AN: Alright folks! I've waited long enough wit this chapter. My beta has some personal problems to deal with and not enough time to help me this time. So I've decided to post this chap without beta reading. I hope you can forgive me my grammer if it's not up to your standard. I hope danielc will be available soon for the following chapter. Please enjoy reading!
Chapter 17 – The war is starting for real
The real war began two days afterwards. Nearly a dozen black owls swept down towards the students. Harry understood the reason for it as Hermione gave him the daily prophet. Voldemort had attacked the homes of muggleborn students.
He growled, "He is going to pay for that!" and slammed the newspaper forcefully down on the table.
He got up and went over to the staff-table. There he locked his eyes with the headmaster and said loudly "What are you going to do about that?"
The hall was quiet enough to hear a needle fall. Even the sobbing of the students who got an black owl deceased.
Dumbledore lost the twinkle in his eyes, "I am afraid, I can do nothing about it."
"So you are telling us..." Harry drew a wide arc with his arms in the direction of the students, "... that you are sitting here, doing nothing, while Voldemort is killing the parents of students? YOU are the leader of the light! Not the ministry, not the aurors! YOU! You have the possibility and the responsibility to take action!"
Dumbledore began to get angry about this display but some of the teachers, especially Snape and Remus agreed with Harry.
"I CAN'T DO ANYTHING!" Dumbledore said forcefully.
"No, you don't WANT to!" Harry said in a cutting voice, "It is your choice. But I tell you something. If something like that happens again, I will do something and there will be no more mercy!"
Some of the students gasped, but these who knew him didn't doubt him for a second.
"Everyone, who will be with me, stand up!" Harry bellowed.
As one, Snape, Remus and some of the students stood up.
Harry nodded to the two teachers and turned around to the students. He smiled, "Thank you. But I have another question, especially to the students. I know, you want to help me, but consider this: I'm not going to capture Deatheaters, at least not many of them. I'm going for the final deal. I'll only consider taking you with me, if you are ready to kill them! I won't hesitate to use the dark arts to deal with them."
Again the students gasped.
"THEY are KILLING, TORTUTRING and RAPING your sisters, mothers and relatives! I won't allow that, if I have any saying in that. I will pay it back as they deserve and not like a weak, incompetent and corrupt ministry! Now, I thank you all, but do sit down please, if you can't deal with that!"
The students sat down indeed. Only one Slytherin kept standing, a seventh year girl. Blaise Zabini.
Both of his friends sat down, white like a sheet but they looked at him apologizing. He smiled at them. He would have been disappointed if they had kept standing up.
He nodded to Blaise, "We'll meet when something like this happens again."
Blaise nodded determined while Harry turned around to Remus.
"Let's talk!"
Remus nodded and they disappeared into the office of Remus.
"Moony, you did understand, that I said, we are going for the kill? This is war now, no longer a group of wizards who did some crimes!"
Remus nodded, "I know. I don't know the dark arts, but I know, that Sirius and even your mum did at least somewhat."
Harry was a little bit surprised to hear about his mum, but he nodded. If she had been as studious as he had heard, it was only logical that she did learn some dark magic too.
"... and both weren't evil despite of that." Remus continued.
Harry sighed, "But I'm now, at least a little bit. I have delved too deep already and learned the blackest magic. You know that already. But still, I won't use it on any innocent."
"I know that and that is the reason, why you are NOT evil." Remus insisted.
Harry smiled an uneasy smile, "Thank you."
"Teach me!" Remus demanded.
Harry sighed and nodded, "Today, the evening. We will meet in front of the girls bathroom in the second floor. Do me a favour and fetch Snape and Blaise for me. I want to see, what they already can."
Remus nodded.
So they met in the evening and Harry led them down to the chamber of secrets. He taught Remus in front of an astounded Blaise and Snape the killing curse and some other dark magics, like some shield shattering curses, bone breakers and dark binding curses that would hurt the victims of the curse if they would try to escape, really hurt. He let them swear a magical oath that they would not reveal anything to anybody the things they may get to see on any mission they were going to. Harry wouldn't hold back with his abilities any longer. But as long as it was possible, he didn't want Dumbledore to make the connection from him to the Dark Avenger.
The next day, again some black owls swept down to some muggleborn students who would shortly afterwards break down in tears.
Harry nodded to Blaise, Snape and Remus.
They stood up as one and Dumbledore intervened.
"I will not tolerate such behaviour! This is a school and not a headquarter of dark wizards!"
"You got that wrong!" Harry said quietly, but his voice had again an eerie quality and was despite of the quietness carrying throughout the whole great hall, "Hogwarts has always been a centre of fight for the good and that has nothing to do with dark or light magic. There is no such thing! There is only magic! The users decide if it is evil or good! Hogwarts has always been the centre of resistance against evilness and that it is going to be again! In this war! In this conflict against Riddle! NOW!"
With that, he turned around and his robe was billowing behind him in a most noble way as he left the hall. His comrades formed a triangle behind him with Blaise at the centre and they left seconds after him.
The three were surprised, as Bella was awaiting them in front of the bathroom in the second floor. Once again they went down to the chamber of secrets.
"What... what is she doing here?" Blaise asked uncertainly.
Harry smiled and kissed Bella, "Question answered?" he asked a wide eyed Blaise. She only nodded.
"Alright, Talon. What do you have for us?"
"I spied on the last gathering. They met at the main outside meeting place. They will meet again there when the sun sets. The dark lord was furious. You not only disturbed his attacks, but you freed Severus and me. This sets a bad sample AND you cost him half of his leaders. He had to make the attacks to prove to his servants, that he is indeed powerful. If we can further disturb his attacks successfully or kill the new members of the inner circle, he will get problems to keep them in line." Bella explained.
Blaise shuddered as she saw, that Potter got a truly evil glint in his eyes and adding to that, they were radiating raw power that gave her the creeps. She would never have thought of Lestrange or now Black dating with the Boy who lived, but she understood now.
Harry turned to Bella and Blaise, "What do you think he is going to do, if we are going to do exactly that?"
"He is going to attack Hogwarts to force a decision." both said simultaneously.
"Exactly." Harry said with an evil grin.
"What do you have in mind?" Remus asked with a matching grin.
"I think that would certainly force the so called leader of the light into action. And secondly, there are some nasty surprises waiting beneath the grounds of Hogwarts."
Snape and Blaise looked at Harry questioningly and Remus blanched.
Bella snickered, "So you found something special?"
"Yes, I did. Hogwarts has it's motto not without reason."
"That's great! I don't want to miss THAT!" Bella squealed wickedly.
"Wh.. what are you talking about?" Blaise asked.
"You will see. All in good time." Harry said in a truly Dumbledore-like manor.
Remus laughed, "Please! Don't become like him!"
Harry laughed as well, "I hope not."
Then he became serious, "Are you ready for the evening? We will surprise them and go in under disguise of course. Don't show any mercy! No taunting, no delaying! Kill them directly and without hesitation! They deserve it! We will show them the true meaning of fear." Harry said.
All three nodded.
"Alright. Any of you an animagus?" Harry asked.
Snape and Blaise grinned.
"Raven!" Snape said smirking.
"Hawk." Blaise said with a bow.
"That's great. So we will come in flying. I will take Remus."
"What? What are YOU?" Blaise asked.
"Well, I am called Drake for a reason, you know?" Harry said with a devious glint, "And when you will see Talon, you will understand the need for the oath you gave me."
"WHAT.ARE.YOU?" Blaise asked.
Harry smiled, "A Wyvern. We will meet at the entrance to the Hogwarts grounds at six. It would be the best, if you would be already in your forms to raise less suspicions."
They nodded and left.
The evening came fast enough. Bella never left Hogwarts. Harry hid with her in the Room of Requirements and they made love over and over again.
They both were positively beaming, as they waited for the other three.
Remus groaned as he saw that and if they could trust the looks of the hawk and the raven, they thought in the same directions.
Harry growled, "If you make a comment, you WILL regret it. Now come!"
Harry and Bella changed and Remus climbed onto Harry's back. Harry could see it in the eyes of the two birds of prey, that they recognized the black owl for what it was… the messenger of impending doom for all Deatheaters.
They took quickly flight and headed to the south.
As the darkness overcame the light of the day, they landed on a clearing in a dense wood.
There was nobody there, at least not now.
They went deeper into the woods until they were hid by the trees and the shadows.
A half hour later, they heard some 'cracks' on the clearing but Harry let them wait. Still, they crept now forward to the clearing to get a look on the incoming Deatheaters.
Voldemort himself appeared and made a speech to his folks.
Harry directed his peers with a sign of his hand to stay back and got quietly up. Silently he went forward onto the clearing, his wand drawn, until he was seen by one of the Deatheaters. He dared to interrupt the dark lord.
"CRUCIO!" Voldemort bellowed.
As he took off the curse he asked in a hissing voice, "Why did you interrupt me, you fool?"
"Po...Potter... There!" he stammered and pointed towards the teenager.
Voldemort looked up, "Potter? What are YOU doing here?" he asked, clearly surprised.
Harry only grinned, flicked his wand and yelled: "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
The red slits, where should have been Voldemort's eyes, widened and he disapparated.
The green beam seared through the air, where Voldemort had been a second before and hit a Deatheater behind the point. He went down dead instantly.
The other Deatheaters didn't dare to move.
"VOLDEMORT! YOU.ARE. Harry screamed and then he yelled a charm and swished his wand in a wide arc.
A yellow circle formed around him and enlarged until it was so deep into the woods, that he couldn't see it anymore.
A Deatheater tried to disapparate, but he couldn't anymore.
"Damn! He cast an anti-apparition ward!" he yelled.
Harry only smirked, "Time to play." he said into the woods behind him.
His four comrades disguised with desillusion charms stepped out and the five as one cast: "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Five bright green beams of light sped towards the Deatheaters. Even before they hit their targets, three more beams left the group, one from Snape, one from Bella and one from Harry.
Eight Deatheaters fell dead to the ground. The rest took cover. Some of them cast death curses or pain curses at them until Blaise was hit with a crucio. Ten Deatheaters more were dead but the screams of Blaise pushed Harry over the edge instantly.
He let out a dark growl and pure black power began to radiate of him.
All fighting stopped as he held up his right hand and his black staff with the red pulsing blood emerald on top appeared.
Snape and Blaise gasped in recognition, while the Deatheaters began to take only more cover. Some even tried to run away as they saw who really was attacking them.
Harry waved his staff and one beam after another and one more powerful as the previous left his staff and killed, tore apart or hurt Deatheater after Deatheater. The air nearly reeked of dark magic, especially around Harry.
The first who was hit, died quickly and painless from a killing curse, but the second was hit by a bone crusher directly on his skull and died very painfully.
After that, he fired a whole bunch of really dark blasting curses, one speciality of the Black magics and killed nearly half of the Deatheaters, even if they hid behind some cover. Eventually, his comrades joined the battle again and made short work of the stunned and disbelieving Deatheaters.
As they disapparated half an hour later, they left a battlefield full of torn apart bodies and corpses as message to the dark lord. And he got the message as well as all other wizards, because the mess or at least the outcome of the battle was reported in the press the next day. Only nobody besides the dark lord knew who had caused it.
The whole next day Snape as well as Blaise never took an eye of the dark haired teenager. They still couldn't comprehend what they had seen at the clearing. Harry Potter, the Gryffindor-Golden-Boy, the hero of the wizarding world, the so called sample of bravery and goodness had mercilessly killed and tortured his enemies with dark or even black magic, even they hadn't known until then. And he hadn't even hesitated, the same goes of course for Bellatrix and surprisingly to a lesser extend to Remus. He must have known for a while of the identity of the Dark Avenger.
They both looked with a lot of new respect at the dark haired teenager, not that he cared about that.
As the students hadn't seen any black owls arriving the next morning and after they read the article about the murders of Deatheaters, they too looked at Harry and his three companions with awe but also with much fear. They avoided them and didn't even try to talk to them. Snape was even more frightening to them and even in Remus' class, there was only silence and fear.
Remus sighed, but if that was the price he had to pay to support Harry, he would do it willingly.
The only ones, who didn't shun Harry and Remus were Ron, Hermione and Ginny. But even they looked with new uncertainty at them all.
But Harry didn't care anymore. That was a luxury he couldn't afford. They HAD entered a WAR and it had to be fought now by the way, they had chosen.
The next days were quiet from the side of Voldemort. Harry met now every evening with Snape, Remus and Blaise and sometimes even with Hermione and Ron as they wanted to help him, even if they didn't want to use dark arts.
They tried to analyse possible scenarios of an attack of Voldemort on Hogwarts grounds.
Further, Harry tried to prepare himself at the best of his possibilities. One of the drawbacks of a Necromancer was that he had to find the dead beneath the earth first if he wanted to summon them. So he went down late after a meeting to the grounds of Hogwarts and sat down in a lotus-position. He closed his eyes, relaxed his mind and concentrated only on his magic.
He focused on his dark red magical core and began to send pulses of it through the ground surrounding the ancient castle.
A faint smile formed on his lips when he got the first impressions. The castle was indeed ancient. Many battles had been fought around here during the centuries. He sensed hundreds of dead corpses beneath the grounds from many different species. There must have been battles between wizards and goblins, because there were alone hundreds of goblin corpses and wizard corpses, which he sensed were nearly from the same age.
He memorized the positions of the most powerful ones and stretched his senses further. Again he smiled, as he sensed again the corpse resting deeply beneath the ground near the border of the forbidden forest. He had sensed it earlier and he enjoyed the powerful response of that special corpse. He memorized this one especially well. The Deatheaters would be surprised if he managed to call that one to his service. He knew very well, that he had never tried to control a corpse as powerful as that one, but he would try it if necessary. He remembered the motto of Hogwarts: Never tickle a sleeping dragon! Indeed, had one of the founders been a Necromancer too? Well, they would never know it.
Suddenly he heard steps of a person behind him.
He jumped up like a flash from his sitting position and turned around, his wand drawn. Once again he emitted a dark aura of raw power.
"STOP!" Remus said and held his hands up. Snape stood beside him.
"What are you doing here at this time, Potter?" Snape asked, for once without his arrogant sneer. He seemed to be truly curious.
"I was preparing for a possible battle." Harry said and relaxed.
"What? Here? At this time?" Remus asked.
"And how did you prepare?" Snape asked and ignored the comments of Remus.
"Well, a Necromancer has to sense the dead corpses before he can call them to him. I memorized the most powerful ones that are resting here, so I will be able to call them much faster."
Snape nodded, "That makes sense. If I am honest, I would never have thought, that you have the power nor the will to delve into the dark arts at such a deep level."
"I take that as a compliment, otherwise I would have to give you an example of this complex brand of magic." Harry said coldly.
Snape gulped, he had gotten more than one impression of the new power of Potter to take this threat lightly. Potter had accepted that there was more than black and white, but on the opposite he sorted people now in two categories... enemies and allies and Snape knew very well, that with the past of the two of them, he would have tended more to enemy, hadn't he stood up for him.
"And did you find something useful?" Snape asked.
Harry smiled his now well known evil smile, "Indeed, I did. Your former comrades will be surprised... at least."
The next Hogsmeade weekend came, but all were wary now, because the war had started for real.
Nonetheless, Harry and his comrades and his friends went to the wizarding village.
Harry and his friends as well had a feeling, that Voldemort would use this chance even if there were aurors and members of the order present.
They should be right with their feeling.
As they went to the Three Broomsticks after a quiet stroll through the village, it happened.
Suddenly they felt a cold wave rushing over them. They had their wands out instantly, at least all but Harry. He stood there with a clearly surprised expression on his face.
"Harry! What is it? There are dementors." Ron asked.
"I know that!" Harry snapped but his face turned into an evil grin, "Do you know, what Dementors really are?"
Hermione wanted to start a tirade of facts but Ron interrupted her in time, "Nobody knows that for sure, why?"
"I know it now. They are a subspecies of wraiths."
"Great! Bloody demons from Hell! I thought the existence of real demons was only a myth!" Ron said in fear.
"No, they are real! And it is great indeed!" Harry said while Remus, Blaise and Snape gasped at him.
"How can you say such a thing! They are indestructible!" Ron snapped.
"We will see." Harry said and drew finally his wand and walked calmly into the direction of the incoming creatures.
A wide row of the foul creatures glided to the village from the south.
"How can you be so calm?" Ron asked.
"If they are demons, shouldn't they have been summoned by a dark wizard from hell?" Hermione asked deep in thought.
"Exactly." Harry said.
"And is that good or bad?" Hermione asked.
"Good, because if demons are summoned, they can be banished back to hell. It is only much more difficult if it isn't done by the wizard who summoned them." Harry explained.
"And how can that be done?" Ron asked.
"Well, they are summoned by the blackest of magics. But if there is such black magic, there is logically an opposite of that." Harry said.
"What? What should that be? I mean, WE are already using light magic."
"I am speaking of holy magic, Hermione... the Sacred Words."
"What? What is that?" Hermione asked incredulously.
"Every Necromancer should know them if something should go wrong during a summoning ritual, at least the sane ones should."
"But nobody of us knows this magic... we haven't even heard about it." Hermione sighed.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Harry whispered and pointed his wand towards the incoming dementors. He knew the aurors and members of the order were incoming as well but they came from another side.
Harry concentrated and gathered as much raw magic of his core as he could.
He swept his wand in a wide arc towards the Dementors and yelled in a voice of pure power "Lehotk cab og!" A shudder went down their spines, as they felt the raw power that was building up in Harry but this time it let them feel secure and an inner warmth as the magic swept through them.
A blinding white arc of light exploded from his wand and raced towards the crowd of the foul creatures and ran through the group. As they were hit, they began to scream in an eerie unearthly voice and began to struggle forcefully. All of the creatures who were hit, had a white glow surrounding them and it seemed to hurt them very much.
Harry was clearly weaker but he knew it wasn't strong enough to banish them, because he had stretched his magic over such a large perimeter. So he had to try it again.
"WON LEHOTK CAB OGU OYD NAMM OCI!" he yelled.
This white arc was even more powerful than the first and his friends and allies gaped at the display of power. The aurors and Order members had stopped their attack as well and looked uncertainly towards the black haired teenager and then turned to the Dementors.
As the second wave of holy magic hit the foul creatures, they began to shimmer and scream even more. After some seconds of struggling embedded in white blinding light, the corpses were blown apart and black shadows came out of them and went down into the earth itself and as Harry knew, back to Hell were they came from in the first place.
As Harry was sure that he had dealt with all of them... he passed out from exhaustion.
Remus caught him before he could fall down to the ground. Hermione bend down and picked his wand up, which had rolled out of his weak hand.
She gasped, "It is hot... and look, it is slightly smoking."
"No wonder there!" Snape said for once in awe, "I have never seen such a use of magical power before and I have seen many things."
Hermione nodded and stuck the wand into Harry's pocket.
Remus carried Harry directly back to Hogwarts and to the hospital wing. Poppy only diagnosed magical exhaustion and poured some potions down his throat and let him sleep his weakness off.
"He will be alright after some sleep. Now shoo!" she commanded his friends.
Harry slept the whole day until in the late afternoon of Sunday.
As he woke up he was more than surprised, that Bella sat beside the bed and held his hand.
"Hi, love. What are you doing here?" he asked quietly.
"I was worried, silly. I didn't get any emotions from you, so I came here. Poppy knew already about us and after some third years came in and saw me holding your hand, I think the rest of the school does as well." she said with a mischievous grin.
"It doesn't matter now. And as I said, I don't care about that, I only care about you." he said honestly.
"Thank you." she said and bent down to kiss him.
Again some students came in and the two girls which were with them began to shriek.
Harry shot them a dark glare, "Keep your pants on!" he growled.
The girls shrieked again and fled.
Bella laughed in her own wicked way and now the two boys fled as well.
As they ran out of the infirmary, Dumbledore came in and shot them a serious look, "I hope you are not here to scare my students, Miss Black!"
"She isn't. They just couldn't cope with me kissing her." Harry said with a mischievous glint in his emerald eyes, "Now, are you here to start the usual interrogation of the hero who saved the day... again?" Harry snapped sarcastically.
Dumbledore regarded him with twinkling eyes, conjured a chair and sat down, "Ha..." as he saw the dark look of the teenager he corrected himself, "Mr. Potter, I only care..." he sighed, as the emerald eyes darkened even more.
"Stop that sugar talk already! We both know why you are really here. So shoot!" Harry said in an icy voice.
The twinkle dimmed and he nodded, "Alright, Mr. Potter. I want to thank you and mind honestly thank you, for your help yesterday."
"You are welcome."
"I have to admit that I'm more than surprised. Firstly, the teachers and members of the order who were present reported all that they have never seen or even felt such powerful magic. I wonder about that, because you never showed overly powerful magic. I mean, true, you managed some complex charms but nothing powerful enough to actually flatten Minerva or even Filius."
Harry only shrugged while Bella snickered and patted his shoulder, "That calls for a special good mark." she said.
Dumbledore chuckled, "Indeed. How about an extra O in DADA?"
Harry rolled his eyes.
"Now to my second point. I have never heard of a charm that can destroy Dementors. Where did you learn it?" Dumbledore asked truly curious.
Harry coughed, "Charm? I don't think so. I'm sure, that you are aware that there is much more magic than charms, hexes and curses. Especially that spell was magic on a much higher level. And I'm afraid I can't reveal where I learned that, headmaster."
Dumbledore looked disappointed, "Couldn't you give me at least a hint. I mean, I was civil to you even if you didn't work together with us anymore."
"Did I not? I believe we did work for the same cause, but only with other means. Alright, a hint. They weren't destroyed. Dementors are a form of wraiths, therefore lower demons from Hell. The magic I used was holy magic."
Dumbledore gasped, "Unbelievable."
"And I banished them back to hell. If someone is crazy and powerful enough, he could summon them again, but I hope not."
"How did you know that they were wraiths?" Dumbledore asked and then his eyes widened in recognition: "YOU! You are the Dark Avenger."
Harry didn't show any emotion, "If you say so."
"It is the only explanation how you could come to this conclusion and it would make sense for a cautious Necromancer not only to learn the Black Art itself, but also any means to deal with whatever problems may occur while using this dangerous magic."
"Even if I would be that so called Dark Avenger, you should be well aware that Necromancy may be a black art, but it is not forbidden and even if it would be, all means are allowed to fight the dark forces."
Dumbledore sighed, "But that is such a dangerous magic! You said yourself that the Dementors had been a result of dealing with Necromancy."
Harry shrugged, "He has an army. I do not. So I had to find a way, not that I would ever admit that I learned dark magic."
"Sure." Dumbledore lost the twinkle in his eyes and buried his face in his hands, "I would never have thought you would deal with dark magic, even more so black magic. It is only my fault."
"Not entirely." Bella said to the surprise of both men, "It is mostly Voldemort's fault. He is the reason why Harry even had to learn to fight."
Dumbledore nodded, "Thank you for our support, Miss Black. Nonetheless I feel, that I have failed him."
"Well, you have made some serious errors." Bellatrix said seriously, "The question is, what are you going to do now."
"Nothing. As I understand, you are powerful enough to take care of yourself and as long, as you stay true to your path and fight only against Voldemort and his supporters, I will not hinder you in any way nor will I expose your secrets."
"Thank you." Harry said coolly but honestly.
AN: I hope that was to your liking! I thank you all for your reviews and hope that I'll be able to update soon. Bye!