DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.

When Hunting Monsters

Chapter 4: Mistakes Made in Passion

Number Four Privet Drive burned, like a flaming torch of violence against the backdrop of an otherwise quiet and perfectly unmarred suburbia. This was the sight that greeted Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as he apparated onto the recently deceased Mr. and Mrs. Dursley's front lawn, wand grasped firmly in his unwithered hand, and celestial objects on his flamboyant robes sparkling brightly. The perfect painting of horror was blurred as vapor filled his eyes and cracks sounded in his ears; his colleagues apparating to stand beside him. The old wizard's concentration however, was firmly fixed upon a dark bloody form, writhing in agony on the ground.

"Bellatrix Lestrange!" Remus Lupin hissed, and the werewolf ran towards her.

"Remus! No, don't!" Dumbledore shouted. He flung out his wand and Remus was halted, his body jerked into a sudden, frozen, stillness.

Unfortunately, Dumbledore's action was too late. The dark witch looked straight into Dumbledore's eyes, insane glee morphing her features through the pain, her lips twisting into a cruel smirk. While Remus was charging her, Bellatrix had reached a shaking hand into her robes and had pulled out a galleon. Now she brought the gold coin to her lips, never looking away from Dumbledore's eyes, and kissed it. The galleon glowed blue, just for a moment, before the dark witch, and the entrails splayed out in the red tinged grass beside her, left in a swirling vortex of light.

'Of course Tom wouldn't have left his best lieutenant without an escape plan,' thought Dumbledore.

"Well, it appears we won't gain anymore information then what we've already gotten out of our dear friend, Mundungus." He said with a sigh, releasing Remus from his spell with a lazy wave of his wand.

"I-I'm sorry Dumbledore, I didn't rea-"

"Quite alright, my dear boy. Even the best of us make mistakes in moments of great passion." He patted Remus on the shoulder and began working on removing the fire, along with setting up muggle repellent charms.

"What I'd like ter know," Moody growled, "is who put tha bitch in such a bloody state. Who'er the bloke is, he deserves a pat on the back he does! Ha!" The old auror chuckled. Greatly satisfied was he at seeing retribution finally delivered to such a hated foe. With a sharp final flick of Dumbledore's wand, the flames consuming the house vanished, and a squelching sound filled the air as the wards were put in place.

Dumbledore was frowning, not at all pleased at his old friend's attitude. "Probably the same man who Mundungus claimed animated the tree laying in front of us to great effect, and apparently also slayed the death eater over there." He gestured to the fallen, charred oak, and the deatheater across the yard with shards of metal sticking up out of his stomach, throat and chest.

"If he animated tha tree first, then came onta tha yard, and killed that deatheater, then it be likely that he came from that side of the house, through tha backyard." Moody pointed out the path the vigilante must have taken.

"Perhaps we would more swiftly find our answers, and therefore more swiftly find Harry, if you were to direct your talents more abroad, Remus." Dumbledore already knew Harry was gone. His alarm had warned that the blood wards had collapsed, but another very powerful ward had kept him from apparating to Privet Drive. Probably one set up to deny anyone without a dark mark entry. He could have easily overpowered it, but the backlash for such creations was designed to be fatal. The magic composing the ward would be unleashed back upon him in its raw form. That wasn't something even the prodigious Albus Dumbledore could defend against. He had tried to floo Arabella Fig but the floo was warded as well. He then attempted to carefully disassemble both wards but before he had even finished it, another alarm had sounded Harry's departure from Privet Drive, and most likely Surrey. From there he had finally finished removing the wards, much too late, and apparated to Arabella's house to make sure she was safe before apparating again over to number four.

"Ah of course, I'll see if I can find a scent in the backyard then." Remus made his way over to the gate before crouching, nose low to the ground. An animal like trance seemed to come over him as he sniffed for a few moments, he looked up and Dumbledore caught his eyes. He could see the wolf quite clearly in the amber orbs. Apparently Remus had found something as he took off at a swift pace towards the woods. His shabby robes flapped as he vaulted the fence.

"Bloody disburbing that is!" Moody shivered. "I'm tellin you Albus, you shouldn't be trusting one ov his kind. Whatever he used to be, a dark creature he clearly be now, and he'll turn on you at any second!"

"Why, I trust him just as much as I trust you Alastor! Remus has never been one to give in to his… darker side. In fact he denies it at every turn, despite all the troubles he has to face in trying to be a werewolf in our society. That, I think, shows incredible character; far beyond what you or I have displayed in our pasts. If you were in his place, would you not have slaughtered every ministry official in the Department of the Regulation of Magical Creatures by now?" Dumbledore was standing over the fallen tree now, his eyes closed and his hands spread out before him, his face etched into a portrait of calm concentration.

Moody didn't have an answer and looked away, studying the scene in the yard before him, his magical eye spinning.

"Ye pickin up anything?" He asked

Dumbledore laughed, "My friend, you make it sound as if I were one of those muggle radars. But yes I have indeed picked up something as you so succinctly put it."

"Well who is it then?" Moody growled impatiently.

"I believe it is Harry."

Moody's normal eye widened comically, "You mean to say tha boy did all this? Tore up Bellatrix like a dog at a piece of meat?"

"I can't be sure Harry did all of this, but the magic on the tree is definitely his. He seems to have put a great deal of effort into it, so it's quite easy to discern despite the fire damage to the magical residue. I must say though that this was particularly good work. He must have gotten the inspiration from my duel with Voldemort. How he managed to find the spell puzzles me."

"Why don't you find out who cast the other curses?"

"Well Bellatrix is gone, and I can already tell from the position of the remains of the Dursley's mailbox and the dead death eater that it was summoned for protection and then blown back towards the enemy. That could have been Harry but it's more likely that with how much power he put into animating the tree that he had already expended too much energy for that. Besides, summoning and expulsion charms carry too faint a trace to be able to determine the caster."

"You think he had help then." Moody stated more than questioned. "Who in the hell would ave been here to help him?"

"I find myself at a loss to explain this, Alastor. It's quite possible that a death eater could have turned against his own, and it's equally possible that Severus was here. I haven't spoken to him in a few days."

"You think he would av cursed Bellatrix like that?" Moody scoffed. He definitely suspected Snape's loyalty lay towards Voldemort.

"Why must you be so ready to believe the worst of everyone, my boy?"

"I aint no boy no more old man, and you shouldn't be talking. You're disturbingly ready to believe tha best in everyone. At least I won't ever be stabbed in the back by a traitor I gave too many chances."

Dumbledore sighed. This was a tired old argument. "In more normal times I'd be able to acquire a list of spells performed by Harry from the Ministry but with all the political tension at the moment, that course seems unwise. In any case, I do not believe it could have been Harry who cast the curses here. I consider the kind of dark magic required to do what we saw done to Bellatrix far beyond Harry. He's much too pure hearted to able to control such a spell."

"Pure hearted?! He's got Voldemort inside his bloody head!"

A pop announced the arrival of another order member, and cut off the argument.

"Dumbledore we found the Durseleys!" Tonks' hair was missing its usual pink hue, and vibrancy, instead a depressing black, and hung down to her shoulders instead of its usual state of spikiness. She was wearing her red auror robes.

'The Dursley's must be in bad shape, 'thought Dumbledore sadly.

He gave her an imploring look, beseeching her to go on.

"We found them in their car about five minutes away from here. They….they were shot dead. Both of them." Tonks hung her head.

"That could not have been the work of a deatheater. One wouldn't know one end of a firearm from the other. " Dumbledore pondered out loud.

"But a deatheater coulda cast tha Imperius Curse pretty well." Moody interjected

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at him, considering the possibility.

"He's right." Dumbledore's gave shifted to Tonks. "We found the muggle bobby on the ground, right next to the Dursley's car. He admitted to shooting the Dursleys but claimed he'd been taking orders from a voice in his head all day, and couldn't refuse it. He said he felt at peace the whole time, and we had a mind healer determine he'd been under the Imperius Curse before we obliviated him. After we found that out I apparated here as soon as I could, because I figured you'd be here, or Harry might be in danger." Tonks voice was rushed, she was clearly distressed.

"You were quite correct on both counts my dear. I have to give credit to Tom. That's certainly an ingenious way to circumvent the wards, using a muggle to eliminate who they're tied to. The wards would nor have been able to protect against the policeman, or really detect him as he isn't magical. It would have theoretically picked up bad intentions from him, but since he was under the Imperious, he had no intentions at all. Tom most likely instructed whoever performed the curse to leave the policeman there to taunt us. He was in the habit of doing such things during the First War, a calling card of his you could say. More specifically it's the calling card of Yaxley, a deatheater very proficient at casting the Imperius."

Moody nodded his head. This wasn't new information to him. He had hunted the bastard for a long time.

Tonks looked troubled. It appeared as if even ancient blood wards didn't keep people safe from the Dark Lord's reach.

"Don't look so glum my friends, there is cause for hope. Perchance you've noticed, we've seen more evidence of injury to the assailants then to Harry. He may yet be safe."

Tonk's looked around for the first time and came to the same conclusion, her face in a grimace at the ghastly wounds inflicted on the dead death eater.

Their thoughts were distracted by Remus coming around from the opposite side of the house he had walked around before. It seemed his trail had taken him in a full circle.

"Well Remus, has your search shed any light on this mystery? " Dumbledore conjured a glass of water, and handed it to panting werewolf who was standing with his hands on his knees.

"Not really, it doesn't make any sense," he took a gulp of water; "I picked up a scent in the backyard, as I'm sure you saw. But I couldn't identify it. It was strange, yet very familiar at the same time. This scent led me back into the woods, where I found the carcass of a deatheater. The only reason I could tell it was even a deatheater was because there was just enough left of the forearm to see the mark. His clothes, mask, and wand were all gone though."

"Hmm, that is most curious. What did you find that led you back here?"

"The scent. It changed, but it was still the same scent, except that of a very large animal."

"What the hell are you on about?" Moody was getting frustrated

Remus glared at him. "I'd recognize it anywhere after experiencing it so many times with James, Sirius and Peter. Whoever the scent belongs to, he's an animagus. The claw marks slashed through the throat were large in diameter, but that doesn't really narrow down possibilities for forms. There's lots of animals it could be." A nasty idea was starting to form in Remus' head about what exactly Sirius may have left in that trunk he gave to Harry, and just how much Harry could accomplish in a few weeks.

"Good job just assuming it's a man. It could be a woman for all you know, " Tonks chose now to inject her feminism.

"There's a difference between male and female scents."

"Oh…nevermind." Her hair turned red in embarrassment.

"The scent came from inside the house Remus, you're sure of that?"

"Well no, I mean I can smell it from about up to the front yard, but past that the flames have destroyed it if it exists."

Dumbledore's shoulders sagged in relief. For a second I was worried that the animagus might be Harry, he thought.

"Can ye smell the same scent, over where Bellatrix was?" Moody was eager to find out who had injured the woman so badly.

Remus walked over and sniffed, "Yes, ughh I can also smell her guts."

"So we know Harry was helped by a man who's an animagus, ate a deatheater, and horribly maimed Bellatrix Lestrange along with killing another deatheater?" Tonks asked

"Yes that's correct Nymphadora," she glared at Dumbledore. "However, I feel there are more answers to be found inside, shall we take a look?"

The sounds of footsteps, distorted voices, the drip drop of water against stone, and iron creaking open reverberated through Harry's ears as he awoke with a gasp. He felt cold damp stone beneath him, behind him, and cold steel against his wrists.

'smack' a backhand connected hard against his face, waking him up fully.

"Kneel Potter, you're in the presence of the Dark Lord!" said the low voice of the deatheater who'd slapped him.

"Leave us," A serpent like voice commanded, and the death eater obeyed, leaving a torch in the bracket on the wall.

Harry's head tilted up, and to his horror met the red slit like eyes of Lord Voldemort, the torchlight dancing in them. The mouth on his snakelike face was curled into a grin as he towered over Harry's crumpled form. Harry briefly wondered why his scar wasn't hurting.

"Well Harry, it seems you've come crawling to me and in the robes of a deatheater no less. Have you rethought the offer I made you after my rebirth?"

Harry struggled into a standing position, but didn't say anything. He knew the bastard was playing with him.

"You fought well boy. You managed to kill four of my deatheaters and gravely injure Bellatrix using dark magic of the kind I must admit I didn't think you capable of."

Harry just stared at him, hate beginning to rise up in his chest.

"Tell me Harry, what are these runes? I'll admit I'm not familiar with them." Voldemort reached out and stroked the side of Harry's face, his long finger tracing the rune patterns on his jaw.

"Still silent, perhaps you want to keep your secrets. A good wizard after all, never reveals them."

"What do you want with me?" Harry's voice was steady.

"What I want Harry, is you. I was simply going to retrieve the prophecy from your mind, and then kill you, but after your impressive display I've reconsidered."

'What the bloody fuck, is he being serious?' Harry thought.

"You will of course have to pay for the deaths of my followers and for injuring Bellatrix, but I would be willing to lessen your punishment considerably if you were to decide to join me. I value talent like yours Harry." His voice was soft, sibilant, caressing.

"I'll never join you."

Voldemort smiled. "Are you sure Harry? After all, we're not so different. I can see myself quite clearly in you. You enjoyed killing my followers didn't you? Enjoyed crushing their lives beneath your wand, your hand. You relished in the power the darkness gave you," Voldemort's head was beside Harry's now. The Dark Lord's words felt like they contained a magic of their own, echoing deep in Harry's soul and bringing to the forefront of his mind, primal desires for blood and power, desires he didn't know he had. They were welling up in his chest now, like a dam ready to burst. He wasn't so confident he could deny them.

"Just like me" Voldemort hissed in parseltounge into Harry's ear.

"I'll fucking kill you!" Harry screamed, lunging at Voldemort. The Dark Lord faded into black smoke before reappearing at the entrance to the dungeon cell.

His laugh, high and cruel, echoed throughout the stone room at Harry struggling at the end of his chains to reach him.

"You'll find that a difficult feat to accomplish while wearing those chains. They'll keep from you doing any magic, let alone slaying a wizard much more powerful than yourself. The strength and size you've gained from the runes won't help you whilst chained to a wall, and you won't even be able to transform into the beast you've worked so hard to become."

Harry stopped struggling and just stared, the only trick up his sleeve taken away from him

Voldemort's grin got wider, "Ah, surprised I know that? Lord Voldemort knows all, boy. Maybe after you've spent some time with Bella, and a few of my other deatheaters you'll reconsider your refusal. I will have you Harry Potter." With a flick of his wand the iron door groaned open and Voldemort walked out. The door clang shut, ominously, behind him. The asshole had taken the torch.

Harry hadn't managed to form an escape plan by the time the door opened again. He had pulled and struggled against the chains until his wrists were raw and bleeding to no avail, it seemed there was no escape from this cell. Wherever the hell it was. He wasn't sure how long it had been but judging by how hungry was it had to have been at least a day.

The door groaned open and the light from the torches in the hallway blinded him momentarily. His eyes were growing accustomed to the darkness of the cell. By the time his vision had cleared he was looking Bellatrix Lestrange in the face. Harry had the sudden urge to bite her, but barely managed to restrain himself.

Bellatrix stepped back, the heels of her boots clacking on the stone floors. She had brought the torch back in and it illuminated the dank cell, as well as her gaunt face, cruel eyes, and dark hair.

"I don't think ickle Potter is worthy enough to wear the robes of a deatheater." The witch said. She waved her wand, and the tattered robes vanished, leaving Harry quite naked. She flicked her wand again and Harry found himself hanging by his arms from the ceiling.

Something danced in her eyes as she gazed upon Harry's form.

"Wittle Harry's grown up hasn't he?" she purred into his ear, tracing a fingernail on his chest.

"Your disgusting!" Harry spat. Bellatrix didn't seem to hear him.

"These tattoos look familiar. I recall seeing them on dear cousin Sirius once or twice, before he ran away." She grinned. Harry felt like he was going to throw up. The nail was at his stomach now.

"Did it feel good Bellatrix, when I splattered your organs across my yard? You seem to have recovered pretty well, does it still hurt any?" Harry taunted her. He hated her so much.

The nail dug into his skin, and blood dribbled down his stomach. Harry kept himself from wincing. Bellatrix rubbed her finger in the blood, and then brought it to her mouth, licking the digit clean.

She smiled at him, his blood smeared on her lips. "I can feel him in you, right here." She placed her bloody hand on his chest.

"And here," Her hand snaked around Harry's head bringing his lips to hers. Harry jerked his neck back, and stars danced in his eyes as the back of his skull collided with the stone wall behind him.

Bellatrix laughed, "Does kissing the murderer of your precious godfather not appeal to you wittle Harry?"

"You'd never appeal to me you fucking hag!" Bellatrix's smile disappeared and she drove the wand into his stomach.

"It's about time someone's taught you how to speak to your betters. I'll pay you back in full for what you did to me, and then I'll break you, see you kneel before the Dark Lord. You'll be his, and you'll be mine, begging to fufill my every desire and command." She hissed.

"I'd rather be stung to death by a horde of angry doxies, and have my corpse get fucked by a manticore!"

'Crucio!" Harry's world turned into pain.

Severus Snape flexed his left forearm as the mark burned. He'd been called into a meeting with Lord Voldemort, but had not found out anything of any importance. The Dark Lord didn't seem keen on revealing Potter's location to Snape, which worried him. It meant the Dark Lord didn't trust him. Dumbledore meanwhile was pressing him to find information which he didn't know how he was going to do.

Voices broke Severus out of his train of thought as he walked down the hallway of Malfoy Mannor. The pleasant thought occurred to him that he was in Lucius' luxurius Manor while Lucius himself was rotting in Azkaban. Portaits of Malfoys long dead glared at him from their places on the wall, as if reading his thoughts.

"Did you hear Potter's screams when I tortured him last night?" That was Dolohov, Snape was sure. He quickly pressed himself into a crook in the wall behind a tapestry.

"No I got sent to babysit Greyback and his mongrels. Make sure they attacked the right people. So you enjoyed yourself?" That was Mulciber.

"Oh yes. The bastard refused to make a noise for the first couple of hours but I got it out of him. Bellatrix said it took a few days for even her to get him to when he first got here. She's down there torturing him now."

'Fuck, 'Severus thought. 'Potter's in the dungeon of Malfoy Manor being tortured by Bellatrix sodding Lestrange, great.' Severus was pretty sure he could take her. He knew more magic than she was capable of understanding, but an all out fight with the witch, who was admittedly formidable, would completely destroy his ability to spy on the Dark Lord. His cover would be blown to hell. 'No,' he thought. 'This needs more…. delicate handling.'

Snape stood in the middle of the stairs leading to the dungeon hallway, listening to the heavy breathing of the guards watching over the big iron door at one end. That must be where they're keeping him.

From the sounds, Snape could tell there were two guards, but he couldn't hear anything from beyond the door. It was probably silenced. He repositioned himself on the stairs, so he could peer around the wall and get at least one of the guards in his sight. He only needed one.

'Legilimens,' Snape thought, his awareness traveling rapidly across the hallway to jam into the mind of the guard. For a few seconds he felt all the unique sensations involved in becoming another person. If one wasn't careful when they attempted to penetrate the mind of another, they'd find themselves lost in a torrent of memories, forever trapped looking at the world through eyes they were so determined to bore into. Snape was experienced enough that this didn't happen, and he allowed himself to flow along the stream of consciousness to where he needed to latch onto. He needed to control what the man saw, what he heard, what he smelled. Once he ingrained himself into the man's mind he put the vision in front of him.

The guard saw a many horned monster take the place of the other guard, jaws bearing down, and screamed.

"What the bloody hell are you screaming about you idiot? Shut up before Lestrange comes out here!" The other guard attempted to calm his fellow deatheater. The hallucinating guard heard it as roars.

'You need to Protect yourself' Snape implanted the suggestion in the man's mind. The hallucinating deatheater grabbed the other guard by the head, and slammed him repeatedly into the wall. A series of thuds and cracks echoed throughout the dungeon hallway as the unfortunate guard's brains and blood gushed down the wall and onto the floor, until the other guard dropped him. The body was twitching and jerking like a freshly caught fish.

"Killed that fucking monster I did!" The guard examined his handiwork proudly.

'You got bit by one of its fangs. You should Grab its largest horn, and cast the advada kedavra curse on yourself with it. It's the only way to cure yourself of the poison. The evil poison that is stealing the life from you every breath you take.' Severus made sure he withdrew completely from the man's mind after this suggestion.

The guard of course found his advice perfectly reasonable, and grabbed the now deceased guard's wand, promptly killing himself with as much hate as he could muster.

Snape could have used the Imperious Curse to achieve the same effects, but he knew the Dark Lord would have picked up on the dark magic. The tearing apart of his soul, and the various rituals he had undergone drove Voldemort deep into the Dark's embrace, but left him unable to feel any other kind of magic. Mind magic was untraceable anyhow; at least the kind Severus had performed. It was too subtle to pick up any trace, even if you were a trained mindhealer. Severus had been so firmly ingrained that the visions and suggestions would appear to anyone viewing the man's memories as his own thoughts. That didn't even matter now since the man was dead. The awareness was the only thing that entered the mind of the victim, and was withdrawn when finished, so there was no residue to leave. It would appear as if Harry had broken free of his cell, overpowered the first deatheater, taken his wand, and killed the other deatheater. Dumbledore would be the only wizard who could possibly tell differently.

Severus made his way over to the door, making sure not to step in the mush of brains and blood, and mentally prepared himself to kill Bellatrix Lestrange and make it look like Potter did it. He took a calming breath and flicked his wand. The door began to grind open.

Harry's throat had long gotten past the point of being raw from screaming. He was pretty sure his vocal chords were broken. He let out a groan as Bellatrix pressed her wand into his side with another cry of 'Crucio!' He couldn't take much more of this.

At least he wasn't hanging by his arms anymore. Bellatrix liked switching up restraints, she had him lying on the floor now. She had said each different way was better for different kinds of torture. Harry was pretty sure he'd experienced them all. The evil bitch had burned him, cut him, cruciod him, made painful lesions and blisters grow all over him, then whipped him. She had even used the curse he had hit her with a couple of times. Her torture was worse by far than any of the of the deatheaters he'd experienced. It got to the point where Harry wasn't even lucid most of the time, his mind had all but snapped.

"I think Harry, that we've finally made some progress. Today, we're going to try something different." Her robes dropped and pooled onto the floor. The Dark Lord wouldn't have Bellatrix, he wasn't human anymore and didn't feel human needs. He was a god, beyond her, only needing her worship not her flesh. She'd have him this way.

Harry wasn't really paying attention, but lucidity was returned to him with her next words.

"I want you to pleasure me." She loosened the chains on his arms.

'Oh hell no' Harry thought. The torchlight illuminated Bellatrix's pale naked body as she walked towards him. Azkaban really hadn't been kind on her.

"Do it now! If you don't I'll castrate you. You have no use for it if not to please me." She grabbed his hand trying to pull it towards her. He wouldn't budge.

"Fine, have it your way!" She spat, seeing the resistance in his eyes. If he hadn't learned to obey by now he never would. She pointed the wand between his legs.

"Red-"

She never got to finish the incantation as Harry swung the now loosened chains above her and then pulled his arms so they tightened around her neck. Bellatrix's wand dropped from her hand, and she clutched at the chains as Harry yanked them ever tighter. Her eyes were bulging, and spittle starting to drool out of her mouth.

Harry kept tightening, and the witch fell to the floor, her bare feet kicking, scraping themselves against the stone, as her fingers clawed at her throat. Gurgled gasps and groans struggled past her lips as she fought against the suffocation. Her legs gave a final kick, and her body one last convulsion before the madness left her eyes. Death had taken her.

Harry didn't stop pulling until her body was completely still and then he collapsed against the stone wall of the dungeon. The last time they had fed him was two days ago, and it was only a slice of stale bread. That had taken a lot of energy.

'What was the point? They're just going to come in and kill me anyway when they see her dead. At least I got to kill her.'

He looked up as the stone door began to groan open.

'Damn, they're already here' Harry thought as a deatheater stepped into the dungeon.