To Defeat a Dark Lord.

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Warner Bros, Bloomsbury. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Once again many thanks to Periculum for her beta work. Without her I’m sure everyone would be out for my head.

Chapter Fourteen

Severus had wanted Harry to stay behind while he, Lucius, Gideon, Damean and Albus went to Privet Drive. However, faced with Harry’s determination to be there in order to find out what exactly had happened to his cousin, he just couldn’t find a reasonable excuse to make him stay behind, especially since Harry had already seen the worst of the damage with the murder of his Aunt and Uncle. He had, once Harry had added his voice to the argument, managed to leave the other three teens behind though.

Once he saw the true damage done to the Dursleys, he wished he had fought harder to make Harry stay behind as well. He also made a mental note to push for a more complete account of what the young man saw in his visions as well. The pure horror of what they found made him question just what else Harry had witnessed in previous visions.

Vernon Dursley was in the worse condition, and Severus knew it was because the fat man just could not have kept his mouth shut. By the condition of the body, it looked like Bella had been given free rein to do as she pleased, once the Dark Lord had been annoyed enough by what the Muggle had said. He could almost list the spells that Bella had used to flay the man alive before starting in by using Muggle means to remove the layers of fat from his body until she reached the vital organs. She had more than likely used a fair bit of magic to keep the man alive in order that he would feel everything she had done to him.

Turning away from the bloody remains, Severus quickly checked over Petunia as well, and found that none of the blood covering her was her own. By the look of her painful grimace, it seemed as she had been exposed only to the Cruciatus curse. Of course, the psychological torture of being forced to watch what became of her husband was another thing entirely. In a way he was glad that she had not been subjected to a greater amount of torture. He may have not liked the woman as a child, but in her own way she had watched over both he and Lily, and when things became bad between himself and his father, she had been there to help with his injuries.

A quick glance at his cousin revealed that they were both thinking the same thing when it came to Vernon. The man had received what he deserved, if not actually in the matter he received it, for what he had done to his nephew. By the satisfied glint in both Lucius’ and Damean’s eyes, he knew that they also felt the same way, although none of them would say anything out loud with the Headmaster within hearing distance.

When Harry had entered the house he had bypassed the living room altogether. He had seen what had happened in that room once, and was perfectly content to let the others do what they needed to do in order to return it to its former condition. His one concern at this point was to find out where his cousin was and what exactly he was suffering from. Pausing slightly outside of the living room, and being careful to keep his eyes averted, he gently called out to Severus, “Is Dudley in there?” Sighing softly in relief once he received a negative answer, Harry started the search for his cousin upstairs.

Taking the stairs two at a time, Harry quickly checked through each of the rooms, and cast packing charms as he went. He did not want to ever have a reason to return to this house. Having cleared the upstairs rooms, he did the same to the attic and when he didn’t find any trace of his cousin, continued on down to the basement, ignoring the faint unease he felt that something just was not right in the house. After all, the whole situation was ‘not right’.

It took only minutes to confirm that Dudley was not hiding in the basement, especially when with only a few packing charms, the whole area was bare. Returning to the kitchen, Harry settled into one of the chairs, and conjured up a pot of tea while he went over his options. He knew, even though he had not been around for the past few weeks, that the few childhood friends that Dudley still had were not in the area at the moment; gone with either summer jobs or on holiday with their families that would take them out of reach for the summer. The house, for all intents and purposes, was empty, and the quick glance that Harry had given the yard had left him without a doubt that Dudley had not gone that way. So what exactly was left?

Harry sat silently for a few minutes, a faint feeling that he knew he should recognize and be able to place buzzing about his head, barely aware of the others giving him looks of concern as they moved to clean up the damage around him. As the buzzing in his head became louder he dropped his cup and watched as it shattered; an echo of the many times that he had been yelled at to get to his cupboard ringing in his ears.

Of course, how could he have missed it the first time?

After all, it would make sense that the one place where he had felt safe from the adults in his life would in fact be safe for his cousin as well.

Running to the area it should have been, Harry was barely able to see the faint line of magic hiding it from view, the buzzing from earlier even louder as like called to like. Reaching out to the apparently bare wall, he groped for the handle that he knew should be there, but he couldn’t feel it. With a faint growl of annoyance, Harry quickly pulled out one of the daggers he had found in Diagon Alley and made a slight cut in his hand, just enough to draw blood. Sensing the others standing behind him, Harry turned his head slightly. “My cupboard should be here. I didn’t notice it when we came in, but this is where it’s supposed to be,” he explained softly while touching his bloodied hand to the wall.

A bright flash of light made spots appear in his vision as the magic washed over him, revealing the cupboard door. Opening it slowly, Harry had enough sense to keep back so that he would not be hit if Dudley lashed out. He peeked inside. “Dudley?”

A soft whimper of fear was the first response they heard to Harry’s soft question, which turned into a question of its own. “H-Harry?”

“Yeah, Dudley, it’s me. You can come out now, its safe.”

The words had barely left his mouth before Harry found his arms full, as Dudley left the safety he had found in the cupboard in return for the safety of Harry’s arms.

“I heard…and they screamed…and it was awful…” were the only words that any of them could make out through the tears. Harry just continued to hold on to Dudley and let him cry, knowing from experience that it was one of the best things that his cousin could do at the moment.

A gentle touch on his shoulder had Harry looking up through his own tears, to see the grave eyes of the Dane. Damean held out a vial of the Dreamless Sleep potion, and indicated that Dudley should take it. Nodding his head, Harry returned his attention to his cousin. “Dudley? Can you take this for me?” He asked softly. “It will help you sleep right now, until we can get you somewhere safe,”

Dudley reached out blindly for the vial, and only because it was Harry offering and knowing that his cousin had indicated once before that he would see Dudley safe, did he drink it without question. He barely had time to make a face at the horrible taste before he found himself slipping into Darkness.

~~OoO~~

It hadn’t taken long to finish cleaning the house and removing everything that they could. Albus had sent a quick message to the Ministry informing them of what had happened, and had in turn received a notice from Shacklebolt that the appropriate arrangements would be made, and a cover story leaked to the Muggle press. The only thought that Harry had at that news was that Aunt Marge would go ballistic on hearing that her brother was dead and her nephew was out of her fat reach.

Instead of taking Dudley back to the Burrow, they had all gone immediately to Hogwarts, and Dudley had been given into the care of Madam Pomfrey. He hadn’t wanted to leave Dudley on his own, but with a full dose of Dreamless Sleep, he knew that his cousin would be out of it for at the very least a day. So he found himself following listlessly behind the others on the way to the Headmaster’s office, wishing that he could have joined Dudley in his dreamless slumber.

Instead of taking the chair offered him, Harry had transfigured the chair Severus had claimed as his own into a larger version (with the man in it) and had curled up practically in Severus’ lap, his head almost completely hidden in the dark folds of the older man’s robes.

Turning his head slightly, Harry looked up into the sad blue eyes of the Headmaster. “How was Dudley able to hide the cupboard the way he did?” He questioned softly.

Albus sat silently for a moment before answering. “I don’t think that he did, per se. Harry, tell me, if I remember correctly, Dudley did try to help you to the best of his abilities before Gideon and Draco got to you, correct?”

“Yes, Sir. He brought me the vial that Gideon had given me, and tried to at least bring me something to drink, despite what his father wanted.”

“And you had protected him from the Dementor the summer before the start of your fifth year as well?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“I see. I think what happened is what we call sympathetic magic. The magic within the Wards recognized that he had tried to save you, so it in turn tried to save him,” Albus explained as simply as he could, knowing that Harry would probably not be up to a long explanation.

Thinking fast, Harry nodded his head. “I see. So the Wards based on my mother’s love, either directed Dudley to the cupboard and then hid the cupboard, or Dudley went into it on his own, and the magic just covered it up?”

“That is in essence correct. I’m sure that it also stopped any sound he made from being heard, and who knows exactly what else. But yes, it seems that is correct. The Wards themselves, according to the devices I have monitoring them, never fell. They just shifted their focus and because they only covered a small section of the house, no alarm went off when Voldemort entered the house.”

Harry nodded his head in understanding, and once more hid his face in Severus’ robes. It would explain why he had ‘forgotten’ that the cupboard was there, as well as why he had only been able to open with his own blood. The Wards didn’t need to actually have a blood sacrifice this time. His own blood had been spilt many times, and he was sure the wood in the cupboard had soaked enough of it up to lay any number of different protections around his cousin whey they were needed.

Allowing his eyes to drift shut, Harry ignored the continuing conversation that was going on around him and willed himself to sleep, secure in the knowledge that nothing would get him while he was in Severus’ arms.