Dearest Harry - Eileen's Story

Thanks to Claudia, who practically co-authored this chappie, so much support did she give me.

A/N ~ There might be another cliffie at the end of this chapter *runs*

Thirty Five



Severus’ scream of rage echoed around the Ministry.

For a long time after today, his voice would be scratchy and sore. It would continue to have a croakiness that would never seem to go away, so powerful was the scream that was ripped from him, so visceral, so raw.

He reached the trolley just as it fell to the floor, scattering food and drink all over the place. He reached it just as Harry disappeared.

Draco arrived at the same time and he was screaming too.

Several of the crowd around them started to panic. Other people were yelling and shouting.

Harry was gone. Vanished.

Draco was on his knees, groping around in the wet gooey mess left by the overturned trolley as if searching for an invisible Harry, unable to believe that he had really gone. He was whimpering, sobbing, pleading under his breath.

For a moment Severus nearly despaired.

But then he caught sight of Eileen.

His mother was pale and shaking, she didn’t even seem to be able to stand on her own. Rita Skeeter, of all people was holding her up. Seeing her grandson disappear like that, was more than she could cope with.

Everyone seemed shocked and frightened. Even Scrimgeour, who was standing close by, looked sick to his stomach, helpless in the face of what had just happened

One minute everything had been so normal and the next minute. The very next minute. Harry had gone.

No one but Severus would be able to help Harry. The chilling realisation came on him all at once. No one seemed able to comprehend what had happened, they could not control their terror, not after everything else that had happened already today. Albus was gone. Harry was gone. There was no one else left. It would have to be him

Pushing his own despair and fear aside Severus pulled himself together and stood.

It seemed like he was climbing a mountain. The simple feat of standing up from his prone position on the floor, where he had fallen, collapsing in shock was an almost impossible task, insurmountable. The horrible blow of Harry’s disappearance came close to destroying him. But he would not give up, he could not give up

He dragged himself to his feet and he stood with his head held high. One calm man amongst hundreds of terrified, panicking people

“Be quiet!” he ordered, he did not have to shout or even raise his voice. Those around him obeyed him instantly and like a ripple effect it spread until there was complete and utter silence

He looked around to see that almost every eye in the Atrium was fixed on him, waiting to make everything better.

Everyone seemed frozen as if they were under a spell in a perverted fairy tale

Even Kingsley and that most experienced Auror of them all Mad-Eye Moody. They had seen the hope of the wizarding world snatched away before their eyes. For Eileen it was a hundred times worse she had collapsed in on herself and looked like she did before Harry had produced such a miraculous cure for her cancer. Draco was still sitting by the remains of the trolley, silent sobs racking his thin frame.

Sometime in the last few moments Bill and Arthur had worked their way through the crowd.

“Severus?” Arthur asked, concern colouring his words. Severus realised that he must have been worried for Percy too. Arthur’s son had disappeared in front of hundreds of people too. To suffer an as yet unknown fate

Severus had a pretty good idea what had happened though.

“Voldemort has taken Harry.” Severus said flatly. He ignored the gasps from members of the crowd as he said the dreaded name.

“It was a trap, Arthur. This whole day has been a trap.”

“Harry was safe with us at home. Hell he was safer in the graveyard. Voldemort wanted to get to Harry so he set a trap. This was never about Tonks, or the people at the funeral. Oh, of course if more people had died that would have delighted him. But that wasn’t what he was after; he didn’t do it for that.

“The graveyard was packed with Aurors so, he couldn’t attack openly, there were to many able wizards who would have fought him. And if they had attacked when the Dementors were there he could not have protected his own. The Dementors could have Kissed them too, there would have been no way for them to differentiate between his forces and ours.”

“He wanted Harry somewhere where he could get to him.” Severus could see it all so clearly now and he was kicking himself for not seeing it earlier.

“This was a set up.”

Severus turned and pointed at Scrimgeour. The man cringed away from his accuser.

“Your Ministry is rotten, Scrimgeour. There are spies here, followers of Voldemort
The witch that took Harry was Dolores Umbridge. Albus and I thought that she might be one of his supporters. We found out just recently that he had stopped marking his supporters, makes it easier to spy that way. There is no mark to give you away.

“How come she was here? Did someone let her in, did someone help her; she didn’t do this on her own. She had support. None of us have our wands; we had no way to fight back we still have no way to fight back.”

He left the last words unsaid, but he was sure people heard them anyway. Harry has no way to fight back and neither does Percy. Of course Harry didn’t need his wand really did he? But the people gathered here were not to know that. Just the few of them in the inner circle had any idea how strong Harry had become. Severus only hoped it was enough.

“Who arranged for the wands to be removed?” Severus continued, “I shall want to speak to whoever authorised that.”

Severus stared around him; and one of the Aurors guarding the wand weighing procedure started to back away at Severus’ words.

“I didn’t know,” Scrimgeour was whispering, “I didn’t know! Dolores was, she came highly recommended, I never thought…”

A number of people were glaring at Scrimgeour now.

Severus ignored him

“It was well planned, clever. They waited until we were tired, bored because nothing was happening. Until we let our guard down.”

“She couldn’t have done this alone. Her accomplices will still be here.”

He stopped speaking for a moment and looked around the room. Severus knew what the involuntary giveaways were, the little tell tales that people couldn’t hide. The ones that gave a liar away. He had had to learn to hide them himself after all hadn’t he?

The Auror carefully moving away from the collected wands seemed to Severus to be suspicious, another standing by the door, was licking his lips in a nervous manner and blinking far to much for Severus’ liking. Those were reflex actions that were very hard to control or disguise

He and Moody had come to an understanding in the graveyard hadn’t they? They knew eachother well enough from fighting together over the years. The old Auror may not have trusted him before, but he did now didn’t he? Well as far as Mad-Eye trusted anyone. Severus looked directly at Moody, trying to silently communicate where his suspicions lay. His dark eye’s met Moody’s good eye and he let his gaze fall first on one suspect and then the other. Moody almost smiled and seconds later the screams broke out again as the two protesting Aurors were wrestled to the floor by Moody’s men and marched away for interrogation.

“SILENCE!!!” Severus roared

This time he looked at Kingsley, hoping that he, like Moody would pick up his unspoken cues. .

“Do not move until I tell you,” Severus continued to address the gathered throng. “Momentarily you will get your wands back and you can go home if you choose to.”

Kingsley nodded, obviously understanding what it was that Severus wanted him to do: order the redistribution of the wands and finally begin to send people home.

“I am asking for your help.” Severus continued.

“Voldemort has got Harry and he is going to hurt him. My nephew has been fighting this evil in our midst since he was a baby, and right now he needs our help. He will not get free by himself

“I think I know where they will be holding him, him and the innocent man who was taken with him.”

Molly, who had come up behind Severus, let out a sob. But Severus felt little sympathy for her. She had wanted to keep her children safe at Harry’s expense had she? Well it looked like Voldemort had different ideas. May be she would realise now that there was no safe place in this war. He was furious with Molly for her actions. If she had just let things be, Harry would not have been so distracted. Would not have rushed away, would not have been alone for her to snatch. They might even have recognised her, Harry or Draco.

He could not bring himself to even look at her right at that moment

“We need Harry, without him we are all doomed, Severus carried on speaking to a room that was completely hushed, focussed on his every word.

“We need you. As many of you as are willing to help us. Join me if you can.”

His eyes met Eileen’s despairing gaze and held it for a moment. Making her a silent promise.

“Come with me if you wish to. I am going to find Harry and I am bringing him home.”




When Harry felt that tell tale tug at his naval his first thought was “Fucking hell, not again!!!

His second thought was to wonder who had grabbed him this time.

As they whirled to their destination, he and his two companions. Harry made his decision. It wasn’t Percy; Percy had tried to help him. Harry wasn’t sure who it was, who had grabbed him but he knew that it must have been the witch, the one selling food. Of course she wasn’t truly selling food, she must have been after him, whoever she was. If indeed she was really female!

Thinking was really hard while going through the maelstrom that was portkey travel, but Harry struggled on anyway. He couldn’t see who the witch was but as far as Harry was concerned whoever she was he had had a bloody awful day and the bitch was going down.

Severus had been teaching him defense spells and basic Muggle self defence. His uncle had decided that Harry could use all the help he could get and that combined sixteen years of close proximity to Dudley Dursley, had turned Harry into quite a scrapper he was not going to go down easily. Not this time.

He concentrated hard and landed on his feet. Percy crashed heavily to the floor and the woman who had grabbed him also stumbled a little, Harry used that weakness to his advantage. He brought his elbow up sharply and heard something crack behind him. He thought he had broken her nose.

She yelped in pain and Harry took great satisfaction in the sound. But it didn’t really matter after all because there was no way he was getting out of this one.

A cold, high voice which welcomed him to his destination made that a certainty didn’t it?

“Hello Mr Potter, how good of you to join us. I have been awaiting your presence before I began the evening’s entertainment.”

Harry closed his eyes for a moment.

It was less than twenty-four hours since he had to face the snake-faced bastard he thought to himself. He had had enough.

“Oh for fuck’s sake Tom, do give it a rest!” he snarled. He barely registered the muffled gasps that he managed to elicit from the assembled Death Eaters.

Harry had no idea where the portkey had brought him this time, except that wherever it was it was far more gracious and stylish than the graveyard.

They were in a large room with huge windows, which seemed to overlook gardens. Not that he could really see clearly because there were too many Death Eaters in the way.

Harry’s heart sank. It didn’t matter how good at scrapping he was, or how good at defense. He was hopelessly out-numbered, they didn’t stand a chance.

“This is getting really bloody old you know? Have you not any thing better to do with your fucking time except come after me? Get a fucking life,”

Voldemort looked stunned. Well at least Harry thought he looked stunned. It was after all hard to tell since his regeneration.

“YOU WILL SHOW ME RESPECT BOY!!” Voldemort bellowed

“Oh fuck off!” Harry replied belligerently. He was tired, he was hungry and he wanted to be anywhere other than here, but preferably somewhere where he could snog Draco.

The Death Eaters gasped again.

Someone nudged Harry’s foot.

It was Percy.

“Harry don’t antagonise him,” Percy whispered.

The older boy seemed to be trying to avoid being noticed, Harry thought, but speaking up was not very wise as he had just succeeded in drawing Voldemort’s attention onto himself.

“Oh look,” Voldemort sneered it’s a Weasley, a blood traitor. What are you doing here little traitor? Come along for the ride did you?”

Percy whimpered and Voldemort laughed raising Harry’s ire even further.

“You really are an overgrown bully, aren’t you?” Harry hissed. “You get your jollies picking on others, you sadistic sod!”

Voldemort’s eyes narrowed.

“If you do not show me some respect boy, then I will have to make you.”

“Crucio.”

Harry felt the pain hit him. For several long minutes he could do nothing but allow himself to be subsumed by wave after wave of white-hot agony.

When it stopped, he found that his mouth was flooded with blood; he must have bitten his own tongue during his convulsions.

He lay there staring up at the ceiling. Harry thought it was hideous. Far too much fancy plasterwork in his opinion

“Feeling anymore respectful now Harry?” Voldemort purred

“Nope!” Harry replied, getting a perverse satisfaction out of annoying the other wizard, “and did you realise that you have a horrible ceiling?”

Voldemort roared!

“RESPECT ME!!!”

Harry had rolled onto his stomach, every single part of him felt like it had been fed into a mincer.

“I am going to kill you.” Voldemort was screaming. “I will torture you until you beg for the sweet relief that death can give you!”

Harry ought to have been scared. He truly should have been, but instead he found that he was just irritated. If this was to be the end then so-be-it. He didn’t want to die, he truly didn’t, not when he had so much to live for. But he had had enough.

He had been scared earlier at the graveyard, and the night before. Not for himself but for those he loved. But they weren’t here were they? It was just him and Percy

He pushed himself into a sitting position. “ Do you have any idea how boring you are?” He asked as scathingly as he could manage with his mouth full of blood.

“Look, I tell you what, let Percy go and I’ll come quietly. I’ll not keep calling you a wanker and you can pretend that you are of some fucking use to anybo…...”

His last word was broken off as Voldemort hit him with another Crucio.

This time he was under for longer.

He was trying to find his magic, but it seemed elusive right now. He couldn’t seem to get a firm hold on it. Perhaps if he stalled Voldemort maybe, he would be able to grasp it.

Then he couldn’t think of anything but the excruciating pain that was subsuming him.

This time when he stopped writhing, Percy was kneeling beside him and crying.

“Please stop it!” he was sobbing, “Please don’t hurt him anymore!”

“S’alrigh’ Perc,” Harry drawled, “He won’ sho mercy, don’ beg ‘im, keep yur dign’y!” there was more blood in his mouth now and he was choking a little bit.

He felt something, like a stirring of his magic only it was very faint, like an echo. And it was just out of reach.

When the hateful spell hit him again Harry felt like every separate part of him was alive with agony.

He thought he was screaming, but he couldn’t tell anymore.

This time it felt like the pain went on for a thousand years

He wasn’t listening to what Voldemort was saying, It hurt to much to concentrate. Like someone had mushed his brains up and they had turned to goo. There was something about keeping Percy alive as a witness, and the fun they would have with him before sending him back to his family.

That sounded wrong to Harry. He didn’t think that Voldemort’s idea of fun was very nice at all and he was sure that Percy wouldn’t enjoy it at all.

Harry felt like he had been taken to pieces and put together incorrectly.

He felt like he could not move.

But he did, he forced himself out of his stupor

“You zink, your zo clever, tortring two unarmed men!” Harry slurred, he was still on his stomach, but he managed to drag his head up somehow.

“Fucking wankery coward!”

The bellow that Voldemort let out this time sounded completely unhinged.

Harry peered up at him. He thought there was blood in his eyes. Everything seemed to have a red shimmer to it? Was that the pain he wondered

Then Harry found his magic. “Shit,” he thought. “It’s very weak.” But this time when Voldemort cursed him Harry saw the hex coming and somehow he managed to deflect it.

Voldemort’s eyes narrowed

The evil wizard opened his mouth to say something else but whatever it was, was lost because at that moment a door somewhere behind Harry burst open and Harry heard someone shout

“The Order of the Phoenix are here are here, they are attacking. They’re getting though the wards.”

“Fool!” Voldemort shouted, “They cannot get through the wards, they are impregnable!”

“Master,” the man cringed. “Please Master, they have the young Malfoy with them. The wards are letting them through.”

“Good old Draco, you show old snakeface.” Harry whispered to himself, right before he slipped into darkness and oblivion.