Harry Potter was trying unsuccessfully to sleep

A/N I know, I know, I said Monday. However, I was a little unsatisfied with the number of reviews that I got for the last, so I decided you could wait a little while longer. Here's the next part, hope you like it. All the disturbing stuff is done after the beginning of this chapter, so try to get back to enjoying the story. The next chapter is also written, and just waiting to be posted. I'll post it soon, although reviews would help a lot. Let's say, maybe, fifteen reviews? That's not asking too much. Anyway, read, enjoy, and REVIEW.

-Simplefan

Chapter 14

Harry Potter was trying unsuccessfully to sleep. He needed sleep. All he wanted to do was sleep. It was now Thursday, and he hadn't been able to sleep but for a few minutes at a time since last Saturday. After he had passed out, his uncle had dragged him back inside and woken him up, only to beat him until he passed out again. They had kept up this routine for three more days, beating Harry then making him work until he passed out, then beating him again. On Tuesday the worst one yet happened, because on that day a letter came by muggle mail for Harry, his Hogwarts letter. It was impossible for owls to fly in because of the new spells up, so that was the only way that it could arrive. He remembered it clearly.

"BOY, GET IN HERE!" Not knowing what was going on, Harry very slowly limped into the living room, followed by an eager Dudley and Petunia. "This came in the mail today! Why did this come in the mail today?" Harry didn't say anything, just sat there.

"You are not to have any letters come in the mail! I opened it and this is your school letter. You are not going back to your school. Ever. I won't have a freak in my family." Then, before Harry's eyes, he took a lighter and lit the letter on fire, watching it slowly burn. Harry broke the silence with a moan, as if his final hope had been torn away.

"What was that boy? You should know better than to talk back to me!" Harry steeled himself for what he knew was coming. His shirt torn off, and he felt the first blow across his back. All of a sudden, Aunt Petunia was shouting "No, Vernon, STOP!" Harry was hopeful that Aunt Petunia had finally come to his aid. These hopes were dashed as she said "Not on the carpet!"

He vaguely remembered being dragged upstairs, but after that his memory was sketchy at best. When he woke up he was in the familiar cabinet under the stairs.

This time it seemed cramped badly, and he couldn't even lie down without bending his legs. He had been let out once a day to use the bathroom, but it was humiliating as Vernon stood over him, watching the entire time to make sure he didn't try to run off. They shoved some food in and a glass of water once a day. At least they didn't hurt him anymore. He wondered how he was supposed to get to Hogwarts, which started next Monday. 'Oh well,' he thought, 'I've got bigger things to worry about.'

_______________


Friday afternoon, Hermione received an owl from Anton telling her to be waiting on the roof at eleven so he could pick her up for the meeting of the coalition. Having told Ron all that had happened with her and Harry over the summer, they agreed to take Ron's broom up to the roof a little before eleven. Ron would fly down after Anton came and took Hermoine, then he would tell Ginny that Hermione wasn't feeling well and was going to stay up a bit. The note said that Hermione wasn't going to be back until six the next morning, so they got ready to have her fly right through the window into Ron's room, where he would be up waiting for her.

Around six, Hermione had everything ready and was frowning at Ron, who was scrambling to get his homework done at the last minute.

"Hermione, please, I'm begging you, just let me look at your parchment. I won't copy it, I, just need to get some ideas."

"No Ron. You should have started it earlier so you wouldn't have been rushed."

"Well how was I supposed to know that school would start a month early?"

"You should have done it as soon as you got off the train, I did."

"Well we're not all that emotionally attached to our homework, I'm sorry to say."

"I'm not emotionally attached to it, but at least I care about it. And with the OWLS coming up-"

"La la la la, I can't hear you. I swear, the next person that says OWLS to me is going to get it."

"Get used to it, Ronniekins, because you'll be hearing it a lot."

"I won't get used to it, Midget. Yeah, that's right, I talked to Harry."

Hermione glared at him. "What did you just call me?" she asked very softly.

"Midget?"

"You are so dead, Ron."

"Strange, I never hear you threatening Dental Dan."

"You know what? Lay off Dental Dan. When you can become the fastest dentist in the west then you can talk."

"I'm sorry, I forget Dental Dan was your hero."

"He's not my hero! He's just a role model."

"Oh, I forget. Could you ever forgive me, Midget."

Hermione gave him her best death stare. "Your dead, Weasel," she said, trying to imitate Draco Malfoy the best she could. Jumping on him, she pinned him, but he threw her gently off and got up to sit on her.


They were still like this, with Ron gloating at Hermione, when Fred and George came in and announced that supper was ready. Seeing what was going on, they jumped on Ron and Hermione and there proceeded to be giant wrestling match. That continued until Mrs. Weasley had to come to the bottom of the stairs and yell up repeatedly at them.

____

At Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore was completing one of the very few positive meetings of the Staff of Merlin. Everyday the numbers of supporters grew. Although not in the actual group, witches and wizards who wanted to join the fight against Voldemort could now join in the Staff's private army. With headquarters outside of Stonehenge, there were now over three hundred people training constantly. However, many of them were homeless and only looking for a meal, while others were the poor and shattered refugees from France and Switzerland.

But more had to be done. He needed to know how far along Harry Potter was, and if there was any chance that he and his friends could take on Voldemort soon. In fact, very soon. If this trend kept up, then soon most of Europe would be under Voldemort's control.

'But how to check on his abilities' he thought. Test scores couldn't accurately show it. He couldn't probe Harry's mind from this far away, especially with all the protections on his house. Suddenly he had an idea, and picked up the sorting hat, throwing it on his head.

"Oh, Albus, it's been longer than usual."

"I'm sorry, I've just been busy."

"It's all right, I understand. Who would want to talk to a tattered old piece of fabric anyway?"


"I'm here now, aren't I."

"After so long. Sometimes I don't even know why I exist."

"I'm sorry, all right? I have some important questions to ask you." Dumbledore was starting to get impatient.

"You didn't have any important to ask me four weeks ago. Do you know how bored I am? I already have the sorting songs written for the next seventy-three years. And do you know how hard it is to rhyme something with Hufflepuff?"

"I'm sure it's very challenging. Now can we please-"

"Let me sing you the first couple of them first…"


The first couple of them soon turned into the first twenty, and the hat had been signing nonstop for an hour before Professor Dumbledore finally got a word in.

"Enough. I have important questions that need answers."

"Fine, but only because you let me sing to you."

"I need to know about the powers of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Albus Dumbledore, and Tom Marvallo Riddle."

"Oh, I see. You are aware that when I sort first years into houses, I create a lifelong connection that allows me to connect to their minds, and even allowed me to come to the aid of Potter in his second year. First with the two supporters, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. Hermione Granger is extremely bright, and always will be. She is an extremely powerful witch, destined for greatness and the most powerful witch at Hogwarts right now. However, she needs to learn to accept the teaching that she will be given and to not hold grudges.

"Ronald Weasley will also become a very powerful wizard, but his powers have yet to mature. He isn't the smartest, but he is the most loyal, and will stand by his friends until the end. His greatest weakness is his pride and his shame in his family's social status.

"As for you, Albus, I have not very good news. Your powers are beginning to weaken for the first time in your life. You may have many good years left, but you will never be the wizard you once were.

"Tom, or Voldemort, has regained all of his powers and some others that he has never held before. Where he is finally accepting other dark wizards into his camp and overthrowing nations, he is the most powerful wizard in the world, and at this moment nobody can defeat him.

"Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, is one of the most puzzling cases that I have ever had. He will be great, whatever path he chooses, but only he can determine how great. He is split on the inside, with mostly a light and benevolent nature. However, he does have a dark side, which is also powerful. Some of it has to do with Voldemort's transferred powers, but most of it is natural. He has deep resentment and much hatred. He has seen more horrible things in his fifteen years than most of us see in a lifetime. Harry is afraid to reach out to anyone because of his fear of being rejected. With the situation that he is going through right now, his only way to steer away from the dark side may be to simply confide in someone. This can be only a person that he truly trusts and might even love, and would give his life for without question. He will be great, but there is a big difference between Merlin great and Slytherin great.

___________

"It's too cold up here."

"Then you should have brought a cloak, like I did." Hermione looked down at Ron, who was sitting on the roof shivering. She was nice and warm in her largest cloak, which she wore over her coalition robes.

"Well I didn't plan on being up here all night!"

"It hasn't even been five minutes."

"It's been over ten!"

"What planet are you from? We just got up here."

"Yah, well maybe it only seems that way because your, big surprise, reading."

"I'm reading very important material, thank you."

"And since when was 'Two Thousand and Seven Ways to beat the OWLs' on the required reading list?"

"Seeing as how I don't want fail, unlike some certain other people I know, I decided to actually prepare."

"Prepare about ten months to early. We don't even have to think about them until Christmas."

"Ron, with an attitude like that you'll probably fail every one-"

Just then, a broomstick landed softly near them on the roof, having apparently descended while Hermione and Ron were talking. Anton stepped off, looking rather disheveled from the flight."

"Hiya Hermione. Never did like these friggin' things."

"Hi Anton. Where's Harry?"

"We have to go get him. We scouted out where he lives and the magic wards around the house. We can fly in, get him, and then go back outside the yard and portkey to our meetinghouse. It is very important that we don't use any magic inside the yard, because that would set off the alarms and there would be a squad of aurors there in seconds." He looked at Ron, as if just noticing him. "Oh, hello. I'm Anton Grume, the chancellor of the Defensive Coalition against the Dark Arts. You must be Ron Weasley, the third at Hogwarts?"

"Yep, that's me." Ron eyed the newcomer warily. "What time are you going to be back?"

"Oh, we should be about done about five, and back here around six. No later then seven. That is, if certain Americans have learned to keep their mouths shut at the meetings."

"All right, I guess I can handle that." Turning to Hermione, Ron told her to be careful and not take too long, and then they were off to get Harry.

_________________

Flying very quietly and under the cover of darkness, Anton got them outside of 4 Privet Drive in no time. Apparently he was very well informed, because he went straight for the window that Hermione knew was Harry's from what he had told her.

However, when they opened up the window and climbed in, Harry was no where to be found.

"You told him when we would be here, right?" Anton asked.

"Yes, before we left Hogwarts. He would never pass up a chance to get away from the Dursley's." She continued to walk around, looking for any clues as to where Harry might be. "Anton, something isn't right," she said, looking at the floor. "These are blood stains."

Anton was quiet for a minute, contemplating the rather large bloodstains on the floor. "Can you think of any other place in the house that we could check before we start to panic."

"Too late. But Harry did say that when he was younger his uncle and aunt would lock him up in the cupboard under the stairs."

"Let's go check it out." Leading the way down the stairs, Hermione could see that he had been trained in this. Walking without making a sound, he tested each stair to see if it creak and walked always softly. Hermione then led the way over to the cupboard under the stairs and Anton set to work on jimmying the lock. Hermione meanwhile took up a watch at the bottom of the stairs in case the Dursley's woke up.

While Anton was working on the lock, he would periodically knock lightly on the door to the cupboard and call Harry's name. After a few times, he got a very soft and strangled sounding response from inside and called Hermione over.


"Harry. Harry." She called softly.


"Hermione, is that you?"


"Yeah, it's me. What are you doing in there?"

"Going for a bloody swim. Honestly, what the hell do you think I'm doing in here?" Hermione could tell that something wasn't right straight off, because Harry was using his falsely cheerful voice that he used every time something was wrong.

"Well sorry for asking. Don't worry, we'll have you out of there in a minute."

Harry hesitated. "Um, Hermione, I don't know if that's such a good idea."

"Why not? We have to get to the meeting." Hermione was puzzled.

"Because Dumbledore said to stay here. And the Dursley's would be mad. And I'm not feeling good. And-"

"Harry, do me a favor and shut up. I have to concentrate on this lock." Anton was silently swearing at it in Russian.

"Harry, what's wrong with you? Why don't you want us to get you out?" Hermione asked.

"Nothings wrong, its just that…"

"Harry, we already had this keeping things from each other discussion, didn't we."

"Please just go."

"Harry, we don't have time for this shit. Now, if I could just get this friggin' lock open…" Anton's ravings were suddenly rewarded by a loud click.

Hermione went back to the bottom of the stairs to make sure that the Dursley's hadn't heard anything, then turned back to see Anton easing the old door open. He finally worked it open, then stared in at Harry as he got his first look at him.


"Holy Shit!" He swore loudly waking the Dursley's up for sure, then walked away gagging. Hermione didn't understand what the matter was, then she walked over to the cupboard and looked inside. What was lying on the thin mattress inside resembled Harry, except that it was in a horribly mutilated form. There were scars completely covering his body, and there were a lot of deep burn marks spotted around. Harry was only in his boxers, because the rest of his clothes had been lost or destroyed, and he slowly began to move himself into a standing position.

That didn't work, and he started to quickly fall to the floor before Hermione ran forward and caught him. He didn't seem to be the same, and he recoiled quickly to her touch. Leaning back away from her, he fell to the ground and struggled to get up. She moved forward to help him, but once again her touch seemed to scare him. She began to cry, and was not able to stop for a long while.

All this activity had not gone unnoticed upstairs, and the Dursley's were stirring. Quickly, Uncle Vernon came downstairs, flanked by Dudley and Aunt Petunia. They stopped when they saw Harry out on the floor and Hermione and Anton looking at them. They both pulled out there wands, and nobody moved.

"Both of you, get out of my house, NOW!" Vernon took a menacing step towards them.

Anton didn't move. For the first time, Hermione could see that he was a really powerful wizard and why he was picked as head of the coalition. "You take one more step and you're a dead fucker. You did that to Harry? I might just kill you anyway."

Vernon laughed nervously. "But you can't do magic out of school."

"Try me. Leave us and I might be nice and save you for Sirius Black."

Vernon stopped laughing. "You wouldn't. And Harry is my property, and I own him. He stays with me. Now I am giving you one more chance to leave before I call the police."

Anton stared him down. "You will leave now. We are taking Harry out of here, and you won't hear from him again. Ever. However, you can expect to see me again. Remember my face, because it'll be the last one you ever see." When Vernon didn't respond, he led Hermione and a stumbling Harry past the Dursley's and up the stairs. All three of them managed to fit on the broom, although it was rather uncomfortable and Harry still wasn't speaking.

Anton finally broke the silence. "All right, this is what we're going to do. We take the portkey to the meetinghouse in Munich. We get Harry to our top healer as soon as we arrive. Hermione, you and I have to have a small talk with the strike division leader, and then we get on with the meeting. Understood?"

Behind him Hermione nodded softly, still crying. Harry still didn't say or do anything. He had Hermione's warm cloak on now, but he still recoiled at any touch.

They soon landed in the middle of a field at the outskirts of town, and Anton had them all grab a bottle of Sprite that was a portkey. Feeling the pulling sensation on his extremely sore stomach was too much for Harry to handle, and he blacked out as they left England.

____________________

"Vhat the 'ell are ve vaiting for. Ve vere supposed to start at midnight exactly."

"Calm your ass down, Thomas. We have to wait until Anton gets here." Abby was standing up at the chancellor's table in the front of the meeting room, and some of the members of the coalition were starting to get impatient. Anton was over a half an hour late, and the Durmstang members were especially getting very antsy.

Luckily for Abby, Anton came out from an anteroom off of the hall just then. He stood up to speak, and apologized for being late. He then quickly beckoned Abby and a girl from the table to follow him back into the anteroom.

When Abby followed him in the door, she was surprised to see Hermione standing over Harry. "Hey, what are you guys doing here?"

Hermione looked up at her. "We, er, had some trouble getting away."

Anton then came in with the other girl. "Harry, Hermione, this is Miranda, from the Barcelona Academy of Magic. She's the head of our healing division."

"Ola. I'm Miranda." She looked at Harry on the floor, her eyes going up to his scar. "And that has to be Harry Potter. What happened to him."

Hermione looked to Anton, who looked to Abby and Miranda. "This is to be kept as secret information," he said. "We found him at his uncle's house, and we believe that they messed him up pretty bad." He went over and removed Hermione's robe from Harry. Abby gasped when she saw him, but Miranda went right over and got to work, being used to this sort of thing.

"I can fix the breaks in the bones easily, and the burns will come right off. It's the cuts that I'm worried about. They've been open too long, so he will have scars for the rest of his life. Right now all we can do is clean them and make sure that they aren't infected. Abby, go run out and tell Jose to apparate back to the lab and get me some painkilling potion, something for breaks, and an anti-infection potion." Abby ran out.

In the meantime, Anton had gone back out and came back in with two German wizards who looked about eighteen. He introduced them as Moeritz and Arthur. It turned out that they both went to the same wizarding school, and that Moe was in charge of the coalition's intelligence and Arthur was in charge of the strike force. He then pulled them into a corner and started talking to them softly.

"Moe," Anton started, "what forces do we have in England?"

"Right now we have a group of eight wizards on rotation at the London safe house, but that's it."

"How long would it take to get a substantial force, say a hundred wizards."

Moe paused a minute to think. "With the assembly and transportation, I'd say probably about twenty four hours."

Anton then turned to Arthur. "How long would it take to collect your hundred best Free Fighters?"

"With the new program I put in last year, I'd have to say only about an hour. I can get a force of two hundred in a day, and a thousand in a week. All my best are on direct communication with me."

"All I need is a hundred. I have two orders of business for them and you. You and I will lead them to London tomorrow, and then on Monday we attack the Death Eaters that remained in Britain. Also, we need about five people for a special assignment. This will stay top secret, on code B level. Moe, I need the name for Harry's uncle."


He thought a minute, then said, "Vernon Dursley."

"Excellent. Arthur, I want him dead. I want his family dead. I want his cats, dogs, hippopotamuses, whatever dead. I want his flower garden dead. I want nothing left alive near that house. Do I make myself clear?"

"I'll take care of it myself. They won't live to see Monday morning."

"Excellent. I've got to go start the meeting." He sent them back in, them turned back to Abby, Miranda, and Hermione. "Miranda, you stay in here with Harry. Hermione, you can stay too if you like. Abby, I'm going to need you back out there." That said, he walked out the door.