I update very slowly and I do not own Harry Potter or any of its affiliations.

1. The Masked Death Eater

At the end of his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter made a fateful decision.

As fateful decisions go, it was perhaps not monumental and other things were at play as well, which would influence the impact of it. Some might argue that instead, it was a bad decision, but the relative quality of a decision will invariably depend on how well informed the decision maker is.

Harry wasn't well informed at all and his plan wasn't honestly all that well thought out. He didn't wake up that morning, thinking he would fly on a thestral to London with his friends, break into the Ministry of Magic, be ambushed by Death Eaters, and fight for his life in the Chamber of Death. People rarely do.

Nevertheless, this decision put a chain of events into motion that would change his life. And it was a change that would take years for him to come to terms with and which he never really managed to decide whether was for better or for worse in the end. This ambiguity might seem strange, but the hard fact is that the final step of the journey that was the result of his decision did not have an entirely cheerful conclusion. Things rarely do. Then again, things might easily have ended worse too, because they always can.

Harry didn't plan to be kidnapped that day, yet somehow, that was exactly what happened.

There were clues, of course, to some things, and perhaps he should have noticed. For one, there was the fact that the entrances to the Ministry were wide open. This should have been suspicious in itself, but Harry didn't really know that at the time. There was also the way in which all the corridors were completely deserted and there was the ridiculous, bizarre ease with which they found what they weren't really looking for.

But those were not his main thoughts as stood atop the dais in the middle of the Death Chamber, prophecy in a tight grasp, watching with horror how each of his friends were trapped and effectively put out of action. Because Harry Potter was kept busy that day by many, many things.

He was busy watching Bellatrix Lestrange's hands, which were white around Neville's shoulders. He was busy watching Hermione, who struggled against Dolohov's iron grasp. He couldn't even hear the faint voices from the Veil behind him anymore. They drowned out to the pulsing of blood in his ears.

More Death Eaters lurked in the shadows beyond and they occupied his mind as well.

"Were you really naïve enough to think that you could stand a chance against us?"

When Lucius Malfoy stepped onto the dais in the middle of the sunken pit, Harry knew that they didn't stand a chance.

"Give me the prophecy now or watch your friends die."

As though from a distance, he heard Neville shout, "Don't give it to him, Harry!" But the voice strangled when Bellatrix' wand pressed into Neville's throat.

But just as Harry handed the small crystal sphere over to Malfoy, the door to the Death Chamber opened.

"Get away from my Godson!"

Rarely had a familiar voice brought with it such an enormous sensation of relief. The Order of the Phoenix stormed in in a whirl. Sirius, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Tonks, Remus, Mr. Weasley, Mad-Eye Moody. Within seconds, Sirius' spell hurled Malfoy onto the dusty stone floor and the prophecy shattered into a thousand tiny shards.

Sirius grasped Harry's arm hard.

"Listen to me," he said very clearly. "Take the others and get out of here."

Perhaps this exact moment was as fateful as his decision, but Sirius had asked Harry the impossible.

"No!" He wrenched away. "I want to be with you."

"Don't be a fool, Harry." Sirius shook his shoulder. "Now. Let me take it from here."

But Harry could not leave because Malfoy was already back on his feet and Sirius spun around. They fired curses side-by-side until a stunner sent Malfoy careening off the dais.

Something caught Harry's eye then. Several steps up, on the stone benches surrounding the Veil, stood Bellatrix. She had her wand trained at Sirius' heart.

Harry was about to leap between them. He didn't have any other family that cared about him in the way that Sirius did, which made this particular decision an easy one. He was prepared to take the hit, but something very strange happened instead.

Out from the shadows came a masked Death Eater. The general shape and size of him indicated that it was a man and he moved so quickly that it almost appeared as though he had taken flight. He traversed the benches in just a few long strides and collided hard with Bellatrix' side.

Her spell hit the Veil with a chilling hiss and the explosion sent Sirius stumbling down in Malfoy's path, shaken but alive. She fired another curse after him and for a fleeting moment of short-lived elation, Harry thought the masked Death Eater was trying to help Sirius because he sent off a spell as well, which interjected Bellatrix' one and overshot Sirius by several feet.

But then Tonks cried out behind him and he knew from the anguished tone of her voice that things had gone horribly awry.

Before he charged forward, Harry turned his head for the briefest moment it took to see Remus, crumbled on the ground and lifeless.

From then, he knew only rage. Somehow, he must have achieved a speed similar to that of the masked killer. Before anyone else could react, Harry was upon him, knocking against him so hard that they both fell to the floor.

For a moment, the Death Eater just sat there, as though he was just as shocked as Tonks had sounded mere seconds before. Harry used the moment of inattention to get hold of the killer's wand and he broke it in half with a satisfying snap. He then aimed his own at the masked man's chest.

"Crucio!"

But the curse only served to knock him back on his elbows and then, sinewy arms caught Harry from behind.

"There now," said Bellatrix close by his ear. She wrestled Harry's own wand from his grip and threw it across the room, out of reach. "There now, little Potter. You're coming with me."

"No!"

Sirius charged forward and the Order and the Death Eaters alike fired spells in every direction.

"Take him."

Bellatrix shoved Harry harshly against Remus' murderer and he struggled with all his might against the arms that gripped him. The man tried to wrestle him down from the benches, but Harry fought it and managed to jerk his elbow into a soft spot. The Death Eater did not lose his hold, but he grunted in pain and the mask clattered to the floor.

Suddenly, Sirius and Bellatrix seized their duelling when a blinding white light forced them all to shield their eyes. Dumbledore's tall form materialised with a resounding crack in the centre of the chamber.

Several of the Order members cheered. Dumbledore took a quick stock of the battle before his eyes found Harry's.

"Get out of here, old man, before the Dark Lord arrives." Bellatrix moved around the Remus' murderer to reach Harry and grasped hold of his hair. "Or perhaps you would prefer to watch while we kill him?"

"Come down, Bellatrix," said Dumbledore over the crackle-and-hiss of fired spells. "Let him go."

She responded by spitting down towards the dais.

"Now," roared Dumbledore, seeming to address Harry and then he charged forward.

But Harry could do nothing. Bellatrix' grip tightened in his hair and his body suddenly felt as though he was being sucked through a too-tight rubber tube. The world swam and he lost track of time.

The Death Eater holding him seemed to cling on for dear life. The last thing Harry saw before the world went dark was Dumbledore's disappointed and angry expression.

When he came to, magical ropes bound his hands.

He lay on the ground in a littered back alley, tasting asphalt and blood. It was nearly dark out but when he blinked grit and fog from his eyes, he could gleam the outline of a public lavatory some fifty yards to his right. He tried to focus on the indistinct voices, which were talking in hushed tones over his head.

"-apparate further away?"

"Tsk," said a woman. Bellatrix. Harry gritted his teeth.

"-there wasn't much time. Besides, he is on his way. If we wait here, we can deliver the boy directly."

A pointed boot nudged Harry in the back.

"I thought you had gone mad there for a second, but this-"

Bellatrix cackled sharply, making the hairs on Harry's neck stand on end.

"He will reward us like none of the others. Well played, old Sevy. Well played indeed."

"Thank you, Bella."

Harry felt sick to his stomach. He could have recognised that oily voice anywhere, anytime. It belonged to the only person he hated just as much as he hated Voldemort himself.