Fractured Time

Summary: Continuation of Birth of a Nightmare Man chapter thirteen, where we left Rabastan and Draco wondering about Harry Potter's fate. But now time has become a strange thing, and their world is dying. How can they escape? Will they ever see Harry Potter again?

Pairing/s: None.

Warnings: Time-travelling and dimension-travelling, some violence and gore. People acting OOC.

Disclaimers: I don't own Harry Potter nor do I make any money on fanfiction.

NOTE: Do not re-upload on sites as goodreads or Wattpad, or any other site for that matter. I do not give permission to do so.

-o-

Writer's block is hell, but I swore to myself I'm getting this, and the latest chapter of The Nightmare Man's Journey out before Christmas. Enjoy!

Fractured Time takes place around five years before The Nightmare Man's Journey.

-o-

Chapter Eight

Harrison had stopped counting his stupid decisions a long time ago, but he was sure Elise kept a tally of it somewhere. It had to be an alarmingly large amount of times he'd done something stupid. This one… well, it wasn't as stupid as letting himself be caught by the Wizard's Council, but it was a near thing.

Of course Bones' group would take him away immediately. He just thought he would have a bit more time than that, so his servants and Rabastan caught one of the group members to find out where they were going.

Instead everyone in the group was there, and his servants and Rabastan was most likely clueless as to where he was. Great. Just great.

Elise wouldn't let him out of his bedroom for a year for doing this to her, and the others. Chains would most likely be involved. Some threats too. Possibly cutting off his arms and legs so he couldn't run. Never mind he would eventually grow new ones if the old ones weren't attached back to his body; she'd chop those off too. Rabastan, the traitor, would definitely help her. He'd be laughing his head off too while doing it. Why? Because he was a traitor, that's why.

Back to the situation at hand; why must he be so incredibly stupid? Isn't he supposed to be the feared Nightmare Lord? The one who slaughtered whole villages, and laughed at people's despair? The one who got caught by the Wizard's Council because of reasons, haha, so funny. The one that now got caught at the hands of literal children in his eyes. There had to be some talent involved at this point. Talent of stupidity.

Harrison tested the chains, but they remained tight around his legs, chest and remaining arm. Where the hell had they even found magic-suppressing chains?! This sucked. This was the worst.

And also, probably because everything else sucked, his nose was itching. Maybe because of the punch he'd been given. He crossed his eyes to try and look at it. Was it broken? Would it, in that case, heal broken and he had to re-break it? Out of all the things he had broken, he had probably never broken his nose. Or had he broken his nose? Better ask Elise; she probably kept a record of everything that has happened to his body as well.

Why would she do that? Well, because she liked to point out how many things he did to worry them, and do that thing with tapping her foot and putting her hands on her hips, staring down her nose at him. As if he was the child, and had done something naughty.

He should really stop indulging her in those moments, but Harrison had a hard time doing that, because it showed how much she cared about him and ugh, feelings.

"Are you even listening?!"

"No," he replied, and was promptly punched again. "Bit violent, wouldn't you say?"

"As if you have any right to talk!"

He didn't recognize most people in the room. Only Bones was familiar. She was quiet, barely looking at him. Was she tired? She looked tired. He wondered if she would still look tired when he wrenched her arms off.

When, not if. He refused to think if. He was going to get out of these chains, and he was going to fucking pull Bones' arms off. It would make him feel better about this whole fiasco. Because of this, Elise would have even stronger arguments next time he wanted to play bait. Fuck.

"Are all the wards set up?" someone asked.

"Yeah, but still… we should get another place ready."

"Find another place as well," Bones said. "Ward it as well as this one. Someone will try and find him. You saw it; he wasn't alone."

"Good eyes," Harrison replied to her. "And you probably should find another place. Elise gets awfully angry when I do stupid things, and she tends to take that out on others. Possibly by ripping them in two. Or kicking them to death with her spiky shoes."

They flinched and by the gods, did he love that reaction. He grinned, and someone kicked him in the face. His lip split and he laughed, blood dripping down his face.

"You're very bendy," he told the man who had kicked him, and received another one, this time to the stomach. "Ooh, you want to torture me? Go ahead. Do it. Kick me to death! Rip me to shreds!"

"Don't!"

Bones got up.

"He's just trying to provoke you," she continued. "Don't fall for it. Potter… you've turned even crueller now."

"Oh, you noticed? I would applaud you but then again, I'm missing an arm and the other one is chained. Unchain me, and I might find a way to applaud you, just for fun."

Or rip her arms off. Perhaps rip her arms off and clap her hands together, as she lay dying from blood loss? How would that work though? He still only had one arm.

"Why are you doing this?" Bones said. "You just keep hurting people! Back then, and now… you haven't changed. You haven't repented. You're just…"

"Just what? A monster? A murderer? Both those titles would fit me quite well. I got good at killing, and it was fun. So I just continued. Not known for doing much else than that."

"Why?"

"I just told you; I got good at killing, so I just continued doing that."

"But why?"

"Asking again won't give you a different answer," Harrison said. "Gods know so many have tried in the past. Why, why, why, why? They love to ask that question. It's like simple words won't register in their tiny, little minds. So I'll spell it out just once more, for you, Minister; I like killing people. So I kill them."

Her face twisted and he loved that too. He loved that reaction so much a shiver went through his body and the laughter bubbled up before he even noticed it. He threw his head back and kept on laughing even as the others began shouting at him.

A spell hit him with so much force the chair was pushed back, the legs lifted and he fell to the floor. The spell itself was tearing at his flesh, making his body twitch and flail as much as it could while still bound and he laughed through the pain, arching into it.

He just had to endure. Enduring was easy; the pain was constant, but he knew it would be over eventually. If his heart happened to stop and he let his body fail with it, the pain would stop all together.

Harrison's heart didn't stop, but the spell did and he lay panting on the floor, grinning. The chair was righted, and he let his head hang for a moment. Blood seeped through his clothing.

"Don't let him manipulate you!" he heard Bones yell at someone. "He was anticipating that attack and you walked right into it!"

"He doesn't deserve to live! Let's just kill him and leave his corpse to be found by those he was with!"

That wouldn't be too bad, actually. But that meant he wouldn't get to kill them, which was bad. Because he really wanted to kill them.

"And then what?" Bones said. "We'll be hunted."

"No, we won't, minister, he can't be that important!"

Oh, if only they knew… but glancing up between the strands of hair hanging in front of his eyes, Harrison saw on Bones' face she might suspect he was kind of important in this world. Had she figured out he was the Nightmare Lord? Or did she at least suspect it? After all, what he had done as the Nightmare Lord was just a worse version of what he did in their original dimension.

Had no one else from her little group figured it out? He felt it should be fairly easy. Or did they think he was still young?

"Do you want to chance it?" Bones said. "We need to stop for a moment, and think. We need an escape route. To another country, where his people can't get to us."

Borders had never bothered his servants. Never bothered him either. Harrison did try to respect that nowadays, but it still happened from time to time. He always made sure to be discreet when killing or taking from another country, but seeing as he didn't want to be discreet when killing Bones' group he should probably kill them sooner than later. So he shouldn't let them escape the country.

"We can kill him first!"

"If they find us too quickly, we need him alive."

"Minister, they won't find us!"

Harrison relaxed for a bit as people argued back and forth. His body was repairing itself. The chains that were suppressing his magic didn't seem to work on whatever made his body regenerate, just like the chains he'd worn in his prison. Well, those kept him alive, but a fair bit weakened.

These ones didn't feel as sturdy, especially not after the spell that had his entire body flail around so violently. So maybe he could get out? No, better not expect he could get loose on his own. Still, Harrison flexed his arm every now and then, trying to see if the chains were weakening.

"Take him to the other room," Bones finally said. "We'll work on our escape route."

He let them think he was unconscious, and they gripped him hard enough to leave bruises. Well, those would heal quite quickly so he didn't bother getting angry about it.

Someone wrenched his head up by his hair, and Harrison kept his eyes closed. Blood still leaked out of his nose, and he resisted the urge to lick it off his lips.

"Why are you so scared of him, Minister?"

"I don't think he came here just a few years ago," Bones replied. "You've heard them too, all of you. The rumours about this strange, dark lord…"

"There's no way that's real. That's just fake."

"And how do any of us know that? Even so, just five years ago this lord wrecked havoc on the Ministry. Helped killed Dumbledore, sided with Voldemort. If Potter was that lord…"

"There's no way!" someone else repeated. "Minister, you worry too much. Potter can't do anything politically; he's not suited for it!"

What did killing have to do with politics? Harrison wondered if they were right in their heads.

Whoever held his head up tugged harder, perhaps to see if he would react. Harrison didn't, and they let go of his hair. Two people grabbed the chair he was chained to, and dragged him to the other room. They threw him to the floor, one of them kicking him, before slamming the door shut and locking it.

Harrison opened his eyes.

It was kind of annoying lying on the floor while chained to a chair, but he couldn't do much about it right now. He flexed his arm again, and a thrill worked its way down his spine when the chains gave way a little bit.

So maybe he could get out on his own. Good. Elise and the others were probably looking all over for him, but it would be nice if he didn't need their assistance to remove some bloody chains. He had already experienced that once, and while Christian probably didn't remember that part, Harrison very much did. Granted, they were strong chains but it had still been pretty embarrassing.

For now though, he continued flexing his arm, and strained his legs. He just hoped the chair wouldn't break, because that would pretty much leave him stranded until help arrived. Considering the nosebleed was still going strong, and he felt the metallic tang of blood in his mouth, said help would see him in a sorry state and be even angrier about the whole ordeal. And yes, he knew the help would be Elise at the very least.

She could never keep herself away when he was injured, nor could she ever pass up an opportunity to tell him what an idiot he was.

-o-

Elise was not pleased. Anyone who saw her could see it clear as day. No, she was in fact furious. Harrison's arm was laid out on a table, not the dining room table, thank Merlin, and Rabastan kept twitching every time said arm twitched.

"Why does it keep doing that now again?" he asked her.

"There's still magic in it," Elise replied. "I put some more in, so hopefully we can just attach it back to master's body and it'll heal right back on."

"That's kind of weird."

But then again, that was how Rabastan met him in this world, putting his own arm back to his own stump. How Harrison's body was functioning was something Rabastan didn't even begin to understand, so he left it at that and focused more on the map Elise had spread out.

"Master's magic has gone away so we can't sense it, meaning he's behind wards that prevent us from noticing him," she said. "But there are quite a few places we can check out for warded areas."

The other servants were nodding. Draco was in the back along with Harry. The children were asleep, once they were assured by Lucian that Harrison would return home soon. Considering how easily they accepted that, Harrison disappearing on them must be pretty frequent.

That or they had simply stopped freaking out whenever he didn't come home when he should. Rabastan wondered if that was good for kids to react in that manner. But then again, they were being raised by Harrison, a dark lord who had terrorized people for centuries so he should be glad they weren't being murderous little bastards.

Also, they had Harry, who was perhaps one of the most normal people in the entire manor. The twins were alright, but they were pranksters at heart. Severus appeared to be one of their baby-sitters, and was like a teacher to them, but he also seemed to be more murderous in this dimension. Probably because of Harrison.

"But not all of us can leave," Elise continued. "Even if the manor is warded, I don't like leaving the children alone."

"I'll stay," Harry said.

"Me too," Draco continued.

"You just don't want to Apparate everywhere," Rabastan told him.

"I'll let you do all the work," Draco replied.

"Alright, so Harry and special Draco are staying behind," Elise said.

For some reason, the servants sometimes called them that, at least the older ones did. Special Rabastan and special Draco. Or master's friend Rabastan and master's friend Draco. They couldn't just call them by their names, they had to add something.

"The Dementors will remain nearby," Elise said, "so there shouldn't be a need for you two to go outside. Master installed a group of Inferi close by too, and they are alerted if someone breaks through the wards. All you have to do is stay up until someone returns."

"Sounds easy enough," Draco said as he looked at the map. "You lot are the ones who are going to have more trouble."

Elise tapped her finger against each location she seemed to know had abandoned places or was just a good place to remain out of sight from Muggles and magical people alike. Rabastan wondered if it was a hobby of hers, just going out to check out where people could hide and also put up wards without any trouble. Harrison had mentioned during one of their many conversations that she liked wards. And by liking wards, he added that she liked breaking them down.

They divided into pairs to check each location Elise had marked on the map. Rabastan would go with her. They each got their map, with the locations they were going to check marked with a small, glowing light.

Everyone had several places to look at, but was instructed to return to the manor if they didn't find Harrison.

"This will take some time," Elise told Rabastan. "We'll work though the night."

"I can handle that," he replied. "If I at some point find out that I can't, I'll let you know."

"Good."

Rabastan could see why everyone in the household looked for Elise for information or confirmation of something. She was an organizer and the leader in Harrison's absence. One would say she was quite different from him, and in a way she was, but in another way she was very much like her master. Perhaps a tad sadistic, but certainly as violent as Harrison could become.

"Let's move out."

"Good luck," Harry told them. "When you find him, whichever of you do, yell at him."

"I'll do more than yell," Elise promised as she stuffed the cut-off arm into an ever-expanding pouch.

"Elise, if you're the one to find him… just don't rip off the other arm before he can kill the rest of that group," Harry said. "If he doesn't get to kill at least a couple of them, he'll be moping and I can't handle him moping."

"You mean he'll be like a grumpy child," Ywgraine said. "It's kind of cute."

"I dare you to say that to his face," Joanne told her.

"Deal."

They shook hands, and Rabastan rolled his eyes. Harrison's ridiculousness had rubbed off on them too.

-o-

Harrison wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he was thirsty and the light outside the windows had changed. He was also very bored. No one had even come in to check on him!

But that meant he could work on the chains in peace. They were brittle compared to the ones that held him in that cell. No, not just brittle; completely useless. They were already giving way. So they hadn't gotten a very good quality on their magic-suppressing chains; Harrison hoped they had to pay a fortune for it anyway. Financial ruin before literal ruin and death; lovely.

He heard murmurs of voices of course. People walking around. They were restless, and angry, and without hope. Bones kept talking about leaving the country, starting a new life somewhere else. She had the right idea, and if they had done that from the start, Harrison probably wouldn't have bothered with them.

But they had to keep making trouble, and kidnapping Harry. So they wouldn't get away even if they managed to flee. However, Harrison vowed to not let them escape for very long, or very far. He wanted them to feel like he was just a step behind them, and that they would be afraid. So very afraid.

He didn't feel like playing with them though. He wanted them dead. In utter despair, and then dead. Should he kill them with magic, or do it manually? But for choking, he'd need his arm back. Or well, he could do it one-armed, but two arms were better than one.

Did he want to choke them to death? Or did he want to rip them open, let their organs fall out of their bodies, and as they writhed on the ground he'd lift their heart and crush it in his hand? Second option was very tempting. It was a well-used option too. It was the fear in their eyes that made Harrison come back to that manner of killing. The absolute, sheer terror as they saw their own heart pumping wildly in his hand.

Yes, he'd do that to Bones at least. The others could be killed in any other way, but he wanted to hold her heart in his hand and let her see her death coming. Well, after ripping her arms off first.

The chains snapped. Harrison pulled back the magic that was on the verge to rush out, and looked up at the door. The voices didn't stop talking. Someone scraped a chair across the floor, apparently then sitting down on it. Someone complained about their hunger. No one had noticed.

He carefully moved away from the chair and stood up, making sure his movements were soundless. So it had been a really bad quality on the chains, if they didn't even hold a full day. No matter, it just meant he didn't have to get rescued from the chains at the very least.

Harrison moved to the window, crouched down and considered his options for a few moments. His arm hadn't started to re-grow yet; if his servants had the part that was severed, it would be easily reattached. Either way, it left him with one arm for now.

Well, one arm and two legs. He was good at kicking people. With magic, he could infuse his entire leg with power and make sure he broke bones. So he had that going for him. Of course he could use spells too, he didn't need two arms to use spells, but he wanted to kill Bones without using spells. Well, one spell to cut her up, since he didn't have a knife on him at the moment. Or, he could conjure up a knife and slice her open with it.

As for the rest… he could kill them with spells, although it wouldn't be as fun.

Harrison glanced at the door. He could just kick the door open, and take it from there. But occasionally, not very often, he actually got the idea to wait and plan a little bit.

He also could get out of the window and break through the wards if they prevented him from leaving. Get back to the manor, reattach his arm and regroup. Perhaps some would consider that to be the cowardly way, but Harrison didn't mind that. At one point he did, but running away was perfectly alright for him now.

But no, he wasn't going to run away this time. He wanted it to be over with. Bones' group was annoying, and if left alone after this they might actually get in contact with the rebels. That would just cause more problems in the future. Harrison enjoyed some good chaos, but wasn't feeling inclined to have the rebels know about his past and create chaos based on that.

So, not running. He moved closer to the door and listened.

"Minister Bones, really, what should we do with him?"

"We're going to kill him, of course, why are you even asking her what we should do?"

"But, he didn't seem that worried…"

"Who cares? Once he's dead, we can figure things out!"

Bones was being awfully quiet. But for real, they were still arguing about killing him, or keeping him alive? How boring. He'd rather listen to the one complaining they were hungry.

"But the Ministry here… and You-Know-Who is alive as well. Even Hogwarts is under their control!"

"I heard about rebels."

Oh no, not good.

"There are loads of them, still," the same voice continued, excited. "You-Know-Who and Malfoy are busy dealing with them most of the time. We'll get in contact with them after killing Potter!"

Well, that wasn't happening. Alright, he had stepped back and thought about it all for a bit; should he kick the door open and take it from there now?

Before he could go through with that plan, he felt the wards shudder. People were getting out of their seats, running to the windows. Harrison looked out as well; the wards were visible in the air, most likely by the numerous cracks appearing in them. Someone was coming in, and that someone was not happy.

Which meant it was Elise and she was pissed off it took her this long to find where Harrison was kept. He grinned.

The wards broke apart with a loud crack, so loud it made Harrison's ears pop, and immediately something exploded outside the house. He heard Elise shout. Alright, so she was pissed at the group, and also at him. He supposed he deserved her anger for being snatched away just like she had feared.

People began to shout, and Harrison stood up. He let the magic loose; let it strengthen the muscles and bones in his legs before walking over the door. He kicked it down. A bit dramatic, yes, but he liked drama sometimes.

The wood splintered, and spells were coming for him. Harrison shifted, throwing his hand to the side and his own magic tore through the air. The spells were pulled aside and the wall exploded as the spells hit. Flames began to lick at the old wood as he stepped through to the room.

People were already fleeing.

"Weren't you going to kill me?" he yelled at them. "Come on now, don't be shy! Do your worst. I dare you!"

Elise was screaming outside, and then Rabastan's voice came through:

"Fire! Elise, the fire, don't go… oh, of course you go through the fire! You're as crazy as your master!"

Harrison used magic to blow out another wall, and jumped down instead of using the stairs.

"You fucking idiot!" Rabastan roared at him.

What, he had strengthened his bones and muscles! Oh yeah, Rabastan didn't know that. Instead of shouting that to Rabastan, he decided to get to the point instead:

"Kill them!"

He grabbed the nearest person that was trying to run away and pulled, ripping off the arm. Blood sprayed onto his face. It wasn't Bones, but it was pretty satisfying nonetheless. Next he got to see Elise land a kick on a woman. The squelch and the woman's scream, then blood flooding out of her mouth, told him Elise was indeed wearing her spiky shoes.

But some were running… away from the house. Towards a point where they could Apparate. Harrison's focus zeroed in on Bones, who was one of them. He was hit by a spell that made pain rip across his back, dig into his spine, and he lost balance for a moment. But he still had time to throw his magic out, have it attach to Bones like a beacon, or more like a tight leash, just before she Apparated.

Then he turned and dug into the stomach of the man who had fired the previous spell at him. It was one of them who insisted he wasn't the Nightmare Lord. Harrison grinned.

"Hi," he said brightly. "I'm the Nightmare Lord! Now, I'm holding onto something slippery, do you feel that?"

He squeezed and the man screamed.

"Oh, you felt that. Good. Now, I can be really nice and break your neck so you die instantly… or I can be really mean and keep you alive until I've ripped you to shreds. Which one do you think I will do today?"

"You're… monster! Monster!"

"That's getting repetitive. It's an overused word. I don't like it anymore. Come up with something better, yeah? I'll make sure to do enough evil stuff to you that you'll be encouraged to come up with a better insult towards me."

Spells were flying all around him, and smoke was filling the air but Harrison's focus had shifted from Bones to the man, and he turned his hand sharp, like a claw, and began ripping the stomach open. The blood gurgled up from the wound and started spilling down the sides. The man was writhing on the ground, trying to pull Harrison's arm out, yelling at him.

But once Harrison was determined to dig through someone's stomach, not much could stop him from doing just that. The man screamed suddenly in pain, words cutting out, and Harrison laughed.

The spells died out and the smoke cleared. All too soon, the man stopped fighting. His arms fell back to the ground, and the eyes became glassy. His mouth stopped moving, and he hadn't found one good insult. Harrison was very disappointed.

"Master."

Harrison didn't answer.

"Master," Elise's voice came again. "Master, he's dead."

"He died so quickly," Harrison said. "He didn't even insult me in a creative manner."

"How dare he not do that," she said.

"Are you trying to cheer me up?"

"Maybe? I have your arm, master."

"Oh, you do? Why yes, look, it's wriggling and everything… creepy."

Elise rolled her eyes and pulled his stump up so she could forcefully push the arm against it. Magic latched on onto both ends, and Harrison winced as it burned. But it didn't take long before Elise let go and while he couldn't move the arm very well, it didn't fall off at the very least.

Rabastan grabbed him from behind, under his arms, and pulled him up away from the man's corpse.

"He was so boring, Rabastan," Harrison complained. "I told him to come up with something else to insult me with, but he just kept saying monster over and over again…"

"Yes, yes, I know, so disappointing," Rabastan said. "Does he always sulk when people don't get creative with him?"

"Like a child," Elise said. "Complete with temper tantrums and throwing things."

"You keep putting out vases that I get to throw," Harrison said.

"It's either that, or you throw something I actually care about," Elise replied. "Master, I will yell at you later but right now there is a more pressing matter. Some of the group managed to escape."

He finally took a look around. Out of the group that had survived until today, half of them lay dead on the ground around them. Bones and a few others managed to escape. Would they escape together? Or would they scatter?

Oh, well… better start with what he could do.

"What should we do about that?" Elise continued.

"Don't worry, Elise," he said. "I put a leash on Bones."

"Should we regroup?" Rabastan said. "Get some more people?"

"No," Harrison said. "Why let them think they're safe? No, we're going hunting."

"Good thing I brought my spiky shoes," Elise said, quite chipper.

"Yes, good girl. Maybe I'll even find another ward for you to break down. Was it fun breaking down this one?"

"A bit. It wasn't very good though."

"Such a shame. You should tell them that before you kill them."

It was stretched out, but he could feel it; the magic attached to Bones told Harrison exactly where she was. He grabbed Elise and Rabastan, and said:

"Hold on."

He then Apparated after Bones.

To be continued…

The climax is imminent!

Chapter nine: Time to hunt. Will Harrison catch Bones and what's left of her group?

See you later,

Tiro