Chapter Fourteen

Voldemort's Plan

It was a fine sunny morning and the beginning of August when the heat of the summer was upon them all. The cells of Azkaban did not feel the heat of the outside world. The inhabitants lived in a bleak world made unbearable by the constant vigilance of the Dementors and the despair of no possible escape.

Red fires burned in pits in the dungeons and various kinds of creatures worked and died in them. Sometimes the silence was broken by insane screams from inmates who had been pushed beyond their capacities and limits.

Lupin had not slept. Given his animal-like sensibilities he was more tuned in to his surroundings and also more able to tolerate discomfort. He listened to footsteps coming down the corridor and remained crouched in the darkened corner waiting.

Several large muscular wizards, stripped to the waist, glistening with sweat, followed a Death Eater, masked and wearing a long black robe. The wizard stopped before their cell.

"Open it," he commanded. The half-naked men opened the door and Lupin stood.

"Take the red head."

"Why? What do you want with him?" Lupin asked. Ron had come awake very quickly as soon as their hands gripped him and pulled him from the cell.

"Your turn will come Lupin. Fenrir has something special planned for his brother." The Death Eater laughed and spun on his heels and approached the cell next to them. "Take the muggle-born girl," he said and then continued up the corridor. The other muscleman opened the door and reached in to pull Hermione out into the corridor. Fleur was protesting loudly in French and Ginny was holding onto one of Hermione's arms. She was pushed back easily by the muscular arm.

"Don't fight them, Ginny! You'll only get hurt." Lupin shouted loudly as the door to his cell was thrown shut. "Hermione! Ron! Hang on the best you can!" He clung to the metal as long as he could hear the footsteps as they retreated and then let go and banged his head against the door silently cursing himself. He knew why they had been taken. They were Harry's friends. It was now only hours before their execution was scheduled.

And he had no plan of escape.

Harry thought about returning to Grimmauld Place and knew would be unsafe. There were very few places that were safe and where there was a hope Snape could follow him or find him. He finally settled on the one he knew and felt comfortable at, and that was Godric's Hollow. It was his only home.

Before going there, he returned to the cemetery where he had met Lupin only a few nights before. He pulled the box from his robe, opened the lid carefully to make sure the Horcrux was still inside. Snape would want to destroy it immediately, but somehow Harry knew if needed, he would trade it for someone's life. He withdrew his wand and concentrated to carefully transfigure the box into a vase. This he placed on a shelf just under the stained glass windows.

Before going, he ran his hand along the marble walls of his parents graves and said goodbye to them. Maybe my journey ends here, mum...dad. Maybe I won't go any further, he thought as his fingers caressed the engraved lettering. "Maybe you would be disappointed in me, but I'm going to try and find Azkaban and I'm going to try and save my friends and if I can, I will rid the world of this murderer who took you from me. But mum...dad...I'm afraid," he whispered the words to the wall of names and felt the letters of his own last name surface under his fingertips. And although there were specters and ghosts that wandered the grounds outside the tomb, there were none inside.

"There is very little broom traffic right now," a deep voice said in the quiet that followed Harry's confession. "Perhaps we should proceed with all haste to Azkaban while we can."

Harry turned around, surprised Snape was standing there. "How..."

"...did I find you?" Snape finished the sentence for him. "I've been to a dozen places and there will be others-his servants- who will do the same, looking for you. These places are not secrets, Potter and you would do well to remember it. Now, we must leave."

Harry stood with his hand still on the cold marble and studied the man dressed in a long flowing dark robe. He didn't trust him. He'd come away from the Death Eaters in the street unscathed and had found him too quickly. "I would think HE would have more on his mind right now then hunting me down."

Snape turned to leave and said as he ducked his head and stepped out into the sunlight. "I am your only hope, Potter, whether you trust me or not. If you wish to save your friends you will come with me now. We...they... are fast running out of time. The Dark Lord engineered this abduction of all of your friends for the sole purpose of trapping you."

"Why am I so important, Mr. Snape?" He walked through the same door and confronted Snape in the sunlight. Harry continued, "He has what he wanted, everyone is now siding with him. Why all the energy directed towards finding me unless he now knows the whole prophecy? There's only one person who could have told him." He was testing the man and watching to see if he hit a sensitive nerve. Snape had been out of his range and had enough time to report to Voldemort if he were playing both sides.

Snape didn't react. "He is not afraid of you, Potter. I have said this before. He pursues you to see if he can corrupt you- to see if you will abandon your values. That would be an ultimate victory. Albus no longer stands in his way and he wants revenge. You embarrassed him by escaping too many times and he means to make you suffer. He will not be overly concerned if he kills anyone and everyone who has ever been in your presence. Now, time is ticking by and we have a long way to travel."

"What about the Horcrux?" Harry asked calmly, without turning to look at the vase.

Snape shrugged and answered, "It's best if it is not found on us. We're probably going to get captured and killed long before we ever reach the fortress." He looked abnormally pale in the bright sunlight and Harry squinted at him.

Snape ignored the stare and reached for a broom he had leaning against the mausoleum, he continued speaking without looking at Harry, "If we manage to get back we will worry about it then." He mounted his broom and said, "Wear your invisibility cloak from now on. Don't take it off until I tell you to."

Harry realized as he mounted his own broom that Snape had cast a look back at the tomb with a look of longing and desire which made gooseflesh rise on his arms. He has been here before, he thought and then chided himself. Of course, he's been here; he's still in love with my mum; a dead woman!

…...

Voldemort stood on the grass in front of Dumbledore's tomb. Nagini coiled around his feet and the air was thick with the essence of his Dementors; however, none approached him. He stood studying the white stone and periodically would make a circuit around it and then stand before it again.

He was both pleased and displeased that his old nemesis was dead. He had wanted to kill Dumbledore himself and yet was not unhappy that the old teacher was gone and out of the way. He was very unhappy that Dumbledore had discovered his long-protected secret of the Horcruxes and he had spent some time watching the old man's thoughts in the Pensieve.

He now knew the ring taken from his uncle was destroyed. Just thinking about it made him want to resurrect the old wizard once more and kill him again for the sheer pleasure of it.

Voldemort liked to torture others.

Wizards appeared at his side, spoke to him; he gave instructions and the wizards disappeared, and still he stood.

"Nagini," the lips moved but were now so deformed he hissed as he spoke; and of course, he spoke in parseltongue to her. "We must find the others and protect them. We have lost too much as it is. It was foolish of me to scatter them. I was too naive, too much a muggle." The words came out in a long hiss and snarl that twisted the face into a caricature of a human expression. "Unfortunately there are still wizards and witches who live who know how they are made and how they can be destroyed. However, this particular wizard will not bother us any longer." He turned from the white stone sepulcher and continued to speak to the snake who followed. "We do not know what he taught that horrible Potter boy. We must find him! All of our forces, all our strength must go towards that end."

They continued across the lawns and back towards the castle. Outwardly, Hogwarts had not lost her beauty. She was as magnificent as always, although her windows were dark and the sound of children's voices had been replaced by unlatched shutters banging or the whistle of a low mournful wind blowing through her parapets.

"I have been too rash in trying to kill the child. I will not underestimate his good luck or the fact

he has some skilled wizard or witch helping him. He has eluded me too long and it is not because of his friends or the fact that Dumbledore shielded him." Voldemort stopped and stared down at the snake slithering through the grass. "There is more here than meets the eye and I will get to the bottom of it, and then I will kill him."

The dark wizard walked through the entrance and up the stairs across from the great hall. His footsteps resounded in the school like a man walking through a tomb. The school had been corrupted by the evil dwelling within and now the halls were overrun with rodents. The house-elves had fled and now the apartments of the dark lord were kept by more loathsome creatures and the rest of the school abandoned. Even the ghosts were nowhere to be seen and Peeves had taken to hiding in one of the towers. The snake did not enter but remained outside hunting in the late morning shade. However, there was one figure who stood in the entryway. He had been there for days without food or water and was almost swooning in delirium. It was a young man with very pale hair.

Voldemort stopped before him and grinned devilishly at the plight of the boy. "Goblins from Gringott's will be here momentarily Malfoy. Bring them to my office. Do not delay." The voice was raspy and almost unintelligible.

Draco dropped to his knees, bowed his head and mumbled, "M'lord."

"Afterward go and bath and change your clothing. You stink and offend me. Stay out of my sight until you are called for."' Voldemort turned and pulled his massive cape around so that it whipped Draco's face.

"Thank you, M'Lord," Draco said and remained head bent, on his knees, his lips moving soundlessly. Minutes passed and a group of small creatures appeared at the open doors. Draco was almost unconscious when the first one walked up to him and pushed him over with his hands. The goblins laughed at the sight and one kicked him.

Two wizards dressed in the black robes and masks of the Death Eaters entered Dumbledore's office. Between them, almost unconscious with fear, was Percy Weasley. His eyes rolled in his head and there was spittle at the corner's of his mouth. Voldemort stood before the dark cold fireplace and turned to him. His mouth opened in a silent scream of terror.

"Leave us," The Dark Wizard said. The two Death Eaters left, dropping Percy to the floor. He lay there mewling like a newborn cafe, wiggling and rolling in fear.

"Look at me!"

He rolled over to his back and his eyes struggled to avoid the unblinking green eyes with the narrow snake pupil. He finally could not control himself any longer and looked directly at Voldemort.

"Legilimens!"

An hour later, Voldemort stood looking up at Dumbledore's portrait where the deceased headmaster remained asleep, snoring.

"So the Potter boy goes to Azkaban to rescue his friends," Voldemort mused aloud. Percy lay on the floor and staring with dead eyes into the blackened fireplace. His usefulness gone, Voldemort had snuffed out his life.

Bellatrix Lestrange stood quietly waiting for her orders. Her eyes were downcast at the dead boy's body and she studied it like a small boy would study an ant hill, gasoline can in hand, with lit match, greedy to kill more.

"Have the Potter boy's friends removed to a separate cell. Do nothing about the execution until I give the word." He walked the small circle of the room, studied the Phoenix perch that was empty and put out a gnarled, twisted finger to touch its surface. "Make sure no one makes a mistake. All of them are to be kept alive until he enters the fortress. Make sure he reaches it!"

Bellatrix nodded without looking up into her master's face. "It shall be done my Lord."

"Lucius had a very good idea about rounding them up and taking them there," Voldemort turned to her. "But he has made too many mistakes and I will not trust him with this errand." He reached to the desk and picked up the cup and stroked it; caressed it as a man would a woman. "When the Potter boy is there and you have him, make sure he has this in his hands...he must touch it."

"I understand my Lord." She stepped forward one pace and put out a hand to take it.

Voldemort looked at her hand and then at the cup and held it against his chest. "Let me be clear Bella. If you should lose this I will make sure you suffer for a very long time. You will beg for death before the end and I will not grant it." The last was so much a hiss that the woman finally looked up.

"Do not touch the cup within," he continued. "It is protected and it cannot touch the flesh of anyone but the boy. I will not release you from this duty until it is in his hands and I will know immediately when it is done." Voldemort finally put the small bag in her hands. "When it is finished you shall be rewarded. You shall stand at my side as my second in command."

"Oh, Lord!" Bella looked into his face beaming with joy. "I...I do not deserve such honors. If you so wish it...then it shall be."

"Only after you do this, then the others can be done away with." He turned and sat on a throne-like chair transfigured for his need. "You need not do anything to the boy. He will do what I ask as soon as he has the cup in his hands. Now leave." He slumped into the chair, suddenly petulant and depressed, already missing the cup. "Leave my presence and take the that putrescence with you." He waved at the dead body. And before she could move he erupted from the chair, stomped over to the body and looked down at it. "No! Take it to his parents in Azkaban and hang it where they can all see the maggots feed on it."