A New Path
AN: Again, apologies about the last chapter, but here's a new one. And, of course, seasons greetings to everyone reading this.
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CHAPTER 10 - Flying Lessons
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Harry was walking along a random corridor talking to Voldemort when he heard it. Crying. It sounded like it was coming from the bathrooms. Harry looked around, the corridor was empty - part of the reason he was there - but he also recognised where he was.
/Myrtle.\ He hissed at the pale snake coiled around his neck. For the past week Voldemort had remained almost constantly with him. The only times the man left was when his death eaters needed to be given instructions, mainly to stop doing whatever they were doing because they were being idiots. There was a surprising amount of idiots that made it into the death eater ranks.
/Who?\
Harry's grin was wicked. /Someone you should really meet. I'm sure she's missed you.\
/Brat, I can tell you're up to something. You can't hide it from me, you're not that good yet.\
Harry simply grinned further and entered the bathroom.
/You do know that's the girls' bathroom.\ Voldemort commented.
Harry didn't listen.
The room was empty. Harry backed out and headed into the boys' one.
As he walked in the sobbing became clearer. It was getting obvious that this time it wasn't Myrtle crying. Harry peeked into the room proper.
"Draco?"
The boy spun around, surprised at hearing Harry's voice as much as Harry was surprised at seeing him.
"Get out." He snarled, wiping back the tears.
"I-"
"Get out!"
Harry didn't move.
"I do believe the boy would like us to leave." Voldemort commented dryly.
"Draco-" Before Harry could say any more, a transparent figure flew into his face.
"You heard him, Get Out." Myrtle near screamed.
Harry stumbled back a step and stared directly at the ghost. "Myrtle -"
"You never visited. -"
"I was busy"
"- You said you would. -"
"I said I'd try."
"- Well, I've found someone better." She flew over to Draco and threw her arms around him. Draco shivered at the contact.
"Myrtle-"
"Get Out!" Draco yelled, his wand flew up to face Harry. "Cru -!"
"Sectumsempra." Harry said it before his mind could stop to think.
/You stupid boy!\ Voldemort yelled.
As Myrtle flew off screaming about murder in the bathroom, Harry looked at what he had done. The innocent spell he had noted in the margin of the second hand potions book he had decided to keep was, apparently, far from innocent. Draco was lying on the floor in a pool of blood, masses of cuts were strewn all over his body.
Harry watched as the snake-Voldemort slithered off his shoulders and onto the floor becoming the wizard-Voldemort. The man bent down and examined Draco's fallen form. He muttered a spell and the worst of the wounds closed. The dark lord then stood and turned on Harry, taking several angry steps toward him. Harry decided now was as good a time as any to back away to the other side of the room.
It was at that point that Snape stormed in.
His eyes caught the bloody form of Draco lying on the floor, the spell cast instantly recognised.
He glared at Harry.
Harry pointed at the pale snake hissing angrily a few feet away, the last hint of the man it had been seconds before fading as they looked.
Snape paled.
"Detention, Potter." He said with only a little of his usual power.
Harry hesitated. When nothing else was said, he hastily grabbed for the dark lord and rushed out to the safety of Gryffindor tower.
"Harry-?" Hermione began as he rushed passed her.
He sped up to the dorms and threw Voldemort on his bed.
/How dare you?!\ The snake raged.
/Hey! It was that or leave you there for Dumbledore to find!\
That didn't calm the dark lord any, in fact it made him worse. Harry knew then that he was in for a long time of dark-lord-style scolding.
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Draco spent the night in the hospital wing. Much to Voldemort's disapproval, Harry waited until after dark and then snuck out of the tower, hidden under his invisibility cloak.
"You should not be using this cloak." Voldemort complained as they walked. The older wizard had opted to go with him to, as he put it, make sure nothing else happen that could potentially land Harry in Azkaban.
When they reached the hospital wing there was no one to be seen. Madam Pomfrey was notably absent and both the occupied beds were shut in with their curtains.
Harry tiptoed over to the first bed curtain and peeked around the side, not Draco. He continued over to the only other bed in use.
"I don't sense any wards or warning spells. Go ahead if you must."
Harry walked into the curtained booth and, after three failed attempts, produced a non-verbal privacy veil around himself and Draco's bed.
Harry removed his cloak to reveal his glamoured self. When Draco opened his eyes, to see what had woken him, it was Voldemort's 'son', the prince, that greeted him.
"Wuh?" He asked groggily.
Harry smiled. "I just wanted to check how you were." Harry whispered, not for fear of being heard but because Draco was still half asleep, probably due to potions.
Draco blinked several times before answering. "I'm, uh, I'll be okay." He said, clearly still confused by his visitor. "You're -? Aren't you?"
Harry chuckled. "We met a few times during the summer." He said. "You're mother kindly allowed me and my father to stay at Malfoy Manor while we are between homes."
/I thought you wanted to tell him who you are and apologise? That's what you kept saying. Whiny baby that you are.\
/Oi! I'm not a whiny baby, I just feel horrid. I didn't mean to hurt him.\
/We discussed this, what does for enemies mean?\
/That it causes hurt to the person you cast it on, yes, okay, I was stupid, let's move on.\
/Why? It's such a good topic. There are so many things we could talk about.\
Draco was staring at Harry, mouth hanging open as if he was going to ask a question but then forgot. Harry turned to him and the teen snapped out of it. "Have you got a snake somewhere?" Draco asked.
Harry frowned and turned his head to see the dark lord that was hanging around his neck. He laughed at himself when he realise the snake man had buried himself into his robes, completely obscuring himself in the dark light. "Yes." Harry answered Draco. "Sort of." "Do I tell him?" "It's, my father."
Draco choked.
"Don't worry, he's just making sure I don't cause any more trouble. I'm the one in trouble not you, you're fine."
Draco nodded, unable to speak.
"Um, I, uh, there was something I wanted to talk to you about but, um, maybe later? Now doesn't seem so good anymore. Um, sorry. And, uh, sorry sorry for, uh, I'll explain when you see me next. Just sorry for, well, yeah." Harry rubbed the back of his head while, in his mind, Voldemort let loose a string of complaints about Harry's lack of verbal elegance.
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"Ah, Harry, come in." Dumbledore called as the teenaged wizard poked his head around the office door. Harry obeyed, heading straight for the chair opposite Dumbledore's desk.
After a close call with one of the portraits in a previous meeting and the total lack of anything besides viewing past events from the pensive and then talking about them, Harry was alone. Voldemort had decided it would be safer for him to view the memories from Harry's mind after and so, from that meeting on, Harry had visited Dumbledore on his own before meeting with Voldemort to share and discuss.
It turned out, as predicted, that this time broke the pattern.
"You've found one? A Horcrux?" Harry asked, putting as much enthusiasm as he could fake into his words.
"I believe I have. Now, as I said, you can come with me but on one condition: that you must obey any command I might give you at once, and without question."
"Of course."
"Be sure to understand me, Harry. I mean you must follow even such orders as 'run', 'hide' or 'go back'. Do I have your word?"
"I- yes, of course."
"If I tell you to hide, you will do so?"
"Yes."
"If I tell you to flee, you will obey?"
"Yes."
"If I tell you to leave me, and safe yourself, you will do as I tell you?"
"I-"
"Harry?"
They stared at each other for a moment.
"Yes, sir."
"Good, now, I won't pretend that the journey we are about to take won't be dangerous."
Harry nodded.
"Go fetch your cloak and meet me in the entrance hall."
"Yes, sir."
Harry ran to the tower, rushing passed Ron and Hermione and grumpy, snake dark lord on his way to the dorms. As Harry passed, Voldemort lifted his head and hissed, the company of only teenaged Gryffindors clearly getting to him.
/Harry? Come back here.\
"Harry? What are you doing? Stop ignoring me."
"Sorry Voldie. Gotta go. Dumbles waiting."
Harry rushed back passed, cloak in hand, ignoring all comments from both his teen friends and serpentine, father?
Harry reached the entrance hall in record time, keen to be involved in whatever Dumbledore had planned, if only to hinder him and help Voldemort.
"Come, Harry. You can apparate now, I believe?"
Harry nodded then, thinking honesty where possible was the best approach, added. "But I haven't got my license."
"No matter, I shall assist you again. Now, we will travel via Hogsmeade, please put on your cloak."
Harry obeyed and they began to walk. When they reached the village, Dumbledore led them passed the Three Broomsticks and down towards the Hogs Head.
"We will not need to enter." Dumbledore told the still invisible Harry. At the first pub, he had told the waiting Rosmerta he was headed to the second. "Now, we shall apparate. Take my arm."
Again, Harry obeyed silently.
They apparated.
When they reappeared at their destination, Harry was instantly hit by the sudden rush of wind and sea air.
"Where are we?" Harry asked as he looked around.
"Do you not recognise here from the memory I showed you?" Dumbledore asked, leading him down to the sea edge.
Harry did. It was where a pre-Hogwarts Tom Riddle had visited with the orphanage.
"We head down there." Dumbledore said, indicating the cave at the water's edge. "Where a young Voldemort once terrorised those two children."
Harry followed Dumbledore in silence into the cave. Into the second, hidden cave. And across the dark, still lake inside.
They stood, together, at the pedestal.
Harry stared down at the liquid filling the bowl. Dumbledore was studying the fluid and basin carefully.
"It appears that it is designed so that the only way to drain the bowl is by drinking it." He said after a while.
Harry hesitated. It occurred to him that the younger Voldemort wouldn't leave a potion somewhere like this without it being deadly.
"Harry, I must ask you to do something. I must ask you make sure I drink the potion, the whole potion. Even if I beg to stop, you must make me drink it."
Harry stood dazed. What?
"Promise me, Harry. Remember what I said back at school. You must do as I say, without question."
Slowly, Harry nodded.
Dumbledore began to drink.
Chaos ensued.
Fleeing the inferi that he had unintentionally disturbed in the dark water trying to offer Dumbledore a soothing drink, Harry raced out of the cavern, prize from the basin in hand, to the comparative safety of the outer cave. Dumbledore was pretty out of it. Harry winced at the fresh memory of the aged wizard begging him to let him stop drinking. Even though his vision of Dumbledore had been shattered by reality closing on two years ago, it was still painful and hard to see him that way.
Harry realised he would have to take them back to Hogwarts, Dumbledore was in no fit state to take them himself and he couldn't exactly ask Voldemort for help.
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They arrived at the edge of Hogsmeade, Dumbledore still in a bad way. Harry wondered how long the old wizard had left before whatever the potion he had drunk would take him. Would the blackened-hand-thing take him first?
Dumbledore jerked upright suddenly and Harry was forced to look up to see what had caught the man's attention.
There, in the sky, above Hogwarts, was the dark mark. Harry frowned. Surely Voldemort would have told him if something had happened.
Instantly, Dumbledore was rushing to the school as if nothing had happened to him, as if he was in full health. Harry had no choice but to run after the man, grabbing the broom offered while trying to understand what could have happened.
It was when they reached the astronomy tower that Harry realised. But too late. Dumbledore ordered Harry to remain quiet and invisible. The teen wasn't going to disobey, he didn't know how he felt, he was confused, but he felt the spell Dumbledore placed on his keeping him silent and still. That caused Harry to make his mind up a little. Okay, so maybe Dumbledore was trying to protect him, but he went about it the wrong way. Every time.
Harry watched as Draco appeared, as the death eaters joined him, as Snape simply strolled in and cursed Dumbledore without a second thought. Harry wondered what he was supposed to say about that.
Harry was too busy working out how he should react to realise straight away that he could move again. It took him another few moments to decide that he should, at least for pretence sake, follow the death eaters in a useless attempt to avenge Dumbledore's death.
Harry meandered up to the edge of the tower and stared down. Dumbledore had fallen a long way, but, in Harry's mind, there was something off. There were people crowding around the body, only a few. Others, just noticing, were rushing over. Harry turned and ran. Down through the school and out to the grounds. He caught up with the death eaters quickly, thanks to some marauder's map short cuts.
Before he realised it, Harry found himself mere strides behind Draco and Snape. He thought fast. Harry shot a relatively harmless stunner at Draco, purposely missing. The spell flew passed the boy's ear and he turned around, ready to curse back. Snape stepped in, forced the young Malfoy to follow the others. The thought that it was strange to be on the other side of the fight to Bella and the other death eaters rushed through Harry's mind, barely making a stop before being replaced with a very loud 'duck!'
Harry ducked. A spell, something yellow that set off the mental warning bells, skipped through the air where Harry had been seconds before. Snape glared to one side, at the caster? He turned back to Harry, Harry raised his wand to fire if needed. Snape sneered and left with the last fleeing death eater.
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Harry stood watching the people milling around. It was the day of the funeral meaning there was a sea of new witches and wizards filling the Hogwarts grounds.
/HARRY!\
Harry winced. /Yes?\
Voldemort had been quiet since Dumbldore's death, no doubt dealing with his death eaters. When Harry had returned to Gryffindor tower, the snake man had gone. Hermione and Ron hadn't seen him slip away, they were too busy getting themselves involved in the fight against the death eaters but Neville had. The teen pulled Harry to one side and told him everything that had happened and how the dark lord had left a little after Harry. But it seemed that, now, the silence was over and so the berating would begin.
/Have you never been told to not go off places with strange people?\
/It was only Dumbledore.\
/And you can't get much stranger than that.\
/What's got you annoyed really?\
/The fact that Dumbledore died and I wasn't even there. And that it was painless.\
/All reasons to be annoyed but I don't think that's it.\
/Nothing went to plan.\
/Now we're getting somewhere. Please, continue your perfectionistness.\
/Dumbledore had an angle. I know it. I just can't see it. From what I heard he didn't even fight. He was letting the little Malfoy have a easy shot.\
/It wasn't Draco.\
/What wasn't?\
/The person who killed him. I was there, it was Snape.\
/I know that, but, before, he was just standing there, letting the boy take his time.\
/Too easy?\
/Exactly.\
/So... what you're saying is you don't think Dumbledore's dead? Or have I got you wrong again?\
/That's exactly what I mean. I think. I'm not sure.\
/Help me, I think I'm having a heart attack. Voldemort, admitting to being unsure. Oh the shock.\
/If you're clutching your chest at this moment in time you must look like a complete fool.\
/You know, you're right. I'm getting a huge number of looks. Oh dear, I think Mrs Weasley thinks I'm actually having a heart attack. She's coming over. Hold on a minutes while a field this one.\
/I have decided I will make an appearance, if only to see you trying to escape the Prewette's nursing.\
/Prewette?\
/Prewett female. Study your pureblood families, Potter.\
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/So what did he tell you?\
Harry looked down to see a snake sitting in the grass. He smirked and walked to a spot where it was safe to sit.
/He thought we would find a horcrux.\
/Horcrux?\ Harry could tell the snake was a little panicked.
/Don't worry, it was a fake. See.\ He held the locket, that he had removed from the cave and somehow still had, in front of the scaled head.
/That is something to worry about, brat.\ It hissed.
Harry rolled his eyes.
/Where was it found?\
/A cave. By the sea. Probably quite difficult to get to without magic. Oh, and apparently you used to go there as a child. That's what Dumbledore told me anyway.\
The dark lord was glowering in the direction of Harry's thigh. It was clear the snake man was deep in thought, going over every little thing he knew and could remember about the real locket and the cave.
/And we allowed him to see the memory from Slughorn, didn't we?\ Voldemort said once he surfaced again.
/Yes.\ Harry answered. He had been staring at the clouds while the snake was silent.
/Who else knows?\
/I don't know.\ Harry thought for a moment. /I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the order members knew something. Maybe not the bit about there being horcruxes but the other stuff.\
Harry looked down at the snake and saw that Voldemort was glowering again.
/Ron and Hermione know. I think. Hermione probably.\ He continued. /I did my best not to tell them about the horcruxes but it would have seemed strange if I didn't talk about what Dumbledore shared with me when he hadn't said I couldn't, and Hermione can be annoyingly quick to work things out sometimes. Yeah. I'd bet she knows. So Ron's probably got some kind of idea there's something going on.\ He turned to the dark lord. /I won't be able to pretend Dumbles doesn't have a plan for me to those two. They, Hermione, might even know what it is already.\
/Agreed.\ Voldemort answered sullenly. /We will have to wait and see what the old fool has left behind. I suggest you prepare for what will likely be a strange will reading.\
Harry furrowed his brow but Voldemort had already turned and started slithering towards the forest.
"Harry?"
Harry turned around to see Hermione walking towards him, Ron was close behind her.
"How are you, Harry?" She said.
"How you hanging up, mate?" Ron asked.
Harry smiled weakly, pushing the sadness factor to full with just a hint of guilt and a little confusion.
"I'm okay, I think, it's just..."
Hermione put her arm around his shoulders, Ron walking up beside them both.
"I know..." Her voice was tearful and Harry couldn't help but think about how she would react to knowing his own part in Dumbledore's downfall. "Come on, the funeral's over. Let's go back inside." She walked him towards the castle, Ron following close behind.
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Hogwarts was a very sombre place for the last few days Harry spent there. He knew, now that Dumbledore was dead, he wouldn't be returning. Harry was equal parts sad and happy. Hogwarts had been his first home. Sure, Privet Drive was a house which he lived in for fourteen years, but it was never home. But home was where the heart lived and that was with family. Voldemort. And Sirius. Nagini. ...Bella. Harry would be going home. Leaving Hogwarts to go home. For the first time. Eventually. First he would have to spend a while at the Weasleys'.
Harry left the quiet halls to go finish packing his trunk.
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So, Mister dark lord, what's the plan? Harry scribbled in the notebook he had not had to use for over a year. He was sat in the kitchen of the burrow. Hermione, Ginny and Mrs Weasley were watching him intently, but each of their expressions were different. Harry couldn't quite make out Hermione's but Mrs Weasley's was full of motherly worry and Ginny's significantly more desire-full.
Ever since the incident at the ministry, Ginny had been making her affection known again. The fact that Harry was distinctly less than interested, didn't seem to deter the girl any. In fact, it only seemed to make her jealous. Especially of Luna, for some reason.
Voldemort was silent for far too long.
"Since when did you need to use the notebook to bug me?"
I'm trying to not draw too much attention to myself. I'm being watched. Apparently I stare into space when I talk to you so I'm limiting the staring by writing to you.
"Well, I'm not going to waste my time and ink."
Spoil sport. The plan?
"Keep to yourself."
Seriously?
"Seriously."
You do realise, sooner or later someone, probably Ron, is going to raise the topic of that stupid prophecy and my apparent destiny to defeat you?
"Your point?"
What should I do then? Go with it?
"For now. Do not start anything yourself. Use Dumbledore's death and Sirius' 'death' from last year as an excuse for not having thought of anything they say you should have. It should wash, for now. We will deal with whatever comes when it comes."
OK. Got it.
Harry looked up to see a another few faces watching him. He glanced at his soon-to-be ployjuiced hands. The Weasleys had arranged for Harry to resemble one of their own, opting to refer to him as a distant cousin at the coming wedding of Bill and Fleur.
Ron entered the kitchen with his twin brothers.
Harry looked up and allowed a small smile reach his face, it wouldn't do to look too happy if he was pretending to mourn, again, but perhaps the month wouldn't be so bad.
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AN: On to year seven.
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SPEECH NOTES - Since I have so many different methods of speech in this chapter I thought I'd better put in a little list, just in case. Hopefully it's pretty obvious without it.
"talking" - normal talking
/talking\ - parseltongue
talking - harry or voldie writing in parseltongue for the other to see
"talking" - harry or voldie talking into the other's head
/talking\ - harry or voldie talking in parseltongue into the other's head