--Disclaimer: All characters and things you recognise belongs to J.K. Rowling. The rest belongs to me.--

--- Chapter 2 : Trickery ---



Harry awoke with a jerk the next morning. Aunt Petunia was rapping on his door.

"Get up", she screeched, "You are holding us all up! We have to go into town to buy some clothes and suitcases for our holiday and you can't stay at Mrs Figgs because we haven't been able to contact her".

Harry swung his feet over the side of the bed and stood up, then read the time on his new watch, or should I say, he read the century, year and then finally, hour - Nine. No wonder she was angry, he really had slept in. He pulled on some clothes hurriedly, fetched his wand from under the floorboard and tucked it into his belt, and then opened the door and rushed downstairs. Uncle Vernon was standing at the front door waiting for him.

"Well come on then, we haven't got all day", he snapped, as if Harry wasn't already rushing towards the door.

Harry got into the backseat beside Dudley, and asked him whether he had enjoyed his breakfast this morning. Dudley glared at him.

Uncle Vernon spent much of the trip lecturing Harry about what he would do to him if there was any 'funny business'.

Twenty minutes later they arrived at the Mall in Surrey and Uncle Vernon took a parking space right by the entrance to the Mall. It actually had a disability sign on it, but Uncle Vernon seemed to think that it was unlikely that anyone in a wheelchair could drive a car anyway. Harry hoped wildly that when they got back there would be a ticket attached to the windscreen.. or even better, the car would have been towed.

Once inside the mall, Aunt Petunia led the way to an upmarket clothes shop. The shop assistant was watching as they walked in the doorway and rushed up to Harry and told him that he would have a whole new wardrobe in no time. She had obviously presumed that since he was the only one not dressed in nice clothes, his family must be there to help him shop for some.

"We aren't here for HIM", Uncle Vernon barked pulling Harry away. The shop assistant looked quite shocked at his rudeness and went back behind the counter and started muttering in the other assistants ear, both of them casting glances over at the Dursleys, and Harry who followed behind them.

"Here you are Dudleykins", cooned Aunt Petunia, holding up a large pair of shorts. I'm so proud of you, this time last year you would never have fitted into this size.

Dudley reddened and looked around. A couple of teenage girls standing in a corner of the shop where gaping in his direction, struggling not to laugh.

Five minutes later Harry watched as Dudley emerged from the fitting room wearing the shorts and a t-shirt Aunt Petunia had picked out for him. He had to bite his lip to stop from bursting out laughing when he saw Dudley also had stretch lines on his arms and legs left from all the weight he had lost. Although still not remotely near skinny, his lessening weight problem had vastly improved things.

After what seemed like an eternity, Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Dudley had large piles of clothes on the counter. They had even each enthusiastically picked out sunglasses. The shop assistant looked down at all the clothes, glanced at Harry, and then said to Uncle Vernon "Will that be all?".

"That's all", said Uncle Vernon, "And I want it all wrapped up carefully..".

The shop assistant proceeded to fold the clothes, wrap them up in soft tissue paper, then put them in some trendy bags with the store logo on them. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon stood glaring at the shop assistant as she did all this, especially as she removed the anti-shoplifting tags.. as if she had not done it a thousand times before, Harry thought. Harry was reminded strongly of the way he was normally glared at.

He walked over to examine a hat display near the back of the shop while waiting for the Dursleys to finish paying. The clothes had taken about half an hour to fold individually and pack into bags.. lots of bags. Suddenly there came a loud crash from the front of the shop.

Harry whipped around. One of the shop assistants had knocked over a mannequin of a girl modeling a dress.

"Silly Girl", Aunt Petunia snapped, as if she owned the place and was manager. Just as Aunt Petunia was rushing over to help pick up the mannequin, Harry saw out of the corner of his eye the other shop assistant who was at the counter slipping an anti-shoplifting tag into one of the shop bags still sitting on the counter.

So that's what they were muttering about, Harry thought. This must be what they do to all the customers they don't like.

When they left to go, Harry made sure that he didn't hold the 'spiked' bag. The Dursleys of course, expected him to help carry the shopping, even though none of it was his.

Sure enough, when Aunt Petunia walked though the door, laden down with bags every alarm in the place went off.

"What's going on?", she demanded.

"I'm afraid we will have to search all your bags", explained the shop assistant hurrying up. "You must have something in there that has not been purchased."



Harry tried to keep his face straight as they sat on the bench much later by the fountain in the middle of the Mall. This time, it was definitely not his fault. Uncle Vernons face was livid. In fact for once, he was so angry he couldn't even speak, which was lucky, because Harry didn't fancy being loudly accused in a packed mall.

Aunt Petunia was the first to recover enough to speak. "Well, we better go and buy ourselves some suitcases then. There's a shop selling suitcases over there".

Uncle Vernon seemed to finally snap out of it, and stood up taking his repacked shop bags. As Harry stood up Uncle Vernon turned on him and pushed him back onto the bench.

"You will wait here" he growled.

Harry thought it would be unwise to argue with him so nodded his head and watched as the Dursleys walked away across the mall.

Harry sat on the bench waiting a long time and watched all the Muggles hurrying about their shopping. There where several clothing shops on one side, and on the other side.. he turned around, and looked though the fountain, there was a sweet shop, an electronics shop, a jewelry shop, and several more clothing shops. The travel luggage shop was further down. Harry reached out and put his hands under the water rushing down out of the fountain, mesmerized slightly as he watched the light sparkling off it.

Gradually, and then with a jolt, Harry became aware that he was being watched from behind. He turned around on the bench, expecting to see that the Dursleys had arrived back. Instead what he saw made his insides feel like they had frozen. Five hooded Death Eaters where standing around him in a semi-circle less than 3 feet from him, his escape blocked, unless he was to jump backwards into the fountain and run through it... But that wouldn't be a good idea, they all had their wands trained on him.

One of the Death Eaters stepped forward, and Harry just had time to register him as looking alot like Lucius Malfoy, before he forcefully pressed an object into Harry's hand.

Almost immediately, Harry felt a jerk from just behind his navel, and colors started to rush by in what seemed like a gale. My life is repeating itself he thought dully as realisation of what he was about to meet dawned on him.



Suddenly his feet slammed into the ground and he instinctively stepped forward to steady himself. He was standing in what looked like a large cavern. Probably miles under a mountain, he thought. Standing a few paces in front of him was Voldemort.

"Welcome to my lair", Voldemort said in a high cruel voice.

Harry gasped and grabbed his head with both hands as pain suddenly seared through his scar.

Beside him, Death Eaters started to apparate, popping into view, training their wands on Harry. Harry was completely surrounded, there was only one opening in the cavern entrance, and he could only see a dark tunnel leading beyond it.

"There is no escaping this time Harry Potter", Voldemort said. "I have seen to it that there are many powerful demons guarding the entrance.. Even Dumbledore would be in great mortal danger if he was to attempt an escape through them", with that, he laughed a high cold laugh.

This is it then, Harry thought. He had two choices, let Voldemort kill him right then and there, or try to inflict an injury on him before Voldemort killed him. Either way, he was going to die. Harry reached behind him to pull his wand out of his belt, but Voldemort was too quick.

"ACCIO EXPELLIARMUS!", Voldemort said swishing his wand, reaching up into the air with his long spidery hand to catch Harrys wand which had immediately been summoned out of Harrys reach.

"So you don't do anything stupid", Voldemort sneered, immediately snapping Harrys precious wand in half, and throwing the pieces into a burning campfire behind him, where they hissed and turned to blackened ashes.

"Now Harry, let me explain to you how you are going to die", Voldemort hissed. "Not many people have the privilege of knowing before their deaths how they are going to die - but you will".

Harry glanced around at the circle of Death Eaters, who had lowered their hoods, obviously quite confident in their masters ability to deliver. Harry shuddered, they were all laughing at him, taking pleasure in watching him be told his fate.

"What I am going to do is subject you to a never-ending Cruciatus curse. It will only end when you have gone completely crazy from the pain - like the Longbottoms, or when you die", Voldemort paused for effect, then started speaking again, "If the former happens and you go crazy and the curse stops, you will die slowly of starvation - The only way you would survive would be if someone was forcing the food down your throat.. and you wouldn't even know you had a throat; you would be so crazy - there is no known cure". With this he laughed his high cold laugh again, and the Death Eaters joined in.

"Say goodbye to your sanity Harry", and with that Voldemort raised his wand.

Harry closed his eyes tightly and stepped back bracing himself.. please let there be a miracle he thought desperately.. let him keel over from a heart attack or something.. and with that last thought, Harry heard the dreaded words.



"CRUCIO!", Voldemort thundered, and Harry immediately was knocked to the cold stone floor, twitching horribly and screaming his head off. The pain from the Cruciatus curse was far worse than he had remembered from his last encounter with Voldemort. His head didn't just feel like it was splitting apart along his scar, it felt like it was in several pieces already, all of them burning painfully. Every bone in his body felt a horrible pain, like being stabbed over and over with a million daggers, and red-hot coals burning every inch of his skin at the same time. But a million times worse.

He lay twitching with pain on the floor for what seemed like an eternity, if he had been able to read his watch he would have seen that he had been in the cavern for over six hours. He was slowly losing it.. he tried desperately to remember who had done this to him, why he was there, and who he was.. but it was all slipping from him. All he could feel was the pain.. and slowly all he could think about was the pain.. stretching endlessly and white before him, sometimes interspersed with a high cold evil laugh he no longer recognized.

Harry saw one last memory floating away out of his head.. perhaps his last painless thought. He tried desperately to hold onto it before it faded from his mind and he would be left with just the raw pain.

It was the memory of the picture he had seen in that phamplet an eternity ago.. the one of the lane with the vivid purple flowers with the mountains beyond. He hung desperately onto his one memory, and as he did, he felt himself spinning out of consciousness, into the darkness.

Dumbledore stood in a small office at the Ministry of Magic in London, head bowed, listening to Mr Weasley. He had come to London immediately, when he heard that Harry had been kidnapped. It had been a kidnapping, even Mr Fudge couldn't deny it. There had been plenty of Muggle witnesses in the packed mall in Surrey who had stopped and stared when a bunch of cloaked Death Eaters had suddenly apparated, and then disapparated into thin air taking a rather surprised looking young teenager with them.

They were currently all being interviewed.. all the muggles where under the impression that the Ministry of Magic officials were actually the police. However, they were each having their memories modified at the end of their interviews.

Dumbledore had spoken to the Dursleys and they had been sent home by port-key. They seemed less worried about Harry than the port-key, which they had tried to run from.

Mr Weasley had been to talk to all the departments in the Ministry of Magic, and most of the wizards in them had dropped what they where doing and had gone out to search for any sign of Harry. This did not go down well with Fudge.

"Harry was our best hope", Dumbledore said. The twinkle in his eye had long gone, since when he had received that owl back at Hogwarts.

"For the last time, I refuse to believe You-know-who has risen again", stated Cornelius Fudge, trying to look Dumbledore in the eye, but failing since Dumbledore was gazing at the floor.

"It is simply impossible - out of the question", he continued, "He cannot have risen again, those death-eaters where probably just pranksters.. he will turn up in a few hours no worse for wear", he stated again.

"Like Bertha Jonkins never turned up" Mr Weasley glared at Cornelius, "He is not going to turn up. Harry was telling the truth after the Triwizard Tournament, and now he is probably dead".

Fudge stormed out of the room, clearly not wanting to hear another word, Mr Weasley walked out of his office intending to help search for Harry.

Dumbledore continued to stand staring down at the ground for a long time, long after the sun had sunk beneath the horizon. He suddenly looked very old - much older than he had ever looked before.