Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A/N: Hey guys, sorry it took so long to get the next chapter up. I have been having a lot of things going on in my personal life, and it hasn't left me much time to write, let alone the fact that I haven't been feeling very inspired. But I managed to get out of my funk and here is the next chapter. Enjoy!

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Word of Dumbledore's defeat began to spread quickly throughout the Wizarding World. Tom was quietly and quickly taking over power in the ministry. His spies had been overtaking the upper offices.

He and Harry were bonding quite well. Harry had been taking on a more active role during the Death Eater meetings and contributing quite a bit. His friends had been taken to various parts of England in the country to live. Everything was beginning to take shape.

While Harry had been enjoying his life at Riddle Manor, the Daily Prophet had been publishing many articles about him. The Wizarding World was calling for its Savior, and Severus had brought a copy of one of the papers to the Dark Lord. The general population was cowering in fear of him, since Dumbledore had fallen and Harry Potter was nowhere to be found.

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"Severus, things are going as planned. Would you be able to ask Lucius to get me a report on our progress in the ministry?" Tom asked Severus.

"Yes, my lord." Severus said and he left quickly to go fulfill his task.

It was the news he had been hoping for. Once they got the minister out of the picture, the Wizarding World would be his for the taking. It would be vulnerable and in need of a leader.

He had Harry and Dumbledore. It was better than he had dreamed it would be. But he had always thought that he would capture Harry Potter and have to kill him. He never dreamed that Harry would become like a son to him. He had been thinking about it for a while now, and decided that once he was running the Wizarding World he would adopt Harry officially. Of course, he had to take care of Dumbledore first. He had big plans for that.

"Tom?"

A voice startled Tom from his thoughts. One of the various subjects he had been thinking about now stood in the door.

"Yes, Harry. Is something wrong?"

"No, I just saw Severus come out and I wanted to see you. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, we were just talking about how the population is reacting to what was going on, and I am getting a report from Lucius about our takeover of the ministry."

One might have been shocked at how much information Tom shared with Harry. Ever since the night Harry had gotten to torture Dumbledore. Tom had decided he would not hide anything from Harry. And Harry actually had a lot of good ideas to contribute to the plans.

"How is everyone reacting? Do they think I betrayed them?" Harry asked.

Tom knew this was one thing that did bother Harry. Dumbledore kept spouting how much of a traitor Harry was. It was easy to see that those words were affecting Harry a bit.

"No Harry, they don't. But they are worried about where you are." Tom said carefully.

"They don't care about me. They just want me to come in and save them, but I won't do it!" Harry said.

Tom could see that Harry was visibly upset now. And unable to contradict what he had just said. Tom got up and crossed the room. He pulled Harry into a hug.

"I'm right aren't I?" Harry asked.

"Unfortunately Harry, you are correct. The people do not want to take responsibility for themselves. So, they are unfairly expecting a 15 year old child to save them instead."

"Thank you for saving me, Tom." Harry said returning the hug.

Tom was pleased that was how Harry saw things now. Originally he had kidnapped Harry, but things had dramatically changed since then.

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Sirius watched from the staircase as Dumbledore was pulling at his chains and cursing. It seemed that Dumbledore had finally lost it.

"It's a beautiful thing isn't it?" Sirius heard from behind him.

Bellatrix stepped out from the shadows.

"What's a beautiful thing, Bella?" He asked his crazy cousin.

"Watching someone lose their sanity. Especially, when that someone is the one who put you in prison and took your own sanity from you." She said.

Sirius watched Bella out of the corner of his eye. He had been watching her ever since he had been here. It seemed that having the responsibility of watching Harry and being around people more really had helped her have more lucid moments.

Sirius could relate. He hid it well, but he lost a little of his own sanity in Azkaban too. Sometimes he thought that Harry was James, and sometimes he did forget he was a human and would become Padfoot for a week at a time.

"I don't know if I would call it beautiful, I would call it poetic justice though." Sirius replied.

"Or sweet revenge. No matter what we call it I do get a great deal of satisfaction out of it." Bellatrix said.

"I have to agree, Cousin." Sirius said.

Bellatrix looked at Sirius for a second. She moved so fast Sirius wasn't prepared for it. She grabbed him and hugged him.

Sirius just stood there stunned. He didn't quite know how to react to his cousin.

"Bella, why are you hugging me?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know." She said.

With that Bellatrix let him go and proceeded to skip down the stairs. She cast a couple Cruciatus Curses at Dumbledore who screamed.

She cackled, skipped back up the stairs, hugged Sirius again, and then she disappeared out the door.

"That woman is crazy." Sirius said to himself.

He went out of the room too to go find Harry.

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A/N: Here is the end of this chapter I hope you all enjoyed it. I haven't had too much Bellatrix in here, or too much of Tom alone. So, I thought I would give them some attention before we moved on to the main event. Coming up next, Dumbledore's execution!