AN: This is the chapter I have promised.

I AM SOOOOOO SORRY THAT THIS IS SO LATE. STUPID BT CUT OFF MY INTERNET CONNECTION! AND THE STUPID SCHOOL BANNED FANFIC.

Disclaimer: I own Damien Malfoy, the potion + ingredients, Grousten in this chapter and Harry's alter ego Alex. Voldie will explain all things about alter egos in the next chapter.

Its Just a Nightmare You Wish 14

            The Great Hall was decked out in Slytherin colours but instead of four long house tables and a staff table; there was just one huge oak table stretching from one end of the hall to the other. It's highly polished reflected Alex's pale complexion as he looked around the hall. The four stain glass windows had been removed and in their place was a larger stain glass window depicting Salazar Slytherin and his numerous achievements. Alex however thought that the central figure looked more like Lord Voldemort to be precise. The fading light was not sufficient enough to capture the colour and design of the window and Alex made a mental note to come back sometime during the next day. He turned his attention back to the table, it was bare and two long rows of high backed chairs were set along the two sides with one chair at the top of the table, which looked exactly like the others, Alex noted. Apart from the table the hall was just about empty. A slim white hand came to rest on his shoulder and Alex turned around to see his father smiling at him.

            "So, my son, do you like it?" asked the monster staring at him.

            "Of course, father," replied Alex in a very dutiful way. The man smiled again and indicated to Alex that he should take the seat at his father's right hand. He carefully lowered himself onto the royal red padding and turned to face his father. The man had also seated.

            "We will be expecting company today, my son, but normally it will just be you and I," informed the monster absent-mindedly, looking at a small piece of metal with the dark mark carved on both sides. Suddenly the eyes of the skull started to glow bright red, "Ah, they have arrived." At that instant the doors flew open and Death Eaters started to come in. Well, Alex presumed that they were Death Eaters as they didn't wear masks or dress in black. In fact there was an assortment of indigos, dark greys, and violets. Some people were even wearing blood red! The Death Eaters, Alex saw, seated themselves according to rank, the higher ones nearer the top. For a few moments none of the Death Eaters came in his direction but just before the table was filled a man with silver blond hair came and sat down next to Alex and another man with a very familiar look seated himself opposite Alex. Suddenly right after the last man was seated crystal goblets appeared in front of everyone fill with pumpkin juice. Voldemort and said, "I am glad to see that all of you have made it to our banquet in honour of my son." He raised his glass in a toast to Alex and all the Death Eaters did the same.

            "A toast to the Dark Prince!" they called out in unison and stood up in formation to drink the toast. As soon as all the glasses were emptied the food appeared. Huge plates of things that Alex liked, hated and had never seen before appeared on the table in a flash. Soon the table was groaning under the weight of so much food. Some dishes were entirely new to Alex while others he recognised from his time at Hogwarts. The Dark Lord immediately tucked in and the other Death Eaters followed his lead. Alex hastily served himself a large helping of tumush steak with fringleberry topping. Its delicious smell invaded his nostrils, making him hungrier than ever. However before he could touch his dinner, the Death Eater to the right of him stuck up a conversation.

            "Well, good evening my prince, I am Damien Malfoy," the man said and smiled a very charming smile. Alex took a good look at the man whom he was going to spend the rest of the evening with. He really was a typical Malfoy, sleek silver blond hair and those piercing grey ice. Like icicles, thought Alex as he smiled back. "I suppose you know my brother, Draco." At this Alex involuntarily looked up in surprise. He had no idea Draco had any siblings but then why shouldn't he?

            "Yes, as a matter, I do," replied Alex more curtly than he had intended. Damien continued to smile through a mouthful of redish pie. He swallowed and said,

            "I am really looking forwards to our lesson," Alex only nodded in reply, he was too busy eating now to finish the conversation so the rest of the meal proceeded with out them exchanging anymore words. The feast went on around them with conversations ranging from muggle torture to marriage. Lord Voldemort was deep in conversation with another man presumably a high-ranking Death Eater. He was a large man, although not as tall as Voldemort. He had a lose athletic build, which gave Alex the impression, that the man may have been a professional sportsman in his youth. Alex estimated him to be about 45 as he already had a few grey hairs on his temple. The Death Eater would have been quite handsome if it wasn't for the huge white scar running across his face from his left eye to below his right ear.

            "…Yes, my lord, we will do our best to achieve what you want. However, I hesitate to add this but, the rebel groups are growing stronger and they have connections, my lord," said that particular Death Eater in a pleading voice. Harry's heart gave a wild leap only to be suppressed by Alex. 

            "I know they have connections Grousten," replied Alex's father in a fairly bored voice, as if he had heard this too many times, "I want them eliminated, now. I seriously don't believe that an army of my Elite cannot destroy a few cowards hiding in caves and I'm sure you agree with me too, don't you?" at this the Death Eater's face registered an ill-disguised cringe.

            "Of course, my lord, you are right as always," stammered Grousten and hastily turned his attention back to his food. Alex observed the man for a while longer before turning back to his own plate. He realised that Harry had been rather subdued for a long time. His archenemy was certainly losing grip.

            The feast finished without anymore interesting conversations and Alex was beginning to feel quite sleepy. Unfortunately, he reminded himself, I still have to have that darn potions lesson with Malfoy. Alex hoped that Damien was nothing like his elder brother but then again, Draco had only been horrible to him because he was Harry, the stupid Gryffindor. Voldemort clapped his hands just like Dumbledore used to and the plates clear regardless of whether their users had finished or not.

            "The feast my Elite has come to an end. I bid you all farewell and goodnight," announced Voldemort and he beckoned for Alex and Damien to leave with him. Alex scraped his chair back as noiselessly as possible and quickly followed his father out of the Great Hall.

            The potions lab was in the same dungeon as Harry had once had potions in but now it was barely recognisable. Alex saw that all the work benches had been removed and a new set of mahogany work benches, with shelves on top of them, were set along the four walls, leaving a vast empty square. In the middle of the grey flagstones was a permanent, round fireplace. It was a large shallow hole covered with black ashes. Around the perimeter was a ring of stones, which had been magically fitted to getter so it formed a miniature, half-foot wall. After, observing the queer fireplace, Alex turned his attention back to the benches. They were littered with rolls of parchment, quills, inkbottles, potions and empty glass vials. Hundreds of different potions and ingredients were arranged in some sort of order along the shelves. The jars, vials and bottles, were all labelled in the same tiny, cursive script, even the seemingly empty jars! Still, others were filled with what looked suspiciously like human body parts and entrails.

            Suddenly, a loud cough from behind him brought Alex out of his staring, His father rested a bony hand upon his shoulder.

            "Well, shall we get started?" asked Voldemort looking over his shoulder at Damien who was busy lighting the fire.

            "Of course, my lord, as you wish," said Damien as the flames jumped up to licked the bottom of the cauldron that he had just conjured up. Alex noticed it was larger than a normal cauldron and it long flat handle running from one side of the cauldron to the other, making it look more like an old fashion muggle cooking pot. It was suspended from the ceiling by a sturdy metal chain that was looped around the long flat handle. The chain creaked eerily whenever the cauldron swayed dangerously from side to side. The bottom of the cauldron was now glowing a dull red colour as the flames continued to rise higher engulfing the base.

            "What potion are we going to make tonight?" Alex asked as Damien filled the cauldron with water from his wand. Voldemort had already conjured a chair for himself a few feet away from the fireplace and was now observing the two with his ruby eyes.

            "The Nova Ducit, a highly useful Dark Arts potion, which doesn't not belong to the Forma branch of potions that you are accustomed to," informed Damien Malfoy. Alex gave him a quizzical look. "Well, I'm sure in your four years at Hogwarts you have been taught how to brew potions. All of the potions you have learnt before are from the main branch of potions called the Forma Potions. They form the biggest part of potions but there are other branches of potions, one branch commonly called the Condition Potions contains potions that only work when the time is right or when the brewer says a word.

            'Now this potion that we are about to brew is different because the potion that you will brew will not be a liquid but a gas, so special precautions will have to be taken. This potion produces a poisonous gas dangerous to all but the brewer or brewers. It is invisible, odourless and easy to contain if you know that its there because this gas spreads very slowly so you can pollute a small part of a room with out harming any other parts. Once a portion of the gas has been breathed in by a victim the rest of the gas will also enter the victim immediately so no traces of the gas can be found in the surrounding area. The gas leaves no visible marks on the victim nor does it show up on ordinary poison tests. The only test with, which you can detect this gas is by adding powered moonstone to victims lungs. This causes the gas to become a pale green colour as the moonstone reacts with it. There is no way of tracking the brewer after the gas has been breathed in because after the chosen victim has died the gas loses all potential so there will be no use in making people breath it in to identify the brewer, as you can with some other potions. So, as you can see this potion makes the perfect assassination weapon." Damien finished his lecture just as the cauldron as boiling. He quietly handed Alex a piece of parchment with the ingredients written on and implored him to go and fetch those ingredients. They turned out to be the strangest things Alex had ever seen. They included powered Frushlion horn, a pale grey powered, which could easily be mistaken for dust, chopped Gillblow stems, pink sting things that looked awfully like muggle Strawberry Laces and worst of all curdled human blood.

            After he had placed everything that they needed on the floor beside the fireplace Alex looked up to see his father smirking at him from the ornate chair. The man quickly gestured for Alex to get back to work. Damien Malfoy was now stirring the water in the large cauldron. There seemed to be a doom made from jelly over the mouth of the cauldron that was presumably there to stop the gas from escaping. However it did not seem to effect Damien's actions in anyway.

            "Great, now the ingredients have already been prepared for us so all we have to do now is add them in the correct order and at the right time. Now you can see that I'm stirring the water a complete circle anti-clockwise once every 5 seconds on the dial," at this Damien inclined his head over to a large instrument with a beam of light bouncing up an down between two mirrors. Alex new that the beam must have been magically slowed down to make it move so slowly. "Now I will keep stirring at like this all through the process and I will tell you when to add each ingredient. Now get the Gillhorn ready to add when I tell you so."

            "Um… What's my father going to do once we've brewed this potion?" asked Alex rather hesitantly because he was rather afraid to sound stupid. Lord Voldemort gave his trademark high-pitched laugh.

            "Why, thank you for your consideration, my son, but I will be fine as Damien hasn't told you what spells can repel this potion. However this potion can still be a potent killer as people won't know when it's coming to get them."

            The rest of the lesson was spent stirring in all the ingredients; there were a lot of them, into the boiling water. The liquid had disappeared by now leaving what looked at a first glance to be an empty cauldron.

            "You did a wonderful job there, Alex and I will be teaching you again I believe this time next week," said Damien as he bottled the potion. Voldemort removed his chair and smiled down at his son, who by now was very sleepy.

            "Good, I am glad he learned something from you Damien, next to Snape I suppose you are my finest potions master," said Voldemort with in a rare voice of praise. Alex's eyes snapped open,

            "Where is Snape?" he asked.

            "A mission for me," answered Voldemort vaguely and lead his son back to his bed chambers.

AN: That is one of the longest chapters I have ever written. I'm glad to say that I'm not going to be kicked out of school, just and with the holidays coming up, I have more time to write so there will be more up dates on all my stories.