Harry Potter and the Star of Senkrad
Author: l'Ciel
Fandom: Harry Potter
Disclaimer: JKR, and some more I think – I don't own anything but the plot – oh, and Ice Drakes, that's mine too! And that sexy nurse (god bless her brainless boobs)
Rating: hard R for implicit sexual content, NC-17 for explicit sexual content
Warnings: violence, brain washing, non-con,
Pairings: HP/DG, SS/LM; side pairings: HP/BZ, NM/LM
Genre: Action/Adventure, Romance, Angst
Summary : After the events of OotP, Harry runs away from the Dursleys. The only one to find him is Snape, but where do the spy's loyalties truly lie? Slash & Het, war-story
Main characters: Harry, Snape, Lucius, Voldemort, Dumbledore
08) …And To Cross The Maze,
Light fell through the window near the ceiling. The shadow of the bars made a nice pattern on the floor that you could trace with your fingers. Grazes on the flecked tiles showed he was not the first to think of doing just that. Blood had trickled into some of the grates and dried there, leaving dark red crosses. Draco idly caressed the smallest one near his face and smiled bitterly. It was like him; small, bloodied and utterly redundant to this world…
One of the guards passed near his cell and he quickly scrambled into an edge where he might be harder to see. The corners where dirty, just like him. Logically, they should not find him there, but the bastards always did.
The sun had risen to its highest when the second round began. The recruits and audience had returned to their places after a short break and the latter were now anxiously awaiting the start of the second task: a labyrinth of glass walls, that let the spectators see everything, but mirrored it for the participants, what the latter did not know. Not unlike the third task in the Triwizard Tournament two years ago, there were several traps hidden and creatures sited, but this time the recruits had to get out from the middle of it… alive.
So to speak a natural way to split the ripe from the rotten.
Harry was apprehensively waiting for Wormtail to give the signal to start. Then they would spread and try to get out. Harry did not worry much and tried to gather his thoughts, just when he felt somebody brush by. When he turned around, he saw Montague smiling at him.
"Good luck, Potter. See you outside – I hope."
"Sure. Nothing I didn't master before.", Harry retorted coolly and turned away, just as the shot from the tribunes echoed through the glass walls and officially started the second task.
Most of the younger recruits tried to make it in a group, while the elders on the other hand all persisted to do it on their own. Harry had stayed with the group for the first few minutes, but then he had secretly done the 'point me'-charm and then parted from the others, who seemed rather lost. Up to then, he had encountered nothing, but soon the image of a manticore appeared in the mirrors. The beast was still far enough, but Harry knew if he would go back, he'd have to run in a circle like the others. So he carefully cast an invisibly charm on himself and concealed his scent, before he moved on. The manticore sniffed the air, but could not detect Harry because of the spell, that he was eternally happy for. Carefully he neared it from behind. The corridor between the glass walls was narrow and he would have to at least stun the creature to pass, better kill it to be sure it would not regain consciousness and chew his leg off. Approaching it silently up to a distance of approximately ten yards, he gave a short, loud yell to have the beast turning around so he could fire the killing curse directly between its eyes. It howled lowly and slumped to the side and tore a large break into the nearest wall. Harry exhaled lightly, collected himself, and disgustedly stepped over one of the mighty legs and a quickly increasing pool of blood, before he smiled sinisterly and squeezed himself through the crack. On the other side he could see nothing, but just then he ran into an invisibly wall. Cursing, he reprimanded himself for his inattentiveness. It was pure look that the ward was a harmless one. And the dark lord put up no harmless wards, what meant it was intended to work the other way, what in turn meant the exit was in the other direction. And after a few bends (right-left-left-left), he saw the air in front of him shimmering. Smelling no stench that every larger animal would spread, he let long tentacles spread from his wand and 'feel' the thing. The moment the tentacles touched it, they caught fire and Harry hastily stepped back and ended the spell. While his fingers had gotten a little hot, he had at least figured out what kind of shield it was: the Valerian Burning Screen, vicious, but easy to dismantle, at least if your wand possessed a fire-elemental interior.
Moving onward vigilantly, he avoided another ward, a chimera, that he could luckily outrun so it was caught in the ward he had just passed, but reinstalled to keep his opponents at bay. He repeated the pointing hex and realized he had put quite some distance behind and it was unlikely there were more than one or two walls between him and the outside. Satisfied, he continued his way, when he peeked around one corner to see Montague and his cronies approaching. It was only a matter of time until they would see him. Pressing into the wall, he let them pass and quickly scrambled away, before they could literary run into him. Because they ran… and Harry soon knew why: At the end of the corridor, in front of an opening Harry knew was the way to the corridor that led outside, was… himself?
"What the hell…", Harry spat confused and VERY carefully approached himself.
You, the... thing asked icily and spat on the floor in front of him, What do you want, weakling? Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Betraying everybody: Dumbledore, who was taken care of you, even if he needn't, your friends – won't they worry about you? – and what would your parents say? And Sirius! Don't tell me you forgot about what you have done to him, the other Harry screamed at him.
"I... I didn't. It wasn't my fault! It was-"
Your master, you bloody traitor. You should go and hang yourself, you are a disgrace to humanity, it spat.
"No…"
Yesss, Harry screamed and Harry put his hands over his ears to block the horrible screech out. Wait – screech? Harry did not screech like that, and HE was Harry, not that. It wasn't real, it was just… his biggest fear. That the accusations were true.
"Fuck you!", Harry laughed, although he did not really feel like it inside, "RIDDICULUS!"
And the boggart's hair turned pink and it started to dance ballet until it disappeared.
Breathing heavily, Harry turned to the exit, relieved it was over, when suddenly something hit him in the back and he blacked out…
A burst of red light flashed through the corridor and Gryffindor toppled over. Satisfied with his stunner, the Slytherin waved over to some of his cronies, who had waited behind the bend and together they exited the maze, he at the top. Of course originally they had tried alone, but fate had brought them together, so nobody had seen reason to part again, although the praise of mastering the task as the first would have to be shared. What in turn slightly disgruntled him, but better alive and as the leader of his age group, than not at all – oh, he did not even want to think about THAT possibility…
Behind him Pucey spat on the floor and Warrington snuffed his nose in distain. Rolling his eyes, he smiled victoriously and marched in front of the dark lord, never noticing, that the mirror maze he had just exited was completely transparent to the spectators. He flashed a smirk to his parents, who looked strangely concerned, but did not heed it much, too blinded by his pride.
A fatal error, he would see later.
Something tickled his foot and he giggled uncharacteristically in his daze. The light came from an odd angle, different than in his room. Frowning, he opened one eye and stared at two large teeth in a large abyss a few inches from his own face.
The large snake's tongue flicked dangerously and Harry squirmed, trying to grab his wand, but it had slipped from his grasp and lay several feet away. But his opponent was a snake, so maybe he could play his last trump.
Wait, he hissed, using a talent he had always hated and was now glad to have.
The snake looked at him funnily and coiled back a bit.
You speak, it asked incredulously, flicking its tongue to taste the air around him.
Yes, I do. Please don't eat me.
Why would I, hatchling, it hissed soothingly.
Oh – good! Harry smiled, hoping the large amphibian would not change swallowing him whole. The snake cocked its head.
Have you lost your nest, it asked slowly, observing his every move critically.
I don't have one, but I have to find back to the people who I belong to, he prattled on, his brain doing loops to find a way out of this precarious condition, They wait right out there.
Your mother must be an uncaring one to leave you out here alone, hatchling, she pointed her tail tip towards him.
She died., Harry explained.
Poor dear, she hissed lowly and coiled herself around his arm, then I will just have to take you under my scale! Come on, this is not the right place for a hatchling like you."
Sighing in relieve, Harry got up and pocketed his wand, before leaving the maze. The sun had sunken quite a bit and was about to set behind the mountains. Slightly flushed, he walked by the tribunes over to where the other recruits were waiting. Some sat on a bench and others leaned against the wooden side of the stands. But some where missing:
"Where're Crabbe and Montague?", he asked the nearest person, that happened to be Theodore. He smiled faintly and pointed over to a heap on the floor before the dark lord's seat.
"Montague. Because he cheated where everybody would see… and Vincent was injured by the manticore. His mum took him off to heal the bites, but I think he might loose his wand hand, what makes him worthless to our lord.", he swallowed. This did not bode well.
"We saw you on our way out," Blaise said heavily, "but we were chased by a chimera after we had dismantled the last ward, so we really had no time to pick you up. Sorry."
"Never mind. It was my fault it was caught in there… poor Vince."
"But I don't feel sorry for Montague, that arsehole! He stunned you deliberately and the lord killed him for that.", the Slytherin stated proudly and clapped his shoulder.
"He did what? Why?", Harry asked stunned, "It was my fault, I let my guard down."
"Oh, Lord Voldemort despises bad cheats, you know. As long as you do it all secretly he doesn't mind too much, but if you get caught, rotten luck, I tell you! And why do you have a snake 'round your neck?", he asked perplex.
"Uh, she kind of adopted me after my little daze. I'll tell you later, but didn't you see it anyway?", Harry responded.
"I was preoccupied with seeing Montague writhing on the floor, sorry.", Blaise twinkled at him and smiled sinisterly, "But I'm happy to have you back, mate. You're quite alright for a Gryffindor!"
"Tell you what: The hat wanted me in Slytherin!", Harry laughed and Blaise and Theo joined in.
"I can see that!", they gasped and laughed even harder, until Vincent's mother passed by with a sullen face and reminded them about the unfortunate accident.
R&R
