Chapter 16: Reverte

Harry was in the process of finding a way to try to pry his door open. He had been extremely unsuccessful up to this point, but he was too frustrated to stop. Harry slammed the wooden door with the edge of the metal handle he had managed to unscrew from his nightstand. The solid oak panel dented under the impact but nothing more. This did nothing to satisfy the teen's frustration.

With a low growl, Harry threw the heavy metal object across his room. The handle slammed into one of the window panes opposite him before it fell to the ground with a loud clang. To Harry's great disappointment, the glass didn't look to have been impacted in any way by his throw, not that he would have been able to scale down the side of the building anyway.

Fatigue once again starting to impact his muscles, Harry finally decided to give up and let himself slide down the door until he was sitting on the cold floor. He wasn't going to be able to get out of here without someone coming to let him out. He was stuck without the use of his magic. He was completely helpless.

Harry closed his eyes and let his head fall back. It hit the door with a dull thud but didn't hurt as much as he had hoped. The young wizard stayed in this uncomfortable position for several minutes until the familiar sound of a house elf appearing caught his attention. Harry opened his eyes slowly before he brought his head up to look at the small, dirty creature. The house elf was the same one who had delivered his father's message to him earlier that day. Harry felt a twinge of anger course through him as the pathetic being bowed low before him.

"What do you want?" Harry's voice sounded flat and lifeless even in his own ears.

"M-master H-h-harry," the creature stuttered, grey eyes wide.

"What?" Harry was already getting annoyed by its presence, "Unless you're here to let me out, leave me in peace. I don't want to hear your miserable voice any longer."

"B-but sir, th-there are people here sir."

"And how exactly does that concern me? Take them to my father. I'm locked in here, remember?"

The house elf took a step closer, something akin to fear spreading across its wrinkled face,

"I-I cannot, s-sir. Th-the master is n-not here r-right now. Y-you are the only o-one."

This was new information for Harry. The only one? Why in Merlin's name had his father left with all of his Death Eaters? The man never left the manor. What was he doing?

"Where did they go?" he demanded, struggling back up to his feet, no longer feeling tired, "What are they doing? Is it another raid? Did he finally decide to attack the ministry?"

"I-I-I don't know, Master H-harry, s-s-sir. B-but th-the men. They are c-coming h-here."

Of course, the pathetic creature wouldn't know. Anyway, it's probably just father sending some of his Death Eaters to check in on me, Harry thought suddenly feeling less excited about the whole situation, What if he is sending Fenrir back?

He didn't know if he could handle another interaction with the werewolf. Not today, at least.

"Is it Greyback?" Harry asked, trying to sound as casual as he could, "Did my father send him back to come and see me?"

The creature looked confused for a moment,

"N-no. It is not one of m-master's. Th-they are f-from the m-ministry. A-aurors."

This final word sent adrenaline coursing through Harry's veins. Aurors. In the manor. How the hell had aurors gotten in?

"Did you tell my father?"

"N-no," the house elf shuttered, "M-master s-said that y-you were in charge while he is g-gone. So I c-came to tell you."

This surprised Harry.

"I'm in charge? But he's locked me in my room. How the hell am I supposed to be in charge if I can't even leave my chambers? And why wouldn't he just tell me that himself? Why the fuck is he always hiding things from me?!"

Harry could feel his anger rising. The creature in front of him could as well and it cowered away from him in fear at the teen's loud voice.

"I-I am sorry, s-sir. Wh-what w-would you l-like m-me to d-do? Sh-should I c-contact the m-master i-instead?"

Harry forced himself to take a deep breath. He tried his best to shove his tumultuous emotions down somewhere deep inside of him. No. If his father had left him in charge then he would handle this situation on his own. He might not be able to use his magic yet, but the aurors didn't know that and they didn't know the layout of the manor. That was two things already on his side.

"No," Harry said at long last, reaching down to pick up the familiar death eater mask, "You were right to come directly to me. I will deal with this."

The house elf looked rather relieved at the thought that he would not have to try and contact the dark lord.

"Th-thank you, m-master H-harry," it said, "Th-there are o-only t-two of th-them and one l-looks h-hurt. Th-they are c-currently i-in the n-north s-stairwell o-on th-the third f-floor."

Just below me then, Harry thought, donning the white mask and activating the charms that kept it securely in place, This shouldn't be too hard.

The house elf looked around and wrung its hands as if worried about something else. Harry already knew exactly what it was.

"Well?" he spat, drawing his wand out of his black robes, "Are you going to open the door for me or not?"

Harry wiped his sweaty hands on his cloak and straightened his robes once more to make sure that his identity was sufficiently obscured. He could hear the two men making their way loudly up the stairwell. The teen took a deep breath. The cold, fresh air was a blessed relief to him after the suffocatingly long time he had just spent stuck in his chambers. A shiver passed through him, but he wasn't sure if it was from the anticipation of what was about to come or from the dramatic change in temperature. Off to his left stood the entrance to his chambers. He had closed the door softly behind him, extremely grateful that the house elf had been able to unlock it for him.

There was a loud groan somewhere several paces in front of him causing Harry to straighten up instantly. Two figures dressed in the traditional auror garb had just stumbled out of the narrow stairwell. Both men came to an abrupt halt upon realising that they had reached the top. In the dim, flickering light, Harry could just begin to make out their faces. Thankfully, they hadn't seemed to notice him…yet.

"I'm sorry, James," the taller of the two said after a long moment, "I am lost. I haven't a clue how to get out of here."

"Well, you had me fooled," the other auror, James, said, chuckling softly.

This was news to Harry. He hadn't expected that two ministry aurors would have somehow managed to accidentally find their way into the manor. The entire place was secured by the Fidelius Charm and numerous other protection spells. This was supposed to keep unwelcome visitors far away.

Harry watched the two men interact with great interest. The second man seemed to be injured in some way. His legs were shaking and his hands had tremors almost like…

"We can't just keep wandering around like this, Sirius. The Death Eaters will be swarming this place at any minute."

"You think I don't know that!"

The harsh response seemed to startled the injured auror.

"Sorry, sorry," the other man said quickly, "I didn't mean for it to come out like that. I'm just stressed is all."

"It's fine," the second man sighed softly, "I'm the one slowing us down anyway."

Both aurors once again fell silent. Harry had found the interaction between them fascinating to watch. The two men seemed to be close friends…close friends who had just happened to stumble upon one of the most well-hidden buildings in all of Britain. Harry resisted the urge to make himself known; he wanted to try and find out as much as he could about the two before that point. By now, his eyes had finished adjusting to the light and he could start to make out the identity of the two men…Black and Potter. Two of the largest pricks in the ministry, according to what Rabastan had told him, at least.

"Are you sure that one of the other floors didn't have a way out? I feel like we have to be above ground at this point."

Harry almost laughed out loud at this. These had to be two of the stupidest wizards to have ever set foot in the manor, and that was truly an accomplishment.

"You are…four floors up to be exact."

The words slipped out of Harry's mouth before he even realised what he was doing. The auror, Black, yelped in surprise. The man seemed to almost push his friend away as he fumbled for his wand. In a second both aurors stood in front of him, their wands out and pointed directly at his chest.

Nice going there, Harry, he thought, feeling the noticeable absence of his magic, What are you going to do if they start throwing spells at you? You didn't think this through very well. Always acting without a plan…what will father think?

"Stay where you are, Death Eater. I will not hesitate to stun your brains out."

"Stun," Harry couldn't hold back his laughter this time. Did they really think that he would be threatened by a child's spell? "How very scary."

"Shut up," Black growled, straightening his back and trying to look as intimidating as possible, "You are hereby under arrest by order of the Minster of Magic."

"Oh really? And what do you expect me to do? Surrender and let you take me away? Unlike you, I am not so easily scared by the likes of any stunner" Harry replied, "I know where I would end up if I surrender to you and I don't think that would be in my best interest, Black."

The teen watched with a smirk as Potter seemed to flinch at his words. This was too easy. All he had to do was keep the act up and he would be able to secure them in a cell without ever having to mention the word magic.

"Sirius," Potter suddenly hissed at the other auror, startling both Black and Harry, "Lower your wand."

"What the hell are you talking about? Why in Merlin's name would I do that when he's got a wand trained on us."

Harry was equally confused. Had he really managed to scare Potter that much already? He was just going to surrender to him, just like that?

"Just lower your wand, Sirius. We aren't going to need them. Not yet, at least."

The look in Potter's dark brown eyes suddenly made Harry feel exceedingly uneasy. The auror was up to something. The teen tried to keep his wand steady as he watched Black lower his wand to his side, following his friend's advice.

He didn't like where this was going.

"And what exactly do you expect to happen now?" Black growled, his eyes never leaving Harry, "How the hell are we supposed to get rid of him without our wands?"

"It would be unfair to use magic in this situation," Potter spoke calmly, pushing himself away from the wall, looking suddenly stronger than he had before, "Not when our opponent isn't capable of using any at the moment."

Harry felt his blood run cold. Fuck. He was in trouble now. His mind started desperately flicking through every possible action he could take and its probable outcome. Currently, nothing looked promising. The only thing he could do was to try and keep up the act. Surly Potter was bluffing and didn't actually know about his magical exhaustion. How could he?

"What are you talking about, auror? Of course, I can use magic. You're just scared of what dark magic I can use on you."

"Then why haven't you used any yet?" both aurors were now standing in front of him, defenseless, "We have lowered our wand. So why don't you hit us with your best curse? Come on. We won't defend ourselves. It'll be an easy shot."

The young wizard took a slow step backward. His mind was suddenly clouded with uncertainty. He didn't understand how the aurors could know about his magical exhaustion…not unless Kingsley Shacklebolt…shit…

"Not just a child, but a coward as well. I would have thought the dark lord would have raised his son better than that, or am I mistaken, boy?"

Harry didn't move. He felt as if his entire body had just been dunked into a barrel of cold water. He could feel all of the blood rush out of his face as the realisation hit him. He had somehow divulged his heritage and relationship to the dark lord during his duel with the aurors earlier that week. That was why his father was angry with him. He'd done the one thing that the dark lord had expressly told him never to do. That was why he had learned occlumency, to try and prevent someone in the ministry from finding out. Even those who knew him were under oath…and now he'd gone and fucked it all up.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," he heard himself say, but it sounded far away.

"There's no use denying it, Dark Servant," Harry's brain didn't compute which of the aurors was talking now, "We know that you are a kid and we know who your daddy is. You were so kind as to reveal that in your last interaction with the ministry. But, of course, you might not remember that seeing as you pushed yourself a little too far and exhausted your magical core. Tell me what I'm getting wrong. Please. I beg you."

Harry felt as if the dark corners of the corridor were starting to close in around him. He was in big trouble now. There was no way that he could take on two adult aurors without the use of his magical core. At this point, he was as good as dead.

"Look at him. I think we scared him," a taunting voice cut through the fog that was filling Harry's head, "Not so mean now without your magic, are you? What are you going to do? Call daddy to come and save you?"

The mention of his father seemed to snap the teen out of his stupor. Harry's eyes flashed dangerously.

"You're wrong," he spat, forcing his wand hand to remain steady, "But if you come only quietly then I might just let you go."

During the conversation, both aurors seemed to have moved several metres closer to him, however, their wands remained by their sides.

"Let us go?" It was Potter who spoke this time, "Boy, you are no threat to us at the moment. If anything, it is you who needs to come along quietly."

Harry fidgeted uncomfortably at the insinuation behind this comment.

"I'm not going anywhere."

The taller auror, Black, smirked at him,

"Kid, there's a manhunt going on to find you and bring you in. Not to mention a reward of over 1 million galleons. You really think that we would pass up a golden opportunity like that?"

Harry glared, even as he began to understand the desperate situation he had just put himself in. He didn't know when his father was going to return, but he did know that he wasn't going to let any ministry auror take him into custody. He wasn't going to be used as bait to get to the dark lord.

Harry shifted his stance, taking another partial step back as the aurors drew ever nearer. He couldn't turn and run. They had their wands and would stun him in an instant. He also couldn't face them in hand-to-hand combat.

He was running dangerously low on options. The only chance would be if he could get back into his room and somehow barricade the door, then maybe he could get the useless house elf to bring his father. The Dark Lord would be pissed at him and would probably be punished for his foolishness, but it was better than ending up in ministry custody.

"Come on, son," Potter said edging ever closer to him, reaching out his hand to grab onto Harry's cloak.

This comment made Harry snap.

"I'm not your fucking son," he yelled and kicked the man in the groin.

Potter instantly doubled over with a strangled yelp, but Harry didn't stay to watch. He turned and darted off to his left, barging into his chambers, thankful that the door was still unlocked. Once inside, he turned and slammed it shut behind him.

And that was when he realised the big flaw in his plan.

The door didn't have a lock. It was designed to only be secured with magic…magic that he couldn't, at the moment, use. This meant that there would be nothing to stop either auror from barging into the room at any moment.

"Shit," Harry cursed as he backed away from the door, trying to think of what he could do next, "Where the hell is a house elf when you need them?"

Sirius watched as the boy kicked James between the legs before darting off into one of the adjoining rooms. He lunged forward and caught his friend before the man crumpled all the way to the floor. He winced in sympathy at the pitiful whining noise coming from the man's mouth.

"You alright there?" Sirius asked after the auror's panting had died down.

"I'll live," James growled back, pushing himself out of Sirius's arms, "Now where did that piece of shit go?"

Sirius nodded toward the door off to their right,

"In there."

James drew out his wand and stormed forward, but before he could get very far Sirius reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"Wait," he hissed, "We need to have a plan before we go bursting in there. It won't do us any good to secure the kid if we don't even have a way to get ourselves out of here. Or did you happen to forget what we were doing before we found him?"

"Well, I'm sure he can show us the way out. Probably knows all of the ways out of this place."

Sirius raised an eyebrow, slightly concerned about where this sudden spark of anger was coming from, "And you think that he would offer to show us a single one of them?"

"Doesn't matter," James said, wrenching his arm free, "We'll figure it out after."

"Why are you so desperate to get your hands on him?"

James marched toward the door that the teenager had disappeared behind.

"Because," he said, "It's high time that that bastard knows what it's like to be without his son."

Realisation hit Sirius like a raging Hippogriff. His friend was thinking about revenge. The dark wizard had killed James's oldest son. Depriving You-know-who of his heir was the closest thing the auror could think of to deliver the same blow.

The sound of a door creaking open made Sirius jump. He caught sight of his friend disappearing into the bright interior of the room. A second later there was a loud yell from inside followed by the familiar crack of apparation.

Shit, Sirius thought before running into the room after James.

The last thing he expected to see when he burst through the door was his friend throwing a powerful blasting spell at the teenager. The bright green eyes behind the mask widened in realisation as the reducto hit the boy directly in the chest, blasting him off of his feet and sending him crashing into the wall next to the bed. The teen's wand clattered to the floor only a second before its owner's limp body followed suit.

"What the fuck, James!" Sirius's loud shout seemed to startle the other auror who spun around quickly, "Why the hell did you just do that? What the hell has gotten into you?"

There was a storm of different emotions, swirling across James's face,

"That little shit was talking to a house elf when I walked into the room. The slimy creature would have been able to take the brat with him had I not stopped it."

That explained the sound of apparation he'd heard. Thank Merlin, James had entered the room when he had or they would have lost their one chance to change the entire course of the war.

"That still isn't a good reason to blast the kid into a wall, though. He's unarmed."

James looked like he was about to protest when a soft groan made both men turn to look at the crumpled form. The teen seemed to have only been momentarily stunned and was in the process of trying to pick himself up off the ground, but was failing rather miserably.

"I wouldn't move too much if I were you," Sirius said walking over to the fallen figure, "You don't want to give James another reason to blast you into the wall."

The auror received a venomous look for this comment, but the boy seemed to agree with him and stopped his efforts to stand. Instead, the teen chose to lean back against the wall, still breathing hard.

"What are we gonna do about the house elf?"

James was now pacing next to the large windows, running his hand worriedly through his messy locks. Sirius just shrugged in response,

"Not much we can do. We don't even know where the thing's gone off to."

"He's gone off to get my father."

Sirius had to resist the urge to throw a jinx at the injured teen when the boy's snide response reached his ears.

"Shit," James had stopped his pacing at this point, coming to stand next to his friend, "We need to leave. Now. Preferably before that son-of-a-bitch gets back."

"Don't call my father that," the teen spat, looking ready to pounce at James at any moment and rip his throat out, "I will personally kill you for daring to disrespect him in such a way."

James raised a brow,

"Trust me, that's not even the worst thing that people are calling him these days. Now prove yourself helpful and tell us the quickest way out of this god-forsaken hellhole."

The teen went silent at this remark, but the dark green eyes continued to glare fiercely up at the two men. Sirius was not at all surprised at this response. He didn't know what else James had been expecting. The kid was certainly not going to just give them a portkey to the ministry…fuck…a portkey to the ministry.

"James," he snapped, spinning around to face his friend, "Your monitor. Do you still have yours?"

"Obviously," came the reply, "And I know what you're thinking, but it doesn't work. I already tried it when we first arrived. Must be too many charms in place."

Shit. Ok, so portkey was out of the question. They also still couldn't apparate so that meant that the only other option was…

Sirius glanced down at the teen who had gone completely silent and still at this point. The once angry graze now had a hint of something else in it. Fear. But the boy's eyes were not focused on either auror, instead, they were looking directly at…

Sirius spun around and what he saw made him gasp.

Harry hadn't meant for this to happen. For any of it to happen. If he'd just been smart and listened to his father's instructions, then he would have never gotten himself into this situation in the first place. He stifled a groan as he felt a sharp pain flare across his spine.

Fucking aurors and their blasting spells.

He had been so close to getting away when the stupid man had stormed into the room and messed it all up…again. The spell that Potter had fired at him had not been a particularly strong one, but in his already weakened state, it had been enough to do the job.

The teen glared up at the two aurors standing in front of him. The two men seemed to be arguing about how they were going to get him out of there. Harry quietly thanked his father for insisting on so many charms and transportation restrictions around the manor. With any luck, he might just make it out of this without being subjected to death by a dementor's kiss. That was, unless…

Shit.

Harry felt a cold dagger of fear flood stab at his heart. Apparation and portkeys would be useless here. But there was still one way that the aurors would be able to use to take him away. It was the only reliable way that Harry knew of to get out of the manor.

He had convinced his father just weeks ago to open his fireplace up and give him unrestricted access so he could carry out his missions more effectively. But that also meant that if either of the two aurors decided to give it a try…they would be able to floo directly to the ministry.

Harry was so lost in this horrible realisation that, at first, he didn't notice when Black followed his stare to the fireplace that stood proudly on the other side of his room. He quickly tore his gaze away when he noticed both aurors spin around, but it was too late. One of the men gasped loudly.

"The floo, James. I bet you the kid's floo's probably unlocked."

This sent a rush of unbridled fear and anger coursing through Harry's body. No. He would not fuck up another time. He would not let them get away with carrying him away to some awful cell and holding him hostage. All he had to do was keep them occupied until his father arrived, and that wouldn't be long now. He was sure of it.

This a cry of rage, Harry got to his knees and abruptly threw himself at the taller of the two aurors. The teen slammed into the man's legs, causing them both to crash to the ground. Black yelped as his head slammed into the floor, but Harry didn't wait. He reached to the side where the metal handle of the nightstand lay, partially concealed in the shadow of the bedframe. He grinned as his finger closed around it.

Potter had now realised what was happening and reached over to yank him off of his companion. With a fierce growl, Harry shifted his weight and delivered a solid kick to the man's stomach, causing the auror to double over, gasping for breath. This gave the young wizard the opportunity he needed. Harry's hand gripped the handle so tightly that his knuckles went white. He made a fist, being sure the metal would take all the impact. Harry then swung it with as much force as he could muster toward the side of Black's skull.