Pieces of My Soul
Chapter 5
As the burning feeling faded, Voldemort commanded, 'Rise, my newest servant.' On automatic Harry did so. 'As final Proof of your loyalty to our cause, our ideal, to us, You will take the life of the one you replace in our Circle.'
Voldemort pointed to Draco. Harry looked at Draco, and pulled his wand.
---
Harry looked into Draco's eyes and saw that Draco was expecting this.
Harry shot a feral smile at Voldemort, before silently casting a spell at Draco. The sickly green effect of the AK took the life of Draco instantly, and his body dropped to the ground.
Then, with his wand still pointed at the body, he added verbally "Finite Incantatem."
The body changed, warping, melting almost. After 20 seconds it stopped changing, revealing a very large piece of meat.
Harry faked a tear, and said, "That was the loyalist Leg of Bull I've ever met."
Voldemort was obviously displeased with this turnout, but not much. After a few silent moments, in which the meat was removed, the inner circle, all of them, re-gathered into a circle, he finally asked, "How?"
A vague smile flickered across Harry's face before he much more visibly shuddered. He answered when he stopped shuddering. "Well, when I came here, Draco was in the Girls Dorms."
Some of the Inner circle obviously caught the glint in Harry's eyes and the slight humour trace in his voice, and tried to not laugh, too much.
Voldemort smiled, a less frightening smile then others he had thus far shown, but still quite frightening. "I wonder how he even managed to get in there, never mind why he went there in the first place."
"The why I can answer. The why, I won't tell you because even you my lord, will not want to be haunted by the image the Why conveys." At this, Harry shuddered, albeit over exaggeratedly. He smiled a little when he saw a Death Eater across from him collapse, silencing spell obviously working to stop his laughter from reaching any ears.
Voldemort paused in his reaction, before asking, "How?" pointing at the carcass off to the side.
Harry grinned maniacally, "A simple combination of the inferius, imperius and a transfiguration spell."
Harry smiled. This would help in the future.
"Why did Draco not answer my call?"
Harry frowned. "He probably knew about this and wants to go back to being regular Death Eater instead of Inner Circle." Harry grinned and added, "Probably something to do with having an itch after every meeting."
Voldemort scowled, and cast the Cruciatus immediately on Harry. Harry shuddered, but held in his screams of pain. When the spell was lifted, Harry imperceptibly struggled to stand upright again. After a few seconds, it got easier though.
"You have a significantly high pain tolerance threshold, Mr Radcliffe."
Harry gave a cheeky grin, nodded and said almost lazily, "You would have one too if you played Quidditch. Knowing you though, you probably did… Keeper, right?"
Voldemort frowned and nodded. "If you are quite finished, Mr Radcliffe, we must begin our meeting."
Harry went all business. The change in his demeanour was noticed straight away as he took his place in the Inner Circle.
Voldemort took a moment to compose himself, let the inner circle reform of all members. Those not of the Inner circle left the room, understanding that this was not for their ears.
With the door closed, Voldemort Walked around inside the circle.
"We gather today friends, Old and New, to prepare the final stages. Dear old Dumbledore has-"
And on it went for an hour, Voldemort either gave the orders to specific Death Eaters verbally, to which everyone could hear, or conjured or summoned out of thin air parchment with those orders printed, handing them out to specific Death Eaters.
As the meeting was finishing up, Voldemort turned to Harry.
"Mr Radcliffe. Together, we shall demoralise the Wizarding World. But first, I need to know your skill level with due-"
Harry drew a wand and immediately cast Expelliarmus verbally, making sure he looked like and sounded like a Desperate Harry Potter. Voldemort recovered from his surprise long enough to deflect the spell.
Harry gave Voldemort a grin, and said, "I caught you off guard just then. If I were Harry Potter, I wouldn't have verbalised it, never mind so loudly. Even with my loud verbalisation, you barely deflected it in time. Proof enough of my Skill, or would you like to go 1 on 1, No Unforgivables or irreversible curses, hexes or jinxes."
Voldemort scowled, and stood near the centre of the circle. Harry stepped opposite him, transfigured his clothes into that of a Gryffindor uniform and smiled at the Dark Lord. "so I know the limits introduced when duelling someone while in a uniform." Harry informed him.
"Intriguing. Begin." Voldemort said, and just as he finished, he had already flung a spell Harry recognised as a 5th year transfiguration spell.
As they duelled, the Death Eaters were amazed. While Radcliffe was treating this part like a real duel and as if he were Harry Potter, looking desperate and everything, he was obviously not giving it his all, while the Dark Lord was becoming increasingly frustrated with being unable to hit the student. Some spells were dodged while the rest either bounced off or were absorbed by shields. The Inner Circle had already cast a duelling enclosure shield, so no spells could get past them except the Unforgivables, which the combatants weren't allowed to use for this testing duel.
Harry saw that the Dark Lord was tiring physically, and resorting to shielding himself more and more.
Harry smirked internally, and decided to have some fun, thanks to his recently acquired, via Dumbledore, skills with transfiguration and charms.
Casting a spell-bouncing charm on the floor near Voldemort, He made it seem like he was weakening, and Voldemort went back onto the offensive, until he was caught by a stunner, that had rebound of the charm on the floor.
Harry saw the others drop the duelling shield, but whispered to them to be quiet a moment. With a quick charm to Voldemort, and an area-charm to block view from the death eaters – who could still watch due to the 1-way nature of the spell, Harry was ready.
Making sure he sounded hysterical, like he was in a mind-dream again, he cast a modified sonorous/quietus spell – a combination to make his voice raspy and echo-y.
Voldemort woke up with a shudder, then felt the pain from his mental connection with Harry. He looked at him, and Harry said hysterically…
"Get out of my h-h-Head!" And making it look like he was concentrating on Occlumency, Harry jumped up while Voldemort clutched his head to clear it, not noticing Harry's movement… the spell dropped and the next thing Voldemort knew, Harry was above him no longer wearing Hogwarts robes, concern etched on his face while holding a hand out. "You alright? I might have overpowered that Stunner abit…"
Voldemort grabbed his hand, and Harry pulled him up, and the meeting went on from there, the Death Eaters not daring to tell their Dark Lord that the new initiate had pranked him.
--
Harry collapsed in his favourite chair in the Slytherin Common room, rubbing his temples. Since it was so late he wasn't expecting anyone to be awake, so he jumped when he heard Draco's voice.
"You look like shit."
Harry looked at the blonde, and said, "Am I brown?"
Draco frowned, then said, "Hey, It was a joke."
Harry smiled faintly. "Yes… nice." Harry shook his head slowly, and closed his eyes, trying to work his headache into his scar to send over to Voldemort. He was not succeeding at all.
--
Harry, Pansy, Draco, Daphne, Gregory and Vincent were sat in the Hogs Head, just having a quiet drink when Harry got an itch on his left arm. He knew what was going to happen, so he gave a pointed look to Pansy, his arm, then left the pub without a word.
"What was that about?" Draco asked.
Pansy looked at him, then his arm, then continued on her conversation with Daphne. Draco's eyes widened, then he heard a commotion from outside. He got up to look out the door but Pansy held him down. Suddenly, there were screams, and someone ran in and said, "It-It-.. It's You-Know-Who… Outside… Duelling Harry Potter!" before the guy fainted.
Draco's eyes widened, and in whispered tones, asked, "Dan was Harry?"
Pansy smiled slightly, shook her head and said, "Demoralising plan." In the same whispered tone before looking around, obviously acting like she was afraid, only fooling everyone except her friends.
--
Harry threw another Expelliarmus at Voldemort, who due to his previous Duel with 'Dan', knew how little effort he was putting into the act.
"Duel me like a Man Potter! Or are you too weak!"
"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted, and shot back as Voldemort was almost clipped by that one, "I'm not the one who got beat 5 times by a kid! Expel-"
Voldemort had sent a non-verbal spell at Harry while he was taunting – exactly as planned. He was knocked down, but he rolled to the side and fired off a stunner before clambering up again and began casting quicker and quicker. Voldemort began to favour shields, and Harry made it look like he was getting weaker magically and physically.
"You're no match for me Potter." Voldemort said as Harry stopped casting. "Avada-"
Harry shouted out a bludgeoning curse so loudly even Voldemort winced as he hastily put up a shield. Harry gulped as the shield partially deflected the spell back onto him and he felt tremendous pain from his legs, but was satisfied that he at least got to hurt Voldemort this time – just to make it look like a genuine fight.
He made a show of apparently passing out as Voldemort fled, and saw Pansy and Neville run for him from the other side of the street. Together, they picked him up and hauled him back to Hogwarts, to the Hospital Wing.
Pansy, seeing no one was in the wing, sealed the doors.
Harry settled into the Bed, saw the only people around were the 2 who brought him, saw Neville staring at his left arm, about to turn murderous, when he chuckled and asked, before fainting, "Tell him, Pansy."
A/N DUN DUN DUUUUN! ANOTHER CLIFFIE!
And another 2 month wait?
Evil Grin.