Heart of Darkness
(Continued, Part Two)
By Eline
"Heart of Darkness" is the sequel to "Sacrifice" but it can be read as a stand-alone.
(PG-13 for character torture and some violence.)
In the gorges and the forests on the southern side of the Carpathians, wizards walked the night. Seeking and searching . . .
Anticipation . . . It was as if the world was holding its breath--
Then the first explosion was heard, shattering the silence of the night like a stone through a glass window.
For the first time in years, dark magic users were battling out in the open again.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
There had been traps out there. Malfoy's group had set off the first one. A simple spell for trapping did not remain so after it has been hit with a combination of destructive spells by nervous wizards. Certain people had got wand-happy and the resultant explosion wrecked any chance at secrecy they had.
Severus Snape cursed from where he stood in the lee of a small copse of trees. He had sent half of his none-too-experienced team up on their brooms--it would be pleasant to think that they had *not* panicked . . .
Kelly Slater aka Kali came plunging out of the sparse canopy of trees, closely followed by the other two with broomsticks--what were their names again? Hodley and Creighton? One of them had wanted to call himself Lone Wolf or something equally idiotic. "The explosion--to the east of us," she gasped out. At least she had the presence of mind to spot any signs of danger.
"How far away?"
"A-about two miles . . ." she hazarded, waving her arm in the general direction of the explosion.
That would be Malfoy's group then. He knew a moment of vindictive pleasure as he thought about this--Malfoy would do well not to be so smug anymore. "We have to continue," he said calmly. "Watch for traps and don't blast away at shadows."
He fingered the nasty looking knife in his robes--it was the master's latest gift to his Death Eaters that doubled as a Portkey. The hilt was a carved section of a fanged snake--there was poison on the fangs. Voldemort did expect his Death Eaters to kill or die in his service now. Physical combat was to be avoided . . . He remembered the shameful trouncing he had received at the hands of Harry Potter and his friends when he had confronted Sirius Black in the Shrieking Shack--that was still too fresh in his mind to forget . . .
"You three, follow me," he said to the wizards on foot. "You're going to cover us from the air," he ordered Kali and company. With luck, they might not get hit in the back by friendly fire.
Before they moved on though, he took the precaution of secretly tagging them with a small locator charm. He didn't trust them not to get lost out here.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
This was not duelling. This was not even remotely anywhere close to fair play. It suited Sirius Black's mood just fine.
He and Moody had came across a bunch of wizards stumbling away from the trap they had triggered off.
"It wasn't supposed to do *that*, was it?" Sirius asked from the shadow of the natural cleft that hid them from view.
"Hell no--those daft buggers probably panicked and blew the trap apart," Moody muttered. Here, in the rough mountainous terrain, the older man looked much more at ease with is wand and his magic detectors. He was a hunter now, not merely a paranoid old man, that much Sirius could see. "You ready, Black?"
"As much as I'll ever be . . ."
"All right--we'll try to hit as many of them as we can . . ."
They raised their wands and loosed the stunning spell. Red beams flared out, catching the dark wizards unawares. Some did try to attack, but they should have tried defending themselves instead, or even running away, because Mad-Eye Moody and Sirius Black had very good aim.
"The great boobies--they weren't even aiming right!" Sirius exclaimed as they picked their way through the aftermath of the very short battle.
"They couldn't see us. That's the guide to a long life, see them but don't let 'em see me--until it's too late for them," Moody explained as he turned over one of the fallen Death Eaters. "Eh, this explains it," he said sourly as he stripped off the mask and barred the left arm. "Lookit this--young and unmarked . . . The old snake's been recruiting again."
"So there'll be more of *these* out there?"
"Of course . . . but not all of them are greenhorns. We want a Death Eater--and we'll find a true blue one before this night is out, I wager. They won't be *this* easy to take down . . . They'll put up a fight and it'll be duelling for sure."
"I hope they try," Sirius growled. He was feeling more alive now that he was out doing something instead of hiding in fear.
Moody's face--ground zero for a large number of curses in years past--shifted into something resembling a smile. "That's the spirit . . . Just don't get *too* cocky, Black."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
So far, it had been quiet.
Much *too* quite for Snape's liking. There were no more explosions. But there had been some bright flashes and a scream echoing through the canyon area to the north. The battle was well underway.
He was sure he had seen an aerial battle a few moments back over the rocky gorges before the combatants had flown away. The three on the brooms were flying low, no doubt wary of engaging in an airborne battle . . .
Snape paused in mid-step.
The hairs on his neck stood up and he withdrew a vial of blue powder from his sleeve. He threw a pinch of the stuff into he air and was rewarded by a brief flash of blue fire in the space between two trees.
There was a trap there.
He edged around it gingerly. A very well hidden trap indeed. If not for the verdandi-root-and-oak powder--which ignited in the presence of magic--he might ever have spotted it. On closer examination, he deduced that it was a simple stasis trap--it would keep the victim frozen until the trap-setter came along. A safe, harmless trap that no Death Eater would ever set for his enemies. Death Eaters would prefer to their traps to kill.
So that was a trap set by the other side--his own side, he corrected--to collect Death Eaters . . .
His team, the ones on foot, were easy enough to find with his spell. They were also easily impressed by the way he could appear soundlessly wherever they were.
"You go that way," he said to Ormond, indicating the path to the trap. "Foley, head straight on--Bannon, you take the left."
After effectively separating his team, Snape moved on silently. He knew exactly where each of them were and it was easy to creep up behind Foley to effect a little harmless magic.
Snape tapped him on the head with his wand. There was a faint rushing noise and there was a radish where Foley once was. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but the radish had retained Foley's slightly worried look. He shrugged inwardly--transfigurations were never his strong suit anyhow. He picked it up and set it aside so that it wouldn't get trampled. The ones who were doing the collecting of downed Death Eaters would find him and Ormond in the stasis trap.
Now for Bannon . . .
A figure appeared out of the mist up ahead. But it wasn't Bannon. Snape readied his wand.
"Severus!" It was Avery. He had his wand raised too. Snape lowered his wand. As much as he would like to blast his former colleagues to smithereens, it was not prudent to do it now. Though one less Death Eater could easily be blamed on the efforts of the Muggle-loving wizards this night . . .
"Severus--have you run across any traps?" Avery said. He too had lowered his wand, but he looked very nervous and liable to start setting off curses at any moment.
"No," Snape lied. "I sent the greenhorns out scouting. I haven't heard any yelling yet, so I assume that they haven't stubbed their toes on a rock or run into a trap."
"Well I've seen at least four," Avery muttered. "Had one hell of a time rescuing one of mine from a Tangle Web spell . . ."
"At least they're still alive--those Muggle-loving fools don't like killing," Snape said scornfully.
"True, but if there are Aurors out there . . ." Avery looked around, fear clear in his eyes behind the mask. "Well, Severus . . . I was thinking to heck with all this skulduggery. Safety in numbers, you know?" Avery was worried about his own hide.
Snape shrugged. "It's the all the same to me." This was fine by him--he didn't trust his colleagues either and he would prefer a situation in which he could keep an eye on some of them.
They started forwards again, and were joined shortly by another two from Avery's group.
"Where are the others?" Avery asked. He looked as though he was afraid of the answer.
The other two wizards shuffled their feet. "I-I think they got lost . . ."
"Or ran into traps," Snape injected. "We should have been training them up to avoid traps."
No sooner had he said that that one of Avery's team stumbled and fell with a yell of surprise. The next moment, he was gone.
"Portal trap!" Snape hissed and brought his wand up. Whoever was setting the traps was obviously very good at it. "No point looking for him anymore--he's gone--"
"Stupefy!" A stunning spell arced out and they dove aside. Except for the luckless most junior Death Eater who was not so fast on his feet.
Snape rolled aside and loosed his own spell into the clearing. It was too foggy to see properly . . .
"Pyros!" His fireball flew up and out--obviously deflected. He had not even been aiming at anything.
"Expelliarmus!" the other wizard cried.
He got his own deflecting spell out just in time but the aftermath of the Disarming Charm seemed to be imprinted on his retina for a moment.
"Imperio!" Avery had not started out with small curses.
It would be deflected, Snape knew. Avery was not close enough to use that curse effectively. You had to be almost face to face for the Imperius curse to take hold properly . . .
"Pyros!" The other wizard was not above fireballs either. But Snape had seen where the spell had came from at last.
"Reducto!"
Snape missed deliberately again, but it was close enough to appear like a genuine attempt. A tree splintered apart and they could see the other wizard now as he was flushed into the open and bereft of his cover.
"Electros!"
"Stupefy!"
Two spells cast simultaneously. Forked lightning arched down--it was accurate this time. But the stunning spell had also found its mark on Avery just as the other wizard went down, choking on a cry.
"Accio!" He acquired the downed wizard's wand just as Goyle lumbered into the clearing in the next moment. This was when he had to put on a good show--this was when he had to grit his teeth and use those horrible curses . . .
"What happened?" wheezed Goyle.
"Avery--he's down. Just stunned. But we got *him*. Lumos!" Snape strode over to the prone figure of the other wizard and kicked him onto his back. By the light of his wand, he could make out the face--
It was Remus Lupin.
"Him!" Snape's revulsion was not entirely feigned. It was the werewolf; James Potter and Sirius Black's friend--the one who had taken the Defence Against the Dark Arts position for a year after that nancy-boy Lockhart. He could not think of another wizard he could despise more.
"Who is it?" Goyle asked.
"Remus Lupin--the werewolf. One of Dumbledore's pets," he spat. "I always wanted to get this one . . ."
Even Goyle was taken aback by the ugliness in his tone.
"Crucio!" A part of him was so *willing* to say the curse . . .
Again. The werewolf bucked and cried out--it sounding remarkably like the howl of his were-shape.
His wand twitched again. Another scream--it was loud enough to be heard by anyone in the area. No matter, this would be over soon . . .
No.
He reined in his murderous mood. This was not the way . . . He could not afford to lose control like this.
Snape lowered his wand. "I think a little more pain would be in order . . ."
"Finish him off now, Snape," Goyle urged. "One less against us, remember?"
"I like to take it slow," Snape said calmly, daring the other man to challenge him. "Would you like to stay and watch?" he asked, poisonously smooth. "I was thinking of practising some new hexes."
"N-no . . ." Goyle looked a little green at his suggestion. "I'll go see if Malfoy's bunch've found Karkaroff . . ."
Not so tough now, are you? Snape could have laughed out loud as Goyle back away and left the clearing. They thought he was still as bloodthirsty as he was fourteen years ago. This might just work out . . .
"Hold, Severus!" It was Macnair--the last person Snape would have expected to object to ridding the world of one more werewolf.
"What is it now?" he snapped in irritation.
"Don't kill him yet--we haven't got Karkaroff or any one else. He's the only one we could catch."
Snape swore silently. He had been hoping to get Lupin alone--then he could have created a doppelganger or golem of the werewolf and pretend to kill it. "Are you sure? This one's the *werewolf*--I'd rather not let him live, *if* you don't mind. He nearly killed me--*three* times now."
"Can't be helped," Macnair said with a shrug. "We've got to have *something* to show for tonight . . . It's an absolute mess--no trace of Karkaroff--he was probably never here. Avery and Crabb are both down. The other wizards are gone--we can't find a trace of them anywhere."
Lucius Malfoy chose that moment to apparate into the clearing. Snape noticed how unruffled and clean he looked. He would have wagered any number of limbs that Malfoy had apparated out of harms' way once things had got hairy in the woods.
"Ah," Malfoy said a little too loudly. "You caught one of them."
"No thanks to you," Snape said venomously.
Malfoy pretended not to hear him. " Well, we'll have to take him back with us."
"I've been needing to try this out," Macnair said and drew out something like a collar with a lead attached. "A collar for were-beasts. The spells'll keep him quiet--might even prevent the metamorphosis at full moon . . . if it works"
"Try it then--but you'll be responsible if he escapes," Snape muttered. The full moon . . . it was barely three days away. Was Lupin insane, to have volunteered for this venture at that stage of the cycle? Or was it a suicide mission all the same?
What did the Muggles say before battles? Come back with your shield or on it . . .
The burly executioner clapped the collar around the werewolf's next and Lupin gasped in pain. It was then that Snape realised that the collar was made of sliver.
"Come on--we'll--" Macnair broke off and winced. They all did. It was the Dark Mark, burning malevolently like a hot coal on their skin.
"Time's up--we've got to leave *now*," Malfoy said through gritted teeth. He apparated--no doubt to collect the remnants of his team.
Snape had to do the same, leaving Macnair to bring the werewolf in.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Sirius smiled grimly as a spell flashed past his right side.
"Reducto!"
He ducked the destructive beam and sent his own stunning beam sweeping out at chest level. His opponent fell with a thump to the ground.
He looked around warily. There was nothing in the vicinity of a Death-Eater-ish persuasion he could take on . . . It had been an eventful night. He had used his Animagi skills in the woods to stalk the Death Eaters after he and Moody had split up because "there's plenty of them out there for the both of us" the older man had said.
So far, Sirius had duelled face to face twice and stunned them both without too much wear and tear on himself. Another one he had driven into a Tangle Web trap, while two others he had bitten to disarm and had knocked them out easily by slamming them against a convenient tree while in his Animagi form. Probably only new recruits, but it was satisfying work all the same.
It was like an exorcism of his frustrations--he felt so much better after a good fight. He was not helpless and hopeless as he was back in Azkaban . . . He could fight against the evil now.
Just then, Professor McGonagall flew down to meet him.
"Lovely morning, isn't it?" Sirius asked brightly. Dawn was breaking.
"Sirius, really . . . I swear you think this is a-a *Quidditch match*!" She was carrying a large white rabbit in one arm.
"Hardly--Quidditch matches against the Slytherins were always dirtier," Sirius said with a grin. "Is that your new pet, ma'am?"
"You're incorrigible, Sirius. Now take this back to Hogwarts. It's over now." She handed him the rabbit and flew off, probably to get the others.
"Yes, ma'am. I'll take care of it like it was my own pet rabbit . . ."
Sirius apparated and reappeared in a lodge just outside the school grounds in the Forbidden Forest. It was a small place that was rapidly filling up with stunned Death Eaters and a number of transfigured ones as well.
"You all right?" Bill asked as he set the rabbit down.
"The most they harm they did was to set fire to my boots. Those were *new* boots too. What happened to you?" Sirius asked as he noticed Bill's slightly singed jacket.
"Some of them ganged up on me--two of them on brooms even--but Prof. McGonagall came swooping down like a Fury. You should've seen her--she turned one of them into a rabbit and set their broomsticks on fire!"
"And got you too?"
"No--they got lucky with some fireballs. No harm done--Madam Pomfrey supplied us with lots of burn lotion."
Mad-Eye popped in the next moment, swearing so inventively that Sirius and Bill did not know if they should take notes or applaud.
"What happened?"
"Got away--the filthy bastard," Moody growled and continued swearing. In between the cursing, Sirius and Bill deduced that Moody had been duelling with a real Death Eater but the coward had apparated out of it abruptly. "He probably felt the old snake calling for him . . . so he had to go like a whipped cur!" Moody subsided and stamped away to a corner where he took a few pulls from his hip flask to calm himself.
"Ah well, we can't win them all," Bill said and peered out of the window. "Cripes--look at the time . . ."
"Thanks, Bill--you best clear off before your mum comes after us for keeping you up too late," Sirius joked. Bill was currently on leave from Gringotts and he was supposed to be visiting his parents. But he had agreed to use his vacation time to help them out in a pinch.
Bill swung a mock-punch at Sirius good-naturedly and left just as Gerad Connelly and Minerva McGonagall popped in with a cabbage and a spider in a jar. The curly-haired wizard, like McGonagall, was very good at transfigurations.
"I say, that was quite thrilling!" Gerad said, his freckled face beaming despite the fact that they had been out all night working magic. Moody in his corner snorted. "Well we *did* win . . . sort of . . ." Gerad trailed off and looked to Professor McGonagall.
"That was a night's work well done, I suppose," McGonagall said grudging as they surveyed their catch. The Ministry probably could not have done as well with so little.
"Hmmm . . . a radish. Who turned this chap into radish?" Gerad asked from the table where the transfigured wizards were placed.
"I don't remember turning anyone into a *radish*," said Professor McGonagall said with small frown as she examined the worried looking radish. "A rabbit, yes . . . and a cabbage, but no radishes."
The rabbit (which had been separated from the cabbage and the radish for safety reasons) began to wash its ears with a disgruntled air. It had been staring at the radish and cabbage for quite some time.
"What are we going to do with them?"
"Turn them all into cabbages--then we can have Hagrid plant them in the gardens. Should keep them out of the way for some time," Sirius said with maniac glee. The adrenaline had not left him entirely and he was feeling like a schoolboy again. "And we could have some salad--"
Professor McGonagall's glower did not cause him to quail completely. "It was only a suggestion . . . Nothing *serious*--at least not the last bit . . ."
"They will be taken into custody by the Ministry." Albus Dumbledore had appeared in the lodge. His expression was extremely sober.
"What? The Ministry can't even find their own--" Sirius looked sideways at Professor McGonagall and edited his comment hastily. "--Can't even take care of their own business properly much less Death Eaters."
"They aren't Death Eaters, Sirius. Or rather, they aren't marked Death Eaters as you have discovered," Dumbledore said. "We can only hope to get a confession out of them using a truth potion or a Truth Verifying spell."
"Is that enough then?"
"I'm afraid not--the most I can do is convince Fudge that someone is trying to emulate Voldemort and recruit Death Eaters. He has to take that seriously." Dumbledore looked quite grim by then. "So that was the first round--a draw . . . Um, where's Remus?"
"What?"
"But . . . Lupin didn't come back with us!" Gerad said.
"Remus!" Sirius exclaimed, a nasty gaping pit opening up where his stomach used to be. Any excitement he had felt trickled away and was replaced by cold dread. "But I thought he was with *you*!"
"He landed--he was said he wasn't up to casting spells on a broom," Professor McGonagall gasped out as she turned pale. "He probably faced off against some of them on the ground . . ."
"He might be injured . . ."
"He's probably with *them* now," Mad-Eye said fatalistically, voicing their worst fears. "Well, we didn't except zero casualties, did we?"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Back in Voldemort's lair, things were not going well, as predicted.
"Disappointing--the first foray and already I find you wanting . . ." The Dark Lord strode around the prone forms of his Death Eaters with Nagini slithering in his wake. The high vaulted ceiling amplified his voice--not that it was needed in the gloomy quiet. "A mere handful of wizards against the lot of you, my elite, and they all managed to escape--*alive* while you've lost half your forces. What do you have to say for yourselves now?"
A pin dropping at that moment would have sounded like a twelve course dining set going down the stairs in the chilly silence.
"Deception and trickery are more to your tastes, I believe . . . I knew that it was a trap and you were all told this. Yet you seem rather *rusty* at avoiding traps today . . . We are not strong enough yet it seems. The new recruits are not up to standard, but they can still be used as glorified errand boys. The bulk of the important assignments will be shouldered by all of you." No one dissented--or at least no one *dared* to. "Good . . ." There was perceivable lifting of the tension that had lain as thick as smog over the chamber. "But--"
The Dark Lord spun around abruptly and everyone ceased breathing. "--I will not tolerate failures *this* lightly again. Get gone from my sight until you have something significant to present to me."
"Master, there is still the werewolf," Pettigrew reminded him nervously.
"Yes . . . though how much information you can squeeze out of it is debatable . . . Dumbledore would not have told it his plans if there was any danger of capture. Still . . . A *werewolf*." Voldemort smiled. "I have not had one in my power in a long time . . . It will be enjoyable to see how this one holds up. So who wants to have a go at it?" He sounded almost cheerful while asking this.
"Avery? Wormtail? Ah, *Severus*?"
"I would be glad to, master. I am owed blood," Snape said carefully. Mustn't sound too eager or too reluctant . . .
"Indeed, Severus . . . just make sure the werewolf doesn't conveniently die on us. We might have other uses for it--like the Imperious curse . . ."
One could take that statement in more ways than one . . . The others looked suitably cowed--they thought he had it in for the werewolf.
The most frightening thing was that he still did.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Sirius, however, was not one to let things be.
He was going to find his friend and rescue him if he was captured--Mad-Eye had agreed to go along, so had Gerad Connelly.
Gerad was Remus' acquaintance, not his own, but he seemed fairly enthusiastic about fighting for their cause. And they were short of manpower as it was . . .
"Harry . . . Will he be safe?" he asked Dumbledore. Sirius was clearly torn between friendship and his duty as Harry's godfather.
"He is safe--there is the Blood Tie and the Figgs are watching over him," Dumbledore said. The spell was an ancient one that simply bound blood by blood. Dumbldore had invoked the protective spell when Harry had first came to live with his uncle and aunt. As long as Harry remained with his relations, Voldemort could not touch him there. The Figgs were watching over the Muggles to make sure that Voldemort's minions did not attempt to do away with them. (Although they had once said that it would not be entirely a bad thing . . .)
"If anything happens, you've got to take care of him, sir," Sirius pleaded.
Dumbledore nodded. Sirius knew that the headmaster had been watching over Harry for most of his life, but he had to have some reassurance before heading off on his own mission. Dumbledore had more than just a few lives to worry about now that Voldemort was active again, which was why Sirius had asked for nothing more than his blessing before they left again.
There were dark times ahead, they all knew that. Starting from now . . .
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The author wears her Lupy Groupies (don't ask) tee-shirt with pride: I had to put in some of my favourite characters in here . . . and I needed angst after TEoLaS (under Quaxo's fics) and drawing Snape and Lupin in leather pants. And there's a third and last part of Heart of Darkness coming soon I hope . . .
Disclaimer: All characters are © J. K. Rowling and the respective publishers except for those created as a supporting cast.
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