Disclaimer I do not own Harry Potter and everything recognisable belongs to J K Rowling.
Well, here you are. As promised the next Chappie! Thanks for all the great reviews. Enjoy!!
Chapter Fifteen
It was dark in the chamber. Outside the moon and stars shone brightly, but their light seemed unable to penetrate the darkness that was engulfing the chamber. Lord Voldemort, the wizarding world's Dark Lord, stood with his back turned. His pale hands clasped tightly behind him. His red eyes were focused on the wall in front of him. He was fighting with all the strength within him to control his temper. He slowly turned around to look at the one Death Eater that was standing in his chamber.
Bella stood, shivering and trembling. Her arms were by her sides, fists clenched hard. Her head, as always in her master's presence, was bowed as she awaited her orders. Her breath was coming out raggedly, as if she was trying to stop herself from crying.
Lord Voldemort studied Bella carefully before speaking.
"You should be thankful he's gone, Bella. If he were here, I would have killed him myself." He hissed.
Bella looked up slowly, her eyes were filled with tears but she didn't let even one drop. She stared at her master, unable to utter a word.
Without saying anything more, Lord Voldemort turned and left, leaving Bella standing alone, fighting to stop the tears from falling.
Harry woke up with a start. He had to take a few moments to recover. He had never dreamt of Bella before. His nightmares were always about Voldemort. Usually they involved Voldemort reaching out to Harry, just before being engulfed by flames. A few times he had dreams that started off from a memory. Memories of just Voldemort and Harry by themselves. They were always a lot harder to recover from. Seeing how things used to be between them just made it harder to accept that he had killed him.
Harry got up and crept to the bathroom. He splashed his face with some cold water. It always helped to get rid of any images from his dreams that lingered behind.
Harry looked in the mirror, focusing on his bloodshot eyes, tired face and slightly pale complexion. His dreams were getting worse.
"Bella"
It was a shock to see her after so long. Why did he dream of her? And what was that dream all about? He didn't remember ever seeing Bella that upset or crying. Harry wondered how he had seen something that was obviously a memory not involving him. He wasn't there with them. No one was there except for Voldemort and Bella.
Harry didn't want to think about the dream but he couldn't help it. It was the first time he had seen a memory that wasn't his. But Harry knew, even if he wasn't there, the dream was about him. Voldemort had been talking about him. What was it he had said?
'If he were here, I would have killed him myself.'
With a shudder Harry remembered another memory he had seen. His own ten year old self, trying to escape with Peter Pettigrew. Before Voldemort had obliviated him he had taunted Harry saying that he wasn't to worry, things would go back to the way they were. When Harry had pulled away from him and said that he would one day learn the truth about him and then he would leave him Voldemort had said the same thing to him then as well.
'Rest assured Harry, if that day ever comes, I'll kill you myself'
Harry knew without a doubt that Voldemort had told Bella the same thing once he learned that Harry was destroying his Horcruxes. That memory he had just witnessed was probably after Voldemort had learned his Horcruxes were being destroyed. It was probably the moment Voldemort had decided that Harry had no point of return. He was to be killed.
With a deep sigh, Harry made his way back to bed. There was so much hatred in Voldemort's voice when he had spoken. The venom in his voice was more disturbing than what he had actually said.
Harry didn't sleep again. The images of the dream were stuck in his mind. He kept reliving it again and again. He wondered how on earth he had seen it. Was Voldemort trying to torture him some more? Sending him memories that showed how much he hated Harry?
Rubbing his tired eyes, Harry gave up on sleep and made his way down to the common room. It was the weekend and Harry had a few hours to himself before mostly everyone got up and headed to Hogsmeade. It was Valentine's Day today and happened to be a Hogsmeade weekend as well.
Harry smiled at the memory of being asked out by Ginny. She didn't waste any time in securing a date with him. Apparently she didn't want to repeat the incident like the Ball. Harry settled on one of the chairs and closed his eyes as he rested. He really wanted to go back to sleep. He knew though that he would dream of Voldemort again so he fought the sleep away and opened his eyes.
There was an old copy of the daily prophet lying on the table next to him. Harry picked it up and looked at the picture on the front page. His eyes studied the blurry image before him. The third attack of the Dark Prince!
Harry growled in annoyance. The day after they had came back from the Christmas break was the second attack. Last week he had attacked for the third time. Three times this person had attacked and gotten away easily. This last time, they only managed to get a picture of him while he was flying away.
Harry threw the copy away from himself. How could they not catch him? This person single handily attacked and got away easily. It frustrated Harry to no end how incompetent Aurors could be. Harry tried not to think to deeply at the cause of his frustration. It wasn't only the Aurors uselessness that frustrated him but his own lack of memories. Each time these attacks happened he couldn't remember the night before. After the first two attacks, Harry put it down to nothing more than a bizarre coincidence. He had been extremely tired both times and his lack of sleep wasn't helping much. But after the attack last week, Harry had to admit something wasn't right.
But surely someone would notice if Harry was doing this? Ron had insisted that he was in the common room, dozing off to sleep or in the dorms asleep in his bed at the time of these attacks. Was Ron lying? No, why would he?
And it wasn't like every time he had lost the memory of the previous night, the next morning there was an attack. Just two days ago Harry had woken up to realise he couldn't remember the night before. He hurried down to Breakfast and had snatched the copy of the newspaper, even before Hermione had touched it. He had been so relieved to see that there had been no attacks. Hermione had looked at him worriedly but Harry didn't bother explaining.
Harry tried to trace back his steps to figure out what he had done on those nights. The first night he had been at the Ball. He was truly exhausted that night what with all the dancing and every thing. Later on they had spent a good three hours in the common room just relaxing. The second night was when they had returned from the Christmas break. Again, he was shattered. His lack of sleep for the past two weeks had taken its toll on him. He couldn't remember much of that night. Last week, it was his final Duelling club detention. Everyone had come to see that. Again, he was tired to the bone that night.
He was glad he had that finished. Last week had actually been fun. He had at last been able to duel, properly. Tonks and her group were gone and it had been Kingsley Shacklebolt with a new group of Aurors. Harry had loved every minute of it, duelling with Kingsley and finally being able to do something, other than standing around and looking like an idiot. Kinglsey had suggested that Harry continue helping them but Harry had been quick to reject his offer. 'One torture at a time!' he had joked.
Harry liked Kingsley. He was different from the usual Aurors. He was actually someone with talent. That was rare for an Auror. Harry sniggered at his own thought. His dad and Godfathers wouldn't be so pleased to hear that. He knew that his dad was actually quite good. If he wasn't so arrogant he would do better. Sirius was too fast for his own good. Remus, well, he didn't know. He had never seen Remus duelling. He figured he would probably be the best out of the three. He was much calmer and would probably spend a few seconds thinking about what curse to use, thus, being more successful.
Harry realised he had been side tracked, so got back to his original trail of thought. So that was the last three nights. All those nights he had been really, really tired and had fallen asleep probably quite soon after going to bed. The problem was he couldn't remember going to bed. He was sure Ron would tell him if someone had to help him into bed. That would be so embarrassing that Ron would take no time in taunting him. Two days ago, Harry had started his break from the Dreamless Sleep potion again. He had slept without having nightmares that first night, thus waking up and panicking at the loss of memory the previous night. That was the only night though. Ever since he had been woken up with nightmares. It was times like this that Harry wished he could just ignore all the consequences and take some sleeping potion, even just to catch a few hours sleep. But he knew that the addiction to the sleeping potion was very harmful. He would get sick and the potion would stop working. No, that wasn't a risk he was willing to take.
Harry heard the sounds of the other students getting up. 'Finally', he thought as he saw a sleepy looking Damien walk down the steps. Someone he could talk to so that he could distract himself from these disturbing thoughts.
xxx
The air was crisp and cool as Harry walked down to the village of Hogsmeade. The entire village was dressed up for Valentine's Day. There were little figures dressed like cupid flying around, sprinkling rose petals onto the people that were walking in the streets. The streets were already covered with bright flower petals. Harry shook some of the petals out of his hair and looked up at them, frowning.
"That's a waste!" he mumbled but stopped as Ginny giggled.
"What?" he asked.
"You're so romantic!" Ginny said sarcastically.
Harry smiled despite himself and wrapped an arm around her as they walked towards the shops.
"I can't be all that bad. You're still with me." Harry commented.
Ginny smirked at him but before she could reply, something caught her eye and the smile slipped off her face. Harry followed her gaze and saw a large group of red heads standing a few feet away. Harry saw the entire Weasley family standing near a joke shop. The twins were missing; Harry figured it was their shop the rest were standing in front off. The reason for Ginny's abrupt mood change was clear. Charlie was standing there, glaring at her. The rest of the Weasley's were admiring the shop, and the products in the window. Charlie however wasn't paying the slightest of attention to the shop. He was too busy glowering at Ginny.
Harry chanced a glance at Ginny. She was looking back at him just as fiercely. Harry kept walking with his arm around Ginny. That only seemed to infuriate the over protective brother.
"Harry, let's go in here." Ginny said, pointing to a Quidditch shop.
Harry knew Ginny was on the team and probably wanted to go in there for a genuine reason, but he couldn't help wonder if she just wanted to get away from Charlie's glare.
He went in the shop and let Ginny have a look around. He himself wasn't that bothered with Quidditch supplies. After spending a few minutes in there, they left. Ginny's mood had brightened again and they were happily chatting. Harry caught a glance of Ron walking with Hermione; she was holding what looked suspiciously like a heart shaped box of chocolates. It hit Harry that he probably should buy Ginny something as well. But what? Chocolates, probably. Every girl likes chocolates, don't they?
Harry was busy thinking about what he could get her when a small voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Would you like a rose, sir?"
Harry looked for the source of the voice and found a little girl, dressed in a red cloak, holding a basket filled with single red roses. Harry looked at the little girl and found a smile tugging at his lips. She was so cute! She couldn't be more than five years old. Her blond hair was falling in cute little curls and she was looking at Harry with big blue eyes. The girl's older sister came and stood next to her. Harry recognised her at once. She was a Hufflepuff seventh year, Sara…something. He couldn't remember her surname. She was very similar to the little girl. It was blatantly obvious they were sisters.
Sara smiled warmly at Harry and placed a hand on her younger sister's shoulder.
"It's a Valentine Day project. All the young children living in Hogsmeade are part of it. Bella's picked the roses all by herself." She praised.
Harry's heart skipped several beats. Bella! The little girl's name was Bella.
He looked at the young child again. She was standing there, a big smile on her face, eyes fixed on Harry. Harry returned the smile and reached into his pocket to take out his money. He bought a rose for Ginny. Bella smiled brightly as Harry handed her the money.
"Thanks you!" she said and turned to walk away. Sara thanked Harry as well and led her sister away.
Harry noticed that there were a few children dressed in red cloaks, carrying baskets of flowers. 'How did I not notice that?' he asked himself.
He handed the rose to Ginny who took it, a blush rapidly forming on her cheeks.
"Thanks, Harry." she said and looked away.
Harry didn't even notice she was blushing. He was too caught up in his thoughts. He had dreamt of Bella just that morning and now he saw a little girl with the same name. It was a coincidence of course, but it still made Harry's heart beat painfully fast. Ever since her funeral, Harry had forced himself to not think about her. It would only make Harry spiral into depression. His guilt for causing her destruction had not left him yet.
He felt a warm hand slip into his and turned to look at Ginny. She was looking at him worriedly.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Harry nodded and continued walking. They ran into Damien and Meno. Harry raised an eyebrow at Damien as he was holding the girls hand. Damien diverted his gaze and quickly let go of Meno's hand. They saw Ron and Hermione heading to the Three Broomsticks. They followed them and caught up with them at the door. All six went into the pub. They found themselves inside an overcrowded pub.
"Busy, huh?" Damien commented as he forced his way through the crowd.
Harry looked at the pub in detail. This whole place had burned to the ground last year. The Daywalkers had set it on fire to force the people out. It had been renovated recently. It actually looked a lot nicer than before.
Harry caught a glimpse of his mum and dad sitting next to Sirius, Remus and Kingsley. He looked around and found that there were quite a few Aurors around, having drinks and chatting animatedly with the others.
"What are the Aurors doing here?" Harry wondered aloud.
"I think that should answer your question." Hermione said as she pointed to a large group of people crowded around a table.
Harry looked over and spotted the Minister of Magic sitting with a crowd, laughing and drinking. The Aurors with him were obviously for his protection.
Harry looked away, pushing down his annoyance.
"Great, now I've seen his face, things can only get worse!" he muttered darkly.
Harry had no idea how bad things were going to get.
xxx
James watched as Harry sat down with Damien. His heart fluttered as he spotted a rose in Ginny's hand. He smiled, 'that was nice' he thought to himself. At least Harry was much better at dating than he was.
"James! James! Are you listening?"
James pulled his eyes away from his son to look at Remus.
"Sorry, what?" he said.
Remus gave him a disapproving look.
"James, we're having a serious discussion here. Pay attention!" He reprimanded.
James nodded his head and got back to the depressing topic of the Dark Prince.
"I was saying to Sirius that after this third attack, things have gone out of control. He's killed a total of thirty people! And we don't even know how many he's injured, let alone made homeless. I personally don't think the Ministry is doing enough!"
James sighed deeply.
"What can they do? We don't have anything on him. He doesn't leave any trail behind and his attacks have been random. He's not stolen anything or come to kill a specific person. It seems he attacks only to destroy and kill as many as possible."
"Can we please talk about something else? Just for today. I don't want to sit here and think about him!" Lily said, looking quite upset.
James wrapped an arm around her.
"Yeah, I don't think us talking about him is going to do us any good anyway." James said.
Remus opened his mouth to say something but changed his mind. Sirius got up to fight the crowd for another round of drinks.
xxx
Harry was immersed deeply in their conversation. They had found a table near the door. They had squeezed in next to Parvati, Lavender and their group of friends. Harry ignored the looks he got as he sat with Ginny.
The door opened and even more people poured in.
"Goodness, surely more people can't be coming in. There's no more space!" Hermione complained.
Harry looked over to see who had come in. He only spotted one thing. Nigel. Nigel sitting on Neville's shoulders, looking around at all the people in the busy pub. Frank and Alice were coming inside just behind them talking with Arthur and Molly Weasley.
Harry watched in fascination as Nigel scanned the room. His eyes rested on Harry and the child's face lit up.
"Lex!!" he yelled and made to scramble of Neville.
Neville carefully lifted the excited child and placed him onto the ground. Nigel ran through the crowd straight towards Harry. He jumped into Harry's lap and hugged him fiercely. Parvati and the rest of the table stared at Harry as he hugged the small boy affectionately. Nigel pulled away from him and looked at him, a cute serious look on his face.
"You came back." He said to him.
Harry was initially stunned at how clear he was speaking now. 'God, Harry, he's three now!' he mentally reprimanded himself.
"Came back from where?" Harry asked.
He realised what Nigel meant a few seconds later. The last time Nigel had seen Harry, he was in Riddle Manor running from Voldemort. Nigel's face clouded with fear.
"From the Shadow." he said in a near whisper.
Harry had to fight to keep his expression clear of pain. He smiled at the little boy.
"Yeah, Nigel. I came back." He reassured him.
"Hello, Harry."
Harry looked up to see Frank and Alice standing before him. Harry shook Frank's outstretched hand.
"How are you?" Alice asked as Nigel climbed back into her arms.
"I'm fine." Harry answered.
He noticed that Neville had decided to hang back while the rest of his family greeted him. Harry looked away from him and spent a few minutes talking to Frank and Alice.
Frank turned to go and order some drinks. He carried Nigel with him, who was still staring at Harry, confused as to why he was being addressed as 'Harry'.
Alice sat down next to him.
"He's still afraid." She said simply.
Harry cursed under his breath. He did not want to have this conversation here. He had refused to talk to Frank and Alice because he didn't want to talk about what had happened in Riddle Manor. It wouldn't do anyone any good.
"We had a Healer check him out, he's afraid of the dark. The Healer seems to think its normal behaviour. All kids are afraid of the dark. But, Nigel's more afraid of…of him." a look of deep distress flitted over her face.
"He refers to him as the Shadow. Nigel asked about you. He wanted to know if the Shadow hurt you..." she went on.
Harry could feel his face heat up in anger. He really didn't want to talk about this.
"Alice, can we do this another time." he said, careful to keep his expression as blank as he could.
Alice looked at him, studying his face.
"Okay, but I do want to talk to you. There's something I need to say."
Harry only nodded his head to show that he had understood. Mentally he was vowing not to speak to her at all. Alice left to go and join her sons and husband.
The noise in the pub was growing to an unbearable level. You couldn't hear what the person next to you was saying. Harry struggled to make sense of what Damien was saying.
"This is ridiculous! We should leave." Ron said after asking Hermione to repeat what she said three times.
"No, I like it here, plus everywhere else will be just as busy. Lets have one more drink then we'll go!" Hermione suggested.
"I'll get them!" Harry offered and got up to get the drinks.
As he turned around to go back to his table with the six bottles he came face to face with a very pissed off looking Charlie Weasley.
Harry looked at him blankly.
"Excuse me." Harry said as he tried to go around him but Charlie blocked him.
Harry was so surprised with his bold action that he fell back to stare at him.
"So, have you been enjoying yourself these past few weeks, Potter?" Charlie asked. A very ugly look in his eyes.
"What?" Harry asked with an exasperated sigh.
"You must think yourself very clever. Carrying out these attacks and then fooling everyone into thinking you're innocent."
Harry kept his expressionless mask firmly in place, even though what Charlie had said caused a spark of fury inside him. It was really busy so no one noticed the conversation between the two boys.
"Tell me, do you get some sort of sick pleasure in doing this?" Charlie asked eyes filled with rage.
Harry moved away, not wanting to hit him, not here anyway. Unfortunately Charlie wasn't finished yet. He moved to block Harry again.
"Stay away from my sister, Potter!" Charlie threatened.
Harry met Charlie's eyes; a cold fury filled both sets of eyes.
"Why don't you tell your sister to stay away from me?" Harry taunted.
Charlie's face reddened, the famous Weasley temper was flaring up.
"She may be stupid enough not to see you for what you really are. But I'm not blind! Stay away from her!" Charlie hissed.
"You may not be blind, but you sure are stupid. If you know what I am, why are you threatening me?" Harry asked, directing all his annoyance into his voice.
"I'm not afraid of you, Potter." Charlie said a stupid look of pride on his face.
"Well good for you." Harry mocked.
That was probably too much for the Dragon tamer. He reached out and grabbed Harry by the collar as Harry made to leave again.
Harry's patience snapped as he felt the hands grab him. The bottles in Harry's hands were clutched so tight in was a wonder they didn't break.
Charlie was talking to him but Harry couldn't hear him over the roar of blood in his ears.
Harry looked down at the hands holding him and then looked Charlie dead in the eyes. The next second Charlie let go of him and pulled his hands back as if they had been burned. A look of pain lit his face and he looked at Harry with alarm. How did he do that?
"I'd be careful, Mr Weasley. You certainly don't want to do something you'll regret!" Harry hissed in barely suppressed anger.
"So, now you're openly threatening me?" Charlie asked, recovering a little.
Harry smirked and leaned in closer to him.
"I don't waste time threatening people." Harry told him.
Charlie seemed to lose some of his nerve as he saw Harry's eyes darken a shade or two.
Harry turned to go but stopped and turned back to him.
"And if I were you, I would leave Ginny alone. She's the only reason you're still left standing after what you've said to me. You should be grateful to her."
Harry turned and left, not sparing another glance in his direction.
When he arrived at his table Ron was just getting up.
"Finally! I was wondering were you had gone!"
"The bar was busy" Harry said as he put the bottles onto the table.
They spent the next half an hour just drinking and talking. Harry didn't let himself think about Charlie. He wasn't worth it. He didn't even bother looking in his direction.
He saw Alice taking Nigel outside. It was probably getting too noisy for him. Frank and Neville were sitting with a group of Aurors seemingly deep in discussion.
Harry moved to get another round of drinks when there was a sudden explosion outside. The ground shook and most cried out in shock and surprise.
Harry wasted no time, he moved towards the window as did most of the Aurors. Damien and Ron had shot from their chairs and had raced to the window. They looked out onto a dreadful sight.
Men with dark cloaks were out in the streets. Their pale faces twisted with glee as they blasted the buildings, forcing the residents out onto the streets. Harry surveyed the scene, his eyes taking in the large number of these men. There were probably around three hundred of them, all dressed in black. Damien looked at Harry in panic.
"Are they…?"
"Yes." Harry answered before Damien could finish.
Harry looked out at the horrifying sight.
Hogsmeade was surrounded by Daywalkers again.
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Okay, please don't get upset with the cliffie. I try really, really hard but my evil alter ego wins! Please review so that I can get the next chapter out soon. You all wanted action so I'm going to give it to you. LOL!! Please review. Cheers!!