At The Heart Of The Matter
folder
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
42
Views:
20,504
Reviews:
12
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
3
Category:
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
42
Views:
20,504
Reviews:
12
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
3
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
What’s Evil Doing Today
Authors Note: Chapter edited 8/9/06. Thanks again to ALL my reviewers! This isn’t going to be a long chapter, but thought we could drop in on Voldy! Harry Potter is still not mine!
What’s Evil Doing Today
*****************
It had been a slow recovery after being so forcefully ejected from the possessing of Harry Potter. Voldemort still had not figured out why it had done so much temporary damage to have possessed Harry. He could handle feeling drained temporarily, as that was normal when you possessed another’s body, but for the better part of two weeks, he was unable to access his magical core fully. ‘What did Potter do to me? I’m an expert in possessing people, as that is how I survived for 13 years, so it couldn’t have been Potter, he’s to weak….it must’ve been Dumbledore….some spell I didn’t see him cast. That is the only explanation!’ His thoughts had circled like this for a several days.
Coming out of his musing, he stared at the glass of red wine in his grotesque, snake scaled hand. When he performed the ritual to get his body back, he knew that his body would be altered from his original, handsome, younger self, but he had not expected it to turn out quite this bad. His personality and temperament had also become more sinister and cruel, lacking the charismatic qualities of his first reign. These were the things that had been plaguing his thoughts the past year. ‘In order to recruit more servants, I need to look more human. The older Death Eaters have already sworn fealty to me, so what they think doesn’t matter, but recruitment is down! From what some of my braver minions have told me, it appears that my reputation as a snake-faced, evil, vile Dark Lord is the cause. Bella said that some of these possible new recruits agree with my message, not my means….of course they didn’t live long after that!’ he cackled like the demon from hell sent that he was.
Calming down, the swirling of the dark, almost blood red wine soothing him, he decided to find out how his inner circle was coming along is their quest to obtain the materials needed for an ancient ritual he found in an old tome from the long lost Dark Elves. “Wormtail! Get in here!” he shouted.
“Ye..Ye..Yes, My lord?” stuttered the disgustingly dirty, fat little man.
“Give me your arm Wormtail, it isss time for my inner circle to update me.” and as he touched his wand to the rat’s death mark, he bathed in the glorious screams of pain it caused. While he waited, he let is thoughts wonder back to the ritual. The ‘Censum Affensa Ab Damnatio’, or otherwise know as, ‘Fire of the Damned’, required many items and potions to be performed. It required a potion called ‘Ab Exsecratio Medicamentum’ which translates to, ‘The Curses Potion’, and once he added a piece of his enemy; ie: hair, nails, skin, etc…, and drank the potion, the victim would slowly burn to death, like being dissolved in acid, from the inside out . Voldemort chuckled and thought, ‘I wouldn’t need to leave my strong hold….sipping a fine wine while my enemies suffer the most excruciating deaths makes for a fine evening spent. The only down side is, I’m the only one who can take the potion, and I can’t take more than one a day. I’ll just make sure I take out Potter’s friends first! I so want to see him suffer in anguish before I finish him off! Maybe I’ll capture him and Dumbledore and take the potion in front of them so I can watch their suffering!’ He was brought out of his contemplation with the arrival of his closest minions. They bowed and kiss the hem of his robes, awaiting the Dark Lord’s commands.
“Where is Severusss, Bella?” Voldemort asked once he surveyed the group and realized that he wasn‘t there.
“I do not know, My Lord. I have not spoken with him in three days.” Bellatrix responded shakily.
“What do you mean you haven’t heard from him in three daysss!? Did I not asssssign you both to gather the potionsss and materialsss needed for the ‘Censum Affensssa Ab Damnatio’ ritual? You had better be a more forthcoming, Bella, or you will dissspleasse your Lord!”
Falling to her knees, she begged, “My Lord, please, I was with Snape on Friday, late morning, when he was called away to Dumbledore. I have not seen him since, despite my many attempts to reach him. Forgive me, My Lord!”
“I am very dissspleasssed with thisss information! How sssoon will you have everything needed for the ritual. You do underssstand that thisss could very well win usss thisss war….unlessss you do not want your Lord to win, Bella?” said Voldemort rubbing his wand in anticipation.
“NO, My Lord! Of course I want us to win! I am one of you most faithful! Un - Unfortunately, My Lord, we have only gathered about a third of the material and none of the potions have been started. It is proving quite difficult to find many of the potion ingredients, one of which is the heart of a basalisk. We are moving as fast as we can, My Lord.” Bella said awaiting the inevitable torture to come.
“WHAT! In two weeksss, thisss isss the best that you have done!! CRUCIO!” he roared!
Letting her suffer for several minutes, Voldemort lifted the curse. Looking over his depleted minions he said, “Yaxley, you and Amycusss will work on the detailsss of freeing your brethren from Azkaban. I want them free by mid July…..Do Not Fail Me! Goyle, get the children of my loyal Death Eater’sss here for marking. I have work for them in Hogwartsss this year! Bella, you and Goyle will find Severusss and bring him to me! He’sss the only one who can brew thessse complicated potionsss! If you fail me again, I guarantee pain the likesss you have never ssseen! Now, LEAVE!”
Voldemort thought, ’Snape better not have turned on me! No, he is loyal…something very important must have happened for Severus to be out of communication for so long…but what?’ With another glass of his favorite port, he continued to ponder how to get his true body back. He would need to seek out a new Potion’s Master just in case Snape was lost to him. Voldemort was getting rather angry at the thought of anyone else brewing potions, that he would need to ingest, other than his loyal Severus. For over 20 years, he’d been able to trust that Snape’s potions were accurate and did their job wonderfully. He did not have the time for this, to train and learn to trust someone new with the delicate potions involved with the ‘Censum Affensa Ab Damnatio’. He had to find Severus!
Several hundred miles away, as Harry fell from the floo network into Hannah’s house, he hit the floor, clutching his forehead and biting his lip to stop the screaming his body was want to do. Five minutes later, he could finally hear Hermione’s and Susan’s voices breaking through the fog. Accepting the small sips of water that were offered, he croaked out in a whisper, “Get me paper and ink….need to write….’fore I forget….” trailing off as the pain in his head amplified with his talking. Hermione barked out that they needed the paper now and for someone to get him a pain relieving potion. Hannah rushed from the room, and with in minutes, was back and handed the pain potion to Susan.
“Were getting you paper, Harry, but I need you to drink this potion! It will help with the pain!” said Susan while rubbing his hair affectionately. Opening his mouth to take in the potion, within seconds he could feel the intense headache leaving him. Sitting up, he noticed that he’d gathered quite the crowd around himself.
“Don’t worry guys, this happens quite a bit. Damn curse scars! Please hurry with the paper and ink…I don’t want to forget any details!” said Harry in a slight panting voice.
“Here you go, Harry.” Neville said, as he handed him the writing supplies.
Spending another 5 minutes writing everything he could remember, he looked up to Hermione, Neville, and Susan saying, “We are going to have some major research to do! Voldemort has really gone and done it this time! We can wait till tomorrow, he won’t be doing much for a short while…he misses his Severus!” Harry ended with a small chuckle.
Taking Susan’s hand in his he looked around at his friends and said, “Thanks everyone, but I’m fine, really! Hermione and Neville are used to this. I sometimes get visions from Voldemort when he’s feeling extreme emotions through my scar……..LISTEN! Voldemort is only a name….and not even his real name! It’s Tom Riddle, by the way, so stop being so afraid to say his fake name and gasping when you hear it. It gives him a power he does NOT deserve!” and after a brief pause, he continued, “Let’s get back to partying. I refuse to let that snake-faced bastard ruin any of our fun!”
Receiving several strange looks that promised questions to come, they all made their way out to where the party was being held.
What’s Evil Doing Today
*****************
It had been a slow recovery after being so forcefully ejected from the possessing of Harry Potter. Voldemort still had not figured out why it had done so much temporary damage to have possessed Harry. He could handle feeling drained temporarily, as that was normal when you possessed another’s body, but for the better part of two weeks, he was unable to access his magical core fully. ‘What did Potter do to me? I’m an expert in possessing people, as that is how I survived for 13 years, so it couldn’t have been Potter, he’s to weak….it must’ve been Dumbledore….some spell I didn’t see him cast. That is the only explanation!’ His thoughts had circled like this for a several days.
Coming out of his musing, he stared at the glass of red wine in his grotesque, snake scaled hand. When he performed the ritual to get his body back, he knew that his body would be altered from his original, handsome, younger self, but he had not expected it to turn out quite this bad. His personality and temperament had also become more sinister and cruel, lacking the charismatic qualities of his first reign. These were the things that had been plaguing his thoughts the past year. ‘In order to recruit more servants, I need to look more human. The older Death Eaters have already sworn fealty to me, so what they think doesn’t matter, but recruitment is down! From what some of my braver minions have told me, it appears that my reputation as a snake-faced, evil, vile Dark Lord is the cause. Bella said that some of these possible new recruits agree with my message, not my means….of course they didn’t live long after that!’ he cackled like the demon from hell sent that he was.
Calming down, the swirling of the dark, almost blood red wine soothing him, he decided to find out how his inner circle was coming along is their quest to obtain the materials needed for an ancient ritual he found in an old tome from the long lost Dark Elves. “Wormtail! Get in here!” he shouted.
“Ye..Ye..Yes, My lord?” stuttered the disgustingly dirty, fat little man.
“Give me your arm Wormtail, it isss time for my inner circle to update me.” and as he touched his wand to the rat’s death mark, he bathed in the glorious screams of pain it caused. While he waited, he let is thoughts wonder back to the ritual. The ‘Censum Affensa Ab Damnatio’, or otherwise know as, ‘Fire of the Damned’, required many items and potions to be performed. It required a potion called ‘Ab Exsecratio Medicamentum’ which translates to, ‘The Curses Potion’, and once he added a piece of his enemy; ie: hair, nails, skin, etc…, and drank the potion, the victim would slowly burn to death, like being dissolved in acid, from the inside out . Voldemort chuckled and thought, ‘I wouldn’t need to leave my strong hold….sipping a fine wine while my enemies suffer the most excruciating deaths makes for a fine evening spent. The only down side is, I’m the only one who can take the potion, and I can’t take more than one a day. I’ll just make sure I take out Potter’s friends first! I so want to see him suffer in anguish before I finish him off! Maybe I’ll capture him and Dumbledore and take the potion in front of them so I can watch their suffering!’ He was brought out of his contemplation with the arrival of his closest minions. They bowed and kiss the hem of his robes, awaiting the Dark Lord’s commands.
“Where is Severusss, Bella?” Voldemort asked once he surveyed the group and realized that he wasn‘t there.
“I do not know, My Lord. I have not spoken with him in three days.” Bellatrix responded shakily.
“What do you mean you haven’t heard from him in three daysss!? Did I not asssssign you both to gather the potionsss and materialsss needed for the ‘Censum Affensssa Ab Damnatio’ ritual? You had better be a more forthcoming, Bella, or you will dissspleasse your Lord!”
Falling to her knees, she begged, “My Lord, please, I was with Snape on Friday, late morning, when he was called away to Dumbledore. I have not seen him since, despite my many attempts to reach him. Forgive me, My Lord!”
“I am very dissspleasssed with thisss information! How sssoon will you have everything needed for the ritual. You do underssstand that thisss could very well win usss thisss war….unlessss you do not want your Lord to win, Bella?” said Voldemort rubbing his wand in anticipation.
“NO, My Lord! Of course I want us to win! I am one of you most faithful! Un - Unfortunately, My Lord, we have only gathered about a third of the material and none of the potions have been started. It is proving quite difficult to find many of the potion ingredients, one of which is the heart of a basalisk. We are moving as fast as we can, My Lord.” Bella said awaiting the inevitable torture to come.
“WHAT! In two weeksss, thisss isss the best that you have done!! CRUCIO!” he roared!
Letting her suffer for several minutes, Voldemort lifted the curse. Looking over his depleted minions he said, “Yaxley, you and Amycusss will work on the detailsss of freeing your brethren from Azkaban. I want them free by mid July…..Do Not Fail Me! Goyle, get the children of my loyal Death Eater’sss here for marking. I have work for them in Hogwartsss this year! Bella, you and Goyle will find Severusss and bring him to me! He’sss the only one who can brew thessse complicated potionsss! If you fail me again, I guarantee pain the likesss you have never ssseen! Now, LEAVE!”
Voldemort thought, ’Snape better not have turned on me! No, he is loyal…something very important must have happened for Severus to be out of communication for so long…but what?’ With another glass of his favorite port, he continued to ponder how to get his true body back. He would need to seek out a new Potion’s Master just in case Snape was lost to him. Voldemort was getting rather angry at the thought of anyone else brewing potions, that he would need to ingest, other than his loyal Severus. For over 20 years, he’d been able to trust that Snape’s potions were accurate and did their job wonderfully. He did not have the time for this, to train and learn to trust someone new with the delicate potions involved with the ‘Censum Affensa Ab Damnatio’. He had to find Severus!
Several hundred miles away, as Harry fell from the floo network into Hannah’s house, he hit the floor, clutching his forehead and biting his lip to stop the screaming his body was want to do. Five minutes later, he could finally hear Hermione’s and Susan’s voices breaking through the fog. Accepting the small sips of water that were offered, he croaked out in a whisper, “Get me paper and ink….need to write….’fore I forget….” trailing off as the pain in his head amplified with his talking. Hermione barked out that they needed the paper now and for someone to get him a pain relieving potion. Hannah rushed from the room, and with in minutes, was back and handed the pain potion to Susan.
“Were getting you paper, Harry, but I need you to drink this potion! It will help with the pain!” said Susan while rubbing his hair affectionately. Opening his mouth to take in the potion, within seconds he could feel the intense headache leaving him. Sitting up, he noticed that he’d gathered quite the crowd around himself.
“Don’t worry guys, this happens quite a bit. Damn curse scars! Please hurry with the paper and ink…I don’t want to forget any details!” said Harry in a slight panting voice.
“Here you go, Harry.” Neville said, as he handed him the writing supplies.
Spending another 5 minutes writing everything he could remember, he looked up to Hermione, Neville, and Susan saying, “We are going to have some major research to do! Voldemort has really gone and done it this time! We can wait till tomorrow, he won’t be doing much for a short while…he misses his Severus!” Harry ended with a small chuckle.
Taking Susan’s hand in his he looked around at his friends and said, “Thanks everyone, but I’m fine, really! Hermione and Neville are used to this. I sometimes get visions from Voldemort when he’s feeling extreme emotions through my scar……..LISTEN! Voldemort is only a name….and not even his real name! It’s Tom Riddle, by the way, so stop being so afraid to say his fake name and gasping when you hear it. It gives him a power he does NOT deserve!” and after a brief pause, he continued, “Let’s get back to partying. I refuse to let that snake-faced bastard ruin any of our fun!”
Receiving several strange looks that promised questions to come, they all made their way out to where the party was being held.