AN Hello! Thanks for all the reviews and stuff. I actually want to write faster than I do, (It's not just those random reviewers that sometimes scream 'POST MORE'). I have plans for chapters until Harry is like 17-19 at which point this story ends and I start a new story. Not going to say what it is, but it's still about the Dark Prince, sort of a continuation. And I fear that this summer camp is causing me to update slower (I cri). Anyways, to the story!
Harry stood straight and frozen like a statue, watching as the Death Eaters prepared for the raid at a sluggish pace. He was considering shooting a few practice curses at the particularly slow ones, but it might make them get ready even slower. Harry cast a tempus, supposedly he'd only been waiting there for three minutes, but he was certain he must be casting the spell wrong or something. He sent a glare at a dark haired Death Eater with light brown eyes who had been spending the whole time he'd been there putting some sort of boots on. Harry wished that the idiotic man had just transfigured them temporarily to make them easier to get on, but of course the Death Eater wanted to take as much time as possible.
Finally, every Death Eater was ready, and while Harry's wand told him they were ready right on time, he was certain it was somehow broken. Harry held out his arm, it was slightly awkward to side-along apparate three people, and he felt it ruined his whole I'm-the-epic-Dark-Prince thing but he had to deal with it. Bellatrix's hair was literally everywhere and she had a crazy grin on her face. Sadly, Harry couldn't see what Lord Malfoy and Nott looked like as they had chosen to wear their masks. Harry then watched as all the other Death Eaters prepared to make their entrances, those going through muggle to magic areas apparated, while others positioned themselves near fires or just stayed where they were.
Once everyone was positioned, Harry apparated into the ministry. The raid was more of a message to the magical world that even their Ministry wasn't safe. It was also a suicide mission for the majority of the Death Eaters, but either they were too stupid to realize it or way more loyal to the Dark Lord than they seemed. Of course, Harry had to apparate Bellatrix, Malfoy, and Nott out when they started to loose, but other than that, the Dark Lord assumed the Death Eaters would die. Except for the ones who got injured enough to retreat early on. Harry grinned a smile quite similar to Bellatrix's then turned towards the Death Eaters who were spreading throughout the building.
The Inner Circle's who Harry had apparated with spread themselves a little ways away from Harry but stayed reasonably near him. Harry heard a shouted curse and knew they had found someone. Turning on his heel, Harry walked over to where the sound had come from, but was disappointed to see that the man had already been killed. Spotting the entrance to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Harry walked over and entered through the high entryway. Looking through, he saw the doorways to the Auror's Offices, Improper Use of Magic Offices, and Wizengamot Administration Services in clear sights with the less important offices to the sides.
Harry swung the door open to the Auror's offices and was delighted to see a few Aurors who hadn't gotten out yet. It was slightly shocking how few people were at the Ministry, but Harry didn't really care. Harry watched as a dirty-blonde man with dark brown eyes and somewhat chubby features leaped towards a light brown wand. 'Accio Brown-eyed man's wand' Harry thought, and watched as the wand catapulted to him. Harry grinned wider when he realized he'd successfully cast the spell accurately, wandlessly, and silently. He watched as the man looked at him and immediately spun towards a newspaper on the wall. Harry smirked as he saw the newspaper was talking about him.
"The Dark Prince is here! Capture him!" The man shouted, attempting to duck behind his desk as he grabbed a spare wand (Apparently Auror's went through wands very quickly). Instantly, Harry saw multiple Aurors point their wands at him.
"Hello gentlemen," Harry said smoothly, silently casting a disarming charm at the brown-eyed man. "I guess I'm so famous that everyone recognizes me?" He asked, then he shot three consecutive Expelliarmus's at the remaining Aurors, and watched as two of them hastily put up shields while the third ducked and rolled behind the cover of a desk. He heard Bellatrix shout a crucio at the first man Harry had attacked, as she tortured him, she let out a happy cackle. Harry shot a killing curse at one of the men who was still standing.
"Alarte Ascendare!" The man shouted as he jumped out of the way. Harry lazily put up a shield and responded by throwing a blood boiler at the Auror. This struck the man in the side and he let out a yelp (Pathetic, wasn't he supposed to be a trained wizard?). Harry quickly followed the blood boiler with a Sectumsempra and was pleased to watch as it tore cuts around an inch thick all over the man's chest.
The man died a moment later and Harry turned to see that Lucius had quickly dealt with the other man and the only one remaining was the one that had taken cover behind the desk. When Harry walked around the desk, he found the man must have moved, "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" He called in a singsong voice. He heard the door slam and saw through the window as the Auror ran from the office and towards the Hit Wizard headquarters. Harry rolled his eyes, of course someone was bound to do that.
A few other Death Eaters entered the offices and started searching for prey and Harry exited the office area. He looked around to see that Aurors and Hit Wizards were fighting the large groups of Death Eaters. Harry noted a large group of Aurors heading his way and sent a moderately large blasting curse towards the ground in front of them. He watched with pleasure as a few surprised ones were impaled with large stone and dirt spikes. The others were either slightly injured or had managed to put up shields. The majority of the Aurors responded with a mix of stunners, disarmers, and other moderately peaceful spells. Harry quickly crouched and cast a shield, this made it so that he only had to block two, instead of the six he'd have had to block if he'd stayed standing. The two stunners reflected off of his shield and were absorbed into shields by the Aurors.
Harry glanced at them and noted that they looked to be a trained team. Of the dozen or so Aurors, there were three completely defensive ones visible, standing nearer to the front. There were two behind them that didn't even bother trying to defend themselves from spells, so Harry assumed they were completely offense. Harry cast three Kovrilo's at the defensive Aurors and watched with glee as the spell went right through their shields and struck them. He knew they'd be able to shield once again in a matter of seconds, so he quickly cast a variety of dark curses at them, including a killing curse. Harry took a moment to breathe as he felt his magic levels dropping low.
He summoned a sword and quickly spelled it while he apparated behind the group. Then he used his dragon-enhanced strength to dash at the confused Aurors and tear them apart with his sword. He watched as two of them died as their heads cleanly flopped off their heads. Harry took a moment to wonder if they'd become ghosts and join the Headless Hunt. He quickly turned to see that a female Auror had cast a spell at him and he quickly ducked before stabbing an Auror in the side. They had all gone out of their shock at seeing him speed-apparate and Harry quickly apparated back to where he'd been standing.
He quickly counted to see that there were only seven Aurors remaining, and three of them were injured greatly. He turned to shoot another string of spells at them only to find his accidental magic sprang up to defend him against a torrent of stunners. Harry turned to see at least six hit wizards with their wands raised towards him. Harry could barely stop himself from showing how magically exhausted he was. He sent a desperate glance at Bellatrix, who immediately noticed and finished off the Auror she'd been torturing. She then turned towards the hit wizards and cast a crucio towards them. Harry would have sighed if black hadn't been creeping into his vision. He quickly borrowed as much energy as he could from Goliath, it wasn't much, as he had been slowly leaking it as he'd been fighting. It was enough though for Harry to stop himself from fainting and quickly he apparated himself, Bellatrix, Lucius, and a very injured Nott back to Death Eater headquarters.
He managed to stop himself from collapsing as he appeared in the main room. He looked around to see that around half of the Death Eaters had somehow managed to escape the Ministry before the exits had been blocked. Harry was surprised by this as it seemed that the Aurors had been too focused on him to bother blocking the exits. Granted, he was way more important than everyone there combined minus Bellatrix and Lucius. He grinned at his lack of modesty and watched with cold eyes as many Death Eaters nursed their wounds. They also were gossiping (Yes, murdering, ruthless Death Eaters gossip) about how Harry had destroyed the Aurors. Naturally, the story had been exaggerated to the point of Harry wandlessly blasting a hundred Aurors with the Killing Curse all at once.
Harry briskly walked over to the floo, his lack of magic was starting to stress his physical abilities as well. He grabbed a handful of the fine powder and threw it into the fire and watched as the green flames sprung up in the fire. Stepping through, Harry exited Death Eater headquarters and entered Riddle Manor. He spotted the Dark Lord sitting in a dark royal green seat, watching as Harry entered. Harry reflexively went into a deep bow, "My lord," he addressed.
"I take the raid was up to your satisfaction?" The Dark Lord asked.
"Yes my lord, thank you my lord," Harry responded.
"Good, because I will not be letting you go on any raids until summer time," the Dark Lord told him, "And one 'my lord' per statement is enough," he added coldly.
"Yes, my lord. No more raids? Not even o-" Harry started to whine.
"Do NOT question my orders boy, Crucio!" the Dark Lord responded.
Harry winced as the painful curse hit him, he ground his teeth for a moment, "Yes, my lord. I'm sorry for doubting you," He gritted out.
"Very well," the Dark Lord responded, "Now, go clean yourself up, you have two hours before you are expected back at Hogwarts and I expect you to be capable of turning yourself back into that silly character of a boy you are?" He ordered.
Harry held back a cheeky remark about the Dark Lord secretly actually appreciating him and instead quickly left the room. He practically slid up the stairs and collapsed onto his bed, casting an alarm to wake him up in an hour just before he fell asleep.
Brrriiiriiiiiiiiiiiii! Harry sat up quickly, cancelling the charm. Blinking, Harry ungracefully stumbled down the hall to the bathroom. In retrospect, his nap was a horrible idea, as now he could clearly feel each and every one of his muscles screaming for him to lay back down again. He reached out his bond to Goliath only to find the dragon had gone into a temporary coma to recover the energy Harry had taken. Harry winced, it would likely take the dragon a week before waking up again extremely hungry and likely in a foul temper. Groaning, Harry fell into the bathtub and ordered a house elf to fill it with warm water and clean his robes, which he'd taken off. Normally, he'd just take off his robes and summon the water he needed, but he wasn't sure his magic should be pushed any more.
Harry let out a contented sigh as he lay in the water. Other than his face and hands, his body was relatively clean since he'd showered that morning. After half an hour, Harry got out of the bathtub and with a simple shake of his head his slightly magical hair was immediately dry. Luckily it hadn't taken any magical energy, or else Harry probably would have collapsed again. He wrapped himself in a warm green towel and walked over to the mirror.
He looked into it and smiled at his reflection. Dark magic and his odd relation to the Dark Lord had slowly diverted his appearance from what Harry assumed it would have looked like. When he was younger, anyone who actually payed attention to him thought he'd look exactly like his birth father with his birth mother's eyes. Instead, he had extremely dark and wispy hair, which he contributed to magic, that seemed to be made of shadows by both appearance and touch. His eyes cast an eerie glow that clearly portrayed his emotions and mood, or at least the emotions and moods he showed. He had high cheekbones that made him slightly resemble the Dark Lord along with his practically white skin. His nose didn't hook outwards as much as a normal person's and was much straighter than normal, in all other ways though it was average. He had his adopted father's slightly sharp and arching eyebrows. The rest of his features resembled Potter's though, and he had no features that resembled Lily Potter anymore.
Harry glanced at a tall silver clock and saw that in about fifteen minutes he would be expected back at Hogwarts. He quickly got into his black school robes and made sure they were in exactly the condition they should be, slightly ruffled but otherwise in perfect condition. Harry double checked no blood was on him and pulled out an enchanted washcloth to gently clean the drops of blood that had fallen onto his wands. With one last inspection, Harry checked the clock and apparated to Hogwarts. This evidently stressed his magical energy to a point that made Harry collapse. He lay on the floor gasping for a few minutes before putting a false look of excitement (Even if he would have enjoyed Wizard's chess normally he was way too tired to get excited). He exited his room and trotted down the stairs to the common room.
The common room was empty except for Ron, as most of the students had gone home on Winter Break. Ron waved to Harry and Harry grinned while he waved back, "So, how do I play?" Harry asked.
"Well first you need a set to play with, but luckily I was able to borrow Seamus's set so you have one to play with," Ron told him, handing Harry a set of red chess players. "Normally sets are either white or black, but some have unique colorations, like red or blue..." Ron explained the rules to Harry, Harry nodded along, he'd read the rules so many times when he was younger he understood most of it, although it was helpful that the Weasley boy also told him a few basic plays.
"Okay, that seems easy enough!" Harry exclaimed, he'd heard from Griffith that Ron was talented at wizard's chess and prepared for the blow to his pride at the possibility of being beaten.
"White always goes first," Ron started, ordering his first piece to move.
In the beginning of the game, Harry was still getting the hang of ordering his pieces to move about and had to stop himself from yelling at them when they kept arguing with everything he did. Harry usually took very long on each turn, something that would ruin him if he was a leader in a normal battle. It seemed that the game came as a second nature to the Weasley boy, and each move was done instantly after Harry played. By the time he was one third into the game, three of his less-important pieces had been stabbed, slashed, and destroyed.
The middle of the game was a bit better, Harry knew what he was doing and was experimenting less and playing strategically more. His pieces still complained about the moves he chose to do, but they didn't refuse to move where he asked them to. He looked over the board and could obviously see that he was on the defensive. Ron dominated the majority of the board and was closing in on Harry's remaining pieces.
The end of the game was basically Harry admitting he was going to lose and trying to remove as many of Ron's pieces as possible. When he finally lost, Harry had (somehow) managed to take ten of Ron's pieces, leaving only six. Harry let himself frown slightly as he lost.
"Good game mate! You're a bloody natural, most players don't do that well, don't feel bad," Ron encouraged.
Harry looked up with fake curiosity, "Really?" He asked.
"Yeah," Ron told him, "Hey, Fred, George, isn't getting ten of my pieces before losing to me pretty good for a first-timer?" Harry asked.
The twins, who had just been entering the room turned with exaggerated shock towards Harry and Ron, "You mean the Ickle-"
"Praet was able to actually destroy"
"More than one of your"
"Pieces before he was completely"
"Demolished?" They gasped.
Harry rolled his eyes, "Do you guys really do that naturally and without rehearsing or anything?" He asked.
"Yup!" They responded.
AN Yeah! Chapter fifteen. I'm trying to work on my fight scene skills, but as you can tell I'm not great at it. Anyways, I'll try to update ASAP with chapter sixteen, which will hopefully have Christmas in it and possibly the Mirror of Erised.
IMPORTANT: This is an edit I'm putting in after having not updated, this story is going to be discontinued until further notice, I have lost all inspiration to continue.
On a more happy note (sort of) I'm thinking about starting a new story that will likely end up just like this one… that isn't good is it?
-Ariana Flynn Riddle