Chapter two
Time skip
Death eater after death eater were turning up dead, apparently from heart failure, but all of them were left where they would be found and with their dark mark's clearly exposed. People began to realise that Fudge had been lying as some of the death eaters had been too young during the first war with Voldemort.
One thing that really confused everyone was the mark left on the check of each death eater, it was a lightning bolt. No one on either side could find out what was going on or why these men, who were in good health, ended up dead, or why they were marked. The lightning bolt made them think of Harry, but they didn't know if he was involved.
Harry had not been seen in two years and the last they heard from him was a year ago. That letter basically told them he wouldn't help them, they were on their own. He believed his life was better away from all of them. He wasn't going to risk his life or freedom for idiots like Fudge, Snape and Dumbledore. He wrote his parent's gave up their lives for him so he was going to have a life, a life without any of them who either want to use him for the-boy-who-lived, or persecute him for things he didn't do. They were on their own. That was the last time anyone heard from Harry Potter and no one was sure if they would ever hear from him again.
Albus had called an emergency meeting, he was standing in the kitchen of Grimmauld place waiting until everyone turned up.
'What's going on Albus?' Kingsley asked.
'Voldemort decided it was time to find out how his death eaters were dying. He sent three out after gathering the information on where the death eaters were seen last. He followed but kept himself invisible and out of sight.'
'Coward,' Mad-eye growled.
'So did he find out how they died?' Bill asked.
'It seems they knew of a house but it was invisible and well warded. It wasn't the fidelius charm or had wards that the death eaters didn't know. They approached cautiously, they ended up falling down dead and they were marked with the same lightning bolt to their cheek like the others. From what Voldemort found out, the wards surrounding this place shoots muggle darts or needles straight into their chest. Once he knew they were being stuck with something, he had Severus do further examinations, including a muggle autopsy.'
'So some muggleborn that knows muggle drugs is injecting these death eaters with something to stop the heart,' Hermione said.
'No, it's not a muggleborn, or we do not believe it is. It is not a muggle drug, in fact it is a very rare poison from a magical animal, venom to be precise.'
'Albus, just tell us,' Mad-eye growled.
'It was venom from a basilisk.'
'Harry,' Ron and Hermione shouted.
'We do not have any evidence it is Harry, but we did find out that the basilisk was stripped clean. If Harry went back down to the chamber of secrets and rendered the snake into parts, he could have sold that for millions. I have some contacts trying to find out if any basilisk parts ever turned up for sale in the last two years.'
'How did you get in when only a parselmouth could open the chamber of secret's?' Molly asked.
'When Fawkes went to Harry's aide and saved his life, I was curious if the phoenix could take me down there. At the time there was too much going on so I never got around to it, then I admit, I forgot. When Severus sent word about his findings, I had Fawkes take me down. I never believed he could take someone into the chamber, only out, but to my shame, he did. If I had known I would have went down there the moment Mrs. Norris was found petrified.'
'Even though it's not proof, I hate thinking Harry is killing people,' Hermione said.
'He's not and cannot be convicted of murder. It's not against the law to ward your home and some people use nasty curses. They feel that if someone wants to risk their life or minds by breaking into their home then they have the right to defend it any way they see fit. If Harry is doing this, then all he did was rig up wards that would stick someone with a poison if they tried to get onto his property. But this could be what the aurors called the death wards,' Remus said.
'There's no proof it's the same wards, but I'm not ruling it out,' Albus said.
'Harry's letter did say he wouldn't risk his life or freedom for the arseholes running the ministry,' Sirius said, 'It seems he found a way to get rid of death eaters without putting himself or his freedom at risk. For all we know it's not Harry, someone else could have done this, they might have bought the venom to use as protection.'
'Do you honestly believe that Sirius?' Tonks asked.
'I'm not sure what to believe, it's circumstantial right now. It's basilisk venom, the basilisk was stripped so yes Harry would be the only one that could do it. But as I said, he may have sold it, there are hundreds and hundreds of people hiding or fleeing the country. For all we know this person didn't want to leave or couldn't leave, so he worked on some protection. Yes, it could be Harry, but the last letter was a year ago, he's now an adult and free to do what he wants without any one's input. If Harry was in this country, then I'm sure he would have contacted someone.'
'Not us, we proved we couldn't be trusted, at least in Harry's eyes,' Hermione said.
'Maybe he's been in contact with Neville, he did write to Neville during those holidays,' Ron said.
'I may pay a visit to Mr. Longbottom,' Albus said.
'If Neville knows anything Albus, you are the last person he would tell. If Harry has visited him then Harry would have told him exactly what was going on, including the fact you ordered all of us not to write to him, to keep Harry isolated.'
'He wouldn't tell me either,' Ron said with a sigh.
'What about the twins?' Charlie asked.
'The twins are loyal to Harry, if they know anything, they will not inform anyone in the order,' Sirius said.
'I believe Harry does have allies, the twins, along with Neville and as far as we know, others that would have felt like we all betrayed him,' Remus said.
'We could make Neville believe one of you are not a member of the order, then he may tell us,' Mad-eye said.
'No, he would ask for an oath or something before he would ever speak about things Harry's asked him not too,' Sirius said.
'We don't even know if Harry is still in contact with anyone, or even if he's in the country. No one has seen him since Arabella helped him with his cousin after the dementor attack,' Kingsley said.
'I think we should find out where this property is, if I can cast some spells at it I might figure out how to break them,' Bill said.
'It's too dangerous Bill,' Molly said.
'Everything we do is dangerous, we do know that whoever is doing this is not on Voldemort's side. I won't get too close, all I want to do is check it out.'
'If you did Bill, you would need backup. Voldemort knows where it is, I'm sure he's having it monitored. It would not be safe if you turned up alone,' Mad-eye said.
'Let's organise it, at least Bill can do what he is trained for, without actually breaking them.'
Everyone began making plans, but one persons slipped out of the kitchen and up to her room. Ginny had an idea, but first she had to make sure no one saw her writing a letter to Harry. When Ginny was done she called Dobby.
'Miss Weasy called Dobby.'
'Yes, Dobby, I did. I was hoping you could take this letter to Harry, we would just like to know he's okay. We keep hearing rumours that he has been captured, then we hear he was killed. None of us are sure what is going on, so we need to know.'
'Harry Potter is fine Miss Weasy.'
'Yes, I had a feeling you were with him. But could you still take it? Just ask him to write back so we know. We don't want anything and we won't be asking him to return, we just want to know he's okay. I have to know Dobby, I love Harry and hope when the war is over Harry might just see me as a young woman and not the little sister of his friend. Please Dobby, take my letter to him.'
'Very well Miss Weasy,' Dobby took the letter then popped out.
Ginny chuckled then hurried back downstairs and hoped no one had missed her. She sat beside her father to listen in on the plans. Within a few minutes Ginny screamed as a bright flash lit up the kitchen. A piece of parchment floated down onto the table before it shredded, then a voice echoed around the kitchen.
"My wards protect me from tracking charms, they have a very nasty return to sender curse attached to it which will automatically curse the sender. Too bad you'll be scarred for life, but the scar will never heal and will always cause pain. You got what you deserve for trying to trick my elf and find me."
The voice faded, but it was a voice they all recognised, Harry's voice. Molly had hurried Ginny over to the sink to stop bleeding.
'How is she Molly?' Albus asked.
Molly turned her daughter around to show Ginny had a large lightning scar across her cheek, the same scar that all the dead death eaters ended up with.
'I think that proves that Harry is the one, or his wards are the ones killing death eaters,' Remus said.
'Did you call Dobby, Ginny?' Arthur asked.
'Yes, I asked him to take a letter to Harry, he agreed.'
'And you ended up cursed because it had a tracking charm attached to it. You're lucky your not dead. If Harry has these wards that kill, he could have done the same with the return to sender curse. You should have asked us before going ahead with it. But if I get my hands on Harry I'll curse him,' Arthur said.
'He said you tried to trick my elf, what did you say to him Ginny?' Hermione asked.
'I told Dobby we kept hearing rumours that Harry was dead or captured. I figured if we could track the letter that Dobby took, then we would know if it is him killing the death eaters. Is there anything that can fix this scar?'
'We will examine it and research, I'm sure there is some counter to it. It just might take awhile to find something. We may even need to come up with our own counter to this,' Remus said, but everyone heard the unsaid words, Harry would have made sure it had no counter. It would be his way to stop anyone trying something like this again. Who would want a large and painful scar on their face?
