During our search of the summer, we met some strange people, some of them really scared me. We visited Quirell's family. Asking them about his early life, his hobbies, the like. They were very sober people and they didn't give us answers that would help lead us anywhere. We left with nothing, but we didn't stop. We continued our search about him. He was rather interesting with amazing accomplishments. But he was a bad teacher when I had him. Finally, we gave up our useless search of Quierell, he was just simply a pawn and that was it.

Then we did something I don't think any wizard alive would do. We broke into the Lestrange's house. We needed an idea of where the Dark Lord was. The answer should be in the house since they were one of the most trusted families for the Dark Lord. It's not like they would come and kill us or anything since they were still stuck in Azkaban. I apperated inside the house and unlocked the door for Father since there was heavy charms against the place. Then, I quickly went to where Ponty slept and forced him to drink a potion for a deep sleep. He wouldn't wake for anything. Father and I combed through the house, finding bits and pieces of unessential information for this mission.

"Natalie, come here," Father hissed to me. He was at the other and of the bedroom, trying to find a loose floorboard. When he pried it loose, he motioned me to follow and we went into the floor! I'm not sure what would be down there, I didn't even expect that I would be able to walk in it.

"It's like a crypt in here," I whispered, it certainly smelled like it. Since it was pitch-black between the floorboards, Father and I drew our wands so we could at least see in front of ourselves.

"Who dares disturbs me?" I heard a raspy voice say.

We held our silence.

"Speak!"

Father answered, "We are strangers. Will you make your presence known?"

"I will not, seeing that you are strangers. Well, leave now or suffer my wrath."

"And why should we do that? Who are you to command us?"

I stared at where the voice was coming from. I could feel a snake slithering, but I couldn't place where and I didn't dare speak to it.

"You have trespassed on my territory, you are scum. And if you do not listen to me then, I have ways of punishment," there was an awkward silence, "Crucio!"

The spell hit me and I fell to the ground, trying to prevent myself from screaming.

"Stop!" Father yelled.

"And why should I do that? You invaded my privacy and demanded my presence. Someone deserves punishment."

"We will leave just stop."

"Sorry, but I need you to leave and then I will stop."

"How do I know that you are not lying to me?"

"She suffers even now. I'd recommend just listening to me."

Be strong! I tried to tell myself. Don't be weak…. You can do it….. strong….strong…..

I woke up in my bed. "Father?"

He didn't answer. I tried to get out of bed, but I couldn't, I could barely sit up, I was so weak. What happened?

Then I remembered, the Lestrange's house. I will kill the person who did this to me. I lay in my bed for about an hour until Father came in.

"Thank G-d you are all right, Natalie." He hugged me.

"How long was I out, Father?"

"I would say a day and a night. Not long. I am so sorry about what happened."

I winced. "It's all right, Father. Who was that man?"

"I believe it was the Dark Lord."

"Why didn't you kill him?" That is the point of the entire mission. To find the Dark Lord. How could have we negotiated with him and let him get the better of us?

"Because it could have been anybody else. I have a feeling it might have also been a very highly trusted pawn of the Dark Lord. It might have just also been a very disturbed man."

"But, Father, there was a snake there."

"Yes, but we can't just kill anyone we want if that person has no reason to die. Remember, in court, a mistake is never a defense."

"All right."

"How do you feel? Can you move?"

I tried, it was very difficult, but I could stand up now if I held onto my dresser.

"Well, I have to go out for a little. But if something should happen, send me an owl and not yourself."

I smiled and he left.

We barely found anything after the Lestrange's house. It was driving Father mad. I never understood why he wanted to kill so badly, so one night I did.

"Father, why do you want to kill the Dark Lord so badly?"

He stared at me, then sighed. "You know how I always told you that I am related to Salazar Slytherin and that I changed my last name to make my own glory?"

"Yes."

"Well, The Dark Lord is also related to him. He's actually my cousin. My father and his mother were siblings. He was in his fifth year of school when I started. I knew he was brilliant, well-liked. But I was a little first-year, so I never really spoke to him. Then the Chamber was opened, that's when I found the true nature of the Dark Lord. I tried to tell Professor Dippet, but no one would listen to me, I was only a little boy and he was a prized student. During the summer, my father was sitting in his chair, drunk as always when the Dark Lord hexed him. When he was blacked out, the Dark Lord took his wand and killed the Riddle family, then returned the wand and left. The next day, the ministry carted my father away to Azkaban and dumped me in a foster home." Father leaned back in his chair dreamily for a second. "Oh, how I wanted to murder him with my bare hands for what he'd done to me. I wanted to fight him when he hexed my father. But I knew that I would lose, and probably die as well." Then he showed anger. "It wasn't even my father that he wanted to kill, it was my grandfather. I asked myself why? I never liked my father or grandfather, but why should my father have the punishment of his soul being sucked out of him? Or my grandfather who was supposed to be killed by the Dark Lord that day. So I looked through my grandfather's books, mind you there weren't many. And I found to my horror, that I was cousins with that horrible being. From then on I vowed that I would kill him. Understand?"

"Yes. But why didn't you kill him right after Hogwarts?"

"Even though Hogwarts is held as the highest school of magic, they still lack things that are necessary to take revenge properly."

"Like?"

"How to kill a person completely with a killing curse. Then if your wand is taken, you need to know how to wield a weapon. Let's see, I also didn't want people to think I was a murderer, I needed to have something in order to kill him, evidence I mean."

"What proof do you need? He already killed plenty of people."

"True, but no one can prove it. He was very smart. He knew how to plan things to the detail. So I couldn't kill him and risk being put in Azkaban. I could say that I was avenging my father, but that wasn't true. I was avenging my freedom that was stolen. Sure when I was angry at the Dark Lord, it may have seemed like I wanted revenge. But I wasn't like that. My father was abusive and I was neglected. So I learned at an early age to be independent."

"Where was your mother?"

"She upped and left us the minute I was able to walk. She didn't want to deal with a child and she despised my father. He forced her to be their, forced her to have his child. She just couldn't deal with that the rest of her life."

"Oh, that's really sad."

"Well, glad we could cover that. Now could you pass me the green beans." I did, the rest of our evening was as dull as could be.

"Natalie." I heard a quiet voice in my sleep. The voice soon got louder and louder until I finally opened my eyes, it was Father. "Good, now quickly we need to go, I'll explain when we get there."

I was used to this, so I got dressed magically and he apperated us to a campground in turmoil. People were rushing, shoving others aside to find family members. Women shrieking in shear terror. Children screaming for parents. It was a very scary seen to witness. I looked up and saw that there was a family that was being held high in the air.

"What's happening?" I asked.

All he said was, "Just watch." I obeyed. I saw who was creating the chaos, masked men. They looked evil, they had to be Death Eaters. What the heck were they doing? It's dangerous to be even be accused of being a Death Eater, but here they were openly doing it, while torturing people. Suddenly, everything grew quieter the chaos died down. The people were still in the air, but everyone was in the woods.

Suddenly a new shrieking began in the woods. I looked into the sky and saw the Mark. And evil mark that represents the Dark Lord. Oh, G-d, I thought. This can't end well at all.

A while later, there was silence. Until it was broken by yelling. Harry and his friends were in trouble for making the Dark Marl, which is completely ridicules. They argued for a while with the ministry, and then a house-elf was being blamed for conjuring the Mark. Which was also completely ridicules, I doubt that anyone was feeling well that day since they were all absolutely crazy. Finally everyone left. Leaving Father and I free to find something, Lord knows what Father's looking for. We combed through the field. Nothing. Only trampled grass and lost souvenirs. I guess he found something since he signaled me over. It was portkey. Strange.

But we like to leap in things so we used it. We were in some kind of dungeon, dark creepy, anything you'd expect in a dungeon. We took off our shoes in order to make no noise on the stone floor. As we crept further and further into the dungeon, we heard voices of men.

"The Dark Lord's presence in now known. Now we need to find him before we do anything like that again." the voice was deep, and unrecognizable to us. So we inched as close as we could to here more.

"Who made that Mark in the sky, though? Some idiot gave away our position to the Dark Lord and now he is going to get revenge when he returns."

"What we need to do is get the others out of Azkaban before we begin the real damage."

Then I heard a voice that I recognized, Lucius Malfoy. "Well, I hope you all remember that if your caught rescuing people from Azkaban than your at risk of being arrested as well. And I know some of you worked so hard to stay out of their for so long."

"And who are you to talk. You went straight to the enemy the second the Dark Lord started losing power. Why the hell should we do what you say?"

"Well, Mr. Nott, you know just as well as I do that I will always keep my loyalty to the Dark Lord."

Mr. Nott spoke again, getting louder. "Yeah, but remember how sissy you acted in front of the ministry." He clasped his hands and looked up and said in a mcking voice, "Oh please, MR. Prime Minister, I did nothing wrong, honest. I was bewitched and see I forced to do horrible things. I didn't even know I was doing it." He switched back to his normal voice. "Hell, most of us stuck at least until he was about to be destroyed. While you left the minute he started to weaken!"

"We won't get any further in this discussion if we don't stop argueing. Back to busines gentlemen, so we might want to leave the prisoners in Azkaban for a little while longer. Their security is probably tightened due to the Dark Mark incident. But we will, soon, maybe at the end of the year."

"Lucius, remember your place in the discussion is not the leader." A new voice was heard, it was softer than the other men.

"I would like to say that we should kidnap Harry Potter before the school year starts and then we will be able to present him to the Dark Lord as a sacrifice."

Everyone started to argue.

"The answer your looking for is not in kidnapping him and penning him up like a pig until ready for slaughter. I think it would be wiser to set him up and then present him to the Dark Lord fresh from the world."

"And who are you?"

"Barty Crouch Jr."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Mr. Nott asked.

"I have a plan, but I just need you to give me a few months, say the next nine or ten months an I will be able to make Harry Potter come in contact with the Dark Lord."

"Ten months is a long time. Why do you need so long?"

"In order for this to work without suspicion, I need that time for him to trust me."

"Oh yes, I can see it now. Hello there, Harry. My name's Barty Crouch Jr. Go look me up in a book of criminals and my name will be there. How the hell is that supposed to work?"

"When in disguise you can do anything." and they left it at that, I guess, because the voices all disappeared and Father and I apperated home.

Something terrible is going to happen to Harry this year. He is going to be killed.