Part 3 – The Growing Darkness

Chapter 9 – Dark or Necessary?

"You are you doing what?" Voldemort yelled in surprise.

"Careful Voldemort," the Cloaked Figure replied, "I still have Vivificus Auctorita!."

"Pardon me, My Lord, but you shocked me! Just tell me what we can gain from this."

The Cloaked Figure watched Voldemort from behind his hood. "Do you actually expect me to teach him how to kill you?" He laughed a cold laugh. "No Voldemort. Wrong information goes a long way."

Voldemort shook his head. He did not know this man's intentions anymore. Now it seemed that everyone wanted to benefit from this conflict, yet he could not put his finger on what this man wanted. He and Harry Potter really were truly, pawns. "Yes, My Lord."

"Remember Voldemort, I have the best intentions in mind."

"For me or the world?" Voldemort asked. The Cloaked Figure's response would give Voldemort lots of information."

"For the world. I keep the balance."

"Yes, how could I forget that," Voldemort mumbled. The Cloaked Figure whipped out the green crystal from beneath his cloak. He held it aloft for a moment, and then Voldemort, realizing what he was about to do, lunged forward. The crystal dropped, and took an age to fall. It shattered into a million pieces.

"You really think I wouldn't use such leverage? Do you really think you are worth that much?" The Cloaked Figure hissed. "Voldemort, as this proves, I don't need you." Voldemort did not look up. His life was ruined and he was not about to humor the Cloaked Figure.

"Remember, when the time comes, the next one will not be a fake." Voldemort looked up in surprise. The old bastard was just kidding (to put it lightly), but Voldemort didn't feel grateful. He just felt hate for the man who had a thousand powers above his head.

"Very good Harry; very good indeed." Harry panted, leaning over trying to get his breath.

"That's two seconds faster than yesterday, but Voldemort is much quicker to the draw than you are. So, let's practice. Draw when I say so." Harry readied himself and got ready for when the Cloaked Figure would say:

"DRAW!" Harry's arm exploded into his back pocket. He whipped the wand out, aimed, and sent a disarming charm at the Cloaked Figure. The Cloaked Figure blocked the spell easily, but that didn't stop his from tsking.

"You need to be faster," he prompted. "Think ahead about where you want to aim."

Harry tried again, and this time, he did not aim in a separate motion. "Good," the Cloaked Figure approved, "you are learning fluidity. However, you need to have a passion. Use every muscle possible."

"Ready?" Harry nodded. He waited for the signal.

"NOW!" Harry tried to use every muscle, but it was hard. It wasn't like you could just think about using your bicep. Nevertheless, the draw had been quicker, and the Cloaked Figure applauded.

"Very good! Let us try it one more time." This time, Harry was not as quick, but the Cloaked Figure merely nodded. "You'll get better at it," he replied, sensing Harry's frustration. "Go now. Tonight we are done." Harry said goodbye and walked back towards his apartment. He wondered what kind of alibi he could put up tonight.

"Hermione I swear, I was just at the Pub thinking things over." Hermione looked at him with a suspect expression on her face. Then she finally relented and nodded.

She had caught him coming up the hill. She was looking for him because she was curious to see just what it was that he was doing every night. Harry turned to leave before she said, "Harry how do you feel about Ron?" Harry looked at her confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, do you still feel grief?" she asked. Harry opened his mouth in surprise, but she cut him off. "I'm just hoping I'm not overreacting is all."

Harry didn't say anything for a moment, just stood there open-mouthed. "How can you even-,"

"I know, I know," she sobbed, but Harry was still saying, "How can you even-, I mean-, he was your husband. If you didn't still be grieving, I'd be worried!" Hermione blushed, but said nothing.

Harry continued his rant. "I mean sure, there has been some stupid things, but-," but she looked him straight in the eye. "Death causes people to do stupid things." At her words, Harry looked away and winced. She was talking about him he knew.

"Harry-," she started to apologize.

"Stay away from it Hermione," Harry snapped, not in the mood for an apology.

"Look-," she began.

"No!" Harry said, and stormed out, slamming the door behind him. His mind was troubled, and Harry knew that he was, himself, troubled. Ron's words echoed back in Harry's mind:

...believe me, something is always up with you...

How true that was. Harry reflected back to fifth year where he heard the Prophecy for the first time. It was then that he had come to realize he was always a marked man. However, he didn't feel guilty about his training. Finally, his path was clear, and he knew that it was his duty to kill Voldemort.

The training went by, as usual, until the Cloaked Figure had an interesting lesson for him one day. "Harry, do you know Voldemort's greatest weapon that he can use on you?"

Harry thought about it. "Avada Kedavra?" he asked. "But he can't do that on me can he?"

"No he cannot," the obvious response came.

"Why?"

"Well Harry, you and Voldemort share the same blood," his teacher started, "Between every witch and wizard is a blood-link that connects those wizards together. Seeing as you two have the same blood, you also share this connection. Wizards with this connection cannot harm each other by magic; it is forbidden under the old law."

Harry took this information and nodded. It made sense did it not?"

"So anyways, back to my question."

"I would say then, the Cruciatus Curse."

"Precisely," was the response.

"So how do I defend Crucio?" Harry asked, intrigued.

"Crucio, like Avada Kedavra cannot be blocked or shielded. To fight it, it has to be mental."

"How?"

"I'm getting to that," the Cloaked Figure snapped. "You need to grow accustomed to the pain." Harry winced. "No you're not going to like this at all," the Cloaked Figure sneered slightly.

"So how do I do that?"

"You feel the pain, every second of every day, and you will be able to last longer. You will never hold out forever, I 'm afraid, but you can go for several minutes I believe. The longest ever recorded was thirty-three. I still hold that record. Unofficially of course. Nobody knows I exist do they?" he laughed.

"I expect someone does," Harry replied, not thinking. "Dumbledore, probably does."

The Cloaked Figure went strangely quiet, and nodded. "Yes, he probably does. Let's begin then."

Harry nodded, bracing himself. He felt himself be silenced with a curse, and then heard the dreaded words, "Crucio!"

"Hermione really, nothing is going on!" Harry protested. Hermione scoffed and walked to his other side.

"You're shaking," she commented truthfully.

"There was a barfight," Harry lied quickly, "and there was blood everywhere."

"M-hm," Hermione said.

"I'm telling the truth, I swear."

"Harry I know you're lying." The way you shuffled out the other night."

Harry put on a pained expression. "Well what did you expect me to do, take that comment with good-humor? What would you do I said, 'Hey Hermione, I look down on you because you've done murder?'"

"Harry...I don't look down on you."

"Really?" Harry said quietly. "Then why don't you believe me?"

"Because I can tell you're lying!" Harry was silent. Should he tell her or not? She didn't want him to fight because she did not want him to kill.

"Fine. I've been learning to defend myself against Voldemort." Hermione gasped and shook her head.

"This is all too much Harry. I don't care! As long as it is defense," she peered at him, questioningly.

Harry coughed, "Yeah, it is," he said, crossing his fingers.

"See? Why were you afraid to tell me?" Harry felt as though he had been silenced again, because he could not say a word. They walked together in silence for a moment.

"How have you been lately?" he finally asked.

"I'm getting through it," she replied, "you?" Harry didn't say anything because for the first time since he had been training, he had noticed puffiness under her eyes.

When he realized she had asked him a question he sputtered out, "Me-uh...I guess...great!"

She looked at him strangely and then continued walking. Then she noticed something and said, "Look, you're still shaking! What kind of defense is it?"

Harry shrugged, "Maybe I'm just cold I guess." He looked into Hermione's eyes and knew that she did not believe him for a second, but she didn't press the matter.

Thank God he had such wonderful friends.

"Well Harry, it is your last lesson. After that, I'm gone."

Harry looked at him, "I have a feeling we'll meet again." The Cloaked Figure looked like he smirked underneath his hood.

"We will, Harry," he replied, "we will."

"I bet you know what you're going to learn how to do today."

"Avada Kedavra?" he guessed. It was pretty obvious.

"Yes," the Cloaked Figure said. "You can do it with raw emotion, but to kill Voldemort, you're going to have to do it in calm." He withdrew a large beetle from his robe and set it on the ground. Harry, knowing what to do, bent down on top of it.

"Your training is complete when it is dead." Harry nodded, and, with some foreboding, said the words. A green light shot out and hit the beetle. It didn't do anything different. As Moody would say, he doubted it had gotten a nosebleed.

"Try again," the Cloaked Figure commanded. Harry did as he was told, to no avail.

"Try this," he said, holding out a rather large bug. Harry set it on the ground, when he felt a sharp stabbing pain in his hand.

"Ouch!" he said, wincing. The bug immediately started to laugh at him. Apparently it was a special type of bug. "Why you little," he started to say, when he finished with, "Avada Kedavra." The bug dropped dead. Harry looked up and the Cloaked Figure nodded.

"You see, it only requires a little aggravation to work properly. That's probably different than what your teachers taught you." Harry nodded. Moody, or Barty Crouch Jr, had told them that Avada Kedavra, 'needed a bit of powerful magic behind it.'

"Focus on everything that you hate Harry. Focus on someone you absolutely loath. Professor Snape might do well." Harry grinned and tried again. This time, the bug rolled over, but was not dead yet. The Cloaked Figure hit him on the nose, only it wasn't the Cloaked Figure, it was Snape. "Come on Potter you idiot. Don't you think you could give a little effort for once."

Harry looked at him and then knew what he was supposed to do. "Avada Kedavra," he roared at the bug, and it fell, completely dead. Snape had transformed back into an actually good, in Harry's mind, teacher.

"That is it Mr. Potter. Until our next meeting, let me say good luck with Voldemort." Harry nodded and smiled. He didn't particularly like the mysterious man, but he could show a little gratitude. He just hoped that he was doing the right thing.

"Harry, I'm going to finally find out what you've been doing," Hermione said with glee and snatched his wand.

"What the-, Hermione!" Harry called as he chased her up the hill. What in the hell did he think she was doing? He raced up and almost caught her when she ran into her apartment and clicked the lock. He could have easily done Alohomora, but he didn't have his wand.

What was she doing in there? He pressed his ear to the door and heard he mutter and single spell, "Prior Incantato."

"No!" Harry thought. That was not good!

A minute later, she slowly opened the door, and Harry saw that she was rather pale. Tears were welling in her eyes as she threw his wand back at him.

"Hermione-," Harry started to say, but the door was swiftly shut in his face.