Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe belongs to J. K. Rowling and Warner Bros. The author does not claim or imply the rights to any item related nor belonging to the Harry Potter universe.
A/N: This chapter is probably the most intense piece of writing I've done for Harry Potter. I had just reread the line spoken by Voldemort in Goblet of Fire where he asked Lucius, "You are still ready to take the lead in a spot of Muggle-torture, I believe?" I wanted to explore what sort of things might be done that would be clean enough for JK to include in her books. I know you're waiting for the duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort, but I thought this important to put in before. It says a lot about Lucius Malfoy, the Death Eaters, and Professor LeSal.
Chapter XVIII
Morsmordre
Salazar Snape stared at Harry longer than he should have, his black eyes wide beneath the haunting, skull mask. Harry could hear his heart pounding in his ears in the eerie silence of the ruined chapel. At last, Salazar said in a tone Harry wasn't expecting, "What's he doing here?" There was a hint of panic to his voice. "Lucius," he whispered, "why do you have Harry Potter here?"
Harry noticed LeSal's staff; it had gone from green to its usual blue.
"I thought that you could bring him to Voldemort tonight," Lucius explained. He was gripping Harry's arm tightly. "After he questioned your allegiance to him and asked you to show your loyalty by bringing Harry Potter to him…I thought of a wonderful plan to get the other Death Eaters on our side. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you rode up with Harry Potter and killed him before Lord Voldemort?" LeSal started pacing. "After all, it's ridiculous how he goes on about this boy, and if you were able to do something in front of him that he hasn't been able to accomplish…"
"It would make him very angry," LeSal shot at Lucius. "And I don't think we're strong enough to take him on yet."
It seemed Malfoy hadn't considered this. His fingers dug down into Harry's arm as he came to realize that his efforts weren't being accepted as he had hoped they would have been. "Then—yes, we aren't ready yet, but then—we can use the boy to buy time."
"Time?" LeSal stopped pacing and his staff again began to glow green.
Lucius took this as an okay to explain. "Voldemort's not going to give you much time. He suspects. If you give him Potter, it…"
"Would lessen some of his suspicion," Salazar finished.
"And with the extra time, we could gain the support of the LeStranges and Pettigrew."
The white masks hid the expressions of Salazar and Lucius as they stood facing each other. The other Death Eaters were keeping their distance. Harry wished that he could see Salazar's face as he contemplated Lucius' words.
"It seems for the best," Lucius said hopefully.
Salazar nodded. "It would. And the LeStranges are valuable—I'd kill Pettigrew."
"Do you wish me to get the Death Eaters ready to
ride then?"
Salazar paused before nodding
again.
Lucius took this as the go-ahead and started to drag Harry with him.
"Leave Potter here. I'll watch him," Salazar said abruptly and Lucuis finally let go. "Don't worry, Harry," LeSal said quietly as Malfoy and the Death Eaters headed out of the chapel to their mounts. "I'm going to try my best to make sure that nothing happens to you. Just do as I say and you'll be taken care of. I'm going to try and stall this as long as I can—give Dumbledore enough time so that by the time we arrive, Voldemort will already be dead."
Harry had no choice but to put his trust in Professor LeSal. All misgivings he had, had to be put aside for there was nothing he could do, though what he saw next made trusting him a hard thing to do.
Lucius Malfoy came riding up on his gray mare, the reins to his horse in one hand, and the reins to another he was leading in his other hand. As Harry soon noticed, however, the second animal was by no means a horse. It was black. So black that it seemed to draw in and squelch any light that touched it's coat. It was cloven hoofed and had a lion's tail much like a unicorn only this animal was massive, like the large drays used to pull liquor wagons. It was frothing and pawing the ground and when it tossed it's great head, he saw that twisting out of the forehead, was a very crooked horn.
Salazar walked straight up to it, his staff glowing a brighter green. He placed a hand on the unicorn's velvet nose. "Hush, Camlin. You'll get to stretch your legs tonight." He spoke in a calming voice as he took the reins from Lucius and swung up into the saddle. "Have Potter ride with you," he ordered Lucius before allowing the unicorn to charge out of the ruins.
With a rough yank on his arm, Harry was helped back up behind Malfoy. He held on firmly to the back of the saddle as Lucius Malfoy urged the mare after Salazar.
They were an eerie sight, moving as a frightening herd across the countryside. The pounding of the hooves seemed to cause a small earthquake as they tore through fields. Harnesses creaked and black capes whipped about in the wind. At one point, Harry was nearly thrown as they jumped a hedge and he was forced to grab Lucius around the waist.
"Why don't we just Apparate?" Lucius had been riding close by Salazar's side. The Magus Mare he and Harry were riding didn't seem too pleased at the arrangement and kept throwing its head and trying to distance itself from the dark unicorn.
They jumped a stonewall, landing on a paved road on the opposite side. Sparks flew from the shod hooves as the mares burst out onto the road. Here, Salazar stopped. "You're missing the finer points of being mounted upon a Magus Mare," he replied. "It's very intimidating."
"But who are we intimidating?" Lucius asked. "We are on our way to see the Dark Lord."
"That we are, but Lucius my friend, I thought you would like it if we first had some fun." Salazar's mount squealed as it seemed ready to gallop off again but was being tightly restrained.
A bit of fun? These words caused a chill to run down Harry's back.
A light then flashed off down the road and with a sickening feeling, Harry realized they were headlights, heading in their direction.
"Ah, now here we go," Salazar said as he watched the approaching headlights.
Lucius withdrew his wand. "We've got some muggles!" he yelled out and excited whoops exchanged among the party.
Harry didn't want to see this. He didn't want to have to watch. He found himself tense and his hands aching as he gripped tighter to the back of the saddle. All the Death Eaters had drawn out their wands and lined up, blocking the road as the small silver car pulled to a stop.
The stereo was blaring bagpipe music. It was turned down when a window was rolled down. A young man with a head of fuzzy black hair stuck his head out the window.
Oh, no, Harry thought. God, no. He desperately wanted to warn them, to yell out, but the spell still had not been lifted off his voice. He had tried to lift it while still at Hogwarts, but hadn't succeeded. Now he tried in true earnest again.
"Turn off the headlights, Dave, you're spooking the horses," a female voice said with concern from within the car.
The man switched to just parking lights. "What are ya'll doing?" The man seemed American: a tourist.
"Is this some sort of odd Scottish holiday or something?" the girl asked. "Dave, ask them why they're dressed like that. I haven't read anything in the brochures about this."
"Would you mind telling us what you're all out here in that get-up for?"
"Maybe they're Druids."
The man turned back inside the car. "No, dear. I don't think they're Druids. Druids wear white."
"Then ask them who they are."
Dave stuck his head back out of the car window, but no sooner had he when the passenger side door opened. A woman wearing a green sweater with, Freedom! Written boldly across the front, got out of the car, a camera in one hand. As soon as she did, Dave got out too.
"So who are you? I must say, you all look very good, especially you," he said pointing, "with that staff thingy."
No one had said a word as the Magus Mares snorted and blew steam at the night air. The unicorn squealed again, making the woman take notice of it.
"We're wizards," Lucius said at last.
"Wizards? Is that some sort of old religion—like the Druids?"
The woman was now staring at the unicorn, her face becoming more serious as if she were attempting to figure out whether what she was seeing was real or not. Harry was still trying to get his voice back but he knew he had to try and do something. He knew he probably looked horrible after the fight with Malfoy; his chin had been split when he had hit the floor. Waving his hand, he attempted to get her attention. As soon as she looked at him, he could tell that she finally sensed something wasn't right. He pointed to the car and mouthed, "Get out. Get out of here! Get out."
Her eyes widened, and he knew she understood. Dave, on the other hand…
"Meg, gimme your camera. I want to take a picture of this guy's horse that he has done up like a unicorn. Isn't it the coolest thing? Like right out of a movie."
"Dave…" she whispered.
"Thanks," and Dave just took the camera from her hand and started to focus the lens on the unicorn. "Good thing we got 800 speed film."
"Dave…" Meg said a little more urgently and pulled on his sleeve.
"Uh…what, dear—just a minute."
"That boy, Dave…"
"What boy?" He was still focusing the camera.
"The one that looks like he's just been beaten," she whispered softly.
"Uh huh…what?" He finally lowered the camera and spotted Harry, who repeated his silent warning. "What the hell? Meg…" he said after a moment, "why don't you get in the car? I'll figure out what's going on here." He turned angrily at Salazar. "What's going on here?" he demanded to know. "Why's that young man with you all bruised up?"
All at once, the Death Eaters laughed. It was then that Harry was finally able to break the spell that had been keeping him silent.
"Get out of here!" he screamed. "They'll kill you!" Get out of…"
Salazar's staff flashed and Harry felt a cold sensation seize him and his throat went numb, his vocal cords made useless.
But Harry's words had been enough to make the muggle couple scramble to get in their car.
One large Death Eater on a fat roan pointed his wand at the car and then proceeded to cause the doors to lock and unlock in succession. Dave somehow managed to get in first while Meg was still pulling on the handle of her door.
"What's happening?" she screamed.
The Death Eaters seemed to find this amusing and laughed while Meg cried and Dave tried unsuccessfully to get her inside the car. After a while, he made up his mind to get out—but couldn't. Another Death Eater made the windows roll up and Malfoy shot a spell at the hood of the car, making the engine stop and the lights go out.
Then Lucius called out, "Mobilus!" and the car began to roll backwards.
Meg continued to cry, pulling on the door handles while the group of Death Eaters rode close at hand. They guided the car down the road, over a rise and down a hill. At the bottom, lay a pair of railroad tracks.
The car was stopped just before the tracks. Malfoy and Salazar had stayed behind at the crest of the hill so Harry got to see as they converged upon the couple. He could hear their spells and Meg's screams and wails, but all he saw were the horses and flowing black robes of the Death Eaters.
How could Salazar…Professor LeSal, let this continue?
"You want to join in on the festivities?" asked Malfoy, turning to Salazar. "I'll hold Camlin for you."
Salazar didn't respond. He just seemed to be staring intently on the horrid and cruel scene.
"You know that you do. And some of the newer recruits want to see—what you and LeStranges did to those aurors is legendary."
Harry swore that he caught Salazar flinch.
"No, Lucius. But you're free to go. I'll watch Potter." Harry was struck at how much Salazar's voice suddenly sounded like Professor Snape's.
Lucius hoisted his right leg over the mare's neck and slid out of the saddle. "I wouldn't dare try running away from him," he snarled at Harry while handing the reins to Salazar. He then marched off down the hill, wand out.
"I'm sorry that you have to witness this, Harry," Salazar said quietly after Lucius had gone. "But you must understand how important it is for us to buy time. The time that these muggles buy us will be the end of Voldemort." Realizing that Harry couldn't respond, he pointed his staff and Harry felt feeling return to his throat.
"How could you?" Harry finally asked as soon as he felt confident his voice had returned. "You're allowing people to be tortured!"
"In order to save many more from meeting the same fate."
"But it's still wrong." The whole scene before him was so sick that he could not see any excuse for it.
The Death Eaters had set the Imperious Curse on Dave, and were laughing as they ordered him to drive the car out onto the tracks and park. He could hear Meg's desperate cries, "Why? Why are you doing this?"
"And what about the aurors? Did he mean the Longbottoms?" Harry felt suddenly viscous. "Is it true then? You did torture them?"
It took a while for Salazar to respond. He had gone back to studying the stone in his staff as Harry had become accustomed to him doing. Only this time, there was a mask hiding his expression.
"Voldemort," Salazar began shakily, "destroyed my life when he gave me this. It controls me, rules over my life and I can never be rid of it until I die. And my life wasn't the only one he's destroyed, either. He's ruined Severus' and most of my close mates from school. He's killed so many—your parents. And he doesn't have to kill to take a life; he keeps taking away lives by binding them to him. I have lost all hope for Lucius Malfoy and I am fast losing hope that his son can be saved. There's no telling how many lives would have been saved—be lived more fully—if Voldemort had never existed. So you see, he must be destroyed at all costs. He needs to be killed." Salazar paused and gripped his staff tighter, the stone growing to a brilliant, blinding, green. "That night he was stopped by you…I knew he was not truly finished. I can sense him, and I knew he was still alive—but weak. I had to find him and end it. Frank Longbottom and his wife were the first aurors to the scene—they came with Severus. I figured if anyone knew where Voldemort had gone, it would be them. Frank was real good, top notch auror. I was with the LeStranges who were bent on finding Voldemort as well—though, for other reasons. I had to get that information from the Longbottoms—just had to, you see?"
Harry did see. He now saw Professor Salazar Snape for what he truly was.
"I do see. You hate Voldemort," he said slowly. "You hate him so much that the hate—it's made you bloody mad. Willing to torture and be just as cruel as him in order to reach your goal."
It was so clear now. He no longer had to worry about Salazar's loyalties, for he knew where they lay: they were with himself. To himself and his festering hatred for Lord Voldemort.
There was no response to Harry's remark and they were left to listen to Meg's screams and the distant whistle of a train echo across the still starry night sky.
"Dave! Get out of the car! Oh, God! Get out of the car! What have you done to him? What have you done to my husband? Why? We never did anything wrong to you. Dave! There's a train! Dave…"
"Morsmordre!" someone screamed, illuminating the sky with the skull and snake of the Dark Mark as the Death Eaters turned away, leaving Meg sobbing and screaming for her husband's life.
The rumble of the train got closer.
"Do something," Harry pleaded. "You've bought your time. Now do something! You can't just let this happen."
But Salazar did nothing.
Lucius approached, breathing heavily. He took the reins back from Salazar and climbed back into the saddle. As soon as he had his feet in the stirrups, Lucius and Salazar turned their mounts and headed up the road, leaving the scene behind them just as there was a terrific explosion.
