Crash.
Harry collapsed onto the cold stone floor, his scar burning and painful, images of himself and Headmaster Dumbledore fighting earlier still lingering in his mind.
No, it wasn't himself, it was Voldemort!
As he put his crooked glasses back on, he noticed that the single table was knocked over by him, the examination papers were crushed under his thighs and the surrounding students had blank and horrified expressions. Professor Tofty moved past the crowd and looked at him worriedly, there were more complex emotions present in those eyes, but Harry couldn't differentiate them at the moment.
"Are you ... Potter, are you alright?"
"I'm - fine -" Harry panted, not bothering to look at the wrinkled face, or at Hermione, Ron, and Neville who were trying hard to squeeze their way over to him, as he lowered his head and the red glow in his eyes slowly subsided.
"Probably a nightmare, the students have been under some stress for a while." Professor Hap's voice reached him from outside the crowd.
"Yes, I had nightmares." Harry said, grateful to have found an excuse.
"But before you said-" Professor Tofty glared at Harry, then turned his head to look at the students who kept coming over and gave up on pursuing the matter further. "Well, Potter, are you still able to take the exam? Have you finished answering the test?"
" I finished it." Harry lied.
He had a few questions left blank and the test sheet hadn't been checked, but he didn't feel comfortable answering the questions in this state, and as Professor Hap had said in class - "You don't fight unprepared battles, and many things are predetermined before the event even happens" -- is quite descriptive of the situation at hand.
Harry decided that he could already see the consequences: he would atmost fail his History of Magic test.
"Then I will take you to the hospital wing." Professor Tofty said.
"I don't need to, I can - well - go out and get some fresh air by myself."
Harry said vaguely, as he hastily shoved his test sheet towards Professor Tofty, "Sorry, I'll go first." With that, he covered his forehead and stormed towards the door, "Harry!" Hermione called behind him, Harry didn't respond and just walked away sullenly, not having time to think until he was out of the examination hall.
He wanted to get into that state again and see Headmaster Dumbledore and Voldemort fight, but that's when Harry realized to his frustration that his Occlumency was working spontaneously, and he couldn't pick up anything, so that attempt was completely cut off.
Harry angrily punched the alcove in which the House hourglass was embedded and his hand ended up hurting badly.
This calmed him down a little, and he wandered headlessly around the pitch-black entrance hall for a long while before eventually walking through the oak doors and heading out of the castle. He stepped on the steps, the sun outside was a little harsh, the sky was blue, and he could see the water rippling in the Black Lake in the distance.
Harry squinted his eyes and tried to think of a solution.
What on earth is he supposed to do?
Tell Professor Hap! Right, Harry thought, slightly regretting why he hadn't considered that before, and turned around and ran towards the castle, when Hermione and Ron came rushing out of the entrance hall and, upon seeing Harry, they dragged him towards the corridor without saying a word.
Bewildered, Harry could only watch as Hermione pull him into a nearby Broom cupboard, and raised her wand to lock the door behind her, before turning to look at him solemnly with Ron.
"W-what's wrong - what are you guys doing out here? The test isn't over yet-"
"I've finished my test." Hermione said quickly and Ron shrugged, "I wrote all I could, the rest ..." he left a meaningful pause. Hermione asked with a solemn expression, "Harry, your scar hurts again, doesn't it?"
"Yes, I saw-"
"Dumbledore, you mentioned Headmaster Dumbledore, saying he was under a curse or something, and that he was going to die." Hermione quickly said, "And then you fell on the floor and knocked over the table."
Harry was horrified, "That came out of my mouth?"
Ron nodded with a wooden face.
"So you know why we came out early, don't you? We have to come up with a decent excuse before the rumours spread."
"I saw Headmaster Dumbledore from Voldemort's point of view," Harry said in a somewhat hollow voice, "He was dueling Voldemort and ... seemed to be on the losing end," Hermione and Ron's eyes widened at the same time.
"Oh, right! I'm going to find Professor Hap, I have to tell him about this-"
Harry said anxiously, not even knowing why he had delayed this again.
"Wait, Harry," Hermione managed to sober up, "do you think Professor Hap wouldn't know? He was right there in the examination hall just now."
Harry stopped and looked back at Hermione for a moment, not understanding what she meant. Only after a short while did he stammer, "You mean Professor Hap knows? It's, it's-"
"A duel that was arranged in advance?"
"Patronus!" Hermione was just about to speak when Ron suddenly spoke up, "Harry, your Patronus!"
"What-oh! You mean Professor Hap had gathered it from me these days-" Harry showed a bright look of realization as the past half a month of reporting to the Ancient Rune office after his daily exams surfaced before his eyes, " Well, you think this has something to do with today's duel?
"I don't know, Harry, but the Professor obviously has no intention of involving us." Hermione whispered, "There really isn't anything we can do." She added.
Harry walked around the narrow broom cupboard, kicking the broom that was in his way aside. He was trying to rationalize what was going on, starting with the fact that Headmaster Dumbledore might be fighting Voldemort, right now! And Professor Hap seemed to know about it, but he hadn't gone over to help, why? There were signs that he did know something, and the helpless Patronuses in glass jars were proof of that.
"Harry, did you just say that Headmaster Dumbledore was on the losing end?" Hermione asked quietly.
"I - er, I'm not sure," Harry shook his head as he tried to recall the brief image he had seen, "I could feel Voldemort's emotions, he was excited and confident and seemed to be completely sure of his victory, and he also mentioned something about a curse-"
"Isn't that just a bluff?" Ron remarked, visibly more relieved, "We've even witnessed their power personally."
Harry didn't say anything, he found it hard to put Voldemort's mood swings into words, he was so confident and seemed to really think he could kill Dumbledore, so was he being tricked?
"I think Professor Hap is comfortable staying at the school because he knows the curse is bogus." Ron said calmly, "We can confirm this with the professor, oh - not now, there's still twenty minutes left before the exam ends."
"Can you still see them dueling now?" Hermione asked as she picked up the crucial point.
"No," Harry said sullenly, "It was cut off by the Occlumency."
Well, that was a really bad thing.
Hermione and Ron looked at each other and Ron put on a light-hearted face, "That's okay, we should trust Dumbledore, think of the first two battles, he has never lost against the You-Know-Who! He's the most powerful white wizard of all time ... By the way Harry, I think you may not have realized that the O.W.Ls exams are over."
"It's over?" Harry repeated blankly, his mind still wrapped around the issue.
"Yeah, after a busy year we've finally managed to get rid of the exams and came out half an hour earlier than everyone in the class," Ron grinned, "and they're still in the exam room right now. How nice."
"This thing is definitely worth bragging about for the rest of our lives!"
...
"Not here, either."
Felix stepped out of the dripping karst cave, a blazing, Fiendfyre burning in the damp, dim cave behind him, and a woman's hoarse cry bellowing harshly from the flames.
His eyes flashed with a hint of suspicion.
"Another shard of a severed soul, so Voldemort only taught this woman how to split a soul, but not how to make a Horcrux? Voldemort tricked her?"
Felix unfolded a map with hundreds of dots on it, all of them are members of the Order of the Phoenix, the men were divided into seven groups and the ink dots representing their names kept jumping on the parchment. There were large blanks on the map, but some important places were marked on it.
Hogwarts, the Ministry of Magic, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, Godric's Hollow, Mould-on-the-Wold, Chudley, Falmouth, Ottery St Catchpole, the former site of the Wool's Orphanage, the London communities, the English counties ...
Any place that is more or less related to the wizarding world has been summarized on this map.
Is it possible that Voldemort hid the Horcrux and Bellatrix abroad?
Felix and Dumbledore discussed this and concluded that it was unlikely. Even disregarding Voldemort's morbid obsession with the domination of the British wizarding community, there were more realistic factors at play: for wizards, distance doesn't really have much significance.
If hiding in Britain can be found, then hiding somewhere else in the world will likewise have no chance of staying hidden for long.
Very often, it's just a matter of magic.
Not to mention that ...
Felix had visited several well-known African witch priests who had a knack for witchcraft that relied on self-harm to make not-so-accurate prophecies, while specifically concealing his identity. After paying a considerable amount of galleons, an old wizard who had not long to live finally agreed to divine for him.
But they clashed over the scope of the divination.
The old wizard insisted that the divination should not be performed directly on a powerful wizard like Voldemort; according to him, 'the cost would be too high and the results would not be reliable.'
So the divination settled on Felix - to see what his luck would be on this particular day. The final conclusion was rather vague, with the old wizard divinely saying that he would 'get considerable help from arm's length' that day.
Felix wasn't too happy with the result, but the old wizard was already vomiting blood, so he had no choice but to offer galleons and leave, treating it as if he had got a good deal from an expert on the subject - if Felix was to ask Trelawney, God knows what she would say in her sober state.
He didn't want to hear anything 'unspecified' before the showdown.
Felix's biggest asset was the preparations he had made in advance - whether it was the Voldemort magic he had extracted from the Death Eaters, the hair of Bellatrix he had collected at Malfoy Manor, or the doppelganger who was taking his place in the examination hall with unmistakable physical realism.
He even held one final backhand.
It was the inspiration brought to him by the house elf, and in order to keep it as secret as possible, Amelia Bones had to work two weeks extra overtime all by herself in secret to piece together the entire contents about ancient contracts from the stacks of old documents ...
Felix picked up the communication mirror, which had a picture of Sirius on it - Harry had dragged Sirius insistently to take this picture, so for most of the time, Sirius in the picture looked rather impatient, constantly fiddling with the tassel that dangled from his hat to the tip of his nose to pass the time.
"Sirius."
The man in the picture immediately jumped up and after a few seconds Sirius said with a serious expression, "All set, Kreacher's right here with me." His voice seemed low, calm, and stern.
"I'll be right over."
Felix said, stepping out and appearing on the front steps of 12 Grimmauld Place.
Sirius was waiting there, holding Kreacher's hand. Sirius whispered, "I made a deal with Kreacher, he knows what the implications of doing this are." At that moment, there were two crisp "crackles" at the door and Remus Lupin and Tonks appeared holding hands.
"Felix?" Lupin said, "We carefully checked the twelve locations on the map, using the detector you gave us, but found nothing."
Felix nodded slightly, indicating that he knew.
A few more minutes passed, with not much time left before the scheduled time, and several teams of Order of the Phoenix members who had been out returned, and they too found no sign of Bellatrix, at best they found nothing more than the product of something evil mixed with fragments of Bellatrix's soul and Voldemort's magic, as Felix had done.
"That thing really is laced with Bellatrix's soul?" Frank Longbottom asked in surprise, with a complex look on his face, after receiving an affirmative answer he sighed. "I knew Voldemort is cruel and vicious, but I didn't think he wouldn't even spare his last loyal subordinate ..."
"Alastor's team hasn't returned yet, there's no accident, is there?" Bill Weasley asked with a frown.
Felix looked down at the full map he is holding, " He is in perfect condition, probably stuck with-"
At that moment, Kreacher tiptoed over to Felix and tugged on his sleeve, " Esteemed Mr. Hap - can K, Kreacher really carry the burden? Kreacher - can Kreacher also play a role in overthrowing the Dark Lord?"
"You have a much bigger role to play than one might think, and I can guarantee your safety." Felix said.
Kreacher looked relieved.
Sirius said with a dark look on his face, "I've told you many things but you didn't trust me, but you trust an outsider when he just says a couple of things, who is exactly your master!"
"You, of course!" Kreacher replied loudly, then turned around and shrugged his little shoulders and said in a voice that everyone in the space could hear, "But the master was not reliable when he was young, and he was wrongly accused and thrown into prison when he has grown up, what a shame, who knows what mistakes he will make this time ... "
"Kreacher!" Sirius said through clenched teeth, "I think you're just afraid of risk, your guts are only the size of a peanut!"
"Not at all! Kreacher isn't afraid of risk, Kreacher is worried that Kreacher won't be able to avenge Young Master Regulus!" The house elf yelled back loudly at his master in a loud voice like a bullfrog.
As they spoke, another group of people appeared out of thin air.
It was Moody, along with Mundungus, and Dedalus Diggle, their clothes dusty, but no one hurt. Moody came over on his crutches and said gruffly, "Our group ran into a spell trap, took a bit of time to crack it... but it was empty inside." His magical eye circled around for a moment before landing on Kreacher along with his normal eye.
"So we're putting our hopes on this little guy? I can't wait to witness it."
Lupin, Tonks, Moody, Mundungus, Dedalus Diggle, Hestia Jones, Bill Weasley, and other members of the Order of the Phoenix scattered far apart and formed a circle, acting as guards and looking solemnly at the two men and the house elf standing on the steps.
Kreacher solemnly puffed out his thin, cured chest and looked at Sirius.
Sirius took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and said.
"I, Sirius Black, the last rightful heir to the Black family, voluntarily relinquish all my rights over the house elf, Kreacher. By ancient contract, Kreacher automatically belongs to the next closest member of the Black family - Bellatrix Black!"
" Yes, Kreacher will comply, My Lord." Kreacher trembled and bowed deeply towards him.
He bent so low that his fleshy nose pressed against the ground and out of his loose, white pillowcase a green locket slipped, which gleamed in the sunlight.
"I'll take it from here." Felix said softly as his hand rested on Kreacher's shoulder.
...
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"What are you up to, Potter." Snape looked coldly at Harry who was blocking the way, his thin lips twisted into a smile, "I heard you walked out on your last exam? What a crazy decision, but it certainly seemed like something you'd make." His eyes moved away from Harry and lingered slightly on Ron and Hermione.
"Once again the Iron Trio has been assembled ... and are you ready to save the world once again? Tell me - what's it all about this time, Saviour Potter?"
Harry mentally fumed, Snape had this knack to successfully provoke him with a word or two, and he also carried his hatred for Draco Malfoy, Harry hadn't forgotten who had come up with these nicknames 'Saviour Potter' and 'Scarhead'.
"I'd like to ask you a favour," Harry tried his best to keep his tone less aggressive, "I mean 'please', sir. I know Headmaster Dumbledore is fighting Voldemort right now-"
"None of that concerns you, Potter." Snape said.
Harry continued anxiously. "I know you're good at Occlumency and Legilimency, yes, I know, Professor Hap mentioned it inadvertently. I hope--"
"You hope -" Snape clasped both hands over Harry's shoulder and stared into his eyes, "- for what?"
"If all your sentiments are true," Harry held his breath, the green eyes that looked exactly like Lily's met Snape's, "... if you too have been longing for Voldemort's complete demise --" he demanded.
"Then use the Legilimency on me! Break my Occlumency!"
----------------
Sigh, I don't like Harry very much in this novel...
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