Harry looked at Renaud with horror. His mind jumped to his wand – Merlin's wand – and he felt it pressing against his calf where he had put it last night. Renaud had his wand out and pointed straight at Harry so he couldn't grab his wand and blast Renaud. Not yet anyways.
"What do you want?" asked Harry cautiously. He took deep breaths to calm himself down so he could think clearly. Noticing Renaud's facial features tighten, he felt his spine stiffen and felt adrenaline rush through his blood.
"Me? What do I want? No, no, no, the question is… what do you want Jason?" said Renaud with a sneer. "Or should I say, Harry Potter?"
"Why are you here?" said Harry, trying to distract Renaud. If the bear-like man was going to try anything funny, Harry wanted time to prepare. He already ran a simulation in his mind of how he would duck and roll to get some cover behind the leather armchair facing the balcony. Then he would grab Merlin's wand from the hostler stuck to his calf and kill Renaud with it.
"I want you," Renaud said eagerly. "I was paid twenty thousand galleons by an extremely rich pureblood whom I shall not name, to capture you and bring you to him."
"I can give you forty," offered Harry hopefully, seeing a way to get out of this without fighting. Although he didn't exactly mind a good duel, he didn't know the strengths and weaknesses of Renaud and he definitely did not want to enter a fierce and vicious fight in which he might lose. He might be a crazy genius but he was only eleven years old, and he didn't have that much life experience, especially with dueling.
Sure he had done a few amazing acts of unprecedented skill – like breaking into Malfoy manor, or killing Mr. White. But right now he didn't feel confident enough in his ability to take down Renaud. He reminded himself that Renaud was an animagus, and he had access to dark and obscure books. He probably had some skill in dueling as well.
"No you can't," said Renaud coldly, his eyes sparkling and his nose twitching, "I know your state of finances. Hardly any gold in this house."
"Give me my wand back," Harry said, fists tightening, "And I won't kill you."
Renaud laughed, and sprang up from the sofa in a leap. Harry crouched, heart pounding, tense and ready to run. But Renaud didn't attack; instead he stared at Harry carefully with big purple eyes. Something wasn't right about those eyes. They weren't natural. Harry wondered if they came from dark rituals.
He knew some that could change your body parts. But they were dark… extremely extremely dark, because they would change you mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Rituals like that would change your soul – fragment it and corrupt it. Harry hadn't dwelled that far into the dark side yet. He wasn't a fool.
"I don't think you are in a position to threaten me," Renaud said, smirking. He fished inside his robe pocket and brought out Harry's holly and phoenix feather wand. Crushing it in one hand, he grinned menacingly. "What are you going to do now? No magic for poor ickle Harry Potter!"
Harry glared at him, feeling blood rush to his face, "You won't get me that easily, just because you have a wand-"
Renaud scowled and jabbed his wand into the air, letting loose a jet of hot flame at Harry, who leapt to the side, taking cover under the leather armchair as planned. Harry found that Renaud hadn't taken Merlin's wand – hadn't even looked for it. Good. Harry brought it out and swung it in an arc, crying out, "Frycufa!"
The simple dark spell would make deep gashes where the spell landed. A roar of pain came out from Renaud's mouth. Harry grinned, the spell hit. He jumped out, intent on launching several spells and blinked when he saw that Renaud was nowhere to be seen.
The screeching of a large war hawk filled the room. Harry looked up and met head on with sharp white claws descending onto his face at blinding speed. The claws dug into Harry's cheeks. The gigantic hawk began to fly upward, wings flapping wildly, dragging Harry's face along with it. Harry brought his wand into the air, and said, "Nimocarwan!" Suddenly red light launched out of the wand, circling around the bird. It shimmered, and the bird was trapped in a sphere cage of red light.
"Not so tough now, are you?" Harry said mockingly. "To think, I was almost afraid of you, but it turns out your abilities are merely mediocre."
"I don't think so," growled out a deep voice from behind Harry. The boy-who-lived whirled around to meet face to face with a punching fist coming from a purple-eyed man the size of a bear. Harry didn't recognize his face as it was covered in black feathers.
The hawk was merely a distraction, Harry thought as his nose broke from the punch. His face hurt all over. The claw marks had left deep cuts on his cheeks, and his nose was bleeding heavily. He fell onto the floor, seeing colorful spots in the air that didn't exist. He started to get dizzy, but knew he should get up and fight. He couldn't however: he didn't have enough strength.
"Come on! Get up, little boy!" roared Renaud, kicking Harry in the ribs with a heavy dragon hide boot. Blood spurted out of the boy's mouth. Harry groaned in pain, rolling to the side. He gripped Merlin's wand tighter and saw a chance. "Wingardium leviosa," Harry muttered, pointing the wand at himself. He leapt toward the ceiling and shouted, "Avada kedavra!" at the surprised hawk animagus. Renaud leapt out of the way, but he didn't need to.
Nothing came out of the wand. The green light just fizzled away. Harry frowned at it as he fell. What was going on? Then he remembered and cursed himself for being so foolish just as he met head on with a "CRUCIO!" from Renaud.
His body twitched and shook wildly in pain, and he felt himself going through an enormous pain filled seizure. Block the pain, he thought to himself, but he couldn't. He couldn't think with the pain rushing into every nerve in his body, lighting it like acid.
The curse stopped, and he heard Renaud's chuckling. "Expelliarmus!" Harry cried out weakly. Renaud batted the spell away with the back of his hand and sent back a stupefy. Harry raised a pathetic shield, but it was enough for him to dodge the spell as it broke the shield. Renaud didn't stop his attack.
He kept sending wave after wave of stunners. Harry couldn't block them all. He felt one of them hit his leg. Concentrate! He urged himself, knowing he was in a situation of life and death. He waved his wand at his leg, and wincing in his mind, he said, "Reducto!" his leg exploded into shards. Blood spurted out, and Harry hurriedly fried the wound to catorize it.
Renaud looked surprised. Harry grunted in pain. He had to shatter the stupefy curse that had hit his leg, so he blew his leg up. Thus he wasn't unconscious. "Amazing, Harry, you have a thing for pain I suppose," Renaud said, and lazily sent another stunner at Harry.
Harry aimed his wand just as the stunner hit. He felt himself going unconscious but just before that pivotal moment, he sent out one last spell, aiming his wand at a portrait of Mr. White. "Accio!" he exclaimed. The portrait rushed to him as his vision darkened. He felt a pull on his navel just as he descended into darkness.
Mr. White in cases of emergencies made the portkey. It transported Harry to a hidden room inside White manor. When Harry awoke he was in a closet sized room, bleeding from various wounds. His mouth was dry, his throat hurt like he had the flu, and his stomach felt nauseous. He didn't know where he was at first, feeling disorientation. Slowly the duel with Renaud came back to him and Harry knew he had to get away from White manor.
Renaud was searching the whole house. He would find this room in time. Harry didn't think he had enough energy to do magic. He didn't even know if he was coherent enough to form a spell. He had to go get medical attention. St. Mungo's? No, everybody would know it was Harry Potter and he didn't even want to think about all the attention he would get. He didn't want attention.
Harry's mind turned to Diagon Alley. He could get a room in the Leaky Cauldron but he would have to apparate there and he couldn't apparate in the house because of the wards. He would have to go outside the house, into the garden or the lawn. He winced. How in the world was he going to get there past Renaud.
But he sensed if he stayed here he would die, probably of suffocation or from all the wounds he had suffered. He couldn't believe how easily he had fallen to Renaud. The man wasn't even a good dueler! Not compared to Harry anyways. But the hawk's claws digging into Harry's face, as well as that sneak attack from behind… and then the crucio… his whole body hurt.
Harry learnt an important lesson: it didn't matter how good a dueler you are. All you needed was a few dirty tricks and you could take down the best of them. His confidence in himself was thoroughly shaken.
He got to his feet with a pain filled groan, and let his mind wander to what he would do to Renaud when he was in a better position. Renaud was a dead man, thought Harry. He gingerly touched a hand to his tender face and winced as the pain rushed through the already exhausted nerves.
Harry looked for the door, and wondered if he should take his chances. He couldn't run fast, couldn't do much of anything right at the moment. He didn't even know if he could apparrated without splinching himself.
He could hear Renaud shouting angrily, "Harry! Harry! Where are you, you fucking brat?" It sounded as if Renaud was in the kitchen but Harry couldn't be sure. Renaud was cunning, and Harry was surprised to find he felt a tinge of fear at the thought of facing Renaud again.
He sighed and decided he had to risk it. Perhaps he could jump out a window and drag himself to the borderline of the wards. Then hopefully he could apparate without splinching himself. Life really sucked sometimes. Or he could just stay here and die… No, he liked living. Even though it hurt like a bitch sometimes.
He opened the door and looked around in the hallway. H stepped outside and winced as he heard a creak in the floorboards. He was met with complete silence all around him. His heart thudded against his ribs. He felt like he was going to die.
Walking briskly toward a closet, he brought out a Comet 31 broomstick. It was really old. Harry went to an open window in his potions lab, and before going out, he gulped down several energy restorer potions as well as grabbing some pepper up potions. He thought for a moment – should he take his felix felicis bottle?
Perhaps a few drops. He gulped a sip down, wincing at the bitter taste. But he felt a wave of calm and peace come over him. A happy smile filled his boyish face. Harry grabbed his broom easily, and pulled out Merlin's wand. Thank god he still had it on him. He rushed out the window, and flew like he had never flown before. He zigged zagged around the lawn, and saw the hawk coming down at him from the blue sky.
Harry swooped up to meet the hawk and at the last minute he turned and kicked the hawk with his shoe. Right at it's weak spot, the neck. Then he swooped down fast, grazing the grass blades with his feet. He flew and flew and looked back. The hawk wasn't pursuing him at all. Instead, Renaud was watching him from far away. Harry could see the man's small smile, as if he knew that Harry wouldn't be able to run forever.
"Damn right," Harry said to himself. "Next time I see you, I'm going to kill you." He concentrated on his flying, letting the pain wash over him and simply go away. The pain was irrelevant now. He knew what he had to do. It galled him and probably took down his ego a couple (thousand) notches.
He had to learn more. He had to train more. And for that, he would have to go to Hogwarts. He had a few kinks in his magical training. So he had to go over the basics again and he had to get his education. A good education… from Hogwarts.
He didn't want to kill Dumbledore anymore. He didn't want to do much of anything save for learning, and getting stronger so he would never have to be in a situation where he was this weak. He had underestimated Renaud. Closing his eyes, he let the breeze ruffle his hair. The smell of the pine and the water running in a shallow stream below him felt good. He stopped, and took a drink of water from the cool stream. The water felt good.
The tall oak trees around him provided a good shadow from the heat of the sun. Life was alright. He would heal. He would become stronger again. He would become the strongest in the world… one day. For now, he had to take things a few steps at a time. The water felt good. It was healing. He splashed his face, wincing slightly at the pain. The water cleaned the deep gashes on his face. It would be permanently scarred. A price to pay for defeat.
He climbed on the rickety old broom again and flew toward London, a two hundred mile journey. He had a long way to go and no money on his person. He smiled as he felt the sun heat up his wounded face.
Life was good.
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AN: Okay, no cliffhanger this time. Keep in mind that in about eight chapters left for Part 2. Then Harry's first year will be over! So we'll be moving pretty fast from now on. The next chapter will take me a week or so because I'm planning a 10 000 word chapter!
Here are a few things to decide, so please give your opinions.
Pairings What house will Harry be sorted in? Should he be a friend with Ron and Hermione? Will he play quidditch as a seeker?So please review! You probably don't realize how much your opinions influence the direction this story goes…