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Dumbledore's face paled, almost matching his beard as the masked man in black returned to his seat upon the throne in the center of the large chamber.

"Why?" the aged wizard managed to ask the Lord of Azkaban.

"Quite simple really," the response came coldly from Dion, "Lucius has long since become expendable, no more useful information within that empty, blond head of his."

The face turned towards the old man, "And this way I eliminate the waste while testing my latest masterpiece and prove a point at the same time."

A brief moment of musing before the sith continued, "And in the end, that inbred imbeciles death was more valuable than his life was."

"He was a human being," the other stated, "Lives matter!"

"Ah, Albus," came the retort, "But while he was human, his life was forfeit anyway, anyone who takes the mark has given up their so called right to life and freedom."

A brief chuckle came from behind the mask, "When I was elected the new minister after that idiot you had as a puppet was removed, all of Voldemort's followers are relegated to enemies of the state for kill or capture."

"That is inhumane!"

"No, that is reality," came the answer, "Did you expect that chucking all of them in prison until they either escaped or bribed their own way out would work at stopping the lunatic of a 'dark lord' you have running amok?"

The old wizard could feel the eyes burning into his.

"Did you?" the Sith Lord demanded of his prisoner, "Did you honestly think that these terrorists deserved to live when they have killed, tortured, maimed, and raped hundreds if not thousands of humans."

Silence was the only response the bearded man could give beyond the visible shame appearing upon his face.

"No, Dumbledore," the force user continued, "They sacrificed their humanity long ago in the sake of prejudice and bigotry that has no place in this world, and the innocent pay the cost for wizarding incompetence."

"The magical ignore the mundane and in so doing cement their hatred," he continued, the tone leaving the listener weary, "But their hatred makes them monsters."

Eyes locked once more.

"And monsters have no place in society, they are to be stamped out and their arrogance will destroy them," Dion continued, "And monsters, like vermin, flee from the light of the powerful."

A brief pause, "And my soldiers and lightsaber are what is making them run and hide while revealing just what they are."

Albus Dumbledore in all of his years had never contemplated this scenario, imprisoned after being stripped of rank and title by the very people he had tried to protect.

"Then why take over?" he asked, this being had taken control of the wizarding world with ease in a masterstroke that came from the shadows in a twist of fate that could never be predicted.

"Why?" came the response, "Because it is my right to rule, and once I rule this world, I will lead humanity to the stars to conquer in my name."

"You're a madman," came the horrified response.

"Mad am I?" Dion responded slowly, savoring the trap he had set for the old man, "This madness that you believe I have comes from your own actions."

Dumbledore froze, his mind wondering just who was behind this mask. Who had been brought to this point and blamed him for it.

"Who are you?" he asked with desperation appearing in his voice and on his weathered face.

Dion reached up slowly and undid the clasps of his mask and removed it from his pale ace.

The emerald eyes and lightning bolt scar were enough to make the old wizard begin to panic.

"You see Albus," Harry Potter stated calmly, "You brought this upon the world yourself, I just harvested the whirlwind to my own gain."

xXx

Vess Kogo watched his "student," the sarcastic smirk that touched the edges of his lips as he trained the brat to be the pawn his master wanted.

The idiot had actually believed him when he had implied a plan to kill off his master.

The actual plan was an adaptation of one of his masters teachers, raise a pawn to oppose you and use the pawns actions as a reason to do more. He had to admit that Sidious was a master manipulator, his own memories from his other life had confirmed it with how Palpatine had treated Vader when he was working with the armored titan of the Galactic Empire.

Vader had been his first teacher in the ways of the force, and then Sidious had taken over after the disaster at Yavin.

Now he wondered in his deepest thoughts if Lord Vader had been preparing to break away from the Emperor and ascend to become the Master.

The question was pointless, especially with Lord Dion having revised the rule, two leaders above the rest, but they were all Sith in the end. Dion was the ruler of the coming empire, and his Knights would serve him and his apprentice when he took one.

His attention returned to the present as Vess almost broke out laughing while the Malfoy boy was overwhelmed by the single remote.

He really had a lot of work to do.

xXx

Apparating into the darkness, Voldemort suppressed a sadistic grin.

The Dark Lord had first found this location before that night when he fell to the boy, and only now with the vicious series of losses because of that thrice damned Dion and his army.

It was a place he viewed with the same almost holy reverence as his fathers family did the Holy Land. Moving slowly as a small group of his followers, Bellatrix and a half dozen curse breakers that he had managed to charm to his side, as well as the vampire centurion.

It was the Tomb of Salazar, the hidden vault containing the place of his honored ancestors eternal rest after being murdered by Godric.

The intricate pattern of the Slytherin family crest, expanding from the personal seal that Salazar used, was illuminated on the floor with an eerie and pale green light charmed into the very stones themselves.

It seemed almost alive with the two shapes of twin snakes in a spiral that extended from the walls of the circular chamber to the crest in the center.

Then the ceiling lit up with a silver light as they reached the center of the entrance vault.

"I'm sorry old friend," Tartarus whispered softly as he placed a hand upon the sigil in the center, "But the last of your line requested this of me."

And with a push of his own magic into the sigil, the two coiled snakes separated, lowering down as they did to reveal a pair of staircases that descended from the entrance and into the blackened void below.

The silver-armored vampire rose to his full height, panting slowly as he did.

"This is as far as I may go," he stated slowly, "You must proceed without me."

Voldemort nodded slowly in response, knowing that the centurion was beyond his own power for the time being. And with the vampire having been present when the tomb was first constructed, there was a distinct possibility that it was protected against vampiric intrusions...

...or this entire charade was a trap in and of itself.

xXx

She slowly opened her eyes to the noise, and then jerked the rest of the way to awareness as motion at the edge of her night vision caught her attention.

Heavy footsteps brought her to sitting as she fumbled for her wand.

It had only been two days since she had finally gotten out of the psyche ward after what had happened in that god forsaken school.

Now she had an intruder to deal with.

Then she saw them, two glistening blood red eyes, right as her fingertips brushed her wand. The shock jarring her enough that it slipped away to fall between the bedstand and the bed.

The being came, the color of rusty metal.

"Statement: My master orders your death, Meatbag!"

She started to panic.

"Musing: He did also wish for me to not allow this to be linked to him, so my usual equipment is out."

The beings odd pose as if thinking startled her.

"Statement: However, this reminds me of a saying, 'There is more than one way to skin a toad,'" HK-47 continued while producing a small scalpel and advancing on Dolores Umbritch.

xXx

Reg ducked under one of the lower branches as he scanned the wooded lands around him.

He was one of the four ARC's deployed to ensure the coming spectacle would not be interrupted.

Lord Dion had set forth the first portion of his plan to advance the wizards out of the dark ages. The plan started simply, use speeder bikes for a public race, and while the new bikes were not up to military grade as the BARC's were, they would outperform any of the brooms available in speed and agility.

A race where Dion had personally sent invitations to some of the best on Brooms to come and learn for two weeks before the race and then he was giving out tickets to the event.

Hogsmeade was the selected location, or rather just outside of it, with a portion of the track going through the Forbidden Forest.

That was where the problems had begun, the Acromantulas had decided to move in to the cleared area and the Centaurs had been tense and defiant even though the track had been placed away from their territory.

His team was assigned to deal with the problem of the monstrous spiders while another group would handle the centaurs diplomatically. The arachnids deserved no such consideration, and their presence within the woods was already a disruption of the environment.

"Torch," he stated slowly to one of his three companions, "Target area ahead, you have point."

"Understood," came the gruff voice of the trooper as he moved ahead, the flame projector ready and ignited.

"Shadow," Reg continued, "Cover the rear."

"And me boss?" the last member of the team questioned.

"Stay with me, Drag, we'll follow Torch in."

"Roger that Reg."

xXx

Mara smiled slightly as she guided the young girl.

Her master and Crimson had seemingly adopted the child, and with her apparent force sensitivity, the decision to train her was made.

Ge'tal held the training saber to tightly as the red haired Imperial Knight helped her through the motions of the first motions of training with a lightsaber.

"Loosen the grip," she chided the girl, "Leaving marks that deep in the grip will only lead to pain if you run into something that can withstand the strike."

The girl grimaced, muttering a curse in mandalorian as Lady Jade proved the point with her own lightsaber.

She retaliated as Mara summoned another of the training sabers to her hand while clipping her normal blade to her belt.

The training blades crashed repeatedly, a fierce grin crossing Mara Jades lips as her trained eyes recognized the signs of instinctive force use to enhance the body. Emotions flaring was one of the easiest times for the signs to appear.

"Keep your guard up," she stated slowly as she scored a hit on the girls wrist, leaving the child hissing as the sting of the training sabers contact almost made her drop the blade.

A quick adjustment to her stance and they continued.

xXx

Dion grinned behind the mask as he watched the session behind a one way mirror on a raised platform.

"She has talent," he commented to his ever present sentinel.

"As any mandalorian should," Crimson stated slowly, the brief tone of worry had touched his voice before suppressing it.

"You have raised your daughter well my friend," Dion responded casually, "I am most impressed by her progress."

"That you M'lord," came the guardsmans answer with pride audible in his tone, "I will be sure to relay your comments to her."

xXx

Across the wizarding world, several people were shocked and many former students of Hogwarts gave a cheer before reading further in their morning papers.

Dolores Umbritch, former teacher at Hogwarts, had been found dead at the town square of Hogsmeade just after midnight. Her death was attributed to damage inflicted after apparently being skinned alive.

xXx

Albus Dumbledore had felt age weighing heavily upon him since his fateful meeting with his former student turned Lord of Azkaban.

He had been hoping for Harry to defeat his previous failure as a teacher, only to now see the boy fall to a greater darkness than Tom Riddle had.

He blinked as the light filled the small chamber he was in, not enough space to sit or even lay within an almost vertical tube.

"Hello again Albus," he heard Harry say slowly, almost as if the new monster was taunting him, "I believe it is time I begin taking my vengeance upon you."

A brief pause, "What was it that you once said to me."

A pause.

"Oh yes, 'Death is but the next great adventure.'"

Another pause.

"My teacher had encountered someone who had a similar philosophy, and had perfected the appropriate punishment for one with that belief," Harry continued, "To give eternal death, but never a chance to pass on."

Water slowly began to fill the tube.

"Sidious had found some of the most interesting creatures one such thing was a fist sized insect that was quite voracious," came the voice of the emerald eyed one, "They would swarm and could devour even the bones of their victims."

The old wizard wondered where Dion was going with this.

"They were called Piranha Beetles, and as I don't have any to use myself," Harry continued, voice becoming in tone most like a child telling a secret, "I will have to make due with normal piranha's."

The water stopped at his neck and then he saw small vents open, allowing large fish to enter around him and panic started to set in. He recognized the type from stories from his own Uncles younger years when the man had explored the world and told him and Aberforth all the stories of the glories and monsters of the world.

A slight trickle of liquid before him, running slowly down the side of the tank, but he wouldn't be able to stop it.

Blood touched the water.

And then the pain began.

xXx

He felt white almost as if the color had a distinct texture to it.

A deep breath of air and his eyes opened up, leaving the wizard feeling younger.

Then Albus realized that he couldn't move but as his eyes opened, they locked onto the tube still full of frenzied fish ripping at what was still in the bloodied water.

And then the ancient wizard screamed.