Chapter Three – Out of the frying pan, and onto the hot stove

Harry's eyes twitched lightly. He opened his eyes, squinting trying to adjust to the bright light. He looked around and saw he was in a small room. He was lying on a hard mattress that felt like rock. Next to him were a sink and a toilet. He sighed, and tried to stop the wave of nausea from taking control of him by concentrating on the dripping noise coming from the cracked ceiling.

"Where am I?" He wondered aloud. He got up and lumbered to the door. Suddenly he heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Quick as he could he jumped in his bed and pretended to be asleep.

The door creaked open, and nine men walked in. Some were werewolves, some were vampires, and another was the man with the crimson eyes. They all gathered around Harry's still body, and remarked about his condition.

"It seems he is still sleeping, should we wake him up?" One man asked in a gruff voice that could only be described as a ferocious dog growling.

"No, let him sleep for now. The beating he took from ole Greyback really got to him." A cold voice said. The owner of the voice, a vampire, lifted the fringe of Harry's hair revealing his scar.

"I am still surprised the boy-who-lived would be the one to defeat Greyback..." The cold voice said.

"What's so surprising about that? Of course Goody Goody Potter would want to defeat the evil wolf. What's more shocking is that he claimed to be our leader!" The gruff voice snorted. "Him? What next, an auror?"

"He will have to prove himself if he wants to be in charge of us, that is for sure. Killing Greyback did kill most of the competition but there are others who would stab their mothers for the leader position." The cold voice said.

"What do you think, Master Kasmire?" The werewolf asked the crimson-eyed man who was simply standing in the corner.

"Potter's skill in leadership was demonstrated by the tactics he used when he fought Lord Voldemort." He said in a hollow voice devoid of emotion. "I have watched him in the past, if he does become our leader he will be utterly ruthless with us, much like Voldemort."

The other men nodded their agreements. "Face it, Potter is not a goody goody, he is as bloodthirsty as any one of us."

"Exactly! We cannot let him be the leader, he will drive us to ruin. I say we kill him now." The gruff voice exclaimed. Harry stiffened and froze, before going back to pretending to sleep. It was such a minor change that nobody noticed it, except Kasmire of course. He noticed everything.

"If you do that, you will break every sacred tradition that governs the people of the alley. I for one will not tolerate it." For the first time, Kasmire's voice was laced with anger and hidden threat. The werewolf gulped, before averting his eyes to Harry.

"So you actually want him as our leader, Master Kasmire?" A vampire asked. He had stayed silent in the whole argument, but he knew which decision he would go with. Whatever Master Kasmire chose would be his choice too.

"I do not know yet. I will keep an eye over him, and see if he can be toughened up. I doubt the boy could survive if he was challenged daily by the wolves and vampires as is required for the first week of leadership..." Kasmire trailed off, deep in thought.

"What do you propose to do, Master Kasmire?" The vampire asked. "Do you want us to give him more time before he steps up to take the leadership mantle?"

After much thought Kasmire answered. "Yes, I do. I will train him myself; see if he is up to the task of leading Knockturne Alley to greatness. Greyback was a joke, what we need someone stronger in both power and mental agility."

"It's going to be your neck, Kasmire." The werewolf growled. "I will be the first to challenge him if he tries to become our leader." With that he stormed out of the room. The other werewolves reluctantly followed him.

"I need to be going as well," A vampire said, "I need to make some arrangements." He walked out, and the other vampires followed him.

Kasmire went and closed the door, leaving Harry and him alone in the dingy room. Harry sweated and gripped his wand tightly under the covers. "You can wake up now, Harry Potter." Kasmire said with laughter. "Quite a sneaky thing you did there."

Harry woke up in a way. He sprang out of his bed, and shot some stunners at Kasmire while crouching. The red-eyed man simply used his hand to disolve the incoming curses, something which Harry thought impossible.

Harry was a busy conjuring pillar of metal, and wood to use as shields. He enlarged the room, making it the size of a Quidditch pitch. With that he started building a maze, all the while dodging the light hexes sent his way by the amused Kasmire. After about ten minutes, Kasmire grew bored of this game. He moved on to blast the pillars, taking out an ebony wand.

"Come out, come out where ever you are." Kasmire taunted. "I can see you..." Smirking he started turning the pillars into glass. Harry was getting worried. He tried apparrating, but found he couldn't. There were wards up, he would need to break them to escape. That required time, something he didn't have.

Harry hid behind a metal pillar in the corner, and fell down to his knees. Exhaustion filled his arms and he panted, gasping for air. Conjuring those things had taken a lot out of him.

"Why are you doing this, Potter?" Kasmire asked, as he wondered around the pillars. "I do not want to hurt you, simply train you to be stronger."

Harry longed to send out a biting insult back at him, but wasn't stupid enough to reveal his position. As quietly as he could he worked on the wards. Ward breaking was not his specialty but he could get the job done, somewhat sloppily.

Kasmire hummed to himself as he transfigured the pillars into water. Suddenly he felt a twitch in his stomach, a pang. At first he thought it was mere indigestion, but he grew worried and suspicious. "Well I see you have learnt a few tricks of the trade, Potter." He shouted, and worked on re-enforcing the wards. Kasmire did not know much about the wards, he left it to the curse breakers, but he had tied the wards to him and channeled his magic into the wards to make it stronger. He could feel the wards on the verge of collapse, "Damn this kid is good!" He thought to himself.

Kasmire went full out, pushing all of his magic into the wards. That was a hefty amount, and the invisible wards became as strong as titanium. The air in the massive room grew denser, both opponents found it tough to breathe. "Why are you doing this?" He croaked out suddenly.

Harry heard the weak whimper, and smirking in victory he replied, "I know you are Voldemort! I don't know how you survived but..."

It was Kasmire's turn to smirk. He suddenly let go of the wards, and apparrated to the spot where he heard the voice. Harry was still distracted trying to pour energy into breaking nonexistent wards; it was child's play for Kasmire to stun Potter from behind. Smirking at his victory, Kasmire grabbed Harry's wand and examined it. "Holly… Good for transfiguration." He muttered. "How interesting."

He dispelled the pillars one at a time, and resized the room to it's original position. Then he conjured some ropes and had them magically tie up Harry. He levitated Harry onto the bed, and went out of the room to get some curse breakers. "Damn, this is going to cost me some serious shit!" He swore to himself.

Harry Potter awoke, bound and tied. He looked around for his wand, a futile effort. Sighing, Harry got up, and hopped off the bed. He tried to untie the ropes, but that was a futile effort as well. Sighing, Harry sat down and waited for his captors to come back. He promised he would make them pay. "Nobody ties me up and gets away with it!" He promised himself.

Harry examined the small room once more searching for something he could use to cut the rope that bound him. He saw a pipe that was coming out of the wall, it's edges were sharp. Perfect, Harry thought. Now I just have to get to it. With that he started hopping as much as he could to the pipe, and turned around so his back faced it. He bent down on his knees, and moved the pipe against the rope up and down. Soon, he heard a snap, and felt release against the big knot at his back.

He shook off the ropes, and walked out of the room. "First I need a wand." He thought aloud. The hallway was brightly lit with candles, and about ten feet high. The candle light created lots of shadows and dark spots, Harry was thankful for this. It made his job of sneaking around much easier.

Walking in the endless hallway for a minute was all it took before he heard two pairs of footsteps. They were chatting about something or the other, and Harry could tell by their gruff voices that they were werewolves. Harry sported a ferocious smirk on his face as he crouched down like a panther ready to strike. As soon as the two werewolves were in range, Harry jumped upon them and tackled them to the ground. He lay on top of the two wolves and started punching their faces one at a time, repeatedly. He smirked as he heard some cracking noises, and increased his attack.

The two wolves were young and were no push over. Harry's attack had taken them by surprise, and that had given him an advantage. But werewolves were unmatched in close combat. Working in tandem they kicked Harry's stomach. Harry flew ten feet away and hit the floor with a loud thump. "Argh!" Harry groaned in pain, and slowly rose to his feet. The two wolves were snarling but did not attack. They watched Harry cautiously. He had after all beaten their most feared warrior with ease.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" One of them asked. Harry sighed. It seemed everyone knew his secret identity.

"Where am I?" Harry asked them timidly, his sharp green eyes searching them, sizing them up.

"You are in the base." The right werewolf said in a cold voice. "You will stay here until you are fit to be the leader."

"Erm, what's this base?" Harry asked while inching closer towards a candle. "What do you mean I have to stay here?"

"You challenged Greyback, and you won. This wouldn't be such a serious thing if you hadn't claimed to be the new leader." The werewolf said. "This base is the headquarters of the death eaters, but since the defeat of Voldemort it was abandoned. The creatures of Knockturne alley have taken over it."

"Yea, but why do I have to stay here?" Harry asked. "How about we just forget everything, and let me leave. Huh…" He nervously chuckled.

"We cannot let you go, you declared yourself to be our leader. But you are not yet ready to lead, though you will be in time." The other werewolf said.

"I heard some rumours that Master Kasmire is going to be training Potter." He said to his companion, ignoring Harry.

"Wait, is he the red eyed freak of nature?" Harry unwisely blurted out, to which the two werewolves snarled.

"Show some respect to Kasmire! He is the only one who is willing to protect you from Greyback's most loyal followers."

"Look, I don't mean any disrespect or anything but I really don't need training, I have been a leader before…"

"No, this is different. You will be challenged every day of your life. Every day you will have people willing to do anything to take your place. That's why you need to be stronger! Kasmire doesn't offer his help to everyone, you know!"

"Oh I know…" Harry trailed off. "I know what a bunch of fools you are. Did you know that Voldemort has red eyes as well?"

"Yes, but Kasmire is different." The werewolf hesitated. "Kasmire is the epitome of power. Some say he is half wolf, half vampire."

"That's bullshit. Kasmire has red eyes because of the dark rituals he kept doing." The other disagreed. Harry just watched them in fascination, before coming out of his stupor. He needed to get out of this freak place, having no intention of fighting werewolves everyday to hold some worthless title of leader.

"Hey boys, would you mind giving me my wand?"

"We don't have it."

"Do you have any wands at all? Like an extra one?" Harry asked with a pleading tone.

"Haha, the only wand I have is my own. Right here." One of the werewolves took out his wand from his pocket. Harry smirked, making the wolf falter.

"Well, that will do I suppose." Harry wandlessly summoned the wand, and quickly stunned the two surprised wolves.

"Kasmire may be powerful, but I defeated Voldemort. And I can do it again, too!" Harry thought aloud in a determined voice. With that he made his way down the endless hallway, leaving to stunned guards behind him.

AN: Another 2k word chapter, just for you. Tell me what you think! Do you think Kasmire is Voldemort? Please click the review button and leave a review.

I am a bit disappointed with the reviews I got. I received 6 reviews, and 500 people read my story. So less than 2 percent actually reviewed. C'mon people, Let's increase the statistics!