Chapter 8
The Coming Storm
"We should've been there!" Ron snapped angrily. Harry sighed and rubbed his forehead; it was the morning after his visit to Malfoy Manor, and they'd been stuck on this point for the past ten minutes.
"It was a potentially dangerous situation," he said with false patience. "It was better that..."
"We can handle danger!" Ron interrupted. "And besides, you didn't have to lie to me about it! No one knew where you were! If something had happened to you..." The unfinished sentence hung in the air between them.
"He's right Harry," Hermione said in a much calmer voice than her husband's. "It was irresponsible. You're the head of the Auror Office. You can't just disappear without telling anyone."
"Is this really the most important thing right now?" Harry protested.
"The investigation won't be a problem," Ron said. "But as for you..."
"There isn't going to be an investigation," Harry revealed. His two friends stared at him in bewilderment. "I've been trying to tell you all morning. Kingsley found me when I was coming back last night. It was bizarre...he looked scared out of his wits. He ordered me to drop the Horcrux investigation. Now, I don't know about you two, but I never even told him about the Horcux! He wouldn't tell me how he knew about it, but by the end he was begging me, begging me, to leave it alone. I couldn't say no. I've never seen him like that before."
"That doesn't make any sense," Ron said, still rather bewildered. "That doesn't sound like Kingsley at all!"
"His behaviour's been really erratic lately," Hermione mused. "He hasn't been acting like himself." Ron's eyes widened.
"You don't think...no, it couldn't be...could it?"
"God, I don't even want to think about that," Hermione groaned. "I can't believe that it's Kingsley. That's just too horrible."
"I know he wasn't acting like himself," Harry said, "but when he came to me, I still felt like it really was him. If Bellatrix was possessing him, why would he...she...be begging me? Wouldn't she...he...whatever...have just killed me right there?"
"The begging thing could all be an act," Ron offered. "Maybe she's got some bigger plan and she needs you alive. Or maybe she just doesn't want to draw attention to herself."
"There's also the possibility of the Imperius Curse," Hermione pointed out.
"Either way, we're in a very bad position," Harry brooded. "If the Minister for Magic has been compromised, then I'm not sure what we're supposed to do."
"We've got to speak to Kingsley, preferably alone," Hermione said.
"Already tried," Harry said. "His secretary wouldn't even let me near him. Apparently he's 'rather busy.'" He shook his head in frustration. "But we can't just sit around. Ron, we've got to put some kind of watch on your family, especially your mother."
"My mother? What's my mother got to do with this?"
"Your mother killed Bellatrix," Hermione reminded him. "Or destroyed her body at least. She could be in danger." All the colour drained out of Ron's face.
"Oh hell...I hadn't thought of that."
"We're all going to have to watch our backs from now on," Harry said. "Any of us could be targeted."
"More than just us," Hermione said. "Bellatrix still has a long list of enemies."
"At least Neville and Teddy are safe at Hogwarts," Harry said. At this point, Ron seemed to find his tongue again.
"I can't believe we're just going to drop the investigation."
"We are going to drop the investigation," Harry corrected him. "But that doesn't mean that the investigation stops." Ron looked up at him in confusion, but then a smile spread across his face.
"Mad-Eyes. Of course! Who were you thinking of?"
"I'll send Elle Chandler to talk to Malfoy. Ron, if you can get Bill to go through Bellatrix's Gringotts vault...yes, that's where we'll start. Oh, I'll also get Smiley and Fiedler to set a watch on Kingsley."
"You're going to spy on the Minister for Magic?" Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow.
"If he really is Kingsley, he'll understand," Harry said, brushing the question aside. He didn't really want to think about the fact that he was spying on a man who was not only his superior but also a trusted friend. And while he loathed the thought, it came to his mind nonetheless: if Kingsley was compromised, he would have to be removed from power at all costs. Harry shook his head; it was too soon for that kind of thinking. He resolved not to consider such things until he knew for sure that something had to be done.
At this point, the narrative takes a bit of a turn for the uninteresting I'm afraid. Harry's secret investigation quickly went nowhere; as far as could be determined, Kingsley Shacklebolt was exactly who he appeared to be, and Harry eventually had to take the tail off of him. However, his erratic behaviour and uncharacteristic weakness continued, and grew more and more noticeable as time went on. The most notable example of this was also the most frightening: when it came time to rule on the issue of Dementors, Kingsley voted to continue their use by the Ministry.
When the ruling was passed down, Ron swore loudly and had to be ejected, but he was hardly alone in his outrage. More disturbingly however, at least in my opinion, was just how alone those who were outraged seemed in comparison to those who hailed the decision. Even after the Second War, it seemed that thirteen years had been enough time for everyone to forget the danger of dabbling in the Dark Arts.
For my part, it was beyond my comprehension how an idea could be so readily embraced by my people when I was hard pressed to find a single fellow student who agreed with it. As far as we eternally-disaffected teenagers were concerned, the decision was typical of adults, who seemed to find it all too easy to ignore the suffering of others as long as they could sleep at night. But that dismissal, coupled with a flare of outrage here and there, but mainly smothered with sarcasm, was the only way we addressed the issue. We didn't think to be afraid. We couldn't have recognized the evil that was creeping back into our world.
The point of return will be late October, approximately one week before Halloween, for three notable things occurred at Hogwarts around this time. Namely, my mysterious vision will return again, and a new and disturbing message will appear on the walls of Hogwarts, but before all of this could come to pass, Professor Spanier decided to begin a rather interesting experiment.
"The Disillusionment Charm," he announced as it wrote the name on the blackboard one day. "Can anyone tell me what this spell does?" Unsurprisingly, Polina's hand was the first up, although I must point out that my hand was also quickly raised...as was Amanda's. There are some downsides to being a Ravenclaw. "Yes Polina?"
"It makes objects invisible," was her answer.
"Actually, that's a bit of a misconception," Spanier corrected her. "The actual function of the spell is to make an object blend in with its surroundings, much as a chameleon might. Now, a very powerful Disillusionment Charm can, in fact, render objects completely invisible...but only a very powerful wizard could accomplish this. I will demonstrate." Taking out his wand, he looked over his desk for a moment. "Now, what should I..." He trailed off with a smile, and tapped the desk itself with his wand. Initially, it seemed that nothing had happened at all. However, slowly but surely, the desk began to fade from view. It wasn't all that noticeable at first; it simply grew fainter and fainter until the large collection of objects sitting on top of the now-transparent desk appeared to be floating in mid-air. Spanier took a small bow in response to the applause that rang out.
"Now, as I'm sure you noticed, the spell is non-verbal. Normally, students don't start learning non-verbal spells until sixth year in Defence Against the Dark Arts. However, it has been my experience you are all extremely talented young witches and wizards. So far, you've exceeded my every expectation, and I must confess that I'm rather curious to see what you can really do.
"Because of how quickly you managed to complete the unit on the cosmetic applications of Colour-Change Charms," he continued (I winced slightly, remembering the acid green hair that Gordon had given me); "we actually have a full week before the scheduled start of the next unit. So you have a choice: we can either begin the next unit early, which will put you a week ahead of the other class, or we can attempt to learn this rather advanced charm, which may be beyond your abilities. However, if you managed to succeed, you will be considerably ahead of your fellow students next year. So, we'll put it to a vote..." He was drowned out by a chorus of eager Ravenclaws and Slytherins.
"All right then! But I must warn you; this will be unlike any magic you have performed before. Unlike most other spells, the Disillusionment Charm has no incantation, not even a nonverbal one. The spell is created entirely in the mind of the witch or wizard casting it. It requires a great deal of concentration and self-discipline." As he explained this to us, he moved behind his still-invisible desk and attempted to go through the drawers, clearly looking for something. "You will...oh, fine, fine." He tapped the invisible desk with his wand, and it slowly faded back into view. This made it considerably easier to find the drawer he was looking for, from which he took a small bag. "For full marks in this mini-unit, you will have to attain sufficient mastery of the spell to completely camouflage a Rubik's Cube. This will demonstrate your ability to use the spell on an object that is not only made up of different colours, but different components as well. However, we will begin with these." He produced a sugar cube from the bag, which he handed to Polina. "Remember: the spell is cast through concentration, so it is imperative that you stay focused. Envision your goal in your mind's eye, and when you see your goal before you, reach out and take it! Now, does anyone have any questions before I hand the rest of these out? Yes, Susan?"
"Um...Professor?" the pure-blooded Susan asked somewhat sheepishly. "What's a Rubik's Cube?"
It quickly became rather apparent that the Disillusionment Charm was considerably more difficult than it sounded. Half an hour had gone by, and not a single student had managed to do anything at all to their sugar cubes, myself included. My first thought had been to simply think about the cube becoming invisible while tapping it with my wand, but that had proven ineffective. Next, I had emptied my mind of anything but the word 'invisible,' and when that failed, I had filled my mind with all the things I could think of that were related to invisibility. Neither approach had yielded any results, and I was seriously considering crushing the damn thing into powder. In an attempt to calm myself down, I looked around the room to see if my classmates were faring any better than I was.
The answer was no, no they weren't. Even Polina was scowling at her totally visible cube. Beside her, Susan was prodding her own sugar cube with her wand, muttering "Invisible! Invisible!" In the back corner of the room, Carmilla seemed to have abandoned the attempt entirely, and was now sulking and glowering at nothing in particular, a choice that seemed to be echoed by Gordon, although he was still striking his wand against his cube every now and then. My gaze moved to Adam, who was...looking right back at me. He quickly averted his eyes, but he had clearly been staring at me a minute ago. I didn't think much of it at the time; perhaps he was looking for some hint as to how to do it properly. If so, I mused, he was seeking advice from the wrong wizard.
"No, no, you're approaching this all wrong," Amanda said, leaning over my shoulder. I jerked away from her, startled; I must have been so distracted that I hadn't noticed her approach. "Don't try to force the magic out. It's dying to get out anyways. Just...let it go. Relax. Will the spell to take effect, and the magic will take care of the rest."
"And how do you figure..." I began, but I trailed off into stunned silence as I caught a glimpse of Amanda...the real Amanda...out of the corner of my eye, still seated at her desk trying to work the spell. She was back. "Who are you?" I whispered to...oh, whatever it was. "Are you some kind of hallucination? A ghost?"
"In time," she chuckled patronizingly. "In time. For now, focus on the task at hand. Make the cube invisible."
"Why? What's it to you?"
"Just trust me Seb." Biting back questions, I rolled my eyes and focused them back on the sugar cube, which had been sitting on my desk throughout the entire conversation. No doubt it was mocking me.
"Well, we'll see about that," I muttered.
"Relax..." not-Amanda intoned soothingly, and for whatever reason I obliged her. I took a deep breath, and tried to clear my mind of any distractions. In a room full of annoyed, muttering teenage wizards, this was much easier said than done, but I was eventually able to quiet the thoughts that were buzzing around like a swarm of wasps inside my head. "Remember, don't try to force it. Don't think. Feel."
I still wasn't really sure what she was talking about. But, for whatever reason, I decided to put a little faith in...well, whatever she was. She seemed to have a better understanding of this whole Disillusionment business than I did anyways. I closed my eyes, paused for a moment...I wasn't sure if I could actually feel some kind of energy building up inside me or if it was just a trick of the mind...and brought my wand down on the cube.
I wasn't sure what I was expecting to see when I opened my eyes. I mean, I couldn't have possibly expected it to have worked. All that Yoda-esque crap she'd been spouting...and I apologise to any wizard readers who don't know who Yoda is...just wasn't how magic worked. And yet, when I did open my eyes, the cube was gone! I felt around the desktop with my hand, just to confirm that it hadn't simply fallen onto the floor or something. But no...it was there. I picked it up and held it in the palm of my hand. Unless the cube caught the light in just the right way, it was impossible to see. The rest of the world seemed to vanish as I stared at the barely-visible cube. It wasn't possible. I hadn't done anything! How...?
"Well done Sebastian!" Professor Spanier's announcement jolted me back to reality, and I nearly dropped the cube in my surprise. "Very nicely done!" To my extreme displeasure, I was almost immediately mobbed by my classmates.
"Oh please, he's just hiding it in his pocket," Phil laughed.
"How did you do that?" Amanda asked. Behind her, the girl who looked exactly like her smiled at me in amusement, but there was no warmth in her smile.
"Um...I...I really don't know," I stammered...which was mostly true anyways. She regarded me with concern and a little confusion, but must have decided that I didn't want to talk about it for whatever reason, as she simply congratulated me and returned to her seat without asking any more questions. The same could not be said of Gordon.
"Hey, what were you picturing in your head when you did it? 'Cause I've mostly been picturing the cube fading out of sight. Just thinking 'invisible' or 'camouflage' doesn't seem to work. Did you try...?" I wasn't really paying attention to him, though. My eyes were fixed on Amanda's doppelganger, who was still smiling icily. Gordon lightly...from his point of view anyways...punched my shoulder. "Hey, Earth to Seb! What are you looking at?"
"I..." I had taken my eyes off not-Amanda for only the briefest of seconds, but when I turned back to where she had been, there was nothing. It was as if she had never been there at all.
By the end of the class, I was the only one who had managed to completely camouflage their cube, although Gordon insisted that his had gone slightly paler. However, my accomplishment would be largely forgotten by that evening, as something far stranger and more disturbing took its place in the gossip circles of Hogwarts.
The message, written in blood again, had been scrawled on the wall outside of the Muggle Studies classroom. By the time I arrived, a sprawling crowd of students had already formed around the scene of the crime like a massive cordon, and Gordon and I had to crane our necks to see the message (as I refused to let him shove the first-years out of the way).
Oct 31 – KILL A MUDBLOOD DAY
"Well...that's interesting," I commented, trying to ignore the shiver that was scurrying down my spine. Gordon had a more colourful assessment, but for sake of younger readers I have decided to let you use your imagination.
What the hell was this? Once was just a curiosity, but twice...and to say something like that! Whoever was leaving these messages had to be both incredibly sick and incredibly stupid. You couldn't just go around writing things like "kill a Mudblood day" on the walls of Hogwarts and expect to get away with it. That sort of thing just wasn't tolerated here.
Still, just seeing the word (and hearing it whispered excitedly by the ignorant first-years amongst themselves) made me feel uneasy, even a little bit sick. Of course, this was probably due to the fact that two of my closest friends, Gordon and Amanda, were "Mudbloods." But I forced myself to stop being so ridiculous. I mean, it wasn't like anyone was actually going to go around killing Muggle-borns on Halloween. But then, that wasn't what was really bothering me. What really bothered me was the excited whispering of the younger students as they tried out the unfamiliar word and speculated as to what it meant...and who it applied to.
"Come on," Gordon muttered, nudging me. "Let's get out of here."
The message was gone the next day, but the damage had already been done. Several of the teachers had to give their younger students "the talk" about why Mudblood was an offensive term and shouldn't be used and so on and so forth. The cynic in me was certain that telling the kids not to use the word would only make them more eager to use it as often as possible, and wouldn't you know it, the little bastard was right. The whispers were always out of earshot of the teachers, but they were omnipresent, and they grew like ivy in the halls. And while I am pleased to say that no one actually died when Halloween rolled around, I could still feel the anxiety and tension radiating from many a Muggle-born student. Gordon spent most of the day twitchy, looking over his shoulder and glaring about him at nothing in particular, and while Amanda tried to cover up her own anxiety by talking endlessly about absolutely anything but the threat looming over her head, her true colours were hard to disguise.
Halloween fell on a Friday, a rare occurrence that was eagerly anticipated by all of us; after class was over, we would have the annual (and spectacular) Halloween feast, and as the weekend followed after, we would be able to spend the next two days visiting Hogsmeade. And for those of us in Professor Spanier's fifth-year Charms class, Halloween was also the day when our mastery of the Disillusionment Charm would be tested.
When it came my turn to perform the charm on Professor Spanier's Rubik's Cube, I was perhaps a little more nervous than I needed to be. With not-Amanda's coaching, I had never failed to perform the charm effectively since the first day I'd attempted it. And speaking of not-Amanda...the mysterious spectre had appeared directly in front of me, leaning against the wall of the classroom. As with every other time she had appeared, no one but me seemed to notice her presence.
"Don't worry," she said quietly, although I could hear her as clearly as if she were standing right next to me. "You know you can do this. Just believe." And as much as I still doubted that "just believe" was legitimate magical theory, it had worked pretty well so far.
I stared down at the multicoloured cube on my desk, fixing it within my gaze as though it were a potentially dangerous animal, and, taking a deep breath, I emptied my mind of everything but not-Amanda's words. You know you can do this. Just believe. And then, almost believing that I could, in fact, feel the magic building within me, I brought my wand down on the cube.
As always, it took a moment for the change to become noticeable, but all the same I breathed a sigh of relief as the multicoloured box slowly began to fade from view. I willed the transformation to spread all the way from the top to the bottom of the cube; most of the charms I'd seen during this test had failed to completely conceal the cube. Come on, I silently begged the creeping stain of camouflage. Keep going. And, much to my delight, it did.
"Magnifique!" Spanier declared in a flashy French accent. "Well done Sebastian!" My accomplishment was rewarded with a chorus of applause from my classmates; up to this point, no one had managed to completely conceal the cube as I had. By the time the applause had died down, Professor Spanier had performed the counter-charm on the cube, readying it for the next student. He was saying something, but I wasn't listening. My hallucination (at least, that's what I was starting to suspect she was) was speaking, and every other noise faded into the background. Her voice was all I could hear.
"Be in Hogsmeade tomorrow," she told me. "We can be alone there. I'll come to you." When I blinked, she was gone.
By the end of the class, only Polina and Adam had managed to match my accomplishment with the Disillusionment Charm. Gordon, Amanda, and Phil had all showed a certain degree of proficiency with the spell, and indeed most of the class had managed to at least camouflage some of the cube, a fact which delighted Professor Spanier immensely.
"Excellent work, all of you! This has been a particularly enjoyable week for me, and I certainly hope you've also...oh, the end-of-unit speech is a little premature it seems," he said, eyeing the grandfather clock in the corner of the classroom. "We've got about fifteen minutes left in the class. What to do..."
"Sing something for us!" Susan insisted. Her suggestion received a loud chorus of approval from us.
"I'd love to," Spanier replied, "but Professor Johnstone borrowed my guitar this morning, and he hasn't given it back yet."
"Professor Johnstone plays guitar?" I burst out. The awesomeness of this revelation is difficult to properly express.
Aside from the predictably extravagant Halloween feast, the rest of the day was not particularly eventful. The highlight of the evening was Peeves' attempt to hide a Weasleys' Wildfire Whizz-Bang firework inside one of Hagrid's enormous jack-o-lanterns, which was narrowly thwarted by Professor Johnstone, who somehow spotted the poltergeist and managed to encase the firework in ice and vanish it only a fraction of a second before it exploded. And while everyone around me revelled, I couldn't bring myself to join the festivities. I could only think of tomorrow, and of not-Amanda. Was she just a hallucination, or was there something more to it? Did she have anything to do with the messages on the walls, or the creature I had seen in the forest on my first day? I dismissed that thought almost as soon as it entered my brain; it was ridiculous to start seeing conspiracies like that. But despite this commonsense stance, my dreams that Halloween night were haunted with images of the darkened forest and the strange creature that flew through the trees, seeking something that no wizard could find...
As much as I am reluctant to describe any location as a "charming little place"...I'm not that old yet...that is probably the most accurate way to describe the wizarding village of Hogsmeade. I had hoped to be alone for a while in order to talk to not-Amanda, for hallucination or not, she was undeniably invisible to everyone except me, and I didn't want everyone in the village to see me talking to myself. However, this hope had been largely dashed by Gordon, David, and Paul, who were currently in the process of dragging me to the Hogsmeade branch of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. I could only imagine the horrors they planned to inflict on Filch with their intended purchases, but most of the imagination I could have used to explore the possibilities was currently focused on figuring out how I was going to get away from them.
In the end, I opted for the simplest approach possible.
"I'll catch up with you guys later," I announced, already turning to leave. "I have to take a wicked piss. I'll be back in a bit." I then proceeded to more or less run off full-tilt in the opposite direction before I could be questioned. Once my friends were out of sight, I ducked behind the Hogsmeade branch of Ollivander's, which was unlikely to attract many customers at this time of the year. Within seconds, she appeared before me.
"Hello Sebastian," she said with a cold smile. "I've been looking forward to this conversation." Unlike her, I didn't bother with pleasantries.
"Who are you? A ghost? A hallucination? Why do you look like Amanda if you're not her?"
"Am I really Amanda playing some kind of trick? Do I have anything to do with the messages on the walls? Why can't anyone else see me?" she interrupted, listing off all the questions I was about to ask. "I'm in your head Seb. I always have been, ever since the day you were born."
"What? That's impossible! I've only known Amanda for the past five years!" The smile vanished, and she sighed sharply with displeasure.
"I'm not Amanda! I'm just taking her form, it makes things easier. I can be someone else if you want." To my surprise, she promptly began to swiftly transform into other girls I knew...Olivia, Susan, Hannah...whilst snapping ridiculous model-like poses each time she switched. Her transformations were not accompanied by puffs of smoke or flashes of light; she would simply be one girl at one moment, and another the next.
"No, no," I interrupted, pausing Jasmine in the middle of what I think Muggles call a bend-and-snap. "I was just getting used to Amanda." Okay, this called for a moment of reflection. Clearly this...thing...had nothing to do with Amanda, as she could apparently take whatever form she liked. Which could mean... "Hold on, who else have you been?" I racked my brains, trying to remember if I'd ever seen a doppelganger of anyone else I knew.
"Oh, don't worry your silly head about that," she chuckled, returning to her more familiar form. "I've only shown myself to you as Amanda. I didn't want to confuse you too much."
"Fine then, next question. Not to sound like a drunken playboy, but if you're inside my head, then where have you been all my life?"
"Waiting," she replied matter-of-factly. "Growing. It wasn't time before, but it's time now."
"Time for what?" I asked. What the hell was she talking about?
"You'll see," she said with a smile, as mysterious knowledgeable characters in mediocre movies always say. I rolled my eyes, knowing that I would get nothing further from her on that subject. However, that certainly didn't mean that I was going to discontinue the interrogation.
"Why do you look like Amanda?" was my next question. "Are you like a representation of my anima or something?"
"Anima?" she questioned, seemingly bewildered. "Isn't that some kind of Muggle thing where they squirt water into your..."
"Never mind," I cut her off hurriedly. "I'm just trying to figure out why I'm hallucinating Amanda...and apparently every other girl I know..." She groaned and smiled at the same time...something that I had seen Amanda do a million times.
"I'm not a hallucination Seb! I'm almost as real as you are! I just look like Amanda because you respect her. You trust her. How else was I going to get you to listen to my advice?"
"You mean your advice on Disillusionment Charms?" I ask wryly.
"That's only the beginning Seb! Nonverbal magic is just the meanest example of what I can help you accomplish. Together, we'll do extraordinary things!"
"Why? Why are you helping me? Why are you here?" I groaned in frustration. "Just who the hell are you, and what do you want?" There was a pause after my outburst, and she looked taken aback, as if this wasn't going at all the way she'd intended it to. But how the hell could a hallucination intend anything? But then, hadn't she denied being just a hallucination? Could a hallucination do that? What the hell was going on?
At last, her smile returned, and she gave an answer that wasn't really an answer at all.
"I'm here for you Seb. I'm here to help you. Very soon, the wizarding world will be threatened by a great and powerful evil, and you're going to play a vital role in saving it."
"Me?" I blurted out in surprise. "Save the world? What is this? What are you talking about?"
"Soon," she intoned. "Everything from me to the Dark Hunter in the forest will be made clear to you in time."
"Dark Hunter? That creature I saw? What is it?" She laughed, and sounded just like Amanda when she did.
"Don't worry so much Seb! Come on; go have fun with your friends. You've got a few more days before you need to start moving. Just trust me and do as I tell you, and everything will go according to plan." She reached out as though to touch me, but pulled back with a sad smile. "You have a destiny Sebastian Crane, and I'm going to make sure you get there."
Unbeknownst to me, I was not the only one at that moment having a conversation with someone who wasn't quite there. In the small Muggle town of Little Hangleton, there is a desolate and melancholy graveyard that has seen magic both great and terrible, and it is in that graveyard that Harry Potter stood at that very moment. He regarded the unremarkable grave of one Tom Marvolo Riddle, whose body he had buried there with his own hands thirteen years ago. The final resting place of Lord Voldemort was known only by Harry and his most trusted friends, who hoped to prevent vengeful wizards from desecrating the former Dark Lord's body. He had intended to bury his enemy and then be rid of him forever, but as time had gone by, he had been drawn back to Riddle's resting place by the strange connection he still felt to his old nemesis. He knew that nothing really linked him to the dead husk in the ground beneath his feet, but the feeling lingered even after all this time. In the graveyard he found peace and quiet; sometimes it was the only place he could really think. Sometimes he would even speak to Riddle, and sometimes he could have sworn that Riddle answered him.
"Kingsley is compromised," Harry muttered. "The Kingsley Shacklebolt I know would never vote to continue the use of Dementors by the Ministry. He's being controlled somehow."
Then you know what you have to do. The whispered voice in his head could have been that of the dark little place in his head that he didn't like to visit...or it might have been something more.
"Yes, but how does one go about removing the Minister for Magic from office?" Harry mused. "I can't have him arrested just based on all this conjecture. That would be..."
Like me?
"Yes. Like you." There was a long silence in which nothing at all seemed to move. "The Order's been inactive for years, and it's not like I could have used them for this anyways. I can't even use my Mad-Eyes. I won't make them choose between me and the Ministry."
You're afraid, the voice taunted him. You know that you must take action, but you allow your fear to stand in your way.
"What would you have me do?" he said in a voice barely above a whisper. And the answer came even more softly, like a cold breeze.
Take his power for your own.
"No," Harry said firmly and without hesitation. "We're not there yet. And we never will be, not while I can help it."
Don't shy away from what must be done. The rest of them...they are fools who stand in your way! Who among them can equal you? What do they know of pain? Of suffering? They would use you as a shield, a candle against the darkness while they point at your forehead and laugh! You alone know the truths of this world! Do what must be done Potter, don't shy away from what's rightfully yours! Gather your allies. Become Minister for Magic. Then no one will stand in your way, not Kingsley, not Crawley! Then you can make the wizarding world as it should be!
"You mean like you would do?" Harry shot back, trying to crush what he was feeling back into that dark place in his head. He knew what he felt was desire, temptation. "No. I'm not you, and I won't become you. I'll go see Kingsley in person tomorrow. I won't let anyone stop me this time. I'm going to find out what's really going on here." As he prepared to Disapparate, he paused and looked back down at the grave. "You know, I've been thinking lately: the line between you and me is a thin one. And the day I forget why I did this for you is the day I cross it."
My side of the line isn't so bad you know. Refusing to entertain that idea for even a moment, Harry vanished.