The Dark Lord Part Five: In Sickness and in Health

"Mum, you're embarrassing me!" Al moaned.

"What do you think you're doing, talking with my son?" Ginny whirled on the man playing dress-up. Do you realize he just lost his father?" How dare this man play on Al's obsession with the comic-book superhero? Who was this creep? And, oh, why hadn't she paid more attention to Al when he had said that he had met the Cape?

"It's not like that," Harry protested, as his wife looked at him accusingly. He wasn't some madman shadowing a random ten-year-old. Now if he could just convince Ginny of that…

An idea came to him. He used the cape to snatch the comic-book out of his son's hands and followed that up with a smoke bomb and a disappearing trick.

Ginny and Al gaped at the place where the vigilante had been crouching a moment before.

"Mum, you scared him away!" Al complained.

"No, I'm still here," Harry rasped, from the ledge behind them. The other Potters turned to face him.

"That was brilliant," Al grinned, eliciting a smile from his hero.

Ginny stared at the hooded figure. The skills he'd just used…they were straight out of that comic book. Was it possible he was the real thing?

"Mrs. Potter, I need your help. A plot to attack the Founders' Day Parade with biochemical weapons was foiled earlier. ARK arrested a suspect, Pius Thicknesse, but he wasn't working alone. They've kidnapped a friend of mine.

"I need your help to get access to Thicknesse so I can question him."

"You're mad. I can't just sneak you into a police precinct—"

"If that was a real precinct, if ARK was doing real police work, I'd agree with you," Harry interrupted the redhead. "But it's not. Please, lives are at stake."

"Mum, lives are at stake!" Al echoed, tugging on her arm.

"I'll… I'll think about it," she said.

Al turned to the vigilante.

"Cape, that's not good. When she says that, it means no," the child explained.

"In your heart," Harry said, turning his gaze to his wife's, "you know I'm right." You know you can trust me, he added silently.

Ginny was caught by those green eyes, so like her son's. Her resistance crumbled under their intensity.

"Alright, I know someone who can help. Let me give him a call."

"Thank you," Harry rasped. Al approached him.

"Most of the time, she's pretty cool," Al confided, indicating his mother.

"Yeah," Harry smiled. "Yeah, she's pretty cool."

~CAPE~

The Dark Lord put a record on and began twirling Hermione's limp form about the room with him, careful to keep from dislodging the I.V. cord as they "danced" to the music.

"This 'Cape' that tried calling you, he came looking for you. I don't like him," Riddle whispered in her ear. "What's that?" he asked, as if the comatose blogger had spoken aloud. "You don't like him either? He's a stalker? How awful!

"Don't worry. I'll protect you."

The outdoor band (more like an orchestra) that had been hired for their wedding started up. Harry led Hermione away from the table and they started dancing.

She should've been happy. But her lack of memories was frightening her, as was that goddamn white door in her vision. She pulled away from Harry and picked up a knife from the nearest table.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked her.

"I have to know if this is real," she replied. She sliced her hand open with the knife. Blood trickled out of the wound, crimson contrasting with her fair skin. She looked dismayed.

"No pain," she observed, which meant, "none of this is real." Petrified, she let the knife drop from her hands.

Unperturbed, Harry turned her to face him and lifted her chin so she would look at him.

"Can we finish the dance anyway?" he asked as the violins continued playing.

~CAPE~

Ginny waited in the garage of the ARK holding facility for her boss to show up, rehearsing what she would say to him. The Cape was hiding in the, well, rafters, she supposed. He was supposed to wait for her signal before showing himself.

Finally, Remus arrived.

"Ginny, what's the big emergency?" Lupin asked. Before she could answer, the Cape dropped down from his hiding space, landing in a crouch and startling the older man.

"Remus, this is the Cape," Ginny spoke quickly. Maybe if she spoke fast enough, the craziness of the situation wouldn't occur to him. "He's a friend of my son's. He has his own comic book!

"Cape, this is Remus Lupin, my boss."

Harry inclined his head towards the man in acknowledgment. He didn't really care for Lupin. At least, the man was a rival for his son's affection and possibly also his wife's.

"He needs to get inside and speak to Pius Thicknesse in Interrogation," Ginny continued, oblivious to the jealousy emanating from the hero.

"What?" Lupin stared at her. "We can't help him. I'm not even Thicknesse's attorney. He refused representation earlier."

"That doesn't matter!" the Cape called down, ready to launch into an explanation of how imperative it was that he get inside. Before he could, Ginny shushed him, took Remus aside and started whispering to him. Harry caught a few words: "Millions of people will die."

Finally, apparently convinced, Remus turned to face the costumed man.

"First of all," Lupin began, "you're wearing a mask and that's strange." Maybe it was just the mask that was making him feel somewhat intimidated. "I don't suppose I can convince you to take it off and put on a suit and tie? No?" He sighed. "Alright, come on. We'll use my keycard."

~CAPE~

Once inside the building, Lupin started giving the masked man instructions.

"The guards follow a certain rotation. Once you get in, you'll have about fifteen minutes before the next guard comes to check on him.

"I expect you to follow standard police interrogation procedure."

"Thank you," Harry rasped, as Lupin led him down a hallway.

"Don't thank me. I'm not doing this for you. When Ginny tells me something, I listen."

Harry's eyes narrowed. He was Ginny's husband, not Lupin. But he couldn't exactly say that aloud.

The Cape slipped into the interrogation room while Lupin watched from behind a one-way mirror.

"Tell me where the Dark Lord is or I'm going to bash your head in," the Cape threatened Thicknesse.

Ginny, who had lagged behind, chose that moment to catch up to Lupin, closing the door behind her.

"How's he doing?" she asked.

"Well, he definitely knows standard police procedure," Lupin answered wryly.

~CAPE~

"Your partner already tried to question me. If you're going to play good cop, bad cop," Thicknesse began.

"He's not my partner," Harry interrupted the man, backing him up against the wall. It seemed it had been a lifetime since Malfoy had been his partner. "And I'm not a cop," the vigilante continued. He was terribly close to the suspect now. If the former administrator wasn't drugged, he'd probably be concerned about his well-being.

Lupin, watching from the mirror, was getting nervous.

"Easy, Cape; standard interrogation procedure," he muttered. Since the Cape couldn't hear him, it was about as useless as attempting to communicate telepathically, but he couldn't help it.

Lupin didn't quite get a good look at what the Cape did next. It looked like he'd set off a flash grenade in front of Thicknesse's face.

"You and I are linked now," the Cape intoned, imitating Sirius. "We're going to go on a journey in your mind.

"Did he just hypnotize him?" Lupin asked Ginny.

"I serve the Dark Lord," Thicknesse stated, sounding less coherent than he had a few moments ago.

"As I wish to, too," Harry assured him. "But I can't if I don't know where he is."

Alright, he kind of doubted that, even hypnotized, Thicknesse would fall for that trick, but it couldn't hurt to try. When the Dark Lord's follower wouldn't answer, Potter tried a different tack.

"What happened to your family?"

"What about my family?" Pius asked.

"Your wife, your children: No one's heard from them in years. What happened?"

"I…" Tears started forming in Thicknesse's eyes. "I tried to baptize them in the name of the Dark Lord. But my master said they weren't worthy. So they stayed buried." The tears fell before he continued.

"But I still serve my master and he has finally gone home."

"Home," Harry repeated. It clicked. The old Riddle home, of course. "Sleep now," he commanded Pius.

Ginny laid her hand flat against the one-way mirror. On the other side of it, the Cape laid his gloved hand over hers, only the sheet of glass separating them.

"Thank you, Mrs. Potter," he rasped. The lights in the interrogation room flickered and went out. When they went back on a second later, ARK guards burst into the room.

They found only Thicknesse, asleep against the wall.

~CAPE~

Riddle looked at his reflection as Bellatrix helped him with his bowtie.

"Bella," Riddle began. "I'm practically a married man now. It's not appropriate for an old woman to live with a married couple, so after the wedding, you'll have to move out," he told her. If he registered how insulted she was, he didn't give a damn. Once her hands dropped to her sides, he strode from the room.

Bellatrix hastened to wheel the blogger to the table where the Dark Lord was already seated.

"A little meal before our wedding, I hope you enjoy it, my dear," Tom smiled. Then he caught sight of the bowl in the middle of the table and his smile vanished.

"What is that?"

"A lemon centerpiece," Bellatrix replied.

"I asked for lilies," Riddle hissed. Picking up the centerpiece he hurled it to the floor, where the bowl shattered.

Bellatrix bent down to pick up the broken glass.

"Is it too much to want lilies on the table on my wedding day?" he barked at her.

She shook her head.

"Do you hate me, Bella?" he demanded.

"No, I don't hate you. I serve you, my Lord!"

"Well, you have a funny way of showing it!" He stormed out of the room and out of the building, intent on picking the flowers himself.

After he'd left, Bellatrix turned on Hermione.

"Do you see that? You don't know how he gets! I'm going to have to calm him down now!

"He doesn't love you. You're just new. He'll get bored with you," just as he'd gotten bored with Bellatrix.

"You're just a slut. I hope you enjoy that dress," Bellatrix continued. "I'm going to bury you in it!"

Hermione's only reaction was a slight twitch of her fingers in the direction of the I.V. tube inserted into her wrist.

~CAPE~

Hermione was once more dressed in the wedding gown that her friends had helped her pick out. Now she and her bridesmaids were standing outside the church, waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Maria looked down the path.

"Hermione," the bridesmaid spoke up, "your father is here."

"What?" Hermione froze. That was impossible. But she turned around and sure enough, there was her father.

Severus Snape was walking straight towards her, a smile on his face.

Author's Note: Obviously there is some overlap between this and "Leap for the Cape," but that's to be expected.

I want to thank those who reviewed! This chapter has not been beta'd, so if there are errors, let me know.

-Fans Are Fighters, Too. Suit Up; Fight Back.