Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to J.k. Rowling. Now if only she'd get that new book out sooner…
Extended Summary: Harry was captured by Voldermort four years ago, when he was fifteen. Hermione is now Draco's 'toy'. Ron and Remus are dead. Harry has nearly given up hope of being rescued, when a familiar person is captured and suddenly shows up in Harry's cell….when the impossible happens, will Harry have the detirmination to restart fighting for his freedom…his life?
Rating: Rated R for sex (non-graphic), violence, nudity, excessive and slightly graphic torture, death, and harsh language. Also minor slash.
Dedicated to: Everyone who has reviewed so far.
Harry's P.O.V.
I couldn't believe it. They'd decieved me, told me he was dead. But he couldn't be dead, for I stared into the face of. . . .
"Sirius?" I whispered slowly, and reached out a trembling hand towards him
"Harry?" He managed to croak to me, out of cracked and bloodied lips.
"Oh god. . . what'd they do to you. . . how are you still alive, you were dead…they told me you had been killed. . .years ago!"
"POTTER!" Snape hissed furiously, "Get a hold of your self, we don't have time for silly things like this, there are important plans to be made!"
That finally managed to shake me out of my stupor, and I stared at him with confusion. "What do you mean, 'plans to be made'?" I replied warily, my confusion growing. "What are you playing at Snape?"
"I'm not playing at anything, I'm trying to save your ungrateful hide, Potter." He answered harshly. "But we need to get focused," he paused briefly before adding in a much milder, almost friendly tone, "and I need your help."
"My help?" I jerked back involuntary, for I didn't expect that answer, especially coming from him of all people. "How?"
He glanced around again cautiously, and I knew that he guessed that Lucius was still lurking around somewhere.
"I can help set the plan up, Potter," he replied, "but it's you, that is going to have to carry it out." He gave Sirius a poke in the ribs with his toe, but carried on quickly with what he was saying when he caught my fierce glare. "I can't risk jeopardizing Dumbledore's own plans by getting my cover exposed."
"Dumbledore's plans?" I repeated slowly.
"That's what I said Potter. Did you really think Dumbledore was just going to leave you rotting here for the rest of your miserable life? Now, get over here, we can't risk anyone hearing."
Bill's P.O.V.
I jerked awake suddenly, for I had been dreaming that I was falling down a deep hole, pitch blackness; into oblivion. Do you ever get that, when you feel like your falling down, then all of a sudden you jerk awake? It's quite annoying, especially when I'm only going on an average of four or five hours of sleep a night, and because, other then that, I was having a pleasant sleep.
I sat up slowly, stiffly, and tried to force my eyes to open up, because they were protesting against the harsh light of the morning sun. I glanced over at the clock on the wall and realized that breakfast would be served shortly, so I rubbed at them, trying to chase away the drowsiness, and convince myself that I did not need to go back to sleep.
I ordered myself to get out from under the blessed warmth of the blankets, and then attempted to cross the stone floor to get near the heat of the fire, while trying to avoid stepping on sleeping bodies and grab my robes, boots and wand at the same time.
"Oh god, the floor's like ice in the morn- ugh sorry!" I hastily whispered to the person who's foot I had stumbled over. The only response I received, luckily, was a groan, a weak kick and an effort to pull the blanket over his head.
I dressed quickly, and then played another game of leap frog over to the common room entrance.
All was still quiet in Hogwarts. I must have passed only two people on the way down to breakfast, and both of them, I guessed were on duty, due to the faint traces of a day-old beard growing on their cheeks. I'm not used to such peace and quite around here. . . normally from ten in the morning, to one or two…well, in the morning I suppose, it's usually utter chaos. People coming and going from various missions, bringing back food, refugees or casualties, depending on the task, then there is also the frequent outbreak as a result of one of Peeve's endless practical jokes, the occasional, (okay, perhaps not that occasional) backfiring of a spell or mis-brewed potion, and of course the flurry of activity when a Death Eater is spotted in or near the grounds.
I pushed aside a tapestry on the fourth floor to reveal a passage way I knew appeared on Tuesday's only as a short cut to the Great Hall, and finally arrived in the entrance hall. I stumbled sleepily down the stairs, rubbing my eyes once again and walked into the hall.
There were a few people in there already. Angelina was sitting at a small table by herself, though she looked to me as if she was falling asleep in her bowl of oatmeal. I chuckled to myself quietly and started over towards her.
"Angelina?" I called out, and began to laugh quietly as she jerked awake and hit herself with the spoon.
"Wha…?" She blinked at me sleepily.
"Nothing." I chuckled and grabbed a seat next to her, and reached for a piece of toast.
"Wha ah yo swo ti-ud?" I tried to ask her through a mouthful of toast and strawberry jam.
"Why am I…swo?" She frowned as she tried to decipher what I just said. "So tired?"
I nodded, and took another bite of toast.
"Oh," she sighed, "one of the girls in my dormitory had a rough night last night." She looked down sadly, staring into her half finished oatmeal.
"What happened?" I asked her, "Who did she lose?"
"It's nothing like that," Angelina replied, "she was a new recruit, I think it finally just hit her on how serious this war is. She just came back from her first mission."
"Ah," I said. That was all the explanation Angelina needed to tell me. Almost everyone takes their first mission hard. There's no way to truly prepare a person for what they might see. We try to give them an easy mission, but this is war, there's nothing easy about it. All war causes is pain, and death, horrifying memories. . .and the newbies are lucky if they don't see some of that. Voldemort does unspeakable things to people he catches, just because they don't follow him, because they may have information they may lead to Dumbledore's. . .our demise, and with our destruction the Dark Lord will gain what he wants. Complete power over all things. Total domination.
"Are you Bill?" I heard a small voice behind me say, and I turned around to see a little witch behind me, probably not more then nine years old.
"Yes," I confirmed, and gave her a small smile.
"Professor Dumbledore wants to see you," she whispered nervously and scuffed her feet on the stone floor.
I regarded her with mild curiosity; children weren't usually afraid of me!—and nodded.
"All right, thank-you."
She nodded back, and scurried off, probably back to where the rest of the children played. (Or, as I suspected, plotted and schemed ways to create even more chaos, if that was possible. Just two days ago, one of them had somehow managed to charm my dinner plate to bounce up and down. I found it quite amusing, but needless to say Angelina didn't as she found herself wearing my sausages that I had drowned with tomato sauce all over the front of her robes. I actually felt sorry for the children that got caught by the time Angelina was done with them. She had made them wash the dinner dishes. Now, if you could see how many people currently lived in this castle, if you could see all the dishes we go through in a day, you'd feel pretty sorry for them as well. I swear, sometimes I don't get who is worse, the kids or Peeves, I almost think they have a secret competition going on!)
"I'll catch up with you on duty somewhere outside when I'm done?" I asked her and she nodded. "All right, thanks."
I got up wearily and headed over to the great wooden doors of the hall, when suddenly I realized, just when I saw the little girl's retreating back disappear around the corner, that she hadn't told me where Dumbledore was to be found. I sighed, and gazed wistfully at the breakfast table before turning around to headed up to Dumbledore's office, to see if he was lurking around up there.
Five minutes later, I was on the second floor, standing in front of the stone gargoyle that marked the entrance to his office, and stared at it hopelessly as I realized I didn't know the password.
I wonder if I wish hard enough, would it open? I mused to myself before glaring angrily at its unmoving face. Needless to say, that didn't work either, and so I tentatively tried a password.
"Lemon Drop?"
Nothing. I tried again.
"Chocolate Éclair?"
The gargoyle didn't budge.
"Turkish Delight?"
Stillness.
"Chocolate Frog?"
The gargoyle stared back at me and then slowly began to move. I stared in mild shock… I had gotten it?
I was about to, metaphorically speaking of course, jump for joy until I realized that the face of Albus Dumbledore stared back at me curiously, and that in fact, was not me who had guessed the correct password.
"Bill?" He asked, and his face darkened suddenly. "What is it, has something happened?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that," I quickly reassured him, "I was told that you wanted to see me."
"Hmm? No…." before I had time to puzzle about that, he continued, "… but seeing as you are here, I would like to ask you something."
He motioned for me to go up the stairs to his study, so I ducked down to go through the entrance.
Once up in his office, I sat myself down in a comfortable arm chair, and the professor settled down on an identical chair on the other side of the desk, opposite me.
"I'd like your opinion Bill." He began, immediately getting to the point, leaning forward slightly over the desk. "And I'm sorry to ask you this so early in the morning, but it seems lately I haven't had much time to just sit down and talk to you."
I nodded in agreement and he continued.
"What do you think our next move against Voldemort should be?"
I blinked in surprise. "You want my opinion on something as important as that?" I croaked out. I certainly hadn't been expecting him to ask me that.
"Yes." He answered simply, and peered thoughtfully at me over the top of his spectacles.
"Well. . .um. . .I'm not quite sure sir." I began to reply hesitantly as my mind scrambled for something else to say.
"I'm don't know what I'd do sir," I finally replied, "that's why I'm not in charge of fighting this war. It's just too complicated. Voldemort has maneuvered us so we can't plan an offensive attack, unless we want to submit the prisoners there, like Harry, to a certain death. He's using them like a shield. And you've made it clear that we can't stay the way we are, because, although we are managing to pick off some of his main supporters, he's still managing to get even more of our people. Pretty soon ,he just may have enough so he doesn't have to worry about our retaliation, because we will have too few, or no people left to plan a counterattack with." I sighed slowly, and tugged on my dragons tooth earring, a nervous habit I have developed that probably wasn't doing much good for my ear either.
Dumbledore regarded me patiently and so I carried on. " I suppose it doesn't help our cause that we know we have a spy in our midst and that through all this we still have to try and keep our secret from the muggles."
"A task that's getting harder and harder by the day." Dumbledore finished for me. "Just like the last war, Voldemort doesn't care who he kills, who finds out, just so long as he gets what he wants, to be in control of everything, to be the most powerful wizard ever. You make good points, Bill, they are things I myself would have said. But, you're right, what you were indirectly saying was that we can't just sit here doing nothing, or we will lose."
"But what to do?" He added after a long pause, and I knew from the way he said that, he wasn't expecting an answer from me.
He stood up slowly from his chair, and walked over to the window, staring out of it briefly before sitting back down behind the desk, leaning even closer towards me this time.
"You and your family have proved your loyalty and trustworthiness time and time again, Bill, so I know I can confide in you, and you won't tell a soul." His voice was barely above a whisper, and I had to lean forward even closer and strain my ears to hear what he had to say.
"One of my own contacts tells me that there are only about ten of our people currently being held in Voldemort's main domain. Four of them are Oliver Wood, Hermione, Harry, and Sirius Black."
"Sirius Black?" I interupted him in horror. "But I thought Minister Fudge killed him?"
"That's what everyone was supposed to believe. With everyone thinking he was dead, he could then became one of my top spies… he made the ultimate sacrifice. He gave up his life to go back into hiding. . . he truly did die, in a way." Dumbledore replied sadly.
"But what does this all mean?"
I listened carefully, as Dumbledore explained everything to me, and what he planned to do, long into the morning, and suddenly, I began to feel a spark of hope rekindling.
Later….
Dumbledore and I were still in deep conversation, when all of a sudden there came the sound of loud voices and footsteps slapping on stone from the room beneath us.
I caught his gaze, and simultaneously, in silent agreement, we both quickly moved towards the door. Exiting through the gargoyle's entrance, we were met with a porky, red faced, wizard, of about seventeen whose name, I remembered vaguely, was Ethan.
"What is it?" Dumbledore pressed.
"P..pr…professor!" he puffed. "Th…there, no, a…I-"
"Slow down a minute, take a deep breath and organize yourself." The professor ordered him calmly.
Ethan paused only briefly before rushing right back into what he was saying. I smiled at his youthful impatience, then regarded myself in what must have been mock horror, as I realized how old I must be getting if I thought of him as youthful.
"Professor! Angelina and Marcel have been found murdered on the school grounds!"
That wiped the smile off my face.
I'm so sorry this took so long to get out, I've had massive writer's block, haven't been home among some of the excuses. I really hope you liked this chapter, I made it a little longer then usual, hopefully it'll make up for the long delay. I'd like to thank everyone for reading, and I hope you'll continue to stick with me through this.
Dalamar