Harry Potter and the Ultimate Betrayal
Chapter 7
The Assignment
"Crucio!" Bellatrix yelled, the spell connecting with Harry. She mentally counted to five and then released the spell. She wished she could hold it on him until he screamed himself hoarse, but alas she couldn't. Her fate was now connected to his. However inadvertently it had happened, her life, and more importantly that of her sister's, now depended on this—child.
"Again." came Potter's voice as he got shakily to his feet. She was loathe to admit it, but the kid had skill and in another year, or two he would be able to take on the Dark Lord and actually win. Hell, at the rate he was going it would take less than a year. He was already more powerful than any wizard she had met, save for Voldemort and the late Albus Dumbledore. All he lacked was skill and knowledge, but he was starting to make up for that.
"Potter, enough is enough. We've been at this for hours and your just getting worse as time goes on."
Potter took that as his cue and fell to one knee in a coughing fit in which more than a little blood came out. Narcissa was on her feet and at his side in seconds, her innate need to heal taking over. She had wanted to be a healer for as long as she could remember, and she was heading that way until she was duped into a marriage contract with Lucius and he put a stop to it. She healed what she could with her wand and slipped him a potion to put him to sleep, claiming that it would stop his coughing fits. He would need several more potions to regain his complete health, but she did not have them on her and would need Snape to make them for her.
"He'll need to be taken back to his room." Narcissa stated quietly to her sister. She did not want to be around the kid more than absolutely need. Most of the time he annoyed the hell out of her and made her want nothing more than to remove his impudent little head from his neck. But, there were the odd moments where he was so sweet she wanted to hug him until his head came off. Most situations involving him, had his head popping off.
"Leave him here. Maybe one of the scrubs will stumble upon him and kill him for us." Bellatrix said, referring to all those Death Eaters who were not members of the 'Inner Circle.'
"You know as well as I do that they all fear him almost as much as they do the Dark Lord. Now, I have to go and get some potions off of Snape, unless you would rather I let him die, I suggest that you take him to his room and I'll meet you there."
"Fine, just hurry up. I don't want to be alone with him any longer than I have to."
"Its your own fault, Bella. If you weren't so loose with your mouth we wouldn't be in this situation."
"Don't you dare try and put the blame solely on me, Cissy. You were there as well and were flapping your big mouth just as much as I was."
"I know, okay! We shouldn't be fighting we should be planning our next step." Narcissa said before turning on heal and walking away leaving Bella to deal with the Potter kid.
Bellatrix absentmindedly cast the levitation charm on Harry and began levitating him to his room, her mind going over what it always did in the silence, ways to get out of this mess that she and her sister had gotten into.
"Harry! Harry, can you hear me?" came a wizened old voice that Harry recognized all to well. "It's time to wake up."
"Headmaster?" Harry asked groggily. As he opened his eyes and they got adjusted to the light, the trademark beard, half-moon glasses, and twinkling eyes appeared looking overtop of Harry. "Thank Merlin its you Professor. I had the worse dream that you and I concocted some half brain idea of me joining Voldemort to act as a spy and to learn how to beat him." Harry exclaimed a big smile lighting his face.
"I'm afraid, Harry, that it wasn't a dream. It is, in fact, a reality." replied Dumbledore, the twinkle disappearing from his eyes.
That was when Harry looked around and saw, true to Dumbledore's word, that it wasn't a dream and he was still in Voldemort's hideout. But, if he was still here. Then how... "Professor! How is it..."
"...that I'm here?" Dumbledore finished for Harry. "I am not here in the flesh, but I have brought you into the Dream World. At first I had no intentions of coming to you tonight as I thought you would have your Occlumency shields would be up. I was only trying to make sure that I would be able to find you when I had informed you of the date on which I would come. But, it was to my great surprise that not only were you extremely easy to find, but your shields were also very weak. Would you mind telling me why that was?" Dumbledore explained.
"Its probably because I was knocked unconscious, by Bellatrix Lestrange." At least that's what he suspected happened. He had no idea about the potion slipped to him by Narcissa.
"That's very interesting. Why would you be knocked unconscious by her?" Dumbledore inquired.
"Because she has been teaching me how to duel. Voldemort hasn't been around in a while. And when he is around, all he does is gathers information, gives orders and then leaves again. I have no idea what's going on, so don't even ask."
"Yes, Bellatrix was one of the best duelers I have ever seen. Her, along with Severus Snape, Sirius Black, and your father were the best. Of that I have no doubt. And I think I have an answer as to why Voldemort hasn't been around. He fears you. It's as simple as that." Dumbledore answered.
"Voldemort fears me?" Harry asked incredulously. "What on earth does he have to fear from me? I've been dueling with Bella for a little over a week now and I still can't beat her, let alone Voldemort."
"He fears you, because he has learned the rest of the Prophecy."
"HOW! I didn't tell him anything! It was Snape, wasn't it? That greasy bastard, I'll kill him when I..."
"Harry, calm down. It was not Severus who told Voldemort the rest of the prophecy, it was you. Not on purpose mind you." Dumbledore continued seeing Harry's incredulous look. "It wasn't until just now that I have been able to figure this all out. When I went to pull you into the Dream World I had access to all of your memories. But, I had to sift through them delicately or you would have woken up." explained Dumbledore. When realization that Voldemort had done the same thing dawned on Harry, Dumbledore continued. "Now that your memories are no longer in complete disarray I had an easier time at it. A drawback to that particular part of Occlumency as you can clearly see. But, when Voldemort had access to your memories they had no order to them at all so he had to be even more careful and I believe that all he got out of you was the complete version of the Prophecy."
"So Voldemort knows the Prophecy. Why doesn't he try and kill me then? He'd be immortal and no one would be able to stop him."
"Fortunately, that is not the way the world works. If he were to kill you, eventually another person with the ability to kill the Voldemort would be found. Maybe not the next day, maybe not even for another one hundred years, but eventually there would be. Nothing lasts forever. With you still alive no one but you can kill him, and so he keeps his distance from you in fear that you will try to kill him.
"Another reason Voldemort does not kill you is because he truly believes that you are on his side. He, like I, have realized the similarities between the two of you. He believes that, like him, you will stop at nothing to gain power. He is too blinded by power to see major and obvious differences between the two of you.
"Yet another reason he will not kill you is because of the Prophecy itself. It speaks of a power the Dark Lord doesn't know. So until he figures out what that power is and how to combat it. Or, until he reaches true immortality, he will make no further attempts on your life. While he may be blind, he is not stupid."
That's how Dumbledore explained it and it made sense to Harry so he decided to take it as it was. "Professor why are you here? And for that matter, why didn't you tell me that you knew how to enter the Dream World it would have made things so much easier."
"As to the latter part of your question: it wasn't until recently that I figured out how to enter the Dream World. Voldemort is not the only one who knows how to research archaic magic. It makes everything easier when you know what you are looking for." Dumbledore explained with a wry chuckle. "As to why I am here: I am here to see how it is you are doing. I get reports from Severus on your well being, but it isn't the same as hearing it from yourself."
"I'm as good as can be expected considering the fact that I killed the girl that I thought I be in love with, who just happens to be the sister of my best friend." said Harry his eyes downcast and fighting to hold back the tears that wanted to escape. It had happened a little over two weeks ago and he was still having trouble keeping his emotions in check.
Dumbledore's face took on a somber expression before saying, "Yes we were all affected greatly by Miss Weasley's death. It is those type of decisions that have a habit of haunting you for the rest of your life. I will not tell you to try and forget it, or even not to dwell on it, because it is this that will remind you that you are only human and can only do so much. I will, however, give you this piece of advice: whenever you feel like giving up, like you have no hope left remember Miss. Weasley's death, because if you do give up, if you do lose hope, her death will have been for nothing, and then you truly will be a murderer."
Harry couldn't help but let his tears fall now. "Have you told Mrs. Weasley about it yet?"
"The Weasley family has been informed." Dumbledore said simply.
"Do they all hate me now?"
"I have not told them the manner in which Ginerva perished, just that she is no longer with us. I shall leave that most difficult task up to you." Harry didn't know how to react to that. Snape had told him that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had not given up all hope on him just yet and he was glad that he would still have their belief in him. But, on the other hand, he did not want to face Mrs. Weasley when he told her that he had killed her daughter. He didn't know if he were strong enough to watch her break.
"Harry, if it isn't too hard for you, I was wondering if you could, perhaps, enlighten me as to just what exactly did happen during the ritual."
Reluctantly, Harry told Dumbledore everything about the ritual. About how he had stuttered on the last line, about the two entities fighting each other and how the victor had invaded Harry's mind and tried to take control of his body. How he had fought back and managed to subdue it in a cage.
"You took on some of its physical attributes?" Dumbledore half stated, half asked.
"Yeah. I guess you could say that. I mean, I didn't really see what it looked like or anything. It was just yellow and gaseous and in a vaguely human form."
"You were not supposed to take on their physical attributes." stated Dumbledore. "The ritual is supposed to increase your strength, your speed, and your reflexes. It also increases the amount of magic that you are able to channel. Also, in every single recorded instance of this ritual being preformed, it has always been and indistinct, white, gaseous blob. Never has there been any instances where two of the entities would come out and fight, and never has one tried to take control of ritualist's body. This is most disturbing. Most disturbing indeed.
"Harry, would you mind showing me what you look like now?" Harry merely raised his eyebrows and spread his arms as if to say, There you go.
"Forgive me Harry." Dumbledore said with a chuckle. "In my curiosity, I forgot to explain to you some of the attributes of the Dream World. When inside of it everyone has control of their person and their surroundings, though someone with more experience and more power can take that control away from you. I do not wish to take control of you, so you have had control the entire time. Through your subconsciousness, your clothes have been changing every so often from your Gryffindor robes, to your muggle clothing. You also look as though you did when I last saw at 12 Grimmauld, though every so often you grow a bread."
"Oh. Well, how do I do this?" asked Harry.
"Just concentrate hard on what you look like after the ritual."
Harry closed his eyes in concentration, but opened them when he heard Dumbledore muttering "Interesting." Harry now looked as though he were supposed to, though somewhat transparent. He felt less 'solid' too. "It seems that your body is beginning to wake up. I will research more into this and get back to you. I will have Severus inform you of the next occasion I will be able to visit you. We can not do this too often, for you never know when Voldemort may be lurking. He may or may not be a Master of the Dream World as he claims to be. I, for one, do not wish to find out..."
Whatever Dumbledore said next was cut off as Harry awoke in his real body.
Several weeks had passed by with Harry intensifying his training with Bellatrix. He wanted to get better faster and now spent most of his day practicing with Bellatrix. He had now managed to beat her several times in the duel, but it was due mostly because of his better stamina.
Harry was able to last longer against her now and giver her more of a challenge. Add that to the fact that they dueled about twenty plus times a day, Harry's wins usually came at the very end when she was dead tired. As soon as Harry won, they would call it quits for the day, neither able to continue after that.
The Twenty-Fourth of December came and with it came the first full meeting with Voldemort since Harry's initiation as a Death Eater. "Welcome my loyal subjects." Voldemort began. "Tonight we will give a Christmas Present to the Ministry of Magic they will not soon forget. I want you to form into groups of five and cause chaos throughout the Muggle world tonight. Kill as many as you can before the Aurors show up. When they do show up I want each group to account for a death of at least one Auror. Those of you who fail me will be punished most grievously. Those who show some initiative and kill more than one will be rewarded.
"Form into you groups now and come to me one at a time and I will give you the location and the time of your attack. I have a special mission for my those of you lucky enough to be in my Inner-Circle so refrain from joining any groups."
Slowly, but surely everyone formed into their groups and one by one they got their mission and disapparated out of the Meeting Hall. After about an hour all that was left was those in the Inner-Circle and Harry. He considered himself above the Inner-Circle so if they were not going on these raids he would not be going either.
"Good." Voldemort stated after the last group had apparated away. "You, my most loyal followers, have a rather simple mission tonight. There are forty-eight of you and fifty-four groups of them. Your job is to go to their various locations and observe. Watch for those who preform exceptionally, and more importantly those who seem reluctant. Take note of them and report back to me.
"There are not enough of you, so some of you will have to double up in your observations. That is why some of the attacks will come later than the others. Tonight we will weed out the weak among the Death Eaters. I have written down their locations on pieces of paper and you will be assigned them randomly." Voldemort intoned, holding up several sheets of paper.
With a flick of his wand, Voldemort sent the pieces of paper soaring off and into the hands of all those in the room. All those except Harry, Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Lucius. Narcissa's lack of receiving a slip of paper was obvious as she never went on missions. Harry didn't get one because he never went on missions when Voldemort assigned them. The other two confused Harry.
"Those of you who received assignments may go." When the cracks singling disappartion finished Voldemort began again. "You three," indicating Harry, Bellatrix, and Lucius, "have an important mission. There is an Auror who has a special ability that has proven most detrimental to me. It seems she has been gathering information by assuming the form of family members and acquaintances of known Death Eaters. She is too important to the Ministry's information network to be risked protecting muggles. She would be dead already if it were not for the ineptitude of Edward Copier. He is extremely lucky he was killed in the attempt for he would not have liked his welcoming. Now they have stationed three Aurors on guard of her house every night.
"Hopefully the attacks on the Muggle World will pull them off guard duty. If not your mission still stands. Kill the guards and kill everyone inside, especially her family. They have proved very annoying for far too long. Tonight the entire Tonks family will be wiped from the records."
Shit. Was the only word Harry could think of.
A/N: Well that's all of Chapter 7. Sorry for the long wait, but I had huge reports due that I had to work on. Thankfully my hard work paid off and I got a 3.0 for this semester. Anyways, I had planned for a lot more to happen in this chapter, like the attack on the Tonks family and some more stuff that I had promised in earlier chapters, but I felt like I really needed to get this chapter out. It has been since August since I last updated and that is a long time even for me.
I hope you liked this chapter. Don't forget to review and tell me what you think. The next chapter should come out shortly after New Years Eve. I aiming for January 5th but I won't promise anything.