Chapter Three: Escape?
"Professor?" Harry timidly asked as he neared the portrait leaning against the wall.
"Yes Harry, it is I, more or less." Dumbledore replied in a soft tone, his eyes focused solely on the young man before him.
"Why?" Harry asked his tone slightly changing.
"Why, what my boy?"
"Why did you…How the HELL could you have trusted him Professor! I always told you that he wasn't with us, everyone did! Why did you trust him so much?" Harry screamed tears beginning to well up in the corners of his eyes.
" Harry…" Dumbledore began but was interrupted by the distraught and tearful teenager.
"Look at where that trust got you! DEAD! How could you? How could you leave me alone like this? I'm so… so lost without you professor, I-I don't know what t-to do anymore…" Harry sobbed falling to his knees in front of the portrait, his right hand against it.
After a moment of silence in which Harry silently cried and Hermione helped Ron to his feet, Petunia had begun to shrink every thing in the room to fit in side a large traveling suitcase. Albus looked down at the boy and acted out the ghost of emotion his portrait was capable of feeling.
"Harry, my boy…I'm so sorry. I had never planned on leaving like this. Had Severus and I known that I was Draco's intended target we would have made some sort of arrangement too…"
"WHAT do you mean by if you had known it was YOU he was going to kill? You mean you KNEW Draco was going to kill someone?" Harry snapped interrupting the portrait of his mentor. Though before Albus could answer there was a resounding crash from the front of the apartment. It was time to go.
:"Damn, they're through, we must hurry Hermione, Ronald come over here by Harry and I." Petunia ordered the two as she had finished packing and had moved towards Harry and the portrait of Albus. Firmly gripping her suitcase, Petunia removed a ten inch thick piece of rope from her robes.
"Everyone take hold of the rope, Harry grab Albus there as well and hold him tight." The former Dursley lightly commanded as Hermione and Harry took hold of the rope, whilst Ron eyed it wearily.
"Honestly Ronald! It's only a portkey!" Hermione admonished. Deciding he wasn't moving quickly enough as they heard the Death Eaters make their way down the hall, she tightly gripped his ear.
A large explosion was heard as the door was blown inwards taking some of the wall with it as it sailed across the room.
"THEY'RE IN HERE HURRY!" one of the Death Eaters hollered back to his companions.
Not thinking his aunt would trigger the portkey in time Harry drew his wand and prepared to counter any attack. Luckily just as the closest Death Eaters let loose a barrage of hexes and curses Petunia had found the trigger and sent them spiraling through the vortex to a new location. Could she have cut it ANY closer Harry asked himself as he could fell the heat from the fire hex that had been a mere foot from his face when they had moved from their previous space. In fact Harry realized with surprise his eyebrows felt slightly singed.
'Talk about cutting it close!'
As the vortex came to sudden halt the Quartet took in their surroundings, all of them instantly recognizing where they were.
"The BURROW?" Ron bellowed with a great amount of surprise as he began to rub his stinging ear.
"What are you doing with a portkey that leads to my house? WHO ARE YOU?" He indignantly continued, slack jawed and by the look and sound of it, not really joking.
"Ronald, really? No need to be so rude." Hermione reprimanded.
"My, my what have we here?" A venomous and sickeningly familiar voice cooed from behind them.
Spinning around Harry came face to face with the last face he thought he would ever see inside these walls, and in a split-second he was filled with a murderous rage.
"Bellatrix!" He hissed as he lifted his wand and took aim the Cruciatus Curse on his lips.
"Ah- ah! You don't want to miss and hurt this pretty flower do you?" The black clad woman teased as she pulled an ungraciously bound Ginerva Weasley in front of her by the girl's throat. Only then did Harry fully take in the scene before him.
They had portkeyed in facing the fireplace in the Weasley's living room, turning they faced the opening to the kitchen and dining room. Of which Bellatrix Lestrange and a conglomerate of twelve Death Eaters stood with Ginny, Fleur and Molly and Arthur bound by ropes or spells. Fleur had a gag in her mouth. And at this point Harry became aware of the sounds emanating from upstairs, Curses, hexes and a slew of spells being thrown around likely causing massive damage the Weasley home.
'Really, how much luckier could I get.' Harry thought to himself as he got prepare and set the portrait of Albus down, who had mysteriously left the picture empty.
"Let her go now." He demanded in clipped tones as his magical aura began to swell.
"Oh, making demands now are we?" Bellatrix purred as she gripped Ginny's throat tighter and pulled the terrified girl closer. "You're not really in a position to be doing that now are you little Potter?" finishing her sentence, the female Lestange buried her face into Ginny's hair and took a deep breath. Seeing this Harry's aura snapped out a little and splintered a little wood off of the mantle above the fireplace.
Petunia taking advantage of everyone's attention and wands being directed towards her nephew, began to formulate a plan to get out of this sticky situation. Glancing around for anything that may help as well as familiarizing herself with the surroundings, she noted the exits and the formation of their opponents. How were they supposed to do this, thirteen fully trained Dark Wizards against an out of practice Sorceress and three seventh years, as well as several companions being held hostage effectively minimizing the amount of magic they could throw the Death Eaters way? Thankfully a second later her question was answered for her.
"Ahh, smells just like a pretty little girl should. I'm sure we'll be having some fun with her later on." The black tressed woman taunted as some of her comrades snickered and laughed. This statement caused even more fear to erupt across young Ginny's face as a tear slid down her cheek. Her mortified parents began to struggle, thoroughly intent on not letting that happen.
"Don't you DARE touch her Lestrange I'll kill you I swea…" Arthur began to threaten a murderous sheen wracking his features until he was put down by his captor.
"Quiet Weasly, maybe we'll have to teach you a lesson and string you up to watch what we do…" The Death Eater began after he had viciously kicked the Weasley patriarch to the ground, the rest of his sentence being snuffed out in the spectacular event that followed.
Upon arrival the first thought coursing through Harry's brain was the immediate death of all the men and women wearing black robes who had dared ever threaten his family and their home as this bunch obviously had. This thought was closely followed by a second and far more gruesome one, calling for the complete removal of all of their body parts and their slow and painful deaths, upon realizing they had taken some of the family prisoner and the rest could very well be dead or dying nearby. Upon the introduction of his beloved Ginny and her obvious mistreatment, followed by Bellatrix' suggestions, young Harry was rocked to his very core, ' HOW DARE THEY LAY THEIR FILTHY HANDS ON HER' Harry screamed in his mind as he began to thirst for their blood by the gallon. He could feel his body literally shaking with just barely controlled rage, a power bubbling beneath the surface that threatened to kill him, should he not find an outlet soon. And find an outlet he did.
Had they taken notice earlier to Harry's magical aura growing and snapping out and breaking the furniture around him, some may have thought enough to erect shields or at the very least become weary of the young man. As it stood however no one took notice, a pity.
Literally growling as he grit his teeth, Harry let loose some of the destructive force that was his magic aura, and oh how destructive it was. A lance-like stream of magical energy snapped out much like a striking whip towards three of the clustered Death Eaters who where without a human shield. As the powerful extension of magic flew forward ripping up the ground and ceiling it passed by, on a collision course of promised pain and possible death and dismemberment, several thoughts flickered through the minds of everyone present. The most prominent being
'Dear God!'
Though the only thought burning in the minds of the men who were to be the brunt of the attack was the appropriate…
'We're all going to DIE!'
The magic spike, upon reaching its target, propelled three of the Death Eaters straight back and through the kitchen to the back door at the other side f the room. Not even ceasing in their backwards movement for a second two of the three went through the backdoor and out into the garden in the back yard, the third was flatten against the wall next to the door, with such force that had Harry applied a little more it was obvious that the victimized man would have been sent straight through the wall.
The eyes of everyone in the room had followed the sad men on their tour of the kitchen and garden with outrageously shocked expressions, no one present had ever seen much less heard of someone with that much raw power. Hermione even, who had studied the use and directional control and flow of raw magic power, was under the impression herself what she had just witnessed was quite impossible. And for the first time in many years, to her great disbelief, her mind was left buzzing with no rational explanation.
Slack-jawed Bellatrix whirled back around to face the young man before her. He was literally simmering with unbridled fury and power. His magical aura was visible now, a ring of thin wisps of red and golden fire surging up and around Harry to about level with his torso, randomly snapping out and breaking or shredding the furniture and carpet around him. Lowering his head as he arched his neck and back forward he said in deep demanding tones.
"Let them go, or by God you'll beg for mercy in the end."
Despite her time spent in Azkaban, the decade in the presence of the dreaded Dementors, the many years under the heel of her brutal parents, and then the Dark Lord, Bellatrix Lestrange had never in her life known fear as she did this night.
I apologize if its not very well done i'm new to writing such long stories and im trying to get out a few chapters (5-7) by the end of this month so ive been moving as fast as i can. Well I ask that you please review and tell me what you all think and how i'm doing thanks.