CHAPTER THREE - ST BRUTUS CENTER FOR CRIMINALLY INCURABLE BOYS

            When Harry came to, he was in his room lying spreadeagled on the floor near his bed. Judging by the lack of noise coming from downstairs, he deduced that it was nighttime already, he had been out all day !!. He brushed his hand against his scar and felt a sticky substance there. His scar was coated with blood, fresh blood!,the blood should have clotted by now, since it was morning when he had the unfortunate incident.  While his scar had bled before, this was the first time that the blood remained fresh, Harry saw this as another sign to worry, maybe Voldemort knew how to use the connection between the two of them to his advantage. * wait *, he corrected himself, there was no maybe about it, he did know how to use the scar to his advantage, after all, he had seen Harry when he was having the vision. At the tought of the vision he just had, his already grim face turned even grimmer as he felt his stomach turning over in revulsion. The thought of what those deatheaters had been doing to that poor muggle girl boiled his blood and filled his heart with anger - no human being deserved to be treated like that, be it muggle or wizard. Although he had no doubt that Voldemort had done much worse before. The words that Voldemort had spoken to him resounded in his mind " All the pain this muggle family is going through is all your fault. If you give yourself up to me, then I won' torture this muggles anymore ".  Out of all what Voldemort had said, the one that he couldn't get out of his mind was the one that told him, that their pain ws allhis fault. He smiled humorlessly, it seemed that everything was his fault. His mother and father had sacrificed their life because of him. Ginny had almost died because of him. Cedric had been killed because of him and now, this family was been tortured because of him.  It seemed that life wasn't fair, because a lot of bad things happened to him. The Weasleys were poor yet they were happy. The Grangers were not famous or well known, they were even muggles, yet they were happy.  He had the money and the fame, yet he had no family and was definately not happy.

            * Life *, Harry mused to himself even as he laid on the floor * was cruel*. The irony of his situation was not lost on him. He was practcally seen as a god in the wizarding community. If he went to Diagon Alley, people will bend over in all directions just to be able to see him. If he told a wizard to lick his shoes, the wizard would probably say that he was not worthy enough. Yet here he was in number 4 Privet Drive, ready to be shipped to St. Brutus Center for Criminally Incurable Boys and there was nothing he could say or do about it because until he was eighteen, the Dursleys were his legal guardians.        * Life*, Harry decided * was actally fair and kept everything in balance, for every single thing, it had an opposite thing to it *, * Voldemort was all powerful, yet he couldn't defeat a boy barely versed in the magical arts *, * The Malfoy's were very rich and had lot's of influence, yet they had a short life expentancy working for Voldemort *. Harry chuckled to himself, he had gone all philosophical back there. Grunting slightly with pain, he lifted himself up and managed to get to the bathroom across from his room and managed to brush his teeth and wash his face before going back to his room and plopping into the bed. He was much too exhausted to worry about any of the drastic changes his life was going through right now. Right before he fell asleep he wondered to himself * Even being unconscious is tiring * then he entered the realm of Morpheus.

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            Dumbledore rubbed his hands along his brow tiredly. He could feel a mega headache coming on, one he doubted even Pomfrey could heal. He had spent the better part of the day in conference with the minister of magic and the school governors who were bossed around by Lucius Malfoy. The purpose of the conference of course was about the expulsion of Harry Potter from Hogwarts and Malfoy had been hindering him in every turn, just when the governors and the minister were about to relent, he would come out with something new that damned Harry even further.  He knew as did everybody else with him that if Harry was not allowed to come back to Hogwarts, sooner or later, Voldemort would get him and whe he did, the wizarding world was damned unless a miracle happened , and the last miracle that happened to the wizarding world was Harry, whom they now condemned. Sometimes, he really believed the Goblins and dark Elves ha dthe right of it to try and exterminate the human race. He really hoped that Malfoy didn't turn out to be to much like his father, he would be very disappointed in him if he did. He was brought out of his reverie by the silky voice of Lucius Malfoy " So you see Headmaster Dumbledore, that letting Potter back into the school would only bring more danger than necessary to the rest of the Students in Hogwarts ". " Mr. Malfoy ", Dumbledore said with exxagerated patience, " when a student is accepted into Hogwarts, he receives the protection of Hogwarts until the student does something to warrant expulsion ". Cornelius Fudge now spoke " And killing Cedric Diggory doesn't warrant expulsion or even jail time in Azbakan ? " Dumbledore internally sighed, he'd never realized that Fudge was this hard headed, why he remembered when he'd first come to Hogwarts, a chubby, frightened boy of eleven years old who could barely do a simple light spell. How such a man ever became minister of magic was beyond him. " And how do you know that Harry killed Cedric ?, you heard his account of what happened in the graveyard didn't you ? " Fudge snorted " Come on, Dumbledore, what sort of fool do you take me for, a portkey to a graveyard where Peter Pettigrew helped Voldemort rise again and killed Cedric Diggory, Peter has been dead for fifteen years Albus, you know that ". Dumbledore just sighed, and tried again but was cut off by Malfoy " Professor, everybody knows that Potter killed Diggory, I seemed to hear that he and Diggory liked the same girl, maybe he got jealous and killed him. He should rightly be in Azbakan, but since he's The - Boy - Who - Lived, some allowance has been made for him and he is only being expelled from Hogwarts, his wand was not even snapped in two, i think you should be happy with that and let matters rest, after all, the minister can change his mind if he is further aggravated ". Dumbledore looked over to the minister and saw a nod of agreement, he looked over to the other governors and saw similiar nods of agreement, he bent his head in defeat, suddenly looking very old, it seems he would live to see the Potter and therefore the Gryffindor line wiped out, but maybe Harry would survive without Hogwarts, he had proved to be very resilent and resourceful. But there was nothing he could do for him at least before the next year, except check on him periodically, renew and increase the power of the protection charm he'd placed of him. Sighing, he stood up and walkd out of the chamber the meeting had taken place without acknowledging anybody.

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                    Voldemort sat on his cold marble throne in on eof his many mountain fortresses. This one was located in the middle of a mountain in western Germany. The only way in and out of the fortress was by apparation and the apparation point was conviniently located in his throne room. Of all his fortresses, this was his favorite by far because of it's location. The whole of Germany had a demonic presence and  the mountain his fortress was located in was the focal point. Apparently, eons ago, this had been a gateway into the demonic realm and thousands of demons had poured through the gateway before it was sealed, their passage had left the whole area reaking with their essence which soon spread all over Germany. Of course it was slight in other areas, but it was still there. It was no wonder that the last two muggle world wars had been instigated by Germany.  A lot of people thought that Romania was the real supernatural hunting ground but it was nothing compared to this mountain. The only thing Romania really had was vampires, lots of vampires, but they were not even the great vampires, but victims of botched turnings who looked nothing like real vampires. They didn't have a fraction of their strength, speed or power. Real vampires could even walk in the sun and could perform powerful magic, they were not scared of garlic or stakes through the heart. The only thing that could kill a real vampire was if their head was cut off by a silver weapon and burned within th ehour of decapacitation, else the vampire revived, stronger than ever. But of course, vampires were nothing compared to demons, now they were terrors. Voldemort grinned, here, he could feel his power increased tenfold, the performing of major dark spells was made easier here also.

            Voldemort lost his grin as he thought of a perpertual thorn in his side, the dratted Potter boy. His crimson eyes narrowed as he remembered that fateful halloween night, fifteen years ago. The night were he had almost lost it all were it not for wormtail that found him years later, as it was he owed wormtail a debt far greater than the fool knew, what wormtail did, that brought him back to life bound him by the rules of ancient magic and he was forced to pay it for as long as the fool wanted. He could not even kill him !!  Back to Potter, he needed to get rid of him or bring him to their side. But, the boy had to come of his own free will as he knew he couldn't control him like he could others. he would rather kill the boy and be done with it. Now he was in a bad mood. He needed to torture somebody. And the perfect targets were the man and the girl in front of him.

            The girl from Harry's vision was still alive barely. She was almost in a coma from the countless gang rapes. The father of the girl was watching his daughter silently, his eyes briefly flashing with rage at his helplessness. Voldemort smirked as a new mode of torture presented itself to his mind. he wanted to traumatize them some more. so waving his hand, he brought the girl out from the imperio curse placed on her and released her from her bindings. Another wave of his hand and all th ecuts all over her body was instantly healed and her skin regained it's earlier sheen. Another wave of his hands clothed her in normal muggle clothes and smiling at her, he told her she could go. Conveniently, an open doorway appeared a few yards from her with a flashing sign above it that read "EXIT"

            She looked hesitantly from her dad to the doorway and decided, what the heck, she broke into a run, trying to reach the door before she probably woke up from whatever dream she was having. Voldemort smirked and waved his hand, releasing the father and placing him under a very powerful imperio with only one objective. The man rushed after his daughter and grabbed her shoulder just as she reached the door. She jerked and turned around, half expecting it to be a deatheater. She sighed in relief when she discovered that it was her father. " Come on pa, let's get out of here before he changes his mind " She urged him, her voice soft and hesitant, a result of her ordeal. Her father said nothing, but instead still held her tight and finally pushed her away from the door. " pa ? ", she said frightened as she saw her hope for escape dwindling, the more time passed and the further from the door she was.  Her father still said nothing and walked unerringly towards her, his eyes vacant of any emotion. " pa ?", she tried again and when her father failed to respond again, she screamed and tried to run around him towards the door. He caught up with her and threw her to the floor. A second later, he tore her clothes from her body and eased out of his. When she saw this she started screaming in denial. It was one thing to be raped by evil men, but by her own father ? Moments later, her scream increased in pitch as he sank down on top of her and then blissful blackness, which was not denied her as Voldemort waved his hand and she came to again. Then he waved his hand and removed the Imperio from the man and watched as realization came to his face and it contorted up in horror. He laughed loudly and when the man tried to withdraw from within his daughter forced him to continue and laughed even louder when they both screamed. Now this was torture, this was real power.

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            Harry screamed as he jerked awake from yet another Voldemort induced nightmare. He quickly stifled his scream as he realized where he was but it was too late, thier room warden had  heard and some boys were awake, satring curiously at Harry. The room warden stomped up to Harry and grabbed him roughly on his arm. " Come with me Potter " He growled, his breath as hot as the whiskey he had been drinking. He walked him to the middle of the room and told him to take off his shirt. Harry did so quietly, already cringing because he knew what would come next. The warden took a small, thin baton from his belt and proceeded to whack Harry between his shoulder blades, in roughly the same area with enough force to hurt him but not enough force to do any damage to his spial column. Harry flinched with every blow he felt, yet he didn't move and clamped his mouth shut, he had learned early on that making a sound while being punished only served to increase his punishment. After whaking Harry five times, he curtly told him to put his shirt back on and went back to whatever it was he was doing before he was disturbed by Harry's scream. After the warden was gone, Harry sank to his knees and took deep breaths to try and get a handle on the excruciating pain he was feeling. The boys that had come awake glared at Harry for waking them and went back to sleep they all needed their sleep because the next day as every other day, they were worked till they dropped, then sent to bed after dinner. The schedule was actually very simple. Wake up in the morning and get a very heavy breakfast, then go and do whatever backbreaking work the authorities had devised for them that day, then from five to nine, they took some simple academic classes and took dinner, then went to sleep. There was no time for recreation, no time to rest, and this they had to do for three years straight, except for Christmas day. The worst part about the place was the punishment they gave out for any misbehavior, however slight. The miscreant was whacked with a small, thin baton between the shoulder blades every time. The first few times were easy to take because the blows were not extremely hard, but if a person was whacked everyday, the area first get's sore, then it hurts, then stings before moving to excruciating pain for every whack landed on the spot and doing the work they were assigned made the area hurt even more, so every boy in the place was in almost constant pain. The people made sure though, that the skin didn't break where it was hit almost regularly.  Harry was in the St. Brutus Center for Criminally Incurable Boys.     

            He had been taken there two weeks ago and ever since, his life had been a living hell. At least he had managed to set Hedwig free and had hidden most of his most important possesions on his person when he was brought there. His father's invisibility cloak hid everything magical that he had with him. He could,'t see the cloak, but he knew where it was. Inside it was his fourth year defense against the dark arts textbook from last year, his wand, his sneak o scope, and the presents he had received for his birthday.  Everynight, he was in constant fear that Voldemort would attack and kill him. He stmbled towards his bed and laid down on his stomach gratefully. No body here slept on his back, the pain was too excruciating. As Harry felll asleep again, he wondered how his friends were doing. Hogwarts would begin in a few days. they were probably in Diagon Alley, buying school supplies. Oh well, he guessed he would never see them again, too bad.