Apprentice

By danu40k

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

~ooOoo~

Voldemort was down to a fifth of the Death Eaters he had started with. Between the fall of the Ministry and the attacks on his loyal followers he was having a hard time keeping control of those areas he did have.

After the fall of the Ministry, Dumbledore had come out and had taken credit for it, causing many to run to be under his banner, and with the monies he relied on gone, Voldemort was hard pressed to bring in more of his followers.

He was now forced to make his base of operations at Hogwarts insuring that only his Faithfull's children would be the ones attending.

Umbridge had served her uses, but now was no longer needed and, as such; found herself placed in the small cemetery that the Creevy brothers were in.

He had made it a quick death as a way to repay her for her services.

In a show of his place in Voldemort's plans, Snape was put in her place as headmaster, and now ruled over the only house allowed to exist; Slytherin.

All of the old teachers were gone one way or another, and new ones, loyal to the cause, were put in their place.

The paintings that Umbridge had had removed were still in their vaults and many of the non Slytherin ghosts as well as the poltergeist were banished, so that the castle was truly the House of Slytherin.

~ooOoo~

Harry watched from the shadows as Dumbledore strutted in front of what was left of the Malfoy Estates, claiming to be the one who was taking the war to the Death Eaters and knew that if he joined with the man he would become no more than a tool that would be put aside after he had finished the job.

Before anyone could see him, he made his way back to the Coven.

~ooOoo~

Dumbledore was at a loss, who was really taking out the Death Eaters? The Muggle government? Harry? Or was there a new player on the scene, one that he would have to get under his control.

Yes that must be it. Harry and his friends had been seen leaving for South America like cowards, and the Muggles had no idea where anything was, that meant there truly was a new player, and until he found out just who, he felt that neither he, nor the rest of the country was safe.

~ooOoo~

The raids on the Death Eaters homes garnered a lot of information for the Muggle government and with that information they were able to put together the events that had been happening, starting with Voldemort's resurrection and what had followed. They were able to place the names of those who had attacked their country and were making up a long list of those who would stand trial. The Japanese had found a way to strip the magic off of a wizard and had started using it to take care of their own Dark Lords, most of which were allied with the underworld and protected by them because they were so useful to the cause.

They lost that usefulness once their magic was stripped from them and were either executed by the government for crimes against the state or killed while in jail awaiting trial. The underworld knew they had a lot of information that could be used against it and therefore always insured that it could not be used.

The UK government had plans to do the same there. It would be true justice for the Death Eaters to be made powerless and forced to be in with the other "lesser" Muggles, with the other prisoners "liking" the new fish.

With the Death Eater power waning and Dumbledore's power gaining ground, the Ministry was watching the so called Light Lord more and more, fearing that in the end he would be as bad as the Dark Lord.

To counter that, they had brought in Aurors and Unspeakables from the Japan, Canada, and America, to teach Harry and his friends how to gather information and fight and to help in the raids and in putting together plans to take the Dark Lord down.

~ooOoo~

Harry and Hermione had to tell the school that because of a death in the family, they wouldn't be able to start the autumn quarter and maybe not the winter one either.

The school was sorry for their loss and of course they would be welcome when they could finally come back.

The trio had started to learn from the other wizards right after they got out of school for summer break, and the classes they were now taking were brutal, making them even surer that they would prefer the old ways.

Unfortunately, the old ways took time to work, while the wanded magic was instantaneous, forcing them to learn more and more of the wanded magic, and then the darker magic as well, since, unlike Dumbledore, they would be needing to fight fire with fire; even going as far as to using the three Unforgivables.

When their teachers found out that they were changelings they were taught how to use that as well (though only Hermione had a form that could blend in properly to the background).

Neville would scare the people he was sent to spy on, while Harry could hide very easily in his form, he would still be out of place when he was spotted.

Therefore, Hermione was the one who was trained into using her form to gather intelligence, while the boys were trained to go from one form to another during a fight to use their full potential against an enemy.

They were taken as observers when the others went on Death Eater raids so that they could truly learn the art and then, they were allowed to watch the interrogations of the prisoners to teach them that as well.

It wasn't long before they were heading out on missions with the adults and when it was felt that they had learned enough, led them as well.

With the aid of the American Unspeakables they learned how to combine their wandless and wanded magic into one, allowing them to use everything that they knew in the fight against the Dark Lord and the probable fight against the Light.

Finally it was time to come out of the shadows and show themselves, oh not their backers in the Muggle government, but Harry and his friends and their American allies.

The Japanese wanted to stay in the shadows and had stayed in the comfort of the training buildings and London.

The government and Dumbledore had been in talks with the goblins over having them return to the UK, with Dumbledore being told "NO" several times, and that they would never bow to him or any Lord; Dark or Light.

Harry had had a better time with that since he was in good standing with them; the government had given them further incentive by promising that new laws would come about bringing in more recognition and freedom for the goblins.

When asked how they were going to do that, the ministry replied; "THEY were going to start having a say in the doings in THEIR country and not allow someone to have a government that was not part of the whole anymore."

"The Dark Lord was going down, whether it was from Dumbledore, or from Harry and his allies, they would still insist on having a large presence in the new government." They continued, "If they refused to do so, then they would find out the same thing the Dark Lord was finding out, you don't use or ignore Muggles anymore."

~ooOoo~

Gringotts told the Daily Prophet and the other news agencies that they were going to have a press conference to talk about whether or not they would be coming back to the UK and Diagon Alley.

Word got out and the Alley was filled with people.

Dumbledore had made sure to be in front so that he could take credit if they chose to come back or give the massing people the push they needed to bring Gringotts down and take what was theirs.

The crowd quieted as the doors opened, and out stepped not only the head of the local Gringotts, but Harry Potter himself.

Everyone had been told that he had run away from the war and was in South America, but here was proof that he had stayed. And if he was with the head of Gringotts then he must have been in talks with them all this time.

Dumbledore frowned, the boy was doing it again, and he was taking his plans and forcing them to blow up.

The Goblin (Ragnok) raised his arms to signal that he wished quiet, and the crowed soon calmed down to hear the speech.

"Ladies and gentlepeople, I have been in contact with Mr. Potter and his allies, and through them, have come to the conclusion that it would be in the interests of Gringotts to return. This would bring about the ability to open the vaults within our control."

The cheer went up and the goblins had to wait again for things to calm down.

"In return for this, we ask that after the war, you return the rights that were given to us after the last goblin war. That is all."

The people were more than ready to do as the goblins wished if it would bring money back into the economy, and with it jobs and lower inflation.

Dumbledore frowned as the people he had planned to use, walked away from the press conference. 'This won't do,' he thought to himself, 'the goblins should never be given the rights they had started with. That had made them too powerful and too in control of things. Harry had no right in promising them this boon.'

He walked on and watched the smiles on the faces around him; 'They have no idea what Mr. Potter had done.'

~ooOoo~

Solstice came and the trio was granted a break from their training and work. Using this time, they relaxed and made sure to enjoy themselves; this meant going skiing and horseback riding, or even just hanging around and quietly talking in the hot tub/Jacuzzi.

Dumbledore used this time as a way to bring the fight closer to Voldemort, and bringing a symbol of the light back to the people, and him.

Dumbledore had been amused with the marauders and later the twins when they went exploring and found the tunnels and walkways that he had known for many decades. They always forgot that he had been there for close to a century, and had had more than enough time to explore the castle, that combined with the knowledge he had gained from Hogwarts herself, meant that he knew the castle very well.

It was Monday night, so he knew that the children would be in their house sleeping, he had the first wave of people go through the tunnels and into the dungeon to take it and the children, bringing them out to safety, 'after all it wouldn't do to have innocent children massacred would it.' He thought to himself with a grin.

The next wave would go through the tunnel leading from the candy shop and into the fourth floor corridor where many of the teachers rooms were located, there they would take control of the staff, he, himself, would come through the front and take on Voldemort himself.

It was a grand plan, a plan, unfortunately that didn't take into account the Dementors in Voldemort army.

It was a massacre all right, one aimed at him instead of the other way around.

His people were killed left and right as Voldemort summoned his allies to fight off the invasion, and Dumbledore was only able to get out because Voldemort had wanted him to.

It was time to rethink his plans.

~ooOoo~

The news the next day was grim as everyone found out about the massacre and the loss of so many fighters for the Light.

Something had to be done and done now.

The PM met with his Wizarding allies as well as Harry and his people, and asked; "We need to a show of strength otherwise that foolish stunt will bring bastard and his people back."

The head of the American contingent stood up; "What about using the prisoners we have locked up?"

When everyone looked at him he shrugged; "We could always have them executed for crimes against the Wizarding World and show the people that Harry and his allies have actually been bringing the Death Eaters to heal. That would also allow everyone to forget about the massacre and Dumbledore."

The PM wasn't sure about this, his country had banned the death sentence several decades ago and he wasn't sure he wanted to reintroduce it, even if it was traitors like the Death Eaters.

He was seeing the others nod their heads in agreement and decided to sleep on it and get back to them the next day.

~ooOoo~

He had told his wife about the conundrum he found himself in and she sat with him through the night as he tried to think of a better plan; finding none.

The next morning he came in and everyone could tell that he hadn't gotten any sleep; he poured himself a cup of coffee, as he sat down, and then looked at everyone in the room. "I might not agree with the plan, but I can't see any others that would gain us the advantage we need. So we'll do it."

Harry nodded his head in recognition of both what the PM had said, and what part he would be playing in it.

~ooOoo~

Another press conference was called and Dumbledore made sure to come (though in disguise since he was persona non grata with the public at this time.). Again, it was to take place on the steps of Gringotts, but this time it was only because this was the biggest place to hold it with the Ministry gone.

Everyone watched as several men wearing camouflage outfits came out of the building.

In the lead was Harry Potter, and between each two men team was a prisoner. The prisoners were chained with the chains attaching to a belt they wore around their waists.

The people saw that their feet also seemed to be bound with chains that also attached to the waist of the men and women, and watched as they shuffled to stand in front of them.

It didn't take long before people started to recognize the prisoners, and whispers started to flow through the crowd.

Dumbledore had always said that HE had been the one to take out these people, yet here they were, with Harry Potter leading the procession.

Dumbledore gasped at the thought that it truly had been Potter that had taken out the Death Eaters and not some unnamed person or group.

He wondered who the other men in the group were, only recognizing Ms. Granger and Mr. Longbottom out of all of those who held the prisoners.

The crowd watched as, one by one, the prisoners were lined up in a row facing them: each recognized as one of the ones to bring terror to them.

There was Thorfinn Rowle who was rumored to be Voldemort's personal executioner, the Carrow siblings (how Harry had managed to get them out of Hogwarts was anyone's guess), Gibbon (who was another of Voldemort's strongest people), the LeStrange brothers (this meant that the family was now either dead or captured and therefore no longer a threat) Nott, and finally the Malfoy adults (who had been presumed dead after attack on their Estates) bringing the total to nine Death Eaters.

Harry came out front and waited for the crowd to become quiet.

"These nine have been questioned under Veritaserum and found guilty of not only being Death Eaters and murderers, but as those who had used their power to overtake the Ministry and start to torture you all. They made your life miserable as they caused you to fear even going to the store to get eggs. They caused fear with their attacks and murders to stop you from going to work and bringing in money to support the family you are trying to protect."

The crowed was murmuring darkly and wanted to rush up and tear apart these people.

Harry raised his hand; "I find that it is time we brought justice back to our world, and to do this we need to take out those who would bring fear and death to our people."

The crowd was yelling their support.

You could see the fear in the eye of the prisoners, they knew they had been brought out so that they could be executed, but there was no way they wanted it to be at the hands of the mob.

Harry raised his hands again, gaining the attention of the mob, he then signaled for the first prisoner to be brought forward, Rowle was brought forward a few steps and Harry went behind him, pointing his wand at the man's head he whispered a spell that blew his head off of his shoulders.

The crowd went quiet over this…this execution. They may have wanted their deaths, but they had seen someone actually killed and not kissed which was cleaner and didn't feel as dirty.

Harry went to the next person, and the next, with each of them receiving the same punishment, death.

The crowd was silent as the men cleaned up the mess and then took what was left of the heads and mounted them on pikes outside of Gringotts.

Harry came back to the front, his clothes clean of any blood; "Let Voldemort know that I am taking the war to him and not the other way around." He then calmly went down the steps and, with his men following, walked through the crowd to the Leakey Cauldron and then out to Muggle London, were they got into a vehicle and headed off.

The crowd was silent for a moment, until one brave soul went up to the head of Rowle and spit on it.

That broke the silence and soon others were coming up to desecrate what was left of the heads, until there WAS nothing left.

Dumbledore looked on in disgust as the people willingly followed Potter into the Dark side and worried that now, he would have to take out two Dark Lords and not just one.

~ooOoo~

Harry waited until he was back to the base before finally throwing up. It had taken everything in him to do that and he hoped to never do it again. He could handle taking a life in battle, but to do so in cold blood? No, never again.

~ooOoo~

The word quickly got out, and while the public seemed to take heart from the executions, Voldemort only felt rage. 'How DARE he do this!' he thought to himself, and then paused in thought; "How DID the brat find his way into Hogwarts and take out his people?' He began giving orders for the castle to be put in lock down and then searched. He wanted to know just how the boy had done it.

Meanwhile, in the old meditation garden, Master Lin smiled to himself, since it was he, who had tapped into the power of Hogwarts and allowed the team into the castle and then out.

Since the Death Eaters wanted to cause harm, they could not find the garden nor could they even remember that it was there, and Hogwarts didn't want THEM there, giving him and his people the help they needed.

~ooOoo~

Something had to done for Harry, he hadn't been eating or sleeping since the executions, and it was starting to show.

The Coven Counsel held a conference and had ordered that Harry's Master come as well, bringing in Master Lin from his watching post at Hogwarts.

After three days of talk it was decided to hold a purification ceremony for the young man, one that would last nine days where he would be in charge of making his own sweat lodge instead of using one of the ones he had always used. He would need to gather the cedar wood, sage, sweet grass, and tobacco. When the ceremony started, no one was allowed to enter the area except the Healer so that Harry could focus on the healing he needed to do.

Once the sweat lodge was built to the Healers specifications, Harry headed off to gather the ingredients that he would need. He had been told that he could not buy the things that he had to ask for them so that others could aid him in his quest to return to harmony.

During the nine day ceremony he fasted and was only given water so that he could replenish what he had sweated out.

During the time he was forced to talk to the Healer and through that talk began to heal as much as he could. It was a start, and with time and a willingness to find aid, he would heal, they just had to make sure he never did that again, as it was he had lost his Blood Innocence and that had been one of the reasons he had been sick.

From now on either get someone else to do that kind of work (away from Harry so that he could not participate) or do something else such as stripping them of their magic and sending them to prison to become sex servants of the other prisoners.

Not only was the Coven notified of this judgment, but the PM and his counselors as well.

~ooOoo~

'It is time,' Voldemort thought, 'to get pay back for the loss of my followers to that brat Potter.'

He called out for the leader of the Dementors, only to find that they were gone.

Hogwarts had been very angry with the demons crawling around her corridors.

~ooOoo~

Voldemort was at a loss. 'Where were his Dementors? Where were the search teams?'

Many of the teams had gone missing during the search and he wanted them to be found.

When the teams found nothing he summoned the House-Elves to find them knowing that the House-Elves knew everything about the castle. Only this time he found, no House-Elves. There were no servants to be found anywhere.

He was furious. He wanted to strike out, but was leery of even more losses. With the loss of so many of his Death Eaters either from outright death, or from disappearances, he had very little troupes left to keep the castle safe. And now with the House-Elves gone, he had to have the children do the cooking and cleaning for the rest of his people, something which caused dissention in the troupes as they watched the next generation being thrust into roles that belonged to lesser beings.

What was more puzzling was the fact that they were still missing people as more and more either left of their own free will (disappearing into the night to better places) or flat out disappearing from the castle during rounds.

The men were getting restless.

Who would be next? How could they defend themselves from someone or something that could take out the Dementors?

It wasn't long before more and more deserters left only to be captured as they left the so called safety of the castle.

~ooOoo~

As each man (and some cases women) was captured, they were treated to Veritaserum and then a trial.

After having their Veritaserum testimony used against them, they were found guilty and sentenced to a Muggle prison for the rest of their lives; they were stripped of their Magic and sent off to a maximum security facility and to the waiting arms of the inmates who seemed to always have access to the new fish.

The inmates and guards had been told that these people loved to torture and kill entire families including the children and were treated as the scum of the earth they were, with many not lasting a month, and the rest as new playmates for those who were in power there.

~ooOoo~

Harry and his team had been busy, they had already taken out most of the Death Eaters with Hogwarts help and were ready to strike big time by taking the children.

The attack was simple and complicated at the same time.

Voldemort had moved the students up to one of the towers after Dumbledore's massacre and had them heavily guarded just in case.

Harry and the trio as well as several of their troupes were ready to head in; all they had to wait for was word from Hogwarts that they could enter undetected.

When the word was given, they headed in with Hogwarts herself covering their tracks as she opened one hidden passageway after another to allow them to go their way out of sight.

Like the other times, they used no words, only hand signals and walked quietly as they headed deeper and deeper into the school.

They soon had the guards taken out, and then stunned the children, after which, they quickly headed back to the greenhouse and then onto safety.

Each two man team carried one of the children with others taking up the front and rear of the procession to guard and attack if necessary.

Each time they were about to be found a doorway would appear allowing them to head further and further away from danger and soon to safety.

~ooOoo~

When Voldemort found that the children had been taken, he had the guards who had been guarding the children tortured and killed.

Gone was the next generation.

Gone were the workers to keep them in food and cleaning up after them, though that had been getting harder and harder to do without the House-Elves to gather food for them and the clean water was running low.

It would be soon that they would have to leave this place and find something smaller for their needs.

~ooOoo~

It had been months since the last Death Eater attack, and more and more people were coming out to do business.

The shops in Diagon Alley reopened and, with the aid of the bank, more money seemed to flow through the community.

What the community didn't know was the Crown itself was funding the revival through the goblins.

The crown was also aiding in the rebuilding of the Ministry and other needed buildings.

As more and more time came, it was decided that a new Ministry take place to help run the government and make it easier on the people to make and keep laws that would be for the betterment of the people this time and not the betterment of the high-born and Purebloods.

It was decided that the Wizengamot would be voted in representatives of the people as would the Minister of Magic him or herself.

As the new Ministry was being built, signs began to appear showing that the Crown itself was aiding them with many having to look up who was the King, and were surprised when they found out it was a Queen now.

The Crown let it be known, that no longer was the community going to be separated from the rest of the government, oh they wouldn't be forced to be with the Muggles since she understood and agreed that witch hunts would begin which would bring about more and more deaths and disappearances, but they were no longer going to be away from the Muggle government, they would be a part of it with the Minster being equal to his or her counterpart and they in turn would be part of her government.

There would be new laws to keep the people and beings from being as discriminated as they had been with the sentient beings now having a seat in the new government of magic.

While this had come as a shock to the people, they were still willing to anything that would keep the Death Eaters from returning.

~ooOoo~

When Voldemort found that the Crown itself was getting involved he decided to take his people and head to safer grounds, only to find people waiting for him outside the so called safety of the castle walls.

There Voldemort found the trio and their allies, who included much of the UK's Wizarding Community, waiting for them.

The Wizarding Community had had enough, they had seen the type of government Voldemort had in mind for them and the loss of money and jobs and the fear inherent in his being in power, and the world under the new Ministry which brought back jobs and money and no fear.

They chose the new Crown over their fear and were finally ready to fight for it.

His demoralized troupes gave up on the spot, hoping that they would find safety from death in the arms of the enemies.

Voldemort watched as his troupes started to throw down their wands and place their hands up to signify that they had given up, and began to shoot them in the back out of anger for their treachery.

It had probably been they who had seen to the missing and probably dead loyal followers and he had no problems taking out traitors

The allies began to shot back at him and tried to cover for those who had given up, to no avail.

Of the ones who had tried to leave, only a small handful survived to get behind the lines.

~ooOoo~

Harry watched as Voldemort's people were killed and placed himself into his zone, he knew he would have to be calm in order to fight this monster and to do that he needed to find his quiet spot inside himself to do so.

He watched as his friends did this themselves and then the trio and their allies headed off to finish off Voldemort himself.

~ooOoo~

The fight was on; Voldemort and the few who had stayed with him, vs. Harry and the trio.

Hermione and Neville took on the rest of the free Death Eaters leaving Voldemort to Harry.

Harry was tempted to just shoot him like the Wizard in Wizards, but thought that that wouldn't go over well, so he stuck with the plan.

Using Earth magic, he cast out a magic leach onto the ground around Voldemort and then sent out a wave of power which took out Voldemort's wand and kept him from realizing that he was slowly being leached of power.

Voldemort quickly showed that, he too could use wandless magic and the fight was on with each matching the other in spells and power, only for Voldemort to slowly figure out that he was losing power, while Harry seemed to gain power.

He tried to apperate out of the area, only to find himself unable to not only appearate, but leave the circle. In fact, he had a hard time just maneuvering around.

He tried to pull himself out of the trap, only to find himself well and truly trapped with each move he tried further trapping him.

He didn't realize that the magical leach was affecting his entire body, since it itself was magic.

Harry threw one last curse at him destroying his resurrection and sending him off to hell when he captured his spirit and forced it to blow apart and unable to reform.

~ooOoo~

Everyone watched as Hermione and Neville finished off their part and then turned to see Harry finish off Voldemort.

The cheers went off as everyone realized that he was truly dead this time and not just going off to wait until later when he was stronger.

The trio's allies headed into the school to help clean it out of any followers with everyone else following to make sure that the school was truly theirs again

~ooOoo~

Word soon reached Diagon, and the party truly started, and, just like last time, the government had a hard time keeping the Muggles from discovering the Magical folk as their celebrations got out of hand, and poured out into the Muggle streets.

The Daily Prophet had a hard time keeping up with the demand of their papers which held the story of what had happened.

They had had several of their people there to make sure that the truth was known and the WWN had also had people there and had it broadcast live for their listeners.

~ooOoo~

Several months later, it was time for school to start.

The hat and Fawkes had been found along with Dumbledore who had tried to take his place back as headmaster only to be rebuffed and forced to retire.

New students were brought into a newly cleaned school with many of them being those who had escaped the last time since so little of the so called blood traitors and Muggleborns had survived the purge.

The Queen, with the advice of her council, had made several changes to the curriculum.

Binns had been banished so they brought in a new teacher for that post.

McGonagall, Flitwick, and Madam Sprout had all survived to take over the duties of their new houses, with the Queen's choice of Daniel Bone as Headmaster.

Many of the teachers had been killed off in the purges so they had had to bring in new teachers, many of whom were from Canada and America, who in turn added new things to the curriculum as well.

This in turn brought Hogwarts to the same standards as the rest of the world and left France and Bulgaria as the remains of the old.

Hermione and Harry finished schooling with Hermione getting a PhD in Computer Engineering and Harry getting a Masters in Law and Politics

Harry soon headed off to take his place in the new Ministry and in the Muggle parliament while Hermione headed off to research.

Neville received his Mastery in Herbology and it wasn't long before he too graduated from Warrick with a PhD in Botany and from there to his own research facility.

~ooOoo~

Fini.

End Chapter five: