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Chapter 37: Strangers in the Dark

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The revelation that Pansy was outside with Ginny’s body hit Harry like a wave of ice cold water. He had only one thought on his mind now, revenge. Harry reached behind him and beneath his robes. The container that shielded the Black Wand was there in its pocket. He took it out and opened it to retrieve the killing wand. Pansy Parkinson would die for her part in this. As Harry passed through the side entrance he saw Pansy with a blood covered Neville and a still-as-death Ginny levitated behind her making her way toward the hospital. She looked up and saw Harry, the change that came over her face indicated to Harry that she knew that she had been caught red handed and was about to die for it.

As Harry brought the Black Wand to bear on Pansy she dropped her own wand and raised her hands in a sign of surrender. “Harry,” she said plaintively, “it’s not what you think. They are not dead, they are alive. I had nothing to do with this; it’s not what you think. You’ve got to give me a chance to explain, I can explain everything if you’ll let me.”

“Yeah, I already know your story,” snarled a furious Harry, his blood boiling with the desire to kill. “You were just under the Imperious curse. You couldn’t help yourself. Well when they find what’s left of your body I think I’m going to try using that little bullshit excuse too.”

At that moment, Hermione ran up beside Harry, her own wand at the ready. “Oh, my god, Ginny!” she screamed. “What did you do to her, you bitch?”

“I saved her life, and his too, but if you don’t put down those wands and help me it won’t have done any good. They need immediate help if they have any chance of surviving much longer. I didn’t do this, Granger, I’m not a Death Eater!”

Harry’s wand never wavered from Pansy’s heart; his resolve to kill was too great. “Any last words, Pansy?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, then she looked directly into Hermione’s eyes and shouted, “CE VIS PACEM PARABELLUM!”

This meant nothing to Harry and he felt the Black Wand draw his rage into it and give it power, he willed Pansy Parkinson to die. “AVADA KADAVRA!” Harry shouted, but at the last moment Hermione struck Harry’s arm downward and the death curse exploded the ground about three feet in front of a shaking Pansy. The force of the curse left a smoking crater nearly a six inches in diameter.

“What are you doing?” screamed Harry. “The bitch killed Ginny.”

Hermione said nothing, but stepped forward placing herself between Harry and Pansy, her own wand pointed at Pansy’s chest. “Where did you learn that?” she asked Pansy.

“From the same person as you, the Secret Keeper,” said Pansy to a flabbergasted Hermione. “It’s this week’s identification code.”

“No … no, that’s impossible,” muttered Hermione. “You couldn’t be … you’re a Death Eater.”

“I am not reaching for a weapon,” Pansy declared as she slowly reached inside her robes and said the incantation that caused a secret pocket to open in the inside lining. Reaching in she pulled out a dragonskin wallet that Hermione immediately recognized because she owned one just like it in the secret pocket of her own robes. Opening it up, Pansy showed her badge of office, not only was she an agent of the Inquisition; she was apprenticed directly to the Inquisitor General herself.

Harry just stared; he could not possibly believe what he was seeing. “This has got to be some kind of sick trick,” he said.

“It’s not, Potter, I’m an undercover agent of the Inquisition sent in to investigate Death Eater activity inside Hogwarts. I was recruited by Madam Bartleby at the beginning of our sixth year after the debacle with Umbridge. The Inquisition made sure that the Board of Trustees appointed me the Head Girl. Now, help me get these two inside before you have to answer for their deaths … among other things you’re already in trouble for.”

Harry and Hermione were finally shaken from their shock and into action. Ginny and Neville were carried to a still mortified Madam Pomfrey for care. Pansy opened another secret pocket in her robes and brought out a container containing something dark and bloody.

“Here is the rest of Longbottom,” she said while handing the jar to Hermione. “I don’t know if they can be reattached or not. I took them out of his mouth and sealed them in there.”

“What is it?” asked Harry, who already had a sick feeling he didn’t really want to know.

“It’s his balls,” answered Pansy. “I put them in an evidence container to preserve them as I found them. We use them a lot in the Inquisition. Granger knows, or should know, how to unseal it.”

“I know how to use it,” said Hermione tersely. “But what the hell happened to them?”

Briefly, Pansy explained as best she could to a horrified Harry and Hermione what had been done to Neville and Ginny by Bellatrix, Draco, Goyle, and Crabbe. Pansy had arrived and knew that she had to do something, undercover Inquisition agents were under orders to act to save endangered innocent lives even if it meant blowing their cover. Pansy had deliberately provoked Bellatrix to get them to leave the room as quickly as possible so that she could try to save Neville and Ginny without blowing her cover.

After the Death Eaters had left her alone with Ginny and Neville, Pansy had destroyed the partial Inferi and placed both of them in a stasis field that would temporarily keep their injuries from getting worse. It was a technique taught to all Inquisitors and Aurors for evacuating wounded comrades underfire. The only drawback was that the spell required a lot of energy and couldn’t be maintained for long periods without help.

“Why didn’t you carry them directly to St. Mungo’s?” asked Hermione. “They could have treated them better than we can here.”

“Because the Death Eaters have spies there,” came the answer. “These two are officially missing right now, and they’ll be declared officially dead by tonight after I speak to Bartleby. We’ve got to keep this a secret. I’m close to finding where Voldemort is hiding; I’m the only Ministry agent who’s made it inside the Death Eater’s circle without discovery yet. Once we know where he is hiding, or where he plans to strike next, we have a chance, a slim chance, of defeating him. If I get discovered and killed then all the Ministry has to work with is bugger all.”

“I don’t care,” said Harry. “I’m not going to let Ginny die, and you can’t stop me. I’m an Auror; I don’t answer to the Inquisition.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Harry,” said Pansy. “First of all you attempted to use an unforgivable curse on me while I was unarmed. Except for the intervention of Agent Granger, you’d be facing murder charges. Even if by some remote chance you evade the unforgivable curse rap there is a more serious matter. The carrying of a Black Wand will earn even an Auror a snog from a Dementor unless he has a license signed by the Minister of Magic. Care to show me yours?”

“You know I don’t have a license, but I’m still not going to let her die. I don’t think you really want to try and stop me by yourself.”

“As previously mentioned, Harry, there are already two of us and one of you,” she said looking aside at Hermione, who knew what would be her fate if she abetted Harry’s escape with a Black Wand. “If that’s not enough then you should know that the first thing I did upon arrival here was send a patronus for help to the IG. In a few moments there will be more than enough Inquisitors here to handle even the great ‘Chosen One’ and his illegal Black Wand.”

“Pansy, please don’t do this to Harry,” pleaded Hermione. “Please, you can’t, not now.”

Pansy just smiled at Harry in that condescending way that always annoyed Harry. “I think I’m going to ask Madam Bartleby to let me handle your interrogation personally. Just wait until I get you in a sphere of despair. Oh, the great and prideful Harry Potter; did you think it hurt when Bellatrix gave you that little kick in the balls? That’s nothing compared to what I’ll do to them. You give me a couple of days with my version of TLC and I’ll have you licking your own shit off the heels of my boots. You’ll tell me everything I want to know, you’ll give up all your friends, including Moody, who was probably the one that gave you that wand. You think you’re so bloody damn high and mighty now, but I am just the girl that can break you.”

Pansy looked over at a now horrified Hermione. “Granger knows what I’m talking about. I heard what she did to dear old Marcus Flint. He was a proud talking git too wasn’t he? Granger hexed his knackers so hard they exploded in his sack. Tell me the truth, girl to girl, didn’t it feel good to destroy him as a man? It just takes all that macho pride they seem to have because there’s something dangling between their legs right out of them, doesn’t it”

“I was just doing my job, Pansy…,” said Hermione, but not very convincingly.

“Bullshit!” laughed Pansy. “You wanted to break his pride, and so you broke his nuts. It’s all right, I understand completely, because I’ve done it too, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And when you had humbled poor Marcus, and had him groveling, begging for mercy, you fed him to the Dementors.

“I bet the cowardly wanker squealed like a pig all the way down. Harry doesn’t like the Dementors very much either, do you? In fact, you’re quite frightened of them. I do seem to remember that they like the taste of you, though. Just think, when you and I take our little stroll down there to visit them, Harry, you’ll have no wand, you’re bound to a bench, and then I summon them to begin to feed on you. They don’t give you the kiss right away; they torment you as you lay there helpless. They only stop when they know that there is just enough sanity left in you to fully appreciate the final horror of what’s about to happen next. Then the bastards suck your soul out and rip it to shreds amongst themselves.”

Hermione could see that Pansy was having an effect on Harry, his hands were shaking and he was sweating. “Pansy, please stop it,” she whispered, but Pansy was loving it.

“I tell you what, Harry, I’ll make you a little deal. You get on your knees right now and kiss the toe of my boot and ask for mercy, and when we are in the chamber, I’ll render you unconscious before I let them feed on you. No fear, no pain, just oblivion.”

Hermione watched as Pansy extended her right foot, and leaned it back on the heel of the boot to lift the toe. “But if you want mercy then, you’ll have to beg for it now.”

Harry seemed to hesitate, he looked over to Hermione. “Harry, she’s just bullshitting you, you have too many friends in the Ministry that won’t let that happen.”

The door to the hospital wing opened and Erinyes Bartleby entered with a group of over a dozen Inquisitors personally bonded to the IG. All entered with wands at the ready and setup a defensive perimeter. Erinyes looked at Neville and Ginny while Madam Pomfrey cared for them, then she came over to talk to Pansy. She noted immediately that Harry Potter was visibly shaking, something was wrong. He was always so cocky, now he acted terrified. Hermione Granger was also quite upset; tears were streaming down her face. Neither of them made eye contact with her. That was always a bad sign. She also saw the decorated container on the table. She felt a presence within it, there was something evil inside there.

“Give me your report, Pansy,” she said in a crisp tone, “and be quick about it.”

Pansy smiled and winked at Harry as she withdrew the proffered boot, then she proceeded to give her report about finding and rescuing Neville and Ginny. She wanted the news sent that they were found dead near the Ministry to be announced to help maintain her cover. She then told of her arrival at Hogwarts and her necessity to identify herself, but, to Harry and Hermione’s amazement, she didn’t mention the Black Wand at all.

“And just what the hell is inside here?” Bartleby asked as she picked up the container with the Black Wand now inside.

“It’s a Black Wand, Ma’am,” said a smirking Pansy. “I confiscated it.”

“From whom?” asked Madam Bartleby coldly, with a suspicious glance at Harry. She had already begun to sense the lingering mark left by the use of black magic upon him.

Hermione made eye contact with Pansy and silently made one last desperate plea for Harry. Pansy met her gaze and just smirked back at her. “I nicked it from the Death Eater’s torture chambers, Ma’am. It seemed too dangerous a weapon to just leave it with them. There were so many in and out of there today I don’t think its disappearance can be traced to me. It was a calculated risk.”

“If that’s so, Pansy, then why do I detect traces of dark magic from this wand on Mr. Potter here?”

“Well Ma’am, the … ahh … Interagency Cooperation Provision of the Patriotic Wizards Act requires that all Inquisitors who believe they have knowledge of a crime must report such knowledge to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for their investigation. As Mr. Potter is known to me as an Auror, I duly complied with the act by informing him of my suspicions that the container held an artifact of dark magic and turned it over to him. Mr. Potter began his investigation by confirming that such an illegal object was actually resident inside the container. Apparently some of the dark magic escaped onto him in the line of duty.”

“Is that how it was, Agent Granger?” asked the IG, her cold eyes never leaving Harry.

“Yes …yes, Ma’am…,” stuttered a still dazed Hermione.

“So, Mr. Potter, you were informed of the potential presence of a dark magic artifact, and the first thing you did was open the container in an unprotected public area for a look. That wasn’t a very smart move on your part was it?”

“No, Ma’am,” muttered Harry, who couldn’t believe that Pansy wasn’t fucking him over when she had the chance.

“Pansy, I need to talk to you privately for a moment,” said the IG.

The two talked for a few minutes while Harry and Hermione returned to check on Ginny and Neville’s condition. Madam Pomfrey informed them that she had begun healing the bulk of their minor physical injuries, and that treatment had begun on healing the ripped away section of Neville’s scrotum, but that they needed professional care and facilities. In addition, they had undergone severe psychological trauma from torture and needed immediate special attention to heal the mental scars the torture had produced.

A call from Madam Bartleby to Harry brought him to her. “I’ll make arrangements for the two to be transported to the Ministry building in secret for treatment, Pomfrey can go with them too for now. As to the illegal wand, since the Aurors have been duly informed, and the presence of such an illegal dangerous object is confirmed by your own ill planned investigation, I will let the Department of Magical Law Enforcement officially seize the contraband for the purposes of their investigation, however, keep me informed if a culprit if located.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” was all Harry could mutter.

“By the way, Potter,” Madam Bartleby whispered to him, “when this is over I’m going to have Kingsley order you to St. Mungo’s for a full body exam from head to toe until they find it.”

“Find what, Ma’am?”

“The gland inside your body that produces Felix Felicitas potion, because you are too goddamned lucky for it to be anything else. Maybe you have a third nut that makes it, I don’t know; but you have unnatural luck. Now get this straight, Weasley and Longbottom are dead, their bodies were left at the Ministry building tonight. That is what will appear in the morning’s paper. You are to tell no one what you’ve seen and done here. I’ll handle notifying their parents. I know you don’t like Pansy, but I have a very strong feeling that for reasons of her own she just saved your arse, she definitely saved your girlfriend's arse. You might also want to keep in mind that if she gets caught what happened to your friends here is nothing compared to what they’ll do to her.”

As the I.G. motioned to her retinue to prepare to leave she turned back to Harry. “I received an owl just before I left for here from Mr. Lovegood. It seems his daughter has been located, she’s alive and being well cared for. She had no idea how she got out of Hogwarts last night he said. It will be reported to the Daily Prophet that she was trapped under some rubble and was found slightly injured. Lastly, I talked with Cho about what happened last night, seems I owe you my thanks for saving my granddaughter’s life.” That said, and warnings given to Hermione and Madam Pomfrey, the Inquisitor General and her retinue started to leave.

“Madam Bartleby,” said Harry as he walked up to her. “May I handle arrangements for Ginny and Neville’s care, under Madam Pomfrey’s supervision?”

The I.G. looked puzzled. “Ginny is still a minor, Neville is an adult but not able to consent. The lawful party to consent to their treatment is their family, not you.”

“Yes, Ma’am, I understand that but as you said this is a special case, they can’t be seen alive, and they need special care for the trauma they’ve endured. I can see to it they get it, and no one will know about it. Everybody says that you know far more than you tell, if that’s true then you know I can do what I’m saying.”

“Yes, I know who you really are, although even I probably don’t know everything. May I assume you are referring to Veela magic for trauma healing.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” replied Harry.

“You’ll handle it through the Inquisition; Madam Hooch will be in charge. She learned of your true inheritance while healing your injury. I learned of it from her.”

“May I ask for my own safety who else knows of this?”

“Nobody,” she replied with a slight smile. “It didn’t seem to be something I needed to inform anyone else about.”

“May I use Hermione to help me with getting this done, she’ll have to know.”

“As I said, Hooch will be in charge, but I don’t think she’ll mind,” that said, Madam Bartleby and her retinue disapparated. Harry immediately called Dobby to him and quickly whispered instructions to him to get Fleur to help him. No there was nothing to do but wait for help.

As Harry stood there wondering what to do when Fleur arrived, he heard Pansy and Hermione walk up behind him. Turning to face Pansy he said, “Thank you, I owe you one; but why’d you go on with all that about licking your boot heels and feeding the Dementors bullshit if you didn’t mean it?”

“First of all,” said Pansy, as she grabbed Harry’s cock through the front of his trousers, “you owe me nine, not one, and be very sure that I will show up to collect when I’m ready. Second, I told you all that because I wanted to make you sweat as a little payback for nearly making me pee in my knickers out there when you tried to kill me. However, the licking part is right, it just won’t be my boot heels I’ll have you to put a tongue to.”

“Don’t worry, sugar,” she said as an aside to an angry looking Hermione, “I just want to borrow him for an evening, you and your little friend there can work out who gets to keep him afterward.”

“Madam Pomfrey says that their minds are injured by the torture they went through,” said Hermione ignoring Pansy’s jibes. “They need special help but we can’t take them anywhere they could get that kind of help.”

“Madam Bartleby has given me permission to see to their care, and you are assigned to help me Hermione.”

“You’re going to care for them?” Hermione asked in disbelief. “How are you going to do that, you’re not a healer.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that, Granger,” said Pansy. “When Voldemort and his group exited your room I went in and looked at your corpse. Erinyes says you told Moody that you survived because Voldemort missed you with his spell and you played dead … that’s a crock of shit. You, or something that looked just like you, were dead. I’m not exactly sure what trick you played, but I saw a corpse in your room.

“So?” asked Harry.

“So what happened to the dead body? It wasn’t you; maybe it was a doppelganger or something. You weren’t there, neither was Remus Lupin. You two got back in some way and removed the body. I just wonder how you did it. Of course, our tower has now conveniently collapsed, very little evidence left to sift through.”

“You would know all about how it was done if you were in your room, but apparently you weren’t.”

“No, I was busy, I put on my protective cloak issued me by the Inquisition, and followed Voldemort staying in the shadows. I tried to warn McGonagall to save her life, but it wasn’t enough. She gave the alarm that saved a lot of lives, but Snape killed her.”

“Snape killed Professor McGonagall,” gasped Hermione.

“Yes, then I went to the roof and made the Dark Mark over the school to warn the surrounding area, including Hooch in Hogsmeade. Then all hell started breaking loose with Death Eaters roaming the hallways. I knew that there was little I could do to stop the attack without blowing my cover. I eased back in and found Crabbe and Goyle hiding in the shadows and we rejoined Voldemort.”

“So you were going to let people die rather than blow your cover.”

“People I couldn’t save anyway, but there are others I still can save. Believe it or not, Voldemort does still have a tiny spark of humanity left in him. He’s already seen me in the flesh and he liked what he saw. Voldemort is changing locations as we speak, I am to rendezvous with Severus Snape and be carried back to the new hideout. There is a chance I can get close to him.”

“And the possibility of having a shot at him in the dark is worth what happened here. You were seen with them when Ginny and Neville were taken, you did nothing then. Why?”

Pansy sighed deeply and looked down at the floor. “There wasn’t anything else I could do at the moment, Harry. Listen, Draco intended them to die out there; he was going to kill them on the spot. Your precious Ginny and Neville really would be cold lifeless corpses right now if not for me. I did the one thing I could do, I convinced Draco to take them alive as prisoners, to use them later as hostages. I didn’t know Bellatrix would torture them this soon or this badly. I hoped to arrange for them to escape on their own, or have a sudden rescue by the Inquisition take place that wouldn’t compromise me. A decision had to be made, a risk had to be taken, I made it and I stand responsible for it. Before you get all damned judgmental on me, I suggest you examine your own choices, Mr. Chosen One.

“My choices?” said Harry defensively. “What about my choices?”

“I know something nobody else does, I haven’t even told the IG yet. I was watching the hallway that night to see if you tried to slip out. I know something very interesting, none of the Death Eaters came up the stairs and entered your door, but they all came out.”

“So what are saying, Pansy?” asked Hermione, as Harry began to get an uncomfortable feeling where the conversation was headed.

“I’m saying that Voldemort and his party entered the castle through your room. I’m betting he got in the way you’ve been getting out all semester.”

“Harry’s been getting out?” asked a stunned Hermione.

“For fuck’s sake, Granger, you’re supposed to be an Inquisitor now, start acting like it. That means paying some attention to what’s going on around you,” said Pansy. “Of course he’s been leaving, haven’t you noticed that on weekends he would only rarely be seen around the castle, that he wasn’t talking to anybody, or mixing in his regular crowd. You’re one of his tightest friends, how much have you seen and talked to Harry? That was his doppelganger or some kind of magical double making it look like he was there while he was gone. That was what Voldemort killed, wasn’t it, Harry? The double, that’s what I saw. The way in and out was in your room because I’ve been watching. You would go in there and then disappear. Voldemort found out how you were leaving the castle and used it as a way in.”

“And how was Voldemort supposed to know about this secret way in?” asked Harry.

Pansy thought for a moment or two then smiled. “The scar on your head, it’s a link between his mind and yours. He got in your head, saw how you were doing it and just reversed the process. So blame me if my choices may have backfired, you have your own to answer for. Anyway, nice chatting with you both, really must do it again sometime, I’ve got to go.”

Harry felt a tug on his robes and looked down to see Dobby there looking up at him and nodding his head towards the hallway. It was time to leave. “We’ve got to go too,” said Harry pulling on Hermione’s sleeve.

“See you around, Potter, you too, Granger,” said Pansy and she disapparated.

Taking his wand Harry levitated Ginny and had Hermione do the same for Neville. Beckoning Madam Pomfrey to follow the Harry led then down the hallway after Dobby to where Fleur stood in front of a large hole opening into the void. Hermione and Pomfrey came to a stop as they saw Harry and Ginny disappear into nothing before their eyes.

“Hurry up you two,” hissed Fleur. “We haven’t got a lot of time.”

Trusting in Harry, Hermione went into the void bringing Neville after her. Madam Pomfrey wasn’t sure what to trust in, but her students needed her, so she entered too. As Fleur stepped into the hole it closed in on itself and disappeared without a trace.

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Unbeknownst to those in the Hogwarts hospital there had been a single uninvited spectator to the events that had just unfolded there. Peter Pettigrew, in his rat animagus form, had seen everything from the dark recess of the hole in the wall where he had waited quietly all day for the castle to clear out of Ministry agents. It had been a long hungry day for him, although he had managed to sleep a bit during the slower periods.

Nevertheless, what he had just witnessed made up for everything, the Parkinson girl was a Ministry spy after the Dark Lord. That alone was worth the discomfort he had endured. But the coup de grace was Potter. Wormtail wasn’t stupid, doppelganger his arse, he could put it all together now that he had enough pieces. Potter was tied to the Delacour whore from the Golden Unicorn. Potter had been leaving to go elsewhere and leaving the double behind. The Golden Unicorn’s elves could become whatever form they pleased. It wasn’t a Doppelganger the Dark Lord had slain; it was a changling house elf. Potter had been elsewhere and came in through the strange aperture the girl had opened. Whatever the exact link was, Wormtail wasn’t sure, but Potter was tied back to the Delacours, and that meant the Golden Unicorn.

Then the next realization hit him. James’ money, his fast found wealth. James had never trusted Peter with the details of how he had made his fortune, but could it be that James and Lily had been tied back to the Unicorn too? The place had come out of nowhere, its ownership a mystery. In fact, the Unicorn had come into existence at the exact same time that James had come into money. Sirius and Remus always bragged in front of him about all the exotic shagging they were up to in there, but they never had that kind of money to buy their way in, especially Remus. Peter had always assumed they were just lying to get him horny and make fun of him. But what if they weren’t? James kept plenty of secrets from him, but only a few from Remus, and none from Sirius. This couldn’t be a coincidence. Somehow, James and Lily had been tied into the Golden Unicorn back then, and now Harry had taken their place.

Knowledge is power, thought Peter, and right now the power was his. If he ran back to Voldemort and told what he had seen then he would lose that power. Voldemort’s great raid had turned into a great ruin. Many followers were dead, others scattered and being picked up by the Ministry. This was a good time to reconsider one’s level of commitment to the Dark Lord. Peter had been looking for his great out, the way he could create a one man escape route in case he needed it, this was quite possibly it.

There was also another danger to telling what he knew, thought Peter. Once the Dark Lord knew of this he might well desire that no other living person know of it, and kill him to shut his mouth. No, this information would be buried deep in Peter Pettigrew’s subconscious, someplace hard for the Dark Lord to dig it out easily.

Later, after the castle had grown completely quiet and only a handful of caretaker guards were left, Peter slid out of his cramped dark hole and waddled out the side door onto the grounds. Staying close to the walls of the building for cover, Peter slowly made his way to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Once inside the cover of the forest Peter returned to human form and disapparated away.