A Feather of Time

Chapter 4

Trust and Betrayal

Harry remembered the look on Sirius's face so well from that fateful night back in third year. It was a look that embodied hundreds of emotions at once. But most of all, Sirius had looked betrayed. He had stared down at Pettigrew with that dead, haunting gaze that Azkaban had given him. Harry recalled the tears that had rebelliously welled up in his Godfather's eyes when Peter had admitted to giving the Potters to Voldemort. He remembered the hate that had then filled the troubled eyes. The burning, all consuming revulsion for the man that had killed his best friend.

Harry had never understood that look. He had never felt let down, and none of his friends had ever been deceitful. He had thought Sirius to be a madman, someone totally deranged by Azkaban. He had believed him, but had never comprehended the feeling of being totally and completely betrayed.

Harry learned in the moment that he saw Dumbledore a lesson that most people don't learn for a lifetime. It is that when you trust someone, a bond grows between you. Whether you love them, or simply believe them, you are bound to them as they are bound to you. Betrayal is the flip side of trust. The backhand of love. It is the poisonous snake that ensnares you, eats at your heart until you don't realize what you are doing wrong before it is too late.

Harry had been betrayed.

Dumbledore was his idol, his mentor, his teacher, and his friend. Harry had looked up to Dumbledore, wanting always to follow in his footsteps, to someday be as great as him. To Harry, Dumbledore was his father at Hogwarts. The person he turned to when things got rough, the advice giver when he was in a pinch. But most of all, Harry had trusted Dumbledore. He had entrusted all his secrets, all his fears, in his headmaster. There was almost nothing about Harry that Dumbledore didn't know. And now, the one person Harry trusted most in the world had used those fears and secrets against him.

Harry felt hollow as he stared into the crystal blue eyes of his headmaster. He felt as though every bit of him was being drained out slowly through his eyes into Dumbledore's. Now, only one thought remained. Betrayal. Dumbledore had betrayed everyone, not just Harry. And now, no one would know. Dumbledore would kill him, and no one would be able to find out what really happened until it was too late.

It was then, during Harry's greatest time of need, that he realized what was wrong. Something that had been pulling at him ever since he had seen Dumbledore in front of him, and now he realized what it had been. Dumbledore's eyes, though they were the same color as they had always been, were void of light or feeling. They were dull, with none of their usual sparkle. Harry felt his heartbeat quicken. He knew what had happened, knew what was wrong.

Harry knew what he had to do.

Slowly, Harry rose to his feet, ignoring the wand tip pointed steadily at his chest. He faced Dumbledore square on, glaring right back into his eyes. He then grabbed Dumbledore's wrist, the one holding the wand still pointed at his chest, and muttered, 'Imperio.'

Harry felt the usual lightheaded feeling that came with the Imperius Curse. He quickly shuffled his thoughts, so that he was in total control of his body but could still hear what Dumbledore was commanding him to do. Dumbledore seemed to have gotten over his initial shock, and was smiling. It was a horrible, evil sneer that seemed to speak volumes about what he was going to make Harry do.

Harry forced his eyes to go slack while still watching closely. He then heard Dumbledore's voice echo in the back of his head. Come here, Harry. Harry stepped forward until he was almost nose-to-nose with Dumbledore.

Do you know what is happening, Harry? Harry looked up into his blue eyes. "Yes, Master," he said obediently.

Is that the truth?

"Yes Master. I know who you are."

Can you help me? Try to answer back using your mind. He can't hear us when you do.

Like this?

Exactly. Now, I'll explain everything as soon as we get out of here. All you need to know is that he is in charge of my actions, but I am still in charge of my mind. You'll have to do all the action.

I always do, Professor. I'll be fine. What exactly are you thinking of? Besides, how do I know that you really are Dumbledore?

Dumbledore managed to raise an eyebrow, but it was quickly pushed down. Harry saw Dumbledore's face contract with pain momentarily. His face went back to the sneer that it had had on before. Voldemort was controlling him...making him move the way he wanted...Harry shuddered. He had thought Dumbledore was immortal and the strongest wizard alive. Having to watch Dumbledore suffer through the hands of Voldemort was almost more than he could stand.

Harry, listen to me. You need to get out. Voldemort has gotten stronger...much stronger. Even I cannot fight this Imperius Curse for very much longer. We do not have time for you to try to judge whether or not I am Dumbledore. I need you to get out of here. Voldemort wants to use you for his last transformation. If he gets you, he can return to his most powerful stage.

An odd shudder passed across Dumbledore's face, but a moment later Harry was sure he had imagined it, as the face returned to its normal position.

You see the door I came out of?

Yes.

Through that door is a corridor, pitch black with no walls. As soon as you get through the doorway, it will close behind you. You must then illuminate your wand so that you do not fall into the bottomless pit below. Listen to me Harry, this is very important. Do not go into the door at the end. Once you get to the end of the passage, walk off the walkway to your left. Voldemort will try to lure you through the doorway, but you must resist. You must trust me, Harry. You must go into the bottomless pit on the left of the door, because it turns into a porthole that will take you back to the Burrow. Please trust me, Harry.

Dumbledore's eyes shone with light for a few seconds. In those few moments, he sent Harry a look of pure energy, which filled Harry with renewed hope. Harry nodded, and then bowed mechanically to Dumbledore. Dumbledore then spoke aloud.

"Go to the passage, Harry. Go and you will be safe."

Harry bowed once more, and then set off towards the door. He heard the Death Eaters murmuring and laughing around him. They knew what would await him beyond the door, knew that their Master's second rebirth was near. Harry's mind was reeling.

If it was Dumbledore, then Harry would be deserting him here with Death Eaters, which went against every principal value he had. Besides, deserting his headmaster in the middle of a derelict room in an unknown building at an unidentified location in the hands of people known to murder Muggles for fun while he was under the influence of the Dark Lord didn't sound like a good idea. If it wasn't Dumbledore, then he would walk off the edge and likely die a very painful death, or fall until he died of starvation. But, if he walked through the door, then it was very likely that Voldemort would be there and murder him after torturing him for hours first. Harry grimaced. It was a no win situation.

But what else could Harry do? He had nowhere else to go now but forward. He couldn't stand and fight the Death Eaters, because then he would be tortured by them and then be killed by Voldemort. Yes, he could only do one thing, and that was to go through the doorway and take it from there. Harry had reached the arch that led to the dark, damp passageway beyond. The two Death Eaters standing guard nodded to him, pointing their wands at his heart as the saw him through.

Harry stepped into the passageway, and heard the wall close behind him. The ground instantly began to shake violently beneath his feet. Terrified, he grabbed his wand out of his pocket and muttered 'Lumos.' A moment later he wished he hadn't.

Harry was standing on the edge of a bridge that was swinging in midair. It was very poorly made of wood, and there were huge gaps in between the slabs. It swung violently left and right, though Harry could feel no wind. But none of this was what made Harry step backwards. It was the fact that there were no railings, not even a small rope, to hold onto. And below...Harry gulped and looked down. There was absolute nothingness. It was pitch black, blacker than anything Harry had ever seen before in his life. It was so dark, so...empty...that it hurt his eyes just to look at it. It was a dark well of time, a well that just looking into it made you feel as though you were worthless. As though you were but a feather, floating in the pool of time. It was the same feeling Harry got when looking at the planets on a clear night, and realizing how insignificant he was compared the larger scheme of things.

Harry strained his eyes against the darkness outside of the pool of light from his wand, but he saw nothing. He remembered Dumbledore's words about not being able to hold on much longer. The hopeless look Dumbledore had had then was enough to make Harry climb the highest mountain the world for him. So, Harry took a deep breath and took a step.

The bridge swayed horribly, and Harry threw his arms out on either side of him to balance himself. He suddenly wished that he was older than fourteen, and knew how to conjure ropes from nowhere. But even then, he realized, they would disappear before long. A new fear seized him. What if Voldemort was just creating this bridge? What if it was just conjured out of nowhere?

Harry pushed these thoughts out of his mind as he came to the first gap in the wooden slats. He tried not to think of falling as he eyeballed the distance across. It was a rather long way to jump...and there was nothing to hold onto on the other side...

Harry shook himself mentally. There was no use thinking that way. All that would do was work him up, and then he would end up falling. The idea of falling made him tilt slightly towards the gap. He flung his arms out to stop himself, and then stood for a while, breathing. His body seemed to have gotten used to the swaying of the bridge, and he wasn't pitching so much with ever swing. At last, he took a deep breath and jumped as hard as he could.

He landed just as hard on the other side on his stomach. He felt the bridge tilt, and felt himself slipping back towards the gap. He grabbed a piece of wood and stopped himself from moving, but not before his legs fell off the end. They were now dangling in midair, and, just to make it worse, the bridge had begun to swing wildly beneath him. Harry held on for dear life to the slab of wood that he was on, and hoped with all his might that it would stop soon. However, the pitching and rolling of the bridge did not stop, and Harry could feel his fingertips begin to slip. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the wood tighter, feeling his legs dangling in midair beneath him, dangling over the abyss of nothing mixed with rolling darkness.

Dumbledore, he said to himself firmly. Think about Dumbledore.

An image of his headmaster came to him. Dumbledore, with his kind eyes and wonderful ideas. Then, he saw Dumbledore being tortured by the Death Eaters. They were hitting him, using the Cruciatus curse, even...maybe even killing him. Harry gulped. He had to go on. He had to survive if not for himself, then for Dumbledore.

At last, he found his last, hidden ounce of strength and pulled himself up again. Breathing fast and hard, he stood on the still moving bridge, gazing down into the gloom below. Deciding not to think about what was below him, he turned back towards where the door was supposedly going to be. And he instantly fell over.

The bridge had suddenly stopped swinging, and instead of wood, he had fallen onto concrete. His head had hit the cement before he could put out his hands in front of him. He could taste blood in his mouth, and could feel it running down his face. Dismissing the pain, he stood up and tried to make out his surroundings while blinking blood out of his eyes. His jaw dropped.

He was now on a cement walkway perched precariously over the abyss. But it was much more stable than the bridge, and was quite lighter too. Harry could see without his wand now, though the Lumos spell added enough light that it looked like a sunny day. In fact...Harry squinted. He had just seen something strange, something ...over...there! Harry's eyes lit up momentarily. He could see a large, green door at the end of the concrete walkway. That was the burst of hope he needed. He brushed himself off and began to run towards it.

Halfway across the bridge, he was aware of a new sound filling the cavern besides his footsteps. An odd, rumbling sound had begun behind him. A sound of chunks falling off of something...something that sounded dreadfully like a chisel picking off bits of stone...

Harry turned, wondering what could possibly have gone wrong now. His eyes widened and his heart stopped. Cement was flying everywhere, and slowly sinking down into the darkness. He could see chunks of the bridge floating downwards like feathers, as though they were weightless instead of weighing tons.

The bridge was breaking.

It was breaking into pieces and falling away into the never-ending pit. A crack ran up and down the bridge now, and the chunks were falling off according to it. Harry looked beneath his feet. His legs were now straddling the crack, and the breaking was quickly coming his way.

Harry ran. He ran faster than he had ever run in his life towards the door, towards the only safe haven he could see. Towards the source of life for not only himself, but for Dumbledore and the rest of the Wizarding world. If he failed...if he died...it would all be over.

He stumbled onto the floor outside the doorway, having jumped the last few feet. At last, he had reached the end of the walkway. He had jumped just as the last piece of bridge crumbled away into nothing. He stood there for a moment, wand raised, gazing out at the horrible gap he had just crossed, breathing hard. Then, very suddenly, a screeching voice rang in his ears.

'Harry Potter...you have returned to me...'

Harry jumped and looked wildly around. It was a high voice...the voice of Voldemort. Harry's scar, forgotten in the excitement, had begun to throb with pain once more. Harry felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, and began turning in a tight circle, flashing his wand around.

'Come through the door, Harry...come on...you can trust me...'

Harry shook his head violently. "I don't trust you!" he yelled, holding his ears with his hands. But the voice continued to echo inside his head.

'We can bring your parents back, Harry. Don't you want that? You want to see them again...to have a real mother, and a real father...'

Despite himself, Harry began to lower his hands, listening. If they could come back...if he could at last have a...family...

'You will have a real father, not like that horrible back-stabbing traitor Dumbledore...'

Harry's lull broke. "Dumbledore is a better wizard than you will ever be!" he cried to the darkness. "He will always be a part of me...unlike you!"

'But don't you see, Harry? I am a part of you. I live through you. You are the reason I am here...the reason I exist...the reason he is dead...you know the one I speak of. What was his name again? The blonde boy...so handsome...and his life lost so young due to your folly...'

Harry had had one nerve left, and Voldemort had just broken it. "That was not my fault," said Harry, his voice deadly quiet. "And you know it. That was you. Your plan, your plot, your hideous, insane, merciless plot. You planned to kill all of them, didn't you? You didn't care who came first, as long as you had your hands on me eventually. YOU DO NOT LIVE IN ME!" he suddenly yelled, all of his rage exiting through his voice. "I HATE YOU!" And then, despite all of his rage, he felt tears flowing down his face. "YOU KILLED MY PARENTS AND I HATE YOU!!"

Harry had reached the western edge of the dirt island now. "You must think I am stupid to believe all of your twisted lies," he said, his eyes on the chasm below him. "Well, here's something for you to think on. I'm not as blockheaded as you think. I will have my revenge, and then you will be crawling on your knees for mercy. Don't think I won't. I will revenge my parents."

'What are you doing, Harry? Where are you going? Stay with me---'

"Goodbye," he whispered to Voldemort. He heard Voldemort scream his name, but ignored it, concentrating on the cliff edge before him. Before he could think twice, he jumped into the eternal abyss of oblivion.