A Hero's Defeat

A Hero's Defeat

Chapter Four

The air around the castle had shifted since Harry had disappeared to his rooms. It weighed him down as he walked towards the kitchens for an early dinner. Everything was quiet, something Harry could never get used to the castle being.

But things had changed since the second war had begun. Too many people were dead now. Everyone was dead. More people were going to die before the war was over and Voldemort was defeated.

After getting a quick dinner from Dobby, Harry walked down to the dungeons. Before Snape was killed, Harry had spent a great deal of time in the dungeons looking at the Potions Master's collection of texts about the Dark Arts. Now, he had to sneak down there. No one else knew that passwords to the wards placed around the door and Snape ordered Harry not to tell anyone else.

He, too, had known the truth.

There was no way that the Dark Lord was going to be defeated with Light magic. Snape had been the one to suggest Harry's education of the Dark Arts. Since that time, Harry had found several useful spells for his final confrontation with Voldemort.

One of which was his mind barrier. It was a lot stronger than Occlumency and it was impenetrable. Harry had only been contemplating mastering it before Voldemort captured him and during the time of his imprisonment, he had mastered the skill and effectively blocked off most of his mind from Voldemort's torture.

But he had sacrificed a small part of his mind and that had been why everyone thought he was insane. It had worked. Those of the Order were afraid that he would turn to Voldemort at any given moment. Harry saw it in their eyes when they spoke to him and he noticed how some people, most, tried to avoid him.

They were worried about him knowing their strategies even as they wondered who had saved them those few times. All anyone recalled was seeing a griffon. None knew that that griffon was actually the insane Harry Potter. The same person that they had feared. None of them knew that, though. Harry wouldn't tell them and the only other people who knew were dead.

~~~

When Ron regained consciousness after his torture session by Voldemort, he realized that he was in a cell in what was most likely Azkaban.

Great.

Now he was going to be tortured by Voldemort until he was killed.

He looked around the cell. The walls were blank, not that he expected them to be painted bright red...maybe dark red or brown for blood. The stone walls were foreboding and depressing.

Now he just had to wait for the Dementors.

He had known that the Cruciatus Curse hurt because both Snape and Harry had taught everyone in the order how to work though it by casting it on them. Ron had never experienced it the way Voldemort cast it.

Full of hatred.

It hurt a lot worse than when Harry had cast it. Harry hadn't put too much effort into it, just enough to cast the spell for an effect similar to a Death Eater's.

The cell door opened. Ron expected Voldemort or one of the Death Eaters.

He never expected to see Harry.

~~~

Pettigrew approached his master silently. The snake-man was watching and listening as his plan came to fruition. Screams of pain had haunted Peter's ears since he'd returned to his post as Death Eater almost ten years ago.

Things had changed since then. Now his master was obsessed with destroying everything associated with Harry Potter.

As far as Peter could tell, it was working. Ron Weasley would be the second of Harry's family to break. The first, of course, had been Sirius Black, and Hermione Granger hadn't broke, she'd simply shifted loyalties. Now, she was the Potions Mistress, working constantly to create new ways to torture people. She was a true Death Eater, despite her heritage and Peter felt remorse.

He had been the one to tell her that the only way to save Harry would be to join Voldemort. He had been there when the Mark was burned into her flesh. He had been involved in her initiation process which was made worse by the fact that she was the only Mudblood to ever join the ranks of the Death Eaters.

Even now, he heard her screams of pain and maybe even pleasure as she had been raped mercilessly by the people she would soon call her comrades.

Peter saw it all as a twisted circle and he was beginning to hate it more and more each passing day. He knew that he would never turn on the Dark Lord because his life was forfeit outside the walls of Azkaban. Any person had the right to kill him since Sirius had been declared innocent.

But for some reason it didn't really matter anymore.

~~~

Harry chose a book from the shelf that he'd passed over a few times because if the subject. The History of Glamorie.

Harry felt that he would need it now if he had to face Voldemort while he still had Ron hidden away on Azkaban. Maybe he could find a way to counter the spell. Voldemort had used it on Remus and Harry wouldn't out it past the snake to use it on Ron too.

He settled himself into a chair and began to read. He had little time before Ginny would start looking for him. He knew that she would want answers if for no other reason than to keep her mind off of possibly losing another family member.

~~~

Hours after the Ron Weasley's screams had stopped, a man walked the halls of Azkaban. He wore shaggy black robes and his black hair needed to be cut. His eyes were dead, void of the spark that had been there in his youth or even a few hours ago when he had been torturing Weasley.

Now, every part of that man was dead. He was more like a robot than anything else. That could mean one of two things for people, Muggle and wizard alike; he could either be very submissive, or the most dangerous person in the world.

Right this second, he was the latter. Though his mind was no longer his, he knew was that his former friend needed to pay for his betrayal.

He stopped outside the door of a cell in the deepest part of the prison, where Voldemort kept any wizard or witch who happened to be connected to the Order of the Phoenix.

He muttered the password and walked inside. "Well," he sneered, seeing the unconscious form on the floor. "Ennervate."

The figure jerked awake, his eyes searching the room in fear and uncertainty.

"Please," he said. "No more...We were friends."

The man simply glared. "Not anymore. Crucio."

~~~

Harry nearly dropped the book he was reading when he heard a tapping on the small window in the dungeon. He stood up and walked over to allow the tawny owl inside. He clearly recognized the owl, belonging to the one person who knew of his current situation.

He took the letter and opened it, immediately recognizing the untidy scrawl that was his former enemy's trademark at times.

Harry, there's been a development. We need to meet where they gathered tonight.

S.

Harry committed the letter to memory before setting his wand to it and reducing the parchment to ash. What had happened to cause such a prompt meeting? They usually only met once every few weeks and the last meeting had been the week before.

So what was going on?

Harry sighed and went back to the book. He'd been reading on a particularly Dark form of glamorie spells that dealt with changing a person's perception so that they would see another person, possibly an enemy. It was used as a sort of mask on the eyes. He was still slightly confused by it, though he doubted that he would ever have to experience that form of the spell in any context. But Harry was intrigued by it.

With a sigh, he replaced the book and readied himself to leave. He checked the hall outside Snape's room to make sure that no one was around. No one was and he made his way back to his own room only to find Ginny waiting for him.