Shattered Surrender
by sick-atxxheart
Chapter Six

--

Voldemort had just begun to settle in for the night, when a hard, sharp rap on the door caught his attention. Muttering under his breath about bloody needy fools, namely his Death Eaters, the Dark Lord waved his wand once and his black robes were on his body again, rather than the thinner robes he wore to bed. Throwing open the door, Voldemort looked about, anticipating the need for a swift and ready punishment to be given. He always looked forward to that.

To his disappointment, it was only Pettigrew- the Dark Lord held him in great contempt, despite the loyalty the small, rat-like man had consistently shown. Despite the fact that he had betrayed all he held dear in order to save his life, Voldemort still felt that loyalty was something that should be held in the greatest respect. Even if it was because of him, Pettigrew had killed that loyalty to his friends, and for that reason the Dark Lord still did not trust him. The man was far too weak of mind to really think on his own- he went through life listening to others, and doing simply what kept him alive.

Voldemort actually didn't know why he kept him alive, when he thought about it.

But all thoughts aside, the man in front of him was trembling, as was his normal behavior. He obviously had extremely important news to relay to the Dark Lord, if he was disturbing him in his personal quarters at night; that, beyond all things, was prohibited. Everyone knew that.

"You must have an excruciatingly convincing reason for disturbing me," Voldemort hissed, his wand stretching out to nudge the small man's head up. Pettigrew whimpered, nodding frantically. He took a step backwards in his haste, as if that would protect him.

A moment's silence passed as Voldemort waited in not-so-patient silence before finally dangerously roaring, "What?!"

Pettigrew whimpered again, this time even more frightened; it took him a good thirty seconds to get his emotions and flailing limbs controlled enough to speak. When he did, Voldemort had every inclination to curse him into oblivion; but when the man's words actually registered, every thought of such an action was forgotten.

"Severus would like me to tell you that the child is deadly ill with fever- a heat beyond what is possible for a human body to create."

Warning bells were already going off in Voldemort's mind as he strode purposefully down the corridor, leaving a still-trembling Wormtail in his wake. As an afterthought, he waved his wand over his shoulder to lock his quarters. He couldn't have the bloody rat going through his things, after all- but then… then he would have a reason to kill the fool.

The Dark Lord ignored his thoughts on Pettigrew stoically, his mind racing. A deadly fever. Even though he was not a healer, Voldemort knew many things about the effects of magic on a body; he had used those laws to his advantage many times. But as far as he knew, there was only one reported case of a fever as strong as Severus' cryptic message had made it seem; and that young man had died rather spectacularly, many years ago.

Despite the fact that Harry Potter was his nemesis and his worst enemy, Voldemort had a feeling that keeping the boy alive would be more beneficial than if he were dead.

It seemed to take forever for him to get there, and when he did Voldemort realized with a start that he could have just Apparated; he was the only one with his magic keyed directly into the wards. The Death Eaters could Apparate outside the building, but not inside. Really, it did seem like a stupid move; Voldemort wondered for just a few blinding seconds why he was focusing so much on little things, but then passed over that thought too. Normally, he was much more focused.

Shaking his head as if to clear it, he banged the door to Severus' personal healing room open with a start. He had given the Potions Master the room when it became clear that he was completely loyal to the Dark; it was then that the room became almost a reward. Voldemort was grateful now that he, in fact, had given the room to Severus; it was now being used well.

Severus and Bella were both bending over the small body, alternately drenching the child with cool water from their wands and rubbing the boy's skin to keep the blood circulating despite the cold water. Voldemort would have been amused, as Severus and Bella working together was not a common sight; however, he understood the seriousness of the situation and deemed that laughing would be quite inappropriate.

Voldemort moved forward slowly, reasoning out the best way to interrupt the two's careful process; they had quite the system going, and Voldemort knew from experience that breaking that concentration wouldn't be good. Finally, after a moment's hesitation, the Dark Lord finally decided that their concentration would be broken no matter what, and hearing the entire story was more important at the current time.

"What is it?" His voice was cold and calculating as always, but Voldemort couldn't help the fact that Harry really didn't look well. His face was flushed and his hands were swollen; his whole body seemed to be sweating buckets, and his skin looked scaly and rough from the redness. The child was almost convulsing, and it pained Voldemort to watch. As much pain and suffering as he had experienced and inflicted in his lifetime, he had never been one for injuring children.

Severus jumped, and Voldemort inwardly commended his reaction time as he immediately went back to working on the child. "I can't tell, my Lord- I healed him with all the normal procedures, and he was sleeping fine. All of the sudden, Bella just noticed his forehead was hot- much to hot- and called me here. It's just gotten consistently worse."

Severus' worry and trepidation were present, and Voldemort couldn't help but smirking. He, of course, knew of Severus' love for the child's mother; Severus had begged him long ago to spare her, but due to her power he had refused. The man's eyes had changed ever since then, and even though Voldemort rarely felt regret, every so often a pain of sympathy and remorse for Severus' loss hit him. Even if he did not yet care for the boy, Voldemort was surprised to discover that he would save the child just for Severus' sake.

He was being rather kind today, it seemed. Damn whiskey.

Both Severus and Bella seemed to be waiting for his reply, so on the spot the Dark Lord asked about the previous case of a deadly fever.

"You have read your histories, have you not, Severus?" his voice was low and cool, but the inclination was obvious and taken well as Severus' eyes widened. His nod was edging on frantic as he realized exactly what the Dark Lord meant, and when he did the look in his eyes became even harder.

"That was years ago," Severus said quietly, rubbing Harry's skin even harder. "Medicine is more advanced now. It will not happen again."

Bella looked confused as she stared between the two men; however, no one moved to explain the story to her. Voldemort's eyes seemed to almost be posing a challenge to Severus; this was the man's intention, and the Dark Lord knew Severus would take it. He always was one for a challenge- and this one, this challenge, raised the stakes just a bit higher.

"Did they ever find the cause of the fever, back then?" Bella ventured to ask, figuring out a bit of what the conversation was about and inserting herself into it.

Severus' face jerked toward her, looking at her as if she was a lifeline- as if he was drowning. "Yes," he whispered, and Voldemort couldn't help but wonder if he was falling apart. "Prolonged exposure to pain and magic."

Bella frowned once, and Voldemort followed in suit. He hadn't heard that about that case- he knew about the prolonged pain, but prolonged exposure to magic? Where had that come from? He knew for a fact that magical torture was not used in Azkaban prison- and if it was, he would know about it.

Severus' face grew paler and paler, and Voldemort just watched him in anticipation. It was quite obvious the man had discovered something that he himself was missing- something important and catastrophic, no doubt. Things like that certainly did have a way of involving Harry Potter.

Voldemort sighed, and just mere seconds after that Severus broke the silence. "It appears that Harry Potter is stronger than we thought." His voice was quiet, his hands still working; his face showed a strange combination of wonder, awe, fear, and amazement that Voldemort wasn't quite sure was possible. However, the implication of his words were stronger than anything else, and Voldemort couldn't help but ask,

"What do you mean?"

Bella seemed to have caught on slightly, when she whispered, "Well, how else could he survive Azkaban? No child should be able to."

Voldemort's head snapped up, and in a brisk voice he said, "A self-imposed shield." Severus nodded briskly, affirming his suspicions. The Dark Lord continued. "But- that means he is a-"

"A Protector," Severus said calmly, a long deep breath shuddering through his body. "He's a Protector."

At Severus' words, Voldemort's mind began to race even faster. A Protector. Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin had been the last Protectors the world had seen, that had come into their full inheritance at least; being born with such powers was a rare honor that maybe one child every thousand years was bestowed with. Godric and Salazar had been twin protectors, destined to work together to achieve their ultimate goal; when they had failed, however, the world had fallen to corruption.

Bella was crying now, her face a mess of muddy tears. Despite everything that was happening, Voldemort rolled his eyes. Her voice was nearly a whisper when she said quietly, "W-what does that m-mean?"

"It means," Severus said calmly, his voice now stony, "that this child is meant to save the world."

--

The library was quiet and still as Voldemort raced through the tall, dark shelves of books. His own personal collection had grown quite large over the years, he had to admit, and he had many times considered getting rid of some of the less important books. However, above all Voldemort was a scholar, and he had never been able to bring himself to actually get rid of any. Now, he was glad he hadn't.

Protectors, Protectors, Protectors, Voldemort thought to himself, his thoughts jumping to which books would have any mention of such phenomena in their pages. There weren't many, that much was for certain- however, the Dark Lord knew that his extensive collection of all things Dark would surely be able to provide an explanation.

At least he hoped, because if he was in fact wrong, Harry would die.

It was their guess that there was some type of ritual that had to be performed. Based on common logic, he and Severus had determined that Protectors in general experienced prolonged exposure to both pain and magic; when they reached their brink, the body threatened to collapse. This exact moment was when the ritual must be performed, otherwise the person would die.

Despite the great sadist that Voldemort forever was, he couldn't help but shudder at the methods people must have used to get their child to the perfect level of pain and magic exposure in order to perform the ritual. It was quite inhumane, really.

It only took a few minutes of searching for Voldemort to identify and locate the book he wanted. When he did, a simple Accio flew it from the top shelf into his waiting arms; the book looked ready scream at him. With a sigh, Voldemort opened the book, and scream it did; it took him only seconds for him to make it be quiet, with a simple spell he had designed exactly for the purpose of bloody screaming books. Long ago, he had hunted down the originator of such an idea and killed him- the man had lived a long, strange life and had eventually ended up deaf from all his screaming books. Voldemort personally thought he was a fool, but that's beside the point.

Scanning the table of content with calculating eyes, the Dark Lord quickly identified where the information he wanted was and flipped to that page. The picture adorning the top of the chapter was an ugly representation of a child with a fever much like Harry's; the small body was portrayed as having small welts of skin and heat all over his body, and poorly drawn lines around the figure showed the convulsions that accompanied such a fever.

Choosing to ignore the picture, Voldemort ran a single long finger down the page, reading as he went.

A Protector is a rare form of magic that is only inhibited in those children born with the exact proportions of magical ability and strength within their body at birth. Such inhibitions are rare and quite an honor on a child, however the burden that comes with being such a breed is large and not easy to bear.

Children born with such a gift are usually stronger in their youth, and accidental magic is a more often occurrence than it would normally be. One of the main powers of a Protector is the ability to "shield" not only their own body but the area and people around them from harm, often but not always for an extended period of time. Protectors have extremely long life expectancies under normal circumstances; however they can still be killed like normal men, albeit it is harder.

Beyond the advantage of a shield, Protectors are also beneficial to the world in different ways. Their Animagus form is often discovered at a young age, and is normally a very powerful creature; controlling their form comes easy to a Protector. Aside from this, the abnormal strength also leads to the person being extremely skilled in all forms of magic, including defensive and offensive spells, transfiguration, Potions, wandless and wordless magic, and even Llegimency and Occlumency. Protectors are also born with intense loyalty, determination, and leadership qualities that will always be present in the person's character.

Cultivating a Protector's knowledge of magic is necessary, as the appropriate outlets for the person's extreme magical ability are necessary; if such outlets are not achieved, the person can experience a magical overload and will no longer be able to control themselves, no matter how strong they are.

Protectors reach a certain amount of pain and magical tolerance at some point in their life, and it is at this point that the ritual for them to receive their full inheritance comes into play. Performing this ritual is necessary and important for the Protector to fully understand the weight of their duty, and it cannot be fully explained other than by Protectors themselves. Once this ritual is performed, the chosen person will know what their calling is, and their drive and determination to fulfill that duty will commence. If this ritual is not completed when the person reaches their limit of magic and pain, the person will die within a day.

The book went on to explain the details of the ritual, and if Voldemort hadn't been shocked enough by the book's explanation of a Protector, the facts about the ritual itself would have done it. The ritual seemed to almost be creating a type of slavery bond between the Protector themselves and another person; however, it was not the type of bond in which the other person could control the Protector. Instead, it was more like once the ritual was performed an extreme mentorship relationship was established between the two. Voldemort couldn't help but wonder to himself exactly why this part of the ritual was necessary; however, he did not have time to question it. The ritual was not hard to perform, but the more time they had, the better.

--

New chapter! And it's long! Over 3,000 words, I think! Or around ;] Took a long time, but I'm proud of it. I actually like where I took this. I tried to incorporate some of your ideas, and I hope it turned out alright. Let me know.

Thank you for all your reviews to:

charmedfanforeva, Slytherin66, Chi Vayne, henriette, Brookslocklear, kurama's bitches, ams71080, Tom Kristal, AngelofDarkness1605, BioHazard82, nim istar, datenchi, Sakura Maxwell-Minamino, Silo666, darkwish3, Ghost 88, Lord Ezra'eil, thyrokio, stracy11, Jen94, Dark Goddess of Chaos, Nikita Domolov, lordofthemostancientsoohooclan, graynavarre, Dragonanzar, Musik Drache, HNZ, BlazinHotHead, DebsTheSlytherinSnapeFan, JoSchmo666, blackcatv24, fifespice, mosherguy18, Erynia, Destenys Angel Pyra, Mema4, dragonsconsort, JWOHPfan, Darkveelia88, abibliophobia, Jits, Klarika, WayDrifter, Slave2Writing, Miireya Humbolt, The Blackest Night, Draco Malfoy is Blond, Astromutt, Vegitunks1, bmatsea, Dany-DeathNote, Robert1000, Bellalover, Irishfighter, search in all the wrong places, HikaruOfArrow, and javacap! I really, really appreciate it!

Poll: Who should be the "mentor" figure for Harry? Keep in mind- it involves more than you were told in this chapter! Also, please tell me what you thought!