FIC: Abandoned: The Re-Write ~ Harry Potter ~ HPLV/HPTR ~ Mature ~ Chapter 18

[batsutousai]

Title: Abandoned: The Re-Write
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: M/R
Main Pairing: Harry/Tom, Harry/Voldemort
Side Pairings: Ginny/Theodore Nott, Seamus/Blaise Zabini, past-Ron/Hermione, Hermione/Luna, others
Warnings: SLASH, mentions of child abuse/rape/torture, language, character death, minor Dumbledore bashing, Grey-to-Dark!Harry
Summary: A complete re-write of Abandon: Before the start of his seventh year, Harry Potter is abandoned in London by his muggle family and finds himself befriending Lord Voldemort.

A/N: In case there was ever any doubt: I really don't like Zacharias Smith. I don't know why, I just don't.

Also, finally going to start calling the Slytherins by their first names. Largely because I'm tired of typing out 'Parkinson' all the time. *grimace* But also because they've been spending time together for two months now and they're sort of friends.

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Chapter Eighteen: Secrets
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Really, Harry was sort of surprised that he hadn't been attacked sooner, though he'd also taken to not walking alone, since he had so many friends - if one was willing to refer to his Slytherin hangers-on as friends. He'd ticked off a lot of the DA when he'd befriended Draco and the other Slytherins, and a few of the younger Slytherins without direct ties to Voldemort weren't pleased with Draco and gang or Harry, especially not with the rumour going around about Harry knowing the Slytherin password.

But it was the last Hogsmeade visit before the winter holidays, and Harry had insisted that they should all split up to get gifts for each other. No one had seen anything wrong with that, so they'd walked down to the village together, then gone their separate ways.

Harry was making his way to his third shop when he heard a whimper around the corner, down a dark alley. He blinked and was just thinking it was probably a dog and he was best off moving along, when he heard another whimper and some quiet sobs. Sighing, he turned and stepped into the alley, silently cursing his 'saving people thing'.

At the end of the alley, he saw Charlotte Dawson, a sixth year Hufflepuff. The young woman was curled up in a ball, muggle shirt torn at the shoulder. At the distressing scene, Harry hurried forward and crouched in front of her, eyes concerned. "Charlotte, are you okay?" he asked, hands held out in a non-threatening manner.

The young woman looked up at him, eyes dry, and a sad smile curling her lips.

Harry was just realising he'd walked into a trap when two spells hit him, jerking him straight and making him hit the ground hard.

Petrificus Totalus, Harry realised, irritated with himself. If Alastor was here, he'd have my head for letting my guard down. You're an idiot, Potter.

Zacharias Smith, Ritchie Coote, and Justin Flinch-Fletchley all stepped forward to stand over Harry, smiles grim. He wasn't really surprised by these three, knowing how most of his fellow students were wont to react to Slytherins, but he was a little surprised that Andrew Kirke wasn't there for once, considering the silly fifth year had been the one pushing his buttons the most lately. He was also a little surprised that Charlotte had been dragged into things, but she had always respected Justin, according to Ginny, so the older Hufflepuff had probably talked her into it.

Indeed, Justin turned to where Charlotte was climbing to her feet. "You can go, Charlotte."

"Okay." She brushed past the boys standing over Harry, pausing only long enough to shoot Harry a pitying look.

Harry sighed in his own mind and focussed on breaking the spell holding him still while the three boys told him what they thought of him befriending Slytherins. Really, the whole thing was getting a bit old.

Zacharias broke his concentration by casting a cutting curse at his hip. The boy chuckled to himself while Ritchie, the traitorous little lion, tried his own cutting curse and Justin just kicked Harry. "That was weak, Justin," Zacharias told his year mate.

'Harry?' Tom asked. 'What's going on?'

Harry sighed. He should have known the Dark Lord would sense the pain, in spite of the meeting he'd had to rush to get to that morning with Lucius; something had come up last night that Tom hadn't been able to let sit. 'Just a few Hufflepuffs getting clever. I'll be fine,' he offered in response. 'Worry about your meeting.'

"I don't want to attract any attention," Justin was saying to Zacharias while Ritchie cast a few more cutting curses at Harry's legs.

'Well, if you're sure...' Tom agreed.

"How would anyone even know to look?" Zacharias snorted. "It's not like he can scream."

"No one will come if you scream."

Harry fought against the rush of panic, but with the dark alley around him and the sense of utter helplessness lying there gave him, it was a losing battle. And, again, he was in that dark alley with Dudley and his friends standing around him, smiling nastily.

'Tom!'

There was a loud crack, as if the Dark Lord had only been waiting for Harry to call him, and Voldemort stood at Harry's feet, crimson eyes flashing with murder. The three younger boys barely managed terrified gasps before they'd all been knocked out cold.

And then the Dark Lord was kneeling next to Harry, Voldemort-face fading away to Tom's usual appearance. "I'm here, Harry," he whispered, removing the spell on the teen and pulling him into his arms.

Harry grasped handfuls of the heavy red robes, gasping. With Tom there, holding him tight, the panic fell away, leaving behind a sense of exhaustion and some pain. "Shit," he whispered. "Ow. Shit."

Tom immediately cast a few healing spells, kissing Harry's forehead as he did so.

Harry closed his eyes and let out a breathless laugh. "Did you just leave Lucius without a word? Isn't he going to think you've lost your mind?"

"I don't need to explain myself to my Death Eaters," Tom muttered, rolling his eyes. "And you were more important than a couple of vampires massacring a muggle village."

Harry laughed in surprise, even as his cheeks flushed at the Dark Lord's statement. "You're such a bastard."

"Harry?" a shaking voice said from the head of the alley.

"Shit," Harry muttered again, already envisioning what this looked like.

The Dark Lord turned sharp red eyes towards the three young women just inside the alley, making them gasp.

"Tom, I actually like them," Harry commented drily. "And you really don't want them going for Dumbledore."

Tom scowled and narrowed his eyes at the young women for a moment, then turned back to Harry, who was smiling at him fondly. "What do you want to do about these worthless wastes of space?" he asked of the three boys who had attacked Harry.

"No," Harry said immediately, knowing where the Dark Lord was going with that question. "They're still students. Wait until they've graduated to kill them, if you must."

"I wasn't going to kill them," Tom muttered, petulantly, "just torture them a bit."

"No."

The three young women had come closer, Pansy keeping Hermione and Ginny between her and the man who had eyes like the Dark Lord. Once they were close enough, Ginny stopped and whispered. "Harry, you know that's-"

"Tom Riddle," Harry agreed, grinning when the Dark Lord scowled at his birth name. "That would be Lord Voldemort to you, Pan," he added, seeing the confusion on the Slytherin's face.

All three young women paled and Hermione and Ginny quickly pointed their wands at the Dark Lord. Pansy looked like she was about to faint.

Tom sneered at them and smoothly rose to his feet, bringing Harry with him. He made sure the teen would be okay standing on his own before taking a step away, not intending to let Harry be in any possible crossfire. "If I wanted to kill any of you, you'd have been dead before you got close enough for Miss Weasley to recognise me," he pointed out.

Harry rolled his eyes and sighed when the young women didn't move their wands from Tom's face. "We have a truce," he offered to his friends. "It's why he asked the Death Eaters with kids to leave me alone, so there wouldn't be anyone else cursing me in a classroom."

"Draco said Blaise was the one who told you about that!" Pansy exclaimed, turning her attention on the Boy Who Lived.

"He did," Harry agreed, shrugging. "But Tom told me first."

Said Dark Lord cleared his throat. "Harry, if your friends don't point their wands elsewhere, I might lose my temper."

Harry rolled his eyes at the warning, but stepped forward and gently took their wands from them. "Honestly, he's not going to hurt anyone. Well, if you piss him off, he might," he amended, then slipped their wands into the pockets he knew they preferred to keep them in. "Okay?"

Harry jerked a bit violently in shock when both Hermione and Ginny threw themselves at him for a hug, but he still managed to catch them and wrap an arm around both of them.

Pansy shuffled a bit closer to the Gryffindors, watching the scowling Dark Lord with some concern. "He's really the Dark Lord?" she whispered.

Harry nodded. "Yeah. And, really, he's not going to curse anyone; I people-trained him."

Hermione let out a choked laugh while Pansy looked wide-eyed and Ginny giggled. "Harry, he might hear you," the bookworm whispered, pulling back to give Harry a worried look.

Harry grinned. "Using the Cruciatus is really just his way of saying 'I love you'," he offered.

Now Hermione was also looking at him with wide eyes and Ginny had buried her face even deeper into Harry's shoulder, shaking with laughter.

"Don't tell the Death Eaters," Tom ordered, amusement echoing across their bond even as he glared at the teens, "it's a secret."

There was a very long moment of shocked silence, and then Harry let out a snort, which quickly turned into outright laughter at the looks of slightly terrified bafflement on the witches' faces.

"I think he's scarier when he's not about to kill you," Ginny decided, stepping back next to Hermione and Pansy, both of whom were staring at Harry like he'd grown a new head.

Just as Harry was finally calming down, Hermione reached out her hand and touched the bloody rip in his shirt at his hip. Harry jerked away from her, not having expected the touch and still a little on edge from the attack. The three young women were watching him with concern, the Dark Lord forgotten. "What happened?" Hermione whispered, slowly reaching out and taking Harry's hand.

"Nothing much," Harry said with a smile which looked more like a grimace. "Zacharias, Justin, and Ritchie got the jump on me. There were a couple Cutting Curses cast, but I'm fine."

Hermione and Ginny wore identical scowls at Harry's words and Pansy huffed. "Potter, one of these days, you'll learn that when you say you're 'fine', it's really like admitting you're not."

"No, look," Harry insisted, raising his shirt to show the healed skin. "Fine. Really, truly. Tom healed me and everything."

"I think my mind just imploded," Ginny muttered, eyeing the Dark Lord with disbelief. "You healed him? I thought you were set on killing him."

"We reached a truce," Harry said again, rolling his eyes as Hermione took a closer look at the healed wound. "Seriously, 'Mione, I'm good."

"Seven years has taught me better than to trust you," Hermione retorted, stepping back once she was sure he was okay. "And I'd rather not have Professor Brutús on me because I didn't make absolutely certain you were okay."

"Better Marcus just never finds out at all," Ginny muttered, grimacing at the thought. For all that the students and the professor were on pretty good terms, Marcus was insanely protective of Harry. Seamus had long since learnt to keep dirty comments to himself, especially after the Defence professor had attached his feet to the ceiling of his classroom with a Permanent Sticking Charm for most of their two-hour long class.

"Marcus already knows," Tom commented drily, coming to stand next to Harry and resting a gentle hand on his back. When the teen glanced up at him, he said, "I should get back to my meeting. Stay with one of your friends."

"Okay," Harry agreed. He'd already found gifts for Hermione, Ginny, and Pansy, so that wasn't too much trouble. "Curse Wormtail for me?"

The Dark Lord snorted in amusement and apparated away.

The four teens were silent for a long moment. Ginny finally asked. "What did he mean, 'Marcus already knows'?"

"Oh, dear Merlin," Pansy whispered, pale as death. "Please tell me he isn't..."

"Who isn't what?" Hermione asked, frowning.

Harry stayed silent, watching as the Slytherin figured out Marcus' real identity. He mentally cursed the Dark Lord for leaving this in his hands, but knew that if Tom had been there, he wouldn't have had the patience to deal with their horror when they realised who'd been teaching them for the past three months. But Harry was more than patient and willing enough to keep them from freaking out, though he wasn't quite at the top of his game at the moment, considering who was lying at his feet.

Pansy gave Harry a pleading look. "Potter... Harry, please."

"What's going on?" Ginny demanded as understanding flashed in Hermione's eyes. "Hey!"

"You're dating the Dark Lord?" Pansy squeaked.

"He's dating Mar-" Ginny insisted.

"Yes," Harry agreed quietly, silencing Ginny, "Marcus is really Tom. Yes, I'm really dating the Dark Lord. Yes, Voldemort has been teaching the school Defence for the past three months. And if we're going to finish getting presents before dinner, we should go."

The young women were silent for a long moment, staring at him like he'd lost his mind, so Harry rolled his eyes and turned to the three boys at his feet. It would probably be best if they didn't remember who had come to his rescue, so Harry set about Obliviating them and changing their memories to him freeing himself and stupefying the lot of them. If nothing else, it should keep them from attacking him again. He hoped.

"Is that all you're going to do?" Pansy asked once Harry put his wand away.

Harry cocked an eyebrow at her. "What more would you have me do? I suppose I could hex them with something embarrassing, but Marcus is probably going to make their lives hell until winter vacation, so..." He shrugged.

Ginny let out a weak laugh. "I'll be surprised if they're still alive when second term starts up in January."

The other young women nodded and Harry sighed. Tom wasn't known to be particularly forgiving, and Harry honestly wouldn't be surprised if at least one of the boys at his feet ended up dead within the next month or so. "Shopping," he reminded them.

As they were reaching the head of the alley, Pansy asked, "Why is the Dark L-"

"Marcus," Harry corrected, voice sharp.

Pansy nodded in understanding. "Why did Brutús come to teach at Hogwarts?"

"It's his home," Ginny answered, memories of a diary she'd once poured her heart out to in her eyes.

"His home?" Pansy repeated, frowning.

"He's an orphan," Harry offered quietly, shrugging. "Hogwarts was his first real home. And he's always wanted to come back and teach here, but Dumbledore didn't trust him with impressionable young minds, so he got turned down."

"I can understand why," Hermione muttered, frowning.

"He's not a bad teacher," Ginny pointed out. "He teaches us Ministry-approved spells and doesn't try weakening us with poor teaching. I mean, he’s not particularly patient when you're having trouble, but he doesn't throw around the Cruciatus like it's a sweet, either."

"So, he wanted to be a teacher," Pansy said, eyeing Harry curiously. "But why now? Why this year, when we're in the middle of a war? Wouldn't it have made more sense to wait until he'd won?"

"Assuming he does win," Ginny muttered rebelliously and the two young women shot each other dark looks.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Marcus and I came to a truce over the summer and, when it was time for school to start back up, neither of us really wanted to lose that...I dunno - friendship, I suppose. I mean, we'd spent the entire summer getting used to each other. So he applied at Hogwarts."

"And the Headmaster is getting desperate enough that he'd let anyone teach," Pansy commented.

The Gryffindors could only agree with that statement, since it was true.

They moved on to talk of lighter things, such as what they were getting for the others, until they were on their way back to the castle. The other guys in their group - and Luna - were all waiting by the gate to the school and the sight of them had Hermione asking, "Are you going to tell the others? About Professor Brutús?"

Harry grimaced, not looking forward to that conversation in the slightest. "Might as well," he agreed. "I mean, if I don't, you will."

The three young women had the presence of mind to look mildly ashamed at that, but it didn't last long.

"Hey, mate, what happened to you?" Dean asked of Harry as the two groups met up.

Harry glanced down at his shirt, having mostly forgotten about the altercation in the alley during their shopping. "Couple of our classmates caught me alone," he allowed, shrugging.

"Wait until you hear who rescued him," Ginny added, eyes bright with mayhem.

"Ginny!" Hermione hissed.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "You can't tell me you're not excited to see their reactions."

"Well...maybe a bit," Hermione agreed.

"We'll make a Slytherin out of you yet," Pansy decided, slinging an arm around the muggleborn's shoulders.

"I'm not sure I want to know," Theodore commented, eyeing the young women suspiciously.

"Sorry, no choice in the matter," Ginny declared, taking his arm in her own and forcing him to march with her.

"Where are we going to talk?" Hermione asked, glancing at Harry.

"Marcus' room," Harry said with certainty. "It's got privacy wards on it."

"Really don't want to know," Theodore muttered, Draco and Blaise nodding their heads next to him. The Gryffindors were starting to look a little worried by then, too.

"But, what if he's back already?" Pansy whispered, looking a little worried.

Harry waved her concern away. "He's not."

The group made their way up to Marcus' room with the guys trying to find out who the mystery saviour was and the ladies getting progressively more nervous the closer they got. Harry was the only one who seemed at all calm, but then, he knew Tom was still dealing with the vampires, and had no intention of seeing Harry's friends again until after they'd been told who he was, since the Dark Lord didn't want to have to deal with them. Not to say Harry wasn't nervous - his friends might have taken his use of Dark magic okay, but whether or not they could handle him dating Voldemort was another thing entirely - but they were going to find out eventually, better it be when he could mitigate any damage.

Harry hissed the password to the portrait and led the way inside, the young women nervously bringing up the rear. Everyone settled into the seats they'd claimed over the weeks, leaving one open next to Harry, which the teen promptly put his feet in, just because he could.

"Can I tell them?" Ginny asked hopefully once they were all settled.

Harry eyed her a bit oddly, then waved his hand in a negligent 'go ahead' way and relaxed back against the arm of the couch. For all his apparent relaxation, he held his wand tightly in his lap, an Obliviate on the tip of his tongue.

Ginny turned to the guys with a mad smile. "Lord You-Know-Who," she offered.

There was a moment of disbelieving silence, and then everyone was talking at once. From what Harry could decipher, most of the questions were about why Voldemort would come to Harry's rescue.

Of course, they don't know everything yet, Harry reminded himself, watching Ginny sit back with a pleased smile. Hermione, squashed between Ginny and Luna, was trying to tell the boys that Harry and the Dark Lord had a truce from over the summer.

Pansy gleefully announced, "That's not the best part, though. Everyone in this room has had tea with the Dark Lord within the past week."

This announcement earned them another moment of silence while the guys worked that out. They all paled - almost simultaneously - turned to each other, then looked at where Harry was watching the proceedings with a bored expression.

"Marcus is the Dark Lord?" Neville asked when no one else dared.

"It would be more correct to say that Voldemort is playing the part of a man named Marcus Brutús," Harry replied. "The real Marcus Dustof died in a boating accident almost fifty years ago. He heard from me that Dumbledore was having trouble finding a professor again, so went to Vachil Brutús and talked the man into backing up his claim to the Brutús name."

" 'Talked'?" Pansy repeated sceptically.

"Why would you even mention to him that we still needed a professor, anyway?" Ron grumbled.

"Perhaps 'talked' is the wrong word for it," Harry allowed with a shrug. "And it came up in conversation. I only found out after he'd received the job that he was even thinking about applying, though."

"Why were you talking to him?" Neville whispered, looking a little ill. "I mean, what even started you..."

"Spending time together?" Harry offered drily. "He wanted to know why I would know a Dark spell well enough to use it at the end of last year. I had no interest in telling him-"

"You won't even tell us," Hermione added with a faint scowl.

Harry shot the young woman a smile. "Yeah, well, I still haven't told him - he's mostly got it figured out on his own, really. He wanted to know so bad, though, that he took to following me about wherever I went out." Harry laughed a bit nervously. "I had such a time dissuading him from following me to my lunch date with you, 'Mione, that first time. And, after everything, he still ended up following me."

The others shook their heads in something like disbelief while Draco commented, "I'm having a hard time envisioning the Dark Lord stalking you, Potter."

"He wouldn't fit in with a crowd too well, would he?" Dean added.

"He actually looks pretty human," Ginny offered, glancing at Harry. "And surprisingly young."

"A glamour," Harry offered with a shrug, knowing better than to mention his boyfriend's metamorphmagus abilities to people he wouldn't even tell about his own gift. "I get the impression that he still looks like a snake around the Death Eaters."

Draco nodded and, at the disbelieving looks of the Gryffindors, snapped, "He's been living at my house. It's kind of difficult not to notice him."

"Wait, You-Know-Who's been living at your place?" Ron asked, giving Draco a startled look. "So that means all those Azkaban escapees are there, too, right?"

Draco narrowed his eyes. "What about it, Weasel? Going to run to Daddy?"

Harry sighed and cut in before things could devolve into a fight. "Honestly, kids, don't make me silence you." When Ron huffed, Harry added, "And we're not telling the Order where the Death Eaters are hiding out."

"Well, why not?" Ginny demanded, glancing over at Draco. "Not that I've got anything against you, Malfoy, but we're still on opposite sides."

"And how, exactly, do you intend to explain your knowledge of where they're residing?" Pansy asked sweetly.

"What, because it's not common knowledge that we spend our afternoons and evenings around you lot?" Ron shot back.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Ron, if you leave them to think Draco or whoever told you, that'll come down hard on them. Not to mention, you have class every week with Voldemort; do you really want to go around telling people where the Death Eaters reside?"

Ron paled at that.

"It's not like he ever has to know it was us," Ginny pointed out drily. "The Malfoys have always been suspicious."

"They've done regular searches on our manor since my father ended up in Azkaban," Draco commented. "They haven't found anything so far; why would this time be any different?"

There was a moment of silence at that, everyone shooting dirty looks at each other. Harry just slouched in his seat and rubbed tiredly at his eyes.

The door to the room clicked open and the students all tensed as Marcus strode in. As soon as the door had closed behind him, Marcus commented, "I wouldn't assume your identity safe if you were to let it slip to your precious Order where my people are hidden, Miss Weasley. I will know."

"Wha-?" Ginny said, eyes wide.

Harry tapped his forehead. "We're connected. Unless I'm shutting him out, Marcus hears everything I hear."

"And I'm always suspicious when you shut me out," Marcus agreed, coming to stand behind Harry's slouched form. "Are we required to Obliviate any of you, or can you behave yourselves like the good little boys and girls you are?" He smiled a bit nastily at the students, all of whom shrunk back, paling.

Harry lightly smacked Marcus' hand. "Stop being a git. And, for that matter, stop looming behind me like a human dementor, would you? It's disturbing."

Marcus snorted, but obediently moved around to sit in his usual seat once Harry had moved his feet.

There was a moment of strained silence while the students all looked anywhere but at Marcus or each other, and the Dark Lord and Harry traded knowing looks.

Finally, Neville looked up at the relaxed duo on the couch and asked, "Now what?" At their raised eyebrows and the frowns of his classmates, he expounded, "I mean with the war."

Shock coloured the other students' expressions and they turned to Harry, who shrank in his seat and leant against Marcus' shoulder. "It's complicated," the boy saviour said.

" 'Complicated'?" Ron repeated, ears turning red with a mix of fear and anger. "Harry!"

"Just because you can't manage a committed relationship, Weasley-" Pansy started snidely.

"Potter, are you actually beginning to think?" Draco asked Harry with a sharp smile over Pansy's snark.

"What the hell are you implying, Malfoy?" Ginny snapped, turning on the blond.

Harry covered his eyes against the impending explosion as he felt the Dark Lord's fury grow. 'Nothing illegal?' he pleaded as he felt Marcus' arm move to cast a spell.

Marcus paused a moment, then started a new spell, the Spell of Spoken Calm. As soon as his wand stopped, so did all the noise in the room. "Acceptable?" he asked Harry when the teen peeked out at him.

"So you do know some nonlethal spells," Harry replied teasingly before looking back at his friends; Ginny, Ron, Draco, and Pansy all had their mouths open, caught in the middle of their argument, while the others looked uncertainly towards the disguised Dark Lord.

Luna offered, "That's a pretty wand."

Marcus let out a strangled noise.

Harry snorted into his hand. "That's what I said when he bought it," he informed her.

Luna smiled a bit absently while Marcus poked Harry with the wand in question, which was made of maple wood and decorated with red maple leaf stamps; Marcus hadn't been too pleased with the design when he'd bought it, but the wandmaker they'd gone to stamped all of his wands, and leaves were better than roses, as Harry had pointed out.

Hermione cleared her throat and offered Harry an uncertain smile. "How complicated is 'complicated'?" she asked.

Harry glanced at Marcus, but the Dark Lord shook his head, wordlessly refusing to offer his assistance, so Harry sighed and looked back at his friends, resigned. "Tom made a couple of good points about how dangerous it could be to continue living side-by-side with muggles, but I don't agree with the 'kill them all' mentality. So, I'm sort of trying to find a way to separate the magical and muggle worlds without bloodshed." Harry shrugged at the curious looks his explanation received. "All things considered, my ideals concerning muggles are more in line with the Dark, but I believe in the Light's insistence that everyone deserves life."

"So you're, what? Neutral?" Theodore asked, leaning forward.

Harry shook his head. "In regard to picking a side, I'm with Tom. The Dark Lord," he clarified when he got blank looks at the Dark Lord's birth name.

"But-" Ginny started.

"If Harry can come up with a way to fully separate and protect us from the muggles, I will implement it," Marcus interrupted, frowning.

There was a long moment of silence, then Dean asked, "You would be willing to let the muggles and muggleborns live?"

"I would," Marcus agreed, glancing towards Harry, who rewarded him with a smile. Marcus' lips twitched in response, but he managed to quash a full return smile.

"Did you have any ideas, Harry?" Blaise asked.

Harry blinked in surprise. "Oh, uhm, nothing useful," he admitted. "I was thinking we could consider relocating somewhere, but there's no way we could take the buildings we already have, and we'd face the same danger from the muggles."

"What danger?" Hermione enquired, frowning in thought.

"Bombs."

"Bombs?" Draco repeated, disbelieving. "What, like dung bombs? Those aren't scary, Potter."

"A bit more terrifying than that, Malfoy," Dean replied drily.

Harry reached out and cleared a space on the coffee table of ungraded essays, then pointed his wand at the spot and intoned, "Ostendo meus statua."

An image of a city appeared in the cleared space, hazy around the edges and completely without sound. An aeroplane appeared above the city and something fell from its underside. Hermione made a distressed sound and turned away just before the object reached the buildings, but everyone else kept on watching as the buildings around where the object hit shook, then a cloud of smoke and debris flew away from the point of contact. The image fast-forwarded a bit to show the cloud billow out and cover the city, then dissipate, leaving behind ruin.

"That would be a bomb," Harry said into the silence as he ended the spell.

"...why are we letting the muggles live, again?" Theodore whispered.

Hermione made a wordless noise of anger, Marcus' earlier spell holding her tongue. Neville was the one who said, "Everyone deserves the right to live; it's not like we don't have our own weapons at our disposal."

"Nothing like that," Theodore insisted, taking care to keep his tone calm so the spell wouldn't silence him.

"I know of two spells, off the top of my head, capable of causing a natural disaster," Harry reported. "Tom?"

"Four," Marcus replied, expression blank. "And there's also airborne poisons, or the Reductor Curse cast from broomsticks, if you'd prefer a less natural cause of death."

"...and we thought Harry spent too much time thinking up ways to seriously injure people with magic," Ron muttered.

"If you know all these ways to raise your body count, why haven't you used any of them?" Ginny asked, voice tight with barely controlled anger.

Marcus raised an eyebrow at her. "For such attempts to be properly effective, I would need to target areas with a large population, and magical families tend to gather in such places. Any evacuation notice would be ignored if it came from me, and I have no intention of killing defenceless magical people; not with how few we already are."

Ginny made an angry sound, clearly losing her voice to the earlier spell.

"The Light side is much the same," Pansy pointed out, guessing at what Ginny hadn't been able to say. "You would never seek to destroy the home of a Dark family, no matter how obvious their ties with your enemies, but meeting them on the battlefield is fair game."

"Guys," Harry called before they could get into another argument. When they all turned to look at him, varying degrees of scowls on their faces, he said, "Either help me figure out a way to separate us from the muggles, or get out."

"We can't kill them all?" Draco asked, eyes flitting toward the empty space on the table that Harry's image had appeared in.

"No."

"Are there any wards that can keep aeroplanes from flying overhead?" Dean wondered.

"Hogwarts currently has a version of such a ward worked in," Marcus offered, "but there are difficulties in using it over smaller areas, such as personal homes or Diagon Alley. It also wouldn't keep away surface-to-surface missiles or those air-to-surface missiles intended for long-range attacks."

The students were all silent for a long moment, staring at the Dark Lord in disbelief.

"...I think my brain just broke," Seamus announced.

"I don't think I understood even half of that," Blaise agreed, rubbing at his forehead.

Hermione shook her head. "So, essentially, we'd need variations on wards that would clear our airspace and disable all targeting computers for both large and small areas?" she asked.

"Essentially," Marcus agreed.

"Muggle repelling charms?" Ron suggested hopefully.

"They only protect the area they're covering to a certain extent," Harry replied, shaking his head. "They can fool most targeting attempts, but as muggle technology gets more advanced, they protect us less."

"This isn't something we'll have a solution for in a few weeks, never mind a few hours," Marcus added when Hermione was clearly about to start debating ideas aloud. "If you want to help, think about it a bit, look up spells you think could be used, then let Harry know any ideas you come up with and we can revisit this then."

"Oh. Right." Hermione slouched for a moment, then rose from her spot between Ginny and Luna. "I'm going to the library."

"Of course you are," Ginny said with a tired smile as Luna rose next to her crush.

"We should put our things away before dinner," Pansy added, rising with her shopping.

"Oh, yeah..." Hermione looked uncertainly down at the bag she'd almost forgotten.

"I'll take it back for you," Ginny offered as she joined the rest of the students - save Harry - in getting to their feet.

"One moment," Marcus called before Draco, who was in the lead, could open the door of the room. When the group of students turned back to him, wary, he snapped his wand in a quick pattern, then said, "Just some insurance."

"The Spell of Secrets," Harry offered to the uncomprehending stares of his peers.

The Slytherins looked grudgingly appreciative, while the two Weasleys and Seamus all made faces. The other three Gryffindors looked resigned, while Luna offered the Dark Lord and Harry bright smiles before saying, "We've only an hour until dinner, Hermione."

"Oh!" Hermione turned and snapped her fingers in Draco's face impatiently. "Malfoy, open the door and let the rest of us out."

"Granger, learn patience," Draco snapped back, but obediently turned to do as ordered.

"Yeah, the library's not going anywhere, Hermione," Dean agreed with a smile.

"Are you staying here?" Neville asked Harry as the rest of the students filed out.

"Until dinner," Harry agreed.

"Do you want me to take your purchases?"

Harry glanced towards the tiny bag he'd fit all of his shrunken gifts in and debated between giving his roommates the chance to snoop without his knowledge and having to carry it with him to dinner. Finally, he shook his head. "No, but thanks."

Neville inclined his head, then turned towards the empty door, the others having left him behind.

"Is my present in there?" Marcus asked as Neville reached the door.

"No, they're not."

" 'They'?" the Dark Lord repeated. "I get two gifts?"

Harry laughed. "Yes; one for Christmas, one for your birthday."

Marcus blinked a few times, then said, "Oh. Forgot about that."

Harry rested his head against the Dark Lord's shoulder and just laughed.

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A/N: This chapter only took me a year to write. *stare* OMG. WHY WAS THIS SO HARD?!

I seem to have dropped myself into the same hole as I did with Xerosis: What am I gonna do with the magical people to protect them from the muggles? I HAVE NO IDEA! (Okay, lie. I have a couple ideas, but they're all a bit clichéd. And, no, I'm not doing the moon again, though that was fun.) AHHHHH!!

~Bats ^.^x

Spell Explanations:

• Subete no kenka o nusumu -- meaning 'all angry speech steal' in Japanese. Spell of Spoken Calm
  A neutral spell created to keep people within the area of the spell from speaking in anger. An unexpected side-effect is that it also keeps people from making comments specifically meant to anger, giving those within the area who are angry time to calm down, without added insult from other parties.
• Ostendo meus statua -- meaning 'show my image' in Latin.
  A light spell that creates a 3D image on a flat surface. Fell out of common use after the creation of Pensieves - which this spell is the basis of - due to the stress on the caster.
• Jen pamatovat, nikdy mluvit -- meaning 'only remember, never speak' in Czech. Spell of Secrets
  A neutral spell which will force the victim(s) to be unable to speak of a secret they hold, though they will remember it. The secret is decided by the caster at the time the spell is cast. The use of Occlumency can overcome this spell, though Veritaserum cannot. Illegal.

Abandon & Reclaim Series:
Abandon the Prequel: Sixth Year
Abandon chapter 01
Reclaim chapter One
Abandoned Chapters:
One || Two || Three || Four || Five || Six || Seven || Eight || Nine || Ten
Eleven || Twelve || Thirteen || Fourteen || Fifteen || Sixteen || Seventeen || Eighteen || Nineteen || Twenty
INCOMPLETE

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