A/N: Yep, me again. And don't blame me for the start of this chapter. It's my first otherwise.

If you want to know what the Italian parts of this chapter mean they are between [ and ] and are written in italics.

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter book 6 and 7 would probably be out by now. But I don't since they aren't.

Chapter 3

"What is wrong with you?" asked Bella, sitting up in bed and pulling the covers close as she looked at the person she had shared a cell in Azkaban with. "You seem distracted."

"Do I?" he asked her in a tone that clearly showed that she was right.

"Yeah, it's like your body's here, but you're mind is elsewhere."

Harry shrugged lightly, obviously not caring.

"Isn't there a meeting soon?" he asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Don't change the subject!" Bella snapped at him, making Harry roll his eyes.

"Whatever, I'm gonna go get dressed," he said, getting up after a moment and reaching for his clothes.

"Why? We've got ages to get down there."

"We've got 10 minutes."

"Oh… 10 minutes?! Why the hell didn't you tell me?!"

"I just did!"

"That's not what I meant! - How's my hair look?! Is my make-up okay?!"

"Bella! It's just a meeting! And you'll have you mask on and your hood up like the rest of us!"

"Oh God! It's that bad?!"

Harry didn't reply, but shook his head and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'women!', before curling over his arm in pain. Bella quickly copied this action as both of their marks burned.

---

"Severus, report!" Voldemort snapped out. It was a good (or bad) half an hour into the meeting and already five people had been tortured.

Snape stepped forwards nervously and bowed to the Dark Lord quickly before getting on with his report.

"My Lord, it appears that someone has been leaking some valuable information to Dumbledore over the past few weeks."

"Crucio!" Voldemort hissed. "Who is the leak?!"

Snape breathed heavily as he got to his feet again, and bowed his head before responding.

"M-my Lord, I am afraid I do not know. The old fool has managed to keep the identity off his informant a secret."

Voldemort snarled, and cast another cruciatus on Snape, before ending the meeting and dismissing them, much too every Death Eater's relief.

"Potter, stay."

Harry gulped slightly, his face, though no one could tell from behind the mask, had gone white at those words, but turned regardless. He had been trying to leave the room as quickly as he could, just like the rest of the Death Eaters, none of whom wanted to be the last to leave the room when the Dark Lord was pissed off.

He turned and bowed quickly, hoping that this would be over as quickly and painlessly as it possibly could.

"My Lord?" he asked quietly after a couple of moments of silence.

"Crucio!"

The full force of the curse hit him head on, causing Harry to feel pain unlike any other. It was almost indescribable, it was so bad. He dropped to his knees in pain, but didn't scream, he wouldn't.

"Tell me Potter," Harry vaguely heard the Dark Lord say through the haze of pain. "How can I be sure of your allegiance to me?"

"M-my lord," Harry gasped out eventually. 'Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it' His mind screamed out at him, begging him not to give the Dark Lord the satisfaction of knowing how much pain he was in. "I swear to you, my loyalty is to you and you alone."

Voldemort finally released the curse, surveying him with suspicion, whilst Harry, still breathing heavily, kept his head bowed.

"Now that's the thing," he finally said. "How can I be sure of where your loyalty truly does lie? How do I know you are not Dumbledore's informant?"

Harry kept silent for a moment, contemplating how he could answer this without insulting the person who held his life in their hands.

"My Lord," Harry said slowly and carefully. "Even though I may seem a fool at times, I am not one. You know that I have no occlumency shields, that I have nothing to prevent you from finding out where my loyalties lie."

Harry's eyes were kept to the floor all of this time, and he silently prayed not to be victim of another cruciatus.

"It seem Potter," Voldemort said, slight amusement in his voice. "That you have a brain after all."

A child of no more than ten years of age wandered aimlessly around the Italian village of Capo Rizzuto. He had short, dark brown hair, olive coloured eyes and a vagabond look about him.

"Ottenga perso! Premete il piede siete niente ma difficoltà! Esca del nostro villaggio!" one man yelled at him, throwing something which hit him on the head. [Get lost! You tramps are nothing but trouble! Get out of our village!]

The boy frowned slightly, but left quickly enough. Not without a parting word though.

"Il mondo sta cambiando, voi sarà dentro per una scossa quando finito." [The world is changing, you will be in for a shock when it is over.]

The man snorted in annoyance and went inside out of the midday sun. The boy was obviously insane. What could possibly happen that would change the world so much that anyone would be shocked about these days?

"Ron!" said Hermione sharply. "I can't believe you!"

"But Hermione!"

"How can you be more concerned about your own stomach when anything could be happening to Harry!"

"Hermione!"

"Don't Hermione me Ron! I can't believe you doubt his innocence! You're supposed to be his best friend!"

"Will you look at the facts Hermione!"

"I am Ron! And I can see there was no evidence to convict him!"

"Hermione! Face the facts! There may have been no evidence - or at least proper evidence - to convict him in the first place. He may not have been a Death Eater when they put him in there, but face it! He is now! Snape saw him!"

Hermione stared at Ron in shock for a moment. She could hardly believe what she had just heard. There had been absolutely no way she would have believed it before - she had ever defended Harry against everyone when they had heard that Harry now bore the Dark Mark, but now it really hit home.

"B-But he could have been given the mark against his will!" she said, her voice rising a few octaves. Ron shook his head sadly.

"No, he couldn't have. I overheard once somewhere that the person has to accept the mark willingly, of their own free will. They have to say - without the influence of potions or spells, that they will join You-Know-Who."

Hermione's eyes went wide with shock. That had been the only other explanation she had been able to think of, and now even that last hope had been dashed. It was true. She felt so betrayed… and doomed.

A/N: I am soooooo sorry this took so long! You all have my sincerest apologies! But I did add an entirely scene into it as compensation!

Okay, from now on I'm having a rota for the order that I update my fics in. After I put this up I will update my fic 'Dad?' next, followed by the original version of this, then this again, and repeat for however long it'll take.

ElegantArrow64: Yes, I did write something like this before; I still am, in fact. This is only a version of it where Harry chose light at a point where he was given the choice between which side to choose. And, if I may ask, are you insane?

Launigsiae: A snake? With rings? Do you have any more information? Like a name? If I get one I may be able to find a description of it on the net, possibly a picture. Right now the only snake I can think of that is mentioned in HP is the basilisk, though I think there are a couple more.

Dark Miroku: Um,yeah, sorry this chapter took me, like, forever.

Ranchan17: Ah, Voldemort has his reasons for not killing Harry. And for once I actually know what they are!

Twlight Moon: He told Voldemort about the prophecy because he's now a Death Eater. Plus Harry never mastered occlumency, so it would be pointless in lying as Voldemort would know anyway.

Hi Im Crazy: Lol, poor Harry indeed, especially considering what I have planned for him.

squirrel-bladder4: Lol, thanks, but unfortunately I can't claim it was mine. There's loads of them out there, quite a few of which are good and well written.

Kerstyn: Lol! It's not that unusual!

The Vampire Story Hunter: Um, nice scene... But I'm not sure if I'll use it. This fic is only rated PG-13, and I don't intend to raise it any higher unless the language I use in it gets so bad (like, me and my friends on a normal day bad) or there's too much violence for it to possibly be rated anything other than R.

jeangab057: Yep! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

linky2: I'll try to.

Khayla: Is this a better situation? And I did just about understand that review.

Phinn: A hyena? That's original. I'll definitely consider that.

Bellatrix Riddle: Lol, thanks! How is it a twist though?

DOG-SEJR: ::rolls eyes:: Listen, the most I'm gonna do is imply it, maybe write the very start of a sex scene unless I increase the rating, which is doubtful.

topsta: Yeah, actually, it would. But somehow I'm not sure If I'll do that though.

Shadman: Hmmm, I'll consider those two as well.

Kage Mirai: Thanks! And I'm sorry I took so long!

Hihi: You know I could take that as either an insult or compliment, right?