Chapter Thirty One: OWLs and the Ministry Battle

While the Hogwarts students were preparing for final exams, Voldemort was busy planning his revenge on Umbridge for poisoning his apprentice and on Fudge for putting her at the school in the first place. Sirius was there, dressed in his Avenger robes but without the mask as Lucius and Severus were the only other Death Eaters present.

All four wizards were absolutely furious at the way that Umbridge had treated Raiden, and they were thinking about creative ways of torturing her.

"My Lord, may I ask a question?" Severus asked. Voldemort nodded so he went ahead. "What was with you turning up in Defence that day? I thought the whole idea of having Potter as your apprentice was to keep it secret. Now everyone thinks that he's got some sort of connection with you. Dumbledore doesn't know about it, he thinks that Potter owled you about the problem. I do know that he's tried Legilemency on him but so far his shields have held Dumbledore has no idea of the true nature of your relationship with him. Let's hope it stays that way."

Voldemort frowned. "You're right Severus, it was a bit hasty and ill thought out but I couldn't resist giving the Ministry a fright. Given the fact that they still aren't acknowledging my return I assume they don't believe what happened. They aren't willing to believe Dumbledore and no one knows of our plans so there's no harm done. I won't take a risk like that again though, it would be tempting fate. The only reason Dumbledore allowed me in was because I told him I wouldn't curse the students while I was there. He was amused, I think he didn't like Umbridge any more than we did."

"Did, my Lord?" Lucius asked.

Voldemort nodded. "She and Fudge aren't dead yet but they soon will be. We might as well start accelerating our plans. Do you have any politicians in mind that are both sympathetic to us and who might stand a chance of being nominated for Minister of Magic?"

Lucius was silent for a moment as he considered the politicians he had in his pocket. Finally he nodded. "Yes. There's a politician by the name of Rufus Scrimgeour. He used to be Head Auror. Dumbledore thinks that he's on the Light side but they don't get along, and Rufus is more sympathetic to us as long as we keep the deaths to a minimum and stay with our new plans."

Voldemort considered this information in silence, working out all the possibilities. "Hmm. By new plans I'm assuming you told him of our plans to remodel the wizarding world?"

Lucius nodded and replied, "Yes my Lord. Only in general terms of course. He agrees wholeheartedly with that, he has no real grudge against muggle-borns but he does agree that keeping magic strong should be our first priority and separating the worlds as much as possible would cut down on the time and effort put into Obliviation of muggles that accidentally discover our world. He doesn't want a war though; if we start moving towards that end then he'll mobilize the Aurors against us and join the Light. At best he's a neutral ally."

Voldemort nodded before asking "Will he keep quiet about us?"

Lucius nodded once more. "Yes he will, he knows that his promotion to Minister depends in part on me funding his campaign. He won't talk."

Voldemort smirked and the conversation turned back to the torture of Umbridge and Fudge.

Back at Hogwarts the fifth years were busy revising for the OWLs which were in one week. Raiden had told no one about the vision; he was waiting to contact Voldemort after the exams were over. He felt pretty good about most of his subjects, although he wasn't sure of Arithmancy, some of the concepts this year had been confusing. Potions was interesting and he loved it. Transfiguration too, was a mix of interesting and hard, while Charms was just fun. Finally he thought he'd done enough study for the day and put his books away. Sirius had been hired as a temporary DADA teacher for the rest of the year, and Dumbledore had been quickly reinstated as Headmaster. The school had settled down and the students had got back into the routine of classes and homework, unbothered by educational decrees which had all been overturned swiftly by the Ministry in an effort to save face and stop anyone from bringing lawsuits against them.

The weekend before OWLs started Raiden was called up to Dumbledore's office. Raiden sat down in the chair that was indicated and waited. Finally he got tired of waiting and said, "Headmaster, why am I here? I do have studying I need to do." Dumbledore smiled at him and replied, "I know Mr Potter, but your grades will be able to withstand one meeting I'm sure. I want to know why you owled Voldemort about Umbridge."

Raiden shrugged. He felt Dumbledore's light probe against his shields and let him in, letting him see Raiden writing a letter to Voldemort about Umbridge. He let Dumbledore see that he didn't believe that Voldemort would act on his idea and his surprise when Voldemort showed up. Raiden then felt the probe withdraw and Dumbledore leant back in his chair.

"I owled him about Umbridge, saying that she didn't believe me about his return. I said that I thought it would be funny if he showed up in Defence class to show her that I was telling the truth. I didn't expect him to do it though. Why did you allow him in?"

Dumbledore smiled benignly at him. "He promised not to curse anyone except Umbridge and I thought that if he showed himself here then we could get the Ministry to accept his return a bit quicker. As you know, that hasn't happened."

Raiden shrugged. "Yeah well, since when has the Ministry ever listened to anything that makes sense? I don't really care about it; I thought it was amusing though."

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes so did I. Voldemort, back when he was Tom Riddle was a brilliant student and if he hadn't gone dark he could have been an excellent teacher, in any subject really. Now, have you noticed anything unusual lately?"

Raiden frowned. "Unusual sir? Besides the Ministry trying to turn Hogwarts into an outpost of Fudge's office?"

Dumbledore chuckled at that but shook his head. "No I mean anything unusual centered on your scar. Any headaches, dreams, anything like that?"

Raiden frowned again. "No. The only headaches I've got are stress related from too much studying. OWLs are hell, and I imagine NEWTs are worse. Thank goodness we have sixth year as a break in between."

Seeing that Dumbledore looked thoughtful he asked, "Sir? Is there something I'm missing?"

Dumbledore shook his head and replied, "No, Harry, nothing. I'm just surprised that's all. I would have thought that the scar would be acting up with Voldemort's return."

Raiden was curious now. "Why do you think that sir? Is there some special significance to the scar? Come to think of it, I'm sure that many other parents died for their children in the last war and none of the other children survived. Is there some reason why I survived and they didn't?

Dumbledore frowned. "Yes there is Harry but I want to ask you to please wait on that until after your exams. I want you to be able to concentrate on them, and not on what I tell you. Speaking of exams I know you want to study so go ahead. I'll talk to you next week, after they've finished."

Raiden nodded and left, turning the conversation over in his mind. He had managed to make Dumbledore think that he'd owled Voldemort, his secret apprenticeship to the Dark Lord was still safe. It really was Voldemort's fault though; he didn't have to show up no matter how amusing it turned out to be. Shaking his head, Raiden went back to the common room, needing some sleep. Classes had ended in favor of exam revision a week ago and they'd been studying ever since. He felt like information was pouring out of his ears. The only exam he was unsure about was History of Magic. He hated goblin rebellions with a passion and Binns was better off being attached to the insomnia ward in St Mungo's, he had no doubt that the patients would be quickly cured of their condition.

Finally the exams came round. Their exams all had theory and practical parts with the exception of History of Magic, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. The first exam was Potions and Raiden smirked as he saw a question on Polyjuice. He'd studied that particular potion quite extensively. Picking up his quill he began to write, hearing groans from his fellow students on some of the harder questions. Ron Weasley however was groaning at every question and it didn't take a genius to figure out that he'd left all his studying for every subject probably until the weekend that had just gone.

Once the theory was out of the way, which Raiden felt semi-confident on, it was time for the practical. They had to brew a confusing concoction, which was aptly named as there seemed to be no logic in the order of the ingredients, or the brewing instructions. Raiden's final product was a little thinner than it should have been but at least it was the right color and he handed it in with a sigh of relief. Next thing on the agenda was lunch and then the Charms OWL.

Charms went well, and Raiden was more confident on that than he had been on potions. In the theory he had been able to answer every question confidently and the practical was fun, making a pineapple tapdance across the desk for example. As the day finished and the Avengers met for dinner, Raiden felt his nervousness about the whole OWL period slipping away as he realized that the amount of study he'd done would probably be sufficient.

"NO! Harry, we're not going to revise the bloody constellations and moons of Jupiter one more time, you're more prepared than all of us put together! And we're not going to do Arithmancy or Ancient Runes study either! Just give it a rest!" Daphne snarled when he headed for his trunk to retrieve his Ancient Runes, Arithmancy and Astonomy books.

Raiden turned round and snapped back, "Excuse me if I'm not quite so confident of that fact as you are Daphne!"

Daphne stepped back a step, stunned that Raiden had snapped at her like that when he had never really yelled at her before. A few minutes passed and then Raiden turned round and said "Sorry Daphne, I didn't mean to snap at you. I just don't have your natural gift with these three subjects and its more work for me to maintain my near the top ranking than it is for you." He was about to say more when Daphne shut him up by wrapping him in a hug and kissing him. The two stayed locked together for about four minutes before letting go.

"Thanks," was all Raiden said, being occupied with refilling his lungs again.

Daphne smirked and replied, "No problem. Now, I know that it's more work for you but really, you're well prepared. How about a good night's rest? It's Ancient Runes and Astronomy tomorrow with the practical Astronomy being tomorrow night. Then it's Arithmancy and Herbology the next day, followed by Transfiguration and History of Magic. Our last exam is Defence so you'll end with your favorite subject. Just relax, you'll do fine."

Raiden didn't quite believe her but accepted another kiss and then went to bed, tossing restlessly until Voldemort opened their link to enquire as to what was going on. When he heard what was causing it the Dark Lord chuckled and repeated Daphne's words before sending a strong magical sleep suggestion down the link. Raiden's eyes rolled back in his head and he knew no more until the next morning.

Over the next few days the exams passed as well as could be expected. Ancient Runes was OK, a bit tricky in the translations but OK, Arithmancy had Raiden bitterly predicting a T until Draco hit him over the head and predicted that he'd get at least an E. Astronomy was fun, although the practical was not as fun as the theory. The questions were OK but the weather was bone chillingly cold. Herbology was messy but again fun, except for Blaise's unfortunate run in with a Venomous Tentacula. The Transfiguration exam had the students exiting the room muttering things like "My turtle was breathing steam, surely that's not normal." Raiden and the other Avengers were able to delight their examiners by transforming smoothly into their Animagus forms and back.

History of Magic was utterly boring as Raiden wrote down the answers to various questions on goblin rebellions and then smirked as his plan of reading about other parts of wizarding history paid off as the OWL didn't only cover goblin rebellions. The rest of the Avengers, plus the Ravenclaws were also happy about the exam. Those students that didn't pay attention to the other parts of history were moaning about this fact, although quietly as it was an exam. Raiden exited that exam and muttered to his friends, "I don't care what grade I get in that exam, I am never taking History again." His friends agreed with him, the exam had been boring and had utterly too much information to write down.

The last exam was Defence and the Avengers went into this one with huge grins on their faces to the confusion of many of the students who hadn't been part of Snape's DADA class. The questions seemed almost too simple, and Raiden excelled in the practical portion as his friends knew he would. He managed to get extra credit for his Patronus which the examiner whispered to him about as he was leaving. None of the students who had taken Snape's DADA class failed the exam Raiden found out later whereas a good few of the students who didn't take it, namely the Gryffindor fifth years, only got as high as an A on it.

Finally the exams were finished and the fifth years could relax. Raiden and the Avengers threw their books into their trunks and locked them; the rest of the year was just relaxing and recovering. With the exams over, Raiden decided to contact Voldemort about his strange dream/vision.

Lying in bed a couple of nights after the exams had finished, he opened their bond and tugged on it. Voldemort responded a few seconds later.

Yes Raiden what is it? he asked.

Raiden smiled, he'd missed this kind of contact with his master, surprising as it seemed. A week or so before OWLs I had this strange vision Master. It was of a long corridor with a open door at the end. I went through the door and saw a large room with rows upon rows of glass spheres standing on shelves. The Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters were fighting in this room. One sphere called to me, I don't know why but then the vision changed. The battle moved to a different room, it was made of stone and there was an archway there with a fluttering black curtain. Sirius was fighting a Death Eater, I don't know who and he fell back through the veil and didn't return. Then the vision stopped.

Voldemort considered this carefully. As his spy in the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius had been ordered to fight against the Death Eaters in any battles that the two sides might have. The part about the glass spheres was interesting; apparently Raiden was being called to the prophecy room. Sensing that his apprentice was getting impatient he returned to the conversation.

There is a room in the Department of Mysteries, a room called the Hall of Prophecies. It is where a record is kept of every prophecy that is ever made. Only the subject of a prophecy can remove it from the shelf. I was planning a raid on that hall. There is a prophecy about the two of us, one that I want to get hold of. I know the first part but not the second. Has Dumbledore told you any of this?

Raiden scowled. Not yet but we did have a conversation about something that he needed to tell me, something that he would tell me after the OWLs. When is the raid happening? Can I take part in it?

Voldemort chuckled. I was planning on asking you if you'd like to go retrieve the prophecy for us. I can't waltz into the Ministry of Magic, despite my waltzing into Hogwarts earlier in the year, and we need that prophecy. What about it – do you want this to be your first mission?

Raiden smiled. Yes Master I accept. Will the Death Eaters be there too?

Some will be. They will be a guard for you; although I have no doubt that the Order of the Phoenix will be there as well. The battle will probably be due to the Order wanting to protect you from the Death Eaters while the Death Eaters will be doing the same against the Order. Go as Harry Potter, they will be instructed not to harm you and I don't want to reveal your apprenticeship yet.

Yes Master. When should I do this and should I take my friends with me?

As soon as possible but do not take your friends. I can't guarantee their safety if they go.

Yes Master. Did you do anything with Umbitch and Fudge?

(chuckle) They're currently in the dungeons of Riddle Manor, they're going to be the entertainment tonight at the Revel – the new recruits have to have someone to practice on after all.

Raiden broke the connection with a chuckle; he knew that Umbridge and Fudge would most probably end up dead but now the problem of how to get to the Ministry of Magic and into the prophecy hall presented itself. Finally he remembered the conversation with Dumbledore and decided to cement his "Boy-Who-Lived" image and take the vision to him.

Accordingly, ten minutes later Raiden found himself in Dumbledore's office. Looking panicky and upset, which was an act but Dumbledore didn't know that, he said, "Sir, I, I had an odd dream just now, it was about a long corridor, then a room with lots of little glass balls in them. There was a battle with Death Eaters, Sirius is in trouble! Please, is he OK?"

Dumbledore looked over top of his glasses at Raiden. It was as he had feared; the connection that had formed with the failed killing curse had finally started to act up. It wasn't Harry's fault, he mused, although being connected to the Dark Lord in such a way would no doubt give the child nightmares. This dream needed to be investigated.

"Calm down, Harry, I'm sure that Sirius is perfectly fine. The Order is guarding that room that you saw, and the Death Eaters won't attack, not that deep inside the Ministry itself." Just then a light began flashing on his desk and the old wizard looked at it in alarm. "Of course I have been wrong before," he muttered. Seeing Raiden's pleading look he took the boy's hand.

"I know you can fight, your Defence OWL proved that quite admirably. Stay near Order members and out of the line of fire. Do you understand?"

Raiden nodded. "Yes sir," he replied. Dumbledore nodded before grasping Fawkes' tail feathers and they were taken into the middle of the battle. Raiden immediately ducked an ugly looking purple spell and fired back a strong stunner. Harry Potter couldn't use the Dark Arts so Raiden was restricted to using so called "Light" magic which was bloody annoying for him.

He ducked and dodged, cursing any Death Eater that came too close, having to keep up his pretence of being on the "good" side. The Death Eaters returned fire, although keeping the curses to those that he could counter. One of their masks slipped and Raiden recognized Lucius at once. They stared at each other for a second before Lucius readjusted his mask and began shooting curses again. The two dueled rapidly, although Raiden was tiring, Lucius wasn't in Voldemort's inner circle for nothing, but he put up a good fight. He allowed himself to be driven back into the prophecy hall and started searching for the elusive little sphere that he needed.

The Order was driven back as well, even though Dumbledore was there. Raiden retrieved his sphere, just as the battle grew ugly. Bellatrix Lestrange came upon Raiden, who had been fighting back to back with Sirius for the past few minutes. They dived apart as a curse was fired at them and Sirius immediately cursed her back. The two cousins dueled rapidly, their wands flying as they used a mix of spoken and silent magic in the battle. The duel moved to the other room from Raiden's vision and he threw himself into the fray, trying to move Sirius away from the veil. It was no good though. Bellatrix threw a blasting curse at Raiden, who blocked it but stumbled backwards into Sirius. Sirius had been standing to the side of the veil, not directly in front of it but the impetus of Raiden's unexpected collision with him, and the fact that he'd stepped sideways into the path of a stunner from Bellatrix, meant that he lost his balance and fell backwards. Raiden swung round in shock as Sirius disappeared through the veil, and didn't come back.

Those in the other rooms heard a scream of rage and grief from Raiden, one single word amplified to almost painful proportions.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Voldemort felt the burst of rage and grief over the bond with Raiden and frowned. As the pain got worse, the Dark Lord scowled until finally he stood and grabbed his wand. To hell with staying out of the Ministry, it looked as though Raiden's first mission had failed in some manner and he wasn't about to let that prophecy get away from them. Gathering his concentration he Apparated to the Ministry building.

Bellatrix smirked at Raiden and twirled her wand in her fingers. "Oh is poor baby Potter missing his godfather?" she taunted. Raiden stared at her, hatred and anger coursing through his veins and filling him up like never before. He needed an outlet for his emotions and what better than cursing the one who'd caused him such pain.

He started throwing curses at Bellatrix so fast that she barely had time to react. She fled, with Raiden in hot pursuit, not thinking of anything but revenge on his godfather's killer. Bellatrix tripped over and fell heavily, lying stunned for a few seconds. When she tried to get up she found Raiden's wand pointed at her heart. He vaguely noticed that they'd reached the Ministry atrium.

"What are you going to do widdle Potter," she sneered. "You don't have the stomach for the Dark Arts."

She was unnerved to see a decidedly evil smirk on Raiden's face as he whispered, "Oh yeah? Crucio!"

He poured all his hatred, all his anger and all his grief into that curse, and it worked. The Light side watched in horror as the Boy Who Lived tortured Bellatrix but they all knew what the circumstances were. They were shocked that the curse was working though, it really shouldn't have done. Dumbledore was quickly fabricating a way to keep Raiden out of prison. There was precedent for a person who was overcome by grief and rage at the loss of a loved one using Unforgivables on the attacker however rare it might be.

A banishing curse threw Raiden away from Bellatrix as a cold voice announced, "No one tortures my followers but me, Potter!" The Order of the Phoenix whirled round to see Voldemort standing in the room, wand out and pointed right at Raiden. Raiden growled and staggered to his feet, the Cruciatus having drained him somewhat badly, on top of the fight beforehand. Wand in hand he faced his master, although to the Order members it looked like a confrontation between mortal enemies than a confrontation between master and apprentice.

"She killed my godfather!" Raiden informed Voldemort in a voice that was shaking with rage before he did something very stupid. He fired a bone crushing hex at Voldemort.

The Dark Lord stepped out of the way and growled, "If you want a duel Potter then by all means let's have one. Let's see if you can stop this!"

Voldemort and Raiden dueled for about five minutes, with Voldemort getting closer and closer to Raiden with each step. Given that he'd backed his apprentice into a corner of the room this was easy to do and soon Voldemort was within arm's reach of his student.

Without pausing, Voldemort plucked Raiden's wand from his hand and grabbed his arm, pulling him out into the centre of the room. Wrapping an arm round the struggling fifteen year old, Voldemort was able to hold him still and then he faced the Order of the Phoenix, all of whom were standing dead still, not wanting Voldemort to kill Raiden. The other Death Eaters had been captured, killed or had escaped while Voldemort and Raiden were dueling so Voldemort and Bellatrix were the only "known" Dark Side members there. Dumbledore stepped forward at that point and tried to reason with the Dark Lord.

"Tom let him go. He hasn't done anything to you," he tried.

Voldemort snorted. "Done nothing? He's only incapacitated one of my chief followers. No Dumbledore, I won't kill him. I do, however, need to punish him for what he did to Bellatrix." With that he kept his arm clamped firmly round Raiden's chest, and touched Raiden's scar with one finger, activating the pain receptors once more. Raiden screamed with pain as his scar burst open and blood poured down his face. Voldemort kept his finger on the scar for 3 minutes, not letting up even though Raiden was doing a good job of screaming himself hoarse. Finally, when Raiden was almost unconscious Voldemort released him, shoving him towards Dumbledore almost contemptuously.

"He'll be alright in a few days." As the Order, and Dumbledore fired curses at him, Voldemort levitated Bellatrix and then vanished, breaking through the Ministry's secure anti apparition wards with a little bit of effort. Left behind was a large Dark Mark. The Order was left standing in the Ministry atrium, with an almost unconscious Harry Potter, and Ministry Aurors rapidly coming in. Dumbledore quickly made Portkeys for everyone taking them back to Grimmauld Place. The Portkey for himself and Harry however, took them back to his office.

Raiden collapsed to the floor, shuddering at the aftereffects of his master's punishment and the grief over Sirius. Finally he looked up at Dumbledore, seeing a grave look on his face.

"Harry, why did you use the Cruciatus curse on Bellatrix?" he asked.

Raiden blinked and then replied, "I don't know. I wasn't thinking, I was focusing on my grief, anger and hate and it just came out. I wanted her to hurt as much as I was hurting."

Dumbledore nodded. "There won't be any official repercussions from this Harry; there is precedent for what you did. It is saddening though, that you were filled with enough rage, enough hate to make that curse work." Seeing Raiden's eyes start to gleam with anger again he held up his hands. "I know you loved Sirius deeply, I just underestimated the amount of power you have that's all. Not many fifteen year olds could have made that curse work, in fact, no other fifteen year old could have."

Sighing, he said, "Sit down Harry, it's time that I told you what I should have told you before. The reason that you went to the hall of prophecies, the reason that you survived a killing curse when no other person did."

Raiden listened intently as Dumbledore proceeded to turn his world upside down.