Ascension: The Promise of Prometheus

by Define Anachronistic

(AU) Harry and his closest friends have resolved to enlist in the Auror Corps to gain the necessary authority to combat their enemies head-on. However, brutal training, a harsh Squad Captain and a plot that could destabilise the Muggle and the Wizarding Worlds need to be dealt with first. But where there is adversity there is also opportunity and that's where Harry thrives.

3. Interlude

INTERLUDE

Antonin had once believed that fate was for fools and that great men made their own luck.

It was he who had been the fool then.

Thirteen years ago, the Dark Lord tasked him with the abduction of a single child. He was to extract the boy from Koldovstoretz School without anyone having known he was there. It was no simple task. Koldovstoretz was Russia's premier magical school, and it had all the protections the International Confederation of Wizards had at its disposal placed upon it.

However, Koldovstoretz had been his alma mater and he knew its workings better than most. The Dark Lord must have been aware of this, as He had let him know that failure was not an option. Antonin hadn't thought much of it then, as he wouldn't have maintained his rank within the Knights of Walpurgis if failure was something he was known for.

However, luck had been against him on that particular mission.

While he knew secret passageways into the school, wartime protections meant that he could not access them without trigging an alarm. After pondering on this, he had what he considered a stroke of genius at the time. If he couldn't hide his intrusion into the school, why not mask it behind a far larger attack?

And so began the infamous Siege of Koldovstoretz.

It seemed ridiculous in retrospect, masking the abduction of a single target with the assault of the entire school, but in his arrogance, he believed it to be an infallible plan. But of course, it soon became clear just how fallible both he and the plan truly were.

Antonin had left a handful of his lieutenants in command of the siege while he entered the school through one of its secret passageways. He had meant to capture his target once he was in the school, but he couldn't find the boy amongst the thousand terrified students despite his thorough search.

It was only when he heard the sounds of battle echoing out over the school grounds did he realise his folly. If he knew of the secret passageways in and out of the school, then there was a chance his target did too. The Molotov boy had escaped and summoned his father, and the rest was history.

To say the Dark Lord had been displeased would have been a severe understatement. At that moment, the pain of the Cruciatus Curse was worse than anything else, but in the months that followed it was the humiliation that haunted him. Not only had he lost his rank amongst the Twelve Acolytes, but his excruciating punishment had been conducted before his former peers and subordinates.

Even after all these years, the memory of his pathetic screams still brought him heavy shame.

The worst part was his lack of a replacement. Typically, when Acolytes were killed in battle their rank was transferred to the next suitable knight, but that didn't happen to him. Perhaps because he was the first Acolyte to survive a failed mission, but it was a grave insult nonetheless. The Dark Lord took away his rank and failed to fill it, signifying that having one less general was better than having Antonin in the position.

Throughout the decade he spent in Azkaban, he dreamt of vengeance against Adrian Molotov, the boy who had robbed him of his glory, but the Dark Lord had taken that from him as well.

In the year since their escape from Azkaban, the Knights of Walpurgis had been led by a child: Renata Cushing. Even though Antonin had never heard of her, the Dark Lord displayed greater trust in her than any of His other followers, even those who had supported Him from the very beginning.

The resentment that he had once directed at his foes and the child who had wronged him were now directed at the Dark Lord's chosen right hand.

Antonin was now so low within the Knight's ranks that he wasn't even permitted to see the Dark Lord with his own eyes. The others claimed that none but Cushing were permitted to do so, but they had to be lying. He could not understand why their Lord would put so much faith into a single soldier, no matter how powerful they were.

But it couldn't be denied that she spoke for the Dark Lord, as she had repeated words to him in verbatim, words that he had once shared with his master in the strictest confidence.

That alone was enough to make his loyalty falter.