CHAPTER 6

The Fortress

The creature was small, muscled, green, translucent and mean. Harry was sure about the latter characteristic, because the little beast was currently trying to strangle him, and that tended to demonstrate meanness, from his limited experience. Fortunately, as he was about to pass out in his bed, a red bolt hit the disgusting dwarf, who fell to the ground. In the doorway to the bedroom, Voldemort was standing, his long wand in his hand. They both stared at each other awkwardly for a few moments before Harry asked in a rattle:

"Why was that thing trying to kill me?"

"That is a common house-ghoul. Ghouls are grumpy creatures who normally haunt attics; they like dust a great deal and they feed on the magic emanated by the inhabitants of the house. I do wonder how this one made its way here, though. I thought my wards were stronger than that." He was about to come closer to the ghoul when he noticed Harry was still massaging his throat. Somewhat embarrassed, he added: "Ahem. Are you alright?"

"It'll be find… Don't worry…" said Harry, unconvincingly.

This was enough for the Dark Lord, who turned back to the object of his attention. He pointed his wand at the little creature and cast a Petrificus on it before Innervating it. Then, leaning to be closer to the three-foot tall ghoul's ear, he muttered some words in a language Harry did not understand. The ghoul snuffed back at him and turned his face away. Voldemort insisted, the unknown tongue spoken in more of a hurry. The ghoul remained silent, still frowning. Loosing his temper, the wizard put his wand on the ghoul's head and yelled "Imperio!" before talking again in the unintelligible language. This time the stiff creature answered. Once it had finished, Voldemort Stupefied again before turning to Harry, who had watched the whole process with a keen interest mixed with some concerns.

"Just as I thought", concluded Voldemort. "That was not an ordinary ghoul. It was an assassin."

"What? Wait, he just told you that? This thing can talk?"

"Oh, of course."

"Then why do you say 'it'?"

Voldemort just looked at him, visibly not understanding the point.

"Harry, it's a ghoul, not a human being."

Voldemort obviously has at least some of the racist tendencies everyone says he has, thought Harry. A more selfish part of him, however, quickly added: That being said, since that creature was trying to kill us and Voldemort might have some more information on that, I'd better not confront him on it before I find out some way to not get killed.

"So, did it say who is trying to kill me?"

"I'm afraid not… It was a wizard, dressed in concealing red robes, with his face blurred through mind magic and his voice distorted, and he paid in gold. That's all."

The first thing that sprang to Harry's mind was Why is a villain dressed in Gryffindor colours?. Since this was irrelevant, he discarded the thought and pondered the more interesting question, Why is anyone else than Voldemort interested in killing me? His thought process was cut off by a voice beginning to say -

"Avada Ke…"

Harry practically jumped from his bed, pushing Voldemort on the ground before he could complete his spell.

"What are you doing, you little fool?!" he yelled.

"That spell - Hermione told me about it! It's the Killing Curse!"

"Well, yes, thank you, Potter, I knew that", Voldemort sarcastically answered.

"You can't just go around killing people for no reason!…" Harry said, almost desperately.

"A), that is not a person but a house ghoul, will that finally get into that thick skull of yours? B), I'm not killing it for no reason, I'm killing it because it broke into my super-secured mansion somehow, and tried to kill you. AVADA KEDA-"

"NO!"

Voldemort, unnerved, looked at Harry, then at the translucent green little creature lying on the parquet floor of the bedroom, motionless because of his own Petrificus. He finally said:

"…Alright. Alright. I'll leave that disgusting little thing alive, if it matters so much to you, though really… I can understand (and even agree with) your concerns for human lives, though that is a sacrifice I have learnt to make. But must you really go around trying to salvage filthy animals' life too?"

Voldemort pointed his wand at the ghoul, appeared to concentrate for an instant, and suddenly the lying form disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"It will wake up in two hours' time in a forest somewhere in Japan. I suppose we're rid of him either way, though going through this extra trouble was really uncalled for. Well, anyway, we need to think and plan. With all this fainting and sleeping from your part, you have been away for much longer than I intended, so your dear Hogwarts friends must be beginning to worry about you quite seriously, especially if word of my return has gone out. Albus knows for sure, but has he been so foolish as to tell the world? Time will tell. Hm. Anyway…"

Harry looked up at the man.

"…I think it's about time you learnt a couple of things about this fortress, since you might have to spend a lot of time here, depending on how things turn out. Sorry, boy; I know I said you could walk away at any time, but this assassination attempt does make matters rather different. There is something going on, and I'm not letting go of you until I know exactly what. So…"

Voldemort summoned a large map and laid it down in the air, floating just low enough for Harry to see and resumed lecturing.

"This place I like to call Maupertuis, from the name of an underground lair in a fairy tale I was rather fond of as a youngling. As you can see, it already has an impressive size; the number of rooms should somewhat approach that of Hogwarts, though most of them are just storage facilities I don't often visit; and I can create new rooms by sheer willpower, if I ever need any more. However, the best part of it all is that this whole structure is virtually undetectable from the outside world. You might not have run into it outside from Hogwarts itself, where you might not have recognized it, but there is a spell called the Space-Extending Charm, which if cast on a container of any kind will increase the size on the inside, while the object will remain the same size from the outside. Most wizards, fools the lot of them, just use it to store more things in their trunks. But there are no limits to how much you can extend the inside space; the whole of Maupertuis is contained in a medium-sized trunk. And the trunk is buried deep into the ground, with several protection charms and wards on it, somewhere in Australia. I do not give you the specifics because I obliviated myself of the details, so that no one may take them away from me. For all that Dumbledore boasts about Hogwarts, Maupertuis is probably the single safest place in the world. Well, unless some other wizard has thought of that before, made his own Maupertuis somewhere, and managed to keep it a secret, in which case, congratulations to him, but I think it unlikely."

Harry was speechless. For someone who'd lived in a cupboard the rest of his life, that opened a lot of possibilities. He could make his own palace, inches away from the Dursleys… He could hide there for the whole summer and no one would notice. He was snapped back to the present by the frightening realization that this whole beautiful plan was assuming he did get home for the summer. Another thing that hit him was that the whole thing was a lot more practical if applied to contraptions like a cupboard or a traveling trunks… you know, things with doors on them.

"But how do you get inside?" he asked, curious.

"Oh, well that's another good part. There are three ways known to me. The first one is to Apparate, which only I (or you, I suppose) can do, because Apparating requires having already been to the place you're Apparating to. The second one is phoenix-travel; only Albus has a phoenix as of today, and you need to visualize the destination to phoenix-travel, which Albus cannot do since he is unaware of the very existence of Maupertuis. The last one is the Floo system. It's a little less safe, but it does not need the user's magic to function, unlike Apparition; therefore, I needed it to be able to reach sanctuary if I was exhausted or severely injured. There are, just so you know, additional spells on the floo to stun anyone trying to use it who isn't myself. And to notify me when it happens."