The Weight of the World

Chapter 29 - The Portkey

Harry went up to the dorm room directly after Hagrid left. He told Ron and Meagan he had something he wanted to work on before he went to sleep and wished them both a good night.

After he was out of sight Meagan asked Ron if he knew what Harry had to do before he went to sleep.

"Hermione asked him to write a letter to her parents and tell them what happened and that she loved them,” Ron said.

"Oh my God... I don't think I could do it," she said.

"Me either,” Ron added.

Harry pulled out his quill and ink and found a new piece of parchment in his trunk. He sat and stared at it for a second and then dipped the quill in the ink. He knew this was going to be difficult, but he decided to just do as best he could.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Granger,

My name is Harry Potter and I am one of your daughter's best friends. I hope she has mentioned me so this letter won't be too awkward. This summer as I am sure you know, Professor Dumbledore allowed her to come to the school to help me work through some of the problems I have been going thorough. As Hermione probably has told you, my parents were killed when I was just a year old, and I don't have any real family. Your daughter's friendship has helped me get through some of the hardest times of my life and I have always been grateful for her friendship. We are experiencing very dark times in our world. As there are in your world, the non-wizarding world, we have those who are very evil and these evil people commit horrible crimes against others. The difference is that in the wizarding world, these evil people possess powers that make them extremely dangerous. One of the darkest and most powerful wizards of our time was responsible for the deaths of both of my parents. He was stopped and everyone though he might be dead, but he has returned and has started killing again and he now has been trying to kill me. This evil wizard will stop at nothing until he is destroyed or until he destroys me, and the peace, law and order that many good wizards have worked so hard to sustain. This dark wizard calls himself Voldemort and he has many followers who help him commit dark acts against our kind. They recently attacked the school and we were able to get out before they could hurt us. We had to hide out while our Ministry of Magic took the necessary steps to ensure that the school was safe again. While doing this Hermione, myself, and the Ministry Official that was protecting us were attacked. The official from the Ministry didn't survive, but Hermione and I did. But something went wrong shortly after, and the dark wizard took her hostage. The Ministry Officials are working hard to get her back and I have confidence that they will do so. I am sure you will be hearing from them shortly regarding details. I was able to speak to Hermione not long after she was taken. She is fine, and they are treating her well so far, but she asked me to write this letter to tell you that she loves you both very much just in case something does happen to her. This has been one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, but as she is my friend, I promised her that I would write it.

I know that this situation is a very serious one, but I hope that you don't worry too much. Hermione is very smart, very brave, and very powerful, and I know that the Ministry will do everything in their power to get her back safely. I will also do everything in my power to get her back safely. I am sorry to have to deliver this news to you, but as I said before, it was at Hermione's request, and she insisted that you know that she loves you both very much.

If there is anything I can do to help you in this situation, please don't hesitate to ask.

Harry Potter

Harry stared at the letter and frowned. He tried to imagine what they would say when they received it. He read it a few times to himself and laid it down on the desk. He wanted to send it immediately just to keep his promise to Hermione, but Hedwig was down in the owlery and he decided he would just wait and do it first thing in the morning.

"I'll just do it tomorrow," he whispered to himself.

He then turned the lamp on his desk down, changed into his pajamas and went to sleep.

Hagrid went up to the Headmaster's office to find Moody, Arthur Weasley and Sirius deep in conversation. They were staring at an old map that had half of the globe on it, and it was obvious to him that they were trying to find a probable location of Voldemort's underground palace.

They all turned around when Hagrid walked in, and immediately exchanged their greetings. Hagrid had a lot to report to Dumbledore, but he knew it could wait.

"Some of the old Egyptian burial tombs could easily house a small army, but it would take weeks to search them all," Mr. Weasley said.

"I don't believe that Voldemort would use that type of location. There is too great of a risk of being discovered by a curse breaker or a muggle explorer, and he wouldn't have had time to prepare it properly to make it unplottable," Dumbledore said.

Sirius slammed his fist against the desk and turned and walked towards the back of the room.

"Patience, Sirius. We will find her," Dumbledore said.

"I'm sure we'll find her too Albus, I just don't know if we'll find her in time, that's all,” Sirius said.

"Albus, I'm off to the Ministry. I'm going to try to persuade some of the Death Eaters we captured there to remember the location of this underground base," Moody growled.

"Good idea Alastor,” Sirius said. "Please hurry, I think our time is running short."

Dumbledore nodded at him as he turned and began to slowly hobble down the steps of the spiral staircase.

"Anything I can do tonight Professor?" Hagrid asked Dumbledore.

"Get some sleep Hagrid,” Dumbledore said to him smiling. "I can hear about your progress in the morning."

"Night all,” Hagrid said waiving one of his large hands.

Sirius and Dumbledore huddled back over the map.

"I'll go to the kitchens and get some strong tea; it's going to be a long night,” Sirius said.

As always, when Harry wasn't completely exhausted, had trouble getting to sleep. It was well after Ron had gone to bed, and Harry could hear his silent snores, that he finally dozed off.

Harry was dreaming again. He immediately found himself holding a torch walking through a small confined corridor. There were no doors, no windows, and the corridor was so small and narrow that two people would have to stand with their backs against the wall to squeeze by one another. Harry had to be careful not to burn himself with the torch because of the confined space.

He walked for what seemed like thirty minutes until the corridor he was walking through opened up and presented a large set of wooden double doors.

Harry nudged up against the doors and they both opened with loud creaks. The room he entered was a large one. Harry guessed that it was large enough to play basketball in and the high ceilings made it look close to the size of one of the gyms back at his school in Surrey. The walls had around twenty touches on each sides and strange writing all over them. The floors also had strange engravings that Harry didn't recognize. He was too busy staring at the floors and the walls to notice the large thrown-like chair at the other end of the room, and the wizard sitting in it. It wasn't until Harry heard the wizard speak, before he started up to see who the voice belonged to.

It was Voldemort.

"Hello Harry."

Harry felt a rise of hate suddenly fill his body as he stared at the figure sitting so comfortably in the large chair at the other end of the large room. Harry started walking towards him and as he did, he began to feel around for his wand, but it wasn't there.

He still had the realization that he was in a dream, so not having his wand didn't worry him..yet.

"Where's Hermione?" Harry yelled.

"She's fine I assure you. She is nothing more than my guest right now Harry and it is up to you to decide if she stays that way."

Harry was about twenty meters from Voldemort when he noticed that chair he was sitting in was made of bone, and Harry guessed human bone at that.

The thing that stood out the most were the vertebrae acting as the arm rests, with the skulls still attached where Voldemort was resting his hands. Both of his hands were wrapped around the foreheads of the skulls with a couple of his long white fingers disappearing inside of the eye sockets.

"Why can't you just let her go? As powerful as you are and you think you have to take a hostage to get me to come after you? You killed my parents; don't you think I'll seek you on my own at some point?"

Voldemort smiled at Harry then stood up and walked towards him. He stopped just a few meters from him before he spoke again.

"Harry I would expect that by now you would understand that I have no intentions of just killing you. I am after you Harry, and your power. It is true that before I tried to kill you, but now I have found certain things out about you."

Voldemort walked behind Harry and put his hand on his shoulder.

"You have no idea how powerful you could become if you would only give in to me. The things we could do, the magic we could create, it would be unstoppable."

Harry took a step forward so that Voldemort's hand was out of reach of his shoulder, and turned around to face him.

"You don't understand anything do you?" Harry said smiling at him and shaking his head. "You aren't here to stay. No one is. The things I have seen and the things I know now, I don't understand half of them yet, but one thing I do know is that there have been hundreds of wizards like you, and hundreds of wizards like me, and you'll die just as they did, and I'll die too. You may be the one that kills me, you might not be, but you're kidding yourself if you really think that you're unstoppable. Sooner or later everyone stops playing nice."

Voldemort was obviously not pleased by these bold statements made by Harry. His face turned mean and his red eyes tightened and he leaned in closer to Harry.

"You are nothing more than an arrogant boy! I admit that you do have enormous potential, but you are nothing more than an arrogant little boy. How dare you speak like you know the limits of my power! You have no idea how powerful I have become. You have no idea what I can do to you, and to your girlfriend."

Harry felt real fear for this first time since he had walked into the room, but he tried his hardest not to let it show.

He just stared at Voldemort and calmed himself before he spoke.

"I warned you not to hurt her last time, and when you didn't listen, you saw what I did to you,” Harry said calmly. "I promise if you hurt her, if you hurt her just one little bit, I'll make it my mission in life to make you pay for it and I won't stop until I do."

Voldemort smiled at him. He loved seeing the dark side of Harry. He even started a small laugh before he spoke again.

"Well then Harry, maybe I should just go and kill her now and get you here faster."

Harry felt his heart start beating very rapidly. He took a deep breath again to calm himself, and he forced a smile back at Voldemort.

"Because, Riddle, if you kill her, I won't come after you directly. I'll wait and make sure I learn the most violent ways, the most painful ways to hurt someone. Then I will come after you. It might take years, but I'll come after you. And I won't kill you, I'll hurt you within an inch of your life, I'll drain every ounce of power from your body, and I'll keep you alive just so that I can keep making you pay for what you did to her."

The smile left Voldemort's face. He could sense the power and the anger coming from Harry. It was something he had never sensed from another wizard before, at least not this strong. He knew that had he ever been forced to meet Dumbledore face to face, he would probably have sensed the same thing from him. It was a strange sensation for Voldemort. He loved feeling this hatred from Harry, but at the same time, the strength that radiated from the young wizard almost scared him.

He walked back to his thrown and sat down.

"Harry, I don't have time to play games with you, so here is what I propose. I have had a portkey placed exactly one kilometer south from the Hogsmeade station on the railroad tracks. If you aren't there in an hour, I will start to hurt your friend. After the first hour, the pain will get worse until she finally dies from it. I won't wait long. I will make sure that she knows that she is being hurt because you didn't have the courage to come and face me."

Harry's mind was racing. He wished he had his wand and that he could just end it right there.

"And Harry, if you do come for her, I will allow her to take the portkey back, on this, I give you my word. If you come with anyone else however, I'll make sure they are all killed and you and your friend will watch each other being tortured to death."

Voldemort snapped his fingers and Harry woke up staring at his clock. It said 4:15AM.

Harry jumped out of bed and changed into the clothes he had worn the day before. His whole body was shaking as he nudged Ron awake.

"Ron, you have to get dressed, meet me up at Dumbledore's office. It's about Hermione."

"What happened?" Ron asked sleepily.

"Just get up there. hurry!" Harry said, and ran out the door.

When Harry got to Headmaster's office he found Sirius and Dumbledore still going over books and maps trying to locate where Voldemort might be hiding Hermione. Both of them were startled when they saw Harry run in, out of breath.

"Voldemort!" Harry said trying to catch his breath.

"Harry, slow down," Sirius said.

Harry took a couple of deep breaths and then spoke again.

"I had a vision and spoke with Voldemort. He said he had a portkey left for me outside of Hogsmeade. He said that I had to take it within an hour or he would start hurting Hermione. He said if I waited too long, he would kill her,” Harry said still trying to catch his breath.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Sirius said to Dumbledore. "Let's all take the portkey and get her back,”

"You can't," Harry jumped in. "He said that they would be waiting. He said that if I showed up with anyone else, we would all be killed,” Harry yelled.

"Harry you aren't going alone," Sirius said. "Albus, tell him he isn't going alone."

"Harry, in this vision where was Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked.

"The same place, it was still underground I think. I was walking in a long corridor with rock walls and ceiling. It was small, but then it opened up and I went through some doors into a huge room with strange writing in it and he was sitting on this large chair made of human bones. It had skulls and other bones all over it,” Harry said in a panic.

"What kind of place is that Albus?" Sirius asked.

"Sirius, I'm afraid I have no idea,” Dumbledore said.

"I knows this place!" a voice said behind Harry.

It was Dobby.

"Here is sir's tea. Dobby makes it nice and strong just like sir asks," Dobby said handing one of the cups to Sirius.

"Dobby did you say you know the place that Harry spoke of?" Dumbledore asked.

"Oh yes sir. Dobby's old master made Dobby work there years ago. Dobby is scared in that place sir. Dobby never wants to go to that place again sir. That place is cold and dark sir."

"Dobby where is it?" Sirius asked.

"In the land of ice sirs. Up north. Deep underground sirs. Dobby knows the way," Dobby said shivering.

Dobby went to the map and pointed at an unmarked spot in Iceland.

"Dobby," Harry said grabbing him by the shoulders and spinning him around, "The Dark Lord has Hermione there. You have to show them Dobby, we don't have much time."

Dobby looked terrified. "But sirs, Dobby gets cold there sirs."

Harry shook Dobby. "Dobby! He's going to kill her."

Dobby looked at Harry and then over at Sirius and Dumbledore. "Miss is going to get killed if Dobby doesn't go?"

"YES!" Harry and Sirius said simultaneously.

Sirius walked over and knelt down by Dobby. "Dobby, how long does it take to get there?"

"Not long sir. Dobby just apparates there sir."

Harry felt relieved and by the look on Sirius' face, he did as well.

"But it takes Dobby almost two hours to walk down the steps sir."

Harry felt the relief go away instantly.

"Steps?" Sirius asked.

"Yes sirs, there are steps that need walking down to the main chambers. Dobby gets tired and has to rest, but there isn't any way to magic down there. Dobby has to just walk and Dobby had to carry many things."

Sirius had a look of panic. "There's no way we can get there in an hour."

"I'm going,” Harry said.

Ron walked in behind Harry and was yawning.

"Going where?" Ron said still yawning and stretching his arms.

"He's not going anywhere,” Sirius said.

"I'm not just going to let her die Sirius,” Harry said.

"Harry, listen to me. He'll kill you. You can just sacrifice everything like this. He'll kill you,” Sirius said.

"She's there because of me Sirius! I'm not letting her die. It's my fault she's there and Voldemort said if I go then he'd let her come back. He said she could take the portkey back."

"And you believe him Harry? Why on Earth would you believe him?" Sirius said almost yelling.

"Because he gave me his word. Even if it's a long shot I'm taking the chance,” Harry said yelling back.

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Ron asked.

No one answered him.

"Harry look," Sirius said trying to lower his voice, "What happened to Hermione is terrible, but we'll contact the Ministry and we'll hurry there and maybe we can get there in time to save her."

"I'm not taking that chance,” Harry said.

"Harry look" Sirius said his with his voice almost at a yell again, "You can't just sacrifice everything you've been given like this. The power you have is something that can help a lot of people, and you can't just throw it away."

Harry felt the anger welling up in him. "Then take it back!" he said looking at Dumbledore. "Give it to someone else! I don't want it anymore!"

"Harry calm down,” Professor Dumbledore said.

"I don't want to calm down! I want to go get Hermione back!" he yelled.

"I can't let you go Harry,” Sirius said.

"You can't stop me,” Harry said quickly.

"This is crazy! What's going on?" Ron added again.

Sirius and Harry stared each other down for a second before Sirius reached in and pulled out his wand.

"Harry, please don't make me stop you,” Sirius said. "Albus, talk to him!"

"Harry, he's right. We have to think this through,” Professor Dumbledore said.

"There isn't any time to think it through Professor; I've got forty five minutes to get there,” Harry said.

"I won't let you go Harry,” Sirius said with a firm voice.

"You can't stop me,” Harry said calmly.

Sirius quickly flicked his wand but before he could get a spell out of his mouth, Harry had thrown both of his hands out toward Sirius and magically knocked him to the ground. He didn't use his wand, but the force of the magic had knocked the wind out of Sirius and his wand out of his hands.

"You can't stop me Sirius. I have to go,” Harry said.

Dumbledore just stared at Harry and didn't say a word.

"I'm sorry Professor. She's my friend; I can't just let him kill her,” Harry said to Dumbledore.

Professor Dumbledore gave Harry a nod and a small smile.

Harry turned around to Ron quickly.

"I'm taking my Firebolt to the portkey, I can just make it. I have to get to Hermione. Come with me so you can help her get back. I'll fill you in on the way."

Ron looked at Harry, and then at Dumbledore and then to Sirius who was still lying on the ground rubbing his chest. He nodded at Harry and followed him out of the castle.

Sirius slowly got to his feet and then reached down and picked up his wand.

"Just like his father,” Dumbledore said almost smiling.

"Too much like his father," Sirius said still short of breath. He then looked down at Dobby who was in the corner and looked scared to death. "Dobby, take me there now."

Dobby extended a shaky hand to Sirius, and after Sirius grabbed his hand, they both disappeared.

Harry was already through the main doors of the castle when Ron finally shouted behind him.

"Harry, wait! I thought we were taking our brooms?" Ron said panting.

"We are,” Harry said after he stopped. He then looked back over his shoulder. "Get ready behind you, they're coming."

Ron heard something cutting through the air behind them, and saw that it was both of their brooms.

Harry reached up and in one quick motion mounted his broom and sped off towards Hogsmeade. Ron did the same.

Harry flew close to Ron and looked at his watch and saw that he had a little more than thirty minutes to get there. That was plenty of time on the Firebolt.

During the first few minutes of the trip, Harry flew just fast enough so that he could fill Ron in about his dream and tell him that he wants him to wait where he leaves to make sure Hermione gets back there safely. Harry then explained that he was going to rush ahead and find the portkey, and that he would light up his wand so Ron could find him.

Harry's Firebolt was so much faster than Ron's broom, and Harry knew he could get there much faster than Ron. Ron didn't argue at this. He just watched his friend zoom off ahead of him and flew as fast as he could to try to keep up.

Harry was flying faster than he ever had before. Everything was blurred including the lights of Hogsmeade, which came and went like a flash. Harry saw the station zoom past and he flew for another thirty seconds before he slowed down and started staring at the tracks below him. It wasn't long before he saw something small glowing down by the tracks. He touched down right beside it and slowly laid his broom on the ground. He looked down at it closely and saw that it was some sort of gold medallion that had the Dark Mark on it. Harry pulled out his wand, shouted 'lumos' and waited for Ron to fly to him.

He had found the portkey, with ten minutes to spare.