All characters are property of JK Rowling and I do not make a profit from this story.
Beta: Roman's Sundial
Chapter Forty-Seven: Sectumsempra
Remus Lupin – Present Day
December 1, 2000
"Harry, I know you're upset, but you need to think logically!" Remus was trying to calm Harry down, but he was not succeeding.
"He is destroying my family! I will not have another Voldemort on my hands!"
"Harry, we will get him, but this isn't the way!" Remus followed Harry to a few apparition points until they were at a big hill. "Harry, just stop for one second!"
"What?" yelled Harry, but stopping and turning to face Remus regardless.
"What is your plan?"
"To stop him."
"How?"
Harry shrugged. "I'll worry about that when I get there."
"You need a plan!"
"I'll come up with something."
"Harry, that isn't a safe idea!"
"I DON'T CARE!" Harry bellowed. "Remus, he's killed hundreds if not thousands already! He killed that muggle girl's parents, he killed Essa, he's just killed Arthur and he's just killed-"
"I know, Harry," said Remus, cutting him off. "He needs to be stopped, I agree, but we need a plan!"
"I have one; I'm going after him and that's a good enough plan to me." Harry stormed off over the hill and, sighing, Remus followed. Harry stopped once he passed a little shack, and stared out into the empty field.
"Is this where his hideout is?" asked Remus.
Harry nodded. "His house is cloaked by the Fidelius Charm, but this was where Ginny had said that it was a few months ago."
"What now?"
"You should leave, Remus. Teddy-"
"Has Dora; it is you that needs me right now."
Harry nodded. He took a deep breath, took out his wand, and yelled. "GRINDELWALD!" It wasn't long before Grindelwald himself came into view, with a hooded person to his left, and Thicknesse a few paces behind him.
"Harry Potter!" said Grindelwald pleasantly. "Welcome to my home! To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"This ends now, Grindelwald!"
"Did my friends kill someone important, Harry Potter? My deepest condolences." Harry made to move, but Remus grabbed his arm. "Your friend there is smart," said Grindelwald, nodding to Remus. "And you are…?"
"Sirius Black," Harry answered for him.
"Your Godfather is dead, Harry Potter. I suppose if you do not wish to introduce your friends, then I will not introduce mine." Remus studied the person under the cloak, and noticed that they were wearing heels; his companion was clearly a woman. "So, have you come to negotiate?" Grindelwald continued.
"I've come to end this," responded Harry.
"Wonderful!"
"By killing you."
Grindelwald laughed. "Well, that isn't going to happen, so let's talk about a real solution; my Hallows."
"Even if I did decide to give them to you, you wouldn't stop."
"I give you my word."
"Your word is worthless," spat Harry.
"An Unbreakable Vow, then?" asked Grindelwald.
"What?" asked Remus. An Unbreakable Vow that was broken would cause the person to die; Grindelwald would never put himself in that position.
"I don't trust you," said Harry sternly.
"You don't need to; an Unbreakable Vow is, well, unbreakable. Let the spell do all the trusting! You can cast the spell, can't you, Sirius?' asked Grindelwald, looking at Remus.
"You would agree to an Unbreakable Vow?" asked Remus skeptically.
"Well, I did bring it up, didn't I?"
Remus, however, wasn't having it. "You are willing to magically agree to stop killing or have anyone kill on your behalf, if you get the Deathly Hallows?"
"I would make an Unbreakable Vow right now that says I will stop the killing of innocent people once Harry Potter provides me with all three Deathly Hallows. I would of course put a time limit on there as well, though."
"A time limit?" questioned Harry.
"Of course! I'm not going to be the only one who has his life on the line! We will make it so that you must fulfill your end of the bargain within ten days."
"Ten days?" repeated Harry. "You know I wouldn't be able to get them all in ten days."
Grindelwald shrugged. "Well then, come to me when you can make it happen and we shall do our Vow. Until then, I will continue as I am."
"What happened to the Greater Good?" Harry asked angrily.
"This is for the Greater Good, Harry Potter. I need the Hallows for the Greater Good, and killing people will force you to bring them to me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some people to kill." Grindelwald smiled and turned around and headed towards his safety boundaries with the hooded witch on his arm. Remus watched Harry raise his wand at Grindelwald's back, but Remus quickly grabbed his arm and lowered it.
"You won't succeed, Harry," he said quietly. "You may not see them, but he has an entire guard here. Let's go." Remus held his breath, afraid that he still couldn't reason with Harry, but relinquished it once Harry started to walk back to the apparating point.
Harry Potter – Present Day
December 1, 2000
Harry sat at the kitchen table at number 12 Grimmauld Place with Remus. He sipped his butterbeer in silence while he watched Remus reading the Daily Prophet across from him. "Why do you read that rubbish?" Harry asked him.
"Keep your enemies close, Harry. One mistake the Ministry always makes is revealing everything they know."
"The Ministry is an enemy?" Harry asked confused. "I know Kingsley and I aren't getting along right now, but-"
"Kingsley is the Minister, not the Ministry. There are many people at the Ministry and I would say that there are more foes than there are friends."
Harry sat quietly for awhile thinking, before he spoke again. "What do I do?" he finally asked.
"In regards to what?" asked Remus, putting the Prophet down.
"Grindelwald. If he would actually agree to make the Vow…"
"You aren't considering giving him the Hallows, are you?"
Harry shrugged. "He can have the stone but he will never get my cloak."
"And the Elder Wand? I'm sure that's the one he wants the most."
"But if he makes the Vow…"
"He will find a way around it; this I am sure of."
"But the Vow would kill him."
"Perhaps. But you don't think he would take precautions?"
"Like what?" asked Harry. "Horcruxes?"
"I don't know, to be honest," answered Remus. "I believe that the Vow would kill your entire soul, so I don't believe Horcruxes would work in this case."
"Then what can he do?"
Remus thought for a moment before speaking. "Can you summon Kreacher here?" he asked Harry.
Confused, Harry obeyed. "Kreacher!" There was a tiny pop, and the ugly house-elf appeared.
"Master called for Kreacher?" asked the elf.
"Er, yes. Remus wanted to see you."
Kreacher turned to Remus. "What does the Werewolf want of Kreacher?"
"Kreacher," started Remus. "Sirius had a large brown box that you were told to keep safe. Bring it to us, please."
When Kreacher didn't move, Harry added, "Do it, Kreacher."
"Yes, Master," Kreacher responded to Harry. "Kreacher lives to serve his Master." Kreacher left but returned momentarily with a box much bigger than him.
"Thank you, Kreacher," said Harry, taking the box. "You can go back to Hogwarts." Without saying a word, Kreacher left with another tiny pop. "What's this?" Harry asked.
"This," said Remus, opening the box and starting to flip through old newspaper clippings, "is what Sirius used to call his treasure chest. He would keep any article that he thought was important. Contrary to what his actions showed, Sirius was quite brilliant, and a lot of what he learned came from these articles."
"So, are they about spells or something?" Harry asked.
"More like experiences. If something were to happen that is not considered common, Sirius would keep it. He's the reason that himself, James, and Peter learned how to become Animagus. He had found an article on it one time and saved it. Ah, here we are," he said, pulling out a very old article. "This one is from 1978, but I remember the day that Sirius ripped it out of the Prophet that I was reading. One that I wasn't finished reading yet, I might add. Here, have a read."
Harry accepted the article from him and began to read:
Milliard Feston, of 63 Canterbury Avenue, is the first person, known to the Ministry, to ever break an Unbreakable Vow and live to tell the day. "It's very simple," said Feston from his Azkaban cell. "Before I made the Vow, I made another Unbreakable Vow with Stiffy." Stiffy is the nickname of Phillip Stifford, the wizard who casted the Unbreakable Vow that was broken. "Stiffy vowed that any Unbreakable Vows that he casted would not be effective. We threw in any combination of sentences that basically had the same meaning. So, when I made the Vow with Todd [Ministry Official Todd Paddock], since Stiffy casted it, it didn't have any merit." The Ministry has since looked into this method and have yet to find any proof that it works. Furthermore, reckless witches and wizards have tried this method since and had failed. "I don't know why it worked for me," said Feston, "but it did. I didn't know if it would but it was worth chancing and clearly I haven't died yet."
Harry stopped reading and looked up at Remus. "So this really works?"
"Well, it worked for him, but nobody since. I feel like there must be more that Feston isn't saying, but the point is, Harry, that I wouldn't trust a wizard like Grindelwald."
Harry thought for awhile. "I need to test him then," he said finally.
"How?"
"I'll tell him I'll do one at a time. We can start with the stone and see what happens from there. I'll say he needs to keep the peace for a month and then I'll give him the next one."
"You will?"
"No, but I need to see if he can get around the Vow or not."
"Harry, he will make you swear as well that you WILL give him the next one if he keeps the peace."
"Well, what else am I supposed to do then?" said Harry angrily.
"I don't know," said Remus, digging through the box. "Sirius was always resourceful; I'll go through these and see what I can find."
"Thanks," said Harry.
"In the meantime, Harry, don't you think you should get to the hospital?"
Hermione Granger – Present Day
December 6, 2000
Hermione looked down at the sheet of parchment in front of her. "How many did we get?" asked Ron, from over her shoulder.
"Sixteen," she answered, still looking down at the parchment. "I'm a little concerned about this one, though," she said, pointing to the seventh person on the list.
"Dennis Creevey?" said Ron, reading the name. "Collin's little brother?"
Hermione nodded. "He completed Hogwarts just last month; I've never seen someone fast-track like that before."
"You would have if you didn't have other commitments."
"I suppose…" she said, trailing off.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ron asked her.
"It's always unnerving to add new people to the Order; you never really know someone's true intentions. But with all of the attacks and all of the guard duty needed, it was essential to expand the Order."
"They all seem trustworthy," answered Ron, reading the names on the list. "Besides, there's your protective charms on it from allowing anyone to speak."
"It won't stop them from trying," corrected Hermione, "but there would be grave consequences and the Order would be notified." She studied the list longer. "Who is Indira Patil? Harry had said to accept her but I've never heard of her before."
"No idea, but if it came from Harry then I'm not worried." Ron reached for a cookie that was sitting on a plate at the centre of the table. "Anybody that didn't make the list?" Ron asked her through mouthfuls of food.
"Just two," she responded. "Draco wasn't allowed in."
"He wanted to join?"
"He's on our side, Ron! Not allowing him into the Order is a farse!"
"The Order has rules," said Ron plainly. "No ex-Death Eaters allowed." Before Hermione could say anything in Draco's defense, Ron asked, "Who was the second person?"
"Ralph Daniels," she answered.
Ron nearly choked on his cookie. "Him? Hermione, he's a descendant of You-Know-Who!"
"Yes, Ronald, why do you think he wasn't allowed in?"
"We need to investigate him."
"I quite agree."
"You do?" asked Ron, surprised.
"Of course! A living Gaunt shows up out of nowhere? There's much more to this story. Do you remember Harry telling us about the memory Dumbledore showed him of where Merope Gaunt grew up?" Ron nodded. "Well, I've been doing some research, and I think I've found the location."
"You want to go there?" asked Ron.
"I think we need to."
"Shall we go then?" asked Ron, standing up.
"What? Now?" asked Hermione.
"Why not? It needs to be done, so why not now?"
"We should wait for Harry…"
"Harry has enough to deal with right now," said Ron quietly. "He hasn't mourned…"
"Neither have you, Ron," Hermione added quietly.
"I would rather be distracted. Come on, let's go."
Reluctantly, Hermione followed Ron out the door, but she conducted the side-along apparition since she was the one who knew where it was. "That must be the house where the muggle Riddle's lived," said Hermione, pointing to a large house to the left. "So the cottage must be this way." The pair didn't have to walk very far to find the very old and very rundown cottage.
"There's no way he lives here, Hermione," said Ron, walking towards the cottage. "Maybe there's something worth seeing inside though."
"Ron, wait!" said Hermione, pulling him back.
"What?" he asked her, annoyed.
"Something's off…" she said, slowly looking around. "You don't feel it?"
"What am I supposed to feel?"
"Magic!"
"Magic? Really, Hermione?"
"No, quiet! I think he's cloaked the cottage!"
"What are you talking abou-" Ron started to say, but stopped in his tracks when he saw Hermione cast a spell. Suddenly, the rundown cottage was gone, and the pair were standing in front of a very modern and clean cottage.
"He charmed it," explained Hermione. "Anyone who comes across it will think it's a rundown cottage and assume that nobody lives here."
"If he didn't want anyone to know, wouldn't it have made more sense to just use the Fidelius Charm?"
"The Fidelius Charm makes your house invisible, Ron. It's used when you need to hide from someone who already knows where you live. If this was under the Fidelius Charm, we would look at it and see nothing at all and know that it was under the charm. By cloaking it, people won't know that anyone actually lives here; it's brilliant!"
"Well, he's clearly hiding something. Shall we take a look?"
Hermione nodded and stepped forward. "Just be careful, Ron; he may have traps set up." Ron opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly, a voice cackled from behind them.
"I don't need traps; I can protect this place on my own. Sectumsempra!"
Walburga Black – The Past
October 31, 1981
Walburga looked down at her watch: 7:30pm. "Where are you, Sirius Black?" she asked outloud.
"I should ask you the same thing!" came the voice of Gregory Dartmouth. "You had promised me that your eldest son would marry my daughter! I did not agree to this charade! You should be lucky that I am even allowing your pathetic excuse of a son marry my daughter."
"Do not act like this marriage does not benefit you, Gregory. The Dartmouth name is nothing compared to the house of Black! You need this marriage to solidify your family's standings!"
"Well? Where is he, then?" asked Gregory, ignoring Walburga's statement.
"I do not know," she answered bitterly.
"Do you think this is some kind of joke? My daughter completed the Ritual Knot! He is the only person she can marry! If you think I am going to allow your family to-"
"Easy, Gregory," said Orion, approaching his wife along with a few of his youngest son's Death Eater companions. "Your daughter will not be stuck without a husband or an heir."
"But Sirius is not here!" spat Gregory.
"Walburga, did Sirius know the consequences of not showing up today?"
"He did."
"Very well, then. You two, go and find Sirius and bring him here." Orion said to the Death Eaters.
"You are going to force him?" asked Gregory.
"I am going to let him watch his loved ones die in front of him then let him decide if he will start complying to our ways. If he chooses not to, then do not worry Gregory, we will kill Sirius and Iris will be free from her Knot."
"And then what? All of the good families are taken! What is my daughter to do then? We had an agreement, Orion!"
"And we still do. Should Sirius not work out, Iris may marry Regulus."
"Regulus?" asked Walburga. "But he has a commitment to the Dark Lord!"
"He can still maintain his commitment as well as give Iris an heir, can't he?" Orion asked the Death Eaters.
"Of course," responded one of the Death Eaters.
"We haven't seen Regulus in a very long time," Walburga said, concerned.
"Busy with his orders from the Dark Lord," said the other Death Eater.
"Very well, then. You two, bring me the Potters as well as Sirius."
"The Potters have the Fidelius Charm protecting them; the Dark Lord has been trying for quite some time."
"I do believe that James' parents are still living, are they not? They will do."
As the Death Eaters left, Walburga turned to her husband and whispered, "Sirius does not get another chance; I want him dead."
"As you wish, my Dear. Gregory, sorry for the delay. Please take Iris home and we will call on you once Sirius has been dealt with and Regulus is available to do his Ritual Knot with her."
"Fine," said Gregory angrily. "But she weds him the same day as the Ritual Knot ceremony; no more games!"
"Oh, I quite agree," nodded Walburga.
Author's Notes: So, I confirmed the death of Arthur Weasley. It wasn't easy to kill him; Arthur is one of my favorite Weasleys.. But someone had to go in that fight and everyone else there has a current storyline in my mind lol so it had to be Arthur. Plus, Grindelwald wouldn't have been able to get to the Burrow unless the secret-keeper was gone anyway.
On to reviews: To my regular "guest" reviewer: I can promise you that there is absolutely nothing romantic between Harry and Indira! I needed to introduce Indira into the story so I used Harry to do so, but they are not into each other, I promise, so don't stress! Also, Indira is closer to the Marauder's age, not Harry's. "Melindaleo", thanks for checking it out! You aren't the first not to like Draco; I've noticed that he's loved or hated there really is no in between! Personally, I believe that there is much more to him than we've seen. In the books, yes he is a bully, but what more do we really know? We know he is loyal to his family and we know that Voldemort told him if he didn't kill Dumbledore, then he would kill Draco and most likely his family. We also know that Draco struggled with that and even when Dumbledore was right in front of him, he struggled with actually casting the spell. See, I look at it differently. We all believe that we would never kill anyone, but what if you were put in that situation? Either kill someone who you don't really know, or you and your whole family dies. It's a very difficult situation to be in. I know I would struggle with it because as a mom, I would do anything to protect my son and so if it meant killing someone to save him, I can't say that I wouldn't consider it. Because Draco really isn't explored too much in the book, I use my story to really bring life to him. As my story is canon however, I think that will give insight as to what will happen (if you've read DH's epilogue.) Also, in regards to Ron and Katie, I don't consider that attempted murder. He didn't try to harm them; both the necklace and the bottle of wine or whatever it was were meant for Dumbledore. How was Draco to know that Ron would drink it or Katie would touch it? In regards to Ginny's hair, I agree that the Weasley red is pretty much their trade mark. I wanted Ginny to sort of rebel, however, which is why she did it. If you remember in the beginning of this story, she was sort of pushing herself away from her family. However, since I too think all Weasley's should have red hair, I made her dye it back to red after her and Harry made up. It was simply a rebellious stage! As for the electives, I feel that they should be mandatory for many reasons. For one, there's no such thing as too much education or too much knowledge. Regardless of what career you choose, all courses can you help you at some point in life. For instance, Care of Magical Creatures can help you if you ever find yourself in a situation where you've come across a dangerous animal. A male would know not to touch a unicorn, someone would know to not insult a hippogriff, etc. Also, in this particular story, Muggle Studies would be important to know as well since the Statute of Secrecy has been lifted. Just because you choose a career in one thing, doesn't mean you shouldn't be knowledgeable in another. School doesn't only prepare someone for their career, it prepares them for life too. "Cbird28" thank you so very much! I was having a rough day when I received your review and I can honestly say that you turned it around! I'm glad I can be of help to you! (I, too, have a baby, I get how hard night feedings are!)
Okay! Next chapter was a hard one for me to write, not sure if you will have the same "feels" as me, but it was definitely tough! I have a busy weekend ahead of me (Husband turned 30 today so we are having a huge party for him) so I thought I would post for you all today just in case I can't on the weekend!
Oh, one final thing, I know that Regulus is already dead in that "past" scene, but his family doesn't know that yet!
Thanks as always, and keep those reviews/questions/comments coming!