Chapter Thirty Seven
Heir of the Ancient and Noble House of Black
Harry and Ron both had their wands out the minute they fell out of the fireplace. The Castle interior looked the same as Harry last saw it. The flickering chandeliers gave it an eerie air despite the elegant furnishings their lights showed in the elaborate drawing room. It was so silent that de Lancre's crash as he appeared out of the grate appeared disturbingly loud.
"Where do we start?" de Lancre whispered as he glanced around in full alert of his surroundings.
Harry shrugged. He and Ron crept silently towards the main hallway. They hadn't gone five steps away when more than a dozen elves appeared from all directions and started shooting random spells. They warded off most but there seemed to be more and more elves appearing until they were entirely surrounded. As the last of their defenses weakened and a spell hit them, Harry's last thought was that he hoped back-up would arrive soon.
Ron and Harry woke up with a groan. They were quickly on alert but found they were unable to move.
"What happened?" Ron asked.
"We got stunned. Where are we?" Harry looked around. They were standing pinned against a damp stone wall in what appeared to be an enormous cellar dimly lit by a few candles hanging on elaborate but eerie looking candle holders. They were completely immobilized with a full body bind except for their head. Harry could make out some kinds of horrible machines around the room. Harry thought they looked like torture devices.
"You think we're in the torture chamber Remus told us about?" asked Ron.
"From the looks of it, I think it is," replied Harry grimly.
"We have to get out of here. You think Lancry or the back-up team got captured too?"
There was a sound of a heavy door opening then closing, followed by footsteps slowly going down a stone staircase. It stopped at the bottom step and they could hear that person approach them. More candles lining the walls began to flicker alive and Harry could at least recognize the person as de Lancre though it was still too dim to see his face fully. Still, Harry had never been so grateful to see their partner before.
"Lancry, get me loose, quick!" Ron called out. "We have to—" His words died out and Harry knew why. Ron could feel it too. Something here was very wrong.
De Lancre paused in front of them and pointed his wand.
"Crucio!"
Excruciating pain shot out from all over them. Ron had felt it before, but not while he was completely immobilized and pinned by magic to the wall. It felt twice as painful. It seemed to go on forever until it suddenly stopped. Immediately, the pain was replaced by a horrifying sense of dread as their partner stared at them with an unreadable expression.
"Wh-What do you think you're doing?" Ron gasped.
A small smile appeared at the corner of his lips before he muttered lazily: "Crucio!"
The second wave of pain seemed to grow so much longer than the first. Harry fought to keep his mind focused, knowing if it lasted longer he and Ron would lose it. But just as he thought he was about to give up, it stopped.
"In answer to your question, it is just being typically me. Strike first, ask questions later. Or rather, answer questions later. Do not worry Weasley, you will get answers. I want you to know everything with a sane mind—so you'd know how you will suffer afterwards. But I could not resist having a little fun, so I decided to give you a taster."
"You! You planned this all along?" cried Harry.
"How observant," he drawled. "Did you not remember what I told you before? Question everything! You have been quite lazy doing that."
"What do you want?" demanded Ron. "And where's Hermione?"
De Lancre held up a hand. "All answers in good time, Weasley—and Potter. Yes, of course. We must not forget to acknowledge Harry Potter even if you are not polite enough to introduce yourself to me."
"How do you—" Harry began.
"How do I know? Oh I have known for a long time. It is not that hard to put it all together. I am not as foolish as to believe that you have a rare ability to use two wands, or have two Patronuses. And of course Hermione's work on soul transfer is a dead give away. She obviously has you in mind when she talks about transferring souls. I am shall we say a fan of yours Potter and I have done my bit of homework on you. You have something special in you—and no Weasley, that's not you," he wrinkled his nose at them distastefully.
There was a popping sound and Harry recognized Balder appear with a bowl in his hand—a pensieve. He looked at Harry and Ron sadly but shook his head as if he was apologizing for their situation.
"Set it on the table there, Balder," said de Lancre. "And bring our other guests. I think Potter and Weasley would be pleased to see them."
"Yes, Master," replied the elf meekly. He gave them another sorry look then disappeared.
Harry was as surprised as Ron. "But… Balder is a Black elf… How could you… What have you done to Tonks?"
The door burst open and two elves that they recognized as part of Balder's family appeared. One was levitating Hermione who was also in a full body bind. Behind her was another woman bound and brought in the same fashion. Harry expected it to be Tonks, but it wasn't. It was the last person he had expected to see: a youngish woman with dark untidy hair that he had seen only a few times before. It was Diana Mackenzie.
The elves set them on the cold floor and Harry could see Hermione and Mackenzie were awake but only their eyes moved.
He gave them a mock smile. "There, I kept my promise did I not? You have seen your precious Hermione alive. I added Mackenzie as a bonus. As for my dear cousin Tonks, she is quite indisposed of for the moment. I cannot have her competing with me for the elves' submission."
"Cousin?" asked Ron. "But I thought 'de Lancre…'"
"'De Lancre' was my mother's name. A noble family yes, but not significant enough. My real name is Orion Black." His expression hardened. "At least it would have been, if Tom Riddle let my father live long enough to marry my mother and make me his legal heir."
Harry racked their brain and suddenly it made sense to him. "Your father—he was Regulus Black!"
"You catch on pretty quick, Potter. I figure it is you who did. Weasley always struck me as the dimmer one. A dim-witted mudblood lover who managed to claim the entire Black fortune that should have been mine!"
"Is that what you want?" shouted Ron. "The money? Well take it! Take all the bloody gloomy houses and every last knut in your damn family's vault! I don't want it! All you had to do was ask!"
"Oh but I want more than the wealth. I set my sights higher than that. I want what Potter has. I want Lord Voldemort's powers."
"Powers? What do you mean? I don't have his powers." Harry attempted a mock laugh but de Lancre wasn't convinced of his bluff.
"Oh yes you do," said de Lancre. "Parseltongue was not the only thing he transmitted to you that night you first defeated him. Dolohov was eager enough to inform me of that. And his source was his own former master so there is no doubt about it. You have something of what remains of Voldemort's and I want that if I want to be the Dark Lord that would finally succeed on what he failed."
Ron added his own scornful laugh that sounded much more convincing. "And how exactly do you intend to take that from Harry?"
De Lancre glared at him as if he was trying to explain to an annoying child. "Hermione, you should have forced them to read your work. But they were never up for reading were they? I think I should let you explain."
He partially undid the body bind on Hermione so she could talk. For a moment they could not hear anything out of her but a rasping gasp as she attempted to talk after having been gagged so long.
"I—I found a way to transfer someone's powers, not just souls from one person to another," she said rather tearfully but she grew braver each second and she faced de Lancre with a viciousness that Harry swelled with pride for her. "But you can't make Harry do it! Not even with Imperious. You know the only way to do it is if the person is willing to give up his or her own powers for the benefit of the other."
"Yes, I know," said de Lancre as coolly as ever. "But that was just one way. The one you published. There is another way to do it by force that you forgot to mention in the journals. I have your notes to prove it."
"You stole my notes!" she asked indignantly.
"When you have dozens of elves at your disposal, it is easy enough to do that. Just as it is easy to track you down when I had an elf follow you from the Ministry Ball. A shame you stayed at Potter's home so often when you are here or I could have kidnapped you sooner. Imagine my pleasure when you moved this morning to your parent's house which was quite unprotected. But I am getting off point. Would you care to tell your friends—or should I say lovers—what was the other way to get Potter's powers off."
Hermione stared at him with her eyes blazing. "You know it can't be done in reality, only in theory! There's no way of controlling dementors! You can't simply tell them to suck only the magic without sucking out the soul and deposit them in a pensieve."
"Oh but on the contrary, there is a way," gloated de Lancre. "And that is where Mackenzie comes in. Would you care to join this discussion and enlighten us, Diana?"
He did the same unpartial removal of the body bind on her then bid her to speak. "The elves…" she rasped even weaker than Hermione did at first. "Elves can control… dementors better than wizards can… I wanted to show… Aurors how… easier to imprison dementors that way than Patronus… elves can make them obey… better than Imperious…"
De Lancre shook his head and gave "tsk-tsking" sound. "It is a shame. Atalanta took her out of ARD when she had so much to contribute there. But we never give enough priority to research, do we not Hermione?"
"So you've been stealing those children's powers?" accused Ron. "And using them for your own benefit!"
De Lancre shook his head. "No. They were merely tests on how much a body can take of stolen powers. I was not willing to do the power transfer until I was sure of its effects. Fortunately, I have a simpering and power hungry cousin who did it for me. He tried to turn against me and took away some elves for himself while he absorbed more and more powers from those children. Draco never really read that much either. He neglected that part that said you can only take in so much before your body gives up. After the fifth…well I think we saw the effect and it is not pretty. Cousins are so useful. One became my experimental rat, the other will answer my crimes for me."
"You framed Tonks," seethed Harry. "When Draco wasn't alive anymore to be blamed."
"Brilliant, was it not? I did it under your nose. I had Dolohov send his own elf to put a powerful Imperious on her so she would attack Kelley at Mackenzie's. I had my own elves attack the Aurors this morning at her own flat. It only takes one eyewitness to report her—Dawlish was lucky. By tomorrow he will be out of the coma and will be singing her name as the culprit after I modify his memory. I also planned the capture of one of my elves so his profile could lead you to that house in Switzerland—which by the way is quite a comfortable piece of property as well as the other Black homes."
"Those houses belonged to Sirius!" exclaimed Harry resentfully.
"Who never had any need of them since he was in prison," mocked de Lancre. "If you have ever wondered why I have a perfectly good accent, it is because I travel a lot. Accommodations are no trouble, what with so many estates across Europe. They may not be mine legally, but the elves are always hospitable. This Castle has been my favorite and I am quite annoyed at Tonks for coming over last year and taking my elves to build your filthy house. But she will get what is coming to her. After I get her shape-shifting powers I can dispose of her. Then I can always pin the blame on her for everything I do."
"So what are you planning to do, build an army of second version Death Eaters?" Ron said sarcastically. "Voldemort copy cat."
"On the contrary, I have something better than that so-called half-blood Lord had ever come up with. I have scores of elves that can fight better than your average Auror. But better yet, I have Diana Mackenzie, who possesses the only knowledge of the same subjugation spell that her ancestor used to enslave all the elves. I think that would be quite useful in making the world's muggle population subordinate to me."
Harry's stomach plummeted at the thought. An enslaved muggle population would be the end of it. There was no way to stop him once that happened. And after that who knows what race he might target next.
"I'll never tell you how to do it!" Mackenzie shouted despite her obvious pain. "The women in my family have kept that secret for centuries. Nothing you do could change that!"
De Lancre towered menacingly at her. "We will just have to arrange more torture sessions for your brother then? He will not have an easy death like Fian. You are quite stubborn, but you will crack soon enough."
He turned to Hermione. "As for the brilliant Miss Granger. You have served your purpose luring your lovers to me."
"You hurt her, I swear—" Ron began.
"Oh, I will not kill her yet. She is reserved for someone else."
The door opened and a hulking figure entered. He was every inch as horrible as before: deformed face, scraggly hair and that evil smiled that grinned at Hermione's helpless form. Harry felt his and Ron's blood boil with fury.
"Dolohov can have her magic. You are quite charming Hermione, I admit, but I have quite patrician tastes and mudblood is not part of them. I leave what is left of you to Dolohov's discretion."
A/N: There you have it, the mystery solved. I give credit to froggiesrcool for pointing out early on that De Lancre's first name is "Orion" which is Greek in origin, not French. I don't know if you noticed, but the names of the fairly recent Black family members with the exception of Narcissa and Nypmhadora are all related to stars (Sirius, Regulus, Andromeda, Bellatrix, Draco). I decided that an illegitimate child by Regulus might follow in the same tradition. As for the name "Pierre de Lancre," I got that from history. Pierre de Lancre was a great but ruthless witch hunter in the 17th century. But in this story, it's different. He hunts for power, not witches. Orion, as Greek mythology tells us, is also a hunter. It was a lucky amazing fit when I was looking for a name.
As for Maddy's name, I got it from "Marie Dindarte," a 17-year-old convicted witch that Pierre de Lancre investigated in 1609. I didn't like the name Marie, so I changed it to Madeleine.