A/N: Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers! You're the best!
Here's some good news/bad news: Bad news is that I'm taking off on Wednesday for my sister's wedding in D.C., so no updates while I'm gone. The good news is that I'll do a mass update of multiple chapters tomorrow to make up for it. Be warned though I probably won't be able to go over them as I do with the other chapters, so there might be more grammar mistakes.
To Romm: most of the books Harry's bought were just normal books, not Dark Magic. There are no restrictions on them. Any "questionable" books that Harry has, well, let's just assume he bought them at Knockturn Alley.
19. Killing Curses and Visions
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry said and watched as his prey fell to his killing curse and was carried off. Another victim came his way, and Harry carefully aimed his wand. "Avada Kedavra!" he said in a quieter voice, testing to see how low his voice could get before the curse failed to work. To his satisfaction, the green light struck his target, and the life left his victim. Looking around to make sure no one was watching Harry lifted a corner of the invisibility cloak he wore to wipe the sweat off his face. He gagged slightly at the smell that greeted him.
The slaughterhouse Harry had found smelled of livestock, manure, and blood. It was a fair distance from the nearest magical community, but Harry had been able to practice his apparition to get there. For the past two weeks, Harry had come to the slaughterhouse, positioning himself at the assembly line directly before the point where the cattle were killed. Harry knew he could not simply read about the killing curse; he had to perform it. The ring on his wand, purchased from Knockturn Alley, kept his activities hidden, and day after day Harry, hidden underneath his invisibility cloak, killed cows as they passed before him. It was rather depressing, but at least the cows felt no pain, and they were going to be killed, anyways. For the next hour Harry continued to kill cattle before calling it a day. He crept out of the processing plant and apparated back to the nearest portkey station.
Harry ported to Boroughbridge in a decidedly miserable state. Even though he was only killing cattle that were seconds away from death, it still depressed Harry to kill anything. As soon as Harry got to his flat, he shed his clothes and replaced them with a comfy pair of pajamas. He prepared a warm, soothing bowl of soup and curled up on the couch and opened to where he left off in Hogwarts, A History. For some reason, reading Hogwarts, A History always seemed to lift his spirits. It was a little confusing as to why it cheered him, since the subject matter didn't compare to any of a number of Quidditch books he owned. But Harry figured the book reminded him of simpler times, times with his friends and at the first real home he's known. It became a ritual for Harry that whenever he was feeling depressed, a bowl of soup and a few hours with Hogwarts, A History always seemed to cheer him up.
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Killing curses and apparition were not the only things Harry studied. He had continued his practice of occlumency, but now he added legilimency to his list of growing skills. He was confident that he could avoid Voldemort's prying eyes, and now it was time for a little payback. In past years, Harry had seen many things from Voldemort's point of view. Harry hoped this meant that Voldemort wasn't as accomplished in occlumency as he was in legilimency, and perhaps Harry might be able to see into Voldemort's mind on command. At every opportunity he had in Harrogate, Harry practiced his legilimency on passersby and the customers of Weir's Weird and Fantastic Items. As the months passed, Harry was gaining increasing success; in fact, it had the side benefit of being able to pluck out exactly what the customers needed or his bosses wanted, thus making his job easier. Harry also practiced memory charms, but he was very hesitant to practice them on anyone, remembering the effect of a spell gone wrong on Professor Lockheart.
Near the end of May, Harry sat on his couch in front of his breakfast. Taking a bite, he almost spit it out after unfolding the Daily Prophet. "BELLATRIX LESTRANGE CAPTURED! HOGWARTS STUDENTS FOIL DEATH EATER ATTACK!" the headline read. Harry avidly read the front-page story.
BELLATRIX LESTRANGE CAPTURED! HOGWARTS STUDENTS FOIL DEATH EATER ATTACK
By Michael Perry, Staff Reporter
Yesterday afternoon, Ministry Aurors in the town of Huntworth apprehended Bellatrix Lestrange and four other Death Eaters, approximately 42 kilometers from Cardiff. For Lestrange, her capture ends almost a year of freedom after her daring escape from Azkaban prison. What was most impressive about the arrest was that it would never have happened without the assistance of two students from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Nymphodora Tonks, one of the first Aurors at the scene, described how Lestrange and the other Death Eaters were only meters from escaping before they ran into the two students.
"It was amazing," she said. "The rest of us had been fooled by the Death Eaters into pursuing in the wrong direction; they had paid several youths from the town to run around in dark robes. Lestrange and the others would have escaped if not for Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley."
Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley, both sixth-year prefects in Gryffindor House, prevented the Death Eaters from reaching Huntworth's portkey station. Eyewitnesses report that Miss Granger stood alone and confronted the five Death Eaters. After a frantic fight that left three Death Eaters disabled (including Lestrange herself) and Miss Granger wounded, Mr. Weasley arrived and finished off the two remaining Death Eaters. When asked why she would risk her life, Miss Granger responded, "I wasn't really thinking; I just knew I couldn't let her escape after what she had done to Harry."
The Harry she refers to is none other than Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived and recipient of the Order of Merlin (3rd class). Sources close to the situation say that Lestrange had murdered Sirius Black in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries last year, where Voldemort's return had finally been revealed. Although Black is an escaped convicted criminal himself, recent events have placed his guilt in doubt (please turn to page 4 for further details on the life and conviction of Sirius Black). It is believed that Black was Harry's godfather, which sheds some light on Miss Granger's comments.
Mr. Weasley was asked how two underage students could defeat five murderous Death Eaters. "We owe it all to Harry [Potter]. Last year," he went on to explain, "We had a horrible Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. [Former Professor Delores] Umbridge refused to teach us to use any spells, so Harry formed his own club of students and taught us how to defend ourselves. If not for Harry, the Death Eaters would have escaped and probably killed Hermione and me."
The other four Death Eaters were identified as…
Harry was astonished. Ron and Hermione had caught Bellatrix Lestrange! He was filled with happiness that Lestrange had been captured; pride that his friends were the ones to stop her; and a bit of guilt and horror that his friends placed themselves in danger. Harry read the story twice and stopped when he reread Ron's quote, "We owe it all to Harry." This sounded very different then the Ron he had left behind. He would have thought that Ron would revel in the attention and would be angry if Harry's name found its way into the paper. He never would have imagined that Ron would actually give him any credit, in effect sharing the spotlight with him. Harry grinned, then realized with a start he was going to be late for work. Harry folded the paper and stuck it in his back pocket, intended to read the rest of the paper and the story about Sirius on his lunch break.
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On a warm day near the end of June, Harry sat quietly in a forest clearing, focusing on his magical power. He didn't have a wand in his hand, or an incantation on his lips. Instead, Harry simply felt his magical potential and focused on it, allowing his mind to become in-tune with the magic. He had just finished an exhausting series of charms and transfiguration (not his best area) and was recovering.
Harry had three objectives when he left the astronomy tower almost seven months ago. The first was to leave Hogwarts; he felt like a sitting duck there, as the last three years proved. He also wanted to protect his friends. The second objective was to learn and train. After six months of training, Harry felt good about his progress. Instead of trying to learn as many spells as he could, Harry chose to master a handful of useful spells, practicing them until they were as powerful as he could cast them. These spells included the stunning spell, apparition, the killing curse, the disarming curse, and the shielding spell, among others. Harry felt his skills in many areas improve, but his Herbology and Potions skills definitely deteriorated, to say nothing of his History of Magic knowledge and Divination ability.
Harry's last objective was the hardest one. Find, defeat, and survive against Voldemort. Harry knew that a mere six months wouldn't compare in the slightest with Voldemort's years of experience, knowledge, and practice in the Dark Arts. But he had a trick up his sleeve that would hopefully even the playing field. He wasn't sure whether it would work, but there wasn't much he could do about that. The hardest part was finding Voldemort and a way to confront him alone; Harry didn't fancy his chances against Voldemort and a crowd of his Death Eaters. But he did have a plan for finding Voldemort, even if it wasn't working so well.
Harry felt a strange prickling in his scar. Ever since he had begun to master occlumency, his scar had stopped hurting except when something very significant was happening with Voldemort. Harry looked at his watch and decided it wasn't too soon to try and prepared himself to enter the mind of Voldemort. Harry knew that he should not have been able to master legilimency so quickly; it took years to become a fully capable legilimens. But Harry also knew Voldemort was an accomplished legilimens, and he attributed his innate ability to Voldemort, in the same manner that they were both Parselmouths. Harry began focusing on his scar, on his connection to Voldemort. For the past month, Harry had been using his legilimency skills to "eavesdrop" on Voldemort. He would only peek for a few minutes at a time, at different times each day, to avoid detection. So far, his efforts have not produced anything useful, though seeing the daily activities of Voldemort was slightly disconcerting. Today, however, Harry Potter was to be rewarded.
As Harry found himself becoming Voldemort, he immediately sensed that Voldemort was happy. Harry had experienced a variety of Voldemort's emotions, mostly anger and hatred. But today, Voldemort was happy, a rare occurrence. Harry noticed someone was talking to him.
"…pieces have been found, my Lord," said a figure, prostrate before him.
"How soon before it is ready?" Voldemort asked. He sensed the fear in the man before he responded, and Harry felt Voldemort's anger build as the man took the time to choose his words.
"It will take time my Lord. There are many pieces, the restoration must be complete, and the magic is ancient. We will need to test it at every step to make sure we are restoring it correctly, and-"
"How soon?" Voldemort repeated, the menace and danger clear in his voice.
"I do not know," the man squeaked, cowering in fear. "Perhaps a-a year."
"A YEAR!" Voldemort exploded.
"Six months! Six months!" the figure cried out.
Voldemort sat back down, thinking. "Very well. Six months then. In six months time, I shall make my long-awaited return to Hogwarts." Voldemort smiled, and laughed in glee.