Disclaimer: I (unfortunately) have not created the characters or places in the Harry Potter Universe. I might introduce some new ones for this fanfiction, but I am writing strictly on a no-profit bases and am not attempting to steal JK's well-earned fame or money.
Harry Potter and The Scary Magical Whatever
by Max Link
Chapter 1: The Worst Summer
It was a beautiful, sunny day, and Summer had reached its peak. All the flowerbeds of Privet drive were, thanks to the loving care of their owners, in full bloom, the hedges trimmed to perfection and the lawns looking as neat as patches of green carpet.
Watching this scene from his first-floor-bedroom window was a dark-haired, bespectacled teenager who, though gazing intently up and down the street did not seem pleased at all.
How was it, they boy called Harry Potter wondered, that, although the dark wizard Voldemort had been back to power for two years now and the Muggle authorities had known about the reasons for the increasing number of mysterious accidents and killings for one year, all still seemed so peaceful and calm?
Had not, just two weeks ago, the treachery of one Draco Malfoy – Harry felt a surge of hatred at the mere thought of that name – and the actions of Severus Snape, a man most trusted by Albus Dumbledore, leader of the resistance and the Order of the Phoenix lead to the death of that very Albus Dumbledore?
And still, the Muggles weren't troubled... Until now, that was. For suddenly, there were several loud „POP"s and about a dozen figures in dark robes materialized out of thin air all over the front yard, sending Muggles running into their houses for safety – judging by the „POP"s from behind him and the scream from the kitchen downstairs, Harry figured that they had come to the garden as well.
He immediately ducked away from the windowsill and pulled his wand out of his belt, preparing for a fight. He heard muffled shouting and screaming from downstairs, several loud bangs, repeatedly, the shout „Stupefy!" and then... Footsteps, coming up the stairs. Taking cover behind his bed, he watched the door intently, and, as it flew open with a loud „BANG!" immediately screamed „Stupefy!" and fired a flash of red light into the doorway.
A tall, black wizard fell, slowly, forward into the room, a wizard who looked familiar to Harry... „Hold your fire!" - „What? Oh my...! Kingsley?" Harry stuttered and lowered his wand. The figure who had appeared in the doorway after Shacklebolt however did not. Mad-Eye Moody had his wand pointing directly at Harry's face as he stepped, slowly, into the room, and snarled: „What is your Patronus's form? Answer if you are indeed Harry Potter!"
„It's a stag, as you very well know, Mr Moody!", Harry blurted out, still shocked, „We've been through this before. I mean, what do you expect, just bursting in here without a warning, of course I thought it was an attack... Enervate!", he now said, pointing his wand at Kingsley again, who immediately regained consciousness.
„I'm sorry Harry, but we didn't have much choice.", Kingsley said, getting up and rubbing his head, „We had to make sure you're safe, and we had to do it fast." „Why, what's happened?", Harry asked, horrified. He knew that the Order would have contacted him before picking him up unless the situation was really desperate. „Let's not discuss this in here. You know how to apparate?" „Yes, sure. Hogwarts again?", Harry asked. Ever since Snape had made his position clear, the Order had been having its meetings in the ancient school, as Number 12, Grimmauld Place could no longer be considered secure – after all, Snape knew it's position, even though he couldn't pass on the knowledge. He was very amazed therefor to hear Moody say, „No, back to the Blacks' house this time", but didn't object. Within two seconds, only a mass of broken china on the Dursley's kitchen floor gave evidence of the strange gathering that had just taken place in Privet Drive.
Upon arrival at Number 12, Grimmauld Place Harry immediately rounded on the member of the Order next to him, who happened to be Tonks. „Now, what the hell has...", he broke off, seeing that her eyes were full of tears. „This is not going to be easy Harry", she murmured, in a strange, hoarse whisper, very unlike her usual cheerful self, „it's just that... that..." She broke off, sobbed loudly, and turned away from Harry. „It's...", said Remus Lupin, placing a hand upon Harry's shoulder, „Well... It's Ginny, Harry." „WHAT?" Harry was to shocked to say anything else. „She went on a shopping trip with Fleur, for the wedding. Fleur returned alone, hysteric. Their two Ministry bodyguards... It was terrible. A team of Order Members of course immediately went back to Diagon Alley, but the Death Eaters seem to have taken her with them."
Harry sank down onto the nearest chair. Ginny. In the hands of the Death Eaters. In the Hands of Riddle. It could not be. Not his Ginny. He noticed that Lupin and Tonks were saying something to him, but he didn't listen.
Then he saw a group of people, huddled in a corner, and recognized the red hair of most of them. The Weasleys, of course, must feel devastated, loosing Ginny to Voldemort for the second time already, and it had been his, Harry's, fault. Had he not started his affair with Ginny, or had he at least come out of it soon enough... No, he mustn't let his thoughts carry him there. It had been Voldemort. Again. No one else was to blame.
He raised his head, looking Lupin straight in the face. The Werewolf was shocked to see hatred contorting Harry's features rather than finding his face tearful, but was immediately interrupted in his thoughts by Harry's hard voice saying, „How long has she been gone? Do we know where she is? REMUS!"
Lupin finally got a grip and answered, „Fleur returned about five Minutes before we arrived at your place, that makes it a total of fifteen Minutes. And, as I said, our squad did not find any traces in Diagon Alley so we have no Idea where they have taken her, although we must assume it's...", „...the Riddle house!", Harry finished his sentence for him. „Can we lead an Attack on the Manor? How many men are here? Come to think of it, why are we here anyway?" „Fleur", Remus explained, „could not make it any further, obviously, as she arrived here instead of by the Hogwarts Gates. It was lucky for her that there was a party of us here anyway, because our intruder charm went off about half a minute before she came." „Who triggered it?", Harry asked, eagerly, „Was it Snape, have we got him?" His loathing of his old Potions Master had been bubbling in him ever since that night on the Tower top, only waiting to boil over yet again...
„No", Lupin got his Hopes down, „we didn't get him. But it must have been Snape. He", he went on, effectively preventing an interruption by Harry, „left a note here. 'If you want to know what happened to Ms Weasley, wait here.'" „Well, it's a trap, obviously", Harry blurted out. „My thoughts exactly. But we debated for a short time and reached the conclusion that it would be best to do wait here after all, with enough men constantly on defensive positions to thwart an attack on the house, if needed, because anything else would make us lose Ginny's track completely", Remus retorted, „So, as, to answer your earlier question, we are not nearly enough people to lead an attack on Voldemort, all we can do at the moment is wait... And hope."
With that, he went over to the still crying Tonks to calm her down, leaving Harry deep in thought. What would have happened if Ginny and Fleur had been accompanied by an additional Guard of Order Members? Then again, ever since Dumbledore's death, the Order had been so unstructured that they were happy to be able to protect their new headquarters at Hogwarts... But what would have happened if he had been able to convince Dumbledore the Year before that the threat through Malfoy was real, if the Headmaster had still been alive? What would have happened if, what would have happened if, if, if...
Had it not been for the ugly Grandfather clock hanging in the Kitchen, Harry would have been unable to tell afterwards whether several minutes had passed or whether it had been several, depressed, hopeless days, but due to the regular chiming of the monstrous clock was able to tell it was a little more than three hours after his arrival at Number 12, Grimmauld Place as, suddenly, a loud, eerie shrieking noise filled the entire building, all the Order Members jumped to their feet, Wands out, and Lupin shouted at Harry: „The Intruder Charm! Take cover!"
But as the shrieking noise continued, not a single Intruder could be seen. After twenty Minutes, Remus carefully moved into the middle of the room, waved his Wand around him and shouted: „Specialis revelio!" Nothing seemed to happen, but then, slowly, a small, crystal bottle rose out of the cold ashes in the fireplace, revolving slowly and emitting a faint, greenish glow. Lupin lifted the charm, and the bottle dropped back down onto the ashes.
After performing a few more analytic charms, making sure that it was safe, Mad-Eye Moody picked the bottle up, uncorked it and gave the swirling, silver content a sniff. „Memory!", he growled, „Seems like someone'd like us to know the story. Accio Pensive!"
The heavy stone basin knocked down the door as it came rushing into the room. Harry noticed that it was marginally smaller than Dumbledore's and seemed to be made of a darker kind of stone, possibly obsidian. Moody hastily tipped the thread of silver memory into the basin, as Molly Weasley, face swollen from hours of crying, grabbed his arm and asked, anxiously: „Mad-Eye, do you think it's safe?" „Don't you want to know what's happened to your daughter?", Moody growled in reply. Molly's face immediately changed to the incarnation of motherly concern, and she simply nodded. Nearly all the Order stepped forth now, but Lupin shook his head: „I think it'd better be just the Weasleys, Harry and Mad-Eye... And Hermione, if she wants", for Hermoine, who had been sitting with the Weasleys, still stood a good way away from the Pensive, looking weary. But, in answer to Lupin's look, she moved over briskly and said, „Of course I'll come." „Good. Remus, if we're not back in, say, four hours time, destroy the Pensive", Moody commanded. Remus swallowed heavily, then nodded his agreement.
The Weasley Family, Hermione, Harry and Mad-Eye stood around the Pensive in a circle, and then, at Moody's count of three, simultaneously touched the silvery surface. Colours whirled past, the world spun and...
They were standing in the middle of Diagon Alley. Just a few meters ahead of them they could see the red hair of Ginny and Fleur's mane of silvery silk flashing through between the backs of the two broad-shouldered Ministry Bodyguards.
But suddenly, there were several loud „POP"s and six Death Eaters apparated around the four. Before they had had the time to even take aim at one of the hooded figures, each of the Aurors was hit by three red beams of light and torn into pieces by the combined power of the Reductor curses. One of the Death Eaters now screamed „Stupefy!" and they could see Ginny falling to the ground, while everything around them sank into blackness...
For a few Minutes all the Order party could see were each others faces, but then, they heard a faint „Enervate!" and suddenly, a small stone chamber emerged out of the darkness.
„I have orders to bring you to the Dark Lord", the Death Eater in front of Ginny said, and continued, smirking, „Come quietly or I might have to hurt you!"
Ginny, discovering that she no longer had her wand, bit the Death Eater in the Hand. „You Beast!", he screamed, „Crucio!"
Both Molly and Hermione cried, „No!", while the others just stood, horrified, watching Ginny wind on the floor in pain. Her torturer lifted the curse, immediately immobilized her with a „Petrificus Totalus!" and levitated her out of the cell.
The Order Members followed quickly while the Death Eater levitated Ginny through the long corridors of the Riddle Manor to stop in the very room Harry had seen three years before in a dream, the room where Frank Bryce had died.
They were all there, in their long, black robes, though without their masks as they were in a secure house: MacNair, Nott, Parkinson, Crabbe, Goyle, Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, and, Harry recognized the greasy black hair with a rush of pure loathing, Severus Snape, all gathered around two more figures: Lord Voldemort... and, becoming visible only as the figures stood aside to let the Death Eater levitate Ginny into their Midst, Draco Malfoy. He looked smugger than ever, standing among the most powerful dark wizards of Great Britain, right next to the Dark Lord himself... And yet he had been wetting his pants, the traitor, weeks ago, on that tower top, Harry thought, grimly.
At that Moment, Voldemort spoke. „You may wonder", he said in his inhuman voice, „why we have our young guest with us here today. You all know that she is Harry Potter's - ", he spat the word out with contempt, „ - girlfriend. Now, as our dear Harry managed to come out of our little Party at Hogwarts unharmed, I have thought of another means to get to him, to show him that messing with the Dark Lord is a very foolish thing to do. Harry Potter will never see his dear Ginny Weasley again!" All the surrounding Death Eaters laughed heartily, while the Order Party stared at each other in Horror. What Voldemort said next however did only increase their fear for Ginny: „Before we dispose of her, however, there is still someone here who has to be rewarded for the successful planing of Dumbledore's death. Draco, she's yours." „Thank you, Master", the blond boy replied, sneering evilly, and, to the cat-whistles of the surrounding male Death Eaters, levitated Ginny back out of the room.
Again, everyone followed the floating Ginny through long corridors, though this time, they did not go back to the cell but ended their walk after a much shorter time in a dark but richly decorated bedroom. As soon as he had placed the still stiff Ginny on the bed, Draco locked the door by magic. When he released Ginny from the body bind curse, she jumped up and tried to hit him in the face with her bare fists. He pushed her back onto the bed, laughing. „What do you want with me, Malfoy?", Ginny screamed, tears streaming down her face. „Why, I just want the two of us to have some fun, you blood traitor slut!", Malfoy sneered, „Imperio!"
Had Harry not been so angry, he'd have found the effect interesting: The entire room seemed to fade out of focus around them, leaving Malfoy highlighted, looking positively divine in the suddenly unsubstantial room. His voice, though he spoke at normal volume, seemed to boom loudly: „And now: Undress!"
All of the Order Party gasped, horrified, as Ginny did so obediently, and Ron actually rushed forward to hit Malfoy as he started touching her but fell heavily onto the stone floor as his fist rushed straight to the blond boy's head. He got back up, panting, staring in mixed hatred and disgust at the scene in front of him.
How long it went on nobody could tell. Malfoy had undressed himself now and all the Order Party could do was stare at the two on the bed, Malfoy's hands all over Ginny and, what was worse, Ginny's all over Malfoy. Due to the effects of the Imperius Curse, she seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it all.
Molly was sobbing loudly. Hermione had her face buried in Ron's shoulder as she cried, silently, but he didn't seem to notice, he just had his gaze fixed upon Malfoy's head, and Harry could tell he was picturing what he would do to that head if only he had a big sledgehammer. Mad-Eye had both eyes fixed, unblinkingly, upon the scene as well, his face a mask of pure disgust. As for Arthur, Harry had never seen him look that angry before. The looks the usually calm man gave the oblivious Malfoy would have been enough to send even his own wife running.
Harry on the other hand had kept his face completely empty of emotions. Only his eyes gave evidence of the hatred burning inside him and his pure love and pity for Ginny.
When Malfoy had finally come, he got up, put his clothes back on and produced a glass of water out of thin air into which he poured a dose of grayish powder. „Drink this!", he commanded, and, buttoning his shirt, left the room.
Ginny immediately drained the glass and fell asleep, leaving the room to fade into complete nothingness once more...
Ginny awoke back in her cell. The Order Party realised immediately that the Imperius Curse must have been lifted as everything seemed very solid indeed, and, sure enough, Ginny jumped up, sank down into the corner again at once and started sobbing loudly. „Oh, what... what have I done? Harry... Help! Mum... Dad... Haaarryyyy!", she wailed, and still, though it tore their hearts apart, there was nothing the others could do.
The cell door opened again and in came... Snape. Seeing him, Ginny wiped her tears off her face and shot at him, suddenly grim: „So what do you want? Have you come to rape me as well, you bastard?" „No such thing, Miss Weasley. In fact, I have come to help you..." „Help me? Help me? Why would you do that, you, you killed Dumbledore, you attacked Harry, you..."
„Silecio! Listen carefully – there's not much more you can do anyway. Dumbledore ordered me to kill him. He knew Malfoy had been given the task of doing it and wanted to exploit Malfoy's weakness to get me, his spy amongst the Dark Lord's ranks, back into the Dark Lord's favour. He had been suspecting me to spy for Dumbledore and what could convince him better than me actually killing Dumbledore? Now I can continue to spy, even on the inner circle, but only if you help me. I need a thread of your Memory, Miss Weasley, to send back to the Order as proof of my honesty. I can't just take it from you, you need to give it to me yourself. So, think carefully, do you want to trust me or do you want to destroy everything Dumbledore has been working for over the last few years? Be quick, they're coming to take you to your execution. So?", he concluded, lifting the silencing charm off her.
„How could I trust you? You could just as well be lying... I'll give you the memory anyway, but just to make sure that my family know what's happened to me." She raised her wand up to her temple, and as she did so the cell faded back into emptiness once more and the Weasleys, Hermione, Mad-Eye and Harry reappeared in the kitchen at Number 12, Grimmauld Place.
A/N: Thanks to my beta, TheRealBarni. And, by the way, something great happens when you click that purplish "go" button below...