Voldemort Ascendant

Chapter eleven:

Between two blocks of seemingly ordinary buildings lay a seemingly ordinary street; a simple road of occasionally crooked cobblestones and a not-so-even surface. Not a soul could be seen upon the road from one end of the block to the next, and within the houses lining the street, nobody moved. When a high pitched `whooshing´ sound filled the air, there was nobody there to notice it. The sound was thin at first, and fast. Energetic, even. The sound became a crackle that deepened, then spluttered, as if it were struggling or even pausing over the street. With a clearly audible `pop!´, the sound disappeared, and seven figures fell to the cobbled street, seemingly from out of thin air, landing largely atop one another with faint groans and exclamations of `oomph!´.

From atop the human pile, Parvati sat up and raised a hand to her spinning head before looking beneath her. `Harry? Where´s Harry?!´ Dragging herself from the pile, her foot encountered an invisible barrier. Reaching down she clutched at thin air; grasping it firmly she dragged it away, and the invisible barrier became Harry´s prone form. `Oh, thank the light,´ she exclaimed, and knelt at his side.

From the bottom of the human pile, a low voice moaned and an arm began frantically gesticulating before finally beating at the bodies atop it. `Get off me! Get off, you´re squashing me!´

The human pile slowly separated, forming into five distinctly separate bodies, each rubbing at their heads and murmuring apologies to the unfortunate Justin, who had been first to hit the ground and subsequently broken everyone else´s fall.

`Just what the sweet merry fuck was that?´ Justin asked, alternately clutching at his head and his rear end. `Bloody hell, I swear I´ve broken my arse,´ he complained, then noticed Parvati kneeling over Harry. `Is he okay?´ he asked curiously.

Parvati shrugged. `Don´t know. He doesn´t seem broken or bruised . . . but he hasn´t woken up, either.´

Behind them, Edward lay motionless upon the cobbled street, his head spinning and relaying cruel images of Sally-Ann. Sally-Ann smiling. Sally-Ann crying. Sally-Ann dying. `Sally-Ann,´ he moaned, and slowly sat up.

Kevin and Derek directed looks at each other, then each silently moved to either side of Edward and helped him to his feet. Derek patted Edward´s back and shifted uncomfortably. `Yeah, sorry about that,´ he said.

`Sorry about what?´ Edward muttered. `What the fuck happened back there?´ he asked, wobbling on his feet.

Kevin and Derek exchanged another look. Parvati looked away from Harry and sent Edward a sympathetic look. `Edward, there´s something we should have told you back at the school . . . something someone should have told all of us before we set last night into action,´ she added scathingly, directing a glare at Derek and Kevin.

Kevin held up his hand defensively. `Hey, we told you . . . eventually. There was nothing stopping you from telling Hermione and Edward after that.´

`It was too late, it would have simply upset the balance of the plan by that stage!´ Parvati protested.

`Well maybe that´s why we never said anything - because we didn´t want to upset the balance of the plan,´ Kevin replied.

`And no one would have believed us, anyway,´ Derek added, and nodded his head firmly.

`What are you talking about?´ Justin demanded, leaving Harry´s side and joining Parvati.

`Yeah . . . what´s going on?´ Edward asked suspiciously, directing his look between Derek, Kevin and Parvati.

Parvati suddenly looked incredibly sorry. `Light, Edward . . . we should have done something. But it just seemed too late . . . the plan was already in motion . . . Derek and Kevin suspected Sally-Ann of going to Lucius.´

`What?!I Edward exploded, turning on Derek and Kevin.

`Easy there, big guy,´ Derek stuttered, and stepped behind Kevin. `It´s not our fault . . . we saw her leaving the Headmaster´s office one morning. And it was the look on her face so often . . . we knew her long before any of this servitude business. We knew what those looks meant.´

`Well why the fuck didn´t you say something?´ Edward gasped, and suddenly dashed his knuckles across his eyes. `Shit. Shit.´

Kevin and Derek looked across at Parvati, who simply shrugged and shook her head.

`It hurts,´ Edward said softly, covering his face with one hand. `Light, it hurts.´

Parvati crossed to Edward and laid one hand gently on his shoulder. `Edward-`

Edward shrugged his shoulder violently, shaking off Parvati´s hand. `Don´t . . . not now. I just . . . I just-`

`It´s okay,´ Parvati replied softly, and stepped away from him.

`Parvati,´ Justin whispered softly.

`Mm?´

`Where´s Hermione?´ Justin asked.

`Huh?´ Parvati replied dumbly.

`Hermione. Where is she?´ Justin whispered desperately.

`She´s not here?´ Parvati questioned, and suddenly spun on her toe, mentally noting who had landed in the street with her. `Oh, by the light . . . where is she?´

`I don´t know!´ Justin cried desperately. `That´s why I´m asking you!´

`Oh fuck . . . did anyone see her when we were in that wind tunnel thing?´

Across from them, Colin and Dennis, kneeling beside Harry, shook their heads. `She wasn´t in there with us,´ Colin replied softly. `She cast the spell that took us out of Hogwarts, but she didn´t come with us.´

Parvati gasped in horror, raising her fists to her mouth as if she were about to be sick. `Why didn´t she come with us?´

Dennis shrugged slightly. `Maybe it was part of the spell . . . maybe the caster can´t include their self in it. Greater spells tend to be like that. There´s always some negative element to it.´

`Light . . . oh light . . .´ Parvati whispered, and suddenly felt sick to her stomach.

On the ground, Harry´s face suddenly twitched and settled in a frown. His eyelids fluttered, and slowly opened. His green eyes stared vacantly skywards. Colin gasped. `Harry? Harry! Are you okay?´ he demanded.

But Harry didn´t seem to hear him.

***

Annoyed, Justin kicked a large stone and watched with satisfaction as it flew threw the air and landed several metres from the group. `None of this is how it should have been,´ he muttered darkly, his eyes searching for another rock to kick.

`We´re out of the castle grounds, and we´ve got Harry with us. Just be grateful for that,´ Parvati replied neutrally, her eyes constantly on the look out for signs of life.

Having woken Harry, the small group had decided that they´d be best picking a direction to walk and following it until . . . until something, anything, happened. None of them had the least idea where they were, and choosing a direction to walk in had raised all kinds of arguments and objections. Justin had argued north, as north had always been considered a safe-haven for wizards. But the school was located to the north, and if Hermione had transported them south of the school, then walking north would simply have lead them straight back to the school, and that was out of the question. Parvati had suggested south, but south had been shouted down too. Afterall, if they were north of the school, then south would lead them straight back to the school, and even if they were already south of the school, further south would lead them towards London, and as far as any of them knew, London was populated by Death Eaters and potentially posed more of a risk than the school, considering they had Harry with them.

In the end they´d chosen east. When wizards and witches had chosen to evacuate England in fear of their lives or in order to protect their families, they had all gone east, into Europe and beyond.

And so it was that they found themselves, several hours later, steadily heading east.

`We´re out of the castle, and we´ve got Harry. But we don´t have Hermione, we don´t have Sally-Ann, we don´t have a single clue as to where we are, and Harry´s . . . .´ Justin paused, turning to look at Harry. Walking slowly but steadily between Colin and Dennis, Harry´s eyes continued to stare vacantly ahead, his expression unreadable. `Harry´s with us but not really with us.´

`We all knew there were risks involved, Justin. If I recall rightly, you seemed to recognise those risks more than any of us,´ Parvati responded, her voice soft and tired.

Justin scowled and kicked at another rock, turning his head to briefly look at the rest of the group. Behind him and Parvati walked Colin, Harry and Dennis. Behind them, Kevin and Derek were making a clumsy attempt to offer support to Edward, whose face was strangely haggard, as if even the effort to walk was exhausting him. His wand, the tip splintered from their fall to the cobblestones, was tucked casually through his belt, and every so often it made a faint popping sound or spewed forth brightly coloured bubbles. Noticing Justin´s thoughtful look, Parvati turned to him.

`Do you still mistrust him?´ she asked.

`Huh? Edward?´ He gave a short shake of his head. `I trusted him, Parvati. As much as I could allow myself to. And I do trust him now, as much as I trust any of you.´

Parvati´s face crumpled. `And just what is that supposed to mean, Justin? As much as I trust any of you?!´

`I didn´t mean it like that! I trust you! All of you, okay?´

`Whatever,´ Parvati replied angrily, slowing her walk until she was beside Colin. Justin was left walking alone at the head of the group, and it was as she was glaring furiously at the back of his head that she noticed the plume of dust rising from the road far ahead of them.

`What is that?´ she whispered loudly, and Colin craned his head forward.

`Dust from the road. Someone´s approaching, and they´re approaching fast. We need to get off this road and find somewhere to hide,´ Colin said quickly.

`Hide? There isn´t anywhere to hide!´ Parvati replied, her voice raising an octave as she gestured at the empty fields to either side of the road.

The group came to a stop, and Derek eyed the fields. `If we´re still there´s a small chance that we could hide ourselves in the fields,´ he suggested. `But we´d need to lie low to the ground and not much an inch.´

Kevin shook his head. `Whatever that field is, it´s not high enough to cover us.´

`They´re getting closer,´ Dennis pointed out, and kept a firm grip on Harry´s shoulder. `Edward, can´t you try something with your wand?´

Edward bit his lip and ran a fidgeting hand over the length of his wand. `I don´t know . . . if the spell backfires because of the damage to my wand, we´re going to become even more conspicuous than we are now,´ he replied uncertainly.

`It´s a horse drawn carriage,´ Colin said, indicating the quickly approaching plume of dust. `They´ll be here any minute - we need to think of something fast.´

`Cover Harry with the invisibility cloak, now,´ Derek said quickly. `They´ll be looking for Harry, and even these days he´d stand out like a sore thumb. And they´ll probably be looking for a group of seven people - a girl amongst them. Parvati, get under the cloak with Harry.´

Parvati looked uncertain, but took the invisibility cloak from Edward and threw it over Harry and herself. `What about the rest of you?´ she whispered.

`It´s too late to hide now,´ Kevin said, and slowly they formed a tight group around the hidden Parvati and Harry. `Look, if we don´t act suspiciously, there´s a good chance that this carriage will travel straight past us, okay? We just continue walking at a normal speed along this road, like we have a right to be here.´

`What if they stop?´ Dennis asked quietly as the group slowly started forward once more.

`I´ll have my wand ready, even if it is damaged,´ Edward offered, walking at the back of the group.

`Kevin,´ Derek said suddenly. `That´s one of the old ceremonial ministry coaches.´

`Fuck!´ Parvati hissed from beneath the cloak.

`Don´t panic,´ Kevin said through gritted teeth. `They wouldn´t come looking for us in an old horse-drawn coach, so it´s probably just some pretentious git out for a ride. Look, it´s being pulled by abraxan but he´s still going by road, the showy bastard. Stay calm!´

Steadily, the solid black coach approached them, and from where they were standing they could clearly see that four winged-abraxan drew the coach.

`That used to be old Fudge´s coach,´ Justin whispered. `You don´t think that he is in there, do you?´ he said to no one in particular.

`Would Voldemort have left him alive?´ Kevin asked uncertainly, raising his voice slightly so he could be heard over the din of the coach.

`Shhh,´ Parvati hissed from beneath the cloak. `It´s slowing down!´

The group fell silent, slowing their pace as a gloved hand protruded through one of the coach´s windows and gestured for the coach to stop. Slowly the door opened on its own, and an old, stooped figure appeared at the door way.

`Fudge,´ Justin said softly.

***

Fudge stepped slowly and carefully from the coach, and from beneath the invisibility cloak, Parvati was astonished at his appearance. It had been nearly three years since the last time she´d seen Fudge, and in that time he had well and truly become an old man. She briefly entertained the thought that perhaps Voldemort had prematurely aged Fudge, but dismissed the thought as ridiculous. Regardless, the man that stood before her was stooped and near crippled with old age, his beard grizzled and his face heavily lined. Surely magic can stop such rigorous signs of age? She wondered, thinking of Dumbledore´s gently lined face and beautiful white beard.

Leaning heavily upon a beautifully carved walking stick, Fudge took a slow and careful step towards the group, his eyes squinting as he studied them, his forehead eventually settling into a perplexed frown. `You . . . you´re those boys that escaped from the school, aren´t you?´

Beneath the cloak, Parvati bit back a sharp gasp. Edward automatically reached for his wand, and both Derek and Kevin took hasty steps away from the old man.

`Don´t get any ideas, old man,´ Edward said, revealing his wand. `We´re not going back to that place,´ he growled, but the mock bravado was ruined when his voice trembled.

If anything, Fudge looked extremely sad. `It´s a sad day when children are forced to escape their schools and threaten old men for fear of being returned against their will,´ he said slowly. `Nothing is as it should be these days,´ he continued, shaking his head sadly. `And I, for one, have had enough of it.´

Justin edged closer to Edward. `What are you talking about, Fudge?´

Fudge sighed heavily, shaking his head once more. `I never should have allowed any of this to happen. I blame myself entirely. If I had only believed old Dumbledore . . .´ he said the name softly, reverently, and his voice was laced with regret. `I´m leaving this place. Leaving the ministry, leaving England, leaving the wizarding world. There´s no place here for an old man bent beneath the weight of one thousand regrets.´

The group shifted slightly, still wary and uncertain. `What do you want with us?´ Kevin asked directly.

Fudge´s bushy eyebrows raised and he cocked his head to the side. `Well now . . .´

***

`Fudge´ was the first word he heard upon wakening. Or perhaps the word `Fudge´ was what had wakened him? Fudge. It sounded like the sort of word that might wake him, thought he didn´t know why. Seeing for the first time - really seeing - he took in the scene around him through a cloud of shimmering lights. An invisibility cloak he thought to himself, though the thought was slow, hazy, distracted. Rolling his eyes, he realised someone else was sharing the cloak with him. The face was familiar, but he couldn´t seem to recall a name. Outside the invisibility cloak, he was surrounded by boys, their faces equally familiar. Beyond the boys stood a large black carriage, to the forefront of which stood a team of four abraxon. Beautiful he thought to himself. His immediate impulse was to step forward and walk to them, stroke his hands over their beautiful heads . . . but something intangible stopped him. Wait, it instructed, and so he did, looking around him curiously. Just the girl beside him, the boys surrounding him, and the coach with a team of beautiful abraxon.

Slowly, sounds filtered through to him, soft and dull at first, as if he were hearing them from some distance. Then growing louder and more clear. Soon, he was able to distinguish bits and pieces of conversation, fragments without meaning.

`You . . . you´re those boys that escaped from the school, aren´t you?´

The words had no meaning to him, so he focused instead upon the boys surrounding him. He knew those faces, he was sure of it. He felt humour, anger, excitement, and passive indifference when he looked at the boys, and instinctively knew which feelings belonged to each. Moving his eyes from the boys, he widened his scope of vision. Fields. Road. Nothingness.

`What are you talking about, Fudge?´

That word again. Fudge. It felt different this time, and that intangible voice suddenly became something more, like a firm, reassuring hand on his shoulder. Listen, it instructed. Watch. He obeyed.

Watching, listening, he realised that Fudge was a name, and the name belonged to the old man. Sympathise, the voice instructed, and warmth radiated from the voice, filling his body with compassion.

`I´ve committed grievous errors in the past,´ the man called Fudge said. `Grievous errors that led to death, destruction, and great changes in our world. If you have suffered overly in the past, I take it upon myself. I would make it up to you if I could.´

`How?´ the boy before him asked, and his voice radiated suspicion. `How can you make it up to us?´

The old man paused, and the hand on Harry´s shoulder tightened in warning.

The man sighed heavily and looked over his shoulder before speaking softly. `They´d kill me - kill all of us - if they suspected even for a moment,´ he whispered furtively. `Come with me,´ he said quickly.

The group didn´t move, but Harry felt waves of relief rush through his body, and knew instinctively that it came from whatever was guiding him.

`Come with me,´ Fudge repeated, his voice urgent. `I will take each and every one of you to your families, if only we can locate them once we leave this forsaken land. Join me - allow me to address my past wrongs!´ he pleaded.

Beside Harry, the girl shifted. One of the boys gaped, another´s hand tensed around his wand. Two boys who seemed alike enough to be brothers sent each other hopeful looks. Another simply tensed suspiciously.

`Why should we believe you? How do we know you´re not just going to take us back to Malfoy?´

The hand jumped into Harry´s throat, moving his tongue for him, opening his lips and speaking with his own voice.

`Because Dumbledore is watching over me,´ Harry said softly but clearly. `Dumbledore is watching over all of us.´

And suddenly, Harry remembered it all.

***

Parvati had been focusing so hard upon Fudge that she had all but forgotten Harry´s presence beside her. When he´d finally broken his silence, she hardly noticed, feeling mildly annoyed that he´d say such a bizarre thing. But when she finally comprehended that simple, amazing fact, her entire world shrunk to the boundary of the invisibility cloak. Turning slowly, her jaw gaping, she stared at Harry.

`Harry . . . you spoke,´ she said, amazed.

Harry continued without acknowledging Parvati´s dumbfounded comment, slowly sliding the invisibility cloak from his head and revealing both himself and Parvati in the process. `Fudge betrayed us all. In cowering and demanding Dumbledore´s attention that night, he destroyed our one chance of surviving and overthrowing the Dark side. His cowardice that night led to the death of not only Dumbledore, but the death of a world of hope and good. And that knowledge eats at him every night.´

Outside the small circle, Fudge´s already hunched shoulders sagged, and his knuckles whitened around the handle of his walking stick.

Harry continued without pity. `You cowered in that tiny room, knowing that the Death Eaters would come for you. You knew your only chance lay with Dumbledore . . . not in his rescue, but in offering him as a pawn. And that´s what you did. You drew him to your office that night and when the Death Eaters finally came, you offered his life in place of your own. You didn´t sacrifice Dumbledore that night - you sacrificed all of us. Was it worth it, Fudge? Has your life to date been worth the death of a nation?´

The boys stepped away from Harry, opening their circle and allowing him to face Fudge without obstruction. Behind him, Parvati continued to gape.

Fudge´s eyes filled with tears, and he blanched visibly as Harry took a step toward him.

`Well, Cornelius?´ Harry said softly.

Fudge seemed to sieze up, and his eyes opened in horror. `D-d . . . Dumbledore?´ he stuttered, then toppled to his knees.

Unthinkingly, Colin Creevey rushed forward and helped the old man back to his feet. All the while, Fudge stared at Harry in uncomprehending fear. `How can it be? How can it be?´ he repeated, his mouth opening and closing as he allowed Colin to support his weight.

`Step away from him, Mr Creevey,´ Harry said softly. `It is time our retired minister learnt to stand on his own.´

***

In the muggle world, such a coach would have rocked back and forth unsteadily, and even the tiniest rock would have jolted the passengers within. Cornelius Fudge´s coach, however, was not from the muggle world, and it glided as smoothly as if they were traveling through air.

Inside the coach, the passengers sat divided between the two inward-facing seats, each of their faces carefully arranged to appear passive and uncaring; all except Fudge, who continued to gape and stare nervously at Harry, and Harry himself, who wore a content yet small smile upon his face. Catching Fudge sending another nervous look at him, Harry widened his smile.

`I´m not going to hurt you, Cornelius,´ he said softly. `In fact, far from it. I simply mean to ensure that you fulfill your duty to these young adults - as I´m sure you will. Consider me to be no more than a guiding hand.´

Beside Harry, Parvati frowned. Something wasn´t right about Harry . . . not that she´d been expecting him to be right. Not after two and a half years in a cell. The thing was that Harry wasn´t exactly wrong, either. He wasn´t stark raving mad. He wasn´t babbling like an idiot. In fact, he seemed quite mentally sound. And that, Parvati concluded, was the problem. Whoever - whatever - this individual sitting beside her was, he didn´t seem to be Harry. Her thoughts wondered back to Fudge´s seemingly inane ramblings. He called Harry `Dumbledore´, she remembered, and shifted her head so that she could watch Harry from the corner of her eye. It wasn´t possible, surely? Or is Harry so mad that he has simply adopted the personality of Dumbledore? Confused, she turned her gaze to the passengers across from her. Fudge sat at the centre of the seat, Colin and Dennis to either side of him. Edward sat to the left of Colin, and Justin sat to the right of Dennis. Fudge continued to send agitated looks towards Harry; whilst both Colin and Dennis seemed to be content with simply staring at their feet. Edward was passively studying the broken tip of his wand, and Justin, for once, looked entirely bored, as if he didn´t have a care in the world.

The tension within the coach seemed to be mounting by the minute. Despite Harry´s reassurances, Fudge´s agitation was visibly increasing, and Parvati finally noticed the finer details of everyone´s body language; Justin´s white knuckles from his clenched fists, Edward´s thin, colourless lips, Colin and Dennis with their matching squared jaws and downcast eyes. She suddenly felt claustrophobic; the temperature within the coach seemed to be rising and her throat was parched. She could feel her head starting to sway and sweat gathering in her palms, behind her knees, at the back of her neck. Her chest seemed to be gripped in a vice and she couldn´t breathe, and then someone was screaming within the coach-

`Harry Potter, what the fuck is wrong with you?!´