The Bitter Hug of Mortality | R | Chapter Eight
A week early! I know, I spoil you, right? Actually, it's early because I'm heading off to do my job this weekend, so I'll be away at a con. The next chapter will be posted in two weeks, so I have time after the con to write it! :D
Chapter Eight
"Duck!" Harry flinched at Ignotus' yell as he stepped through the gate into his room in Riddle Manor but didn't even think twice about following the order and dropped to the floor in time to see a red spell pass over his head and through the gate.
"What the actual fuck was that?!" Harry exclaimed, standing up and blanching when he saw Voldemort leaning against the wall by his bed, glaring furiously and pointing his wand at him. Harry nibbled his lip and looked to the side at Ignotus, just as Cadmus and Antioch both walked through the gate, closing it behind them.
"Hmm, thought we'd have more time before this confrontation happened," Antioch said, making Harry glare at him before he turned all his attention back to the hostile Dark Lord now in his room.
"Er…"
"Yes, Mr Waterhouse? I suggest, if you want to continue living, that you follow me without struggling," Voldemort told him in a creepily calm voice that really didn't go with the furious look on the man's face.
Harry just swallowed and nodded his head, dropping his bag subtly on the floor and kicking it under his desk when Voldemort turned his back to him and walked out of the room.
"Come, Mr Waterhouse. Do not keep me waiting." Harry sighed silently, glanced at the Peverell's, and then moved quickly to follow behind Voldemort, feeling more and more nervous as they neared their destination. Harry was paying so much attention to his thoughts and fears of what was about to happen, that he nearly collided with Voldemort's back when the man came to a stop in front of the door to the large ballroom, thankfully stopping just before he did.
"You may have to tell him more about your abilities. Do not let him kill you. You are too important for that! Have you kept your bones on you?" Ignotus asked him, worry evident on his face. Harry just nodded and placed his hand by the pouch tied to his belt.
"Inside, Mr Waterhouse," Voldemort told him, breaking Harry's silent conversation with Ignotus and motioning for Harry to walk into the ballroom, where there seemed to be a Death Eater meeting in progress. All the Death Eaters in the room turned when Harry walked in and watched as he stumbled towards where Voldemort pushed him. "Now that you have finally decided to come back, maybe you can tell me a bit more about yourself."
"Depends what you want to know," Harry said defiantly, deciding he was going to end up being cursed in someway anyway, so he might as well act how he wanted.
"I said don't get killed, how is that answer not going to get you killed?" Harry just ignored Ignotus and stared at Voldemort, ignoring the shuffling of the Death Eaters behind him.
"How did you appear in your bedroom? You have no magic, you're just a muggle," Voldemort pointed out, raising an eyebrow when Harry just sneered at him.
"Bloody wizards, always thinking you're better than muggles just because you have a stick of wood in your possession that can make things happen. Without that stick, you'd all be useless. Here's a shocker, muggles are far better than you lot. Where you relied on your magic and got lazy and fat, muggles had to fight for survival and use science to better themselves. I've never heard that wizards managed to put a man on the moon, whereas muggles have done that and so much more. Wizards stagnated, muggles evolved," Harry told them, hoping that Voldemort didn't notice he hadn't actually answered the question.
"Indeed. You're wrong of course, but I suppose we all have our different opinions. Now, clever distraction, but answer my question."
"Magic."
"You don't have magic, muggle!" Voldemort hissed, glaring angrily at him as he lifted his wand to point at Harry. "Now, tell me!"
"I told you! Magic! The dictionary definition of magic is altering something using mysterious forces. I altered my whereabouts, using forces that are a mystery to you, therefore magic. Deal with it, wizard."
"CRUCIO!" Harry barely had time to flinch before the spell hit him and knocked him to the floor as a wave of intense pleasure ran over him, making him moan aloud and arch his back up. The longer the spell was held on him, the more the pleasure increased, until Harry was gasping and panting, writhing on the floor, much to the Death Eater's stunned disbelief. Realising that his spell wasn't working in the way he wanted, Voldemort stopped it and stepped forward so he was looming over a now heavily panting Harry. "Tell me what you are."
"A baker!" Harry gasped out a little breathlessly, weakly moving to stand up on jelly-like legs.
"Told you they didn't work in quite the same way on you," Antioch drawled from where he was leaning against the wall, watching the proceedings along with his brothers. Harry just sneered weakly and stuck his finger up at him.
"You try my patience, muggle! Tell me!"
"Screw you."
"Sectumsempra!" Harry once more fell back as the force of the spell hit him, but nothing else happened other than giving him pins and needles in his arms and knocking the wind out of him. Judging from the looks he was getting, however, Harry was going to assume that that wasn't the intended result of the spell. "How are you doing this, muggle?!"
"Stop calling me muggle, wizard!" Harry spat, shifting so he was sitting, slumped over on the floor. He glanced out of the side of his eyes at the Peverell's, noticing that they were all frowning in disapproval of Voldemort.
"Fine! Tell me where you went!"
"Out and about. Visiting dead relatives. The usual," Harry told him, grinning weakly and still a little out of breath and shaky from the first spell. He flinched a little when Voldemort pointed his wand at him once more.
"You ask for my protection and then you disregard my requests! I tried to be kind to you, muggle, and yet you continued to try my patience and ignore my rules! Tell me why I shouldn't kill you?"
"Death likes me."
"Diffindo!" Harry gasped in pain as a slash appeared across his stomach and started to bleed sluggishly, though it slowly started to visibly heal at a more accelerated rate. "Interesting how that spell worked."
"If that's what you want to call it," Harry muttered, silently mourning the loss of a decent t-shirt, and using the edge of the ruined shirt to dab up the blood, pretty much ignoring the wizard in front of him.
"Stupefy!" Harry's head jerked up at the uttered spell just as the light hit him and he felt light-headed before he fell into darkness with no idea as to what had just happened.
Harry groaned as he woke up, wincing as he felt a monstrous headache banging at his skull and slowly tried to sit up. He frowned in confusion when he heard a rattling as he moved and slowly opened his eyes, only to gape when he saw he was still in the ballroom but now he was chained to the wall behind what Harry liked to silently call Voldemort's stage.
"What the fuck?"
"We did try to tell you not to annoy the Dark Lord so much. He knocked you out and then proceeded to chain you to that wall, he has no intention of letting you free until you tell him what he wants to know," Cadmus told him quietly, crouching down next to where Harry was half sprawled out, leaning up on shaky arms.
Harry just stared at him in shock, before he slowly pushed himself up fully and moved to sit, leaning agains the wall. He gave a futile tug of the chains, but wasn't entirely shocked when they didn't give.
"So I'm just stuck here until he either gets bored and kills me, or until I tell him what he wants to know? Bloody Dark Lords! Actually, fucking wizards! Think they're all so fucking great, don't they? Bastards, all of them," Harry muttered, tugging at the chain once more before dropping his hands into his lap and sighing loudly.
"Surely you don't think all wizards are bad, do you?" Harry jerked up in surprise at the question, he had thought he was alone in the room with Cadmus - he had no idea where Ignotus and Antioch were, nor his aunt.
"Marcus! What are you doing in here?" Harry asked, looking at the way Marcus was slightly pale and leaning against the wall as though it was supporting him, and frowning in concern. "Are you alright?"
"He wasn't too pleased that I'd let you leave. Why don't you just tell him what he wants to know?" Marcus asked, slowly moving so that he came to a stand in front of Harry and then lowered himself to the floor with a small wince of pain.
"Sorry. I didn't think he would literally shoot the messenger."
"I didn't have to tell on you, no need for you to be sorry. So, why won't you tell him?" Marcus asked, looking like he genuinely cared for the answer and was actually worried about Harry, something quite novel to Harry as he wasn't too used to the living actually caring all that much about him personally.
"If he knows, he'd use me."
"He already is. And if you don't tell him, then your use is going to drop and he's going to kill you. His patience has already all but gone with regards to you," Marcus pointed out bluntly, grinning slightly when Harry just glared at him.
"He'll regret it if he does. Besides, I did tell him the answer, it's not my fault he refused to believe me. He needs to realise that there are more types of magic in the world than wizarding magic. Don't be so narrow-minded," Harry told him with a shrug. Marcus just stared at him with narrowed eyes before sighing and shaking his head.
"You're too stubborn for your own good. Please consider telling him what he wants to know."
"If he can promise not to use that knowledge against me, then I'll think about it. Otherwise, I'd rather die. Why would I want to be used in a war between wizards? I don't even like wizards! You're all dicks!" Harry said with a shake of his head. "Look, just forget it. I don't really want you to get in trouble and associating with me right now is probably not going to go down well."
"Fine. Just tell me one thing and then I'll leave you alone."
"I'm making no promises, but go on."
"How come those spells didn't work right on you?" Marcus asked him. Harry stared at him and then looked to the side at Cadmus, who was sitting on the floor next to him and who shrugged at Harry's silent question.
Harry just rolled his eyes at Cadmus' unhelpful answer and then sighed and looked at Marcus, "Dark magic doesn't work on me like it should. And before you ask, no, I don't know why. It just doesn't."
"I suppose that would come in handy at times."
"Sure, not that I ever really expected to be exposed to dark magic," Harry said with a shrug, sighing and then stifling the yawn that wanted to escape. He hadn't had a chance to sleep - properly, he didn't count being knocked out - and so he was still exhausted from the rituals he had performed, his energy not fully recovered.
"You should be sleeping. The bones will continue to drain your energy from you in small amounts for the next seven days. This Dark Lord really is messing everything up. I don't imagine Death is going to be impressed with him."
"I'm going to head out now, I need sleep. You should probably try and get some sleep as well, you look like shit."
"Charmer," Harry muttered, with a small grin, not even bothering to stop the yawn that escaped this time. Marcus just smirked at him and then painfully stood up, glancing down at him with slight concern on his face before he quickly covered it up with a blank mask.
"Try and sleep. You're probably going to need it." And with that, Marcus turned and slowly left the room, leaving Harry alone with an unusually quiet Cadmus.
"So what now? And where are Ignotus and Antioch?"
"Now you think about what to tell that Dark Lord. As for my brothers, Antioch is keeping an eye on Dumbledore, you are weak right now, we don't need him finding a way to get you and Ignotus is speaking with Our Lord, finding out if there is anyway He could help you."
"What? No! Don't involve Him! He doesn't need to be bothered with this! You'll just annoy Him!" Harry exclaimed, startled by the news and feeling a bit of unrest about the whole thing.
"Too late, Horatio. Now, I think we need to work out, between us, just what you should tell this Dark Lord and how to prevent him from using you to his own means. It's just a shame that you can't use those bones of yours for another seven days. They would have given you good advice. We will just have to do without however. So, do you have any ideas?"
"Me? My ideas got me chained to a wall! Clearly I am not good with ideas! You're on your own there!"
"Yes, you always were a little dense when it came to planning anything other than your little pilgrimages. Perhaps we should wait for Ignotus before making any life-changing plans. We can discuss if there is anything you could tell the Dark Lord that will satisfy him yet not really give anything about you away."
"Okay, good thinking. So, let's plan then."
Harry jerked awake when he heard the door to the room open and someone walked in. Shifting a little, Harry stretched slightly and then pushed himself up to so that he could see who it was that had walked in. He quickly glanced to the side to see that Ignotus had apparently returned whilst he was sleeping. Looking up finally to see who had walked in, Harry silently groaned when he saw Lord Voldemort standing over him with a sneer on his face.
"Are you ready to talk today, muggle?"
"Sure, but probably not about what you want me to talk about, wizard."
"Be careful how you deal with him, Horatio. Our Lord has stated he will not be letting you pass over yet, so you need not fear dying, but he cannot interfere anymore than that. As we've told you before, there are worse things than death."
"We shall see. Tell me, muggle, where you went when you decided to ignore my instructions to stay in this manor."
"You might as well tell him the truth. It's not going to help him at all," Cadmus pointed out, Harry glanced at him and Ignotus, both looking a little more transparent than they had been recently telling Harry that his energy hadn't fully restored itself.
"I went to another cemetery to visit with family. It was the full moon, so I knew I would be safe as the dead have more strength and can watch over me and my enemies for longer. Plus, the relative I would be seeing is buried near a seer, so she would have let me know if she'd seen anything troubling in my near future anyway," Harry told him with a shrug, bending the truth just a touch so that Voldemort didn't get any hint of information Harry didn't want him knowing. Though Harry was also well aware that he was nearing the end of his deadline for keeping Voldemort ignorant.
"Hmm. And what was so important that you left the safety of my wards to talk to family?"
"I missed them."
"And yet, they can't talk to you here? You need to go to them? Even though you do not have that issue with the dead relatives of my followers? How does that work?"
"Ah. Er…"
"He's trying to catch you out. You only ever said that the relative had to have a direct line to their descendant in order for you to hear them. Tell him the same applies to you!"
"They're not direct ancestors. I was visiting a great-great uncle. I can't hear him unless I am close enough, so I tend to visit his grave when I want to speak to him," Harry told him with a shrug, glaring down at the chains around his wrists when they clinked at the movement.
"So you went somewhere more than twenty-five miles away? How did you get there? And what how did you appear in your room when you don't have any magic?" Voldemort finally got around to asking the question Harry had no idea how to answer without giving away what he was.
"I discussed this with Death. He suggested you tell him that He gives you certain abilities that could be seen as magic. For example, the gates you can open. The reason Voldemort seems to think you appeared out of nowhere, by the way, is because he can't see the gates. So tell him the truth without really telling him the truth," Ignotus told him, ignoring the incredulous look Harry shot him. Tell the truth without telling the truth? How did one go about doing that?!
"Right. Here's the thing, I don't have magic, you're right, but I do have abilities that could be seen as magic. Death gave me certain talents, apparently. Well, according to the dead He did. One of the talents is er… basically being able to sort of jump to any cemetery that I have a link to. And by link, I mean, a dead relative in. Other than that though, I don't have an ounce of magic in me," Harry lied, smiling up at an annoyed Voldemort.
"Then why does dark magic not seem to affect you?"
"No idea."
"I don't believe you."
"Sucks to be you then, don't it?" Harry said with a shrug, taking no notice of the glare Voldemort was sending him.
"Tell me the truth!"
"I did. I don't know why. Sheesh."
"Infuriating muggle! Why are you not afraid of me?! Do you not realise what I can do to you?"
"Sure, but my fear doesn't mean I can miraculously come up with answers."
Voldemort practically growled at Harry for that answer, before he straightened up from where he was looming over Harry and then spun to leave the room, robes whipping behind him as he slammed the door shut.
"Well, at least he didn't disfigure me."
"Give him time. Cassandra fears that you won't be able to keep your secrets for much longer. Apparently the future whispers of conflict and strife for you. She can't tell when or how long you have though."
"Well shit. Do you have any news on Dumbledore?"
"He seems to have pulled your parents to the side to finally tell them that he was looking for you and has told them that he 'fears Voldemort got to you first'. I get the impression he is either trying to make them think it is too late for you or he is trying to get them to agree to upping the search and 'rescue' for you. So far, James seems to agree to anything Dumbledore suggests but Lily doesn't believe him and wants to know why Dumbledore was looking for you in the first place. Dumbledore hasn't answered her questions so she is refusing to agree to any of his plans."
"What plans?"
"Using their blood to pinpoint your location. Of course, it wouldn't work as you don't have the same blood as them, especially since your maturation, so we don't have to worry about him getting their blood in some other way."
"Well, I suppose that's something then. Do you think I'll ever actually get out of here?"
"Not without dying. Or at least telling him what he wants to know. I think it's time to accepted that you will not be able to stay out of this war for very much longer," Cadmus told him in what Harry assumed was meant to be a sympathetic tone though Cadmus had never really been very good at offering Harry comfort, sympathy or anything other than scorn actually.
"Great. Does He know that?"
"He's aware of that, yes. He expects you to uphold the rules as well as you can and to remember that your job is not to choose who will live or die. Though, He did say He would turn a blind eye to anyone you felt needed to learn a lesson."
"Well, that's nice of Him then! Guess I should reconsider letting Voldemort know just what I can do then, huh?"
Continue | Previous Chapter