The Stress of Being Harry Potter

Chapter 11

Snape entered his master's chamber and bowed before him until Voldemort bid him rise, "So, Severus what news do you bring from Hogwart's?"

"My lord, The rift between Potter and Dumbledore grows by the day. I have convinced the man that the brat will eventually come to him for help, and all he has to do is wait the boy out."

Voldemort laughed, and the surrounding members of the inner circle joined him. "That fool actually believed that. I have never even had children, and I know that waiting out a teenager that you have antagonized to the level he has Potter is an exercise in futility."

Snape continued, "I have lived in the same castle as Dumbledore for many years, my lord, and that is his greatest failing. He has some misguided notion that he knows what is best for everyone, and that eventually all of his pawns will come to realize that everything he does is for his vaunted greater good, and will love him for it."

Lucius asked, "What are the odds of making a deal with Potter?"

Snape shrugged, "I have no idea. Any effort at reaching an accord with the boy would have to come from someone other than me. I am one of the four people that he actually hates more than Dumbledore."

Voldemort asked, "Who are the four?"

"You, of course, my lord. Peter and Bellatrix round out the number."

Voldemort shook his head in dismay, "His parents' murderer, his parents' betrayer, and his godfather's murderer, along with the man that sent me towards them, how typical. However, it is imperative that we neutralize Potter from this war. If a deal cannot be reached, then we must make every effort to dispose of him."

Pettigrew spoke, "My lord, I fear that would be a bad idea. Killing Harry Potter at the height of his popularity would make him a martyr and solidify our opposition, but if you permit, I have an idea."

Voldemort waved for him to continue, "I have no qualms with accepting an idea simply because it wasn't my own. The boy must be neutralized, and that takes precedence over anything else."

Peter went on, "What if we were able to turn the wizarding world against him? If we were to frame him for a crime that would put him in Azkaban, the world would turn away from him as a savior."

Voldemort replied, "The idea has merit, but it would have to be a crime that the boy might actually commit. What say you, Severus? Does the idea have merit?"

Snape nodded, "Yes, my lord. We have already seen proof that the school and the public can be turned on the boy, with the occurrences of his second year when they thought he was the Heir of Slytherin, and with last year's smear campaign run in the press against both him and Dumbledore. I would think that the easiest crime to frame him for would be the murder of another student."

"Which student?"

Snape answered, "The most believable choice would be Draco. We could easily have him continue to antagonize Harry and have a few incidents take place that would cement the possibility in everyone else's minds."

Voldemort turned to Lucius, "Are you willing to sacrifice your heir to rid us of Potter?"

Lucius bowed, "My lord, my wife and I are young enough to produce another heir, and Draco has been nothing but a disappointment since entering that school. My wife will protest, but we can simply not tell her. I would be happy for Draco to actually be useful for a change."

Peter re-entered the conversation, "For this to work, we will need Fudge back on our side, but he won't do so willingly. The Imperius Curse must be applied."

Snape asked, "How do you propose to do that? The minister has a full Auror guard around him at all times. No one gets in to see him without an escort."

Peter smirked, "We will need some Polyjuice Potion, and to capture Fudge's secretary. This will also give us something to keep Narcissa occupied, while we set up young Draco."

Voldemort smiled. To anyone outside the Death Eaters, that smile would be something that gave them nightmares, but to his loyal servants it was a sign that their campaign to take over the wizarding world had taken one step forward. He said, "It is time for us to begin preparations for this. Severus, give Lucius the potion. Lucius, explain the mission to your wife, and send a letter to your son giving him instructions to step up his confrontations with Potter. Severus, you will be the one to have the pivotal job of making sure Potter falls into the trap, but it must not be sprung until you have confirmation from me that it is time."

All the Death Eaters bowed, and intoned, "Yes, my lord."

Later that evening, Lucius entered Malfoy Manor and found Narcissa in her study, "It is time for you to do your part for the cause, dear. The Dark Lord has a mission for you."

"What is it?"

"Severus has supplied us with Polyjuice Potion, while Crabbe and Goyle are intercepting Fudge's secretary. You will be taking her place, and your job is to place Fudge under the Imperius Curse."

"What am I to tell him to do once I have him under it?"

"Nothing at first. You will be relayed instructions as they become necessary. We cannot allow him to do anything too overt, or the curse will be discovered, or he will be thrown out of office. Both occurrences would be bad for our plans. So use the political savvy that I know you have while you are there, and give that fool some good advice, and maybe he will stay in office long enough for our plans to come to fruition."

"What is the plan?"

"To conquer the world, of course. However, it is best the you do not know any details, in case you are captured."

Narcissa nodded, and then walked out of the room to get ready for her mission. Lucius sat down at the desk she had just vacated and penned a letter to Draco. He smiled as he sealed it and sent it off. The Dark Lord's plans had just taken another step forward. Soon, he would rule everything, and Lucius would be one of his top lieutenants.

A short time later that evening, Crabbe and Goyle arrived with Fudge's secretary. Lucius pulled several hairs from her head, "Now, take her down to the dungeons. We will need her to continue supplying us with hair for the potion." Then, he walked into the other room, and handed the hairs in a vial to Narcissa. He gave her another slip of paper with the woman's address written on it, "We will make sure that you are supplied with Polyjuice Potion and hair at regular intervals. Make sure to cast an owl redirect so that nothing addressed to Narcissa Malfoy will reach you."

She nodded, "I understand. Am I to begin tonight?"

Lucius affirmed, "Yes, the sooner you get there the better. We have a compiled dossier waiting on you to take as you leave, so that you can study on her habits and acquaintances. Good luck."

Narcissa left shortly thereafter to begin her mission. Lucius cracked open a bottle of Firewhiskey and poured a shot for each of them, and said, "Here's to the Dark Lord and his plans." The others saluted the toast, and each of them downed their shots.

The next morning, Draco received the letter from his father.

Draco,

The Dark Lord has a mission for you. You must step up your slander of Harry Potter. The idea is to get him to attack you, so do whatever is necessary. Severus will see to it that you are not expelled, so that you can remain in the castle to continue with you disruption of Potter's life. Good luck.

Draco grinned. This was an assignment that he could get used to.

Several weeks passed at the school with Draco sniping at Harry at every opportunity. Harry, with the help of his friends managed to not attack Draco, but it was a near thing on several occasions. Susan was of particular help in getting him to redirect his aggressions as the two of them explored their relationship after several of their secret D.A. meetings.

Finally, it was time for the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year, and Harry made quite the production of walking over to the Hufflepuff table, and getting down on one knee to ask Susan if she would accompany him to the village. She and all her friends giggled before she responded in an affirmative.

Harry and Susan walked down to the village with Hermione and Ron tagging along behind them. Susan asked, "Are they going to follow us all day?"

Harry snorted, "They better not. Ron could probably care less as long as he gets to go to Honeydukes. Hermione, on the other hand, seems to think that it is her job to keep an eye on me. She has been even worse this year."

"Has it occurred to you that Hermione might not necessarily be your friend?"

Harry nodded, "Yes, it has. I would hate to believe that she isn't, since we have had a lot of good times together, and she has helped me a lot over the years, but if she is reporting about me to Dumbledore like I suspect, then a five year friendship is over."

Susan took his hand, "Well, let's not worry about that today. Right now, you are supposed to be showing me a good time."

Harry grinned, "Is that right, Miss Bones? Considering that your guardian is the Head of the DMLE, I shall be on my best behavior, then."

Susan pouted, "Oh pooh. I was hoping for slightly less than your best in that regard, so that more effort might be put into something else."

Harry looked bewildered for a moment, until he caught the glint in her eye, and cottoned on to the fact that she was referring to snogging. He blushed slightly at the thought, and then said, "We will just have to see about that."

The two of them continued with their day until it became apparent that Hermione had no intention of allowing them to leave her sight. Susan was beginning to get upset, and Harry had finally had enough when he rounded on her, "Just what exactly do you think you are doing?"

Hermione appeared surprised, "I would think that was obvious. Ron and I are your guards."

Harry looked over at Ron, who shrugged, "She told me that someone had to stay close to make sure you had backup. I thought you knew about it since you didn't say anything when we followed you out of the castle."

Harry sighed, "Hermione, basically anywhere we go in the village, there are going to be D.A. members around to back us up if we need help, but short of a mass attack on the village by Moldyshorts and his Death Eaters, we're not going to run into anything that we can't handle."

Hermione protested, "But Dumbledore said you needed to be protected." Harry's expression darkened, as Hermione realized her blunder, "I could care less what that old fool says, and you would do well to stop obeying orders if you would like to remain my friend."

Hermione appeared to be ready to speak again, but Ron defused the situation, and grabbed by the arm, pulling her away as he nodded at Harry. Harry turned back to Susan and then they continued on.

Later that day, Malfoy sauntered up to them on the road back to the castle, and smirked, "So, Potty, the Mudblood turned you down, and now you've finally moved up to a Pureblood. Although, why a Pureblood would sully their line with such as you is beyond my comprehension."

Harry replied, "Then that would be included with most everything else in life, Malfoy, since the only two things you understand is that you have money and how to give orders to people that don't fight back."

Malfoy flushed, "You're asking for it, Potter."

"As are you, Malfoy. I can assure you that in a duel between us, you will lose. So, be careful that I don't end up sending you back to dear old mum in a body bag."

With that, Harry took Susan's hand and continued to escort her up to the castle, while Draco stood in the road in a fuming rage. Snape stepped out of the shadows, and smiled once Draco finally made his way up to the school. He muttered to himself, "The plan is working perfectly." "Everyone, welcome, to the first Quidditch match of the year. I am your announcer, Colin Creevey. First, we have the defending Quidditch champions, the Gryffindor Lions." At this statement, Harry led the team out onto the field, as they took to the air. Colin continued, "Led by Captain and Seeker, Harry Potter, and veteran Keeper, Ron Weasley, along with veteran Chaser Katie Bell. Also, returning from last years team, Ginny Weasley has switched over to the Chaser position. Filling out their ranks, are Demelza Robbins in the final Chaser position, and twin terrors again rule the Beater ranks with Lyle and Liam Newton." Great cheers erupted from three quarters of the stands at these announcements. Soldiering on, "Competing against them, we have the Slytherin Snakes, led by Captain and Seeker Draco Malfoy, with Charles Crabbe and Gregory Goyle making appearances at Beater, while Millicent Bulstrode is making her debut at Keeper. The Chaser lineup for the Slytherins includes Sebastian Pucey, younger brother to the former Slytherin Seeker, George Goyle, and Astoria Greengrass. As always, this appears to be the kickoff to a great Quidditch season."

Ten minutes into the game, it was readily apparent that the new Slytherin Chasers weren't up to par, while Ginny and Demelza were doing an excellent job of replacing Alicia and Angelina. The Gryffindor offense continued to pump goal after goal past Bulstrode, who just wasn't nimble enough on a broom to deal with the speed of the opposing chasers, while receiving no support from the Chasers. The Captain was no help as the only thing Draco had accomplished thus far was to follow Harry around and insult him at every opportunity. The Beaters were completely outclassed, and for the first time in Slytherin Quidditch history, they weren't attempting to injure the opposition, as they were too outclassed to even catch them.

Finally, Harry saw the Snitch, and put the Slytherins out of their misery ending the game with a score of 290 to 0. Ron had only had to defend on three shots, and they were pathetic attempts at best. It was apparent to everyone that Draco had chosen his team based on some parameter other than skill. As the Gryffindors were celebrating the victory, Draco walked up with a sneer already on his face, "Well, I suppose that everyone must be good at something. Since you have blood traitorous paupers, along with Mudbloods being led by a Half Blood, then I suppose you don't have many other options for talent."

This insult, though not that unexpected from someone like Draco, appeared to be the straw that broke the camel's back as far as Harry was concerned. He whipped out his wand and cast a tamping hex at Draco that brought him crashing to the ground in pain. Madam Hooch was screaming at him to lower his wand barely after Draco had hit the ground. Snape, McGonagall, and Dumbledore were there within moments. Snape shouted, "That will be detention with me for the next week, Potter, for an unprovoked attack on a member of my house."

Harry raised his eyebrows at that and snorted, "Any attack on that fool is always provoked, and you can take your detentions and shove them where the sun doesn't shine. Professor McGonagall, I will take whatever punishment for this offense that you deem appropriate."

She had bent over Malfoy, and asked, "What hex did you use? He looks like he's been beaten."

"A Tamping Charm."

She looked at him quizzically as she had never heard of such a spell. He continued, "It's basically like a lot of very low powered Bludgeoning Spells hitting him simultaneously. They have the power to bruise, but not much else."

She nodded, "I think that the week of detentions are accurate, but you will serve them with me."

Dumbledore interjected, "No, Mr. Potter, will serve the detentions with Professor Snape as it was a member of his house that was injured." McGonagall began to protest, but Dumbledore cut her off, "That is my final word on the matter. Mr. Potter, you will report to Professor Snape at five." Dumbledore then conjured a stretcher, and Snape levitated Draco off to the Hospital Wing.