Harry Potter and the Guardians of Power
Disclaimer: I own nothing belonging to the Harry Potter Universe except the twisted plot, a few original characters, and a desire to share my weird obsession with others.
Summary: After being captured by Voldemort, Snape and Potter escape to … AU/Middle of 5th Year, No HBP Spoilers, NO Slash, and No Mary Sues.
AN: I will not respond to individual reviewers on this story site. If you really need a question answered please review and I will answer on my author's page. Chapter 5 was revised, please reread if you have not already. Also, please let me know if you want longer chapters or faster updates? Please review and thanks especially to those who have faithfully reviewed each chapter and added my story to their favorites list.
Chapter 8: A Bug's Eye View
(The early evening of Dec. 10th, before the disappearance of Potter and Snape.)
Rita Skeeter didn't know if she was more pissed or happy. After that little witch, Hermoine Granger had kept her trapped in a jar since the third task last summer, she had plotted how to escape and get revenge on her and her friends. And tonight she had managed. The girl had been distracted about something, Skeeter didn't know what, and it was too hard to hear anything from inside a stupid jar after all. But the girl had left the jar standing only half on the nightstand beside her bed and Rita had been able to bang against one side of her 'jail' until it fell and broke on the floor. Rita had transformed back into human form from her beetle animagus only long enough to heal herself of the cuts her escape had given her and transformed back. Now she was winging through the castle in search of dirt. It had to be really good to pay back all her humiliation and degradation. Nobody trapped Rita Skeeter without regretting it, and regretting it bad!
'Ah, Ha! There was Potter running through the halls, it was almost curfew, perhaps he was going to meet up with some girl. The scoop on Potter's love life would rate the front page of the Daily Prophet and get me right back on top. My editor would just have to believe I have been on the trail of this story. Right, if I hide myself in his robe pocket, he won't even notice me and I can hear everything. Hey, what's that noise and ooof, watch it. Hey, you're squashing me and ahhh! Pain, Agony!' Skeeter fell into unconsciousness, still in her beetle form, trapped in Harry Potter's robe pocket. She was still unconscious when she was unwittingly portkeyed into Voldemort's inner sanctum along with Harry Potter and Severus Snape.
Rita crawled out from inside Potter's pocket and scurried away from him as quickly as her six little bug legs would allow. No one noticed the small beetle with the weird markings scuttling into the shadows. 'Wow, this is even better than Potter's love life! If he kills he-who-must-not-be-named I have a front row seat to report all the details. And if he dies, I still get the story! Hmm, maybe I better fly up into the shadows on the ceiling so I don't get stepped on.' From Rita's hiding place in the shadows made by the flickering candlelight she watched; wishing she had her Quick Quotes Quill but oh well, she could always just make up what she didn't remember or too far away to hear clearly. Too bad beetles didn't really have good ears; she couldn't hear everything they said clearly. But she could still hear enough to retell the story.
She watched as two death eaters hung Potter up between them. He dangled lifeless and limp between them, their holds on his arms the only thing keeping him upright. Potter looked to be in bad shape. His nose was bleeding and it looked like he had smashed his face into a wall. His glasses were missing and he was just suspended between the two goons. She noticed that Snape had stood up only to bow down and grovel at the Dark Lord's feet. After checking to make sure she was completely hidden, she sat back to just watch. After all, a good reporter watched the news; it wasn't her responsibility to get involved. Not that she could do much as a beetle anyway, she rationalized to herself.
Voldemort stood up and stepped toward Potter, running a long, skeletal finger down the boy's cheek. Potter seemed to shudder even though he was still obviously unconscious. Voldemort turned toward a tall, regal looking Death Eater. 'Was that Lucius Malfoy? Could the boy have been right?' Voldemort began speaking in a low, deadly hiss, "Why isss Potter in sssuch ssshape? I told you to bring him to me in one pieccce!" he raged, "Not half kill him!"
Snape told the Dark Lord that the Malfoy boy had attacked him and tortured him after he was already stunned. If anything, Voldemort was even more angry. "Luciusss, if you do not punisssh your ssson, you will take the punissshment for him!" Malfoy sputtered apologies and backed out of Voldemort's presence. Rita could hear the pop of his apparition from a long way away. She almost giggled. He must be a really weak wizard to make that loud of a pop. He almost sounded like a bloody house elf!
Snape was groveling again and asking permission to take the boy away to heal him in his lab but Voldemort didn't want him out of his sight. Snape fumbled in his robes and found a potion which he forced down the boy's mouth. After a minute, Potter picked up his head, stood on shaky legs and glared at Voldemort and Snape. 'I wonder why Snape isn't dressed like a Death Eater. Everyone always knew he was one, and now I can prove it!' She thought with glee.
"I'll never join you, Tom!" Potter was screaming. Voldemort was so furious he was spitting but he was talking too softly for her to hear. Voldemort started cackling hysterically as he cast a bone breaking curse at first Potter's right arm and then his left one. Potter groaned and shuddered, but he didn't cry out. Voldemort then cast the same curse at his left leg. The two goons still standing to either side of him grabbed Potter quickly to keep him from falling to the floor. Voldemort, screeching hysterically, blasted his right leg, shattering the poor boy's kneecap. Harry finally screamed with agony. The only thing holding the boy up was the tight grip of the two Death Eaters who were laughing at him. They almost lost their grip on him when a blasting curse hit the boy forcefully in the chest, nearly ripping him out of their hold by the force. Rita was getting sicker as the minutes passed. 'What did this have to do with keeping the wizarding world pure? This was just senseless torture for some bizarre, perverted and sadistic pleasure. And the bastards really appeared to be enjoying torturing a defenseless boy outnumbered about 20 to 1 and being held down to be tormented cruelly after being injured to begin with. This was pure blooded supremacy?' Rita was beginning to doubt the wisdom of not joining in the fight against these bloody bastards. 'If they did this to Potter, what would they do to everyone else if they win?'
A new Death Eater rushed in and groveled at Voldemort's feet. Rita couldn't quite hear what he said but Snape turned pure white and Voldemort started to curse him. Potter stood up; 'boy that must hurt' she unconsciously flinched at the sight, and then the battered and bloody child fell on top of Snape, who looked totally flabbergasted.
"Avada Kedavra!" screamed Voldemort, but before the green light hit the two huddled together on the floor, Rita saw a bright white light envelope the two on the ground and then, with a flash, they disappeared; the green light passing through where they had been only a moment before. It killed a death eater that had been watching the spectacle from directly behind Potter. He was too petrified with shock to even realize he was dead before he hit the floor. She wasn't surprised to see every Death Eater, including Voldemort, thrown to the floor by the flare of pure magical energy. Several had also been blasted backwards into the walls. Voldemort was the first to stand up again, and he started screaming and casting random curses at every one around him before they even stood up again. The screams echoing throughout the chamber were even more horrific because Voldemort had stopped hissing and started laughing maniacally as his followers were reduced to quivering masses scattered on the floor at his feet.
Rita took the opportunity to escape while no one was in any shape to notice her. She flew out of the chamber and down dark corridor after dark corridor following the scent of outside air, until she finally found a way out through an old oak door with a deep crack at the top that she could squeeze through. She flew to a nearby tree and landed totally exhausted and shaking from reaction to the horrific events she had unwittingly witnessed. Now that the adrenalin had worn off she was trembling so hard that she couldn't move, much less fly. Even as a beetle, she was nauseated and disgusted at what she had witnessed. And she knew that when she transformed; her human feelings would be almost unbearable.
Rita had never really thought about which side was right in this war, but she understood she could no longer remain neutral. That fact had been driven home to her most forcefully tonight. No matter what she thought of Potter and Dumbledore, no one deserved to be treated like that! And Voldemort and his followers were insane, sadistic madmen. She knew she would have to take this story to Dumbledore, maybe he could get the truth out around the chokehold Fudge and the Ministry had on the Daily Prophet. Too bad she hadn't seen anyone's face except Malfoy and Snape. Not that Fudge would believe anything against his financial backer, Malfoy. She had heard of more than one reporter losing their job because they tried to print something detrimental to Lucius Malfoy. Perhaps she could talk Dumbledore into putting her memories in his pensive before someone could hit her with a memory charm or just make her mysteriously disappear.
She looked around trying to determine what time it was, she knew she wouldn't be able to find her way to Hogwarts until after daylight. She knew it had been around ten when she had been portkeyed along with Potter. The whole disgustingly, nauseating torture and Potter's escape had taken a couple of hours, so she must have left the death chamber around midnight. After resting for another hour; she started to notice Death Eaters dragging themselves out of the dark manor house and then apparating away. Most of them kept their masks on until they disappeared, but she was surprised to notice Umbridge, Avery, Nott, McNair and several others she recognized, but didn't know the names of, before they disapperated.
She waited the several more hours until daylight to try to find her way to Hogwarts. First she flew to the nearby village and noticed the name of Little Hangleton. Bollocks, she had no idea where that was. She returned to the manor for one last sweep so she could describe it precisely to Dumbledore. It must be about seven am, so it would probably be safe to take one last look around inside; her curiosity was beginning to overcome her fear. Surely all the Death Eaters had disapperated before now. She had always been too curious for her own good, which was what made her a good reporter. Well, that and her ability to stretch the truth to give her reader's exactly what they wanted to read. But she had to get as much information as she could. Maybe there would be a map inside that would let her know where she was so she could get a safe distance away from the now quiet manor and apperate. She really was too tired to fly much more as a beetle without a long rest.
She buzzed back in through the same crack in the wooden door she had escaped through, and followed her way back down the corridors, using the instinct for directions that was part of the bug's instincts. She entered the death chamber only to find it completely empty. She heard low voices coming through a door behind the 'throne' and flew into the room, keeping to the dark shadows flickering in the dim candlelight. She found Voldemort being tended by that weird little rat faced man. 'Oh, how creepy. Voldemort looks more snake than human and there he is curled up on a bed in front of the fire with a huge, nasty snake wrapped around him. They almost look like lovers, how disgusting! Ugh, is that venom he's drinking?' She thought more horrified if at all possible.
Voldemort was talking, "Wormtail, we must call my followers here again tonight to see if they know where the traitor and the brat have escaped to. How did they leave despite the wards?" Rita had the idea that he was really talking aloud to himself and didn't expect any answer from Wormtail, 'was that really his name, well, it sort of fits him, I guess.'
Rita was preparing to leave when Voldemort started screaming and grabbed his forehead in agony, just like she had seen Potter do when she had witnessed him in his Divination class. What could be causing him such pain? It seemed like forever, but it was probably only a couple of minutes when the unholy screaming stopped abruptly and Voldemort collapsed against the pillows, unconscious. Wormtail tried for several minutes but was unable to revive his master, even using an enervate spell. Wormtail then yelled as loud as he could for help, but it seemed all the Death Eaters had managed to recover enough to leave. He wrote a quick note saying he was going for a healer, dropped it on Voldemort's chest, and left the Dark Lord's side.
Rita left the building on her way out to go to find Dumbledore with her information, when she spotted another Death Eater creping out of a different door than she had escaped from. She didn't know the man's name, but recognized him as a sales clerk from a shop in Diagon Alley. She took a chance and flew down and latched herself to the back of his hood.
'Thank you Merlin!' The Death Eater and his unsuspected rider appeared in the alley behind the Leaky Cauldron. She slipped away while he removed his mask and transfigured his robes into every day green ones. As he tapped the bricks to enter Diagon Alley, she snuck into the back room of the Leaky Cauldron. Good thing she knew where the cracked glass in the hallway window was, that was big enough for a beetle to slip through!
She flew into the lady's room and transfigured back into human form. She scourgified her robes, cast a quick hairdo repair spell and walked out into the pub room of the Leaky Cauldron where she quickly and silently took the floo to Hogsmeade. She only stopped long enough in the Three Broomsticks to say good morning to Madame Rosmerta and made her way to the castle.
Less than an hour later, she was sitting in Albus Dumbledore's office drinking hot tea with her hands still shaking badly at her close escape, and trying to tell the old Headmaster her story in a coherent fashion.
"So you were in Harry's pocket when he was attacked outside Professor Snape's office?" The old man hadn't said a word when she admitted to him that she was an illegal beetle animagus. She had the uncomfortable feeling that it was not new information to him.
"Yes, though I didn't know he had been attacked or that we had been portkeyed anywhere until I crawled out of his robes and found myself in front of V-V-Voldemort himself." She continued her haltingly told story to the sympathetic old man. She had only told him the bare outlines of what had happened until Potter's and Snape's disappearance in a flash of blinding white light when he halted her.
"Please wait here, Miss Skeeter. I must notify several people who need to hear your story, confidentially of course. Please enjoy breakfast until I can return. I am certain after your harrowing adventures of last night you must be famished." He had snapped his fingers and a generous plate had appeared on a small table in front of her. She was so hungry from her ordeal and flight that she just nodded and started to eat, surprised that it tasted so good after the horrors of her night.
Almost an hour later, Dumbledore himself came to escort her to a small conference room that was full of people sitting around a majestic oak table with twelve comfortable looking leather chairs, only two of which were empty. She recognized Professors McGonagall, Vector, Flitwick, Sprout, and Hooch, as well as the half-giant, Hagrid; the ministry was represented by Arthur Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks, and Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Remus Lupin was there with a big, black dog, that looked something like a Grimm, at his feet for some reason.
Dumbledore gave her a half smile that did not reach his eyes as he seated her. He sat next to her, and handed her a small vial that she recognized as a mild calming potion. She noticed he looked tired and suddenly much older than she remembered him, and his trademark twinkle was gone from his eyes. She thanked him, took a moment for the potion to take effect, and with a deep breath recounted her harrowing tale to those present.
Rita was emotionally and physically drained by the time she had finished retelling the experience, even with the calming draught. Each time she had had to tell it, she had furthered her understanding of just how evil Voldemort and his Death Eaters where, and strengthened her resolve to join the fight to defeat him. The group sat around the table in stunned silence as each was lost in their own thoughts of the previous night after she finished talking. Dumbledore was the first to break the silence, "Am I correct, Miss Skeeter, that you are no longer sitting on the sidelines in this war? You are willing to join us in fighting for the light against Voldemort and his Death Eaters?"
"Yes, I am not willing to directly fight as I would be killed in the first volley of spells but I am willing to return to spy in V-V-Voldemort's hideout. There are enough shadows in the rooms and corridors that I will not be noticed. But I need some way of reporting back to you without having to fly back each time. And I would be too conspicuous apparating into Hogsmeade frequently. I also don't know where Little Hangleton is, do you?"
The room erupted in twelve people talking all at once until Dumbledore had to call for silence once again. He turned back to the group around the table and asked for them to please ask questions one at a time; so that everyone would get a chance and one and all could hear the answers and not repeat questions already answered.
"So, Harry and Severus are gone. Voldemort does not have them nor, apparently judging by his anger, does he know where they are? And Harry was badly injured? How was Severus?" Asked Lupin anxiously.
"No, I don't think he had anything to do with them disappearing. They disappeared just as he was firing a killing curse at them. I'm sure it was something Potter did, not Snape. Snape looked just as stunned as the Death Eaters at the magical outburst. And I know Potter's arms and legs were all broken with bone breaking curses. And I'm pretty sure his chest is a mess; that was a very strong blasting curse he was hit with. He was also hit with three or four crucios. I only saw Snape hit with two crucios, but they were held for a long time and Voldemort was very angry when he cast them. I don't think either of them is in too good of shape, but Snape was definitely better off." Rita clarified as the group started talking again, all of them horrified at what had happened to their two friends.
"And you say that Voldemort was hit with a debilitating pain in his forehead. How long after they disappeared?" Dumbledore asked quietly. He was afraid the connection between Harry's scar and Voldemort had been broken, and that the backlash had hit Voldemort causing the pain. Unfortunately the only thing he could think of that would break the connection was the death of one of the two connected. And since Voldemort was still alive he was afraid that Harry had died at that instant. His eyes were moist with tears he dared not shed. He could not dash the hope of rescue that he saw in his dear friends' eyes. And he dared not believe in his own heart that it was over. He too needed hope. And they must find Severus even if the worst, 'Oh, please, not Harry, not my boy!' had happened. The anguish he felt in his heart must be crushed down. He needed to stay strong and be their leader. His face hardened in further resolve to find the missing two.
"They disappeared right about midnight and my best guess was the pain hit Voldemort about eight hours later." Rita had no idea why that was significant, but she had been a reporter too long to not notice Dumbledore's reactions.
After several hours of sometimes nearly hysterical discussion, Rita left to return to her flat; after agreeing that she would go back each night for several hours to Little Hangleton to spy for the Order. She had been given a pendant that she could use to contact Dumbledore if there was any information that was urgent; otherwise she would return every four days to give the group an update. She needed to pack up some belongings to stay at a friend of Dumbledore's who lived only a fifteen minute flight from Little Hangleton. The fellow was a ninety year old squib so he had escaped the Death Eaters' attention. They had not been attacking anyone near their hiding spot, so far not wanting to draw any attention to the area. She would be able to sleep during the day and use her pendant to report anything not urgent. She could use the floo to the Three Broomsticks where she would transform and fly as a beetle up to Dumbledore's office when she needed to report in person. He had spelled his office window wards to accept her as it did Fawkes.
As soon as Rita left, the black dog transformed back into Sirius Black. Since he was still wanted by the Ministry for Magic for being a mass-murderer and escaping Azkaban; he could not transform in front of Rita Skeeter, she might have agreed to spy but she was still a reporter for the Daily Prophet, first and foremost.
The other members of the group would quietly search for the two injured friends, and keep their eyes and ears open for any information they might glean from the usual sources. Dumbledore knew that if it was in any way possible, Severus would let them know where they were; that he would care for the boy and protect him with his life, even if he hated him. But Sirius and several others there were not so sure that Snape might not finish off the job Malfoy and then Voldemort had started. After all, he could always claim that the boy was too badly injured and that help was just too far away or too slow in arriving. After what seemed like hours of arguing, Dumbledore had had enough and sent everyone out to search for the two injured men.
Albus Dumbledore walked with a heavy heart through the corridors of his beloved castle, feeling bereft of the two people he held closer to his heart than any others. When he returned to his office, he was unfortunately alone with his increasingly gloomy thoughts. After Grindlewald had killed his wife and two young children fifty years ago, he had vowed never to let anyone get so close to his heart. And for the most part, he had kept that vow. He was fond of his staff, well most of them, and he was genuinely fond of his students, some more than others, but he had let Severus Snape into his heart after the dark man had placed his life on the line to begin spying for him after his parents had drugged him and dragged him off to be marked only two days after he graduated from Hogwarts. It had only taken six months for Severus to gather up enough courage to ask to meet with his former Headmaster, and to offer up any information that he had. He had only asked for Dumbledore to accompany him to the Ministry to turn himself in for judgment, and was utterly astounded that Dumbledore would offer him a way to redeem himself and atone for his sins by helping to defeat Voldemort. And after all these years of spying, the man still didn't believe himself worthy of affection, let alone love. It had taken several years for Dumbledore to come to care for him as a son, but he had to admit to himself, that Severus had held that place in his heart for many years. Even if the stubborn child refused to acknowledge the fact that Albus loved him.
Harry he had fallen in love with the moment those big, green eyes had looked up at him with such trust as he placed him on the Dursley's doorstep so many long years ago. Ah, if only he had listened to Minerva and his own heart, he knew hecould have found somewhere better for the child. He could have fought the Ministry for custody or at least guardianship. Then seeing the child again, so small and wide eyed at the sorting feast when he turned eleven, it had broken his heart. The poor child had looked like he was only eight! Hagrid had told the staff about his relatives and how he had not even known about his parents or that he was a wizard. And over the years, the bits and pieces from his friends; Mrs. Figg, who had watched over him all those years; and the yearly tirade he got from Madame Pomfrey the first time she treated the child each return to school, made him certain that the boy's life at the Dursleys wasn't good.
Poppy would rant on about malnutrition and borderline starvation, neglect, and downright abuse, but the child never said anything directly. He never complained about anything specific so that they could remove him from the Dursley's care. He knew the mediwitch slipped nutritive potions and vitamin tonics into every potion she treated him with. Dumbledore wouldn't be surprised to find out she had coerced Dobby into slipping extra nutrients into the boy's pumpkin juice! It would be fairly easy to do, he and his friends sat at the same spot for almost every meal and the boy always took the pumpkin juice. He should ask Poppy, if she wasn't maybe he could suggest that they might do that. Simple vitamin supplements wouldn't harm anyone else who inadvertently shared the same pitcher of juice after all.
His thoughts continued to center around his beloved 'grandson'. He could not have been prouder of the lad after the fiasco with the Sorcerer's Stone if he had been his own grandson. And each year, Harry had made him prouder and prouder. He cursed the decision he had made to not talk alone to Harry after the toad Umbridge sent those Dementors. He thought his heart would explode when he heard the danger she had put the poor boy in. And then he didn't talk to the boy once except to tell him he had to spend Christmas at someplace he absolutely hated. His heart broke as he thought he might never get the chance to talk to the child again, to try to make amends for the shabby treatment he had given the boy this year. Both of his boys might be gone before he could tell them how he cared about them and loved them deeply. He sat lost in his thoughts as he absentmindedly stroked Fawke's feathers, the calming trill of the phoenix's song soothing his aching heart.
Breakfast the morning of the student's leaving for the Christmas holidays a week later was somber. The empty seats at the Gryffindor table and the one at the staff table were a constant reminder of their missing friends and teacher. The continued absence of Malfoy and his goons had made the rivalry between houses almost non existent, and classes were much more productive and quiet. The arrival of the Daily Prophet that morning was a glaring reminder of how insidious and sinister the spread of the Death Eaters had become.
'Minister for Magic Arrested For Being Death Eater'
was the most startling of the headlines, as was the list of ministry officials confirmed as followers of You–Know-Who. There was another exciting announcement that would have made the students much happier if their friend had been there to share the news with them.
'Madame Bones named new Minister' and 'Arthur Weasley named new Director of Magical Law Enforcement'. Ron, Ginny, and the twins accepted the congratulations of their classmates graciously, but they didn't seem to have too much enthusiasm for anything right now. They were the only four at the school who knew, besides the staff, exactly why their friend Harry and the Potion's Master were still missing. Everyone else thought the two were recovering from injuries received in the attack and would return after Christmas Holidays.
"Who would have thought we would be hoping that Snape is okay and that Harry is with him!" Ron was almost to upset to eat, but it had been ten days and he was a growing boy.
Hermoine just picked at her eggs as she answered her friend, "I always said, Dumbledore trusts him so we should too. But I know what you mean."
"Yeah, I'd even take potions classes over the holidays if it meant Harry was here." Ginny was equally as gloomy. "It's just so hard not knowing where they are and how they are doing. Do you think Dumbledore knows and is just not telling us?"
"Nah," said George, "I saw Professor McGonagall wiping a tear from her eyes before class yesterday when she thought no one was in the next class yet. And your class would have been the one just finished, so she was obviously thinking about Harry."
"It's just so hard thinking about schoolwork when we don't know where he is and how badly he's hurt. I don't think the adults are telling us everything though, they act like they are hiding something, especially Dumbledore. I have never seen him look so old and tired." Hermoine stated.
The four decided that they would have to all listen and be quiet over the holidays so that the adults might forget they were there and let something slip. They quietly finished their meal and headed back to the tower to quietly say goodbye to their classmates for the holidays. It had been settled that all the Order members who could would be staying at Hogwarts for the holidays. The ministry was in too much turmoil at the present time to renew the wards. It was decided that everyone should be available at a moment's notice in case they were needed. Hopefully for a rescue!