Chapter 26: Take a Walk on the Dark Side

"Albus, I've finished the Locatus potion." Severus Snape walked into the Headmaster's office, and set down a crystal decanter filled with a deep purple liquid. "Just pour four drops of it on the map, and it will tell you where Lupin has hidden himself away."

"Well done, Severus," Dumbledore replied, "however, it is not necessary anymore. I know where Remus is, and our elusive Shadow Masters as well." Dumbledore handed a piece of parchment to Snape. "I just received a very urgent owl from Delores Umbridge about the prison on Azkaban. It was attacked tonight by a force of unknown numbers. The Aurors all escaped, but said that a force of nearly two hundred attacked them, and forced them to retreat. It would appear that the Imperial Dragon Circle has taken Azkaban for use as a base of operations."

"When do they intend to take it back, Headmaster?" Snape asked quickly. "If it's soon enough, Potter may not have time to organize his troops into a proper defensive force. The Aurors can overpower them easily with our help, and we can subdue Potter long enough to get him under control."

"That sounds good in theory Severus, but the Aurors Department has already tried to send an entire Battalion of Hit Wizards to re-take the prison. The island has new anti-apparition wards already, so they couldn't apparate there directly, and when they tried to Portkey, they wound up in the middle of the Devil's Triangle, where magical transportation is impossibly unpredictable. They haven't yet returned." Dumbledore sighed. "I tried my own, specially designed Portkey, and it ended up nearly in the same place as the Hit Wizards. I have an idea that may work, but the way is slightly dangerous. I'm loathe to try it without being certain that it will work."

"Can't we just use the boats?" Snape asked. "Sure, the Aurors will take some casualties, but surely they would make the beach?"

"If only it were that simple, Severus. I have new information from my contacts in the Ministry that it was not a force of two hundred that drove them out of Azkaban, but a force of two." Snape's eyes went wide, but Dumbledore wasn't finished. "According to several of the more experienced Aurors stationed on the island, their attackers were never more than a pair of expert fighters, who never used their wands. I have reason to believe that this means that Harry and Hermione use the shadowy prison to their ultimate advantage, and moved with such speed that they were able to force a retreat by more than one hundred Aurors, and they didn't kill a single one of them."

"But that should make our job easier." Snape said. "If there are only two demons and one werewolf, then it should be easy to make the beach with an overwhelming force."

"You still don't understand the power that those two are capable of wielding, do you Severus?" Dumbledore sighed. "They cast new anti-apparition wards, obliterating the old ones at the same time. They cast an anti-portkey ward, which normally takes ten or more powerful wizards to cast, and somehow or another, they have forced the tides around Azkaban to reverse themselves, so that all water seems to move away from the island." Dumbledore felt very old at that moment. "They seem to have thought of everything."

"Not everything, Headmaster. After all, you said that you might have found a way to circumvent the wards, correct?" Snape said, with his faith placed firmly behind the Headmaster.

"I may have, but as I said before, it is untested, and very dangerous."

"We just have to hope it works, then." Snape said, defying his Slytherin self-preservation instincts. "The ritual preparations are complete, and everyone is ready to go ahead with the ritual. If we wait any longer, we might miss the opportunity."

"You are correct, Severus. I will make the preparations immediately. I have to speak with Minerva for a moment." Dumbledore said. "I'll need her to look after the school for a while. This ritual, if it works properly, will most likely put me out of commission for a few days."

It took nearly a full day of preparations to make the extremely specialized portkey, and nearly another full day of practicing the ritual before Dumbledore finally decided that they were truly ready to take control of Harry Potter.

Harry was sitting in his office, finishing the last of the paper work he had before the Graduation ceremony when it happened. For the first time ever, the small tinkling of bells sounded throughout his office.

'It only took them twelve years to figure it out.' Harry thought. 'I must say that I'm impressed.'

Mentally, Harry reached out to identify just who it was that had somehow gained access to Azkaban Island without his invitation. Locking on to thirteen energy signatures, he was surprised when he recognized the leader. 'So, Albus is finally ready to move against me. Can't say I'm surprised, but I thought he'd have made this move sooner.' Harry stood from his desk, and began to make preparations to greet his guests.

Albus landed on the beach head of Azkaban, and was greeted with the imposing visage of Azkaban prison, now serving as the Headquarters of the Imperial Dragon Circle. The group slowly made their way through the rocky lowland, and entered through the gates of Azkaban.

The Group found themselves in a room of unfathomable dimensions. That wasn't to say that the room was overly large, only that no one could tell how large the room was. It was absolutely dark in the room, without any lights to speak of. Albus raised his wand, intent on giving the room some light, when the room illuminated a walkway straight into the darkness. At the end of the small walkway, was a raised platform, and on that platform was a smiling Harry Potter.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, I'd like to present Albus Dumbledore, the greatest wizard to ever fight the darkness!" Harry said to the seemingly empty hall. Dumbledore found it hard not to chuckle, even though he knew the danger he was in right now. Professor Snape had always accused Harry of 'grandstanding,' and that was exactly what he was doing. It was sort of a joke to Harry, apparently, this playing to the crowd. Professor Snape had always done it, trying to show that Harry was nothing special. He always played to the crowd of Order members. Harry normally took it well, and often beat Severus at the game now, but there were still the odd malicious attacks against Harry from the dark Professor. Albus didn't agree with Severus on attacking Harry, but since he had such an important role to play, Severus was never disciplined for his attacks, no matter how malicious they had been. Besides, the little bouts had taught Harry some very important lessons about fighting dark wizards. Lessons better taught by the potions professor that wouldn't seriously injure the boy, than by a Death Eater.

Professor Dumbledore readied himself for a very difficult fight, and walked towards where Harry was standing. The Order members that he'd brought with him stayed close behind him, both supporting their leader and hoping they could hide behind him when the fighting started.

"You've been gone a very long time, Professor." Harry said. There were some murmurs of confusion behind the aged Headmaster, but neither he nor Harry paid them any mind. Harry continued. "Twelve full years without so much as a letter, and now, just as the world begins to recover, you come back?" The contingent of twelve behind the Headmaster gave a shout of surprise. Harry's eyes lit up with a strange mixture of pleasure and understanding, and a small amount of condescending malice. "You didn't know that you've been missing for exactly twelve years today? Albus, you've been keeping secrets again, haven't you? When will you learn that dark magic is never a good way of traveling, especially when you're with a group of people who are not in on your little games?"

Professor Snape, ever the adversarial type, was quick to jump to the Headmaster's defense. "What are you on about now, Potter?' He sneered. "You know very well that the Headmaster would never use the dark arts."

Harry scowled, and waved his hand. Professor Snape immediately doubled over as if he'd been punched in the stomach. "Put a lead on your dog, Albus, before it gets bitten." Abruptly, Harry changed his demeanor, adopting a lecturing posture that was so much like Professor McGonagall's that for a wild moment Dumbledore thought that she'd given him lessons. "It seems that all of you are very surprised to find out that you've been missing for twelve years, even Professor Dumbledore is at a loss. That makes figuring out what happened altogether too obvious. The Ministry failed to break my wards, and found out that portkeys don't work, and the ferry wasn't an option anymore. So, rather than try the obvious solution, and send me an owl asking to visit, you attempted a far more dangerous stunt. With no other viable way to bring twelve wizards with you, you made a temporal portkey. The portkey was most likely designed to portkey you to Azkaban just before the wards went up, and then push you forward in time to the present. Very clever of you," Harry chuckled a bit, "but ultimately foolish. Temporal portkeys are class four dark arts, and carry a twenty year prison term for even attempting to create one."

Alastor Moody was properly appalled, but needed confirmation. "Is this true, Albus?" He asked. "Did you create a temporal portkey?"

Albus looked disappointed that he'd been caught, but seemed unrepentant that he'd actually committed a crime. "I did. I could find no other way around the wards, and it seemed necessary." Albus let a small bit of his frustration show. "I am, however, unsure as to why the Portkey didn't function correctly. The spell work was perfect. I made sure of that."

"I can explain that." A new voice stated. Hermione Granger joined Harry on the raised platform. "The reason that temporal portkeys are considered dark arts is really very simple. A regular portkey will take you to a destination, which is not dark or light. Temporal portkeys transport you to a different time as well as location, so there is a level of intent that has to be expressed in the spell. In the case of traveling forward in time, the emotions that are used are desire, and fear. Since you went back in time first, to get around our wards, the portkey used the emotions of your group to determine where to deposit you in the future. Your group of followers there must have been feeling quite fearful of how powerful we could be, so the portkey chose to spit you out in a time where we were at our most powerful."

"And now you're here. If it were anyone else, I'd ask you why you were here, but I've already got a pretty good idea of why you've traveled through time and space to see me." Harry said. He smiled sarcastically. "After all, if you wanted to see me that badly, you could have sent Fawkes. So, before you begin whatever ritual you came here to perform, I have to make a call.

A walkway lit up to guide Harry's path, and Dumbledore opened his senses to get a feel for the room. The darkness was absolute except where they stood, and Albus only got a vague sense that the room was close to the right size for the ritual. When he opened his senses, Albus hoped to get a sense of the kind of power he was dealing with, but the demons had blocked him from sensing them, just as they had done before.

The lights finally illuminated a large mirror…in the corner of the room. Dumbledore quickly did the calculations in his head. Assuming that the room was uniform, the room was perfect for the ritual, down to the last quarter inch. Harry stepped in front of the mirror, and spoke two words that sent Albus reeling. "Hogwarts Headmistress." The mirror clouded over, and then showed a crystal clear image of Albus' former office. "Minerva, are you available? I have news."

The stern visage of Minerva McGonagall graced the mirror. "Harry! I haven't spoken to you for almost a month. Been busy? I want to thank you again for sending us Professor Stalkington. He's very competent at his job. I don't think we've ever had such a good Defense against the Dark Arts Professor." Minerva paused, unsure whether she really wanted to know the answer to her next question. "Has there been any word from Albus?"

Harry smiled sadly. "Yes Minerva, there has. As a matter of fact, this is very late breaking news, as of five minutes ago. I can't decide whether it's good or bad news, though." Harry shook his head. "I found him, Minerva, and all twelve of the people that went with him. They're all alive, and that's the good news."

"And the bad?" Minerva asked, although it looked quite a bit like she didn't want to know.

"Minerva, Albus tried to use a temporal portkey to bypass my wards twelve years ago. Something went wrong on the trip, and he appeared on my island about ten minutes ago." Harry said. He didn't sound happy at all. "And the twelve others are here also."

Minerva's face paled, and her eyes got wide. "You mean he…" She let the sentence trail off, not wanting to verbalize the predicament. Harry nodded. "May I come to see him before you call the Ministry? He is one of my oldest friends, and I don't want to have to see him for the first time in twelve years while he's behind bars at the enclave."

"Of course you can see him, Minerva. I know that it made me happy to see him again, and I know he was your friend too." Harry shook his head again, as if he was trying to jar something loose. "I know I should, Minerva, but I'm not sure I can call the Ministry to have him arrested."

The next words out of Minerva McGonagall's mouth would forever etch themselves into Albus Dumbledore's brain. "Nonsense, Harry. No matter how you feel about him, or the Ministry, you have to notify the proper authorities. If you just ignore the law, you set a bad precedent for your students."

"You're right of course. Oh well, I'll do it later tonight. Right now, Albus has some kind of ritual that he wants to show me. It must be important, or he wouldn't have traveled so far to do it. Give me about two hours; the password is 'Victorious.' I look forward to seeing you again Minerva. Will you be staying for dinner?" Harry asked.

"Of course I am, Harry. I'll see you in two hours." Minerva made to close the connection, but paused for a final dig into the old Headmaster. "And Harry? Try not to laugh too hard when Albus fails in his ritual. He's getting old, and his ego is probably fragile." Then the connection closed.

Albus didn't understand the dynamic between his former colleague and the demon. Minerva knew what the boy was, and was very frightened of the demon. When she had found out that the demon was Harry, she became less afraid, but didn't like the talk about it. Even so, she had been quite vocally against the ritual. She knew what he intended to do to Harry, and yet she hadn't warned the boy what was about to happen. Albus thought maybe she'd forgotten, but then suspected that Harry might have an inkling of what was going on. He realized that he was in a very precarious position, but couldn't turn back now.

Harry made his way back to the raised platform, and stood still. "Well, Minerva will be here in two hours. I hope your ritual doesn't take that long, Albus. Just in case it takes a while, you'd better get started."

Albus chose not to respond, and gave the signal for the rest of the group to begin the ritual. The twelve Order wizards spread out in a circle around Dumbledore, and began to chant in unison. A bright yellow aura began to coalesce around him. The chanting continued, and the aura became bright. Harry looked on, something akin to amusement dancing behind his eyes. When Albus decided that the yellow was the right color, he began a very long string of words in a tongue that was unfamiliar to the wizards present. As Harry watched the ritual, a deep blue haze began to form around him. Dumbledore's wand made a circle in the air, and a glowing yellow tube materialized in the aura. With a flick of his wand, Dumbledore sent the bright yellow tube straight into the blue haze, where it wrapped around one of Harry's wrists. He looked down at it for a moment, then back up at the aged wizard, just in time to watch him repeat the process with the other wrist.

Dumbledore continued to chant, and the blue haze formed a murky cloud, obscuring Harry for a moment. Dumbledore finished his ritual with a shouted word, and the blue cloud of magic rushed into Harry's body. Dumbledore staggered back, and then stood straight again. The ritual had taken a good deal of power, but not as much as he had planned for.

Harry still stood there, an amused look on his face. Hermione just smirked a little, and walked over to admire Dumbledore's handiwork. Harry was now sporting a pair of green manacles, attached together by a dark blue chain.

Harry's amused look suddenly changed to a much more vicious grin, and Dumbledore got the feeling that he'd overlooked something. "Well done, Albus, very nicely pronounced Draconian Druidic, by the way. You have almost finished the ritual." Albus paled slightly, as the book hadn't detailed any more of the ritual. "Don't worry about the rest, though. It's much easier than pronouncing all of those words. Just pick which one it will be, and I'll do the rest."

"Which one…?" Dumbledore let the question remain unasked. He had a very good idea what was required to finish the spell, but didn't want to say it out loud. He would much rather that the words come from the demon's mouth.

Harry's smirked cruelly. "Come now, Albus. You have been studying ritual magic for well over one hundred years now. You can't possibly be naïve enough to believe that you can finish a ritual of this magnitude without an offering." Albus paled further, but didn't comment. Harry sighed theatrically. "You honestly think it will be easier on your followers if I say it?" Harry chuckled. "Fine. In order to complete this ritual, you must present me with a sacrifice. Ritual magic is all about give and take. You can't take until you give, so pick which one you want to sacrifice."

Albus Dumbledore was always the level headed one, but he was quite floored by what was being laid before him. He hadn't even thought about the possibility of a sacrifice before coming, and wasn't prepared to make one. Grasping at the smallest straw, and hoping to eliminate the only way for Harry to escape the ritual, he pointed at…Hermione.

Harry's eyes closed in grief, but opened angrier than an insulted Hippogriff. He stalked forward. "Hermione isn't included in this little game of yours, Dumbledore. She didn't chant in your circle, and therefore isn't up for sacrificing. If you had bothered to research the Ariatic chant that your circle used, you would know that they gave their lives and magic to you, to do with as you wished. That chant was phrased to become a magically binding contract, so you can offer one of them to me without fear of any legal repercussions. Their lives belong to you, so choose one to give to me." Harry was nose to nose with Dumbledore, and then struck. Faster than anyone could see, Harry had grabbed the aged wizard by the throat, and lifted him into the air. Harry leaned in close, ignoring the spells that splashed harmlessly across his cloak, as he whispered to Dumbledore, "and if you ever even think about harming Hermione again, it will be the last thing that you ever do. Are we clear?" He didn't wait for an answer, and released Dumbledore's neck, and walked back to his platform, ignoring the spells that continued to be absorbed by his powerful cloak.

Seeing Harry's back was turned, Severus Snape finally had the courage to yell the killing curse. "Avada Kedavra!" He shouted, pouring all of his hate for the boy into the spell. The curse sped through the air with unnatural speed, and struck Harry between the shoulder blades.

Snape had seen the viewing marble with the rest of the Order, but wasn't prepared to see that his curse did nothing. For all the apparent effect of Snape's strongest killing curse, he might as well have been aiming a green flashlight at the demon.

Harry chose to ignore the attempt on his life, and regarded Dumbledore through calculating eyes. "You're beginning to try my patience, Dumbledore. Make your choice, and end the ritual."

Dumbledore's eyes shut in pain. He had to sacrifice one of his followers for the ritual, which he hadn't planned on. His mind was whirling with thoughts as he tried to come to a decision. Obviously, Harry was far too powerful to be allowed to continue free of control. Dumbledore had apparently already allowed him twelve years of freedom, and shuddered to think of what the world had come to. The ritual would bring Harry under the Order's control, and Dumbledore knew that Severus Snape would take constant advantage of his ability to give Harry direct orders, even orders that could hurt him. Dumbledore couldn't allow that. Severus had also used an unforgivable curse less than a minute earlier, guaranteeing him a life sentence in prison once this ritual was completed. And finally, Dumbledore realized that since Voldemort was gone, and Severus was no longer tied to the dark arts, he was no longer useful to the Order of the Phoenix, except maybe as…Dumbledore knew who he had to choose. "I choose him." He said simply, pointing his finger at Snape. He couldn't bring himself to say the name out loud, and hoped that the demon didn't make him.

"Not concerned about sacrificing my wife, but can't stomach sacrificing another wizard, eh?" Harry sneered. "That's alright, Albus. I wouldn't expect you to be any better than a regular wizard bigot." Dumbledore sputtered angrily, but Harry ignored him, and addressed the darkness. "What you have just witnessed is called a symbiotic ritual. It allows one spell caster to use the magical essences of several other spell casters to enforce the spells that the wizard wishes to cast. These are very powerful rituals, and should be used with extreme caution, as well as avoided when encountered." Harry turned to the other side of the platform, and continued. "I would normally avoid such a ritual, since it can actually pass through my shields, but I wanted to teach you all a moral lesson as well. You see here how a series of decisions, based on the idea of doing good work, can actually force someone to become a dark wizard? Most people wouldn't see their own transformation, but I'll bet if Albus looks at it, he can see what I mean."

The lights came up in the room, and Albus found himself in a very large hall, complete with more than one thousand students, at least twice the population of Hogwarts. His thoughts caused his head to jerk towards Harry, just in time to watch the magical manacles drop to the floor and turn to dust. "I don't understand…" He said.

It was Hermione who shed some light on Dumbledore's confusion. "Well, we fooled you." She smirked. Harry stepped back, and allowed Hermione to take the foreground. This was her idea, put in place almost thirteen years earlier. "When we awakened as Shadow Masters, we were given knowledge about our species that no other being on this plane possessed, except for the one wizard who had summoned the demons before Voldemort. One thousand years ago, that man wrote down all the information that his research into the demons had yielded, and placed the scrolls in the Hogwarts library."

"I've read Slytherin's manuscripts on the Shadow Master demons." Dumbledore defended. "That's where I found the ritual that we used today. I found most of his work brilliant, but his information on the demons was very incomplete." Albus pointedly ignored the betrayed stare that he could feel from his potions master.

"There's a very good reason for that, Albus Dumbledore." Hermione said. "You were looking at the wrong manuscripts. It was Godric Gryffindor that summoned the first set of Shadow Masters, not Salazar Slytherin." Hermione actually giggled at the gobsmacked look on Dumbledore's face. "Why did you think he carried a sword? He sacrificed his magic to summon the demons, and had to defend himself the muggle way for several years."

"And suddenly, everything pops into focus, doesn't it, Albus?" Harry said. "I knew that once you identified what it was that you were facing, you would try and figure out everything about us. I began plans to remove the information from Godric's manuscripts, but Hermione didn't want the information lost from everyone. Hermione also made me realize that once you found out our identities, you would stop at nothing to control us, using some type of binding." Dumbledore's face showed shock that he could be that easily read. He prided himself as being at least a little unpredictable. "So, a little before Halloween of that first year, Hermione and I added several pages to the Slytherin manuscripts. See, I knew that the defender of light would naturally suspect an alleged dark wizard of summoning the demons, not even considering that it might have been another champion of light. Hermione even designed the fake ritual that you used. In her words, you would rather cut corners and use another wizard's work than spend the time to create your own."

"But…" Dumbledore tried to interrupt, but Harry pushed on, enjoying the moment.

"And since there was no sacrifice mentioned in the text, you somehow assumed that there wouldn't be one. I find that funny, since you have intimate knowledge that every ritual must involve some sort of sacrifice, including the wards that you set up at my family's house. Oh, before I forget, I must commend you on those wards. They protected me splendidly, although I do not appreciate my own magic being used to reinforce them. Next time you need a sacrifice, you should probably make it using your own assets, not someone else's. Apparently, you needed that lesson again today, Albus." Harry sneered. "You made a sacrifice that you didn't really have a right to make, and ended up betraying your own Order. I really must offer my congratulations. After over one hundred years of service to the light, you finally descended into the realm of the Dark Wizard."

Dumbledore wanted to rage, yell, make Harry stop saying these horrible things, but found himself unable to do so. His mind, even though he very much wanted to reject the idea, realized that Harry had spoken the truth. He had traveled through time, breaking a law that he himself had worked to pass. He performed a symbiotic ritual, a ritual designed to overpower and subjugate an unwilling subject, making it a class five dark spell, just like the Imperious Curse. On top of that, he had placed the ritual's possible gains over the life of his potions master, and named him as a sacrifice without his consent, even though he had sworn to protect him. "What have I done…?" Albus whispered, pain laced through his voice.

Harry addressed the class, again. "You see how he just now realizes how wrong his actions were. I have no hate for Albus Dumbledore, let me assure you. Albus has been following his own counsel for a very long time now. So long, in fact, that he doesn't often share his plans with others, assuming that they either won't understand, or won't agree. This is a small failing that I also share, although my wife is often my voice of reason, making sure I don't do stupid things. Albus did not share the plans for getting to my island with others, nor did he detail to these other witches and wizards all that he knew about rituals. Had he done so, we would be in a very different situation right now. Had the other's known what the ritual might require in return, they may have come with a willing sacrifice, making the ritual easily twenty times as effective. Had Albus informed them of his intent to travel through time, these twelve would have undoubtedly stopped him from the attempt, which would mean that these thirteen were not missing for twelve years."

"Your assignment for next week is an essay." There were groans all around, and many students got quills ready to take down the assignment. "I want three feet of parchment detailing a ritual of your choosing, and ways of defending against it. You may not use this ritual for your homework, since it wasn't real. Class dismissed." The students began to pack their stuff and head out of the hall. Harry's voice stopped them. "Senior classes, please stay here for your practical dueling class." Harry smiled. "Any one who has a free period is also welcome to stay." Harry turned the group of thirteen wizards. "We have a once in a lifetime opportunity standing here, and I don't intend to waste it."

Albus couldn't help but get nervous at the look that Harry sent him.