Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to JKR, anything you don't is mine.
A/N: Thanks to Blizzen for the review!
This would have been submitted last night but either my computer or was being slow and wouldn't let me. Here it is now, though, not too much later!
So, I totally came up with a brilliant idea for this story this week! I can't wait to write that part! (I actually already did write a bit of it ahead of time, that's how excited I was.) Although I'll probably either have to make this story extra-long, or broken up into two stories. But hey, oh well!
Chapter 14
Riddle stared at me for a few moments in complete and utter silence before he looked away, examining the wand in his hands. Behind him, Bellatrix and Rosier had suddenly erupted in an argument.
"You didn't tell me it would bring back a – a child!" Bellatrix shrieked angrily, stomping her foot childishly.
"It must have slipped my mind," Rosier said calmly. "Besides, it's not a big deal. He – "
"Not a big deal!" Bellatrix yelled. "Of course it is! How can we take over the world with an inexperienced child as our leader!"
"Bellatrix, calm," Riddle said, turning to her. "I have all the memories I had before. Everything from my past life. From graduating Hogwarts to being killed..." He turned back to me, an evil smile playing on his lips. I glared at him, but he turned back to Rosier as he spoke to Bellatrix,
"It brought him back in the body the day he turned seventeen, the day he turned of age, but his...soul will be that of the day he was killed."
"See, dear Bella, it really was not a big deal." Riddle – Voldemort? I wasn't sure which I was supposed to call him – seemed to realize Harry and Draco for the first time and stared at them, obviously startled. "What have we here?" he asked, staring mostly at Harry.
"Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, my Lord," Bellatrix said, obviously trying to make up for her blunder of yelling at Rosier for something so insignificant. "Both have already proven their loyalty to you and the Death Eaters and have been branded, my Lord."
"A Malfoy. Easily expected you. But a Potter, eh?" Riddle asked, taking a step closer to Harry, who held his head up high. "So, your blood-traitor father and Mudblood mother – " Harry didn't even twitch or look upset at that. He must be a better actor than I thought. I, however, glared even more at Riddle's back and wanted to wandlessly curse him, but knew I couldn't blow my cover like that. " – actually managed to make a child that wasn't a piece of shit?" I had the arms of the chair in a death grip, and, when nobody was looking, I saw Draco shoot me a warning glance. But I didn't let go of the chair.
"From a young age, I knew I didn't belong in that Muggle-loving family," Harry said quietly, his voice full of hatred that even had me thinking for a moment, are we absolutely sure that Harry's on our side? But I quickly shook my head and decided that of course we were. "And, ever since the other Nicole came back and the Death Eaters broke out of Azkaban, I've realized it's because I don't believe in anything that they taught me about Muggles and Mudbloods being equal to the rest of us, and I realized I really hate them for forcing their beliefs on me." Again, I wondered if Harry was really on our side, but I again shook off the thought.
"The other Nicole? The Death Eaters broke out of Azkaban?" Riddle asked. "I needed filled in on what's happened since I was killed." Quickly, Bellatrix, Lucius, and Rosier explained everything; how most Death Eaters were caught, how I was sent back to this time, how Bellatrix and Barty Crouch Jr. – who I hadn't seen yet – had waited for the perfect moment before helping the Death Eaters escape, how Rosier had created the potion to bring Riddle back.
"And how, might I ask, did our dear friend come to be here?" he asked when they were finished, turning back to me and walking toward me. "Hmm, Miss Sawyer, how did you, of all people, get caught? You would think you would be more careful than to just let yourself be caught like this?" Obviously, I couldn't answer, so I just glared at him. "Are you going to answer, or will I have to...coax it out of you?"
I still didn't answer.
Infuriated, Riddle took a step forward, raised his hand and backhanded me across my right cheek. My head whipped to the side, my hair flying into my face, and I balled my hands into tight fists as the sound echoed off the walls around us. That was definitely going to leave a mark.
"Why won't you answer?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"She can't, my Lord," Draco said suddenly. Riddle and I both turned to face him, my hair still falling into my face. I could see Harry staring at me, his eyes wide with fear and his mouth slightly open, alleviating all fear I had had of him actually being on their side.
While Draco went on to explain why I couldn't answer, I shook my head at Harry, trying to get him to realize what he was doing, but it was too late. Riddle had already noticed.
"Harry, why, if you are really on our side, do you obviously care so much for your worthless sister?" Riddle asked suspiciously, his wand looking about ready to lift up toward Harry. Harry and I held eye-contact while he slowly answered.
"She's my little sister," he said quietly, finally breaking eye contact with me to look at Riddle. "Just because I hated my parents for forcing their beliefs down my throat, doesn't mean I hated her. If you had a little sister, you'd understand. I feel like it's my duty to protect her."
"You don't have to feel that way about her," Riddle said quietly, setting his hand on Harry's shoulder and turning him to face me again. "Go on. Doing it will make you realize that you hate her, as well. I know you know the spell." Harry looked back up at Riddle.
"You mean...you want me to kill her?" he asked, his voice fearful.
"Oh, no, no no," Riddle said quickly, shaking his head. "Just the Cruciatus curse. Draco," he said suddenly, "make her able to talk again."
"You can speak again," Draco said quickly. I didn't say anything though, and instead stared at Harry, trying to look as though I was pleading him not to do it. I shook my head slowly, though if I could converse telepathically with Harry, I would be saying, "Just do it. Remember – pour all your hatred for Voldemort or someone into it."
Harry closed his eyes briefly, probably remembering my words from the night before, and swallowed before he brought his wand up toward me slowly.
"Crucio," he said quietly. I closed my eyes, but all I felt was what seemed like a punch in the stomach.
"Come on, Harry," Riddle whispered into his ear. "You have to mean it." Harry nodded and swallowed again. His shaking hand stopped shaking, and this time he yelled,
"Crucio!"
I had, quite honestly, never felt the Cruciatus curse this strong before. Even Voldemort himself, from the 70s and my other universe, hadn't seemed to make it this strong. Or maybe I had just forgotten how it felt.
Either way, I wasn't new to the pain of the Cruciatus curse. At first, I tried to not scream by gritting my teeth together and closing my eyes to stop the oncoming headache from my blurry vision, but I couldn't hold out and somehow my screams soon filled the air. My arms spasmed and tried to yank out of the restraints, and I balled my hands into fists.
When you're under the Cruciatus curse, you can never tell how long it lasts. It always feels like hours, days, but it really has been only a few minutes. I think Harry left me under the curse for about half a minute, but to me it felt like a whole half-hour. But finally, it stopped, and I opened my eyes again to see Riddle smiling at a still frowning Harry.
"Feel better?" Riddle asked him, turning Harry to face him and setting his hands on his shoulders. Slowly, a slight smile spread over Harry's face and he nodded.
"Loads."
Yet again, I found myself wondering if Harry really was on our side. A part of me said; Of course he is! He's your brother, how can you doubt him like this? But another part of me said; Nobody's that good of an actor!
"Only one more question remains; what shall we do with our dear friend over here?" Riddle asked, slowly turning to face me. I glared at him as he set his hands on the arms of the chair I was bound to and leaned down toward me. I had to move my hands to the side to avoid them being trapped under his.
I didn't know what to say. I stared angrily at him for a few moments before I said quietly and viciously,
"You'll be dead within the week, y'know? The Ministry isn't corrupted like in the seventies, or like my other time. They'll find you easily and kill you. They have spies who will tell them everything – "
"No they don't," Riddle corrected. "I can tell you're lying." Actually, I'm not, I thought, but I just glared at him as he stood back up. "And you won't tell them, I'll make sure that's impossible. So really, they'll have no way to know that I'm back. I'm sure only a few classified people knew I was coming back, am I right?" he asked, turning to Bellatrix, who nodded.
"Just the people in this room, my Lord," she said quickly. "Just the few that we knew we could trust."
"And now...now that I'm back...we can take over the wizarding world. And this time, nobody will know. Nobody will expect it. And all Muggles and Mudbloods will bow down to us..." I frowned. Disgusting, that's what this was. All this shit about Muggles and Mudbloods. It was plain gross.
"Still, the question remains; what should we do with Miss Potter?" He turned back to face me, searched me up and down, and his eyes laid to rest on the ring on my left hand. "What have we here?" he asked quietly, trying to pry my fingers open since they were balled into fists. "Unclench your fists." I refused. After a moment, Draco snapped,
"You heard him! Unclench your fists!" I slowly and reluctantly did so. Riddle pried the ring off of my finger and held it up to his face.
"Well, well, well, what have we here? Is Miss Potter about to become Mrs Black?" he asked.
"Regulus?" Rosier snapped suddenly. "Regulus is dead! She can't be engaged to him! You must be delusional!"
"Dead?" I laughed. "As if!"
"Why, then, did he disappear for nearly seventeen years?" Bellatrix snapped. "His death was pinned on me. If only! I wish I could've killed that blood-traitor, Muggle-loving, family-dis-owner cousin of mine and his good-for-nothing brother!"
"Sirius and Regulus aren't those things!" I snapped, yanking my wrists again, trying to break free of the restrains. "You're just a – a – a bitch!" I screamed, unable to think of anything else strong enough to explain just what she was. Bellatrix's face became red with anger and she snapped her wand up quickly, but Riddle held out his hand to stop her from advancing.
"Now hang on, Bellatrix," he said, staring at me. I realized all eyes in the room were on me. "You can torture her, if you like, but don't scar her. Not physically, at least. Because we can't send her back with scars if we don't want somebody to realize something is wrong. Stick to the Cruciatus curse. And even that, unfortunately, we can't use too hard without some physical damage."
"Wait, you're going to let me live?" I asked, pretending to be confused. "Why?"
"Don't question it," Riddle snarled, "Or I might just change my mind." He turned and started pacing around the cauldron, twirling my ring between his fingers. "I'm only doing it because it will raise suspicion if you suddenly disappear. Plus, I know how amazing of a dueler you are. If we can force you to fight for our side, then we have a great advantage. Although we can't use you for dueling yet unless we want to blow your cover."
He had completed his second walk around the cauldron and held my ring in the palm of his hand.
"You can't deny that this is a pretty ring." I stared at the ring.
"You're going to destroy it, aren't you?" I asked. "Just to prove how powerful you are and how powerless I am." He stared at me, but shook his head slowly.
"No. I would love to be able to destroy it, but no, I can't."
"I will, my Lord," Bellatrix pipped up suddenly. "I would love to have the honor of destroying something that belongs to my stupid cousin. Who, by the way, is dead!" she yelled suddenly, turning to me again.
"Bellatrix is right," Rosier said calmly – how was he always so calm? "You never did explain how Regulus is suddenly alive and well."
"Even if he was alive the whole time, wouldn't he be, like, forty years old, and you're only sixteen," Lucius added.
"As if I would tell you all – !"
"Just tell them already," Draco snapped. "You think you'd get the point – you might as well tell them the first time because if you don't, you'll have to anyway." I glared at him a moment before I answered their questions.
"Regulus is alive, and he isn't forty years old. He's twenty – "
"That's still quite a bit older than you," Lucius said. "If I had a daughter, she wouldn't be marrying somebody four years older than her." I shrugged.
"I'm not your daughter though, am I? Besides, if you count the three years I spent in the seventies, I'm basically nineteen. Anyway, he's alive because back before I left, I knew I was coming back, so I gave him some time-sand to use when I left. I think it was only about a week after I left that Severus mixed a potion with the time-sand that sent him to the future, and here he is. People automatically assumed that he was dead and that Bellatrix had killed him since, if you know her at all, you know she'd want to be the one to kill him."
"That is a brilliant plan," Riddle praised. "We could use a mind like yours on our team. If only that potion could make you believe what we do and make up plans like that for us." He turned to Rosier. "It can't, can it?" he added almost hopefully.
"Not yet," Rosier replied. "But we're working on it." Shit, let's hope that's impossible. "We think it might be impossible, actually, my Lord." That'd be nice.
"Damn," Riddle cursed. "Let's hope it's not, shall we?" Rosier nodded slowly as Riddle turned back to me, my ring still in his palm.
"I wish we could ruin this ring," he said, twisting it in his fingers again. "But if we do, somebody, probably Regulus, will notice. How could we keep that a secret? We don't want anybody to notice anything unusual. We want everything to seem normal. So, we will have to give this ring back to her, unfortunately." He paused, tossing it back and forth between his hands now.
"However," he said after a moment, "we can do something invisible with it."
"What do you mean, my Lord?" Harry asked, interested.
"We can make it a tracking device," Riddle said, setting the ring back on his left palm and using his right hand to point his wand at it. A faint glow light up the ring for a brief moment before Riddle shoved it back onto my finger. "There. And you can't take it off, either.
"Now, shall we have some fun with our prisoner here?"
A/N: Like it? Love it? Hate it? Leave me a review to tell me your opinions! Constructive criticism is appreciated! You can even tell me what you'd like to see happen later in the story if you want. Please review!