"Good, I'm glad we see eye to eye on that one" Harry said after a few more seconds of staring each other into the ground. "I'll go first"
"Why do you go first? Why not the lord?" Pettigrew emerged from one of the smaller tents carrying a strange metal object with both hands.
"SHUT UP, PETTIGREW!" Harry and Voldemort yelled at once. Pettigrew cowered away from the powerful wizards as the rest of the death eaters entered the clearing.
"Fine, Potter. Speak you mind" Voldemort motioned for his minions to stop listening.
"Why do you want to kill me?"
"The Prophecy-"
"The Prophecy was made by my idiot of a divination teacher. You're a fool if you listen to her"
Voldemort was speechless. Finally he asked his question.
"Where did you acquire those wandless powers?"
"Why? Are you getting scared that I'll beat you now?"
"NEVER! I am the most powerful Sorcerer in the world!"
"No your not"
"Oh don't start with that Dumbledore crap."
"Dumbledore isn't, either"
"Who is then?"
Harry grinned, a maniacal glint reached his eyes and he whispered,
"I am"
Voldemort was beginning to look worried.
"What makes you think that?"
"Oh get yourself together, man!" Harry cried, exasperated. "Your way past your expiry date, its time to move over and let the future lord in!" Harry opened his arms dramatically.
"What the hell are you doing, Potter? Trying to kill him with your pathetic sense of humour?" Malfoy's voice burst loud and clear into his mind and Harry couldn't help but smile. He turned his back on Voldemort and focused on his mind. Slowly an image of Malfoy appeared but Harry wasn't seeing from Draco's eyes, no, he was watching the scene from the corner of the room. It was as if Harry himself was still in the room.
"Hey" He replied and Draco looked up excitedly.
"I got him!"
In the room with him were Claire, Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore, Snape, Sirius and Lupin.
"What's Sirius doing there?"
"You can see me?"
"Yeah, can't you see me? Just focus a little more"
Malfoy paused then smiled.
"Got you"
Each time Harry spoke Malfoy would repeat his word the crowd waiting in the room.
Harry noticed Hermione had her head resting on Malfoy's shoulder.
"Are you and Hermione together now?" He asked. Malfoy looked down at her and smiled.
"Dude, I think I have a chance…Dumbledore wants to know where you are…"
"I'm in-"
Harry sensed Voldemort moving behind him and he cut off the connection just in time to dodge the Legilimens charm.
"Oi! We're supposed to be at a cease fire here!" Harry yelled hotly, taking out his wand.
"I thought I told you to take his wand!" Voldemort shouted as his Death eaters ran for cover.
"Never mind…Potter, who were you talking to? You better not have contacted Dumbledore…"
"He doesn't know I'm here" Harry could feel Malfoy ebbing at the side of his mind and he expertly shut him out after sending the words, I'll talk later…
"Tie him up."
Before Harry could scare them away again, Lucius and Bellatrix attacked him with ropes and led him into a dark tent in the middle of the clearing and left him there.
Harry had to wait a few hours before his guard fell asleep. Bellatrix had done a shoddy job on the ropes and Harry was able to break free in less than five minutes.
When he heard his Guard, Rookwood, give a loud snore, Harry pulled the ropes away and left the tent. The little camp was dark but by the pink on the horizon, dawn wasn't far off.
Harry straight away went to the largest tent in the clearing. Voldemort's tent.
Inside Voldemort was sound asleep on a double cot. Over one side of the tent was a desk with some paper and a mirror. Harry found his confiscated wand stashed away behind the mirror and he twirled it around his fingers before pocketing it and examining himself in the mirror. He noticed a few whiskers on the end of his chin and he rubbed them thoughtfully.
When asleep, Voldemort looked like a real man and Harry had the sudden urge to kill him then and there but to kill a defenceless man would be sinking to Voldemort's own pitiful level.
Harry left the tent and found a huge tree to climb. He settled himself on one of the larger boughs and tried to contact Malfoy but his magic was to weak and he could only skim the surface of his friends mind before his magic ran out completely. Luckily for him Malfoy felt it and came surging into Harry's mind at the force of a bullet.
"You ok?" Draco was walking towards Dumbledore's office, which Harry thought was strange for five o'clock on a Saturday morning.
"Where are you going?"
"Dumbledore told me that every time I talk to you I'm supposed to see him"
"Oh…well anyway, I'm in a clearing about three quarters of the way up that mountain the little kids call 'the stake out'. I'm sitting in a tree waiting for my good buddy Voldemort to get up"
"I can see that. Has he caused any trouble?"
"Nah… they still think I can blow them up. I think I hear him coming now. Try talking at about lunchtime…"
"Ok, bye"
Harry cut off, as Draco was about to enter Dumbledore's office. He then peered through the protective leaves of his tree and found that Voldemort was indeed on the prowl.
He went straight to Harry's tent and disappeared inside. He emerged seconds later holding Rookwood by the neck of his robes and screaming furiously.
"He's gone you imbecile! GONE!"
Voldemort's rage woke the rest of the camp and for a while the death eaters ran around in a frenzy trying to find the lost boy. Harry took this precious time to meditate.
Finally the men grouped together and set off down the mountain towards Hogwarts. The camp was now empty except for Voldemort and Pettigrew.
Voldemort came searching under Harry's tree and Harry selected this moment to jump down behind Voldemort, giving him the fright of his life.
"I am officially here on my own free will" Harry announced, bringing his wand to the target of Voldemort's crotch.
"How?"
"I thought you were aware of my apparition skills. No? Did you think I was using my cloak in that house? Did you think Dumbledore blew up the street? Well it was I. And I won't leave here until we've settled on a few things. But first, breakfast…"
Harry made his way over to the storage tent and selected an apple from one of the crates before sitting comfortably beside one of the fires.
Voldemort watched him for a moment before storming back into his tent.
The death eaters finally returned from their scrounging of the forest wet and terribly angry. Voldemort ordered them not to harm Harry in anyway before continuing with whatever he was doing in his tent.
Harry spent the first half of the morning teasing the Death eaters and getting them really psyched up. The next half of the morning he thought would be the best time to exercise and he jogged to the mountains summit. He stared at the valley below him for quite some time. He could see Voldemort's camp as well as the Hogwarts castle, Hogsmeade and the train track. Finally he descended.
He was at the edge of the clearing, wondering why there was no snow up here when Draco burst into his mind.
Harry searched around him, found a well-hidden area, and sat before bringing the image of Malfoy closer. He was sitting in Dumbledore's office by the fire.
"Have you negotiated yet?"
"No, but I bet they're wishing I'll hurry up and leave"
"Why?"
"Voldemort told them not to touch me and I've been bugging them all morning."
"Well that sounds like fun…"
"I gotta go again, sorry, I can here some one calling my name."
"See ya"
Malfoy cut off the connection, updated Dumbledore then went back to the dungeons for a rest.
In the Gryffindor Tower, Hermione was trying to concentrate on her homework. Over to one side of the room Claire was sitting in an armchair looking completely miserable. She'd been pretty much since Harry's departure. Hermione had told her that Harry would be all right and Claire would smile and say, "I know"
But this afternoon it was Draco that Hermione couldn't get out of her head.
Finally, after much debating, she decided to go and find him.
When she reached the Dungeon doorway she stopped, sighed and turned around. At the stairs she stopped again before turning back to the dungeons. She had no idea what she was doing.
When she turned to the stairway for the fifth time, she had just decided that she would go back to the tower when two hands came to a rest on her hips.
"Looking for me?" Malfoy's voice tickled her ear and she pulled away from him.
"No" she replied impulsively. Draco shrugged.
"Very well." He turned back to the dungeon and Hermione lunged out to stop him.
"Wait! Its just…" she wracked her mind for something to say. "I'm worried about Harry"
"He's fine. I talked to him a few hours ago"
"Oh"
"Hermione" Draco put his arms around her and squeezed her gently. "You don't need a reason to be with me" Hermione blushed and nodded.
"You're my first boyfriend, I'm not sure how to act"
"Just be yourself"
Draco took her outside and down to the edge of the lake where they sat on a patch of grass; the snow was finally melting.
"Have you kissed anyone before?"
"Krum and Ron" Hermione blushed again as Draco snorted with laughter. Hermione had fully expected him to be jealous.
"You kissed Weasley!"
"I was upset about Harry losing Sirius and Ron was there to comfort me"
"You don't need to explain. Why are we talking at all?"
Draco tilted Hermione's head back and kissed her furtively.
Harry was becoming bored with the camp very quickly. Three separate Death eaters, who were deprived of killing him by Voldemort, had put him at wand point.
It was late afternoon when Voldemort finally called Harry into his tent.
"Tell me where you got those powers, Potter" Voldemort put his quill down and turned in his chair, motioning of Harry to sit as well.
For the first time in Harry's life the two of them were less than five feet from each other and not a single offensive curse had been thrown.
"My Mother, and Father."
"How? They're dead"
"Of course you'd bring that up"
"Tell me, Potter"
"I have a few, lets say, Godly, friends at Hogwarts" Harry smiled slyly.
"The founders" Voldemort filled the gaps blankly.
"Yes. Well it turns out that I'm the heir of Slytherin"
Harry
waited for Voldemort to explode and tell him he was wrong but he
simply nodded curtly.
"I thought as much. You may go back to
Hogwarts if you like"
Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. Maybe Voldemort was finally accepting him as his equal.
Though Voldemort had said he could, Harry had no intention of leaving until he had gotten his end of the bargain: a ceasefire.
That night when all the death eaters were in bed, Harry snuck from his tent once more and into Voldemort's. This time he stole the papers that Voldemort had been writing on during the day. He took them outside and sat by the light of the fire.
Most of them were of drawing of Dragons and other Mythological creatures.
Harry was once again shocked out of his mind. Voldemort, the most evil wizard in the world today, was an artist!
Harry sorted through the pages until he finally came to one with writing scrawled across it:
Sands of Egypt blew,
Ancient Power stirring,
One more evil being for the world to fear,
The end is near. Only few can stop it,
Joined by the forces of trust,
May this evil fall.
Harry tried to make sense of the words, it sounded like a Prophecy. Could it be another Prophecy made for Voldemort and Harry? What was this new evil?
Harry went back into Voldemort's tent to find the man himself sitting at his desk, waiting for Harry.
"What does this mean?" Harry thrust the writing under his arch nemesis' nose.
"I'm not to clear on that" Voldemort snatched his drawing back. "At first I thought it might be that child that the red-head is carrying, then I thought it was you, having these wandless powers but then I realised that you received them from you parents, not the ancient sands of Egypt."
"So it is a Prophecy?"
"Yes. One of my men heard it from a seer in the middle east."
Harry handed the paper back to Voldemort and left the tent once more.
He thought about contacting Malfoy as he climbed his tree but decided against it, as he needed as much strength as possible to apperate home the next day.
A hungry wave of tiredness fell over him and he settled into a hollow in the trunk and tried to sleep.
He didn't come down from his tree the next day until well after lunch. He had spent the most of the day meditating and finally had enough magic to transport home.
As he stood in the middle of the camp, watching the death eaters working, he realised it was later than he thought.
He strode over to Voldemort who was speaking to some grovelling men and demanded attention.
Draco chose that moment to contact Harry who rudely forced him out of his mind.
"I want a ceasefire"
Voldemort nodded, considering the option.
"I'll give you until the end of summer, then we must continue our war."
Harry shrugged. He had planned to ask for a few weeks at the minimum but half a year was well enough.
He apperated.
He landed with loud crack one hundred metres into the forest from Hagrid's hut. Darkness was setting in fast and Harry had to pretty much run to escape the nightlife of the forbidden forest.
He was at the last row of trees when a branch came out of nowhere and hit him in the side of the head, making him see stars.
Luckily it was only a graze.
Harry jogged the rest of the way, tired from lack of sleep and mesmerised by the yellow light emitting from the castle windows.
It was in the entrance hall that Harry realised everyone else must be at dinner.
In four strides he was across the room and slamming the double doors to the great hall open.
All eyes turned to him and all talking ceased. Claire jumped to her feet but somehow Dumbledore managed to beat her to Harry's side and he led him to a spare classroom, away from the curious stares of Harry's peers.
"Your head, Harry, did they do this to you?" Dumbledore sat Harry on a chair and knelt down before him, blue eyes met green.
"What? No. I hit my head on a tree coming back. It's only a graze"
The graze was bleeding a little more then Harry expected.
"So did he tell you anything?"
"I bargained with him and got a ceasefire until the end of summer. Also, there's another Prophecy…"
Harry replayed to words to Dumbledore who listened in silence.
"I'll have to check it out, Harry. It may not be for another thousand years for all we know"
At that moment Claire burst into the room. She lunged herself at Harry, pressing her lips to his, quite unaware that Dumbledore was in the room.
Ron, Hermione and Malfoy weren't far behind.
After they had all reunited, Dumbledore told them, including Harry who swore he had already had a decent meal, to go back to dinner.
"You don't need to go to the Hospital wing?" Dumbledore asked as they walked back across the entrance hall.
"Positive. I just need…" Harry suddenly felt a wave of nausea fall over him and he collapsed.
Do I need to tell you again?