Chapter 19: The War Resumes

A week after Harry and Colin were married, Harry traveled by Floo power to Ron's.  In two weeks he would use the potion.  He, Ron, and Hermione needed to discuss strategy.  Harry still planned to keep Ron and Hermione away from any actual conflict -- he'd lost too many friends, already -- but he needed their help.  Hermione was the smartest person he knew. She could help with research. 

He was surprised to see Dennis when he came out of the fireplace.  He should have been in school.  He'd come home for the wedding, but Harry had thought he would be back at Hogwarts by now.  "Hello, Dennis," he said.  "Why aren't you at school?"

"I'm not going back," said Dennis.

"Why not?"

"I don't wanna."  Dennis walked out of the room.

Hearing him arrive, Ron and Hermione came in.  After greeting them, Harry said, "What's with Dennis?  Why isn't he in school?"

"He won't go back," said Ron.  "He says the other boys tease him about having no pecker."

"Having had a similar experience with the Infantiliamus spell, Harry could understand how he felt.  Dean had made it plain that those with no cocks were inferior to him.  When Ginny had fucked Dean, Harry had felt inferior.  It wasn't easy to be a eunuch.  "But he needs an education," Harry said.

"Mother's hoping that he'll go back, after he's had some time to get used to it -- maybe next year."

Would he ever get used to it?  Harry wasn't certain he'd get used to being a eunuch.  He didn't know which would be worse, to be neutered before having sex as Dennis had been, or to be neutered as Harry was soon to be.  Dennis wouldn't know what he was missing.  Harry would.  Two more weeks.  That's all Harry had.

 "If you will," he said to Hermione, "go to Hogwarts and see if you can find out any clues about what Voldemort used for his other horcruxes.  It'll do no good to kill him, if we haven't already destroyed them.  See if you can talk Professor McGonagall into letting you look through Dumbledore's papers, but don't tell her about the horcruxes.  For some reason, Dumbledore didn't want me to tell anyone, but you two."

"What will I tell her?" asked Hermione.

"Tell her I said it was important.  Tell her I said that Dumbledore would have wanted it.  Oh," he said, staring off in the distance, but not seeing anything in the room -- seeing, instead, a beaker of potion he'd hidden in the dungeon, "tell her I'll be coming to Hogwarts in two weeks.  I left something there."

"What?" asked Ron.

"Something I need in our fight against Voldemort," but he wouldn't elaborate.

When they had finished talking, Harry went back to the fireplace for the trip home.  He hadn't brought Colin because he figured the less she knew about their plans, the better, not that he didn't trust her.  He just didn't want her involved in the battle.  Besides, Colin wasn't a warrior.  She had difficulty finding fault with anyone.

He hadn't wanted to leave her, but she shouldn't have been in danger.  Harry had only been gone an hour; and only Ron and Hermione had known he'd be gone.  Kreacher knew, but Harry had given him explicit orders not to tell anyone.  He was certain he'd covered all possible situations, leaving Kreacher no loophole.

He expected her to be waiting for him, when he came out of the fireplace.  She wasn't.

Colin wasn't anywhere in the house.  "Kreacher," he called.  With a loud pop, Kreacher appeared.  Kreacher didn't make his usual disparaging comment about Harry.  "Where's Colin?" Harry asked.

"Gone," said the elf, "It's gone."

"Gone?  Where did she go?"  Colin wouldn't have gone anywhere without Harry.  She knew he'd be back soon; besides, Harry had told her she was in danger, that, since they were married, Voldemort would want to use her against him.  Even if Colin hadn't been afraid for herself, she wouldn't have done anything to endanger Harry.  "I order you to tell me exactly what happened."

"Kreacher's real mistress took it."

"Bellatrix -- Bellatrix Lastrange?  Bellatrix Lastrange took her?"

"Yes," said Kreacher.  "My mistress took her."

"How?" asked Harry.  "Did you let her into the house?"

"No," said Kreacher.  I would have, but you ordered me not to."

"Then how?" said Harry, pointing his wand at Kreacher.  He would kill the elf, if he didn't have some answers quickly.  From Snape's potion book and others in Sirius Black's library, Harry had learned the Unforgivable Curses, Avada Kedavra, the killing curse, the Imperius Curse, which took away one's will, and the Cruciatus Curse, which caused intense pain.  He had decided to try to even the odds against him, by using the same weapons his enemies did.

It hadn't been an easy decision.  They weren't just called unforgivable curses, they were unforgivable.  Use of them was punished by imprisonment in Azkaban.  As far as Harry was concerned, the rules of the game had changed with the death of Dumbledore.  It was just he, now.  He was the only one left to fight Voldemort.  The Ministry of Magic was useless.  Harry didn't think that any of the unfortunates Scrimgeour had thrown into Azkaban were really Death Eaters.

"I took it out to her," Kreacher said.

"YOU TOOK COLIN OUT TO HER?"

"The Potter brat never told me not to take it out.  He just told me not to let anyone into the house.  My mistress called to me from outside.  She told me to bring it out."

Harry used an unforgivable curse for the first time, striking Kreacher with the green flame of the Cruciatus Curse.  A sharp pain shot through the scar on Harry's forehead with the use of the curse, but the elf writhed in pain on the floor.  A wisp of smoke rose from the tip of Harry's wand.  The use of the spell had changed his wand somehow.  "Where did Bellatrix take her?" Harry asks.

"Ow -- ow.  Stop the pain.  Kreacher will tell the Potter brat.  My mistress wants me to tell him."  With a snap of his fingers, Kreacher materialized a pensive.  It contained a memory:

Letting himself drift into it, Harry found himself inside a recent memory of Bellatrix Lastrange.  She was standing outside his house.  Colin was writhing in pain at her feet.  "Your eunuch friend doesn't like the Cruciatus Curse, Potter.  Better hurry, Potter.  I don't know how long he'll be able to stand it.  Here," Bellatrix said, placing a small object onto the ground, "is a portkey.  Use it, if you want to save your lover."

That's where the memory ended.  Bellatrix must have apparated, taking Colin with her.

Harry had no choice.  He neither knew how long Colin could endure the Cruciatus Curse, or how long it'd been since she'd been taken.  "Stay right here until I return," he told Kreacher.  "Do not move from this spot."

"What if the Potter brat does not return?"

"Then, you'll have a new master."  Harry wasn't certain who that'd be.  He'd left everything to Colin.  If he didn't survive, Colin probably wouldn't either.

Out in the yard, Harry found a small glass figurine of a unicorn, something a muggle might have purchased in a shop.  Bending over, he picked it up, but as soon as he did, he felt the familiar sensation of being grabbed with a hook placed somewhere inside his abdomen.  He was being transported somewhere.  He didn't know where.