Disclaimer: I only own the story.
Author's notes: see bottom of page.
Every Time I Close My Eyes – Chapter 17
Harry arrived outside the bathroom at the same time as Mortority. The
Death Eater looked harassed.
"In." He said curtly. Harry stayed where he was, then Mortority pulled out
his wand and gestured with it towards the door. Harry rolled his eyes
theatrically and went inside. As soon as the door closed, Mortority shoved
Harry so hard in the back he slammed into the wall.
"I think it's time to remind you who has the power around here, Harry. I
don't take lightly to disobedience."
"You haven't got any power." Harry spat. " All you are is Voldemort's
lackey." Harry's head hit the wall as Mortority struck him.
"Maybe you'll show the proper respect when you see who's waiting for
you down there."
"I know who's there. I'll do what you want, I'll use the wish the way I'm
supposed to, but don't expect me to bow down to you. Or anyone else."
Harry's head was aching from the blow, but he kept his air of defiance.
Mortority's face was a mixture of bewilderment and fury. He let go of
Harry and gestured at the tap.
"Open it." Harry glared at him as he went past, and he heard the hissing as
he whispered,
"Open."
Ron felt numb all over. He could hear Ginny whispering over and over
again, "This isn't happening, it's not happening." He wanted to comfort
her, but felt he couldn't move. They were all sat in the Headmaster's
office, completely silent except for Ginny's continued mutterings. Fawkes,
Dumbledore's bird, was singing softly, but it hardly made a difference.
His parents were gone, maybe….maybe even…. Ron furiously swiped at a
tear running down his cheek. Dumbledore had insisted there was still
hope, there were signs of a struggle at the Burrow, meaning they had been
alive to fight back. But Ron was assuming the worst. He heard a noise
from behind the door, and looked up as an out of breath Hermione walked
in.
"Malfoy said that…." She trailed off at the sombre faces. "What's
happened?"
As soon as Harry had landed in the passageway he had been grabbed on
both sides. The Death Eaters dragged him roughly to the side as Mortority
landed with a thud. He looked over at Harry, his smug air returning.
"Don't want a repeat of last time's fiasco, do we?" Harry was hardly
listening, he was looking around for any sign of Sirius or the Weasleys.
His cheek was still throbbing, and he briefly wondered how he was going
to explain away a black eye, when Voldemort emerged, followed by three
more Death Eaters.
"Hello again my student. No doubt you know why you are here." Harry
refused to answer.
"Ah, the stubborn Potter streak has not been broken yet I see. Well, just to
make sure you do as you are told…." Harry tensed as Sirius and the
Weasleys were brought out. Ron's parents looked very pale and scared,
but otherwise all right. Sirius's face still bore the bruises Harry had seen
before, but he seemed to wake himself up when he saw Harry. The
Weasleys looked around in confusion, then saw him, eyes widening in
apprehension. Voldemort spoke again.
"You have been disobedient, Harry." Harry hadn't shifted his gaze from
Mrs Weasley's, tears were running down her face as she looked at him.
Harry felt a force turn his whole body around. Voldemort had his wand
out.
"Look at me, Harry, when I speak to you. I thought you had learnt more
by now. You have to stop resisting me. Crucio." Harry had expected it. He
bit his lip so hard it bled, his breathing became slow and erratic, but he did
not cry out. The only cries came from Mr and Mrs Weasley as they
watched, helpless. The pain stopped, and Harry got control of himself
before opening his watering eyes.
The death Eaters holding him had relaxed their grip as he had fallen limp,
and he used this to his advantage. He twisted his arms out of their hands,
violently shoving the one on the right backwards. He threw his elbow
backwards and heard the air forced out of the other one's lungs. Wand in
hand, he ran towards the captives, then "SMACK". Harry fell to the floor
stunned. There was something stopping him from reaching Sirius,
something invisible but as hard as a wall. The Death Eaters took
advantage of his confusion and yanked him to his feet. One got out his
wand, when a voice said "Stop!".
Instead of looking angry, Voldemort looked amused.
"Well done, my student. Resistance is the key to power, a lesson you have
learnt without my help it seems. You would have made me a powerful
ally, pity I will have to kill you when this is over." The Death Eaters
laughed, an eerie sound that echoed down the stone passageways. Harry
gave Sirius a helpless look, which was returned by a look of pity.
Lupin paced backwards and forwards in Dumbledore's office. The
Weasleys and Hermione had gone to the hospital wing for some privacy,
and Dumbledore had gone to check on the students in the Great Hall. They
had both arrived back from the Hall to find Hermione had snuck in after
hearing a rumour of some kind. She had been too distressed to tell them
much, but Dumbledore thought it best to tell the students the truth before
the rumours got out of hand.
Lupin stopped pacing to stroke Fawkes the phoenix. He wanted to help in
some way, but felt redundant. Dumbledore had asked him to come to
"have another pair of friendly eyes in Hogwarts" as he put it. He had
readily agreed to come, he wanted to be involved and take his mind of
Sirius' disappearance. He had only been in the vicinity a few hours when
he knew who he should be watching. Harry. He had changed so much
since they had last met. He had a wary look that he tried to hide, and
seemed…distant. Lupin sighed as the phoenix bent it's head towards him.
He didn't know what to do here, and being watched like something
dangerous by that new teacher didn't help. He felt the anger rise again
when he thought of it, "…don't shake hands with mongrels." Lupin was
used to prejudice, but it was rarely so blatant. He had spoken to Hermione
about Harry, and she had told him about the first ever wish. That had
explained Dumbledore's letter about Harry attacking Ron. It still seemed a
little out of character, but Harry had changed an awful lot since the
Triwizard Tournament. Who could blame him for chasing his one dream?
Lupin looked up as Dumbledore entered.
"The second round is being postponed until tomorrow. I would like to
make it even later, but perhaps it is best to get it out of the way." Lupin
snorted.
"The Geolite should never have been sent here in the first place. What was
the Ministry thinking?" Dumbledore sat, resting his chin on his hands.
"Who knows, Remus. No doubt we will know the truth, eventually."
Lupin had also been surprised by the change in the Headmaster. Part of
his spark seemed to have gone. He no longer had to remind himself that
Dumbledore was a very old man.
"Will Fred and Ginny still compete?"
"No. I advised against it and they agreed." Lupin had never met Ron's
parents, but empathised. Such young people shouldn't have to go through
so much. That disturbing thought brought his mind back to Harry.
"And Harry?"
"I don't know. He wasn't in the Hall."
"Does he know about the Weasleys?"
"I'm certain of it. If not through someone else, he will know." Lupin
remembered Sirius telling him about Harry's strange connection through
his dreams to Voldemort. Harry would have known before anyone else.
"Maybe I should go and find him….."
"He'll be all right Remus. Unfortunately, perhaps, he has learnt to deal
with these dreams. He's probably sat with Ron and Hermione right now."
Harry sat up, dazed, as Mortority was speaking. He had magicked them
from the Chamber and back up the pipes, hurling Harry onto the cold tiled
floor in the process. He was reminding him to do everything he was told.
"…and remember, I see everything that goes on here. All you have to do
to get those people killed is open your mouth." Harry used the wall to get
back to his feet. He remembered how Mr Weasley had called out to him to
keep resisting as they were dragged away, but he also remembered hearing
his screaming.
"I won't say anything. What do I do next?"
"You win the second round. Then after the third round is over, you will be
escorted to a magically secured room which has been enchanted by
Dumbledore to only allow the winner entrance. You will make the wish
for a Philosopher's stone, then when it is delivered to the Dark Lord, the
captives will be released."
"How do I know he'll release them?"
"You don't. Plus, I fully expect you to be dead one way or another."
"If he doesn't release them he won't get the stone." Harry said grimly. He
wasn't afraid of dying. It was Ron's family and Sirius he was doing this
for.
"We'll see." Said Mortority, checking outside and gesturing for Harry to
leave.
Draco was wandering around aimlessly. It looked like the second round
was off for that day. He had realised something was up, but not what. He
had been surprised to find himself sympathetic towards the Weasleys. He
wondered how he'd feel if his parents went missing. Probably elated, he
thought with a twisted smile. He was certain Mortority had some sort of
power over Potter, either the Imperious Curse or something else. But
couldn't Harry resist the curse? He had heard his father cursing about that
for some time. Just as he was wondering whether now was the time to
confront Harry, a door opened ahead of him. It was a bathroom door, and
he was a little surprised to see Harry and Mortority come out of it,
especially as it was a girl's bathroom. Harry's face was swollen, he looked
like someone had punched him. His eyes widened as he spotted Draco
ahead of him, and he glanced quickly at Mortority. Mortority looked very
angry.
"Malfoy……" he said, his voice seething. Draco heard the clicking of
heels on the floor behind him. Professor McGonagall was heading this
way.
"Potter, Dumbledore has sent me to check on you." She looked at his face,
then from Mortority to Draco. "What happened here?" There was a pause,
then Mortority said in a strained voice,
"I just caught these two in a brawl. Malfoy hit Potter in the face." Draco
saw Harry's face darken and he glared at the Professor, but he was too
busy feeling angry himself.
"What? No I didn't!" Mortority continued with a glare,
"No point lying about it. I'm handling it Minerva, I've given him a
detention and….lets say, 30 points from Slytherin." Draco was about to
protest more when McGonagall said,
"Oh. Very well Professor. If your finished with Potter…."
Mortority looked Harry in the eyes and said,
"I think we're done."
Harry followed Professor McGonagall silently down the corridors towards
Dumbledore's office. He knew it would be something to do with the
Weasleys and he would have to lie to the Headmaster. The professor left
him outside the open door feeling utterly depressed. Only a week, he
reminded himself. Hold together for a week. He took a deep breath and
stepped onto the stairs.
"Ah Harry....whatever happened to your face?" Harry decided he might as
well stick to Mortority's lie.
"I got into a fight with Malfoy." Dumbledore raised his eyebrows, but
when Harry didn't offer anything more, dropped the subject.
"Harry, I take it you know of recent events concerning the Weasleys."
Harry nodded grimly. "How are they?" He asked.
"About as well as can be expected. Harry, how did you find out?"
Dumbledore fixed him in his twinkling gaze. Harry couldn't think of
anything else, so said,
"I dreamt it."
"I thought you might have done. Did you see what happened?"
"Um, I can't really remember much. I just know someone took them."
Harry knew it was a pathetic lie, but Dumbledore was a very hard man to
lie to. Dumbledore regarded him a moment longer, then said,
"I see. Well, perhaps you'd like to see Ron and his siblings?" Harry
nodded, and followed Dumbledore out of the room.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Author's notes: alrighty, some unpleasantness to get out of the way first.
Whoever sent me that nasty e-mail, get yourself a life. I don't care how
much you want the next part. If I knew your pen name you'd find yourself
on the blacklist. So everyone knows, if this person sends me another e-
mail like that then this story will be deleted, so I suggest you appeal to
them if you don't want that to happen. As you may have noticed, it pissed
me off quite a bit. Anyway, next part tomorrow, second round action, and
people are closing in on Mortority's web of lies.
Author's notes: see bottom of page.
Every Time I Close My Eyes – Chapter 17
Harry arrived outside the bathroom at the same time as Mortority. The
Death Eater looked harassed.
"In." He said curtly. Harry stayed where he was, then Mortority pulled out
his wand and gestured with it towards the door. Harry rolled his eyes
theatrically and went inside. As soon as the door closed, Mortority shoved
Harry so hard in the back he slammed into the wall.
"I think it's time to remind you who has the power around here, Harry. I
don't take lightly to disobedience."
"You haven't got any power." Harry spat. " All you are is Voldemort's
lackey." Harry's head hit the wall as Mortority struck him.
"Maybe you'll show the proper respect when you see who's waiting for
you down there."
"I know who's there. I'll do what you want, I'll use the wish the way I'm
supposed to, but don't expect me to bow down to you. Or anyone else."
Harry's head was aching from the blow, but he kept his air of defiance.
Mortority's face was a mixture of bewilderment and fury. He let go of
Harry and gestured at the tap.
"Open it." Harry glared at him as he went past, and he heard the hissing as
he whispered,
"Open."
Ron felt numb all over. He could hear Ginny whispering over and over
again, "This isn't happening, it's not happening." He wanted to comfort
her, but felt he couldn't move. They were all sat in the Headmaster's
office, completely silent except for Ginny's continued mutterings. Fawkes,
Dumbledore's bird, was singing softly, but it hardly made a difference.
His parents were gone, maybe….maybe even…. Ron furiously swiped at a
tear running down his cheek. Dumbledore had insisted there was still
hope, there were signs of a struggle at the Burrow, meaning they had been
alive to fight back. But Ron was assuming the worst. He heard a noise
from behind the door, and looked up as an out of breath Hermione walked
in.
"Malfoy said that…." She trailed off at the sombre faces. "What's
happened?"
As soon as Harry had landed in the passageway he had been grabbed on
both sides. The Death Eaters dragged him roughly to the side as Mortority
landed with a thud. He looked over at Harry, his smug air returning.
"Don't want a repeat of last time's fiasco, do we?" Harry was hardly
listening, he was looking around for any sign of Sirius or the Weasleys.
His cheek was still throbbing, and he briefly wondered how he was going
to explain away a black eye, when Voldemort emerged, followed by three
more Death Eaters.
"Hello again my student. No doubt you know why you are here." Harry
refused to answer.
"Ah, the stubborn Potter streak has not been broken yet I see. Well, just to
make sure you do as you are told…." Harry tensed as Sirius and the
Weasleys were brought out. Ron's parents looked very pale and scared,
but otherwise all right. Sirius's face still bore the bruises Harry had seen
before, but he seemed to wake himself up when he saw Harry. The
Weasleys looked around in confusion, then saw him, eyes widening in
apprehension. Voldemort spoke again.
"You have been disobedient, Harry." Harry hadn't shifted his gaze from
Mrs Weasley's, tears were running down her face as she looked at him.
Harry felt a force turn his whole body around. Voldemort had his wand
out.
"Look at me, Harry, when I speak to you. I thought you had learnt more
by now. You have to stop resisting me. Crucio." Harry had expected it. He
bit his lip so hard it bled, his breathing became slow and erratic, but he did
not cry out. The only cries came from Mr and Mrs Weasley as they
watched, helpless. The pain stopped, and Harry got control of himself
before opening his watering eyes.
The death Eaters holding him had relaxed their grip as he had fallen limp,
and he used this to his advantage. He twisted his arms out of their hands,
violently shoving the one on the right backwards. He threw his elbow
backwards and heard the air forced out of the other one's lungs. Wand in
hand, he ran towards the captives, then "SMACK". Harry fell to the floor
stunned. There was something stopping him from reaching Sirius,
something invisible but as hard as a wall. The Death Eaters took
advantage of his confusion and yanked him to his feet. One got out his
wand, when a voice said "Stop!".
Instead of looking angry, Voldemort looked amused.
"Well done, my student. Resistance is the key to power, a lesson you have
learnt without my help it seems. You would have made me a powerful
ally, pity I will have to kill you when this is over." The Death Eaters
laughed, an eerie sound that echoed down the stone passageways. Harry
gave Sirius a helpless look, which was returned by a look of pity.
Lupin paced backwards and forwards in Dumbledore's office. The
Weasleys and Hermione had gone to the hospital wing for some privacy,
and Dumbledore had gone to check on the students in the Great Hall. They
had both arrived back from the Hall to find Hermione had snuck in after
hearing a rumour of some kind. She had been too distressed to tell them
much, but Dumbledore thought it best to tell the students the truth before
the rumours got out of hand.
Lupin stopped pacing to stroke Fawkes the phoenix. He wanted to help in
some way, but felt redundant. Dumbledore had asked him to come to
"have another pair of friendly eyes in Hogwarts" as he put it. He had
readily agreed to come, he wanted to be involved and take his mind of
Sirius' disappearance. He had only been in the vicinity a few hours when
he knew who he should be watching. Harry. He had changed so much
since they had last met. He had a wary look that he tried to hide, and
seemed…distant. Lupin sighed as the phoenix bent it's head towards him.
He didn't know what to do here, and being watched like something
dangerous by that new teacher didn't help. He felt the anger rise again
when he thought of it, "…don't shake hands with mongrels." Lupin was
used to prejudice, but it was rarely so blatant. He had spoken to Hermione
about Harry, and she had told him about the first ever wish. That had
explained Dumbledore's letter about Harry attacking Ron. It still seemed a
little out of character, but Harry had changed an awful lot since the
Triwizard Tournament. Who could blame him for chasing his one dream?
Lupin looked up as Dumbledore entered.
"The second round is being postponed until tomorrow. I would like to
make it even later, but perhaps it is best to get it out of the way." Lupin
snorted.
"The Geolite should never have been sent here in the first place. What was
the Ministry thinking?" Dumbledore sat, resting his chin on his hands.
"Who knows, Remus. No doubt we will know the truth, eventually."
Lupin had also been surprised by the change in the Headmaster. Part of
his spark seemed to have gone. He no longer had to remind himself that
Dumbledore was a very old man.
"Will Fred and Ginny still compete?"
"No. I advised against it and they agreed." Lupin had never met Ron's
parents, but empathised. Such young people shouldn't have to go through
so much. That disturbing thought brought his mind back to Harry.
"And Harry?"
"I don't know. He wasn't in the Hall."
"Does he know about the Weasleys?"
"I'm certain of it. If not through someone else, he will know." Lupin
remembered Sirius telling him about Harry's strange connection through
his dreams to Voldemort. Harry would have known before anyone else.
"Maybe I should go and find him….."
"He'll be all right Remus. Unfortunately, perhaps, he has learnt to deal
with these dreams. He's probably sat with Ron and Hermione right now."
Harry sat up, dazed, as Mortority was speaking. He had magicked them
from the Chamber and back up the pipes, hurling Harry onto the cold tiled
floor in the process. He was reminding him to do everything he was told.
"…and remember, I see everything that goes on here. All you have to do
to get those people killed is open your mouth." Harry used the wall to get
back to his feet. He remembered how Mr Weasley had called out to him to
keep resisting as they were dragged away, but he also remembered hearing
his screaming.
"I won't say anything. What do I do next?"
"You win the second round. Then after the third round is over, you will be
escorted to a magically secured room which has been enchanted by
Dumbledore to only allow the winner entrance. You will make the wish
for a Philosopher's stone, then when it is delivered to the Dark Lord, the
captives will be released."
"How do I know he'll release them?"
"You don't. Plus, I fully expect you to be dead one way or another."
"If he doesn't release them he won't get the stone." Harry said grimly. He
wasn't afraid of dying. It was Ron's family and Sirius he was doing this
for.
"We'll see." Said Mortority, checking outside and gesturing for Harry to
leave.
Draco was wandering around aimlessly. It looked like the second round
was off for that day. He had realised something was up, but not what. He
had been surprised to find himself sympathetic towards the Weasleys. He
wondered how he'd feel if his parents went missing. Probably elated, he
thought with a twisted smile. He was certain Mortority had some sort of
power over Potter, either the Imperious Curse or something else. But
couldn't Harry resist the curse? He had heard his father cursing about that
for some time. Just as he was wondering whether now was the time to
confront Harry, a door opened ahead of him. It was a bathroom door, and
he was a little surprised to see Harry and Mortority come out of it,
especially as it was a girl's bathroom. Harry's face was swollen, he looked
like someone had punched him. His eyes widened as he spotted Draco
ahead of him, and he glanced quickly at Mortority. Mortority looked very
angry.
"Malfoy……" he said, his voice seething. Draco heard the clicking of
heels on the floor behind him. Professor McGonagall was heading this
way.
"Potter, Dumbledore has sent me to check on you." She looked at his face,
then from Mortority to Draco. "What happened here?" There was a pause,
then Mortority said in a strained voice,
"I just caught these two in a brawl. Malfoy hit Potter in the face." Draco
saw Harry's face darken and he glared at the Professor, but he was too
busy feeling angry himself.
"What? No I didn't!" Mortority continued with a glare,
"No point lying about it. I'm handling it Minerva, I've given him a
detention and….lets say, 30 points from Slytherin." Draco was about to
protest more when McGonagall said,
"Oh. Very well Professor. If your finished with Potter…."
Mortority looked Harry in the eyes and said,
"I think we're done."
Harry followed Professor McGonagall silently down the corridors towards
Dumbledore's office. He knew it would be something to do with the
Weasleys and he would have to lie to the Headmaster. The professor left
him outside the open door feeling utterly depressed. Only a week, he
reminded himself. Hold together for a week. He took a deep breath and
stepped onto the stairs.
"Ah Harry....whatever happened to your face?" Harry decided he might as
well stick to Mortority's lie.
"I got into a fight with Malfoy." Dumbledore raised his eyebrows, but
when Harry didn't offer anything more, dropped the subject.
"Harry, I take it you know of recent events concerning the Weasleys."
Harry nodded grimly. "How are they?" He asked.
"About as well as can be expected. Harry, how did you find out?"
Dumbledore fixed him in his twinkling gaze. Harry couldn't think of
anything else, so said,
"I dreamt it."
"I thought you might have done. Did you see what happened?"
"Um, I can't really remember much. I just know someone took them."
Harry knew it was a pathetic lie, but Dumbledore was a very hard man to
lie to. Dumbledore regarded him a moment longer, then said,
"I see. Well, perhaps you'd like to see Ron and his siblings?" Harry
nodded, and followed Dumbledore out of the room.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Author's notes: alrighty, some unpleasantness to get out of the way first.
Whoever sent me that nasty e-mail, get yourself a life. I don't care how
much you want the next part. If I knew your pen name you'd find yourself
on the blacklist. So everyone knows, if this person sends me another e-
mail like that then this story will be deleted, so I suggest you appeal to
them if you don't want that to happen. As you may have noticed, it pissed
me off quite a bit. Anyway, next part tomorrow, second round action, and
people are closing in on Mortority's web of lies.