Love Conquers All

You who suffer because you love, love still more. To die of love is to live by it.

-Quote from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

"It won't be long now. I sense that the one in our way will soon be engulfed by his own hatred. That will lead him straight to me. You, my friend, must lead him here."

"Potter is strong, he will not be easily defeated."

"Who said anything in life was easy?" hissed the figure sitting in the high-back chair. "I don't give a damn how hard it is, I want you to bring Potter to me!"

"How do I do it, my lord?" the other man asked.

The figure in the chair stood up and turned to glare at the man who had questioned him. The man was looking death in the eye right then. Piercing red eyes and a skull-like face met his gaze, boring into him like a drill.

"How?" Voldemort repeated. "How else do you destroy the indestructible?"

The Death Eater blinked at him. "I don't understand."

Voldemort hissed and drew his wand out, pointing it at the Death Eater. He backed away in horror, but Voldemort showed no mercy.

"Crucio!" he hissed.

The man screamed bloody murder as fiery pain shot through every inch of his body. He fell to the floor and shook with pain for almost a minute, until Voldemort finally relieved the curse.

"Now do you understand?"

The Death Eater, still trembling slightly, nodded.

"You lie," Voldemort stated plainly. "I don't care for liars."

He raised his wand again. The Death Eater closed his eyes, bracing himself for another surge of pain, but it did not come. He dared to open his eyes and saw the Dark Lord staring at him with a sinister glint in his eye.

"Even the strongest of walls have weak spots," said Voldemort. "Even the strongest of men have weaknesses."

The Death Eater looked at him quizzically.

"To capture Potter, we must strike him where it hurts the most," Voldemort continued.

"Yes, my lord," replied the Death Eater, struggling to his feet.

"Tell me, what are Potter's weaknesses?" commanded Voldemort. "I trust that you must know."

"He has a strong attachment to his friends," the Death Eater answered shakily. "Especially that mudblood girl."

Voldemort let out a cold laugh. "Ha! A mudblood. How very interesting. Of course Potter would be close to those filthy rats. He knows nothing of what the purity of blood means."

"Yes, my lord."

Voldemort turned to stare into the fire. "How many of his allies must I destroy to get to him?" he demanded of no one in particular. He then turned to face the Death Eater again. "Bring me the mudblood girl," he ordered. "Potter will no doubt come running to her rescue. I will at last be able to have my revenge."

"As you wish, my lord," said the Death Eater. "I will bring her to you immediately."

"You'd better, for your sake," snapped Voldemort. "I've had about enough of your miserable defeats. Don't fail me again, Malfoy."

The man nodded and left the room.

***

Harry awoke with a start and sat up abruptly, his scar prickling slightly. It had happened again.

Dammit, he thought furiously. Why didn't I take Occlumency more seriously?

He wiped his forehead, which he noticed was considerably sweaty, and tried to recall the details of the dream. There had been a Death Eater kneeling on the floor before Voldemort, who had his wand pointed on the man. The two were discussing someone, whom Harry could not identify. There were mentions of Mudbloods and Voldemort had performed the Cruciatus Curse on the man, like he so often did in Harry's visions. When he had lifted the curse, he had murmured a few words to the Death Eater, who nodded and left. That's where everything had gone blank and Harry had woken up. The dream had been a reality and he knew it; it had simply not made since. Few of his dreams did, but Harry desperately wanted to know what Voldemort had been trying to make the Death Eater understand.

Harry rubbed his scar and glanced around the room. It was still dark outside, but the sun was threatening to peek over the horizon any minute. He looked beside him, and on his nightstand sat a small red box. Harry smiled at the sight of it, completely forgetting his dream as he remembered what the box was for.

Today's the day, he thought. He moved his gaze from the box to the picture of Hermione beside it. She was waving at him and blowing kisses, causing him to blush slightly. He shook his head and laughed at himself. He was so madly in love with Hermione that even her pictures made him blush. Now, Harry was finally ready to declare his love for her in legal terms. Tonight, he was going to ask Hermione to marry him.

He crawled out of bed groggily, grabbed his wand, and tapped himself on the head while muttering, "Robellium!"

Instantly, his pajamas transformed into a set of robes, sporting the Ministry of Magic seal on the front. He picked up the small red box, and entered the kitchen to find Hedwig sitting on the counter with his mail. Harry sprinkled a little food in her cage before looking down at that morning's Daily Prophet. Harry threw it aside in disgust as he saw that the title, once again, was talking about Dumbledore's "duel" with Voldemort in the Ministry in his fifth year. Rita Skeeter was really having a field day with that story even though it had been public knowledge for five years. She had totally failed to mention his and his friends' part in the fight. As he sifted through the rest of the mail he came across a scented letter from Hermione. He grinned. Hermione loved to just send him sweet, little love letters all the time, even though she saw him almost every day. Opening the letter he inhaled the wonderful Hermione scent it gave off and happily read the letter. He read it very slowly, and by the time he had finished and checked his watch, he realized he was going to be late. He stuffed the red box and Hermione's letter into his pocket. Even though he was about to make one of them biggest decisions in his life, he still had to go to work. Without another thought he Disapparated and reappeared in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic.

"Morning, Crabbe," Harry said as he quickly made his way toward the lift.

The man at the security desk snorted out of his nap, nearly falling out of his chair. Though thick (both mentally and physically), Vincent Crabbe had managed to land himself the job of security guard in the Atrium.

Crabbe glanced at him stupidly before returning to his nap, resembling a small troll in a security outfit. Harry boarded the lift and rode it down to the Auror Headquarters. As soon as he entered he was confronted by a very frustrated and angry Tonks.

"Harry, where have you been?" she cried. "I've been waiting for ten minutes!"

"Sorry," Harry breathed. "Lost track of the time."

"Well you picked a bloody bad day to do it," she said, pulling him into the offices. "Death Eater activity has been spotted outside of Bristol! Kingsley wants us over there immediately!"

His eyes widened in anticipation. "Death Eaters in Bristol? That's where Ron lives! Are they looking for him?"

"Possibly," said Tonks, "but I don't know. We need to get over there now!"

"Right!" said Harry. "I'll meet you there!"

Both of them Disapparated.

Harry arrived outside the town and Tonks appeared beside him. The sky was cloudy and gray, appearing as though a storm might brew up any moment. Even the town looked dark and gloomy.

"Any sign of them?" Harry asked Tonks.

"No," she said. "Let's split up, and I'd suggest we disguise ourselves."

Harry nodded and immediately transformed into a shaggy, black dog, much resembling the one Sirius had once taken the form of. Tonks concentrated hard before shrinking into the body of a little old lady.

"Any sign of trouble, send up red sparks," the woman croaked to the dog that was Harry.

He wagged his tail and dashed off toward the town while she hurried along in another direction.

The streets were quiet and deserted; no movement came from inside the buildings. Bristol appeared abandoned and that, along with the darkening skies, made it appear like a ghost town. As Harry rounded a corner, he saw two cloaked figures standing in the street talking to each other. Harry crawled beneath a nearby truck and listened to what they were saying (his dog ears giving him an advantage).

"I'm telling you, he's here!" one of them said.

"We've searched everywhere and he'd nowhere to be seen," argued the other. "He must have fled with the others."

"No, I saw him just a moment ago!" the first one persisted. "I know it was him. I'd recognize a Weasley anywhere!"

Harry was panting and the fur rose up on his back. They were looking for Ron.

"What does Lord Voldemort want with him anyway?" asked the second man.

"Are you mad?" snapped the first. "Look how close he is to Fudge! He's the Junior Minister's Assistant afterall!"

Harry relaxed a little. What were they talking about? he wondered. Ron is no minister's assistant.

And then it hit him. They weren't talking about Ron at all. They were talking about Percy.

Just then there was a loud BANG and Harry peered out from under the truck. Red sparks had gone up just beyond the edge of town. Tonks' signal.

"What the hell was that?" exclaimed one of the men.

"One of the others must have found something. Let's go."

The two men started off in the direction of the sparks, but Harry wasn't about to let them get there. He leapt out from under the truck and charged after them, jumping and knocking one of them to the ground. He tried to bite his arm but the other man was too quick for him. He whipped out his wand, pointed it at Harry and yelled, "Stupefy!"

Harry dodged out of the way and the spell struck the other man in the back, freezing him in place. Harry then launched himself at the attacker and bit his wand in half. The man stumbled backwards and, now that he was unarmed against this furry menace, took off down the street. Harry chased after him and the man squealed out in pain as the dog snapped at his leg and knocked him to the ground. Harry returned to human form, pulled out his own wand and muttered, "Petrificus Totalus."

The man's arms and legs snapped together and Harry stashed his wand back into his pocket before running in the direction of Tonks' signal.

He had just passed by the main highway entering the town when he saw her, hunched up against an oak tree with three Death Eaters pressing in on her. Her wand lay abandoned several feet away.

"Got you now, girly," growled one of the Death Eaters from behind his mask.

"Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!"

Harry shot three stunning spells simultaneously at the attackers. They were each hit by one of the red beams of light and fell to the ground like statues.

"I can't leave you alone for five minutes without you getting into trouble," Harry told Tonks with a smirk.

"Oh, shut up," she said, pulling herself up and grabbing her wand. "They snuck up on me. I managed to send up the sparks just before they knocked my wand from me."

"So I managed to save you just in time?" Harry teased.

"Like I haven't rescued you a hundred times as well," she snapped.

"Yeah, if you count going to tell Fudge off for the pay cut as saving my life."

She glared at him. "Did you find anything?"

"Yes. I know why there were Death Eaters here. They were looking for Percy Weasley."

"Perce?" she said, her eyes widening. It was no secret that she had a slight crush on the third oldest Weasley child.

"Correct," Harry went on. "Voldemort wants him because he's close to Fudge."

"Strange," said Tonks, rubbing her chin. "Why would he go after Percy? Why not Umbridge or one of the other assisting ministers?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Maybe he thinks he'll have an easier time interrogating him. We'd better get back to Headquarters and update. We also need to send a squad over here to pick these guys up. Perhaps they can give us a lead to Voldemort's whereabouts. "

"Okay, meet you at the Ministry."

Harry disappeared, followed quickly by Tonks.

***

"Forget it, Harry, I'm not doing it," Ron stated flatly,

"Come one, Ron, don't be such a prat. He is your brother afterall," Harry pleaded.

"Not anymore," Ron said. "Dad disowned him."

"Ron," said Harry shaking his head. "Please don't make this hard on me. I'm taking Hermione to dinner tonight and I don't want to be under a lot of stress. Percy is going into hiding and we need you to be his Secret-Keeper. Please?"

Ron shook his head. "Why should I?"

Harry stared at him. "Why? He's part of your family! You won't help save your own family from Voldemort?"

Ron gave him a slightly irritated look. "You're just trying to make me feel guilty, aren't you?"

"Is it working?" Harry asked.

"Apparently," Ron replied. "Alright, I'd hate to ruin your day. I'll do it under one condition."

"What's that?"

"Make Percy admit that he's a stupid, air-headed git and we'll call it a deal."

Harry smiled. "Thanks, Ron. You're the best."

"Yeah, yeah. By the way, what's so special about your date with Hermione tonight?"

Harry grinned. "Oh, nothing."

Ron eyed him curiously but bought it. He still wasn't very comfortable that Harry and Hermione were together. Harry clapped him on the back and left to meet Hermione in London.