Disclaimer: The characters and settings, including any sentences taken directly or partly from the books or movies, of Harry Potter are the property of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, AOL Time Link and Warner Brothers. I do not make money from publishing my story.
"Now, now, Tom. Let us not get ahead of ourselves here", Dumbledore began sounding serious as he said this, "You have yet to hear what I have to offer."
Even though the Dark Lord sincerely doubted Dumbledore possessed an object of the magnitude he implied, the Dark Lord could not deny that he was intrigued. "Show me then, Dumbledore", Voldemort said mockingly, "What will you offer me?!" Voldemort lowered his wand slightly and focused his attention on his old professor before him.
Dumbledore too lowered his wand slightly, but remained ever alert. Slowly the Headmaster reached into the inner pocket of his brightly coloured robes and removed the slightly bulky piece of jewellery. It was certainly not what anyone would have expected, including the Dark Lord himself, but he was clearly the only one that was shocked by the revelation. That could be explained however, by the fact that he was also the only one present, besides Dumbledore of course, that knew the implications of Dumbledore having found this object.
The faces of all Death Eaters were clouded with confusion, while Voldemort tried to prevent any of the shock he was feeling from actually showing on his face. "Where did you get that?", Voldemort hissed dangerously, while eyeing the locket. It seemed as if the temperature outside dropped a few degrees and a sliver of caution made its way into Dumbledore's eyes.
"The late Sirius Black left us some items", Dumbledore began, it was not necessarily the truth, but it would make for a good story, "I doubt whether he realised just how dark some artefacts he had were." Dumbledore let that statement sink in for a few moments before he continued. "But then again, you have never shied away from any type of magic, have you, Tom?"
"There is no dark or light magic, Dumbledore", the Dark Lord said, sounding somewhat calmer again, "I am just less afraid to use it to attain my goals. Besides my goal is no more evil than that of the Minister. The difference is that he prefers to slowly starve the lower classes of our civilization, whereas I shall at least give them the mercy of a quick death." Harry, who heard one version of this speech before in his first year, was reminded of the charming young man that Voldemort had once been. Harry was sure that if Tom Riddle had gone into politics instead of becoming a Dark Lord, he would have taken the magical world by storm and could have made it to Minister of Magic.
Then again, Dumbledore himself was known for being able to manipulate even the most headstrong people. Severus Snape was able to confirm this statement himself, which made him even more aware of the political standoff going on in front of him. Severus' thoughts were disturbed as Dumbledore started talking again. "Yes, I remember your stance on that too", the Headmaster said, before he went back to the necklace. He pretended to take a closer look at it, before addressing Voldemort again. "It's a fine necklace, Tom. Unlike some other objects you posses, it actually belongs to you, though. The last piece of a fine Slytherin inheritance, it's a shame nothing else is left."
"It is just as you say, Dumbledore", Voldemort said, "It is rightfully mine, thus why should I bother to bargain with you?" In Harry's opinion it was a fair question. However, he was quite aware that the Headmaster often got his way anyhow, especially if Voldemort was even remotely interested in the necklace. "But amuse me, Dumbledore. What will you get in return?"
"In return for this necklace, we will want Harry to be returned to his family's custody", Dumbledore said, "after that we will leave peacefully of course." Panic was instantly visible on Harry's face. He would die before he was used by Dumbledore again, let alone before he would go back to the Dursleys this summer. They would surely kill him, or at least make his live more of a living hell than they usually did. However, Harry was glad to see that he was not the only person looking mortified with Dumbledore's proposition, as Severus too was apprehensive about handing over his student.
"I'll get it for you, make it believable", Harry quietly addressed the Dark Lord in parseltongue. Harry decided that there was no way he was going with Dumbledore today, not if he had anything to say about it. Therefore it was his only option to play along with his arch nemesis.
"Hand it over, Dumbledore", the Dark Lord threatened, suddenly raising his wand. This sudden motion raised everyone's awareness again. Dumbledore in turn also raised his wand to mimic Voldemort's stance. While both leaders were capable enough to refrain from directly casting any spells, most Death Eaters were instantly firing spells at the Order members.
Spells flashed around, sometime missing Harry and Severus by mere inches, whom restricted themselves to defensive spells only. Meanwhile, Dumbledore and Voldemort had engaged each other into a fight as well, not limiting themselves in the same way as Harry and Severus. They shot rays of colourful, but deadly spells at each other, while being careful not to get hit with anything.
"I'll come with you!", Harry shouted leaping in between Dumbledore and Voldemort, "I'll go back to the Dursleys if that puts a stop to this fight now!" Dumbledore slightly dropped his wand and smiled gently at his student. A wave of the Headmaster's hand was supposed to guide Harry towards his side of the battlefield, but Voldemort interfered. "That is hardly your decision to make, Harry Potter", the Dark Lord spat, sounding irritated at the whole situation. So the moment Harry made a move towards Headmaster Dumbledore, the Dark Lord raised his wand once more and aimed it at the student. "Imperio", he shouted, hitting his target.
Harry had always been capable of shrugging of the effects of the Imperius curse, yet Voldemort's Unforgivable curses were more powerful than most. Harry wasn't quite sure anymore if Voldemort was only putting up a show to fool the Headmaster, because the Imperius sure felt real. Soon enough though, Harry shook off the effects of the curse and stepped closer to the Headmaster, who was about to welcome him with open arms.
Harry pretended to take the Headmaster's hand, who has ready to apparate them both away. Suddenly Harry grabbed the locket from Dumbledore's hand before quickly backing up and casting a shield charm. Surprisingly for Harry, Dumbledore did not even send any spells of his own, but only looked disappointed at his student.
Without so much as looking at Dumbledore, Harry apparated away leaving everyone astounded. For a few moments everyone was frozen in place, when suddenly all around Order members were send back beyond the wards. Death Eaters took this as an opportunity to attack their fleeing opponents and with a wave of curses they forced them to apparate away.
-
When Harry appeared, he immediately began executing his underdeveloped plan. Harry put his wand away temporarily and placed the locket around his neck before cutting his palm with the same knife he had used for the ritual before. Then he placed his bloody hand on the ward stone. "Magic, hear my call. With this blood I call upon the blessed protection", Harry called, stepping away quickly as a strong wave of magic originating from the ward stone streamed out in all directions.
Harry didn't have the time to wait around to see if his ward was working. Any moment now, the Dark Lord could appear and force him to hand over the Slytherin locket. Therefore, Harry quickly pressed his still bleeding hand to the locket hanging around his neck before he began forcing his magic outward as if casting a wandless spell. Instead it was only an adapted from of a locking ward, normally used for locking gates and such. However, Harry had read about this adapted ward and the possibility of 'locking' an object to a person's magic, making it impossible for others to remove it.
"Signatus subscriptio", Harry whispered. Even though the ward technically didn't require any spells only intention. Harry thought the ward could use some reinforcement if the Dark Lord was the one who would try to break it. Letting go of the locket, he grabbed his wand again readying himself for a fight, but not before healing the gash on the palm.
There were a lot of scenarios that Albus Dumbledore had taken into consideration before the attack on Malfoy manor had started. He had thought that Harry may have been brainwashed as far that he would even fully support Voldemort or that Harry had come to his senses and was willing to come with them. He had even considered everything in between, but whatever had happened just yet had not even come up once. Apparently the boy had chosen to take matters into his own hands, at least if the facial expression of the livid Dark Lord standing a few feet away was anything to go by.
Before the Headmaster had time to think on this however, the battle between the Order and the Death Eaters had resumed once more. It didn't take long however, before something else caught his attention. A wave of magic moves across the entirety of the manor's grounds and quickly moved closer to the site of the battlefield. From the way it moved, Dumbledore was able to discern that it was an activating ward and since the nature of the ward was unknown, the Headmaster didn't want to take any chances. Positioning his wand to his throat he gave a command, "Retreat!" The Headmaster of Hogwarts and leader of the Order of the Phoenix waited around for a few moments to see if all his subjects were able to follow the command, before he too apparated away, leaving behind a victorious Dark Lord.