-Chapter Twelve-

Memories

Harry looked at the figure watching him, a faint smile on his lips. Harry had thousands of questions whirling about n his head, but all he could manage to stutter was "The Master?"

The Master laughed at Harry's confusion. "I can understand that this is a bit much for you Harry. You've been a most persistent thorn in my side with your snooping."

"But… Where's Dumbledore?" asked Harry.

It was such a beautiful day, thought Dumbledore. What a shame he didn't have time to enjoy it. He stood on top of the hill and gazed down across the fields that stretched far into the distance. Not too far below he could see the village he had just left, Little Hangleton. He scanned the fields. Eventually his eyes fell upon a forest down below. There, that had to be it.

He began to descend the hill when the peace was disturb by a strange wheezing, groaning sound as a slight breeze sprung up. Dumbledore reached for his wand. Was this one of Riddle's traps?

At the top of the hill, something astonishing was happening. As he watched, a large lump of rock, its shape similar to one of the many monuments that dotted the hills, faded into view (1). For a few seconds afterwards, everything was still, and then a door opened on its side and a man stepped out.

Dumbledore's hand remained on his wand. "Who are you?"

The man ignored the question. "You, what is this place?"

Dumbledore smiled pleasantly. "This is Bedborough Hill, near the village of Little Hangleton. A most pleasant place, don't you think?"

The man laughed, but his eyes remained cold. "No, tell me what world this is." Dumbledore said nothing, moving his hand closer to his wand. There was something odd about this man. An aura he had sensed off only one other person…

But the slight movement had caught the Man's attention. "That object in your pocket… what is it?" Dumbledore said nothing. The Man's voice dropped, becoming more soothing. "Show it to me. I am the Master, and you will obey me."

A weaker-minded man would have perhaps obeyed in an instant, but Dumbledore was unaffected. "You're going to have to do better than that."

A look of fury briefly crossed the Master's face but quickly vanished. He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket. Almost casually, Dumbledore produced his wand from his robes. The Master pulled a strange-looking wand out of his jacket pocket and pointed it at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore moved like lighting, raising his wand and shouting "Expelliarmus!" To his astonishment, the spell had no effect at all. The Master laughed ad pressed a button on his owns wand. Instantly a wave of energy washed across Dumbledore, who suddenly found himself shrinking…

The Master watched in fascination as Dumbledore's body seemed to melt as he shrank.. Soon he was nothing more then formless puddle of some dark liquid that he had never seen before. Why had the man's body reacted so differently to the Tissue Compression Eliminator? Unable to resist, he walked over to the puddle and place a gloved hand in the liquid. It appeared to be…

Suddenly, the liquid started absorbed itself into his hand. The Master tried to move but found he couldn't, and before his eyes the entire puddled vanished inside of him. And that wasn't all. Suddenly his head was full of strange thoughts and flashes of memory. The Master fell to his knees in pain as his head tried to assimilate all of these new memories.

"I have no idea how it happened,' admitted the Master. 'As soon as I recovered I realised how beneficial this would be to my plans and set about altering Dumbledore's arrangements."

Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. "But we're at war! Dumbledore was organising the resistance against Voldemort! What if he attacks?"

The Master waved his hand dismissively. "What he does is of no concern to me. He will not be ready to attack for some considerable time, and my plans will have come to fruition before then. And even if he does, I have an easy way to escape." His eyes flickered in the direction of a cabinet Harry hadn't seen before. "But enough of this." The Master pressed a button on his desk and then began to wrap himself in a cowl that Harry recognised as belonging to the chief Death Eater. "What about the Slytherins?"

"They will prove useful as some eyes and ears around this fascinating castle. The fact that they genuinely believe they are working for their so-called "Dark Lord" is an unfortunate necessity." He finished putting on the cloak and produced a Death Eater's Mask from within the cloak and put it on over his face. "Ah, but of course! You will undoubtedly attempt to use that bit of information to turn them against me." He pulled his wand out and pointed it at Harry. Harry tried to throw himself out of the chair but the chains held him tightly in place. "Silencio!" cried the Master.

Harry felt as if his throat had closed up. He tried to cry out but could only produce a choking sound, but even that took considerable effort. So that was what it felt like to be on the receiving end of the spell. "And now, we must be going," said the Master. As if on cue, part of the wall slid open revealing two Death Eaters standing in an old-fashioned looking elevator. They stepped out at some unspoken command and grabbed Harry, pulling him out of his chair (The chains fell to the floor as if they had never been attached to anything (2)). They dragged him to the elevator and the Master joined them, the wall closing behind them and the elevator began to move. They descended for several minutes in silence, before slowing to a stop. The wall slid open again and they stepped out. Harry realised that they were back in the Chamber of Secrets, on top of the catwalk he had seen before, having just stepped out of the mouth of Salazar Slytherin's statue. In front of them was Malfoy, lording it up once again while shouting instructions to the Slytherins and Death Eaters below. He turned at the sound of their emerging, his eyes widening at the sight of Harry. "Potter! But I had -"

"He escaped Draco," said the Master, a quiet menace in his voice. "I have recaptured him and do not expect to have to deal with your mistakes again." He clicked his fingers (3) and the Death Eaters began to lead Harry away. Harry struggled with all of his might but the Death Eater's grips were completely unbreakable. "Now, report." He heard the Master say behind him.

At that moment there was a loud beeping from the machines and several lights began to go off on them at once. "We have something!" shouted a Slytherin called Restage Vern. He grabbed a roll of ticker tape and read out the unfamiliar words. "P.S. Located at… co-ordinates 55.78 by 73.89… a concentration of… 32%."

The Master's voice betrayed no hit of how this news affected him. "Activate the pump, full power."

The Death Eaters sprang into action, operating different consoles. The Slytherins looked on, and Harry saw a look of suspicion appear on Malfoy's face. "Hey, how do they all know how to operate this stuff? I've never even seen it before."

The Master's reply was cut off as, with a large SPLURT a stream of dark liquid emerged from pipe and into the basin that dominated the room. Harry shuddered. It was the same liquid that had destroyed the Death Eater on the Hogwarts Express. It slowly began to fill up the basin. "That, Draco, is the purpose of these machines." said The Master grandly. "The Dark Lord's plan involves this substance. "

"But what is that stuff? What does it do?" asked Malfoy.

"You wish a demonstration? Very well, let's see how Potter reacts to it shall we?"

Suddenly the Death Eaters holding onto Harry began to move him towards the basin. Harry struggled with all of is might. He had seen what had happened to the Death Eater on the train, and had no desire for it to happen to him!

But no matter how hard he struggled it was no use. The Death Eaters were too strong for him, and soon they were at the edge of the basin. Up above Harry could see the Slytherins watching, laughing and jeering at his plight, While Malfoy leaned over the railing, a hungry look on his face. The Death Eaters braced themselves to throw Harry, who looked down into the oblivion below him helplessly.

"LECTORIUS SPARKUS!"

Two bolts of electricity shot out of the wand of the Death Eater who had cried out, hitting the Death Eaters holding Harry squarely in their chests. Instantly they released him and Harry threw himself backwards as they shook wildly as the electricity continued to surge through them, until finally both let off loud explosions and collapsed in a heap, dark smoke pouring from their wounds.

But the Death Eater who wielded the deadly spell did not stop there. Before anyone could react he swung his wand round in a circle, letting the electricity play across the other Death Eaters and machinery, and the room soon rang with the sound of explosions. The Master made to gar his wand but a quick burst of electricity in his direction sent himself, the Slytherins and the Death Eaters on the catwalk ducking nd diving for cover. As all this happened Harry ran for the entrance to the tunnels.

As Harry ran the Death Eater pointed his wand at the Master and Slytherins on the walkway. The Master got wearily to his feet, his mask blown off during the panic. "Anyone moves, and they get some of that!" Shouted the Death Eater, throwing off his hood and mask, revealing the features of Willow beneath.

"YOU!" bellowed the Master. Willow looked at him, first with an incomprehensible look on his face, which was quickly replaced with a determined glare.

"Me." He said simply.

"I should not be surprised to see you, Doctor." said the Master. "Even in this Land you see fit to disrupt my plans. Well no more!" He suddenly went for his wand but Willow already had his raised. "Ah ah ahhhhh! Don't try anything, or there could be a shock for you."

But the Master's sudden movement had been a distraction. One of the damaged Death Eaters, unnoticed by Willow, had managed to get back to it's feet and suddenly lunged for Willow, who only just managed to dodge it. Now the Master had time to grab his wand. "Avada Kedavra!" He shouted. A bolt of green magic flew towards Willow, who dogged around and it and caused it to hit the damaged Death Eater, finishing it off.

"Well this is all fun, but we must be going." Said Willow, darting for the tunnels.

"You can run, Doctor, but it will not matter!" cried the Master. He signalled to the few Death Eaters with him on the walkway to pursue Willow and they hurried after him.

Harry, who had watched the whole thing from the safety of the tunnel, joined Willow as he ran past. "We haven't got much time!" shouted Willow as they ran. "We have to climb back up the pipes before they catch up with us!" Harry tried to shout a reply, but the Silencio Charm was still in effect. Willow turned and saw the problem. "Ah, you've been silenced? We can soon fix that!" They both stopped and Willow pulled out his wand. "Remain still Harry, these incantation is very tricky to pull of." Harry nodded, bracing himself.

"Speakagainus!"

Instantly Harry's throat cleared and he gratefully took a mouthful of air. But there was no time to stop and chat - behind them came the sound of footsteps. "Quickly!" cried Willow, pulling Harry down the corridor behind him. Up ahead the pipe they had travelled down appeared from the darkness. To Harry it felt like several days had gone past since they had arrived here. "How do we get up there?" he cried as they arrived. Last time he, Ron and Ginny had ascended back to the surface with the help of Fawkes. Come to think of it, where would Fawkes be? After what had happened to Dumbledore…

A blast of magic hit the ceiling above them, sending debris raining down on the two of them and reminding Harry that now wasn't the best time to think about such things. He pulled out his wand and shouted "Impedimenta!", causing what was left of the Death Eaters to scatter.

"Hold them off!" shouted Willow. He waved his wand at a complex way at the pipe. Instantly a rope sprang out of his wand and began snaking up the pipe. "Quick, grab the rope!" cried Willow, before grabbing it himself and allowing it to carry him up the pipe.

Harry turned away from the battle and ran for the pipe. Spells shot past him as he ran, but he did not allow that to deter him and leapt to grab the rope.

A spell hit him squarely in the back.

Harry fell forwards as the everything went black.

Appendix

(1) Whether or not something "fading into view" is as astonishing to a wizard as it would be to a muggle is a question that will sadly have to remain unanswered.

(2) Must be magic!

(3) Time Lords have the ability to click their fingers whilst wearing gloves