Disclaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter or anything affiliated with it. I make no claim on Rowling's work.
Author's Note: It has been a while. Nearly two years (not counting the update). I thank all of you from the deepest of my heart for waiting patiently. I was disheartened by the 6th book, I have gotten over that and I will now try to finish this.
Ch. 12 Betrayal
Harry woke with a start. He jumped off of the bed and stared wildly around. Tonks was deeply asleep and didn't even stir. Harry's heart was pumping madly; he had his wand at the ready. He scanned the darkness around him, looking for an offender. His senses came back to him as he had realized that it had been a dream. His heart began to slow; he lowered his wand, but kept his eyes wary. Harry could not tell what it was, but something was causing his skin to prickle. Then sluggishly, the nightmare came back in startling clarity. Someone had betrayed him. Someone close. He looked at Tonks' sleeping form. She wore a smile even in sleep. Could it be her? No. He shook his head in defiance. He knew it was not Tonks. She meant everything to him. He did not know how he could tell, but a force was telling him that it was not her.
He sighed and relaxed his body. He didn't remember how he had gotten his wand. He never let it go far from him. However, it was hard to keep track of a wand whenever h had a pink-haired beauty giving him such bliss that he had never felt before. His heart plummeted as he realized that all of what Voldemort had told him. This could not be. He trusted everyone in this house.
Something was going to happen. Soon. His scar was hurting mildly, yet Harry could not tell what was causing it. He felt nothing from Voldemort. He walked over, pulled briefs and pants on then sat down, his back against the wall. He was afraid. Fear was enveloping him like a cocoon, smothering him. Voldemort. It always came back to him! Harry stood, put on a shirt then left the room. He walked down to the kitchen, grabbed a butter beer, took a giant gulp and sat down thinking.
Ron walked into the room and spotted him.
"Hello mate. What are you doing up?" Ron said.
Harry shrugged, "bad dream, woke up and didn't want to go back to sleep. What about yourself?"
Ron took a butter beer as well and sat across from Harry after taking a sip.
"Couldn't fall asleep" Ron said.
They sat in sleep, and then Harry said what was bothering him quietly.
"Someone drugged me Ron. Someone close. Someone here. It had destroyed my mental block and Voldemort visited me again. I feel something is going to happen soon. Something horrible."
Ron's face was horror-struck. He was wiping some butter beer from the front of his robes from his wince distractedly, yet he was staring at Harry.
"Are you sure Harry? Maybe he had found a way to destroy your mental block?" Ron said.
"That doesn't explain how I had not felt him intruding into my mind. With the mental block I had created I would have felt him breaking through." Harry said.
He shook his head and continued with a note of bitterness in his voice
"I was poisoned, just not by a conventional poison." Suddenly Harry changed subject, "who else is staying here aside from Hermione and your mum?"
Ron replied slowly, "well… Bill is, Lupin, Mad-Eye is staying for a short time, Ginny of course, Charlie, and Percy."
Harry grimaced. Who could it be? He finished off his butter beer then got up to throw the bottle away. He came back to the table then sat down looking at Ron.
"I can't see how it is any of them, mate. Not even Percy. He may be a git and all, yet he would never join Voldemort." Ron said
Harry sighed. "I will talk to Tonks. She will tell Dumbledore, he will be able to get to the bottom of this." Harry said.
Ron nodded, "yes that sounds good."
"Alright, I'm going to go up and alert Tonks." He stood up and left the room and walked to his and Tonks' room. He walked in and saw Tonks had not even moved in her sleep. Harry strode over and sat down on the bed next to her. He gazed at her with loving eyes. He whispered her name and gently shook her. Tonks woke up, looked around then spotted Harry.
"Wotcher Harry." She sat up then kissed him. After the kiss broke her brow furrowed after noticing the look on his face, "what's wrong?"
Harry told her all that he had told Ron. Tonks gasped yet she leapt to her feet. She pulled on her clothes, speaking hurriedly.
"I have to contact Dumbledore. Someone in here a spy? Damn. You're coming with me. It's too dangerous for you. You won't be alone here, so it's not like I'm worried about someone attacking you… but still, I will need you to explain to Dumbledore what has happened." She seemed to be talking to herself more than anything else.
After she had finished putting close on, she stood straight and closed her eyes in concentration. Wand in her hand she spoke a spell too softly for Harry to hear it. He saw the tip of the wand begin to glow a soft purple. Tonks pointed the tip toward her lips spoke to it again too softly for Harry to hear. She then removed the tip away from herself. She flicked her wrist and the purple light came off of the tip. It hovered in mid-air, a glowing purple sphere and winked away.
Harry shook his head. What had that been about? Tonks answered the question as if she had heard it.
"That will alert Dumbledore that we need to speak to him." Harry nodded dumbly. They waited in silence for half a minute before a purple orb popped into the air right in front of Tonks. Dumbledore's voice emitted from it.
"Get here immediately. Use a portkey." Fulfilling its function the orb winked out of existence.
Tonks nodded, "right." She strode over, picked up a pillow, muttered portus then beckoned Harry to grab the pillow with her. "Ready?" She said, "One, two, and three." Harry felt the familiar jerk behind his navel.
They both landed in Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore himself looked grave. Harry and Tonks sat down opposite of him, Dumbledore wasted no time.
"This is ill-news indeed. We have much to do. Harry, you will stay here at Hogwarts. We cannot waste anymore time. It seems Voldemort wishes to hurry his confrontation with you. Tonks will stay at your house to survey everyone. Harry, have you told anyone else about this dream?" He watched Harry closely.
"Yes sir, I told Ron."
Dumbledore nodded, "Tonks as soon as you get back, find Ron and make sure that he has not told anyone else. Miss. Granger is fine, but have the both of them swear not to ever speak of that to anyone else."
Tonks nodded, created another portkey out of the pillow, gave Harry a look that plainly said "I love you" then left via portkey. Dumbledore returned his gaze to Harry.
"You are going to practice with me Harry, every night until term starts. I am going to teach you everything I know about defensive and offensive magic. You are an amazing wizard Harry, but you have never fought Voldemort at full-power as I have. Tomorrow night we will begin your training. I must say, I had not precisely expected this outcome." Dumbledore sighed.
Harry listened raptly. This was extraordinary news! He was going to know almost everything that Dumbledore did!
"As it is, we only have two weeks and four days before the end of the vacation, so we must hurry. Tonight however I must go off to alert certain people of our situation. I must find you a place to live. Hmm. An unused office will do. Follow me Harry." Dumbledore stood, Harry following suit. Dumbledore strode from the office and led him out of it. He led Harry to an unused Teacher's office. He gave a flick of his wand and everything Harry needed to sleep materialized.
"Get some sleep, if you can Harry. I will alert a few of the school elves of your presence and they will make food. However, the food will be brought to you directly. Harry, my office is unlocked. You are to come every night at six. You are free to roam around the school. However, I ask you to leave the teacher offices alone, as they are personal properties of the teacher's here at Hogwarts – even though they are not inhabited at the moment. The last four days will be used for you to go back to your house and visit with loved ones."
Dumbledore took a step toward Harry and placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling kindly. "Two weeks may not seem like a long-time for you to learn all of what I know Harry. You are a great wizard Harry; you have much more strength in you that you realize. You will do greatly." Harry's heart wrenched with emotion.
"Forgive me, but I must leave now, Harry. Sleep well." Before Harry could voice anything, Dumbledore turned around and left with a swish of his cloak. Never before had Dumbledore said something so kind to him.
Harry sighed and got ready for bed, not remotely tired. This was becoming an exhausting night. Sleep overtook him quickly.
Harry woke up and saw that a plate full of wonderful smelling breakfast foods had been indeed brought to him. It lay on a desk a few feet away from his bed, next to it was a goblet filled with pumpkin juice. He tucked into it. After eating everything off of it, he wondered what if he should take it to the kitchen whenever it vanished, along with goblet. Harry stood and stretched. What was there to do in a magical castle when he had no classes to go to? A grin split his face. Maybe Hagrid was in his house. If he wasn't, Harry could always go to the Room of Requirement and pull a Hermione. Harry walked down the grounds to Hagrid's hut and before he even got there he knew that Hagrid wasn't in there. However, he still attempted to knock on the door. Silence greeted him. Shrugging, slightly disappointed he left the hut and began to make his way to the Room of Requirement. He reached his desired corridor, paced the designated amount all the while thinking. I need a place to train by myself. A place with advanced, yet easy to understand books on Defense against the Dark Arts. The door appeared and Harry entered. It looked very similar to the room that he had taught the DA.
Harry walked to a bookshelf that contained magnificent books concerning Defense against the Dark Arts, selected a book that looked particularly helpful, sat down and began to flip through it, looking at the various spells and enchantments. For several hours Harry flipped through the book and tried out many of the spells featured in the book. Many of them were indeed advanced and way too complicated for Harry to understand, much less use. He still attempted to learn them, absolutely determined to end this bloody battle that Voldemort is insisting turning into a complete war. After what seemed like days of training Harry, sweating, stopped trying to learn a very tricky jinx that increased Harry's perception while dueling, allowing him more time to think about useful curses against his opponent rather than just firing off random curses and jinxes and hoping they'd work
Harry glanced at his watch – a present from Bill – and realized with a start that he only had two minutes to get to Dumbledore's office on time. He shoved his wand into his belt, ran to the door, wrenched it open and ran as fast as he could toward Dumbledore's office. He got in no trouble and saw Dumbledore sitting in his chair a small smile on his lips.
"Your late, Harry" Dumbledore said not unkindly.
"Sorry Professor. I lost track of time while working on these, er… interesting spells" Harry said truthfully.
"It's quite alright Harry, that's a perfectly good reason to be late for this. Though, not too late. Now, my office is much to cramped for this sort of work we will be doing, I believe the Room of Requirement will be a great asset for this work. Come."
He stood and led Harry back to where he had run from. Harry felt a stab of irritation of having to run from the Room of Requirement as fast he could just to be led back. However, his excitement overrode all feeling of irritation as he walked into the Room of Requirement, this was it, and he was going to finally learn spells that he had seen Dumbledore use against Voldemort!
He entered the Room, his eyes going wide. This time the room had changed into what clearly looked like magical battleground. The battle had long since been fought, yet he saw patches of blood upon the ground. In the background Harry saw make-shift tombstones. However, either there were no words on the tombs or he was not on the right side of them. Shrugging yet his still intrigued he focused his attention upon Dumbledore. Dumbledore was looking around the battlefield gravely, but his eyes met Harry's almost instantly after Harry had looked at him.
"As you can see a battle was fought here." He said softly, but continued in an apparent soft tone out of respect for the dead. "Many witches and wizards died here. Both evil and good. Naturally this is not the real battleground. But I had been able to bewitch the Room of Requirement to simulate it. I thought it would be a good place to teach you Harry."
Harry nodded mutely. Dumbledore kept his eyes on Harry's. His usual twinkling eyes seemed subdued. Harry wondered many things about this battlefield, yet he did not dare interrupt Dumbledore.
"The first spell I'm going to teach you is a defensive one. I believe you were watching the battle between Tom and I?" Harry nodded dumbly. "You may have seen that at one point conjured a silver shield. This shield he had created is very advanced magic as it can deflect many more spells that the protego spell can. If it cannot deflect a spell or curse, it will absorb it, greatly weakening the shield. As you know, there is no protection for the killing curse and some spells are much too powerful for it, so it is best if you do not completely rely on it."
Harry listened raptly, his heartbeat quickening.
"Follow these steps exactly Harry."
Dumbledore took out his wand and began to show Harry the steps needed…
Harry was sweating and panting with exhaustion. He and Dumbledore had practiced for five hours without a single break. Dumbledore was mildly winded with a single bead of sweat showing.
"Very well done Harry" Dumbledore said. "I must admit, not even I expected you to learn such difficult spells so quickly." There was a note of pride in his voice.
Harry smiled and tried to speak yet he could not. It took more energy than he had to talk. Dumbledore seemed to understand. The battleground was now heavily scarred from the many powerful hexes and curses that Harry and Dumbledore had thrown at each other after Dumbledore had taught Harry new spells. Dumbledore smiled, walked over to Harry and handed him a small bottle of potion.
"Drink this Harry; it will wipe off some of your fatigue. There is just enough for you to get to your room and lay down." Harry took the potion gratefully and downed it. Immediately it felt as if two hours of work had never happened. Harry's breathing returned to normal as his pumping heart slowed.
"Thank you, Professor." Harry said gratefully.
"Don't mention it Harry. Now, go off to bed, remember we have another training session. And then another. So on and so forth. We will meet here tomorrow" Dumbledore smiled. Harry returned it and left the room. Dumbledore stood still for several minutes, his smile gone, lost in his own thoughts.
Harry made it to his room fell on the bed and dropped off to sleep immediately. Dreams of a girl with pink hair flitted in and out. Harry smiled into his pillow deeply-asleep.
Harry slept until lunch, which he ate ravenously as if he hadn't eaten in a week. Harry got up and began to explore the castle, then left to visit Hogsmeade. Some of the shops were boarded up and closed, some were still open. He visited The Three Broomsticks chatted animatedly with Madam Rosmerta for an hour or so then left, making his way back to the castle. He was lonely, he had none of his friends, never since before he came to Hogwarts had he been this lonely. Slowly, grudgingly, the time came for Harry to go to the Room of Requirement. Dumbledore stood in the Room, his wand out. He smiled as Harry entered. The Room looked just the same as before they had left.
"Welcome. I hope you are well enough rested and fed to begin tonight's lessons?" Dumbledore said.
"Yes sir." Harry replied
"Good, tonight I wanted to see how well you would do in a duel with me. I will gauge from our duel afterwards what you are weak in and help improve; I hope that is, your weakness and your strengths. I will duel with half of my effort. And, if I see that you are doing sufficiently well, I will begin to get tougher and tougher until you are facing me at my full-power." Dumbledore smiled kindly as he saw the look upon Harry's face.
"I'm sure you will do better than you expect, Harry." Dumbledore couldn't help but chuckle on the look of skepticism upon Harry's face.
Harry barely managed to splutter out, "Alright."
Dumbledore nodded, "Wands out, duel position, bow… and lets begin,"
It was a fierce battle. Harry spent most of his time deflecting jinx upon jinx. Here and there he managed to fire off a curse off his own yet Dumbledore was always somewhere else whenever he managed to fire off a curse at him. Harry cried out a leg locking curse, but Dumbledore evaded it easily. Dumbledore fired out a hex Harry did not recognize, but instead of relying on his shield he followed what Dumbledore was doing, he began evading the spells.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Harry cried and his spell barely missed Dumbledore. Again Dumbledore retaliated with a curse Harry did not know; this time not having enough time to dodge he used his magical shield to deflect the curse. Harry, boosting upon adrenaline and some other kind of power within him that he dimly recognized began fire off more and more spells at Dumbledore.
Harry noticed that Dumbledore was steadily becoming faster as well, and his spells fiercer. Harry used a spell to cause large rock the size of his head to fly after Dumbledore. Who merely blasted it with a spell and before Harry could catch him unguarded disappeared and reappeared several feet away. Harry swore softly as Dumbledore fired off spell after spell. Harry barely managed to stop from getting hit, but while Dumbledore was busy casting another hex, Harry cried out a spell that hit Dumbledore in the small in the back.
Harry cried out in triumph, but it was short-lived. Dumbledore recovered quickly and hit Harry twice with different hexes. Dimly Harry recognized both as the spells Malfoy and Harry used against each other in his fourth year whenever he and Ron had not been talking. But he cast spells that ended the hexes before they could begin. As he was busy doing that he saw that Dumbledore had cast another spell that was speeding toward him. Desperation flooded Harry as he saw the spell coming as if in slow-motion. Within his primal mind he realized something. He gathered up his concentration very quickly then managed to disappear and reappear several feet away from where had stood. Dumbledore's eyes had widened in shock.
Harry seized this moment as Dumbledore had and cried a body locking curse. However, unlike Harry, Dumbledore reacted much quicker. He disappeared and reappeared right behind Harry and used the spell Harry had just used. Harry's whole body seized up and he fell face-forward. Dumbledore performed the anti-curse then helped Harry up.
"That was very impressive Harry. Very, very impressive indeed… I had known you would do well. Just not that well" he chuckled, "you never cease to amaze me Harry. I must say, you are going to give Tom a very hard time to kill you." For once Dumbledore was breathing heavily as was Harry, naturally. His adrenaline was beginning to fade and a fierce fatigue once again stole over him.
"I believe," Dumbledore continued, "even though it has only been two night of training you deserve a break. I am sure your body is not used to these rigors so it should be allowed a night off."
Harry nodded, barely managing to stay on his legs. Dumbledore handed him the same potion as from last night and he drank it gratefully. Yet it barely managed to help him. Apparently, his exhaustion ran much deeper than it did last night.
"Tomorrow, when you will wake I will take you back to your house so that you can visit your friends and have a break. You did wonderful tonight Harry. Soon you will be the second person the Dark Lord has ever feared." Dumbledore smiled warmly at Harry, who barely managed to return a smile.
"However, you greatly need to sleep I daresay." He said gently. He led Harry from out of the Room and watched Harry stagger to his room. Dumbledore again stood deep in thought. He had not expected Harry to learn the ability to transmit his body over short distances so quickly.
Harry woke from his dreams and yawned widely. This time he had woke up several hours before noon. The elves, had laid out several snacks that would hold him up until lunch. Harry ate them greedily, then sat and watched the Hogwarts grounds for half an hour. A soft knock issued from his door and he said "come in"
Albus Dumbledore entered the room smiling, "well Harry, ready to go?" A giant grin split Harry's face and he nodded.
"Yes sir." Dumbledore took some sort of sphere from his pocket, created a portkey out of it and soon Harry and he were zooming off to Harry's house.
They both landed and Harry was soon ambushed by a girl with very vibrant green hair that smacked into him and gave him a fierce hug and several warm kisses. Harry grinned as Tonks let go looking embarrassedly at Dumbledore, who had looked away to give them some privacy.
"That was certainly an excellent way to be greeted." Harry said with a smile. Tonks smiled and giggled.
Dumbledore smiled and said, "I will leave so you all can have some fun. I am sure your friends miss you just as much as you miss them. Feel free to fill them in your fantastic fight." Dumbledore winked then disapperated. So, after meeting Ron and Hermoine, Mrs. Weasley and everyone else that was living in his house, the trio - with Tonks - along side him he told them all about what it had been like. All three of them were wide-eyed with wonder. Harry could not help but feel a small inkling of pride as he told all of this.
Ron clapped him on the back, "I knew you could do it mate. Blimey though! Dueling against Dumbledore!" He shook his head in wonderment. Harry then asked them how their days had been like. They filled him in telling them that Tonks had woke up two days ago to tell them Dumbledore had needed to see Harry for a few days, it was very important and not to worry. Ron's mum of course got a little worried, but that was just more missing Harry than being worried about him.
Harry spent the day with his friends and his girlfriend Tonks. They played wizard's chess and played a variety of games until called down to dinner. Everyone ate jovially, telling stories, having a very great time. Tonks kept toying with Harry by sliding a hand down the table, to his waist where she gave something a very generous massage. Mrs. Weasley kept asking him what was wrong after she noticed that he was having trouble eating properly and kept stifling moans. Tonks wore a perfectly innocent expression on her face. Her hand made its way back up the table before anything more could happen. Harry swore softly under his breath. After dinner and everything was cleaned up. Harry tore after Tonks, who ran into their room. He shut the room behind him and they finished what Tonks had started and so much more.
Afterwards they lay panting, each in the others arms. They both murmured their love to each other then fell gently to sleep.
Harry woke up still in Tonks' arms. He got up and scratched his head. He checked his watch and saw that it had been barely three hours since they had fallen asleep. What had woken him up? Shaking his head he looked at Tonks' sleeping form. A love such as Harry had never known filled his heart. He loved everything about that woman. Yet… a growing sensation of fear was growing in his chest. Something was wrong. He didn't hear her breathing, nor did he see her chest rising. He grabbed her wrist and felt for a pulse. Nothing. Harry's eyes went wide. He rolled her onto her back then placed his head on her chest to listen for a heart-beat. Nothing.
Panicking he took out his wand and tried the enervate spell. Nothing happened.
"No. Tonks, please, no!" Harry cried. He took her in his arms and held her close as great racks of tears overtook him. He rocked, holding her tightly against himself. He whispered over and over, "please no, please no".
Harry's tears dropped onto Tonks' face. Heartache and pain engulfed him. He cried over an hour, holding her tightly to him. Slowly his tears stopped. Tenderly he let go of his beloved's body. He placed her back on the bed, bent down and gave her a gentle kiss. Rage and fury was building to an intensity only the loved who have had their love ripped from them could ever feel. Harry whispered one word in such a tone that even the Dementors would have paused.
"Voldemort."
Harry closed his eyes and without really knowing what he was doing he closed his eyes and concentrated. Slowly he mentally came across the link between him and Voldemort. He saw a thick shield that stopped him from gaining access to Voldemort's mind. Harry's fury was guiding him. Harry slammed against it with such a force he had never known he possessed, the shield broke like glass. He felt Voldemort gasp as his protection was breached. Without really knowing what he was doing, Harry dragged Voldemort's consciousness away from what he was doing to Harry's mental self. He somehow created the world that Voldemort usually created. Voldemort looked startled and slightly frightened. Apparently, he had never expected Harry to do this, nor be able to break through his defense.
"You!" Harry snarled. "You took her away from me! You killed her! I want your blood Voldemort! We end this! I want a duel. A fight to end this constant squabbling."
Voldemort's discomposure melted quickly. His smugness returned within seconds. "Ah… it seems my agent has done the work I assigned. Good. Oh my, my… Potter seems angry. But that was expected. How do you know I won't play dirty? How do I know you won't invite the whole Order to destroy me? No Potter. You are not thinking. I expected better from you." Voldemort said silkily, "you will have to wait in good time, like a good little bo-"
"SHUT UP!" Harry roared. Sparks burst from Harry's wand. He was tired of this. Voldemort had taken everything from him. Everyone he loved was killed by Voldemort. No more. This was it. Harry was not going to take anymore of this. Voldemort looked infuriated for being interrupted.
"I'm going to find you Voldemort. I'm going to use you, like you used me. I will make sure you suffer like I suffered. I am going to finally end the miserable thing you call your life." Harry left Voldemort's mind, then put up amazingly strong mental blocks. He felt, distantly, Voldemort's howls of rage as he tried to penetrate Harry's mind to no avail. Harry had learned who the person was who had done this. While distracting Voldemort he had invaded his mind and saw who it was. Anger flooded him in giant waves. He walked swiftly to the door which blew open as if a tornado had done it. He glanced down the corridor and saw the person who had done all of this. He saw who he was going to torture, going to kill.
"Betrayer!" Harry snarled. The person was white in the face as Harry raised his wand and used a body locker curse. Harry walked over and stared into his enemies' face.
Author's Ending Note: I know its been a very long time. That's why I made this chapter much longer than my usual chapters. I hope this one came out just as good as the previous ones. Feel free to keep email me, just make sure to type in the subject lines something obvious that its not spam. Preferably something like, – Beginnings" That would work very well. Anyways. I hope you enjoyed it. I will try to post a new one as soon as possible.
