Chapter Eleven

For almost ten years, the world had almost forgotten the few lost beings. Hidden in a comfortable country home, deep within a shadowy woods, a small group of wizards remained safe. This group included Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, the Hogwarts' staff minus Severus Snape, Aurors Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody and Nymphadora Tonks, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Ministry member Arthur Weasley, as well as his family, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom.

Together they had thrived and mourned the loss of their friend, or family member, Harry Potter. With his death Voldemort had cemented his victory over the world by invading Hogwarts and taking over.

But their days in hiding had yet to be over when more surprising news arrived, "Oh, Merlin, No! He murdered them!"

"Hermione?"

The teary-eyed young woman had tossed the newspaper aside, her voice soft with sorrow, "He murdered Professor Snape. Even Mr. Malfoy and Draco. Narcissa Malfoy said that they had talked about knowing of our destination when we went into hiding. He tortured them for the information. When they were able to hold out, he murdered them."

Albus Dumbledore sadly frowned at the news, inside he didn't really want to believe he had lost his two only contacts to the outside world. "We have truly lost."

"That's not all, Professor."

The older wizards gave questioning looks to the younger adults. Hermione quickly relayed what she and her friends had found, "When Professor Snape sent us those scraps of paper with a sketchy plan of Voldemort's," since their disappearance they all had refused to speak 'You-Know-Who' or any other ridiculous name, though some would only call him Riddle, "we had been deciphering them."

Sirius perked up, "What did you kids find?"

The Muggle-born witch glared at him, causing him to brightly smile back. "It seems he's gathering ingredients to call upon some creature called Black Dragons."

Charlie Weasley jerked in his seat, "He's insane!"

"Charlie?"

"Black Dragons are the worse kind of dragons to ever be around. The dragons named by their colour are the only ones we have yet to truly tame. But Black Dragons are the worse. They're very cunning and bad-tempered creatures. Some say their evil because their eye sockets are set deeply in their faces, giving them a sunken skull look. They are able to cause a small area to be covered in darkness, also able to control the lesser reptiles and insects. They've been known to be ambush attackers with two breath attacks, acidic breath and a choking oily black smoke breath. Normally they only eat sea food or other water living creatures since they mainly live near water but after killing that food off they turn to other game."

His description shocked the entire group, "Why would he want them?"

"I think they're for us or to keep the world in check."

As the small group grew quite worried a lonely stretch of land was suddenly occupied by six figures. Just around them, lying in the nightly shadows, Harry could barley see the shifting of his new companions' army, an army of hungry creatures.

Master, where have we been sent now?

Harry snickered at the belligerent tone as the Hell God glared at the female serpent, "We, my dear Nina, our outside the Snape lands, though its heir is no longer here."

"WHAT!" Harry's mouth dropped open in surprise and outrage. This was the first time anyone told him that Severus was hurt, or dead. He really didn't want the one person who truly saw Harry and not Harry 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' Potter to be anything but alive. He didn't want to lose his first chance of connecting with his hated professor, or his chance of loving the man.

"The Malfoy males have suffered the same fate, my child."

"No, no, no. Not true." Harry rambled, refusing the two men who befriend him were dead as well as the one man who loved him for being Harry. All three had always been there those last few months. Lucius had given him the closure of his family he had always wanted, a thick book of the Potter generations, yet to be taken from his school trunk and read. He and Draco had a tentative alliance for once, which confused everyone else by their childish verbal fighting. But both boys couldn't erase the years of hatred nor could they suddenly jump to become best friends that early, but enjoyed their verbal sparring.

Despite his slight closeness to the blonde aristocrats, in which helped Order members to accept the two new spies, especially since Voldemort was hoping to bind Draco as his consort and to carry his heirs, he had been closer to Severus Snape. From the long hours of recuperating and healing from his struggle for his life, the two had done nothing but talk. This closeness had caused his nightmares to take a surprising turn to embarrassing erotic dreams of a certain dark haired Professor, who promised to fulfil them after graduation.

Even though his thoughts had been distracting, Harry still heard the Hell God's voice, "The world has changed greatly in the recent years. Ten years of darkness in which many lives had been lost outside the protections we had provided."

"Ten years?" He really didn't want to ask about the years, he wanted to know how they knew about Severus, although he didn't understand how ten years passed by.

"Time has no concept in Mitnal. Even your short travel through our world and our sudden appearance here has cost us time. You must remember that not everything runs upon the same time clock. Many things run on a separate time limit. Even time turners follow the same rules, you know this."

Harry Potter did not care anymore about time. He wanted to change it! Emerald eyes flashed angrily, "Bring them back." So soft his words that he wasn't too sure if anyone heard him.