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Next-Generation HPRP, part the eleventh
Eleventh rhymes with...
Eleventh rhymes with seventh, haha.
Anyway, the next thread for our next-generation HP roleplay. Er, fanfiction, really, to tell the truth. It stopped being a roleplay when all the Hogwarts people left (read: got exasperated with the Bella-Voldy-Wolfbar-Belinda fanfiction Mary W. and I were writing...)
Right. So. MW said she was having problems loading the last one. Plus, the number was wrong on the last one. Shouldn've been tenth.
Carry on!
submitted by TNÖ, age 16, Deep Space
(July 15, 2009 - 3:11 pm)
(July 15, 2009 - 3:11 pm)
((And I'm assuming you'll want to do those particular honours, yes?))
//Albus//
Wolfbar wasn't very good at dueling, as Bellatrix's expression had suggested. Nor was he particularly willing, loath to be drawn away from a weighty book that appeared to be relating to rivers in some way. And judging by his surprise when Albus found him in the his room, he hadn't actually been aware that Albus was *at* Lestrange manor.
"Er... remind me who you are again...?" he asked the second time Albus disarmed him.
"Albus," said Albus confidently. He figured that he could function perfectly well in Lestrange manor without his surname, which probably had a certain amount of infamy attached to it.
Wolfbar coughed. "Nice eyes," he muttered.
//James//
Hogwarts was no longer the cheerful place that James remembered from his past year there. Students were being removed almost weekly, DADA classes became somewhat more stringent, and the morning post was filled with Daily Prophets abuzz with ghastly tales. There would be an occasional vague letter from Harry, with empty reassurances about how he was very sure that everything was quite all right and within no time all this unfortunate misunderstanding would be resolved, love from dad.
James knew his father was worried about Albus. He'd always gotten the feeling that his father preferred Al. It was the main reason James teased his younger brother so much, a slight insecurity about his father's affections. That had never bothered him much, though- both of his parents were nice people who took care of him and his siblings, and everyone had always been happy.
Now, though, James got the worrying but irrepressible feeling that Hogwarts wasn't the only thing changed by all this confusion.
(September 12, 2009 - 3:17 pm)
"I can't beleive it." ''Believe what," murmured Felexias, who, LeeAnn noted, still looked mangled even under the hospital wing's care. After their return to civilization, LeeAnn and Felexias had been taken to St. Mungo's where LeeAnn had made a quick recovery. Felexias on the other hand, had only just arrived at Hogwarts.
"Six," LeeAnn roared, drawing starled looks from other students,"only six Aurors! That's how many they sent after Belitrix. And ya know what? They're all dead! The poor Aurors," she added in a concerned tone.
"Well,'' began Felexias, ''they might not have beleived us. I mean after all, we're only eleven. Not that they thought we were lying,'' she added hastily, ''but we might have imagined it for all they know. LeeAnn," LeeAnn noticed Felexias' face was even paler, "what if we did imagine it, what if it isn't real?"
"I don't know,'' stumbled LeeAnn.
(September 12, 2009 - 6:25 pm)
((It's Felicitas!
@Mary: what, his capture? Sure. Why not...?))
//Felicitas//
The thought was... disturbing. Was she crazy? Was it all just the result of a spiral into madness...?
Felicitas shuddered.
//Bellatrix//
Oliver's body disposed of, Bellatrix ghosted back up the stairs and through the halls, pausing for a few moments to watch Albus disarm Wolfbar. She smirked and continued on her way, only to be interrupted a few seconds later by a nearly inaudible hiss.
Bellatrix ducked as an almost invisible curse whipped towards her, jerked to one side, and whirled around. As she did so she pulled her wand out of her pocket and sent a hex of her own in the direction from which the curse had come.
The Dark Lord blocked it easily and slipped out of the shadows. "Quick as ever, I see."
"Have to be with you around, my lord." Bellatrix smiled at him.
Her master arched an eyebrow. "Paranoid as ever, too."
The Death Eater's smile became a smirk. "Hoping to lure me into a false sense of security, my lord? You should know by now that doesn't work..."
"Can't be blamed for trying, can I?" the Dark Lord replied cooly. Then, "The boy's dead?"
"Oliver? Yes, Belinda killed him..." Bellatrix couldn't quite suppress the twinge of pride in her voice.
The Dark Lord nodded slowly. "Yes. Good." He continued in a carefully bored tone, "Check over the security around his cell. When Potter shows up I don't want him to have any chance of escape whatsoever."
"Nor do I..." muttered Bellatrix wryly. "I don't suppose I'll have a chance to... you know...?" she added hopefully.
A tiny, smug smile appeared on her master's face. "As you wish," he said quietly, and strode away.
Bellatrix grinned, and subconsciously fingered the Horcrux, which hadn't once left her neck since he'd given it to her.
A heartbeat later she turned on her heel and went to check and re-check the enchantments and locks on Potter's future cell.
(September 13, 2009 - 12:10 am)
((Hi, Chloe. :)
Also, you're driving me crazy with the as-you-wish thing, I hope you know.))
//Wolfbar//
The boy with the mismatched eyes was disturbingly quick on his feet, and Wolfbar found himself having to work slightly harder than he should've to defend himself against an eleven-year-old boy. After the sixth lost bout on his part he held up a hand. "All right. That's quite enough, you've obviously been spending too much time with Bellatrix."
Albus grinned a bit and shrugged. "She's not all that bad."
//Harry//
Ron and Hermione were over, the former upstairs trying to reason with his sister. Harry and Hermione were in the parlour, talking quietly.
"He's with Voldemort," said Harry. "Albus. I know he is. He's with the most evil wizard ever, all alone in that cruel, harsh, cold, vile world, without any guidance. It's the only logical explanation, Hermione-"
Hermione bit her lip. "I'm afraid you're probably right, Harry, but this is Albus, your son- surely he's doing everything he can to contact you, or something-"
"No," Harry interjected dully. "He ran away from school of his own accord, Hermione. Either he's under an Imperius, or-" Harry spread his hands out in a helpless gesture that Hermione interpreted perfectly well.
(September 13, 2009 - 11:12 am)
((*smirk* I'll stop, I suppose...))
//Harry//
A few days later, Harry arrived at the Ministry to find a tightly rolled piece of parchment sitting in his in-tray. He untied the black ribbon that held it in place and smoothed out the thin paper carefully.
Thin, neat handwriting read simply, "Your life for his. You have two days. Come alone."
This was accompanied by a carefully folded Daily Prophet article which detailed Albus' escape from Hogwarts.
Harry dropped heavily into his chair, feeling ill. Presumably this meant that Albus had been Imperiused, somehow, and was now a prisoner. Or rather, he thought bitterly, a tool Voldemort's using to get at me. No, no, no, no, no-
But what choice did he have?
He started towards the fireplace, intending to call Ron, but stopped halfway across the room. No doubt if he showed up with anyone else Voldemort would just kill all three of them.
Instead Harry penned two hasty notes, one to Ron and one to Kingsley, explaining the situation and asking Kingsley to please send a couple of aurors to the edge of the Lestrange property in an hour or so if he wasn't back, to pick up Albus.
Then he strode out to the Atrium and Disapperated.
//Bellatrix//
Potter came, of course, and found the Dark Lord, Bellatrix, and Albus waiting for him at the gate.
"Cheers, Potter," Bellatrix said, as he appeared a few feet away. "Lovely office you've got."
"Hullo... father," Albus added sullenly.
The Dark Lord said nothing, just hung back in the shadows and smirked.
Potter glared at the Death Eater and then turned his attention to his son. "Albus..."
The boy merely sighed dismally turned away. A quick nod from the Dark Lord and Albus strode back towards the house without so much as a second glance.
"Prompt response, too, Potter," Bellatrix continued, and a second later flicked her wand. Thick ropes twisted through the air and tightened around Potter's wrists and knees. "Or perhaps not..." she said as he toppled to the ground. She kicked him, grinning wickedly as his glasses broke and his nose made a satisfying crunching sound and began to spew blood.
Potter glared at her hatefully (as much as was possible, given that his nose had been flattened).
"Try not to kill him, yet," the Dark Lord said quietly, and Disapperated.
Bellatrix grinned again, and with a flick of her wand jerked Potter to his feet in front of her. "It's simply lovely to see you again, Potter," she hissed softly. "And no, to answer your question, dear little Albus has never been, and never will be, under the influence of an Imperius curse." she Apperated into the cell and pushed him over once more, and added, "Sorry to disappoint. Crucio!"
At first Potter writhed in silence, apparently not wanting to give her the satisfaction of hearing him scream.
She gave up on the Cruciatus after a while, broke his fingers, slowly, one by one, kicked him a fair few times, and then went back to the curse.
This time, he screamed.
(September 13, 2009 - 4:10 pm)
LeeAnn shuddered; was she insane? That thought had never acoured to her. Deciding not to think about it, she headed off to Potions.
(September 13, 2009 - 6:48 pm)
((*dancedancedance* Wheee!))
//Albus//
The screaming didn't frighten Albus, exactly, in fact he thought might be able to see why Bellatrix and Belinda and the rest of them liked it so much. It had a certain... je ne seis quoi to it. No, what disturbed him was the fact that his father had come. Just to try and save him, even after everything that Albus had done- studied Dark magic, mildly tortured a classmate, run away from school, sided with his father's worst enemies. It was almost annoying, that anyone would go that far or be so stupid. So downright blind. He couldn't honestly have thought that Albus had been Imperiused, could he? The notion was almost insulting. His father may be somewhat... delusional... but he wasn't an idiot. Not even Voldemort's blackmailing could drive him to come here, especially not without reinforcements.
So why?
...
It was love, Albus realized. Love, especially a parent's love, blinded a person and made him willing to sacrifice his life for someone he cared for. It made someone important like his father vulnerable to his enemies. It was dangerous, suicidal, stupid, to fall prey to emotions like that. But Harry had.
Albus scowled out the window of his room. It was beginning to rain. There would, he decided right then, be none of that nonsense for him.
(September 14, 2009 - 3:29 pm)
//Bellatrix//
After an hour or so Bellatrix went back upstairs, leaving Potter half-conscious and still tied in the cell. His wand she snapped in half and discarded, and his glasses she twirled absently between her fingers as she searched for the Dark Lord.
She found Albus instead, flopped over in one of the parlours and staring at nothing with a pensive expression.
"Not thinking to hard, I hope," Bellatrix said lightly, sinking into a chair across from him.
The boy shot her an odd look and said, "No." After a moment he asked quietly, "So he came."
"Mm-hm. Hero to a fault, that's your father." The Death Eater smirked.
"Right..." Albus said dryly."
The door swung open suddenly and Rabastan looked in. "Aurors, three of them, approaching from the north."
"Ooh, how delightful," Bellatrix replied with a manic grin. "Guess he brought reinforcements after all. Want to kill them with me?"
"Generous as your offer is, I'll have to say no."
Bellatrix merely shrugged. His loss. She strolled out the door, still twirling Potter's glasses between her fingers.
(September 14, 2009 - 6:37 pm)
//Kingsley//*
The Minister had received a note from Harry a few hours ago, with a few quick details about a ransom note for his son. It had ended I'm almost sure he's back. Send a few aurors to Lestrange manor if I'm not back within the hour. -Harry
Could it be possible that the Dark Lord was back after all this time? Kingsley had been with Minerva and Alastor when they put his remains in Y'Galle, and set all those protective enchantments. Then again, they'd thought Bellatrix Lestrange was dead too- and she very clearly was not.
He would, of course, send a small team of aurors to the Garden to investigate everything, see if Harry's suspicions were right. He had a sick hunch that there would probably be a corpse there, as well- insanity, or the threat thereof, probably would have no effect on Bellatrix Lestrange whatsoever, but she wouldn't want to risk it. She would have people working for her.
How many? Kingsley felt slightly ill. Last time there had been enough to take the Ministry. And this time, there was no prophecy, was no "Chosen One." Dumbledore was dead.
This time, Kingsley thought with a shudder as he picked up the phone to order an investigation of the Garden of Y'Galle, it might not end so well.
*((It was Kingsley, yes?))
(September 15, 2009 - 4:27 pm)
((Yes, it was))
//Bellatrix//
Only three! Bellatrix shook her head. Slipshod, arrogant idiots. She sighed and Apparated to the edge of the grounds.
The lead auror started as she appeared, but at least had the presence of mind to attack. The other two followed suit a few seconds later.
Bellatrix laughed, dodged the first spell and blocked the other two.
The aurors never stood a chance.
She let one of them live, however (though his wand arm would never be the same, poor thing), and watched as he crawled feebly away and eventually worked up the strength to Disapparate.
//Kingsley//
Benjamin Alveny, the most junior of the aurors sent to Lestrange manor (that is to say, he'd been with the force for only nine years as opposed to a whole decade), Apparated into Kingsley's office an hour or so later.
He was bleeding, his eyes had swollen almost shut, his left leg was almost certainly broken and there was something... wrong... with his right arm.
Kingsley swore, and would have continued for quite a while if a strange, gasping noise hadn't emanated from Alveny's throat.
"Pardon?" Kingsley bent forward in an attempt to hear the auror.
"Bellatrix... the others... dead. But she... she said... You-Know-Who..." Benjamin broke off into shrieks of pain and clutched at his arm.
Kingsley made a valiant effort to numb the pain, but if anything his spells only worsened the problem.
After a few minutes Alveny stopped screaming, and finished weakly. "Back. Said he's... he's back."
He started to scream again. Kingsley deemed it necessary to get him to St. Mungo's immediately, and Apparated with the now writhing auror into the hospital's trauma ward.
The Minister left Alveny in the care of three completely baffled healers, reluctantly acknowledging that he wouldn't be much help at the hospital and that Voldemort's return was probably the more pressing problem.
Bloody, bloody day. And Potter dead, aurors being taken out left, right, and center.
Drastic measures were called for, Kingsley decided. He gave the order to mobilize every Auror in England and send them to Lestrange manor. He then sent owls to every surviving member of the Order of the Phoenix and their next-of-kin, requesting their services.
//Voldy//
The Dark Lord calculated that they had an hour, give or take, before Kingsley mobilized an army against Lestrange manor.
Obviously, given that he only had three fully-trained Death Eaters plus Albus and Belinda (who were really rather to young and undertrained to be expected to fight aurors), the Dark Lord had no intentions of being at Lestrange manor when the aurors and the Order showed up.
So he sent Bellatrix to gather up the various residents and announced that they were leaving for the rather less well known castle of his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin.
Forty-five minutes later the Malfoys, Lestranges, Wolfbar, Albus, Belinda, and their belongings had been relocated to a dark grey castle in the far north. The Dark Lord let them in with a series of complicated incantations spoken largely in Parseltongue, and vanished into the library, leaving the rest of them to find their way to the more comfortable rooms and settle into their knew home.
(September 15, 2009 - 7:46 pm)
((Ooh, is Harry dead already?))
//Albus//
The new location was even dustier than Lestrange manor, and older, so consequently less rooms were available to the tenants. Albus was staring out the window, trying to organize his thoughts, and utterly ignoring Scorpius Malfoy, who Bellatrix had ordered he share one of the larger rooms with.
To Albus' knowlege, his father hadn't been moved to Salazar Slytherin's castle, though the residence had a rather expansive dungeon. Albus was fairly sure what he was meant to draw from this- that his father was dead. He had to admit he was surprised; he'd thought Bellatrix would want to... entertain herself with him a bit longer. Of course, if the Dark Lord had demanded they move immediately, Harry or no, then Bellatrix would instantly comply. Obeying him was the only thing that seemed to give her more pleasure than torturing helpless victims, so far as Albus knew. But that was Bellatrix Lestrange for you.
Of course, Albus had reached all these conclusions in a matter of seconds, and there was really no need for him to think them out... over and over... for at least a half hour as he glared at the window. But he didn't want to contemplate other things.
//Teddy Lupin//
Once they'd found their way past the twisty defensive spells surrounding the manor- which in itself had taken at least twenty minutes- the group sent a few aurors inside to scope things out. Ten minutes later Teddy's colleagues reappeared, looking mildly confused and reporting that there was no one there. Though they solemnly added that it would seem there was something in the basements that Bellatrix had wanted them to see.
(September 16, 2009 - 4:14 pm)
//Teddy//
It was gruesome (and that was probably putting it lightly). The small part of Teddy that wasn't having an emotional breakdown due to his godfather's murder noted idly that Bellatrix seemed to grow more brutal and bloody with her murders the less time she had to torture her victims beforehand. And she'd only had three short hours with Harry Potter.
Harry Potter, who was now a crumpled corpse recognizable only by the scar (an island of pale skin surrounded by congealed blood and abrasions) and the broken glasses which lay by his hand, some two meters away.
Teddy dashed to one of the empty cells and was violently sick. He wasn't the only one.
//Bellatrix//
Lestrange manor had been Bellatrix's home ever since her absurdly early marriage to Rodolphus. Its extensive library and the dungeons below had been her sanctuaries of quiet in a world of chaos and noise. Well, sanctuaries until she used her husband's connections to lever her way into the then male-exclusive ranks of the Death Eaters.
She was extraordinarily glad to be away from the manor, for what would very likely be the rest of her life. She had brought along the majority of her library to Slytherin's castle and, really, there was nothing else to miss (unless one counted the lost opportunity to make Potter's last few days of life miserable and filled with ceaseless pain, of course).
Bellatrix grinned as she started to transfer her books from the internally enlarged suitcase to the extensive empty bookshelves in the room she had laid claim to within minutes of arriving at the castle.
Dank, dirty, and freezing cold as it might be, the castle was already starting to feel like more of a home than Lestrange manor ever had.
(September 16, 2009 - 10:52 pm)
//Albus//
By the next morning, England was in a state of uproar despite the minister's attempts to calm everyone down. Rabastan, much to Bellatrix's annoyance, had filched a newspaper from god knows where, and the headlines screamed things that would strike terror in any reasonable wizarding citizen. Harry Potter was dead, the Dark Lord had returned, searches still going on for the Lestranges and their master, Albus Potter still not found, aurors dead... each article ended with reassurances that there was no need to panic. Albus had to admit he found this rather funny.
Flipping through the rest of the Prophet, he found the horoscopes. Nonsense, of course, why a wizarding newspaper would have them he didn't know... nevertheless, they reminded him that his twelfth birthday was coming soon, on February fourteenth. His glance fell on the Pisces horoscope: If your interest is lukewarm, you won't win any races. Remember you can't please everyone and commit to it or you'll miss out.
What flimflam. Albus scowled and closed the newspaper.
//James//
James had stopped reading the papers. That was his father's world, didn't concern him. The articles scared him, anyhow, the whispers of Dark activity and murders.
That was why James didn't know why he'd been called into Professor Boot's office via a painstakingly written note, but he didn't think that whatever the headmaster wanted to discuss would give him a terribly warm and happy feeling.
(September 17, 2009 - 3:39 pm)
//Voldy//
The boy was improving rapidly. Of course he still couldn't get anywhere near to Bellatrix (he'd need to master Occlumency before he could hope to provide her with more than the very basest of competitions), but both Death Eater and Dark Lord were relatively pleased with his progress.
Between that and the Ministry's highly amusing reaction to Harry's death, the Dark Lord was in a very good mood indeed.
//Bellatrix//
For lack of anything really better to do in the earliest hours of the morning, Bellatrix had started a new wall of newspaper clippings, which was growing at an alarming rate of at least two articles a day.
At this rate it would cover an entire side of her room within the month.
((Sorry it's so short. I'm blocked, again...))
(September 17, 2009 - 6:27 pm)
((Yes, reading over my very... less-than-fabulous last post, so am I...))
//Albus//
Albus quickly adjusted to life at Salazar's Slytherin's old castle, and by occupying himself with either reading or instructions with Bellatrix he quickly recovered from the very slightly upsetting news of his father's death. He'd also for the most part gotten over any major fears of Bellatrix, if perhaps not entirely the Dark Lord. This was good, because when his hostess wasn't doing whatever the Dark Lord told her to or teaching Belinda the occasional new skill, she was with Albus, mostly in the dueling hall. Her favourite method of teaching- suddenly attack the boy and see if he can defend himself- didn't seem as harsh as it once might've, and was certainly effective.
//James//
Following Teddy into the house, wheeling his trunk behind him, James took a deep breath. Between Ginny, Lily, and the other assorted relatives who were sure to be having breakdowns over the news of Harry's death, the impromptu... vacation... (which would include a funeral) with his family was a rather grim prospect.
(September 18, 2009 - 2:47 pm)