Disclaimer: Not mine. Never has been. Never will be. All belongs to JK Rowling, except Isabelle.

A/N: For any of you who might be reading my beta's story, Harry Potter and the Mind Mage, a character in here might look very familiar. Yes, it IS Isabelle. Older of course, but it is her.

In this chapter, James is much more of a co-writer than a beta, since I asked him to do Isabelle.

Btw: READ HIS STORY!

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His scar burned.

He welcomed the pain.

Looking up from the instructions for the antidote that Snape had carefully written out, Harry felt the grating voice of Voldemort enter his mind. A meeting, my fallen one.

He sighed. He really didn't feel like going there. Although maybe he deserved the curses he would get, and he knew he would get them. "Yes, my lord." He thought, and shuddered still at the fact he was actually calling Voldemort that. Soon enough, Voldemort gave him the visualization he needed to come to the meeting place.

Gathering his robe and mask, Harry swiftly dressed and made his way to the edge of the Apparition wards.

As soon as he arrived, the curse hit him from out of the blue, it seemed. It was before he had even had a chance to register his surroundings. Much like Snape, he let out a scream of pain before he could stop it, and when the curse was finally let up, it was then that Harry sensed the irony. Paybacks a bitch, I guess. He stood then, statue proud before Voldemort, who 'graced' him with a smile that was enough to send shivers down anyone's spine. "How is the poison" Harry coldly smirked. "It is done." Pleased, Voldemort waved him away, and turned to look at the circle of Death Eaters surrounding him. "It is almost time. We will succeed." He stated this with such confidence that the truly loyal Death Eaters began cheering whole-heartedly.

When everything had quieted down, and Voldemort began to speak again, Harry felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. Someone was watching him. He looked around the circle furtively, trying to figure out who it was, but as everyone was masked, it was a useless action. Frowning, he thought perhaps it was Hermione, and shrugged it off. They did need to talk, but he wasn't in the mood for it yet, and there were more important things to concentrate on.

Finally, the gathering was over, and they had been released to go after paying the proper homage. Getting to his feet, he walked a few feet away, and began to Disapparate. Just as his body started to shift from one place to the next, he felt a tug on his sleeve, and a drain of his energy. He'd pulled a passenger along.

A second later, he was outside the wards of his home, and he turned to the cloaked figure he'd brought along with him. "Dammit, Hermione! What the bloody hell do you think you were doing! I could have splinched us when you pulled that stupid trick"

"Hardly, Potter." The figure pulled back her hood and removed her mask, revealing not Hermione, but someone only vaguely familiar. Her long hair was a deep shade of black, which contrasted to her pale skin. Her eyes were very dark, and her features defined, almost regal. She smirked at Harry's dumbstruck expression. "Really, I'd thought the Boy-Who-Lived-To-Join-Voldemort would be a little harder to catch unawares, but you made it almost painfully easy."

Harry fingered his wand, which he'd flipped into his hand with ease, and stared at the girl he vaguely recognized. His mind sifted quickly through his years at Hogwarts as he tried to put a name to the face. Finally, it came to him. "Isabelle? What the bloody hell are you doing as one of Vold-one of us? I thought you were a 'good Slytherin.'" He put a sneer on the last words, trying to keep his act up, even though he had been caught very off guard, and was thoroughly cursing himself for it.

"You'd have thought so," was all she said. "But you…now there's the real question. What is the Golden Boy of Gryffindor doing working with the Dark Lord, hmm? Perhaps…a little internal sabotage?" Her dark eyes narrowed as she stared at him, and Harry had the uncomfortable feeling they were boring holes right through to his soul.

Stiffening up, he waved his wand at his robe and mask, transporting them into the house, and then replied. "All of you Slytherins are exactly alike. You all think that everyone else has something up their sleeves. Did it ever occur to you that just maybe I was tired of being on the losing side"

Isabelle gave a rather un-ladylike snort. "Oh, of course, Slytherins are all the same! I happen to know for a fact that you were almost Sorted into Slytherin yourself, so don't get all high and mighty on me, Potter. I know your excuse for joining the Dark Lord, but I don't believe a word of it. So tell me, are you going to come clean or am I going to report you as a traitor, hmm?" She stepped away from him and prepared to Disapparate.

Harry narrowed his eyes at her, and had his wand at her throat in an instant. "What is it with females making accusations and then trying to run away? Oh wait, I forgot. All Slytherins know how to do is run away." His green eyes were cold, like glittering chips of polished emeralds. "Tell me, just what evidence do you have that makes you think that I'm a traitor to Voldemort? You've seen me at the meetings, you've seen me curse and be cursed, and you've heard the report of the potion I'm working on, so just where is your bloody evidence, Snake"

Isabelle looked at him coldly, ignoring the wand at her throat. "Yes, and Snape did all that too, for much longer than you have, and look at him. Traitor, all these years. So tell me, Potter, where's your proof that you're not following the same path as our dear Professor? And, just for the record…" Before Harry could even twitch she lifted her wand, which she had drawn discretely and held behind her back, and blasted him clean across the yard. "No one threatens me and gets away with it, not even you. Understood?"

As he picked himself up off the ground, a hand to his stomach, Harry thought wryly that today was just not his day. For some reason, the thought was enough to make him smile. That smile grew cold though as he walked near the Slytherin again. "I don't threaten." He said shortly, and then tilted his head to the side, studying her. "How d'you know about Snape?"

"Oh, so now you want to talk?" Isabelle glared at him for a moment, then laughed wryly. "That was quicker than I expected, to tell you the truth." She looked at him appraisingly. "Sorry about the whole…you know," she made a vague gesture with her wand, still held tightly in her right hand. "I got a bit carried away, I suppose. So…is there somewhere private we can talk?"

Harry sighed, and rolled his eyes before pointing at the house not thirty yards away. "House. Rooms. Silencing charms. Do you think I'm a bloody idiot" After a short pause, and seeing Isabelle's eyebrow shoot towards her hairline, he shook his head. "Do not answer that. I have a feeling I'd be ready to curse you for the answer." Turning his back to her, but still holding his wand, he made his way to the house, and paused at the door. Whispered words and quick wand movements made the door glow, and he looked back at her. "Place your hand on the door so the wards will recognize you." His tone was flat, but at the same time, there was a hint of amusement lurking.

"A bit paranoid, are we?" she asked dryly, switching her wand over to her left hand and placing her right palm flat against the glowing wood. She gave a small yelp of surprise when a shock coursed through her body, and her hand seemed to sink into the panels of the door momentarily. After a short while the wards glowed brighter, and she found she could remove her hand.

"Oh, very funny, Potter," she muttered when she saw him smirking at her. "The chivalrous thing to do would be to warn me you have some bloody ward system up that's going to electrocute me, you know. Very…Slytherin…of you."

The boy-who-lived smirked. "I'm supposed to be the savior of the wizarding world. Nobody ever said I had to be chivalrous." He motioned her aside, and then opened the door and went inside, knowing that she would follow. As soon as they were in the living room, he waved his wand and uttered the words that sent a heavy blanket of magic temporarily onto the room, and there was absolute silence for a moment before he spoke. "That should do it. Quite a powerful little charm, really."

"I take it back – you've got paranoia to an art form." Isabelle shook her head as she took a seat on a comfortable looking armchair. "So, Mister Potter, are you willing to tell me what you're doing now, or do we have to go through the whole 'tell me what you know' phase first? The first would save time, but if I must, I'd be willing to divulge certain facts to you…with conditions, of course." She watched him expectantly.

Harry seated himself in the chair across from her, and settled comfortably, crossing his legs at the ankles, and looking utterly and deceptively lazy. "Well, if you must know, I plan on slipping a poison to Dumbledore, putting the Old Man out of commission, and then, when the last battle occurs, Dumbledore will..." here he sneered"magically reappear alive, after the antidote of course, and hopefully shock the hell out of Voldemort...giving me a chance to kill and be killed." He laughed, but it was an empty sound. "Or just maybe I'm tired of being lied to, and treated like I'm only a weapon." There was truth in this statement, as much as there was in the last one. "And I intend to kill Dumbledore to get the annoying Old Man out of the way, do away with Voldemort, and do things...my way."

Isabelle's eyes narrowed, and she watched the man sitting across from her carefully, looking for anything he might give away in his body language – but there was nothing. He appeared the very image of lazily relaxed. She toyed with the thought of pulling the truth from him with Legillimency, but quickly discarded the idea. If he could keep the Dark Lord and Dumbledore out of his mind, what chance did she have? "I'll be frank with you, Harry." She dropped the formality and leaned forward in her seat. "I was visiting with one Remus Lupin before the meeting was called."

Immediately, Harry's mood darkened even further, and he raised a hand to his cheek in remembrance of the slap that Lupin had delivered. Sitting up a bit, he inclined his head towards Isabelle in acknowledgement of what she'd said, and then said coolly"And let me guess, the Professor gave you the whole spiel about knowing that I joined Voldemort, and that I'd said things that made him wonder what side I was really on. So you, the good little double-agent I'm assuming you are, decided to try to find things out for yourself." He sighed, and ran his fingers through his hair, and then said quietly"Look, I'll tell you the same thing I tell everyone. I'm doing what I need to do. I'm on no one's side now but my own. I fully intend to die when this is over. Is that clear? I have no reason to go on without Ginny." Instantly his mind flashed to Hermione, and he shook the thought away. What happened between him and 'Mione... well, he still needed to think on it.

Isabelle nodded thoughtfully, tapping three fingers of her right hand against her cheek. "Yes, I suppose I can understand that. I felt the same way myself for a time, after I killed my mother – I'm assuming you knew Bellatrix Lestrange." Harry's face darkened further, and he gave a curt nod. "I understand what you're feeling, believe me I do – which is why I sought you out. You were right, except for one thing. I didn't do it to find out what side you were on – it's not that difficult to see, if one isn't burdened with all that Gryffindor nobility. I came to offer my assistance."

A jet-black brow was raised, and he considered her for a moment, and then said"Alright, assistance accepted. Does Dumbledore truly trust you? We're not telling the old man about our plans, and we need someone to slip him the poison."

Isabelle thought a moment, gazing absently at the ceiling. "I meet with him once a week, I have a direct Floo connection to his office," she answered. "But I'm the only one there, so it would be obvious who had done it." A thought occurred to her. "Were the rumours making the rounds at Hogwarts true? About that mad House Elf that adored you? Would it be possible to enlist him, maybe?"

Harry nodded, but stayed silent, as his mind whirled with the possibilities. At first he had thought that Snape would be able to do it, but that simply wasn't true. A sigh escaped his lips. He wasn't good at this planning thing, he was more used to reacting on his feet. As he thought though, his eyes wandered over to Isabelle, and he surveyed her appraisingly. Absentmindedly noting that she had a rather pleasing look about her, he shifted slightly in his chair. "Dobby? Yeah. I still see him occasionally. In fact I think the little bugger's been cleaning my house, because I certainly am not doing it."

He frowned. "I don't know if I'll be able to get him to do something like that. I'd have to explain everything, and since he's not my house elf, I can't order him into silence." He brought up calloused fingers to rub at the bridge of his nose. "We'll see."

Hermione sighed, brushing back a lock of hair, and then, irritated, she conjured a hair clip, and lifted her hair up off the base of her neck, and out of her eyes. Swiftly she slipped on the clip, and then gave a sigh of relief. Really, I ought to get this cut someday, she thought as she opened the huge tome entitled "Mind Magics" by James Milamber and began to skim through the contents.

She knew exactly what she was looking for, but so far she'd not been able to find it.

She was determined to break the threads of allure that held her to Voldemort.

She would serve him of her own free will, or she would not serve him at all. That was the way things had to be. Hermione Granger wasn't going to be kept in by silken threads of the web he'd weaved around her. Harry had given her the motivation to break free. And she would.

Her fingers flipping quickly through the pages, she was getting a bit depressed about the lack of findings, when the second to last chapter in the book lit up as she touched it. "Well, that's strange." She murmured. "I've not seen that charm before on a book." It had disconcerted her for a moment, but her mind swiftly got back on track.

As she read, her lips first parted, and then began to edge up in a smile. This was the right track. Finally, she at least had an idea of how she was bound to Voldemort. Now if only to find the spell to break it. That would be tricky though, She thought. To break it without my lo-Voldemort finding out about it.

She brought one hand to rest over the dark mark, which was still burning after the meeting they had had earlier. At least then Voldemort had been pleased; Hermione was worried though. The conversation that Harry and the Dark Lord had had about the poison disturbed her. She had to get word to Dumbledore…but how?

How could she do it without giving away the fact that she was Death Eater? Does one just go up to the arguably most powerful wizard alive and say, "Umm, excuse me, I joined the Death Eaters, and I think the boy-who-lived is planning on killing you. I'm not saying this because I'm on your side, because I'm not sure what side I'm on. I just thought you should know," and then walk away free?

Hardly.

A/N: Well, chapter 19 is done. Hard to believe I got it out so soon, eh? The benefits of bugging your beta senseless, I guess. Gets the creative juices flowing.

I still need to steal one of his muses though.

Thanks to those that have reviewed. J