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PATH to DARKNESS by Tyde
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Chapter Twenty Four – Flashes of Green
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Author's note (it's a long one): I had a horrible feeling of self doubt last week. For the first seven days after the tonsil removal operation I had no urge to write anything. Not even an entry for my blog-like website. This scared me greatly. For a terrifying (albeit stupid) moment I thought by removing my tonsils they had removed my creatively gland. Thank goodness that by the Thursday I jumped on Mum and Dad's computer (I was staying at their place so they could look after me in my convalesing period) and started to type up a chapter or two. They still need to be honed of course but it won't be long before this story is finished! It'll feel like getting rid of an old friend, I don't want it to end but it will. I've started another one though (surprisingly has nothing to do with Snape) and when I think it's passed the test I may start putting it up. It'll be short though. Maybe five or so chapters.
Carasiel (Arien) you'd publish me, really? There are so many levels to the coolness of that. Of course JK and the rest of them would sue our butts off but hey, me in print? Totally worth it. :o) Do you prefer to be called Arien? Or Goddess? Cause I just got your other review for chapter 22 and I think that's what I'll call you from now on. I almost wept with joy. 100 reviews? My brain would have an overload and pop out of my skull and start doing a little tap dance across the desk. Imagine how the fabulous echo must feel, she gets over 700 reviews! Phew. Okay I'm shutting up now, on with the chapter! :o)
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The Lazy Lion pub was the rondeaux-vue point that evening and Wormtail had just Apparated in. Sure enough there was his old pal Padfoot sitting with a Butterbeer before him at a little table in a booth. He seemed to be concentrating awfully on something. Was he thinking? He was thinking, something in his mind was trying to fight its way to the surface of his memories but no matter how long he sat there focussing on it, it wouldn't emerge. He was only a little shocked at seeing Wormtail there but then he remembered the man had an aunt or two in Wales and was probably visiting.
Peter sat down opposite Sirius and offered to buy him another Butterbeer as he'd just finished his. Padfoot agreed and they started to make small talk about what they'd been up to the past year or so. It had only taken a drop or two in Padfoot's butterbeer before Wormtail realised now was the time to enact the plan. 'You know Padfoot old friend, isn't it too obvious that you're going to be James and Lily's secret keeper?' He crossed his fingers hoping that the potion was still effective and hadn't gone off in the cellar.
Black narrowed his eyes slightly at this comment but answered none the less 'I would never fold to the likes of Voldemort Wormtail, you know me, I'm the hot headed stubborn bastard type, remember? Besides they could torture me for hours and still get nothing out of me. The secret has to be volunteered for the charm to be broken. Using torture and such to get the answer out of someone isn't exactly volunteering now is it?' Pettigrew twisted a napkin in his hands nervously, the potion wasn't working flawlessly yet! But then again he hadn't asked how Peter knew about the charm so it was probably working a little bit; maybe a few more drops ought to do it. Wormtail scanned the Llanelli pub for a familiar face or something that would distract Padfoot for a split second. He waved his arm in the direction of the door saying 'Hey isn't that old Puckranter over there?' whilst his other hand quickly dispensed a few more drops into Black's beverage. It was exactly the right dosage and within minutes Peter had convinced Sirius that not only would it be ingenious to have a different person be the secret keeper but that he himself would be the perfect alternative. Black swallowed these facts like he did the remainder of his drink. James came into the pub a few minutes later and an Imperio potion laden Sirius Black told him of his 'great idea' and James of course trusting his best friend took this idea on board. Sirius turned in for the night at his room above the Lazy Lion. Wormtail and Prongs headed to a field where James told him to grab a hold of the broken bottle he held which was a Portkey designed to take them to Godric's Hollow. Lily stood a few metres away from where they were to arrive with Harry in her arms and the Invisibility cloak around them. As soon as Peter and James appeared she swept them under the coat and they took the parchment with the spell details from Pettigrew and sat in a circle. For such an important and complicated charm they were surprised by the small amount of time it took to perform. As soon as the charm was in place Pettigrew noticed the members of the Potter family seemed slightly fuzzy around the edges. 'It's an effect of the spell, Dumbledore said. No one but the secret keeper can see us and then it's sort of fuzzy. Thank you Peter this means the world to us. As soon as Dumbledore stops Voldemort perhaps we will all see a little more clearly?' He quipped. Wormtail just nodded his head, his betraying eyes focused on the grass blades at their feet.
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Lord Voldemort held Wormtail by the forearm, a thumb pressed into the flesh right over the tattoo. The little man whimpered slightly but tried to keep a brave face. It was his arse on the line here and he'd do anything to not incur the wrath of the most powerful wizard in the world. Even betray his friends.
'Now you insufferable worm. You will reveal it now'
'M-m-y lord. Not yet. We have to get as close to the location as possible before I tell you. Once the charm is broken then everyone will know where the Potters live. They could get there before you and try to save them'.
'I'm getting tired of your excuses Wormtail'
'We're almost there. Okay here. Stand here' He pointed at a patch of dirt that faced a vacant field. 'The Potters live at 521 Infaust Lane, Godrics Hollow, Wales' A pale red sheen washed over the clearing and was sucked up into the darkened clouds. Before their eyes a house took form, the residence of James and Lily Potter. Voldemort looked back at his assistant.
'You leave now. Your usefulness has served you for this evening'
The former Tom Riddle pulled his hood up and ran over the game plan in his mind. Kill the boy in front of the parents and then kill them. Maximum pain, always maximum pain. He laughed quietly to himself as he charmed the lock of the front door open, marvelling at how little protection they had thought to use on the house in the case of the Fidelius Charm being broken. Then again, he thought evilly, they didn't expect it to be broken. They expected Wormtail to be loyal, fools. Voldemort strode down the hallway and seemingly hitting every creaking floor board. James went racing into the hall with his wand held high and gasped loudly as the thing of their nightmares stood in their house. He called out behind him where an askance looking Lily stood, disbelief etched on her face. 'Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! GO! Run! I'll hold him off' Lily stumbled from the room blasting the door to the hall open with her wand. She threw a look back at her husband who stood with bravely with his wand outstretched at the man that had destroyed families all over the world. He nodded at her and she went running up the stairs two at a time to reach Harry in his crib before Voldemort could. A cackle of high-pitched laughter followed her and she heard James throwing hexes at the Dark Lord. 'Out of the way, you fool. Where is the boy? Where is that hideous little baby?' James struggled with him, hitting him with hexes left and right but the Dark Lord deflected them all without even acknowledging them. It was as if they simply bounced right off him. James knew then that the rumours were true, he wasn't human anymore, Voldemort was something beyond that, and he was invincible.
Lily collected Harry into her arms and looked for an escape route. She didn't have enough time to create a Portkey and trying to Apparate with a child would surely kill him. As she looked deep into her young son's eyes she heard the scream from downstairs and felt the blast blow her forward. The energy from the blast blew the door off Harry's nursery and sent her sprawling. Voldemort had performed the killing curse and she knew her husband lay dead at the foot of the stairs. Lily could almost feel her heart break then and there but she owed it to James to try and escape from this and take Harry to safety. With the speed of nothing human the Dark Lord stood behind her and she turned slowly to face his pulled up hood and those glittering eyes. Harry was now in his crib and she stood in front of it with her slim arms outstretched as if to protect him. Voldemort's eyes glittered at the chubby baby, this was what he had come for she could sense it.
'Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!'
'Stand aside you silly girl...stand aside now' He grabbed her arms to pull her away and she struggled with him but his power was too much. He pushed her away from the crib and she stood off to the side with a look of determination on her face.
'Please...have mercy. Not Harry! I'll do anything' She got back in-between Voldemort as the air around them crackled with energy and the crib and pleaded with him 'Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead!' The Dark Lord smiled at her and started that high-pitched cackle again. Don't you worry about that. I'll kill you. But I did have an order to it all. You've messed up the order. No matter. Directing his wand at her she barely heard the words of the curse mixed with the words 'As you wish'. Lily Potter fell to the ground, not a mark on her body but a look of failure impressed on her face.
Pointing the thirteen and a half inches of yew at the baby, a simple piece of wood that had done so much destruction in this incarnation as a wand, he opened his mouth to utter the words that would end it all. Baby Harry looked up into the eyes of the Dark Lord and wisdom much beyond his years reflected there. Voldemort hesitated for only a moment before roaring out 'Avada Kedavra'. A stream of acid green light poured forth from the tip of his wand and headed straight for the baby in the crib. Then something odd happened. The light stopped mid-air a mere inch from Harry's forehead. A sliver of it reached forward, tentatively and with great effort as though it were being pulled in the opposite direction, and etched something on his skin. Then quick as lightening it pulled back and surged backwards, towards the confused face of it's inflictor. It burrowed deep into Voldemort's stomach and a burst of white light broke around his body. A scream filled the air, the scream of an ancient protection spell that was being broken, as Harry's attacker hit the floor. His body writhed in agony, sending blasts of power off him in every direction, creating cracks in the walls and the ceiling around them. The baby hovered in mid-air as a golden light surrounded him and he was pulled out the window by an unseen force. The mystical forces that removed him from the disintegrating house rested him gently on a lopped off tree trunk, a blanket wrapped around him. Bricks popped out of the walls in all directions as a magical force blasted them away. Inside the house that was rapidly becoming rubble another agonized scream could be heard, this was of a man, a human voice. Voldemort had been rendered human. As the beams from the roof fell on him, covering his body, crushing his bones he felt the killing curse working it's way into his brain. Searing hot pokers probing his brain through his nose had nothing on this pain. He heard the giggle of a child, was it Harry? As his consciousness slipped away, so too did his body. A misty substance that was once the most feared wizard in all the world hovered over the remains of 521 Infaust Lane before whipping itself through the woods and far away.
As if someone had slapped him across the cheek Sirius Black suddenly remembered a morning two days ago when he'd run into Peter Pettigrew. Never known for his prowess at school with spells and potions his memory modifying charm on Padfoot had been unsuccessful and was now breaking down. A fog had lifted and as it did an address came floating into Black's mind, an address in Godrics Hollow, Wales - it had to be the Potter house. He set off on his bike immediately only to be met by smouldering ruins. He didn't need to sift through the ruins of the house to know that James and Lily Potter were among it, dead. The crackling of boots trampling on dried leaves met his ears and he turned to see the looming figure of Rubeus Hagrid standing off to the side with baby Harry in his arms.
Sirius dashed over to him and scooped Harry into his arms amazed at the child's apparent avoidance of the death and destruction but when he saw the scar on Harry's forehead he knew. Voldemort had tried to kill the baby too. He looked around the clearing quickly but didn't see the Dark Lord lingering. 'How is it you escaped Harry?' he murmured to the child. 'He wouldn't just have left you here, he would have finished you off'. The groundskeeper offered a tablecloth-sized handkerchief to the sobbing ex-student. Huge hands pulled him into a comforting hug that almost squashed poor Harry. 'There, there Sirius, it'll be okay. Now give Harry to me, I've got to take him straight to Dumbledore'
'No it's okay Hagrid, I'll take him. I'm his godfather, James and Lily would have wanted me to look after him'
'Sorry Sirius but I've got strict instructions from Professor Dumbledore'
'Right. Um...' he seemed lost for a moment but then something shifted inside of Sirius and his tears dried up as his grief turned to vengeance. 'Hagrid, take my bike, just get him out of here immediately.'
Hagrid nodded as he straddled the motorcycle. 'Whe're ya goin?'
'There's something I should have taken care of'' he Apparated out and left Hagrid sitting on the bike wondering.
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Across the country and indeed across the world Death Eater's woke up in their beds, hands clutched to scars sensing their master was calling them. Lights snapped on as they checked the colour. Red meant they were summoned and to appear by his side immediately. Green meant that he'd made a particularly vindictive kill and was pleased and wanted them all to know. Black meant nothing, it was always black. Severus Snape watched in wonder as the tattoo faded, bit by bit, to a washy grey colour and then completely disappeared. The Dark Lord had been defeated. And at that same moment a house number and street name popped into his head. Voldemort had been defeated that night but he'd found Lily and James Potter first.
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Author's note (hehe and you thought that big one up the top was the only one): I wanted to put in a bit that once the Fidelius Charm is broken everyone knows where they live, but the information doesn't actually mean anything to those that aren't involved in the whole saga. So across the country some five year old wizard to be could be sitting in the bath splashing about and an address pops into his head. He doesn't know why and he doesn't care, just wipes it from his memory. But if Dumbledore was sitting in the bath splashing about and an address popped into his head then he'd know it was Lily and James's house and to take action immediately. Plus I decided that the further away from the location you are, the longer it takes to hit you. Sirius was on his way home from Llanelli at the time, he was just passing through Swansea. Hagrid was in a town just next to Godric's Hollow. I have no idea why. When the address popped into his head he did that thing that Amos Diggory does when just his head comes through the fire to talk to Dumbledore and hence was given the instructions. As you can see, I hate to have plot holes. I just didn't want to write that all in the chapter or it would feel too much like an instruction booklet. On and there are two chapters to go. Then it's all over Red Rover, sniff.