Chapter 6
A/N: Sorry I took forever. I wish I had an excuse like pneumonia or something, but I was a sick child when I was little, so strong immune system now. I was debating on whether or not to continue this because I have a horrible habit of not finishing stories. But I was amazed that I actually got reviews long after I updated, and I thank all who reviewed. If not for you guys, this wouldn't be up. I saw a couple people put me on their fav list, so THANKS. Anywho, I'll keep writing and shut up now.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. So sad. I think I'll cry.
Riddle Me This
Harry had lost his hope for the world that year, but in some odd way, he decided it needed his help. Or at least that is what he told himself in the beginning.
~*Flashback*~
Harry ran, ran from Ron and Hermione, Sirius, and any haunting from his parents. He needed to get away from his miserable life. Forming a plan, he changed directions and headed to his dormitory. The door was already opened, but he didn't bother to wonder about it. He grabbed his broom and a piece of parchment that was folded, hidden in his trunk, and he managed to slip out his window. It would be simple to become a Death Eater. That year he had gotten a letter from Voldemort every month that included directions on how to contact him. They weren't always the same, Voldemort moved around a lot so it would be harder for anyone to track down the Dark Lord. And it wasn't as if Harry could go and tell Dumbledore or someone else where Voldemort was hiding; Voldemort had made it very clear that if Harry told someone, people who Harry loved would die.
Harry finally reached his destination after about an hour and a half of flying. It was in an old warehouse, and there was plenty of room for Death Eater meetings. It was dark outside by now, and the warehouse didn't look too inviting for someone to just waltz right in without being summoned by Voldemort. A seemingly perfect place to hide, Harry figured. Harry was neither nervous nor scared when he walked straight into a Death Eater meeting. As he opened the large door to the inside all heads turned toward him. The room was only light by dim candlelight, and they had their hoods up, but Harry could tell the Death Eaters were shocked to see him. They were standing in a half circle, the opening part of the circle sat Voldemort in a fancy wooden chair. To Voldemort's right stood Lucius Malfoy. On Voldemort's left Harry made out the figure of Peter Pettigrew, Wormtail. Harry approached the half circle on Wormtail's side and glared at him. Being in such a horrible mood, Harry had a glare so fierce that Wormtail actually took a few cautious steps back.
Voldemort only chuckled which came out as a non-too pleasant sound. "Ah, Harry Potter," Voldemort rasped. "Here to join my side, I presume?"
"Just tell me what I have to do," Harry said coolly.
Harry and Voldemort were about ten feet apart. Voldemort got up from his chair and walked towards Harry, his black boots clanking on the hard floor, narrowing the space down to about three feet. It took all of Harry's self control not to flinch at Voldemort's ugly figure.
"Now then," Voldemort said rubbing his long, ugly hands together. "Straight to business. I'm sure you realized that I would make you do something for an initiation. For this I have people either kill a Mudblood or a Muggle lover. I have a special target for you. It's someone I'm afraid you know very well. I want you to kill the Minister of Magic. Arthur Weasley." Voldemort looked at Harry, expecting him to say something.
"Fine. How long do I have?" said Harry in a tone that suggested that he really didn't care.
"I'll give you two weeks, because he'll have spells protecting him. Ministers always do," said Voldemort.
"I won't need that long, it'll be easy."
Voldemort nodded. "If you think so."
"I do. I only have one request to make. Let me kill Wormtail."
Wormtail gasped and took a few more scared steps back. He started looking around for the nearest exit and his eyes landed on his master. "S-surely you w-wont l-let him. He j-just wants to k-kill me, he doesn't really w-want to join our side."
Harry smirked at his stutter but it was Voldemort who spoke. "Calm down. Everything is under my control." But Voldemort said it in harsh tone making Wormtail become even more frightened instead of calming down as the Dark Lord had suggested.
Voldemort looked at Harry and finally nodded. "If you wish to, and you can kill him, go ahead and do it. Now or never."
Harry Potter was shocked; he really didn't think that would work. Maybe he looked the part but by now most of his determination had worn off and he was shaking inside. This was the Dark Lord he was talking to. And he was doing it by choice, of his own free will! Was he out of his mind, Harry wondered. He was not quite sure if he could kill anybody, and pretty much decided that he, Harry, had turned crazy. But why not kill Wormtail? He had gotten this far already and it was not as if Wormtail was an innocent or anything even close, that bastard.
He sighed and without any other fanfare he pointed his wand at Wormtail and said the fatal words that he had always hated. "Avada Kedavra." There was a flash of green light and then, before Wormtail could do anything, Wormtail's body hit the floor. Several Death Eaters backed away. Harry didn't feel guilty at all, which surprised him.
Harry turned to leave but stopped when Voldemort said to him, "Oh, and Mr. Potter, you can't always just say 'Avada Kedavra' and get a dead person at the end of your wand. You have to center your anger and hate towards it."
Nodding slightly, Harry exited from the Death Eaters' sight towards the exit, but stayed to listen to what they would say. He waited a moment and then peered around the wall. Lucius Malfoy watched him leave and then he turned to look at Voldemort slowly. He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it, deciding against saying anything.
"Did you wish to say something, Lucius?" asked Voldemort in an unusual good mood.
"You let Harry Potter kill Wormtail." Lucius stated, emphasizing 'let' and 'Potter.'
"Ah, yes, I guess I did." Voldemort said.
"Why?" Lucius asked in a voice that didn't sound polite.
"I had been meaning to get rid of him. He was rather annoying. When Potter offered to do it for me I thought why not. Kill two birds with the same stone, if he ends up killing Arthur Weasley. We'll have the powerful Harry Potter on our side."
"Oh."
Voldemort turned abruptly to the exit where Harry happened to be hiding. "You may go now, Potter"
Harry jumped when he heard his name and quickly exited the warehouse. He had a man to kill.
***
Arthur Weasley smiled politely as he opened the door to find Harry Potter on the other side. "Hello Harry! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be finishing up at school?"
Harry smiled back at Arthur. "You know how it is. School is practically over; there is no more real work. Besides, I wanted to think about some things, and I figured flying on my broom would be the best way to do so." Harry held his broom up a little for evidence. Arthur nodded and motioned for Harry to come in and sit down.
"Do you want anything? Tea?" Arthur asked.
"I'm fine, thanks." Harry just wanted to get this over with.
"So is something wrong? Did you have a fight with Ron? Hermione?"
"No, of course not. Besides, they are the ones who usually do the fighting," Harry said with a bit of anger in his voice.
"Harry, did something happen?" Arthur asked, concerned.
"Ah, don't worry about it Mr. Weasley." Harry forced a smile. "Where is Mrs. Weasley?"
"She is in the garden. I could go get her…"
"No!" Harry said, a little too fast. "I mean, no. I wanted to tell you something," he recovered.
"What is it?" Arthur asked politely.
"It is a spell that I learned. It is really helpful. I hope you like it." He whipped out his wand and pointed it to Arthur, who started to retreat until he reasoned it was just Harry. "Avada Kedavra," He said, with less force then he had wanted. A weak flash of green light slipped out of Harry's wand. But it was enough to make Arthur fall to the ground in pain.
"Ha-Harry?" Arthur asked quietly.
Harry shrugged nervously. "If I said 'sorry' would it help?" He remembered what Voldemort had told him and took a deep breath. Then, with all the force he could muster, he shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" Harry remembered a spell he had learned earlier. "Morsmorde!"
Harry had killed his first innocent man.
And that was that.
***End Flashback***
Hermione was woken up when it was still dark outside and still very late. She heard Ron softly snoring beside her and smiled to herself. He had finally come home for the whole weekend and would not have to go back to work until Monday. A soft thumping noise was made downstairs, and she realized that the noise must have woken her up. Quietly standing up and grabbing her wand so she didn't disturb Ron, she walked downstairs towards the noise that was still sounding. It didn't seem too much of a threat, but she still walked with caution. When Hermione got into the living room she saw a glint of light on the main table. It was a Time Turner. She reached out to pick it up and examine it, but her pointer finger felt like it was stuck on glue in the center. Then, suddenly, it began to turn using her finger as a pivot. Time slipped past Hermione as the magical object spun so fast that it resembled a fan, and she couldn't count the turns.
Hermione blinked. There was a little girl in the living room now, jumping around and producing thumping sounds. The girl suddenly snapped her head up towards Hermione and smiled politely. "I've been waiting for you to get here," the girl said, sounding hurt that Hermione hadn't come earlier.
"I'm sorry. Who are you? How did you get in my house?" Hermione was confused, and it wasn't the type of thing she liked to be.
"Shh, we can't tell secrets. You want to know about me? Well I'm," the girl looked thoughtful for a moment, "nine now. Are you sure this was still your house now? They told me, but I forget."
"Now? When is now?"
"Don't you pay any attention? One month less than three years ago is now." The girl said as if it was obvious. "I was going to have some tea. Would you like some?"
Hermione stared at her blankly for a moment. "Okay." Maybe this was a dream, she mused. It sure felt real. The girl sat down at a low table that was right by her feet that Hermione hadn't noticed before. Or perhaps it had just appeared. Hermione sat on the chair opposite the girl and watched as she poured imaginary tea into the cups in front of both of them.
"Nobody gets the facts right anymore," the girl announced suddenly.
"What do you mean?"
"He was misinformed. You were misinformed. Everyone is underestimating him. Think he lost his power because he has the others do his work? Wrong!" The girl said, getting annoyed.
"Whoa, too many pronouns. Who is he? Voldemort? Was he the one misinformed?"
"Yes and no. It wasn't him misinformed." The girl started rocking to her side and she muttered, "It is an ugly secret. Yucky, bad secret!" The girl shivered. "Pay attention!" She suddenly snapped loudly out Hermione. "Nobody watches anymore! Observant: to observe surroundings (and people!) closely." She laughed mischievously. "Observant… servant. Surprise! You will all be fooled!" She looked at Hermione. "Wont you?" she added in a meek voice.
"What are you talking about? Are you crazy?" Hermione asked, hoping this was a meaningless dream.
The girl laughed, and she truly sounded insane. "No, not crazy." She shook her head and black hair wildly. "Just dead. Now, but not now." Hermione gaped at her and backed away from the tiny girl slowly. "But I know everything now. They told it to me. It is hard to remember everything." She cocked her head to the side looking at Hermione as if she was judging the older female. "You know not everything. Do not think you do." The girl laughed her mischievous laugh. "I'm the know-it-all now! But for how long? Not long. Not long enough, not long at all! Not fair. You! Did you cause this?" She raised her hand so Hermione could see it. It was burning. "No? Well, I hope I told you enough. Hard to remember." She bit her nails as if she was nervous. '"Is this a dream? Am I crazy? Is the girl crazy?' You are thinking the wrong questions Hermione! Let these questions flood your brain. "What's observant? Who is he? Can you figure it out in time? No more time!" The girl hummed a song that sounded familiar to Hermione, but she couldn't place it. Then the girl stopped singing abruptly, ending right before the line was over. She suddenly seemed to grow a couple of years older right in front of Hermione's face. "Counting down ten, eight, five. Will you be ready? Will anyone be? " She winked at Hermione. "The crows know best." A flash of white enveloped the phantom girl and she was suddenly on fire and disappeared.
This left Hermione even more confused, but she immediately recognized the song the girl had been humming as soon as she vanished. It was an old muggle song that she hadn't heard in a while. Quietly, Hermione mumbled, half singing, "it's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it. And I feel-" She stopped, just as the girl had. "Scared."
And then she woke up.
A/N: Don't own song "End of the World" (or whatever is its official name) by REM.
I don't suppose anybody would wanna beta for me? Cuz, you know, horrible grammar is me write. I kinda liked that chapter. (I was gonna include more, but it had been long enough.) How 'bout you? Review? YEAH! It will be fun… all the other kids are doing it…
It's the end of the world as we know it! And I feel fine . . .
