Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me.

Book V – The Beginning of the End

Traitor (1987)

The day started like any other. The manor had been finished only a few days before and was in the process of being decorated for the results of tomorrow's election.

Most of it was a farce, everyone already knew who would become the next Minister of Magic. Pockets had been filled to the brim, and those who weren't bought were blackmailed.

I wanted my nomination to be unanimous.

My friends and companions were sitting in front of me around the large dining table. The dinner was done, but I had a few last moment announcements to make.

These were the witches and wizards I had spent most of my life with. I had lied to them, manipulated them, played them like the fools they were. However, even so, a small part of me had come to care for them. It was not precisely love, but it was something.

They were the family I had made for myself in this strange world.

And tonight I was planning to make it official.

Few bonds are stronger than those of family, and tonight I had decided to name this ragtag group my family. Already I had two other Gaunts beside me sitting on the table. Abernathy Gaunt, who had started teaching me statecraft and the arcane magic of old, his connections proving to be just as useful as he had claimed, and my wife Bellatrix Gaunt who had in the morning announced to me that I was going to be a father soon.

To Walden, who had renounced his family in all but name, who had committed horrendous deeds that I had not even told you, deeds that should never see the light of the day. To my oldest companion and my most loyal soldier, the man who would without a second thought fight and kill for me, I bestowed him with the name Walden of House Gaunt.

To Amycus, the little boy I met in the second year, the drug kingpin of Britain and now half of America. To the man who ran my casinos and the master of my coins, I bestowed him with the name Amycus of House Gaunt.

To Alecto, the twisted little psychopath I had come to care for as a little sister, the woman who held dirt over half the witches and wizards in the country, the aphrodite of wizarding Britain, I bestowed her with the name Alecto of House Gaunt.

To Augustus, the man who framed his father to further my ambitions, my most trusted and formidable lieutenant and the most powerful mind mage in possibly the whole continent, to the man who was my eyes and ears in places I couldn't reach, I bestowed him with the name Augustus of House Gaunt.

It was a family I had built with my own two hands. The family that, as of now, held two witches and five, soon to be six wizards.

Strangely, it reminded me of the family I had once lost, my real family. However, unlike them, the witches and wizards here on this table were not of my blood, and yet they had proved themselves time and again to be just as loyal if not more.

The meeting broke when I received a letter from Wizengamot that Fudge wanted to take private counsel with me. Looks like he didn't want to be the man who went into history as the candidate who lost with the maximum votes.

I had no problem obliging and apparated to the ministry. Submitting my wand before I went into the room, I was taken aback to see Dumbledore waiting for me.

It was then I realised the mistake I had made.

Without the wand, I was unable to do anything, and the Aurors, hand-picked member of the order of the phoenix, petrified me. A private trial before the chief warlock and seven Aurors had found me guilty of the murder of Wallace Macnair.

Bloody Arcturus, even in death he had played me once again. The evidence was flimsy at best, but they were damning enough to cart me off to Azkaban.

And here we are.

I was the man who had lost everything.

Tomorrow at the first light of dawn, Fudge will be elected as the new Minister of Magic.

Everything that I had built would be torn down by Dumbledore one brick at a time.

However, I'm not going to go down so readily.

Looking at the ring on my finger, I smiled once again. Tomorrow, when the guard would loosen the wards to bring me food and water, the little portkey hidden in the ring would take me to the armada standing a hundred miles to the west of castle Azkaban.

I would take back once again what was destined to be mine.

I would kill Dumbledore.

But most important of all, there was a traitor in my close circle.

I had no idea who it was, but I would find them.

And I would make them pay.

Muse:

All right, guys. This is it. It's the end of part one.

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