FicWad

DISCLAIMER: See Ch. 1.

A/N: This chapter is where the truth is revealed, hehehe...


Chapter 2: In My Enemy's House

The self-proclaimed Dark Lord, Voldemort, sat on his throne at Riddle Manor. Wormtail was at his side, serving wine to his Master and dead cats to Nagini. Looking out the window and into the sunset, he saw the graveyard where he had risen again... and when Harry Potter escaped his own death once again...

There was a knock on the door. After doing a quick magical sweep, Voldemort saw it wasn't those teenagers from the village breaking into the old house for a dare. It was Lucius Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle... and with /company/, too.

"Enter," he commanded in his chilling voice.

The door opened with Malfoy in the lead, and with Crabbe and Goyle bringing in someone from Azkaban. This young man was dingy prisoner in gray robes, slightly bent glasses in his pocket, unkempt black hair... and a scar on his forehead.

"Potter," he hissed with anticipation.

Harry didn't move, let alone acknowledge his foe.

"We believe he's knocked out," said a fourth Death Eater coming in and shutting the door behind him. "After all, those dementors can be so harmful..."

"Excellent point, Joseph," Voldemort chuckled darkly as the man removed his mask to reveal a slightly elderly face with silvery hair. Joseph Cornwall was a man who worked for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE), and had served Voldemort by replacing real documents and information with false ones to confuse the Ministry of Magic (not that they weren't stupid enough to begin with anyway).

"You have all done well," Voldemort said with a frightening smile. After roughly dropping Harry on the floor, the four men bowed down to them, thanking their Master.

"Now," Voldemort said, "You claim that he disappeared for a week?"

"Yes, my Lord," Cornwall spoke up. The dementors claim that he simply vanished one moment while he was sleep. Exactly a week later, he reappeared in the same position. I have never heard of such a thing."

"Indeed, this is unheard of," Voldemort mused. "How is our guest now?"

"We believe he is in some sort of coma, my Lord," Malfoy spoke up. "As with his bizarre absence from Azkaban, it is nothing like we have seen before."

"Then again," Voldemort added, "He has been known for doing the first quite a few things. /Including/," he growled with much malice, causing the four Death Eaters present to flinch, "surviving a /Killing Curse/..."

Getting up, the Dark wizard walked over to where Harry lay, and concentrated on getting into Harry's mind.

Nothing happened.

"Another oddity," he hissed. "The connection between myself and him through his scar will not work."

The four Death Eaters looked at each other. This was getting stranger with every passing moment.

Sighing and turning away, he walked over to Wormtail, who flinched in his master's presence. "You," he spat, "Go with the others and summon the other Death Eaters." Wormtail nodded while shaking and hurried from the room as Voldemort wandered around while contemplating these new twists of events.

None of them noticed the slight twitch in Harry's right wrist.

Back at Hogwarts

In Dumbledore's office, a pompous owl from the Ministry of Magic burst into the room, dropped off the small letter in its beak, and hurried back out. It was uncharacteristically short and to the point.

Dumbledore,

He's escaped.

Fudge

Alarms went off in Dumbledore's head. Potter escaped? The Headmaster worried about the prophecy, but, as he thought to himself with remorse, and least it would be better to have one Dark wizard rather than two.

After using a Protean Charm on a small marble carving of a phoenix to summon the Order of the Phoenix, he took Fawkes and disappeared in a burst of flame from the office.

A few moments after they left, the sword of Godric Gryffindor began to glow in its case. A moment later, the glass shattered and it burst out of its office at the speed of sound.

Back at Riddle Manor...

As the other Death Eaters assembled, Voldemort still contemplated the situation with Harry. What had happened to his young enemy? Not that Voldemort cared for the boy, of course; he just didn't want Harry to have some unknown advantage to use against him.

Bellatrix Lestrange walked in, followed by her husband and brother-in-law. With a nod from Voldemort, she decided to wake Harry up.

"Crucio!"

Harry woke up screaming in pain and on the floor. As Bellatrix let the curse go, Harry simply lay there, not moving and hardly even breathing.

"I owed you that, little wee Potter," she hissed mockingly.

Harry remained silent.

"We think he may have snapped already, Bella," Voldemort explained.

The Dark Lord then roughly lifted Harry up, looking straight into the boy's eyes. They just gazed at Voldemort, yet they still looked rather unfocused.

"I think we need something to refresh his memory," Voldemort sneered. Holding Harry up by the scruff of his robes, he made Harry gaze out the window and face the graveyard, where long shadows were being cast from the other side of the house.

"Look, Harry Potter," Voldemort hissed. "You remember that? It is the graveyard where you should have died two years ago."

Harry just gazed out, not really focused on anything, with his body as limp as a rag doll.

"Nothing to say about that horrible night?" Voldemort chided him. "From what I have heard (and believe me, I hear a lot of things), you felt some remorse over how your fellow student died that night. Diggory, was it? However, I believe that there is another person in this old manor who also shares some thoughts about his untimely demise..."

Voldemort dragged Harry around to show him another approaching Death Eater. From the looks of the new arrival, this Death Eater was a young woman.

"Unmask yourself, my dear," Voldemort commanded, a small evil smile forming on his ugly face.

The Death Eater did so. The mask was removed, and her face was revealed.

For a split second, horror and recognition formed on Harry's face as he saw the person in front of him.

Cho Chang.

It was hard to believe that Harry could have once considered Cho beautiful; now, with her evil smirk and outfit, she bore an uncanny resemblance to Bellatrix Lestrange.

"You recognize me, Harry?" she taunted him. "You should, seeing as to how you kept trying to continue a relationship with me last year. I can't believe how I looked for closure from you over Cedric's death when it was /you who led him to that death/..."

The bitterness was apparent in her voice; she now obviously hated Harry and used him as a scapegoat for what happened.

"It was I who impersonated you and cursed Percy that day," Cho gloated, walking up to him and kneeling down to face him, her dark eyes glittering malevolently. "The Dark Lord has offered me the opportunity to be reunited with Cedric again after He finds a way to bring him back. I have fulfilled my end of the bargain; it's only a matter of time now before the Dark Lord keeps his promise, like he always does. Besides, in the long run, he'll win this war anyway, so at least I'm backing the winning horse."

Harry only gazed back up into her face, not responding at all.

Scowling, she whipped out her wand and spat, "Dammit, answer me, Potter! Crucio//!"

Harry screamed again for a moment or so before the curse was released and he fell to the floor, breathing heavily.

"Love hurts, doesn't it?" she mocked him in a honey-like voice.

Harry still made no response whatsoever.

"Well, Potter, you seem to have no will to fight, so maybe I'll just send you to your dear parents and godfather all the faster... Good-bye, Harry Potter..."

And as he raised his wand, Harry braced himself.

In the meantime...

The Order quickly assembled itself inside Hogwarts. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Hagrid, Lupin (who returned as the DADA professor that year), Tonks, Kinglsey, Mundungus, Podmore, and several other adults assembled in a secret room. Soon enough, five students joined them.

Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood entered. This five had gained a sort of "hero" status among the students, for one reason or another, although some mistrust spread within them.

Of all the students at Hogwarts who one trusted Harry, only Neville and Luna kept their faith in him. They had voiced their opinions more than once, and they got ridiculed merely for their beliefs. The only reason they still even bothered working with Ron, Hermione and Ginny was because they had to worry more about Voldemort than their differences in opinions.

Dumbledore outlined the situation, and asked that those five students work with the adults because they all knew Harry at one point, and hopefully, they might be able to predict his actions.

After outlining everything, they all departed, but for a moment, Snape held them back.

"Both of you believe as I do that Potter was framed, correct?" he asked the timid Gryffindor and ditzy Ravenclaw. Both of them nodded. "I have a plan..."

Sometime later...

The Order converged upon Riddle Manor and spied inside. From there, they would launch their attack.

Dumbledore and his students crept down the hallway, disabling enchantments and wards as they went, with Snape in the lead, acting as their guide.

From inside the lounge, they heard Voldemort's chilling voice: "AVADA KEDAVRA!" There was a flash of green light, a rushing sound, and thump as the victim fell to the floor.

After Voldemort cackled for what seemed like an eternity, he calmed down and said, "We have company, I see..."

The next moment, all seven people were standing inside Voldemort's "throne room," along with the other Order members; it was obviously some sort of magical trap that the great Dark wizard had developed.

Voldemort sat on his throne, in all his dark glory, with Nagini on his shoulders. About twenty Death Eaters were spaced around the room at equal intervals to prevent anyone from getting in or out.

"Ah, and the company has arrived," Voldemort hissed gloatingly. "I'm afraid you all missed my defining moment, but I'm sure I can provide some other activities..." His eyes flickered to the body between him and the Order.

Lying on the floor, was Harry Potter. He was dead.

Dumbledore felt some odd sympathy for the young man lying there in front of them, even though he ended up betraying them all. The rest of the Order (minus Snape, Neville, and Luna) all shot the corpse look of varying disgust and pity.

"At least that's one less Dark wizard," Ron spat.

Voldemort's chuckle put everyone off. Then it grew to laughter, and then to all-out howls of hilarity.

"Harry Potter, Dark!?" he laughed in that arctic voice of his. "Now why would any of you ever think that?"

The Order seemed to deteriorate when they pieced together what Voldemort was implying.

"Ah, I see that light finally dawns for the /Light/..." he chuckled to himself at his own quip.

'And so the megalomaniac decides to finally take the credit for his work by putting everyone else on one last guilt trip,' Snape thought. Neville and Luna nodded as though sharing the same exact thought with their potions professor.

Cho stepped forward and cast her hood aside after removing her mask. After allowing everyone to gasp and be surprised, she also took her credit where it was due.

"I framed Potter and put him in prison," she gloated. "He was a failure who led Cedric to his death and allowed the Dark Lord to rise again. Not only was Potter a hypocrite who couldn't even protect anyone, like his foolish godfather, for example, he didn't even have what it took to defeat the Dark Lord. I choose my side very carefully, you see."

As Cho stepped back off to the side, Voldemort laughed his cruel laugh again. "You drove out your only chance of hope and ignored all voices of reason! You practically handed him - and the fate of the wizarding world - to me on a silver platter! How ironic that you, my own enemies, were able to help by imprisoning your golden boy and leave the path to my domination even more open!"

The Order members seemed to wilt even more with every word. This was reinforced by the dirty looks thrown at them from Snape, Neville and Luna (or at least from Snape and Neville; Luna's expression was currently unreadable).

"Wormtail," Voldemort suddenly demanded, his voice as quick as a whip, "please remove young Potter's body. It doesn't do much to the décor here."

Looking grave and almost sorrowful, Wormtail intoned, "Mobilicorpus." He actually looked ready to weep as he walked out with Harry's body floating in front of him.

As they left, Voldemort turned back to the Order, some of whom looked tear-stricken. "Now, who should I get rid of first..." he mused as though he were selecting clothing at a department store.

But before he could continue, there was a vibrating noise heard in the air. A moment later, something came crashing through the large window facing Voldemort's throne (the one facing the graveyard where his rebirth took place).

The speeding silver object shot right at Voldemort. He managed to get out of the way in time, but Nagini wasn't so lucky.

With an audible /THUNK/, the sword of Gryffindor went right through Nagini's neck; a moment later, the snake's head slid off and fell to the floor.

Voldemort could only stare in shock between the demise of his beloved familiar and the engraved name "GODRIC GRYFFINDOR" staring him right in the face, almost taunting him. Then he unleashed a howl of anger and pain that made everyone's hairs stand on end. Punching the Devil in the eye would have been just as smart an option as doing what just happened.

"WHO DID THIS!?" he demanded, and the Order members and Death Eaters alike feared for their very lives.

As if to answer his question, the sword quivered and flew out of its slot on the wall. The hilt hit Voldemort in the back of the head as it sailed over to the portal where Wormtail left with Harry's body.

Right into the hands of the last person anyone had expected to see at the moment.

"How ironic that you, my own enemy, would exonerate me by proving my innocence," Harry mocked him in a cold voice.

Every last pair of eyes in the room locked onto Harry, unable to believe what they were seeing. The Order members were starting to feel hope grow within them; the Death Eaters went the other way, starting to feel despair.

Voldemort's blood-colored catlike eyes looked as though they threatened to pop out of his skull and roll across the floor.

Before him stood Harry Potter, who was most definitely alive and sane, if not looking a little messed up. Now, he looked as though he was ready to unleash some devastating counterattack on the Dark wizard responsible for the deaths and suffering of countless people. Even from across the room, people could see something glowing in those piercing green eyes, something /powerful/, although whether it was more like fire or ice, no one could say.

Behind Harry, Wormtail was standing and quivering with fear and anticipation, which his best friend's son seemed to take no notice of whatsoever.

Regaining his composure, Voldemort growled, "Potter..."

Taking out his wand, Harry's eyes locked onto those of his lifelong rival.

"Why must you insist on constantly trying to interfere with /everything/?" Voldemort hissed, taking out his own wand and looking inches away from launching an all-out attack on his young nemesis.

The tiniest of smirks formed on Harry's face. "What are you going to do about, Riddle?" he mocked the self-proclaimed Dark Lord for everyone to hear. "Kill me?"


(End of Chapter 2.)

A/N: Has Harry developed some sort of immunity to the Killing Curse? Did Wormtail have anything to do with this? And will Cho be punished for being such an evil bitch? Find out next time, folks, in the next installment of "Reap What You Sow"! (Okay, did that just sound corny or what?)

Note about those teenagers: They mention those teenagers in the beginning of GoF, those that harass Frank Bryce.

Note about Cornwall: Now, I'm sure a lot of my older and more devout readers will recognize this guy from "The Heir of Gryffindor," but I must ask them this: DO NOT GIVE ANYTHING AWAY TO MY NEWER READERS! (Sorry, but I mean that, I really do.)

Note about Cho: HA! I wonder how many of you saw this one coming! (I might also have been one of the first people to write a story where Cho is the traitor!)

Be careful, for I can leave tricky little hints in my work that allude to future events. In this case, think back to the last chapter...

"For a few seconds before he was led out, he caught the face of Cho Chang in the crowd. During the last second, an uncharacteristic smirk formed on her face."

Note about Cho's reasoning: As you can see, Voldemort tricked and manipulated her.

Note about Snape, Neville and Luna: Now that I think about it, they kind of make for an odd trio, don't they?

Note about Wormtail's attitude: I've mentioned this before in HoG; Wormtail really doesn't strike me as the greedy, double-crossing evil kind of character. In both PoA and GoF, he always looks so remorseful about how he ended up serving Voldemort; my guess is he got bullied into joining him and his Death Eaters.

Note about Harry's "kill me?" taunt: Hahaha, I'm sorry, folks, but I just like this line too much!

Next chapter is where we find out the identity of whose voice we heard in the first chapter, and where Harry and Voldemort face off... that is, after Harry has a few words with some of the OTHER Death Eaters... (Wink wink!)

/HOWEVER/, the next chapter will contain a few dashes of decapitations, mutilations, impalements, explosions... it's all for an EXCELLENT reason or more, though!