Chapter 13. Saturday, November 30. An unplottable location.
A few minutes earlier.
The wizard had been sitting, as had been his custom for the past few months, at a desk he had placed beneath the magical map he had created using the chocolate frog cards. There was all sorts of curious information to be derived from the study of such a map, had he been interested. Just now, for instance, two 6th year Slytherins seemed to be having sex in one of the stalls of a bathroom on the first floor, and a 3rd year Ravenclaw had snuck into the restricted section of the Hogwarts library.
The wizard could not have cared less. His culture had very few official restrictions and even fewer unofficial ones on either information or procreation. Those in his country who were, for whatever reason, inclined to prevent free access to either, generally had their mind changed at the point of a wand.
Right now he was reading a rather thick novel, which peculiarly enough was written by a muggle author. Although he possessed an nearly preternatural patience when it came to observing the map he had made, and he only dared leave it when he was certain Harry Potter was either asleep or in class, and thus unlikely to change locations, he could not have tolerated the boredom of looking at it every single second. Thus, he amused himself with books, or solitary card games, only glancing at the map every few minutes. He was hoping for an opportunity to catch Harry without the protection of Dumbledore, who was one of the few wizards powerful enough to oppose him. Thus far he had had little luck. The few times Harry was not in Hogwarts he was closely followed by two or more of several different aurors whose names had gotten sickeningly familiar to the wizard. Though the aurors themselves were almost certainly not powerful enough to present him with much of a challenge, they no doubt had means of summoning Dumbledore instantly, should anything seem amiss to them.
Such as his attempting to kidnap their precious 'Chosen One' as the English newspapers had taken to calling Harry.
The wizard was therefore surprised when he looked up after finishing a chapter of his book, and not being able to spot Harry's name immediately on his map. He had long since enchanted the letters of his name to glow a brilliant red, so as to be immediately visible amidst the other hundreds of myriad names moving around on the map.
He stood up in alarm. Where was Harry Potter! The last he had looked, he was in a tavern with his two usual companions, those being one Ronald Weasley and one Hermoine Granger. The aurors were a short distance away, observing him in secret. Now he could not spot any of their names. Given the fact that Harry was continually on his map, he had surmised that the boy must habitually carry one of his chocolate frog cards with him. Had he dropped it? Where was he?
He waved his wand, magically expanding his map. There, there was a flicker of red in the corner. Harry had obviously been moved suddenly to a distant location. The wizard cast a spell, recentering the map on wherever it was Harry was now located. Then he grew even more alarmed.
Harry was only a few feet away from Lord Voldemort!
Though the wizard cared little for the rivalry between Harry and the Dark Lord, or any of the hundreds of petty rivalries the squabbling fools who called themselves 'wizards' in England could not seem to resolve in a rational fashion, he certainly did not want Harry to die.
At least not yet.
He did not even consider the possibility that the aurors might have summoned Dumbledore. The English were as incompetent as they were amoral. And that went double for those who worked for their parasitic bureaucracy, the Ministry of Magic. By the time they decided to do anything, and got the proper forms signed to do it, it would be far too late for Harry.
And for himself as well.
This entire line of reasoning took the wizard less than a second. In another second, two seconds after he first noticed Harry in Lord Voldemort's presence, he reached for the amulet that corresponded to the Chocolate Frog card which Harry kept with him, thanking whatever Gods might still exist for someone as thoroughly damned as he was that he had marked it with a circle of paint. Then he used the other function he had put into the Chocolate frog cards. For they were not only his eyes, but his legs as well, and at need, any one of them could not only map it's surroundings, but in conjunction with it's matching amulet, act as a portkey and with a simple spell, transport him there.
Both Lord Voldemort and Harry were equally shocked when, just as Voldemort began casting the Killing curse on him, there was a loud CRACK, as the wizard emerged from the chocolate frog card that was in Harry's pocket. He was in an awkward position, but he had no time to straighten up. Voldemort had paused in his killing curse for but a moment, not sure who this stranger was, but not wanting him to give him the chance to let the Potter brat escape him once more.
He began casting it again.
"Avada Kadavra!"
The wizard did not thing. Like the predatory animal he had become, he merely reacted, by doing what it was he did best.
He apparated.
Not himself, but Harry. He vanished as Voldemort's lethal curse flew towards him, and reappeared several feet to one side. There were wards around this building that had prevented him from Apparating Harry out of it entirely . At least Harry was under a large, stout looking torture device of some kind, made of rough, stout boards bound with metal. Some sort of rack, the wizard believed. It would give him a little protection both from Voldemort's curses and from what the wizard intended to do shortly.
"How DARE you interfere!" Voldemort screamed. "I don't know who you are, but you will live to regret opposing me."
The wizard's lip curled. "Oh I already regret it. Far more than you could possibly imagine."
Voldemort did not understand this cryptic comment, and hurled a curse at the wizard.
"Crucio!"
Once more the wizard apparated, this time appearing several feet behind Voldemort. He decided to taunt him, anything to distract him from Harry.
"Is that the best you can do?" He disapparated and reapparated several times in succession, flickering around the room like a muggle strobe light. Voldemort looked at him angrily, and with the slight beginnings of fear that he had previously reserved only for Albus Dumbledore. How was this strange intruder doing this? No-one could apparate that fast.
No-one except this strange wizard, apparently. During his several seconds of apparating, he had already determined that he would not be able to break through or remove whatever sort of unfamiliar wards Voldemort had placed around this building. At least not in the time he was going to have to do something. It was possible to apparate within the building itself, but not to leave it by that method. He would have to get a hold of Potter long enough to use the chocolate frog card to portkey both of them out of here. He was fairly certain it was in his breast pocket, the toe of one of his boots had been stuck in there when he first came here. It would only take a moment, but that was more than long enough for Voldemort to kill him.
He apparated again, having spent less than a second thinking of what it was he must do. A flash of green light hit the wall where he had been a moment ago, fracturing a large chunk off one of the ancient stone blocks.
Despite the danger he was in, the wizard began to enjoy this game, it was actually amusing, taunting his enemy like this. He felt his eyes begin to change, and colors swam before them as he saw auras and other things from different dimensions. Well, let them change. It would only increase his power. And though the things he saw were often terrible, it was even worse, the way he enjoyed seeing them more and more.
Voldemort noticed the alteration to the wizard. "So you're the fool who hurt one of my followers. Carved a message in his back. No-one defies me and gets away with it. I'll give you one chance to live. Share the secret of whatever power it is you have with me, and we can rule the world together. Otherwise you're a dead man."
The wizard simply laughed. A hollow, uncomforting sound like the crack of a frozen gravestone breaking in two. "You can't kill me. You can't even touch me with the least of your spells. As for ruling the world, I've no interest in it. The world can go to hell, and I expect it will. As will you. As will I."
"What the hell does that mean!" Voldemort spat.
"You want to offer me something?" The wizard said in a mocking tone. "Then tell me this: Where is it?"
"You've asked me that before. And I have no idea what you are talking about. I don't know what 'it' is, or where it might be."
"You see?" The wizard shrugged ironically. He disapparated and reappeared behind Voldemort."You have nothing to offer me. Except, perhaps, Harry Potter. Perhaps he might know where it is."
"Potter is mine!" Voldemort whirled around. "You can't have him."
The wizard said nothing, but cast an unpleasant castration curse at Voldemort's crotch, which he was barely able to deflect. Furious at this attempt at his emasculation, he hurled curses at random, hoping to hit the wizard by chance as he apparated and disapparated far faster than any human being should ever be capable of. Dimly he became aware that this was a new limitation to his otherwise great powers that he had not thought of before. Though a wizard might otherwise not be as powerful as he was, his magical strength became all but useless against him if the wizard was, as this one seemed to be, faster and more mobile. Fighting someone like insane intruder was like a lion fighting an eagle. The lion would win, but only if the eagle were foolish enough to land and permit the lion to sink his claws into him.
It was a lesson he would contemplate more thoroughly, later. For now, a new lesson presented itself. Namely that a large enough eagle could have talons of it's own. The madly apparating wizard now did something even more peculiar than he had already done. As his eyes completed their tranformation from their formerly human state, the wizard drew a second wand from a sheath on his belt. His skin became paler and his hair darker, and Voldemort could swear that he could literally feel the sense of increased power coming from the man's aura, crackling around him like the unbearable heat of an inferno. To the Dark Lord's astonishment and horror, the wizard was actually able to utilize both of those wands simultaneously, casting a Protego and a bone-breaking hex at the same time. It was all Voldemort could do to avoid being hit by the curses, as the wizard apparated around the room casting them at him. Though Voldemort did not realize it, the locations the wizard appeared at were not chosen at random, and the wizard was gradually luring Voldemort to a position close to a thick column of stone. Over the centuries it had been supporting the roof above it, a combination of the weight it held and the inevitable decay of the mortar that glued it together had caused it to lean slightly in one direction. Which at this moment was away from Harry, and towards Lord Voldemort.
Apparating behind Voldemort once more, the wizard flicked his wand - once - twice - at the stone column, apparating out two thin sliced of it, one near the bottom, and another near the ceiling.
Deprived of any support, the column began falling over, directly over the spot where Voldemort was standing! The Dark Lord was forced to abandon his attempts to curse this madman, and instead act to protect himself from being crushed.
"Protego! Wingardium Leviosa!" simple spells, but they sufficed to deflect the tons of stone away from him. The column crashed to the floor with a splintering roar, shattering into several peices. But that was not the end of the matter. The stones of the ceiling, deprived of any support, now began to creak loudly. Voldemort looked up, just as one of them fell where he had been standing a moment ago.
"Protego!" He was about to cast another protective spell, when the wizard vanished, then reappeared again, and took the chance to cast another apparating spell, this one at Voldemort's wand. Before the Dark Lord could do anything, the wand he had been using vanished from his hand.
"Damn You!" Voldemort was now forced to resort to the much more difficult wandless magic to save his own life. With great effort, he cast several other spells. The stone blocks were now falling in an expanding avalanche. He cursed the wretched, apparating wizard, but could not spare any time to deal with either him or Harry. Not unless he wanted his head crushed by a hundred pound chunk of limestone. Though it probably wouldn't actually KILL him permanently, not with all the horcruxes he had made, he had already experienced the destruction of his physical body once, when his own killing curse had deflected off of the infant Harry. He had no desire to experience it again. And despite his near-immortality, he was still possessed of a purely animal survival instinct.
It was tempting for the wizard to try and kill Voldemort. Under the influence of his transformation, evil deeds held a nearly irresistable appeal to him. But he had to force the impulse down. The nature of his difficulties were such that not only did he not dare to kill the Dark Lord, but would undoubtedly have had to act to save his life, if he were in any real danger. It was a distinct possibility that the Dark Lord held a peice of the information he so desperately needed. He didn't know for sure that Voldemort knew anything about what he was looking for, but then he didn't know for sure that Voldemort DIDN'T know, either. He could not take the chance.
So rather than casting any potentially lethal spells, the wizard took a different sort of advantage of Voldemort's distraction. The Dark Lord was far too busy repelling the sections of falling stone to think of the simple ploy of deflecting them towards either him, or Harry. He apparated once more, to Harry's side. A large rock had fallen onto the rack, but luckily the ancient device was sturdy enough that although a board on it had broken in two, it had protected the boy underneath. With a violent motion, the wizard pulled the nearly unconscious Harry out from under the rack, and reached into his pocket. Ah, thank the stars it was still there. He chanted a brief spell, reversing the direction the card-coin portkey pair worked. Voldemort saw what he was doing and disregarding his own safety, hurled a wandless 'Petrificus Totalis' spell at the pair.
Too late. His two enemies, the old one and the new one vanished, and the spell hit nothing but the stone on the wall above the wooden rack the wizard had protected Harry under. Casting it had actually been a mistake, it caused the ceiling to disintegrate even more violently than it had been doing. He screeched in fury, as he had to wandlessly deflect several more falling stone blocks away from himself.
Eventually the cave in stopped. Voldemort found himself standing amidst a large heap of rubble, blinking at the ceiling of a level to a higher floor to the ruins, at least 30 feet above his head. His death eaters were rushing it to see what the uproar had been about. Fools. Why couldn't they have been faster? He could have used their assistance five minutes ago! Now it was far too late. The filthy Harry Potter had escaped his grasp, yet again. He pointed his wand at the nearest of the incompetent fools. "Crucio!"
It would have been a slight comfort to him though not much, to see how the wizard treated Harry once they had made their escape. Safe in the lair they had made for themselves, the wizard briefly looked at Harry and felt the pulse in his neck. Despite the boy's unconscious state, his aura was strong, and the pulse steady. He was in no danger of dying. Satisfied, the wizard tossed him with little regard onto the rough wooden floor, as if the boy were no more deserving of comfort than a sack of potatoes, or a misbehaving dog. Harry would wake up when he woke up. In the meantime, he was not going to waste his time offering him even the comfort of a blanket, when it wasn't necessary and he had other things to do.
