but please tell me what you think. Thanks.
Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust.
Albus Dumbledore
Chapter 37
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does.
Rubeus Hagrid
Chapter 37
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter…it all came down to him. That brat had been the bane of his existence since the day he was born. The Dark Lord Voldemort paced in the tower room he'd claimed for his own private quarters, his deep black, velvet robes swirling around him as he turned, his thoughts dark and brooding. The plan had already been set in motion and this time there would be no mistakes. He'd seen to every detail himself. For fourteen years he'd plotted his revenge upon the one who wizards had called his downfall. They were ignorant of the truth through. Harry Potter had not been his downfall and had in fact restored him to life just a few short months ago. Harry Potter was not special in any way at all. He'd escaped his just fate only because he was extremely lucky and because of his mother's protective charm.
" But his luck has run out and his mother's charm has been rendered powerless…this time there will be nothing to prevent me…this time Potter will be mine."
Voldemort laughed and his red eyes glowed with an evil fire. He'd been setting events in motion that would inevitably lead to Harry Potter's complete fall from grace. He had been very quietly whittling away at the wizarding community's belief in Harry as the one who would bring about Voldemort's final defeat. It had been so easy after the doubts spread about by the Minister of Magic himself after the Triwizard Tournament. The Minister was now working tirelessly to discredit Dumbledore and Potter and it was all on the Dark Lord's orders. Voldemort smiled at the irony of that. Fudge, who had once been a trusted friend of both Potter and Dumbledore, was now a follower of their mortal enemy. Fudge had been so easy to turn; he was a wizard with very little power but much influence.
"Very useful…more useful then most of my…other servants."
Neither Dumbledore or Harry were aware of this nor were they aware that he'd also begun to weaken the protections that had been set around Harry. Most of them had begun to show their age and for weeks now Voldemort had been gently pushing through these age-old protections, weakening them to the point that the very next time Harry was attacked they would collapse around him. He would then be vulnerable to magical attack as he had not been before. Only one protection remained in place and it was the one Voldemort was finding difficult to subvert even with all the power he possessed now. Voldmort stopped his pacing in front of a large mirror. It shimmered and as he looked into it an image of Harry and his friends boarding the Hogwarts Express appeared in it. They were completely unaware of his scrutiny. He stared at Harry and noticed that he seemed to be preoccupied. Harry's bright green eyes were looking inward and he seemed to be deep in thought.
"So he has heard already," Voldemort thought as he inspected his handiwork.
The protections around Harry had once glowed with a bright and strong silver light but now that light was dim and weak and the protections were covered in hairline cracks that were only visible from the outside. The one exception to this was a glowing dome of scarlet and gold light that contained the high-level protection spells that had been put in place around Harry shortly after his birth. Try as he might Voldemort could find no way around this net of spells and they could not be made to bend to his will. Voldemort threw his wand across the room in frustration and continued to stare at Harry's image in the mirror. He watched as Harry pulled his wand out and showed one of his friends a complex spell he'd learned over the summer holidays. Voldemort's eyes narrowed as he watched, eyeing the wand with a mixture of wariness and longing.
" The wand is another matter…I must separate the boy from it or I will never prevail against him."
He well remembered the last time they had meet in battle. It was during their last duel that Voldemort had discovered Harry owned the brother of his own wand. Because of this they could never work properly against each other without resulting in the rare reverse spell effect Priory Incantatem. They were unable to duel in the normal manner and so a duel was both useless and dangerous. He glared at Harry's wand for a moment longer wishing he could make it burst into flame from this distance but he knew all to well that it was too soon to make his presence felt. It was essential to his plan to remain in hiding for a little while longer. The Death Eaters were getting restless and, though he could well understand their feelings, the plan must come first and must be held to even over the desires of many of his followers. There would be plenty of time for them to have their sport after it was successfully concluded.
A cruel smile twisted his snakelike features. He would have Harry Potter's life and the powers that had been stolen from him 14 years ago…he would destroy the safe haven Harry thought he had at Hogwarts…he would take the boy from the very place where he felt safest and in full view of the fools who had sought to protect him…he would be imprisoned for a long time in a place so remote that none could ever hope to find him and from which escape would be impossible…there, with lies and torture, Harry spirit would be broken, crushed beyond repair and then in front of a now grieving wizarding world, having at last unmasked the lies they'd been believing for months, he would exact his revenge upon them all by killing their savior before their very eyes. A more suitable revenge would have been to turn Harry against Dumbledore and the others but that was, of course, out of the question. The plan he'd devised would ensure that the wizarding community felt the full extent of his wrath, the bulk which would fall upon Harry. Before it was over Harry would be wishing he'd died that Halloween night 14 years before.
"There will be no escape for you this time…no one will come and save you…there will be nowhere you can hide and nothing you can do…"
Glaring at Harry's image in the mirror, he laughed a mirthless laugh and swept from the room. Summoning his Death Eaters to him, he set about putting stage two of his plan in motion; the plan that would bring about the destruction of Harry Potter and through him the world.
****
Harry Potter sat alone before the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room trying to figure out what was going on, wishing that he knew why Voldemort had made no attacks since his return to power in June. The first thing he'd done when he arrived at the Weasley's near the end of the summer holidays was to get an update on what Voldemort had been doing and what plans might be in the works for the defense of the wizarding world. Harry had been growing more and more concerned all summer because the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead had sat mute. This had him extremely worried. With Voldemort's return to power at the end of last term Harry had expected it to ache continually as Voldemort began to attack wizards and Muggles alike. Except for a brief moment very early in the summer there'd been no pain in it at all. Harry had been farther unnerved by the complete absence of any news of mysterious deaths or even disappearances (two things which had marked Voldemort's rise to power 14 years before) in the Muggle world. Harry had taken to watching the news on television and reading the newspaper, searching for any hint of news that might indicate that Voldemort was attempting to regain the hold he'd had over the world in the past. There was nothing and that frightened Harry more then news of attacks would have for it meant that Voldemort was planning something else and that plan likely involved him. The Dursley's, of course, had questioned him about his strange behavior but he had not really answered them. They were Muggles and could not possibly understand what he was going through and even if they could be made to understand they wouldn't even care. They hated Harry and the powers he'd been born with and they would probably be relieved if he never returned to them. This summer more then ever before he had dreaded his forced exile for the wizarding world, an exile that was necessary in order to keep him from Voldemort's grasp, because it prevented him from hearing anything of what was happening there.
He'd found this lack of news in the Muggle world extremely suspicious and this plus the fact that his scar wasn't bothering him disturbed him so much that the moment he arrived at the Weasley's he'd demanded to know everything that had been going on since he'd left the wizarding world at the end of the school year. What he was told was very disturbing, more disturbing then the lack of news in the Muggle world had been. There was no indication that Voldemort was back in power. Nothing. Like the Muggle media, the Daily Prophet was empty of the usual stories that had been associated with Voldemort and his previous rise to power. No one had been killed nor had there been any attacks or disappearances. The Dark Mark had not been seen since the Quidditch World Cup of the year before. It was as if Voldemort and his Death Eaters had vanished from the face of the earth. It was unnerving to those who knew of or believed that he had risen again. To make matters worse, Fudge was still denying anything unusual had happened at the Triwizard Tournament and he was making it known publicly that he considered both Dumbledore and Harry as untrustworthy. There was a rumor that Dumbledore was being asked to step down as Headmaster of Hogwarts by Fudge and that if he would not leave quietly "other means would be found to remove him."
"There is no indication that Voldemort is back…beyond what you told Dumbledore after the Tournament, Harry," said Mr. Weasley after Harry had questioned him. "A lot of people are having a hard time believing Dumbledore or excepting the truth as anything more then rumor when there is no sign of Voldemort or his Death Eaters. Not so much as a Dark Mark in the sky. It's odd…very odd. Dumbledore's credit is not good at the present time and I'm afraid that this incident is going to have serious repercussions on you as well as on many who have supported him through the years."
"What repercussions? What has been going on here?"
"Arthur…can't this wait…?"
" No, Molly. It can't. Harry needs to know what's been happening…all of it. He needs to be able to prepare himself. Everything has changed and he needs to understand that."
"What has changed…what's happening, Mr. Weasley?" said Harry, with a trace of annoyance in his voice.
Mr. Weasley looked gravely up at Harry, so gravely that Harry felt a stab of fear in his heart. Mrs. Weasley looked at Harry sadly and muttered, "why now of all times? Why can't they just leave him alone?"
"What is it? Please tell me…"
"Fudge is saying…" and here Mr. Weasley sighed heavily, "he's saying that you are a bit mad…that the Triwizard tasks last year unhinged you…and that you…you were responsible for the death of Cedric Diggory…He's asked for an inquiry into the matter…wants to test you under Veritaserum…"
Harry's mouth opened and closed, so shocked was he by what he was hearing that it had driven whatever he'd been thinking out of his mind. He flinched as if he'd been struck. The world seemed to be spinning and his heart felt as if a great weight was being pressed upon it.
"An inquiry…? Veritaserum…"
At once Harry knew that he couldn't do it; he couldn't let Fudge give him the truth potion. He remembered what Professor Snape had said last year. If he drank so much as a drop he would spill every secret he had. He had to protect Sirius from the Ministry until he could be proven innocent and even though he had seen Pettigrew alive Fudge would probably deny any such thing…and yet the honor of his family was at stake. If he didn't attend the inquiry then the Potter name would be ruined…
Mr. Weasley must have seen some of what was going on inside Harry's mind written clearly on his face because he said in a quiet and comforting voice:
"He can't touch you though…not as long as Dumbledore or any of the Hogwarts staff that is loyal to him remain…but the effect on people…"
Harry's hands balled into fists at the memory of this conversation. He'd seen signs of the effect Fudge's word were having on people in Diagon Alley when he'd gone to get his supplies and books for school. Shopkeepers had given him odd looks and kept their eyes on him at all times, clearly afraid that he would go barking mad in their shops. He could deal with this of course as he only went to Diagon Alley once a year. What hurt him more, however, was the attitude toward him of most of his classmates. The Slytherins, particularly Draco Malfoy who had jumped on him the minute he'd arrived on the train, had wasted no time in gloating over this new development. Harry knew he would never be accepted by them, there was too much animosity between the Gryffindor and Slytherin House in general and Malfoy and him in particular to expect anything but jeers, taunts and insults from them. His fellow Gryffindors, on the other hand, seemed determined to show their support of him in his current difficulties. They would tell anyone who would listen that Harry was not a killer and that someone was obviously going to great trouble to malign the Potter name. They also would remind anyone who would sit still long enough of his courage and honesty and the fact that he came from a highly respected and old wizarding family. He was grateful for their support and for the support of the staff at Hogwarts too but what really bothered him was the way he was being avoided and shunned by members of the other two Houses: Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.
He was used to whispers following him wherever he went because he was famous for having banished Voldemort at the age of one year but the whispers he was hearing now were not friendly. He could tell by the dark and/or fearful looks everyone was giving him as they gathered in huddled, whispering groups in the Great Hall or in the corridors between classes. Hermione and Ron had both advised him to ignore the whispers and taunts.
"When they stop to think about it they'll realize how silly they are being. I mean, honestly," said Hermione, her eyes glued to a page in the Standard Book of Spells Grade 5 that she was studying.
"Yeah Harry. I wouldn't worry too much about it," said Ron as he looked up at Harry from measuring an essay for Prof. Binns. "You're the Boy Who Lived after all."
Harry hadn't agreed with his friends at the time of their conversation and now three months had passed with no sign that the others would let this matter drop. Nearly every day, Harry was threatened by large groups of students who surrounded him in corridors or trapped him in empty classrooms to hiss insults at him or, more often, to push him around or hit him. The Gryffindors were outraged at the other Houses' treatment of Harry and several fights had already broken out between angry Gryffindors and students from other houses in defense of Harry. Harry, for himself, never struck the first blow and more often then not would allow them to strike him without returning the blow he'd received hoping that by doing so they would stop. It had all been to no avail. The attacks continued, growing more violent as the year progress and in addition to the physical attacks, Harry began receiving threatening notes by owl.
The only solace Harry found was in flying over the Quidditch Pitch in search of the Snitch at practice or during matches. At least there he had only to worry about the Bludgers. While he flew he could leave his troubles behind him on the ground, for a while anyway, and just concentrate on the game. Gryffindor had won their first match, which was against Hufflepuff. It had been very hard for Harry and the rest of the team to play or to even concentrate. The Hufflepuff team was still mourning the loss of Cedric Diggory and had added black armbands to their uniforms in his honor. The match had been a solemn affair and Harry had played with tears in his eyes the entire match remembering everything that had passed that night last June. He was therefore surprised when he found he had caught the Snitch a half an hour into the game. He and the other Gryffindors had claimed their victory in Cedric's name. The Slytherins, who the Gryffindors would play in November, had booed and jeered but the rest of the school had applauded.
Harry smiled briefly at the memory but then he gazed back into the Common Room fire and tried to figure out what was happening. He seemed to be being attacked from all sides by people he thought were at least marginally friendly to him. Something was definitely wrong here and Harry was willing to stake his life that Voldemort had something to do with it…and yet of Him there had been no sign. It was as if Voldemort had never risen or had never existed. Then there was this business with Fudge. Thus far Dumbledore had managed to remain Headmaster but Harry knew it was only a matter of time before he would be forced to leave. Fudge had kept to his attacks on both of them, declaring that Dumbledore and Harry "were hiding a deep dark secret worse then the fact that Harry Potter could speak Parseltongue." Harry stared glumly into the fire, its flickering flames casting his face into shadow. He was tired but he didn't feel like moving, wariness had settled over him like a warm cloak. He was sitting there letting the dancing flames mesmerize him, not really think of anything, when he fell asleep.
He awoke sometime later with a crick in his neck from the position he's been sleeping in and a flash of pain across his scar but in the same instant he'd register the fact that his scar hurt the pain disappeared. He wondered what it meant and he tried to remember what he had been dreaming about but he was unable to. He felt as tense as a harp string that was tuned to high. Something was happening, he was sure of it. He could feel it in the air, like a voice he could hardly hear. Something was very wrong. He looked around the now dark Common Room as if expecting Voldemort to be standing there waiting to spring on him yet there was nothing. Just as he was about to brush off the feeling he was having as false, his scar burned with a searing pain which arced through his body and he tumbled to the floor with his hands pressed over his eyes. His heart thudded in his chest and he lay on the floor dimly aware of the screams, which echoed, in his mind while seeming to be coming from all around him at the same time. He couldn't see anything for the pain that seemed to be splitting his head in two but he saw in his mind's eye a town being attacked by Death Eaters. He saw the Dark Mark light up the sky but it was different then the one he'd seen last summer. There was still a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth but the skull now bore a lightning bolt across its forehead in the exact location of Harry's scar. He looked up at it through a haze of pain and confusion trying to figure out what it meant and then he heard high, cold laughter. Voldemort was there…Harry tried to scramble away from the laughter but he found he was rooted to the spot. The pain in his scar grew more intense and then Voldemort spoke, his hissing voice echoing in Harry's mind.
"This is but a small repayment for the years that I was imprisoned by you. Know this well…one town for each of those 14 years and one friend for each time you escaped me…unless you chose to surrender to me now…"
The pain grew almost impossible to stand; Harry was screaming because of it. He was rolling on the floor, the pain holding him in its grip but still he found the strength somewhere to answer Voldemort.
"NEVER! You'll have to kill me…I'd rather die…" he hissed through clenched teeth.
Voldemort's cruel laugh echoed in his mind again as the pain grew worse.
"Know this then…I will destroy all you hold dear…I will crush you…mind, body and soul…Your name which was once a blessing shall now and forever be cursed…
He glared down at Harry and then reached out a finger to touch his cheek as he had done before. Harry felt a white hot pain in his scar and felt it burning beneath his hand. Harry began to see blackness at the edges of his vision and his screams became louder as his body spasmed with the pain. He tried to will himself to remain conscious but he knew it was a losing battle. The last thing he remembered before he passed out was the sound of running feet and Voldemort's cold voice saying: " Consider this a warning, Potter. You will die as alone and friendless as you once tried to do to me. Harry's vision faded then and he heard, like an echo, Professor Trelawny's voice saying: "alone and friendless".