Harry Potter and the Seventh Horcrux
By, U-No-Poo
"Life is eternal, and love is immortal;
And death is only a horizon,
And a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight."
Rossiter W. Raymond
Chapter Three: Only the Dark Rises before the Sun
The Burrow
12:00 am
The Following Day: June 20th, 1997
Molly Weasley sighed as the sound of a clock striking twelve reverberated throughout the Burrow. She turned tiredly to the small clock face that had been mounted on her kitchen wall. Every single hand was faced on a position that read, Mortal Danger. Molly hated how useless the clock had become since He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had returned. How was she supposed to know where her family was when they weren't traveling?
Of course we're in mortal danger! she screamed at the clock. Isn't everyone?
Molly heard the familiar noise of clanking metal coming from the garden shed out back where her husband had taken to tinkering with Muggle contraptions he had confiscated over the years. Molly shook her head in frustration and raised herself from the kitchen table and made some tea.
Every night at midnight for the past two weeks she waited up until midnight to deliver some warm tea to her husband. After dragging him away from the garden shed and to their bedroom she would check in on her children. Bill and Fleur had taken to staying at the Burrow while planning out the wedding. Since Bill was released from the hospital both Molly and Fleur had become much more tolerant of each other and some would almost dare to say friendly. Fred and George had even dropped by to say a quick hello and pick up some left over packages from their room. Hermione, who had come directly there from the train station, was still sharing Ginny's room. Not because there weren't enough rooms but because it was just easier to get through hard times with a friend so close to you.
Molly only wished that Ron had been so lucky as to have Harry over this summer.
So far Molly and Arthur hadn't the heart to tell any of the children about Harry's disappearance. They had decided to wait until they had more information but Molly was just plain scared. She knew how close the four of them had gotten over the years, this past one especially. It didn't take a Chief Mediwizard to know that if one of them went missing the others would go out looking for him. Molly might have already lost Harry. She couldn't live if any of the others were taken from her as well.
A loud noise erupted inside the kitchen like the Hogwarts expressed blowing it's horn and Molly hurriedly removed the spell that magically warmed the tea kettle.
After taking down Arthur and hers favorite mugs from the shelf above the sink, she levitated the kettle and poured two cups of steaming tea. Arthur's tea cup had a picture engraved on it of Bill, Charlie and Percy. Molly's had the twins, Ron and Ginny. Each of the figures waved to her from their positions on the mug, completely oblivious to the boiling water behind them. Molly remembered the Christmas that they had been given to her. As she recalled it had been the most sentimental gifts the twins ever gave her. Then again for the remaining month of December and the entire month of January she never realized they made her break out into a fit of sneezes every time she tried to take a drink from another mug. She had to threaten to publish their baby pictures in the Prophet to get Fred and George to remove the charm.
Molly opened the door to the outside and carefully balanced the two steaming mugs and a plate of cookies between her two hands. The unnaturally cold air nipped at her skin and a gust of wind nearly over turned the tray. Gripping even more tightly than before, she began to march towards the garden shed again.
She was halfway there when she heard it.
Molly paused and listened to the sound the wind had carried to her. It had been a dull rasping sound, like an animal fighting to breathe. Molly looked into the darkness around her and tried to see by the illumination of the moon. From the fifty feet that was the distance from the garden shed to the woods she could see nothing.
And yet…
Molly shook her head and tried to tell herself there was nothing in the darkness. She tried to tell herself that she was just being funny again. That this time, like all the others, her paranoia had awoken and she was just imagining things. She hoped to Merlin that this wasn't the time there really was something waiting for her in the darkness.
"Arthur?" she called hoarsely from outside the shed.
She didn't wait for a reply as she continued to walk faster and faster towards the garden shed.
"Arthur?"
The shed door opened and light poured out onto the grass. Arthur Weasley stepped out into the night and had barely uttered the question "What?" before he was pushed back inside by his wife.
"Shut the door will you, dear," she instructed him, as she set down the tray on one of the work benches.
Arthur creased his brow in confusion before shutting the door as instructed and joining his wife at the workbench.
"Warm tea, dear?" Molly asked in a high voice.
Arthur accepted the tea with a nod and asked, "Are you feeling alright, dear?"
Molly turned quickly and placed a fake smile on her lips. Arthur wasn't sure how to respond to this so compensated by sipping the hot tea and making contented noises. After a few moments of stretched silence Molly seemed to visibly relax.
"Working on anything exciting dear?" she asked him, her eyebrows raised.
Arthur immediately forgot about his wife's anxiousness and set about showing off his newly acquired items.
"This is one of their head pieces," Arthur informed his wife pulling out an odd shaped object. It had a wide rubber brim on one end that was cut open and sticking out the other end was a large wooden pole. Arthur placed it on his head, and in one swift stroke pulled down hard on the wooden pole. There was a popping noise and then it was stuck onto the crown of his head and the wooden pole bounced from side to side as he moved.
Molly wasn't sure what she was supposed to do first. Laugh out loud or feel slightly sick. It turns out that the first was the more dominant and she had to cover her mouth to hide her smirk.
"Arthur," she started coyly, "what did you say that was?"
"A headpiece!" he exclaimed brightly, the pole bouncing left and right on his head.
"Are you sure it's not called something like a 'plunger'?" she asked.
Arthur gave her a condescending smile and patted her on the head, "Of course not, dear. There's no such thing as a plunger! What a silly word! Wherever did you hear it from?"
Molly was about to tell him when a scream echoed across the yard.
The Island of Aeolus
12:00 am
The Same Day
"Are we any closer?" asked Harry for the fiftieth time that night, panting harder than any of the others.
Harry had lost count of how far they'd traveled in the past three hours. After Mercedes and Troy had landed safely on the ground with the others, the group traveled deep into the woods. So far Charlie maintained that they were making progress and that their destination was just "somewhere around the bend". Harry was starting to believe that the 'hazing ritual' was making him walk around the island all night long like a fool.
"Wait!"
Ganesa, who had been walking in front of Harry all night, had stopped so suddenly at the command that Harry had nearly plowed right into her. Harry really didn't need another reason for her to hate him right now.
Charlie, who had ordered the stop, looked around the trail they'd been following and said, "Stay here and rest for a minute."
Harry immediately dropped gratefully onto a large boulder on the side of the trail. In three hours of hiking they'd had two breaks in all. Each was five minutes long and usually just made him more tired than before. His muscles cried out in pain as Harry massaged them. The others began to take seats on the ground or tree branches. Harry closed his eyes and laid his back down on the boulder.
He wiped the sweat that had been building above his brow away and listened to the sound of the night. He heard crickets croaking to each other and birds twittering love notes to one another. A slight wind tickled his skin and he sighed contentedly.
A bush behind him started to shake violently.
Harry sat up quickly and looked around the side of the boulder to the bush that had moved. In the moonlight he could see a bird nipping at one of the berry that grew there. Harry started to laugh at himself and turned to tell the others when he stopped.
There was no one in sight.
The fingers of panic began to massage his spine and he looked frantically along the trail. There were no packs left behind, no straps, and no sign of where they had gone to. Then he heard laughing from somewhere outside of the wooden trail. Coming from the same direction that Charlie had disappeared to.
For the second time in under a minute Harry felt like a fool.
He pushed through the brush and continued to follow the noises of teens until he reached the final layer of the woods. Harry pulled back the heavy brush and stepped into the most beautiful scene he'd ever witnessed.
Moonlight was reflected in the turning waters of a small lagoon. The water was so crystal clear that Harry could practically see the fish swimming. The sand was pearl white and almost completely undisturbed. Trees, hills, brush and a large rock face hid the lagoon from the rest of the island and made the entire area look like a hidden treasure. The only signs of life other than fish were the six swimming bodies in the water and their discarded clothing forming a line down the beach.
"It's great isn't it?" asked a quiet voice from behind him.
"You like to sneak up on people don't you?" asked Harry, turning to see Troy, clad only in his shorts, grinning beside him.
"No, you just happen to be in front of me all the time," he said smirking.
"So, is this the hazing?" asked Harry, looking back at the laughing people in the water, "cause it sure doesn't look very scary."
"Feel like going swimming?" asked Troy.
Harry shook dropped the robe he'd been carrying around the whole night and stripped off his oversized jeans, socks and shoes.
"This way," answered Troy, inclining his head to the right.
Harry and Troy walked down the beach, following the trail of clothes that marked the pathway to their destination. Troy led Harry to the side of the rock face where steps had been carved into the wall. Troy began to climb them and Harry followed, struggling at the more poorly made ones. It seemed Troy was either naturally graceful or had climbed the rock many times before because he didn't come across a single step he couldn't handle.
When they reached the top troy led Harry over to a jagged edge facing the lagoon. Harry could just make out the other six students swimming beneath them. Harry wasn't really that worried about the whole height thing. He'd ridden a broom hundreds of feet up into the air with no harness or safety net. A jump from the top of a ledge into water paled in comparison to a fall from a broom onto the hard ground.
"Any tricks?" he asked Troy.
Tory smirked and replied, "Just take a deep gulp of water when you first get under."
Harry turned to look at Troy confusedly, "What?"
"Just remember," said Troy before he threw Harry off the side of the ledge.
Harry yelped in surprise and watched as the water rushed up to meet him within seconds.
Harry felt the impact hard against the side of his body and then he was consumed by soothingly cool liquid. Harry held his breath as he the momentum of the fall and gravity carried him further and further down into the lagoon. When Harry finally stopped his descent he started to frantically propel himself upwards towards the surface. His lungs were burning with the lack of oxygen and he pushed even harder into the water.
The surface was still a good ten feet above him when instinct forced him to try to breath and he inhaled a mouthful of water.
Harry started to splutter until he realized that he was breathing regularly… underwater.
What?
Harry took another mouthful of the clear water into his lungs but it was more like he was breathing. Harry started to laugh at the discovery and a collection of orange scaled fish began to gawk at him, which made Harry laugh even harder.
A hand tapped Harry's shoulder and he turned to see Troy behind him waving him to the surface. Harry nodded and floated languorously to the air filled world above the sea where there were five faces grinning at him and two merely amused.
"How," asked Harry incredulously, "is this possible?"
"I thought you were a wizard," mocked Charlie with a grin from his right, "Don't you know that anything's possible with magic?"
"Magic did this?" asked Harry stupidly.
"What did you think it was the freaking Easter bunny?"
Charlie backstroked away from the group and disappeared further along the lagoon.
Normally Harry would be upset with himself for being such an easily set up fool or at least be angry with Charlie but he was just too… happy to be upset. Which he found both weird and mildly entertaining.
Troy seemed to understand his predicament because he said, "It's the water. It's got so much magical juice in it, that there's a side effect."
"Side effect?" asked Harry, not really concerned.
Troy grinned, "Euphoria."
Harry laughed before diving below the surface to enjoy the rest of the night in peace, blissfully unaware of the horrors that were occurring to the people he'd come to call family…
The Burrow
12:10 am
The Same Day
Ginny Weasley could not fight off the feeling that something was horribly, horribly wrong. Harry had promised to send her an owl that night to let her know that he had arrived safely at Privet Drive but it had yet to come. She had been seated on the sill of her bedroom window since nightfall, waiting for Hedwig. Ten minutes into the next day, according to her bedroom clock, and she was still waiting.
Ginny had fallen asleep earlier that evening and had been awoken by the wind hurling itself up against the glass window. At first she thought that she'd been dreaming because of the ugly color of the moon tonight, but none of her dreams had ever been this boring. She had just been about to give up on Hedwig and Harry for the night, when movement had caught her eye.
There had been a shadow on the ground moving towards the greenhouse that she recognized as her mothers. Ginny knew that her mother had been worried terribly about them all since Hogwarts was attacked and Dumbledore had died. She'd even over heard her father telling Bill and Charlie something about nightmares and insomnia. Suddenly not wanting to be alone Ginny looked over at the cot that was supposed to be holding a sleeping Hermione Granger.
Ginny smirked knowingly because she, unlike the rest of her family, knew exactly where Hermione had gone that evening. Ginny would bet ten galleons that there were two people in Ron's room and yet still one empty bed. Ginny knew that things hadn't progressed that far between her brother and her friend but they were getting closer. Ginny's mind flashed to Harry and her at Dumbledore's funeral before another wave of loneliness filled her.
Ginny threw on her Gryffindor red nightgown and tiptoed quietly out of her room and down the hall. She put her but on the banister and slid with a perfect balance down the railing and fell to her feet like a cat on the landing. She slid her slippers on and traveled quickly into the kitchen. She took in the sight of the kettle on the table, two mugs missing and the half empty box of cookies before deciding she had a good twenty minutes before her mother got back.
Ginny opened the door to the fridge and peered around at the different items available. After mentally crossing out the majority of the leftovers and the suspicious looking liquids mark "WWW" she grabbed the milk. She carried the carton over to the sink where various pans and dishes were being scrubbed by floating towels and sponges. She waited until a small drinking glass had finished being cleaned before snatching it and dodging the disgruntled towel that had just finished cleaning it.
"You snooze, you lose," commented Ginny to the angry little washcloth as it went back to scrubbing a new object.
Ginny grinned and poured herself a glass of milk while silently murmuring the words to the Weird Sister's latest hit, The Lockness is Loveless. Ginny sipped the glass slowly while looking out the kitchen window towards the garden shed. The door was closed and Ginny definitely did not want to think about what her parents might be up to in there. After all her father did call her mum, Mollywobbles.
The bush outside the window shook for a second and the glass Ginny was holding paused on her lips. She waited for another minute before deciding it was the wind and went to take another sip when the bush shook even more than before.
Maybe it's Hedwig she thought, or maybe it's not…
Ginny shook her head to dislodge the thought from her brain and leaned closer to the window. The shaking stopped almost immediately. She looked left and right and then tried to look straight down into the brush but she saw nothing. She was just about to pull her head back away from the window when a hand collided loudly against the glass, smashing it completely.
Ginny jumped backwards in shock, knocking the glass of milk to the floor with a crash. The hand gripped onto the window frame and hoisted the rest of the body into sight.
A yellow colored arm that was covered in dirt reached into the room followed by the front half of an old woman. The face was wrinkled and…moldy. The woman's grey hair fell in long tendrils down her face, neck and shoulder. The fingernails were like long spikes and the teeth of the woman were crooked and wooden looking. Dirt fell from the woman's mouth and nostrils into the sink below it. The elderly woman made a rasping noise and stretched out her arm in a desperate attempt to reach Ginny. The woman missed and she collapsed through the open window and onto the kitchen floor.
The woman had no body below the midpoint of her stomach.
Ginny opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out but a soft whisper.
She began to backup towards the kitchen door that led into the living room until she felt herself bump into something that wasn't a wall. She turned and let out another silent scream that only she and the person she had bumped into could hear.
Ron Weasley grabbed his sister in a comforting hug before pulling her roughly towards the staircase. At the same time Hermione Granger came down the stairs and turned a questioning look at the pair. Ginny tried to tell her about the kitchen but eventually couldn't say anything at all. Ron held her tighter and nodded his head to go back up the stairs. Hermione said nothing but moved to the side to let the siblings pass. Her curiosity peaked she traveled the rest of the way down the stairs and stepped into the kitchen.
Hermione Granger did not suffer the same problems that Ginny Weasley did when it came to screaming.
The Island of Aeolus
Phoenix Time
The Same Day
Darkness surrounded him and yet he was still… aware. He was aware of Emma and Simon's continued presence around him. He was aware of everything that had happened to him that night and all the nights before. But most of all he was aware of what was going to happen next.
Jonathan felt the fire that had consumed his body only moments ago enter his consciousness. The sheer power of the Phoenix Fire ripped his mind from his body and soul. Normally such an act wouldn't be counted as a blessing, at least not in Jonathan's mind. But when it came to Phoenix Fire, Phoenix Vision or Phoenix anything than nothing was ever exactly normal. Jonathan only counted this as a blessing because if his mind were still attached to his body, than he'd pass out and die due to the pain coursing through his system.
Jonathan opened his mind's eye and saw the world come to a screeching halt. He was still in the main hall of the manor, looking up at the ceiling from the flat of his back. Concentrating hard on the movement, Jonathan was able to lift his consciousness from his own body. Were there another Phoenix in this place and time they would only see him as a ghost rising from his own body. He walked to the nearest clock and followed the long and short hand to the numbers they were currently pointing to.
10:00
Jonathan turned around and stared at the montage in front of him. His own body lay unconscious and unoccupied between his colleagues. Emma, who had knelt down beside his collapsed body, was holding the back of his forehead in the crook of her arm and forcing a washing cloth onto his forehead. Simon, who was still standing, had been frozen in the middle of turning a page in the large book he'd been looking through. Jonathan read the title, The Home Healer's Guide: 1997 Edition.
Jonathan had, thankfully, very rarely had experienced this Phoenix Vision since he had discovered his own Phoenix abilities. He knew that the Phoenix Visions only ever became this strong after another Phoenix had been killed. This was the process during which the fallen Phoenix's power was transferred to the remaining Phoenix's.
The Phoenix Visions would show not only the future but the past and present of the world. The first part of the visions would always be the past, then present and finally the future. The past and present a Phoenix could never change, but the future they could. The only reason a Phoenix received the visions of the past and present was so that they could understand those that would happen in the future.
It was in one of these very same visions that Jonathan had foreseen the confrontation with the Werewolf and how Harry would save him. It was in that vision he had seen what the future would hold for Harry and exactly how Jonathan was to play a part in seeing that future come to be.
The world around him shifted and the main hall of the manor evaporated from view. Instead it was replaced by a demolished living room.
Jonathan was standing behind a man in the center of the room. The man was crouched low behind a chair. As Jonathan rotated himself around the room with his mind he saw that someone was tied to said chair.
This must be the fallen Phoenix, he thought.
Jonathan focused his attention on the face of the captive first, then the killer. His heart turned cold as he saw who was bound to the chair. His whole mind went frozen at the sight of the killer.
"Eliza," he gasped breathlessly.
As if the name were a cue, the scene in front of him unfolded. Words and phrases called out to him but his grief blurred them all. Seeing the mistreatment of a woman he'd once loved by the man he'd once been brothers with filled his being with anger. Only one line ever did make it through his mental barrier of grief.
"I'll send Jonathan your love…"
As Maddox spoke the words he looked up to Jonathan's exact position as if he knew that Jonathan would be standing there. Maddox's eyes took on a wild expression and Eliza screamed. As the blade made a blood red line across Eliza's neck, Maddox never took his eyes off of Jonathan.
This had nothing to do with sweet Eliza. Sure it had brought Maddox one step closer to his ultimate goal, but that was not the reason he had chosen to go after Eliza. The entire night had been for Jonathan's viewing pleasure and Maddox's entertainment. The whole night had been Maddox's sick way of sending a message to Jonathan.
I'm coming, Jon, Jonathan could almost here Maddox saying to him, and no one can stop me.
Jonathan reached out a hand to caress Eliza's limp face with, but before he could reach it the world shifted yet again.
Jonathan was back on the island again, he was sure of it. This time he was on a high cliff looking down at his students who were laughing and swimming in the water below. Behind him Harry and Troy were talking to each other, large grins plastered on their faces.
Jonathan smiled, happy that Harry seemed to have made at least one friend out of the group. He made a mental note to remember that when it came time to choosing new training partners.
The world shifted again and Jonathan was at the beginning of a long dirt road. Moonlight was covered by tall trees yet he could still make out a house in the distance. He wondered briefly why he was being shown this place at this time. Was he being shown where Maddox was hiding? Is this some safe house Jonathan was supposed to use sometime soon? Or was it the home of Maddox's next victim?
Jonathan's question was answered less than a second later as a figure limped past his right shoulder.
Jonathan recognized the limping gate and the decayed flesh for what it was. Turning to look behind him, Jonathan gasped as he saw a village being consumed by a mass of Inferi and Death Eaters. People were fleeing from their homes and dodging curse after curse. The Inferi took sharp, desperate lunges at the running villagers. Jonathan wagered a guess at approximately 100 Inferi and a possible 30 Death Eater count. At least 2/3 of the Inferi were breaking down doors to homes and feasting on victims, while the other 1/3 were walking up the dirt path towards the house on the hill.
Jonathan followed the Inferi up the hill where he saw three figures, whom the Inferi were ignoring completely, standing in the front yard. The one in the center at vibrant puss yellow eyes and was muttering Latin at the moon. The ground around them starting to shake and a pulsating green bubble formed around the property, encompassing the home and those inside.
There was a commotion at the edge of the bubble and Jonathan saw Auror's firing spells at the bubble, trying to force their way through it. The Inferi, however, seemed to have no problem passing in and out of the emerald bubble though it was completely solid to the Death Eaters and Auror's.
Jonathan heard a loud growl erupt from the woods behind the Aurors. His hand went directly to where he stored his Kattana sword before he realized that he was only a spectator in the vision. The Auror began to scramble away from the woods and Jonathan was forced to watch as no less than a dozen fully transformed werewolves began to stalk them down. Only five were quick enough to apparate out of the scene. The others fell down and never got up again.
The world shifted him from the attack to a scene that was it's polar opposite. Instead of midnight, it was midday. Jonathan was standing in an open field that he recognized as on the island. His future self was dressed in jeans and a white collared t-shirt that was unbuttoned. In the air, a figure flew at a tremendous and dangerous speed. The flyer was accomplishing stunts that even Jonathan might feel nervous about.
The figured landed and Jonathan recognized him as Harry, but different. This Harry had shorter hair and clothes that actually fit him. Not to mention looked almost… happy. Something Jonathan didn't think Harry had been capable of before tonight.
Future Harry smiled excitedly at Future Jonathan.
"What do you think?" Future Harry asked.
About what? Jonathan wondered.
But then the world twisted and he found himself in complete darkness again. This time he felt a wet towel being placed on his forehead and heard crinkled pages being turned.
Jonathan sat up, once again in his own body, and smiled at his two friends.
Emma mumbled something like, "Gave us a good scare."
But Jonathan wasn't listening. Instead he looked at the clock in front of him and saw it read: 12:45.
"You were out longer this time," mentioned a worried Emma.
"What did you see?" asked Simon.
Jonathan gave them the basic details of the Phoenix Vision while he summoned his cloak and weapons. He did, however, manage to keep Eliza's death to himself. He would tell them tomorrow when he had the time to sit them down and give the news the justice and respect it deserved.
"The kids are at the lagoon," he informed them.
"What?" cried Eliza, looking up at the ceiling as if she wished she could see through the stone and into their bedrooms.
"I'll be back soon," he told them, "but don't wait up."
"We'll get the kids," promised Simon.
"Wait a few hours," Jonathan requested, "let them have some time to bond. We can always nail them to the wall in the morning."
"Where will you be?" asked Emma, as she watched him strap the large sword onto his shoulder.
"No idea," confessed Jonathan, "Fate points, I jump."
He closed his eyes and pictured the dirt road he'd seen before in his vision. He felt the pull of the wards surrounding the Island tugging at him. He put more force in his Phoenix Apparition and instantly his feet collided with the ground.
He opened his eyes and looked at the street sign he'd failed to notice earlier. He reached out his arm and pulled the sword out of its shoulder sling.
"Congratulations, Ottery St. Catchpole," he whispered to the air, "it's your lucky night."
Inside The Burrow
12:55 am
The Same Day
"Hold the damn door!" Ron Weasley shouted to Hermione and Ginny.
"We're trying to Ronald," shrieked Hermione flippantly as she put her full weight against the door. Ginny had braced her feet against the side of the bed and used it as leverage to hold the door shut with her back. In the hallway outside at least two dozen Inferi were banging against the door. Ron grimaced at hearing Hermione call him by his full first name but kept on with his task.
He was frantically ripping apart his parent's bedroom looking for either of his parents' wands or a weapon. They'd thought their parents had been asleep so they'd run into the master bedroom hoping for an adult to defend them, only to find it empty. Ron knew his mother had been freaked out about a possible attack this summer and had purchased some kind of defensive device. So far he'd been disappointed with his seemingly flawed vision into his mother's paranoia.
"We know she bought something!" cried Ginny frantically.
"But where'd she put it?" asked Ron, moving to the closet and ripping open the door.
"Did you check the board under the bed?" asked Ginny, now biting her lip in the struggle to keep the door closed.
Ron's head appeared from inside the closet.
"What board under the bed?" he asked.
"Oh honestly, Ron" sighed Ginny, "Haven't you ever gone snooping in here?"
"What?" he asked, a disgusted look on his face, "why'd I ever want to go snooping in a room where mum and dad… do that… stuff?"
Hermione would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so dire.
"Oh honestly," cried Ginny, "you can't even say it can you?"
"Not the time children," reminded Hermione as a particularly rough shove against the door nearly toppled both her and Ginny.
"Right," said Ron as he left the closet door open and dropped to the floor, disappearing under the bed.
Ginny heard him banging against various floorboards and saw pieces of objects being pushed out from under the bed. A minute later and Ron re-appeared above the bed looking frustrated.
"I can't find it."
"Ugh," Ginny screamed frustrated to wits end with her brother, "Switch with me!"
Ron and Ginny swapped places and this time Ginny disappeared under the bed.
Ginny squinted in the darkness, trying to find the right board. She drew her hand across the cracks in the floor until she found the one that was just a little more pronounced than the others. She grinned in satisfaction as she pried it open and felt into the hole. She felt a long object in her hand and a small rubber ball.
Grabbing both she sat on her parent's bed and recognized the long object as a spare wand. She aimed it at the door and said, "Colloportus!"
The door stopped shaking and Ron and Hermione moved away from it quickly.
"What now?" Ginny asked, looking between Hermione and Ron.
The pair looked at each other and silently communicated that they had no idea what to do next.
"Harry usually did the next part," said Hermione.
"Which was what exactly?" asked Ginny.
"Save us."
The Village of Ottery St. Catchpole
1:10 am
The Same Day
Voldemort smiled up at the moon as his rich emerald green shield surrounded the property referred to as "The Burrow". The shield would allow the dead to cross it and those bearing his mark, the Dark Mark, but no one else. Those foolish enough to try and cross the magical boundary would not survive the transition, and would become one of the Inferi under his control. The plan was nearly perfect, except that nothing ever went completely according to plan.
Just in case, Voldemort had the werewolves prowling the woods the stretched between the Burrow and the village below. Beyond the animals were the Death Eaters who would keep most of those trying to interfere with his plans at a standstill. Only those that survived his Death Eaters, his werewolves, and his shield would be worthy of facing him; worthy of dying at his hand.
The Inferi had already trapped the elders of the Blood-Traitor family in their shed. It wouldn't be much longer until the shed was ripped open and the pair became nothing more than corpses waiting to be turned into his own army. While Voldemort himself could have decimated the shed and the home with a wave of his wand, he wanted the fear to linger in the hearts of his victims. Hearing the sounds of the Dead banging their decomposing limbs against the wall of your hiding place would certainly accomplish that…
Voldemort spotted movement from the side of the shed and subtly extracted his wand from its hiding place in his robes. Bellatrix was striding forward at a quickened gait holding something round shaped in her hand. As she approached closer, he recognized the worried look in her face and the object in her hands.
Bellatrix threw the decapitated head onto the ground in front of her master's feet.
"One of the Blood-Traitors?" he asked silkily.
She shook her head and answered, "One of the Inferi."
The Dark Lord Voldemort frowned at the head lying before him, then at his servant, and finally into the woods around him. He could see no hole in the shield he had constructed, nor had he felt someone manipulating those wards.
"There's someone else here," he said to Bellatrix, "someone who entered before my wards had been established."
"But no one knew, my Lord," she said anxiously.
"Than how do you explain it, Bellatrix?" he asked her vehemently.
"They must have anticipated the move, my Lord," she answered quickly.
"But Severus assured me that they hadn't, Bellatrix."
"Perhaps Severus' spy has turned on him?" she asked weakly.
To her surprise Voldemort was not angered by this notion. Instead something harsh and odd erupted from his mouth that vaguely resembled a laugh.
"How much has changed this summer, Bellatrix," he chuckled darkly.
"My Lord?" she asked nervously.
"To think that you would be defending Severus to me!"
"After the attack on Hogwarts…" she began to explain, before he cut her off.
"I understand what changed your mind, Bellatrix," he said, "Unfortunately we haven't the time to discuss such transitions in behavior."
"Of course, my Lord."
"Find Snape," he ordered her, "and detain him. Tell your husband and his brother to join me here. Tell them we have a rat that needs to be flushed out. They'll understand what they need to do."
"Yes, my master."
And with that, Bellatrix went scurrying down the hill as fast as she could and plunged into the darkness of the woods beyond.
Voldemort began to walk towards the house at a pace that showed not a care in the world for the danger he was about to encounter.
From the shadows of the house Jonathan watched the encounter. He had, as a wizard, heard of Lord Voldemort. He'd even worked against his Death Eaters during the First War. Now he'd have a chance to face him man to man. The nice part of receiving the Phoenix Visions is that he knew he'd live past tonight. The only downfall was that he didn't know in what kind of condition.
When Jonathan had used Phoenix Apparition to enter the property earlier he'd been just in time to get through the woods before werewolves could smell him. He'd taken to hiding outside the small shed until he'd spotted the plump woman walking a tea tray towards the building. He'd tried to stay as quiet and hidden as he could but the first of the Inferi to reach the grounds wasn't trying to stay hidden.
Jonathan had watched as the damned corpse walked right down the lane between the shed and the house towards the plump woman. Since the Inferi had been walking in shadows that poor woman hadn't been able to see it, but Jonathan could. Hell, he could sense the thing walking around like that.
He couldn't risk alerting the woman to his presence too soon otherwise he'd lose the element of surprise. But he also couldn't risk letting the Inferi kill her. So he did the only thing he could do… take early preventive action.
Jonathan waited until the corpse was almost in front of him before removing his weapon. He held the kattana sword low to the ground and waited until the monster was right in front of him. In one swift motion he arced his body into a standing position and kept his sword arm rising even after his body had stopped. The blade sliced through the monster's neck and Jonathan caught the body before it fell to the ground and made noise.
He looked back to where the woman with the tray had been squinting into the darkness and waited. If she had seen either him or the Inferi she would have screamed. Thus she was left with only two options. One, investigate further and venture into the shadows where she would find the two of them there. Or two, walk away into the lighted shed and play it up to her imagination.
After another moment of indecision she turned away from him and marched into the safety of the shed.
Jonathan let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
Dragging the body as silently across the lawn as possible, he left it hidden behind some bushes around the back of the house. In the distance he saw the three figures from his vision start up the hill and he also took refuge behind the brush.
It'd been some time since then but he'd been forced to stay hidden until the shield went up and that woman Death Eater started her search of the grounds. Jonathan had quickly mentally classified her as a 'threat'. All of her movements showed that she was an experienced hunter and killer. The fact that Voldemort trusted her to go on alone showed that she was capable of handling herself. Plus she had known exactly where the best hiding place would be and moved to it immediately. Unfortunately for him that had meant a quick relocation was in order.
He scaled the tree behind the brush and used it to get behind the woman Death Eater. He'd been unable to hide the corpse better and she quickly found it. Normally he'd be ashamed of himself for leaving such an obvious clue lying around like that, but this time it worked for him. She'd been so preoccupied with the body he'd been able to retake his earlier position between the shed and the house. It also afforded him a better look at the grounds and Voldemort.
Now that the woman Death Eater had reported her findings to her master she'd disappeared down the wood trails that led to the town. She'd be going to get reinforcements so he'd have to move quickly. As it was he'd still need to get around Voldemort and the Inferi without losing anyone he rescued from the house of the barn.
Jonathan didn't care much about the Inferi. To normal people they were a problem, but for magically unique beings like werewolves and Phoenix's they were pretty much ignored unless given a reason not to be. Voldemort on the other hand wouldn't be so easy. He didn't have many choices in that department. He could chose to continue being stealthy and try to sneak off the captives one at a time but that could take too much time. Besides there were no safe places to hide the ones he saved while going back for the others. The Inferi would tear them apart of the werewolves would eat them alive.
His other choice would be to strike out immediately. Voldemort and that woman Death Eater knew that someone was already there, and soon all the Death Eaters would know. Using his Phoenix abilities he could take down most of the Inferi and the Death Eaters, but a fight like that could escalate and he may not have time to save all the hostages. In fact he could lose them just as easily. The only reason that Voldemort was taking his time reaching the house was most likely to see what decision Jonathan would make.
Unfortunately he'd spent so much time debating the issue, that it was no longer in his hands.
Jonathan heard a voice behind him and he turned just in time to see a stream of dark blue magic flying towards him from the tip of a wand. He jumped out of the path of the curse but didn't miss the effects. An explosion erupted from the ground he'd just been occupying and he felt himself go flying up into the air.
Wind rippled through his hair and billowed his long cloak around him as he flew backwards and through one of the windows into the house. Glass slashed at his body and he felt pain in his back where he'd broken the window pane. He landed hard on his side inside the house. He coughed up some blood before the front door to the home blew open and a figure stepped into the doorway.
Jonathan pushed himself up into a standing position and charged further into the house as a second curse exploded right where he'd fallen. Once he was out of the sight of the front door he tried to figure out where he was. Some kind of kitchen he guessed and quickly scouted out the entry points. A side of the wall was opened up to the rest of the home and there was a kitchen door that was left wide open.
Jonathan pulled out his kattana sword and went through the open space in the wall and waited. A moment later he saw his attacker enter the kitchen and walk towards the open back door. Jonathan tried to control the lurch in his gut as he realized that his attacker was the actual Lord Voldemort. Jonathan lined up the shot with his mind's eye and as soon as Voldemort stuck his foot out the door he stepped into position.
He lifted his sword arm back behind his head and was about to throw it straight into the back of the Dark Lord's skull when a pair of hands grabbed his leg and intense pain caused him to cry out in shock. He fell to the ground as Voldemort turned to look behind him.
Jonathan looked down at his injured leg and saw that the top half of an Inferi woman had grabbed onto him. The woman had bitten into the flesh of his leg and was giving him a blood filled grin of satisfaction. He turned and saw Voldemort smirking at him the way a crocodile smirks at bird he's about to give a death roll. Jonathan wasn't stupid enough to wait for said death roll and decided to take action. As Voldemort lifted his wand and opened his mouth, Jonathan kicked the woman in the mouth and kicked his injured leg into the air.
The Inferi woman, temporarily stunned by the kick, lost her grip on Jonathan's leg and went careening through the air. A half second later the Inferi collided with the Dark Lord Voldemort and sent them both falling backwards. Jonathan didn't waste a second and grabbed onto his kattana sword before the Dark Lord hit the floor.
Voldemort saw the man grab the weapon and used the Inferi woman as a shield against the sword that flung through the air at his head. He dropped the woman onto the floor and stood up, already conjuring a ball of dark blue mist into his hand. His wand completely forgotten somewhere on the kitchen floor Voldemort had decided to use the next best thing.
Jonathan conjured a ball of flaming Phoenix Fire into his palm that lighted the whole room from its dark state. Voldemort looked hesitantly at the fire for a fraction of a second before throwing his own magical sphere at Jonathan. Jonathan lifted the Phoenix Fire in front of him and it absorbed the Dark Lord's magic in one swift move.
Voldemort smiled and said, "And here I thought only Harry Potter could thwart me."
Jonathan was about to reply when he felt something heavy collide with his backside and he went sprawling onto the kitchen floor. He turned around and saw two cloaked Death Eaters behind him, each armed with identical oak wands.
"Kill him!" order the Dark Lord.
The wizards raised their wands and Jonathan disappeared in a flash of brilliant orange flames.
The two wizards lowered their hoods and looked at each other.
"Did you…?" Rudolphus asked his brother.
The man shook his head and both turned to look at their master questioningly.
Voldemort, looking absolutely enraged, shouted, "Find him! Now!"
Both men scrambled out the kitchen door before their master decided to unleash the rest of his anger.
Voldemort looked down at the sword pierced Inferi lying beneath him. He studied the handle of the sword before ripping it out of the corpse's side. His eyes tracked over the bird featured on the handle, and the small grooves in the flat side of the blades. He'd seen the marking before but he couldn't remember where.
He pocketed the sword, summoned his wand and stormed out of the home without a second thought as to the fate of those in it or of the plans he had constructed so carefully over the past few weeks. None of that mattered anymore. He had a new enemy to focus on, one that more than rivaled Harry Potter's school friends.
The Burrow, Master Bedroom
The Same Day
1:40 am
"REDUCTO!"
The shout echoed off of the walls of the master bedroom, while the blast that followed carried out into the nightmare beyond.
Ginny coughed as dust and debris settled across the room and in her throat. She could hear Ron and Hermione behind her doing the same.
"That was effective," commented Ron dryly.
"Maybe not effective enough," said Hermione moving closer to the large hole that they'd blasted in the side of the room. She bent down to a small crater in the wall about four feet from the ground.
"I don't think I can fit through there," said Hermione.
"You don't have to remember?" responded Ginny, moving closer to the hole herself, "we only need one to get through and distract them.
"I still say it should be me," volunteered Ron, sounding like the overprotective brother he was at heart.
Ginny turned to face him and asked, "Can you fit through there?"
She pointed to the hole and his eyes tracked from hers to the wall and back again.
Finally he shook his head no.
"I didn't think so."
Ginny crouched down and looked out through the hole in the wall and into the next room. Of course her mother had made sure to put her room right next to the Twins' room for safety precautions. After the twins tried to give their Uncle one of their first prototypes ("Flaming Fur ball Hairpieces") they really hadn't left her much of a choice.
Then after the incident involving Hermione's black eye, the Twins had seen fit to keep their room under lock and key. Ginny wondered whether it was their guilt over Hermione's eye or the fear that their mother might make good on her threat to bin everything in their room. Either way Ginny was glad that the room had been locked up as it provided them with an escape route.
Ginny put both hand into the hole and grabbed onto the sides of the wall. Using all her upper body strength she pulled herself head first through the hole. She landed on one of the Twin's leftover boxes and prayed to Merlin himself that nothing from inside the box would go off. The last thing she needed was to tell the Inferi outside exactly where she was.
"Everything alright?" called Ron from the other side of the wall.
"Fine, thanks," she called back lightly after no firecrackers went off.
She climbed off the box and crossed the room to the windows. One thing Mom didn't know was that the twins had been using the ivy that ran vertical across the house as an escape route from their room. It led straight up to the roof and from there you could use ladder the Twins smuggled up there to get down.
Ginny opened the window and smiled as the breeze hit her face. It was good to have some fresh air, especially after tonight.
She straddled the window sill with her left leg hanging out towards the ground and her right swinging inside. She reached over to the siding and grabbed the thickest piece of ivory and siding that she could. She pulled it tight to test its strength and when she was satisfied that it would hold her, she started to climb up.
Unfortunately for her, she was wrong.
Ginny was able to climb for approximately three seconds before the vine and the siding snapped off and she fell to the ground screaming.
Next Chapter: A Walk in the Woods will premiere sometime later tonight.
Author's Notes:
Thank you all for waiting so patiently for this update. RL has tormented me enough for this week and is continuing to do so as we speak. Thus the double update will be finished tonight and uploaded before midnight tomorrow. Hope to hear from you all in a review. And for those who aren't aware my beta is out for awhile so these chapters are beta'd only by me and that's not saying much.
LAST UPDATED: 09/11/05