HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYBODY!
Chapter Four
One of the most difficult things about life is one's regrets. Something will happen, and if you don't do the right thing, for years afterward you will wish you had done something different. For instance, when I stroll along the streets of Hogsmeade or visit the grave of a friend, I remember when I didn't bring wolfsbane to a place where I should have brought some, and the results were horrifying. "Why didn't I bring some wolfsbane?" I asked myself, even though it is now too late to do anything.
For years after this moment in the Potters' lives, Harry thought of this moment when he recognized that Nicholai was actually Lord Voldemort, and was filled with regret that he didn't stun him on the spot. He would lie awake in bed, thinking, "If I had stunned him on the spot, I would have saved a life."
Lord Voldemort smiled the way a termite would smile at three delicious wooden houses if it had had the correct mouth muscles. "Hey, orphans! One of you can carry my suitcase downstairs to my room." He snarled. "That ride along stinky street was, well, stinky. And I hate Muggle taxis.
"You certainly deserved to be squished into a taxi." Hermione said, glaring at him. "We're not letting you into this house, so go away!"
Lord Voldemort frowned and said, "Why you imbecilic… uh, I mean…" he tried to look innocently confused. "Who's this Lord Voldemort guy? I am Nicholai, Hagrid's new assistant."
"You are too Voldemort-" Ron began.
"That's Lord Voldemort to you!" Lord Voldemort interrupted. "And, anyway, that's not my name!"
"Just because you grew a beard, dyed it, and then shaved off your one eyebrow doesn't mean that you're not Lord Voldemort." Harry protested.
"You are acting very rude." Lord Voldemort said slowly and clearly. "And children should not act rude. If I was this Lord Voldemort person, I would get very angry. And then I might do something rude in return." His hands had strayed to a pocket in his brown, tasteless suit, and the children could see they were fingering something long and pointy.
The Potters looked at each other and knew that Lord Voldemort could be very violent when he got mad. So Harry took out his wand, said an incantation, and the suitcase was lifted into the air. Lord Voldemort followed Ron, who followed Hermione who came after Harry who was behind the floating suitcase. They all walked down the stairs, entered a hallway, went to an empty bedroom and Harry dropped the suitcase.
"Now, run along orphans." Lord Voldemort snorted. "I'm a very busy man. We can become acquainted later. Acquainted means-"
"We know what the word means." Hermione said shortly. "And I don't think we want to become acquainted to you, Voldemort."
"Still as stubborn as ever, you silly girl. What's your name again? Something weird like Hemonie? And Harry is still a Quidditch freak. So much like his idiot father. Except he has his mother's ugly weed-green eyes. And little Ronnikins still only has one ear."
"Are you blind?" Ron asked. "I have two ears!"
"Are you sure?" Lord Voldemort sneered. "I thought that a wizard got so confused from being repeatedly called by the wrong name that he bewitched your ear off with his wand and transplanted it onto a cactus." The horrible man pulled out a long, skinny wand from his pocket.
Hermione shivered and Harry's hand went immediately to his own wand.
"You wouldn't." Ron said.
"Let's not discuss what I would or wouldn't do." He laughed. "Let's talk about what my name is. Harry, what's my name?"
Harry glared at him and didn't answer.
"Imperio!" Voldemort cried, hitting Harry with the curse. A happy feeling came over Harry and he smiled. "Tell me what my name is!" Voldemort demanded.
"Your name is Nicholai." Harry said.
"Good." Nicholai smiled. "I hope you'll remember this little lesson in respect. Go away now."
The Potters left the room and ran to the Dragon Dungeon. They were terrified. Harry laid his head down on the table covered in his polished broomsticks and tried to not look like he was about to cry. Hermione sank to the floor beside her cleaned cages and stared up at the ceiling. Ron curled up in a ball on one of the sofas and began shivering and sneezing. For several moments all was quiet and the only thing that could be heard was Nicolai shuffling around in his room.
"How did he find us out?" Harry asked.
"He vowed that he'd get our fortune." Hermione said. "That's the last thing he yelled to us, remember?"
"What do we do?" Ron cried. "We're going to DIE!!"
"Be quiet!" Harry shouted at him, looking very pale. "We are not going to DIE! We're going to solve this problem. We're going to figure out his plan, and we're going to foil it. Like Hermione did last time." He smiled at his sister and she smiled back.
"But let's just tell Mister Fudge!" Hermione suggested.
"Him?!" Ron asked. "That sneezing buffoon?! He's no help!"
"He'll just say we've got an over-active imagination." Harry said.
"Should we run away?" Ron asked.
"I second the motion." Hermione said. "We can get jobs or something. Maybe someone in Diagon alley or Hogsmeade would hire us. Once Harry's 18, we'll get all the galleons from Gringotts."
"I really think running away is a bad idea." Harry said.
"I still think we're all going to die!" Ron shivered.
"We'll put it to a vote." Harry said. "Who's for telling Mister Fudge?"
Hermione raised her hand resolutely in the air.
"Who's for running away?"
Ron raised his hand. "We're going to die anyway." He said, "But we might as well die away from here."
"And I'm for staying here and figuring out his plans." Harry said. "We simply can't leave. His assistants will just track us down. We have to defeat him!"
Lord Voldemort had gruesome assistants. There was a man with long blond hair and cold, hard eyes. The man talked in a slow drawl. The children referred to him as the Blonde. Another man was short and balding with watery eyes and a rodent-shaped face. The Potters' name for him was Rodent-face. There were also two large, fat men with rippling muscle. They were called the Gorillas.
"And my vote counts triple." Harry said. "So I win. We're staying here."
"Can we at least try to warn Uncle Hagrid?" Hermione asked.
"Sure! That's a great idea! He'll definitely believe us!" Harry cried. "We'll wait for him."
"We wait." Hermione agreed.
"I hate waiting." Ron moaned.
Waiting is a very difficult thing sometimes. For example, waiting for Christmas when it's still July is very hard. It's also tedious to wait for a Quidditch match if you still have a double potions session ahead of you. But to wait for one's adopted uncle to come home while a greedy and violent man is upstairs was one of the worst waits the Potters had ever experienced. They tried to work to get their minds off their troubles, but it didn't work. Harry kept thinking about Voldemort's sneer when he was putting a fireproof spell on the broomstick. Hermione tried to get her mind off Voldemort's one eyebrow as she strengthened the bars of a cage with a good spell. Ron's mind wandered as he was reading, "To Stun a Dragon" by Newt Scamander to thoughts of Lord Voldemort's horrible skull tattoo.
Finally the children heard the noise of something banging loudly upstairs and then they heard someone cough.
"Hagrid!' They cried, and ran upstairs. There they found Hagrid, covered in soot and stepping out of the fireplace.
"Lousy Floo powder." He smiled at the kids. They smiled back, and this instant created another moment of regret for them. Years after, Hermione would look back and wish she had told Hagrid immediately about their trouble with Nicholai. But instead, she smiled and let Hagrid talk to them.
"I got the Romania slug repellent, the Bertie Botts beans and the fire-proof coats. I hope I got comfortable coats. Hermione, d'ye like the color pink?" He held up a pink coat with purple flowers on it. Hermione winced.
"Looks great." Nicholai said, as he stepped into the room.
"Uncle Hagrid." Hermione said, "We have something important to tell you."
"Shoot." Hagrid said. "I'm all ears. But don't you want to see the slug repellent? I'm glad Hermione knows so much about slugs. I almost got the wrong one. If you hadn't told me-"
"We've really got to tell you something." Ron interrupted.
"Ron!" Hagrid cried, sounding surprised. "Don't interrupt. It's bad manners."
"Well, what we wanted to say was-" Hermione began, then she looked at Nicholai. He had his wand out and was holding it right behind Harry's back. Hermione looked from Nicholai to Harry to Hagrid. Harry looked from Hermione to Hagrid. Then he twisted his hand and saw Nicholai. Ron looked at everybody and Nicolai was focused on Hermione. Hagrid wasn't paying any attention. He was just rambling about his slug repellent.
Hermione knew she couldn't continue with her sentence if she wanted to continue to see her brother alive. She sighed and shut her mouth.
Without saying a thing, Nicholai had shown that he wasn't about to let the children get away so easily.
REVIEWERS
Queenofinsanity- Yeah, I was definitely thinking about making Bella Esme. Yeah, Alania and I are really slow with our Trekkie story. But we'll try to work more and post it. We've written it already. We're just soooo lazy. And busy with doing nothing.
Elvengirl9- I read The Grim Grotto! Be happy! I'll work on my Reese's story. GG was really good, but no I'm soooo sick of the water cycle! I doubt you'll see TONS of updates. Maybe one. I'm laaaaazzzzzzzE.
Super Shayde- I'm glad you like it. Hee hee. I love putting people in suspense. Muahahaha!!!
ERMonkey, Burner of Cookies- MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS! Presents! Hee hee. Fun!
Arkady Jeanette Phoenix- Interesting long name. I like it. Yes, I did write the story about the Peanut Butter Room. Merry CHRISTMAS!!! Oh yes, I read GG. Now I don't like the water cycle! Grrrrrr.
Visualpurple- Hey S! We need to get together again sometime. It was such fun! Today is the day that we're watching all the LOTR trilogy. It's 2 in the afternoon and we've watched the first one already. Happy New Year!
Iyrasquill- HP and ASOUE are my favorite series too, except I also LOVE The Lord of the Rings! LOVE LOVE LOVE!! I hate it how they messed up the Norbert thingy too. Thanks for reviewing!
Ignotus- Veritas- I read GG! YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! Now I want the next book! Now Now Now!
Thereaper- Who's going to be the next relative? It's a secret. Hee hee. You'll never know unless you read them.
Bright Blue Cereal Bowls- I like your random pen name. Yup, I'll be writing fanfics on every book in the series. Thanks for reviewing.
Star Wars nut- Now I have a copy of GG and I read it! Muahahahaha!
Munch010- I love HP too! Fun fun! In a lot of the posters, Harry's eyes are green though. It's weird. I guess they edited them. I want to just stick colored contacts in Harry's eyes.
Alyssa- Yup. It's Lemony Snicket but I decided to twist Harry potter in because they're both my most favorite series. Except for LOTR and a couple of other really good series. Anyway, I'm glad you like it!
Mimers93- Woah! Calm down! Don't die! Since you demanded more, here it is!
READ AND REVIEW!!!