And When The Dawn Begins
Chapter 9 – Help is at hand
What happened to Harry after chapter 7……….
"Take Mr Potter to the cells, Crabbe, and be quick about it." Voldemort sneered, as the death eater dragged an unconscious Harry from the room. He sat on his chair at the head of the room, seemingly thinking about something, his fingers tapping the arm.
"We have finally done it then master, Potter is no longer a problem?"
"Yes, Wormtail, but I feel there is something further for our Mr Potter. No, he shall not be killed just yet. Go check on him, Wormtail, and inform me when our esteemed guest has awoken."
**
Harry woke up to a pounding pain in his head, and tried desperately to remember an event that could have caused it. Events slowly seeped into his extremely muddled brain, and slowly, but surely, a full picture was formed. He groaned, opened his eyes and looked around at the cell, which, for a cell, was actually quite comfortable.
"Perhaps they like to lull prisoners into a sense of false security before horribly murdering them." He thought sadistically.
He was broken from that particular chain of thought as a key was turned in the door, and rather fat, short man stepped in.
Pettigrew.
Harry frowned at the man, who nervously wrung his hands in front of him, and stuttered,
"You're awake then?"
"No, I'm in a comatose state with my eyes open, which allows me to talk."
Pettigrew didn't seem to get the sarcasm, but laughed nervously, before starting to turn around to leave.
"Are you happy here, Pettigrew?" Harry asked icily.
"My master is a great Lord, and treats me with great kindness.."
"Your Lord made you cut off your hand."
"It was for a good cause." Pettigrew said, speaking with more venom, standing up tall. Harry advanced on him, pressing him back against the stone wall.
"This good cause, has, and will kill many people, and you are to blame. Are you happy about that?"
Pettigrew smiled icily, and nodded.
Harry started to walk away, before spinning around and knocking Peter against the wall, making blood stream from his mouth. Whilst Pettigrew was in a momentary lapse of thought, Harry dashed for the door, scanning the area for people. Finding none, he fled down the corridor, running faster than he had ever before.
He found a small wooden door, and hastily opened it and stepped into a dark room. As his eyes adjusted to light, he found himself facing around a dozen death eaters, hoods drawn up over their heads.
"Heh heh, er, wrong room."
Before any of the hooded strangers could react, Harry bolted from the room and continued down the corridor, spurred on by the shouts of his pursuing captors. He turned corner after corner, avoiding several doors and spiky looking objects, which he thought could not be anything good, and were best left alone. He finally turned one last corner and saw light at the end. He ran towards it, speeding up all the time, the light drawing him forward. He was only a few feet way from freedom, just a little further and-
But as he got to the light, he skidded to a halt. He looked around and found it was not the daylight, but a large fire, behind it a throne, seated on which was a red-eyed serpentine man.
Bloody Hell. Harry said to himself. You really do follow danger about, Potter.
"So – our guest is awake it seems," Voldemort sneered, one eyebrow raised questionably, "and quite well by the looks of things."
As he finished speaking, several hooded figures, including one rather bloody Pettigrew, stumbled into the room, trembling as they saw who Potter had been found by.
"Well, Harry, it seems you have more initiative than I originally gave credit for." The serpent eyes turned to look at the men panting in the doorway, " and certainly more physical fitness. Pettigrew – perhaps you should take lessons in defence from our little friend here."
Harry stood there, slightly puzzled that he wasn't dead yet and growing more angry by the minute at Riddle's games, whatever they were.
"No, I won't kill you just yet, Harry" he sneered, seemingly reading Harry's mind, "I want to offer you a proposal." He narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Join our side, and live."
"NEVER!" Harry screamed, sounding a lot braver than he felt.
"We shall see Potter, Crucio."
Harry writhed in pain, but refused to scream out, biting down on his lip to stop the screams coming. He fell to his knees, eyes watering, hands shaking, blood flowing as his teeth pierced his lip.
When the spell was finally released, Harry shook his head slightly, wiping one arm over his forehead to remove the sweat, and stood up shakily.
"Well. The boy knows how to suffer properly." Voldemort said. "Tie him up."
Harry struggled against the cords that were surrounding him, but was overpowered, and was left wrapped in ropes, a gag over his mouth.
"Malfoy, Wormtail, over here." Riddle beckoned. The two hurriedly walked over, and stood in front of their master, Pettigrew trembling slightly. "I believe that there is something about Potter we have yet to witness, but it is only a suspicion." He paused, seemingly considering something. "I want you both to stand in front of him, and shout at him, insult his friends, family, anything. I need to see what happens."
The two death eaters looked at each other, wondering what was going on, but quickly rushed off to do their masters bidding. They stood directly in front of Harry, and started.
"You have no friends Potter, if you had friends you wouldn't be here – they only like you because you're famous – why aren't they saving you?" Pettigrew was silent, watching as his partner spoke icily towards Potter, never once raising his voice, an eerie calm about him.
Harry listened to his comments with increasing anger. It's not true, he told himself, it's not true. SHUT UP. His brow furrowed in annoyance, and his eyes narrowed in concentration.
After 5 minutes, Malfoy had still failed to get anything that could be considered a reaction out of Harry. He glanced at Voldemort, and kept going. Finally Pettigrew spoke up,
"You're nothing but the child of a whore and an imbocile."
That got the reaction they were looking for. Harry strained against the ropes in an attempt to get to Wormtail, anger flaming in his eyes. Pettigrew stepped back as Harry advanced on him, forgetting all about the other people in the room. He narrowed his eyes, yet still glared at Pettigrew. A strange glow surrounded him, and Pettigrew began to glance around the room nervously, looking for help. Suddenly, the white glow surrounding Harry sped towards Pettigrew, who was thrown against the far wall, and then pinned to it by several large swords, which had been on the wall. Wormtail took one look at the sword an inch away from his head, before slumping onto the floor in a dead faint. Harry calmly walked up to him, and kicked him hard in the side.
He was broken from his deadly concentration, by clapping.
"Bravo, Mr Potter."
Harry spun around as quickly as he could without losing his balance.
Voldemort was sat lazily in his 'throne', clapping loudly, attracting many odd glances from his followers.
"You will be of great use, when you agree to join our side, we will train you to use these abilities."
Harry started trying to shout his arguments through the gag placed over his mouth.
"Oh, you will, it just takes time. Now, take him away, and make sure you put the apparition cuffs on."
He glanced at Harry.
"We wouldn't want him to escape again now, would we?"
**
Harry sat despondently in his cell once again, thinking about ways in which he could have escaped his current situation. Wishing he had stayed friends with Ron and Hermione, hoping that everyone knew he was really their friend. He looked at his surroundings, a bed, a window, a single light bulb, still, it was more than he could have hoped for. He stared out of the window, the forest at the feet of the cold stone mansion looking dark and menacing. Harry thought that, if he strained his eyes, he could see Hogwarts in the far distance. But - he reasoned - that could very easily be wishful thinking.
As he continued to stare into the far distance, he found himself wanting to jump out, ignoring the bars, and fly towards the lights pinpointed in the distance. The lights seemed to dance in the fog, flickering from side to side, playing in a strange game of tag, moving ever closer towards him. It was when these strange lights were only about a foot from him, that he began to worry slightly, stepping back away from the window. The lights came faster, zooming through the window, still playing their odd games.
"I told you, we shouldn't have gone in the forest!"
"And I told you not to be such a stick in the mud!"
"Look you two, quit it, we're not supposed to be here, you don't want to announce our presence do you?"
"Doesn't matter, nobody can see us anyway!"
"One in two-"
"Okay, a very small number of people."
"None of which will be in a place like this, so give it a rest, this is the nearest place, be glad we escaped that spider!"
"I thought he was friendly,"
"I wasn't about to stick around and find out!"
"Er- guys?"
Oops, spotted…..
A silence fell across the room, as the lights turned towards Harry, who was coming closer, looking at them in awe. Stood on the windowsill, a luminescent light surrounding them, were three tiny fairies. Each one dressed in intricate dresses made of green leaves and orange petals, tiny, delicate wings emerging from their backs, hats made of little bluebells on their heads. They started to make a quick retreat from the room, but Harry shouted out,
"No wait, stop – I won't hurt you!"
They came to a halt and flitted back to where Harry was standing, placing themselves directly in front of his face, so much so, that Harry was almost looking cross-eyed towards them.
"I never saw a real fairy before.."
The three seemed to huddle together, discussing something. Finally, the one that seemed to be the eldest, flew forward.
"You shouldn't be able to now either. It is a very rare gift, to be able to see fairies, possessed by very few magical people. We," She said, spreading her arms to include the other two, "are the three sisters, Ellie, Eugenia and Adelina, from the Glen of Trinity, deep within the Great Oak."
"Ellie, we shouldn't be talking to him, he resides in the forbidden place – he's evil!" The smallest of the three hid anxiously behind her sister, eyes looking Harry up and down.
Harry rolled his eyes slightly, in an exasperated manner.
"Does it look like I'm here by choice?"
He raised his arms as high as he could, which, as they were chained behind his back, was not very high. The three flew quickly around Harry, and began to examine the cuffs.
"Oh, you are a prisoner of the dark one," the younger child said sheepishly, "I'm sorry."
"What is your name, young sir?"
"Oh, sorry, I'm Harry, Harry Potter."
"Oh gracious, The Harry Potter, what an honour!"
"But what are you doing in here?" The eldest enquired.
"Trying to think of a way to get out," Harry answered distractedly.
"Perhaps we could help, you should not be in here, young man."
"I know that."
"How did you get caught anyway?" The smallest asked inquisitively,
"Adelina, don't be impertinent!"
"It's OK, really," Harry said quickly, not wanting to get he youngest in trouble. " My friend hit me over the head with a candlestick."
Seeing the sister's eyes widen in shock, he added as an afterthought,
"I think he was under the Imperius Curse at the time."
The fairies suddenly froze, and then zoomed towards the door, leaning out of the bars.
"Someone's coming, quick, hide!" Harry said.
"No need," Ellie said, smiling, "no-one with an impure heart can see us, even with the ability too, we won't find anybody else like that in here"
"We'll stay by your side,"
"We cannot abandon the great Harry Potter!"
The key turned in the lock, and the door was pushed open. Two cloaked figures strode into the room, seizing Harry by the upper arms, and dragging him from the room. Harry lost track of the number of corridors he was pulled down, but eventually recognised the large room as the one he had been in only 5 hours previously. The members of the Dark Lord's following were surrounding the perimeter, as Harry was shoved into the middle. The three sisters followed him carefully, reassuring him that things would be fine.
"So, Potter, have we changed our minds?"
"No," Harry said slowly, "and I never will."
"I know you were given such a small amount of time to make such a very important decision, but things move fast in this little part of the world - people are punished for their mistakes quickly."
Harry was turned around, and forced to face Voldemort, whose held in his hand Harry's wand, idly twirling it, before laying it on a table. He then raised his own wand, and proceeded to subject Harry to a series of Dark Arts curses, only a few of which Harry remained standing for. When the procedure was finally finished, Harry feebly tried to drag himself to his feet, failing miserably, and landing with a thump on the floor. Voldemort glanced at him, and called to his death eaters to leave the room, before leaving himself.
Harry wearily looked around the empty room, and realised it was the perfect opportunity for an escape attempt, but, in his present state, he could barely move. He groaned as he realised Voldemort knew this, and had left him to dwell on his own incapability.
"Harry?"
Harry looked up to see the sisters in front of him, lights glowing softly.
"Are you OK?"
"Of course he's not OK, look at him – can't you fix him Ellie?"
"Of course I can, who else has passed their healing magic course?"
Harry felt extremely slow listening to the fairies quick banter, and rested his head on his arms, leaving them to it. By the time they had finally finished, Harry was able to stand, thanks to the healing spells. He glanced around, trying to decide which route to take, avoiding people. He eventually set off through a small door at the far end of the room, and, finding nobody on the other side of it, set off down the hallway. He continued down different halls, looking for inconspicuous doors, that did not call attention to them. He finally opened one last door, and found the forest on the other side of it. He ran forward into the forward, mindless of the dangers it held, and started to make his way through. Suddenly, a strange green mist surrounded him, and he felt himself literally dissolving into the air…
**
Pettigrew followed the other death eaters out of the room and glanced nervously about him. He watched in wonder as Voldemort left Potter alone in the room.
"M-master, should someone not be watching Potter?"
"Are you questioning my methods, Wormtail?"
"N-no, master, never, bu-"
"Leave him for 10 minutes, and then go in."
Pettigrew did just that, but, upon entering after 5 minutes, he found the room empty. He ran in terror from the room to alert his master to the situation.
"Potter has escaped, Lord – he's gone!"
Voldemort's thin mouth twisted into something resembling a smile, and he arched his fingers under his nose.
"Excellent, the boy has stamina, will he not be the perfect addition to our side, Wormtail? Now, to bring him back. He flicked the wand in his hand, and watched as an astounded Harry Potter reappeared in the main chamber.
**
10 minutes later and Harry was once more in his cell, this time with a blindfold on, and a bag over his head. He was sure that his friends were still there, however, as they kept up their incessant bickering.
"I still say that if we united our powers, we could remove the wall, and float him down."
"We don't have enough power!"
"Well we should go fetch the others then."
"They'll never come, we should never have come!"
"Then Harry would be all alone, and helpless."
"And he isn't now?"
They suddenly seemed to realise that Harry was actually in the room, looked at him, and then continued talking. Harry groaned, and continued to hum to himself.
Another half an hour had passed before an idea was finally reached. The sisters placed their arms on Harry, and then all four aimed at the wall, which shook, and then popped out of existence. Harry walked forward, before the three grabbed him and pulled him back., studying the remarkably long drop to the ground.
"It's a deception spell." Ellie remarked,
"Trust her, she'd know," Adelina said with slight grimace.
"Just jump out," Eugenia suggested, " and don't look down."
Harry snorted. "It's not like I could." He voice was slightly muffled, but could clearly be heard – obviously the bag was not soundproof.
Harry crossed his fingers and thanked whoever had covered his eyes, he dreaded to think how high up they were, before jumping, and landing with a thud on the soft grass. He stood up carefully, and started walking forward. He didn't get very far before he walked into a rock and fell to the floor again.
"Okay, well this obviously isn't going to work." Eugenia said, giggling.
"We'll give you directions, and you follow them." Ellie, ever the sensible one, remarked.
"Okay," Harry replied, "do you know where Hogwarts is?"
"Sure!" Adelina said.
And so, the strange quartet set off through the forest. To the watcher, this was an extremely odd scene – nobody could see the three sisters, only Harry, talking to himself, with a bag over his head, occasionally stumbling or slipping.
After what seemed to be an age of walking, and several painful accidents, Harry stopped, aggrivated, and demanded.
"Are you sure I'm going the right way?"
The sisters made aggravated noises, declaring that they were out of the forest.
"Which way now then?"
"Left, I think," Adelina said timidly.
"Which left?" Harry said slowly
"What do you mean? Why?" Ellie said, "Left! Left is left"
"Why?! Because last time you said turn left, I walked into a tree!"
"Okay, your left, the side your left arm is on –I honestly thought you were more intelligent, really."
"Right then." Harry turned, and carefully walked in the direction he had been sent.
"Ooh – ooh – Ellie, look – people, look!" Adelina excitedly squealed.
"What do you mean there are people?" Harry said quickly.
"There's a huge group of people, straight in front – they're all wizards too!"
"Which way?"
"I told you," Adelina said in an annoyed tone, "straight ahead!"
"Maybe they can help then."
Harry walked carefully forward, but as quickly as he could, anxious to reach the people.
"Right, you're in front of them now," Eugenia whispered.
Harry stood silently for a minute, waiting to see if anyone would react to his presence. When nobody did, he timidly called out,
"Er - hello?"
**(You already know from there, so the story skips to after Harry disappeared now – ok? Well, you don't have a say in it anyway – that's what I've decided.)**
Harry re-emerged on the dusty floor of the now familiar main chamber, banging his fists on the floor in an aggravated manner.
"Well Potter, I hope you are happy." Voldemort sneered, "you just ruined a perfectly formed plan."
Harry said nothing, glaring at his enemy, unmindful of the other people in the room.
"Everyone now knows the body was a fake, and now knows you are alive." He looked at Harry. "Oh yes, Potter, everyone thought you were dead, quite amusing really. Anyway, so now our time is cut short – there will be rescue attempts soon, it is therefore important that you are not wanted back. You will no longer have an option as to whether you join our side or not, Potter, you will, by force."
Harry winced as the Cruciatus spell was thrown in his direction again, and he felt the now familiar flood of pain wash over him. (flooded Britain – everyone has floods on the brain…sorry…)
**
"But you're sure you saw him Ron, it wasn't just my imagination, he's really alive?"
"For the thousandth time, Hermione, yes! Harry's alive – everyone saw it with their own eyes!"
"Well what am I doing in the infirmary then, we need to get out there and save him!"
"Slow down, Hermione, let's get Lunch first, you might be more rational then – you don't want to get yourself killed!"
"OK, lets head for the hall."
The two friends swept towards the hall, a slight bounce in their step, a smile plastered on their faces. People long the corridors were excitedly whispering, smiling happily.
The hall was alive with gossip, everyone discussing the events, which had passed. Dumbledore stood up to talk, a wide smile on his face.
"Let us raise our glasses, students, to Harry Potter, who it seems is more alive than was originally thought!"
There was a great cheer at this statement - even the majority of the Slytherins were smiling.
"Let us hope that he will be rejoining us here at Hogwarts, and that it will be as soon as possible.
More cheering, with many people stomping their glasses on the table, and their feet on the floor. Slowly though, a hush spread through the hall, as 3 hooded figures stepped through the main doors. People screamed as two removed their hoods to reveal Voldemort and Wormtail. These two were holding the third figure firmly by the arms, and slowly removed his hood for him.
Harry stared in horror as he realised he was in the great hall.
"NO!" he screamed, "I won't hurt any of them – and you can't make me!"
Voldemort sneered. "I believe I can Potter, and I believe I will." He looked for a moment at the headmaster, "You really need to upgrade the apparition guards on this place, old man, they're failing."
The hall then watched in horror as Harry was placed under the Cruciatus spell, admiring his bravery,
but fearing for what was to come. The curse was finally lifted, and Voldemort ordered Harry to aim at somebody with the Avada Kedavra curse.
"I won't – I'm not joining you – I'd rather die!"
"You will, Potter, and everyone will be here to witness it, Crucio."
People's screams echoed around the room, only to be broken by the sound of the serpentine man muttering "Imperio"
There was a pause, as everyone waited with bated breath. Harry slowly spun around, a glazed look in his eyes.
"Ron, it's too much – one on top of the other, he can't escape it!"
"Of course he can Herm - sure he can.."
Riddle looked around the hall, his eyes resting on Hermione and Ron, sat at the Gryffindor table.
"How perfect, to start your career Potter, by killing one of those you held so dear. Miss Granger, please be standing."
Hermione froze in her seat, terror locking her every bone. Finally, Voldemort raised his wand towards he, and she felt herself dragged to a standing position, facing the trio stood in the door.
"Now then Potter, kill her."
Hermione glanced in terror at Harry, and tried despearately to run away. She was forced to watch him, his arm raised towards her, eyes narrowed to deadly slits. Suddenly she saw his lips move, but they weren't forming a spell. He was mouthing something towards her.
PRETEND
Then, a green light shot of his hand, heading straight for her heart. She crumpled in a boneless heap on the floor.
Voldemort laughed heartlessly.
"And so it begins, a new reign on terror!"
With that he swept from the room, taking Pettigrew and Harry with him, his laughter echoing down the corridor.
"Herm? Please – don't be dead – please!"
Ron fell to his knees next to Hermione, desperately shaking her, tears falling down his cheeks.
The hall waited with bated breath.
A small voice spoke up.
"Are they gone?"
Ron looked down, and saw Hermione, one eye open slightly, a grin on her face.
"Am I a good actress, or am I a good actress? Be brutal, darlings."
Ron stared in shock at this outlandish behaviour from his usually sensible friend, and in amazement at the fact that she was alive.
"But – how – Harry?"
"Harry told me to pretend Ron, he wasn't under the curse – it was all an act!"
"Then he isn't really – you know?"
"No!"
And a cheer rang round the previously silent hall once again.