Hey, everyone! This is my second Fan Fiction of the year 2004. I hope you enjoy this one as well. I know I enjoyed writing it! I thought 'The Future War' was a good idea…but I think this story is even better! I hope you all agree as well, and tell me so by: REVIEWING! Yes, I'm an author that loves reviews. So, I hope you help me out by giving me some! If not, I guess I won't continue the story, since that shows no one likes it. Tears But, come on, people: prove me wrong! Reply! And now, with no further ado: I give you the prologue of 'The Most Dangerous Game'.
And a special thank to my Beta Reader for this first chapter: child-of-scorpio (PS- go read her stories! They're amazing!)
Title: The Most Dangerous Game
Rating: PG-13 (For language and violence)
Shipper: D/Hr .:. H/G .:. R/OC
Summary: Sent to a strange, unplottable island, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Draco, and Katherine become the unbelievable prey of a sick-minded hunter in his deadly game. With their wandless skills, they must do their best to survive…
Disclaimer: Do I look like J.K. Rowling? Let's see: Filipina, short, black hair, brown eyes…nope don't think so. Therefore: don't own nothing! Except for original characters!
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Prologue
In room 13Z, of a small wizard hotel in England, a black-haired, tall, and well-built wizard continued to toss and turn in his troubled sleep. His thick eyebrows gave a look of fear on his face, his eyes rolling behind his eyelids. His pale skin began to sweat, turning from warm to cold and clammy.
"I'll kill you…I'll kill you, you sons of bitches…" He continued to mumble.
Moments later, several loud pops were heard in his room. The man bolted up in his bed, his dark brown, almost black eyes whipping open. Searching frantically around in the darkness, he continued to look for the source of the noises. Figuring it was just a fragment of his nightmarish imagination, he took a long sigh and fell back on the pillow.
"I hate those damn dreams…" he mumbled, closing his eyes once again.
All of a sudden, from the darkest corners of his room, he heard: "The Dark Lord requests your presence, Mr. Balthazar."
Once again, the man shot up to see one cloaked, masked figure standing next to his bed, and two others coming out of the dark shadows.
"W-What?" The man stuttered.
But before the other figures could answer, they grabbed him. With several more pops, the cloaked figures apparated, bringing the troubled man with them.
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With another, last pop, the man found himself falling to his knees onto cold concrete. Catching his breath from the excitement, he still uncomfortably felt the presence of the cloaked figures looming over him. The three reached down and pulled the man up to his feet.
"Come on, now, Cole. He's waiting…" one of the cloaked figures addressed to him. Cole immediately recognized the voice and glared inwardly. Ignoring the feeling of hatred, he glanced up to observe the place he was brought to. The room, however big or small, was filled with complete darkness. Cole couldn't figure out where the walls were, or even if there were walls, but he could make out a small path of bright light illuminating a concrete, gray floor. The path of light started from their group, and continued across the floor, to the other side of the room. There, the bright light shone down upon a high, black chair, or more so a throne. Torches of fire were held on high stands on either side of the throne, and sitting on that throne was the most heavily-cloaked man Cole had ever seen. Actually, Cole didn't know if it even was a man underneath that cloak…maybe it was some giant snake, or maybe it was four goblins stacked on top of one another. He only prayed, however, that it wasn't who he thought it was.
The cloaked figures pushed him lightly forward, and Cole began to slowly walk down the lighted path. As he continued to make his way down, his eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and he softly gasped as he saw what seemed like hundreds of cloaked figures surrounding him and the enthroned thing in a large circle. He shuddered, knowing exactly who the hooded, cloaked figures were. Death Eaters.
Growing closer and closer with every step, he began to furiously think. Okay, Death Eaters. Wonderful. Servers of the Dark Lord. Shit…not in the mood to be in the presence of Lord Voldemort…
"Mr. Cole Balthazar. Welcome…" A raspy voice from beneath the hood of the black cloak said. Cole shot a glance toward the figure and hurried his steps.
Let's just get this over with…"Yes, sir." Cole walked over toward the throne and kneeled down on the cold floor.
"Get up, young Balthazar…" The raspy voice was heard again.
"Yes, sir…" Cole whispered. Cole looked up, and inwardly gasped as he saw two bright red eyes boring into his plain dark ones from underneath the hood.
"Mr. Balthazar, I am sincerely sorry for your previous loss…" the cloaked figure began.
"Th-Thank you, my Lord." Cole replied, his throat tightening.
"Let us all see what happened that torturing day, shall we?" The Dark Lord asked.
"N-No, sir…that really won't be…" Cole tried. He didn't want to see what happened to his family. Fear itched his stomach at the possibility of reliving that treacherous nightmare again.
"Silence!" The Dark Lord screamed. Cole flinched and shut his mouth. "Turn around…" He commanded. Closing his eyes, he obeyed and slowly did so. The Dark Lord reached into his cloak with his long, bony fingers and pulled out a wand. Outstretching his arm, he pointed his wand at the man in front of him.
Cole gasped as he heard the Dark Lord begin to murmur something. Suddenly, a stream of red came shooting out of the wand, and went to Cole's head. Unmoving, Cole felt the red light make contact with his hair and come pouring out through his forehead. Suddenly, white clouds of smoke instantly formed from the light, forming a fuzzy spherical shape.
Cole shot open his eyes when he heard a child's voice from the circle. His child's voice…
"Daddy! Look, on the pier!" His daughter, Emma, shouted. Looking up from his paperwork, Cole indeed saw five people, four men and one woman, running toward his beach house from the sea.
What the hell…He had thought at that moment.
"Stay here, sweetheart." Cole told his daughter. Walking by Emma and squeezing her shoulders briefly, he went to the back door and opened it. Exiting, he shouted over to the five people, who grew closer with each stride.
"Excuse me, but…" He started. All of a sudden, the woman pointed her wand at him, and without any warning, a pink streak (which matched her hair), was shot toward him. Cole immediately dove and the streak flew past him and left a large, black dent in his white home.
"Damn it, Tonks!" One of the men with her screamed, as his daughter was heard inside, beginning to cry - hysterically.
"I'm sorry, Remus! I didn't mean it!" The woman with the pink hair apologized.
"We know you're hiding them here!" A tall, black man with a golden hoop earring shouted at Cole, while the five continued to run.
Cole jumped up, and ran back into the house. Grabbing his daughter, he ran toward the opposite side, arriving at the front of his home. His wife, who was finally getting over her morning sickness, came down the stairs as well, supporting her bulging stomach.
"Cole, what's wrong?" his wife, Lydia, asked.
"I don't know. There are wizards here who claim we're hiding people!" Cole answered.
He reached for the front door, eager to escape, as he heard the back door being knocked down.
"Don't move!" One of the wizards cried out. But Cole ignored him, and frantically struggled to open the front door.
All of a sudden, many loud pops were heard. With a terrifying scream from his daughter, Cole turned around to see his once empty living room filled with ten or more black-cloaked people.
"What the…" Cole said.
"Don't worry, sir. We're here to save you…" the cloaked figure nearest to him said, in a slightly arrogant, drawling voice.
Cole gulped, disbelieving of what the man told him. They don't look like the type of people who would save others…Cole thought.
"Stay close to the wall!" another cloaked figure, a woman this time, told them. Cole and his family obeyed, as a battle began.
"I told you they were here!" That woman called Tonks told her group, as the five of them dove out of the doorway. Simultaneously, three black-cloaked figures shot sparks at them.
"What is going on…" Cole said, holding his crying daughter tight.
"Lucius!" Lydia screamed. Cole's head shot toward his wife in shock, as he saw the cloaked figure closest to them hand her pieces of parchment.
"Get out of here!" The man named Lucius said to Lydia.
"No, we're fighting!" Lydia opposed.
Cole left his daughter for a moment and took a step toward his wife. He grabbed her shoulder and whipped her back. "We're WHAT?"
"We're fighting them, Cole! Those five are the ones against us!" His wife repeated.
"Do you know what's going on? How do you know that man?" Cole asked, pointing toward the one named Lucius.
"Yes, we're friends. We went to school together before." Lydia replied, taking her wand from a deep pocket in her trouser leg.
"But these people are…" Cole started.
"Death Eaters, I know! But they're here to help us!" Lydia tried to convince her husband.
Cole didn't know what was going on or what to believe. But he knew one thing: his wife was NOT fighting with their unborn son.
"I-I-I don't know what the bloody hell I'm doing…but I'll fight…for you. And you won't…not with our baby in you!" Cole responded back.
"No…you're leaving!" the man named Lucius stated again. "Lydia, you have the plans. Get out of here and save them. Take your boat across the water. Go to Port Newman. Crabbe and Goyle will be waiting for you. Don't apparate- you will be traced. No, get out of here!"
"They have reinforcements, Lucius!" another Death Eater called out.
"Get out now!" Lucius whispered harshly to Lydia. He turned toward the other Death Eaters. "Apparate outside!"
Lydia grabbed her husband and daughter, and with a pop, apparated. Immediately, Death Eaters and what Cole now understood to be as Aurors popped out of thin air right next to them. The battle began to fiercely take place once again as Lydia grabbed Cole's hand. Soon, the Balthazar family was running down the pier toward the boat.
"Get them!" One of the Aurors screamed. Cole turned around slightly to see a blue streak brush past his wife.
Lydia turned around and spotted two Aurors heading toward them. She took out her wand from her pant leg again and screamed "Avada Kedavra" as the Auror whom the Killing Curse was aimed at shouted, "Protego."
The new few moments were Cole's worst. He watched with horror as the deadly green streak was sent back to his wife, and hit her square in the chest. As she slumped to the floor, dead, his little girl screamed a shrill cry.
Cole's eyes filled with tears, and he whipped out his wand. He turned toward the Aurors, not seeing Emma reach down, kiss her mother on the head one last time, and grabbed the parchments that were sticking out of her pocket. She didn't know what they were, after all, she was only seven; but she felt they were important: her mother had died because she had them, and Emma felt she needed to be strong.
Cole's eyes were filled with rage. Pointing his wand at the Auror who killed his wife, he shouted, "Crucio!"
The Auror ducked out of the way as the other one shot an orange spark toward him. As Cole was looking at his dead wife in tears, the orange spark hit him in the leg, knocking him off his feet and causing his leg to bleed freely.
"Daddy!" Emma screamed, kneeling next to her father.
Immediately, a Death Eater apparated next to the fallen couple and sobbing girl. He looked down at Lydia's dead form only to see that the plans were no longer with her. He turned his gaze to the little girl accusingly.
"Where is the parchment?" The Death Eater asked.
"I-I-I h-have t-them…" Emma stuttered, whimpering.
"Give them to me!" The Death Eater demanded.
"No!" Emma bravely shouted back.
The Death Eater rolled his eyes, and realized he had no choice. He grabbed the struggling girl, held her like a baby, and ran toward the boat.
"No!" Cole shouted, straining to get up. However, his leg hurt too much, and he did not succeed.
"Get them!" An Auror screamed.
And then the worst thing happened in Cole's entire life.
The Auror who hit Cole turned his wand toward the Death Eater. He shot out a blazing black streak toward his enemy. Getting hit from the back, the Death Eater instantly died. But no, that wasn't enough.
The streak went throughthe Death Eater and hit Emma. They both collapsed on the pier, dead.
"No! Emma! Oh God, Emma!" Cole screamed. And finally finding an unknown strength, he got up and ran toward his daughter. He fell to his knees and picked up her small, frail body. Crying, he cradled her head, closing her eyes with his fingertips for the last time.
Cole looked up to see the two Aurors growing nearer, with a few more behind them. With rage, he screamed, "I'll kill you! I'll kill you, you sons of bitches!"
All of a sudden, Cole began to radiate a greenish glow. He did not see the aura around him, because in the next second, streams of bright green shot from the aura around him and hit the several Aurors on the pier. They dropped dead, and Cole collapsed to the ground, energy drained from him…
The clouds, which showed Cole's heartbreaking memory, began to fade like wisps of smoke. Cole's face was stained with tears. He realized it was worse watching it over again, knowing what would happen, and not being able to do anything to stop it.
"Once again, Mr. Balthazar…I am truly sorry for your loss," the Dark Lord spoke, again.
Cole turned back to the cloaked figure and nodded. He continued to speak.
"It seemed you were very upset at that moment." The Dark Lord said, almost sarcastically.
"I still am, my Lord." Cole replied.
"It seemed you wanted to kill every one of those Aurors."
"I still do, my Lord."
A small smirk tugged at the Dark Lord's thin lips. Yet, the man continued to speak, " Not only them, sir, but also this one specific wizard. I have learned he was in charge of them at the time, and ordered the attack on my home."
"The wizard in charge, young Balthazar?" The Dark Lord leaned in.
"Albus Dumbledore, sir."
Perfect. "Ah, yes. That old weakling. Of course. How will you be getting revenge on him, may I ask?"
Cole looked defeated. "I-I'm not sure, yet. I was granted a position as the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts, and I'm still working on a plan from there."
"You actually have access inside the school?" The Dark Lord slowly asked, sitting up straighter. Cole nodded. Murmurs and whispers from the Death Eaters around them were heard.
"Silence!"
The talking ceased.
"How did you manage that, young one?"
"I simply told him that I needed to start a new life, my Lord. After all, it has been several months since the incident. I told him I moved to England to start anew. I was looking for a job, and saw the ad in The Daily Prophet. I said that I never knew that Lydia was a Death Eater, and I had no clue she worked for…you. And I said that I did not blame the Aurors for my wife and child's death. That Emma's death was merely an accident, and Lydia was the one who said the Killing Curse in the first place."
"And he believed you?"
"Every word."
"Interesting. Now we'll have two instead of one in that damn castle." The Dark Lord said, referring to Severus Snape as the other. He paused.
"You are a difficult man to get a hold of. We searched everywhere for you. After we learned of your talents, we knew you were…special. Did you know you were a Mage?"
"Oddly enough, not until that moment on the pier, sir."
"Yes, odd indeed."
A pause again
"I have a proposition for you, young Balthazar. Would you like to be a part of it?" It was more a command than a question.
"Yes, sir." Perfect
"Good. Your target is simple: a sixth year wizard by the name of Harry Potter. Bring him to me, and Dumbledore will fall."
Cole's eyes flared.
"We will meet again during Christmas holidays. Do not do anything until I call. For now, simply befriend the boy and get him to trust you. Further instructions will be given later on."
Cole nodded. "Yes, my Lord."
"Just return to your home on the first day of holidays. We will send someone for you. I usually give a person like you my Mark…but we cannot alarm the others in Hogwarts, can we?" Cole could hear the smirk in the Dark Lord's voice.
"No, sir."
"Very good, young Balthazar. You may go."
"Thank you, sir."
Cole apparated out of the Dark Lord's presence. Finding himself once again in his 13Z hotel room, he fell onto the bed. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his wallet. Opening it, he glanced longingly at the picture of him and his daughter.
Sighing again, he blinked back tears at the memories. And instead, he smiled. He smiled, for he knew that both Albus Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort trusted him. His plan - the plan that he had formulated for those several months after his daughter's death - was finally coming into play.
Dumbledore thought he was giving a man another chance at life. Voldemort thought he was wrapped around his finger.
Cole, however, had different plans.
He
would not avenge his wife's death. Cole felt she betrayed him. No…he would
avenge the death of his daughter. He glanced over at the left wall to see a
black cloth half covering a very long gun: his rifle he used for his Muggle
game called hunting. His smile broadened
Revenge was sweet…
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What revenge does Cole Balthazar have in mind? Review, so you can find out! Let me know you want this story to continue. Even if you have constructive criticisms, review! Come on…you know you want to do it!
Wow, that was the Prologue! Pretty long, huh? I know, I know, but I needed to give you guys some background information! Or else, people wouldn't understand it! But I really hoped you enjoyed it! I know I loved writing it! Please review! I beg of you! Click that button!
A/N 1: If you find it suspicious that Emma retrieved the parchment and wouldn't let go of it, I agree with you. But I had to make her do it so that she would be grabbed by a Death Eater and get killed as well. Sorry if it wasn't believable! Don't hurt me!
A/N 2: I got the name, Cole Balthazar, from the TV series Charmed. (I do not own anyone on Charmed.) For those who don't watch it, don't ask… For those who do watch it, I haven't been seeing the episodes for the last…I don't know when. But the last time I watched it was when Cole's secret finally came out that he was Balthazar. So, I guess that was pretty long ago! I don't even know if you spell Balthazar like that! But, whatever. I tried thinking of what a good guy turned evil would look like, and I thought of Cole Turner! And I didn't want to use Turner as a last name. I wanted to use an evil sounding name. Hence: Balthazar! LoL!
PLEASE REVIEW!
Amanda