Chapter Text
Harry slammed into the back wall of the cell as the door clattered into place behind him, locking him in. He spun around, only to glower at the door made of bars before examining his newest accommodations. What he found was that he had been shoved into a concrete room with a wall of bars splitting it down the middle into two dreary gray cells. There was some sort of bundle of black fabric in the corner of the other cell and, when Harry's gaze landed on it, he met the bitterly amused ruby gaze of the very wizard who had been trying to kill him since he was fifteen months old.
"So, the Great Harry Potter, who has escaped me time and time again has fallen into the hands of muggles. That must sting," Voldemort commented derisively, his robes falling away from his face and head as he shifted, revealing the pale, serpentine features that Harry remembered from the Ministry and the Riddle graveyard. Harry caught a glimpse of silvery metal on the man's ankle that mirrored the one they had locked around his own ankle, preventing them from using magic.
"Hardly. Its not like I've ever managed to escape my relatives when they decided to shove me into my cupboard," Harry shot back, yanking his Weasley sweater down and back into place where the guard's grip had rucked it up, exposing a flash of milky skin.
Harry tried his best to ignore his worry over where Ron, Luna, and Hermione were. His mind flashed back to the astonishment he had felt when they arrived at Shell Cottage only to be stunned by Ron's brother Bill. He would have thought over why Bill would ever do something like this to them, if he hadn't recognized the blank, glazed over eyes of someone under the Imperius Curse. He half regretted convincing his two closest friends to wait on destroying the locket, even if it did lead to the discovery that the Sword of Gryffindor could store itself as a tattoo, as well as anything it might have been touching at the time. As a result, Harry now sported a tattoo of Gryffindor's sword intertwined with Slytherin's locket on his left forearm, exactly where the Death Eaters sported their Dark Marks.
"Your relatives..." Voldemort said slowly, his lip curling in disdain. "From what I've heard, your relatives treat you like a prince. You live in the lap of luxury, while I grew up in an underfunded orphanage; starved, bullied, and feared for simply being a child of magic. I was forced into learning to defend myself with anything and everything I could or nearly die from the beatings and lack of food." Harry scoffed.
"I'm lucky if I get one full meal a day at the Dursley's! Unless something happens, especially something magical! I have to complete anything and everything they come up with as chores, without magic, and if I don't do it perfectly I don't get anything to eat! Hell, my visits to the bathroom are limited and monitored and I didn't even know that my name was Harry, until I started primary school when I was five. I thought my name was Freak. And do you have any idea how back breaking it is to be treated like a house elf? I do. At least the house elves are usually happy to serve and get something out of the bond with their families. Me? I get nothing except so called blood wards, regular beatings, not enough food, and have to routinely escape my relatives just to stay alive. Even if that means I get it worse when I finally do go back. Sometimes I could steal some food whenever I managed to escape my cupboard, and more recently my room. If you call that being treated like a prince then I guess I am," Harry retorted dryly, fuming at the fact that not only did he have to deal with his hateful relatives but that his so called mortal enemy hadn't even bothered to find out the truth about him. As far as Harry was concerned, in that moment Voldemort was just as ignorant about him as the rest of the Wizarding masses.
"You lie!" Voldemort accused, as he stood up and angrily approached the bars separating their cells.
"The hell I do! I didn't even know magic was real until Hagrid came and got me from my relatives! I had no idea about my heritage and thanks to Albus Bloody Dumbledore I haven't managed to get my hands on virtually anything; training, information, nothing! No way to learn about our world beyond the basics. Muchless to learn about my family or anything else deemed irrelevant to my role in this damn war!" Harry practically roared back. "Did you know that Ron and his twin bothers had to break me out of my uncle's house so I could go to Hogwarts for my second year? They had to use their dad's flying car to rip the bars off my window and pick the lock on my cupboard to get my trunk out! I can never get my summer homework properly done because the moment I get to the Dursley's, it's taken away and shoved into my cupboard. I have to make a mad dash to do it all on the train!"
"Stop your lies! Dumbledore would never allow his Golden Boy to be treated like that!" Voldemort retorted angrily, before reaching through the bars to try and grab the younger wizard so he could strangle him.
"Yeah? Well, he did. He left me there because of the blood wards that would keep you away. Personally, I blame you for all of it! And if the spy that told you about me was Snape, well, the man hates me because my father treated him like shite in school and he believes me to be his carbon copy," Harry informed him, as he quickly backed out of the older man's reach. "I never did anything to him before he decided I was scum and ought to be treated like an Azkaban reject."
Voldemort's retort was interrupted and they were both distracted by the arrival of three men; two muggle armed guards in black generic uniforms with no identifying marks carrying nightsticks, and a man in a standard white lab coat. The man in the lab coat was holding a clip board and making notes on it with a biro as they approached. The scientist or doctor eventually looked up at the now quietly observing wizards. He checked his notes one last time before tucking the clipboard under his arm and the biro away into his breast pocket.
"So, these are the two supposed most powerful wizards in existence," Mr. Lab Coat said thoughtfully. "I must say our friend had a hard time helping us with entering that mansion and trapping you all... I believe that you called it Malfoy Manor? He said something about a 'disruption in the wards' that let him bring them down. It was probably pure luck that Mr. Red Eyes here had just arrived when those shields were brought down. Pity, I'd rather hoped we'd be able to actually see what the two of you were capable of, even if we lost you the first time we tried to collar you. Ah well, let's not dwell on it. Take the boy. He'll be the next one to enjoy the extraction process."
They opened Harry's cell, and both guards entered, leaving the chatty scientist behind. Harry exchanged a wary look with Voldemort and watched as the grim faced guards did their best to corner him. Harry, used to these tactics from Dudley and his gang, expertly avoided them for a full five minutes before dodging too close to one of them. This allowed the guard to grab the Gryffindor's sweater as he passed and drag him into their restraining arms, even as Harry fought against them, twisting and thrashing like an enraged cat. Harry fought hard; kicking, biting, scratching, fists flying. Eventually, they had to physically pick him up and carry him. One guard held his arms pinned to his sides, while the other held his kicking legs together. They carried him out between the two of them, Harry kicking and screaming the whole way out of the holding area.
As Harry was bodily carried up the open metal staircase, he managed to see the area consisting of a large room containing rows upon rows of cells just like his and Voldemort's. Many of the cells were filled with Hogwarts students, Death Eaters in uniform, and random witches and wizards. He even recognized a few Aurors and Order members. Eventually they got to a glass enclosed room that was missing a door and held something that looked like a dentist's chair with restraints on it. Attached to the extra chest strap, which was attached almost on top of the standard one, was something resembling a cross between a funnel and a colander adorned with various acid carved runes.
Harry figured he really didn't want to be hooked up to whatever magical device that clearly was and fought harder, forcing one of the guards to beat him with their nightstick hard enough that he was dazed while they strapped him down. The man in the lab coat tutted at Harry's behavior as he came over and checked that not only were the restraints securely in place but that the device was undamaged. Nodding in satisfaction at his findings, he tapped several runes in a special order, triggering the device.
Harry didn't have to wait long to discover first hand what the object did. It started as a pressure in his chest and quickly moved to a deep chest encompassing burning and tugging sensation. It hurt. It felt like his soul was being sucked out of him, and Harry was quickly screaming in agony and thrashing against his restraints, trying to get away from the thing. His screams echoed through the non-existent door and around the halls of the holding area. The scientist stood to the side, completely unconcerned about the pain that Harry was in as he calmly took notes, occasionally checking the lights that had appeared on the device before turning back to his clipboard.
Half an hour later, Harry's voice was practically gone and they finally shut off the device and removed the magic inhibiting anklet to avoid accidentally killing Harry from a severely depleted magical core. The Gryffindor could do little more than moan as they carried his limp body back to his cell, dumping him unceremoniously onto the floor. They entered Voldemort's cell and dragged him away for the same treatment. Voldemort fought their hold, fear giving him greater strength but he was too stunned by the state they had left the young Gryffindor in to put much thought into keeping them from getting a grip on him.
"Can't handle a little pain, boy?" A Death Eater gloated from the cell across from Harry's.
Harry vaguely thought he recognized him as Yaxley, but he couldn't be sure right now, his vision was blurred with exhaustion. Harry simply groaned and ignored the twat. The man's smirk was wiped away moments later when he heard his master screaming just as much as Harry had. Forty-five minutes later, an apparently different man was dumped onto the floor next to Harry in his cell. When he finally managed enough strength to raise his head and look at his new cellmate Harry was shocked to find himself looking at the twenty something emaciated form of Tom Riddle. The ruby colored eyes alone giving away the fact that it was still Voldemort.
"So you managed to get your body back," Harry commented with an exhausted snort of amusement.
"Shut up, brat. Its hard enough achieving the animagus transformation muchless maintaining the viable half form for more than a split second. You have no idea how hard it was to shift while in that damned cauldron and exhausted from the ritual before the smoke cleared and I had to stand up," Voldemort said acidly. "The magic inhibitor they had on us didn't help much."
"Only you would worry about your image before anything else, right after getting a real body back after thirteen years as a wraith," Harry commented dryly, his blurred gaze on those narrowed ruby eyes.
"My Lord?" Yaxley asked in astonishment from across the aisle.
"Didn't know the wanker was human, did you?" Harry asked the Death Eater with a bitter laugh.
"Shut it, Potter!" Voldemort groaned.
"At least we aren't bleeding and I can still feel my magic," Harry muttered, as he shifted to lay on his back.
Harry settled himself more comfortably on the concrete floor before allowing his body to fall into a light doze, even as the Dark Lord ignored the astonished Death Eater and followed his example. As they slept they unconsciously curled toward each other, instinctively reaching for the body heat they could feel radiating from their cellmate. Eventually they lay next to one another, completely oblivious to the fact that they were within arms reach of their mortal enemy, practically cuddled together on the smooth cold concrete floor.
Two hours later, they were startled out of their pained and exhausted sleep by the nearby door to the holding area opening. Instinctively they rolled away from each other and into a crouch, ready to fight. The two wizards were surprised by the sight of a group of guards dragging in a tall struggling bundle of heavy black robes. Both wizards warily watched as the guards opened the door to their cell only to shove their new cellmate in with them. Harry and Voldemort were both shocked to find themselves joined by an irate Severus Snape who had immediately regained his footing and turned to yell at the retreating muggles.
"Snape?" Harry asked dumbly drawing the dour man's attention to his cellmates. Snape's eyes widened in shock as he recognized Voldemort's more human form via the ruby colored eyes, before quickly putting himself between the other two, with his back to the young Gryffindor.
"Explain," Voldemort demanded, his eyes narrowing into ruby slits as he eyed the exhausted and irritated potions master. His gaze clearly indicated exactly what he wanted an explanation for, as it lingered on the protective way the dark man shielded the young Gryffindor. Snape sighed and saw no way out of explaining, as they were all currently locked in a cell together.
"Dumbledore died by my hand at his own request. I was forced into an Unbreakable Vow to complete Draco's task for him, should he fail to do it, but Dumbledore made me promise to be the one to do it. So that he may die undefeated and to spare Draco from tarnishing his soul with murder. Years before that, Dumbledore forced me into a Wizard's Oath, one to protect Potter," Snape admitted with a bitter laugh, too exhausted to care that he had just admitted he had been protecting his lord's greatest enemy for years. "You were gone, Lily was dead, both my fault because I didn't think when I overheard the prophecy, nor did I manage to hear the entire thing. That doesn't even count the life debt Albus incurred keeping me out of Azkaban, using it to keep me from breaking my promises to him. What was I supposed to do? It was all I could manage to keep my hide intact, so that I may protect Lily's son. Lucius had money and power as a shield, along with others citing trickery and the Imperius Curse, the others went to Azkaban. The old fool didn't even let me check on the very person who now owned my life, for all that he assured me the boy was happy and spoiled. The son of my childhood tormentor and a woman I loved as a sister. A woman you killed without a second thought."
"That's not true," Harry said quietly. "He told mum to move aside, more than once. She wouldn't."
"What would you know of it? You were barely more than a year old," Snape asked tiredly, still shielding him from his master.
"I hear them die every time a Dementor gets too close," Harry informed them wryly. "That's why Dumbledore asked Professor Lupin to teach me the Patronus Charm, not to mention that my Boggart is a Dementor."
Harry's words were the last straw, Snape's shock and exhaustion making him lose all sense of decorum, as he fell to his knees and started sobbing and clutching his stomach while muttering Lily's name over and over. Harry exchanged a wary glance with his long time enemy before he hesitantly knelt down next to his former Professor and gently hugged him. The dour man clutched at the boy he was sworn to protect and sobbed into the Weasley jumper that Harry was wearing. The Dark Lord gave a heavy sigh before shifting quietly over to his cellmates and sat with them, mourning the events of that night and mentally cursing the old man who seemingly did nothing to stop it. An hour later, Snape had calmed down enough to slip his mask back into place and carefully pull away from Harry before turning almost sheepishly to face his master.
"On the off chance that you feel the need to continue protecting the brat from me, do I look like I'm able to harm him at the moment?" Voldemort asked in grim amusement and was gratified to see the stoic man blushing. "That's not to say we won't be discussing your little oaths to the twinkling fool later but for now I'm more interested in getting out of here with as many of our people as possible."
"Of course, my Lord," Snape said with as much of a bow as he could manage from his seated position.
"Leave that to me," Harry said cheekily, as he got up on slightly shaky legs, and sauntered toward the door to their cell. The two older wizards watched curiously as Harry got the attention of the nearest guard.
"Hey! Can I get some water or something? And aren't you guys supposed to feed us? We won't be much good for anything if you don't give us some basics," Harry pointed out jovially, earning shocked looks from the few of his fellow captives that could see him.
"Shut your trap, brat," the guard ordered with a nasty snarl of ill temper. "You and your friends will be dead by sun down, if I have anything to say about it."
"Come on. It's not like it will kill you to give us a cup of water," Harry cajoled without batting an eyelash. He smiled winningly before asking prettily. "Pleeease? I promise I'll stop bothering you after you give me the cup of water."
"You want water? I'll give you water!" The guard snarled as he stormed up to the bars of their cell to knock some sense into the stupid animal masquerading as a common normal teenager.
Harry wasn't bothered by the aggressive approach, far from it, he was used to having to impassively face down his raging Uncle. Instead Harry just waited until the man was reaching through the bars of their cell to grab his arm and yank hard, slamming the man head first into the steel barred door of their cell, knocking him unconscious. The young wizard calmly reached down and searched the man's pockets until he found the keys to the various holding cells and turned to smirk at the astonished older wizards, who had been about to pull him away from the door and the enraged guard.
"Told you." Harry smirked before calmly turning and opening the cell door. He quickly crossed the aisle and opened the other cell before tossing the keys to Yaxley and giving the downed guard a vicious kick to the crotch. "Get everyone out will you? I need to get these two moving and this idiot locked into our cell. Try not to kill anyone and don't leave anyone behind; pureblood, muggleborn, half-blood, or squib. There's no reason to hand these idiots victims on a silver platter."
The Death Eater looked at the, now obviously human, Dark Lord for confirmation and received it before obeying, pausing momentarily to give the guard a kick of his own.
"Brat, you will be explaining. That was almost Slytherin of you," Snape ordered, his amusement and shock barely hidden and causing his eyes to dance with mischief.
"Eh, the Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin any way," Harry said with a careless shrug. "But I had already met Draco," he added, like it explained everything. The other two older Slytherin wizards momentarily dropped their jaws in astonishment, before they quickly caught up with the fast moving Gryffindor. Harry muttered under his breath. "Now, if we can just get these bloody cuffs off everyone, then everything will be grand. I'm just glad they forgot to put mine back on."
"Try the key hanging near the main door," Luna offered from the cell they were just about to pass. "Hello, Professor, Mr. Dark Lord."
"Luna!" Harry crowed in delight as he ducked down to let a guard, that was trying to tackle him, fly over his head and knock himself out on the floor, helping the man live up to the cliche. The guard even slid to a stop just in front of Snape and Voldemort. Snape bent down, pain evident in his every move, and retrieved their second set of keys before quickly releasing Luna and her cellmates.
"Thank you, Professor," Luna said congenially with a big smile, as she gracefully stepped from the cell. "A couple of the DA members are going to have trouble since they had to watch the guards kill Luca Caruso."
"Thanks for the warning. I'll try to keep them on a tight leash," Harry said with a grimace.
"Oh, don't worry. The wrackspurts will help us get past the guards and Seamus will have fun with the wires and electricity," Luna told him happily.
"Finnigan?" Snape asked sharply. When Luna nodded in agreement, he groaned and explained to the confused looking Dark Lord accompanying them. "Finnigan has a penchant for pyrotechnics. If he is going to 'have fun' with the wiring and electricity then we may have to move quickly, depending on how fast the fire spreads and what it devours."
"First we need to get everyone moving and take out the guards," Voldemort reminded him. "We can leave... surprises after everyone is ready to move and we're on our way out of here."
"Harry!" Hermione called, seeing him in front of her, as she shot toward him down the aisle, several guards close on her heels. Harry quickly grabbed Hermione's forearm as she sped past even as she grabbed his own forearm. They spun around using Hermione's momentum to turn themselves into a living bola, knocking the quickly moving guards to the ground as they stayed on their feet with obvious practice.
"Now, aren't you glad I made the DA practice getting around corners quickly and using each other to help stay on their feet and moving?" Harry asked mischievously as two of the students who had been locked in with Luna quickly tied up the guards with their own clothes and belts.
"Yes, yes, you were right. But I was still right to make you all learn some basic judo moves. Aren't you at all glad that Fred and George got Mr. Weasley to get them judo lessons? They even paid for it, though I don't know where they got the money unless they used some of the galleons they used to start up their shop with from whomever their silent partner is," Hermione countered with a roll of her eyes as she pulled back from the hug her friend had dragged her into. Harry bit his lip at the mention of the unknown 'silent partner', basically giving himself away to anyone paying attention. Which Snape was, and had to hold in an eye roll. "I passed some of the DA fighting more with the Death Eaters than the guards. We need to fix that before they capture us again. The three you just helped me deal with were sneaking up on a group that was arguing." Harry nodded his acknowledgement as he took a deep breath before instinctively layering some of the little magic he had left into his voice.
"DA! ESCAPE AND EVADE! ARGUE LATER!" Harry bellowed. "FORM INTO GROUPS AND MOVE OUT!"
The effect was instantaneous. The noise level dropped as both sides responded to the magic and instinctive knowledge that a Lord of Magic had given an order. Voldemort was the only one not compelled on some level to obey the commands that Harry had just issued and was giving the younger wizard an odd, almost knowing look.
"Told you it would work," Hermione said smugly as they moved toward the entrance, various groups taking out the guards as they went.
"I still don't understand why. I mean, no one else seems to be able to do it," Harry argued back, ignoring how many of the previously captured Gryffindor students, whether a part of the DA or not, were systematically knocking down guards and beating them unconscious instead of tying them up.
"V-Voldemort should be able to do it. It's something that identifies special witches and wizards. I'm not quite sure why, I only found that vague reference that I showed you and there wasn't anything else in the library about it. I came across something else that might be relevant but I'm not sure," Hermione explained calmly even as she yanked a Slytherin student out of the way of a tumbling knot of people made up of a guard and two students struggling to knock each other down. The Slytherin gave her a weird look before he saw Snape walking along behind them.
"Gather together as many as you can. If possible don't leave anyone behind," Snape ordered lowly, as he continued to eye the arguing friends suspiciously. "We're leaving this place and if possible, destroying it on our way out."
By the time they got to the main door of the holding area, Hermione had fished out her bottomless beaded bag from where she'd hidden it in her sock again and handed Harry, Voldemort, and Snape each a magic replenishing potion as the only three without the magic inhibiting anklets on. Luna quickly got the key for the anklets out of its hiding place and started unlocking the anklets, starting with the people not only powerful but with combat skills. Only Voldemort and Snape seemed to notice the pattern she used but eventually everyone was out of their restraints and very happy to have proper access to their magic again, even if they didn't have any wands on hand.
Harry took the chance that the lull in activity gave him to peek through the main doors to see what they would have to go up against. He gaped when he realized that a group of no less than 5 guards were trying to force McGonagall down the hallway toward the main holding area. Snatching Hermione's bag away from her, he quickly pawed through it looking for one of the twins' prank products that he had stashed with his stuff, which should have been packed. When he finally found the magical fire works, he practically purred in satisfaction as he pulled them out of the bag before handing it back to an irritated Hermione.
Smirking, the Gryffindor Golden Boy motioned everyone to be quiet before easing open the door to the hallway and pinching the end of the fuse on the firework, channeling a small bit of magic into his finger tips in lieu of a match or wand. The firework shot down the hall, distracting and spooking the guards enough for McGonagall to get free, even as the group of former captives practically burst through the doors with the Lions in the lead as they quickly incapacitated the guards with brute force. Their head of house was shocked at how many people had been captured and was even more surprised to find that there were members of both Light and Dark working together. That's when she spotted Harry.
"Severus, Mr. Potter, I'm honestly surprised to see you here. Perhaps, you'd like to explain?" McGonagall requested, as polite and poised as ever. Harry just grinned at her fondly before answering.
"Hello, Professor. Bill Weasley knocked my group out and I woke up getting tossed into a cell here. I'm pretty sure he was under the Imperius Curse, though. He had that weird light sheen to his eyes. I saw it just as the Stunner hit me," Harry said cheerfully. "I don't know how anyone else got here, but Snape got tossed into the same cell as me and Voldy after they drained the two of us of most of our magic. Nasty device. Painful, too."
Voldemort's eye twitched at the horrid excuse for a nickname.
"Oi! Harry, we gotta go. I need to find Bill and knock some sense into him," Ron called from ahead of them.
Luna skipped past them and calmly entered a door to their left that was clearly not the way out. Harry quickly followed her only to find himself and a bunch of other witches and wizards who lived in the muggle world staring back at him. He quickly backed up a bit to look at the walls properly. What he found chilled him to the marrow of his bones.
There were pictures and papers pinned to the walls with information on more than fifty families, all with at least one magical member, often of Hogwarts age or younger, though some were older. Each and every file had as much information as possible on the family up to and including favorite food and color. Some were clearly marked for termination and dissection, while others were marked for capture or observation. Even the Malfoys were on the wall. Harry slowly turned to look at Luna, fear icily forming in his chest.
"Yes," Luna answered his unspoken question. "The Statute of Secrecy has failed. We have three choices; fight, die, or find a way to hide again. To survive Light, Dark, and Neutral must fight as one and every traitor must reveal exactly what was shared with our hunters before they die."
Voldemort observed both the wall of dangerously accurate information and the interaction between the young lion and eagle from the doorway. Silently, he acknowledged that the ditzy blond was right. They could fight about the governing politics and laws of their world once it was either once again safely hidden or when it was standing strong in the open. Only time would tell the path they would need to take but for now there was to be no division between light and dark; pureblood and muggleborn. For now there would only be magic and non-magic.
"You're going to need to accept Dumbledore's place as the Light Lord," Voldemort said softly from his position, causing Harry to turn and face him, confusion cloaking his face.
"He isn't ready for such a responsibility," McGonagall said indignantly.
"Oh, he's more than ready. Or did you honestly think that our link was only one way?" Voldemort scoffed, as he entered the room for a better look at the information scattered all over the walls. He quickly found Harry's file set out prominently on the small desk off to one side and, with a little slight of hand, slipped it into his robes, before turning back to face his old schoolmate once more as he continued speaking. "I've seen a few of the more memorable things he's had to deal with in his own memories. I didn't just possess him for a short time at the ministry, I've been dreaming about his memories of the magical world for almost a year. It simply took me six months to figure out how to send him a falsified memory rather than allowing him to observe as the events happened, once I realized he was even there in the first place. Unless of course you truly don't believe that he stopped me from retrieving the Philosopher's Stone in his first year? Or fought and killed Slytherin's ancient Basilisk in his second? Or even successfully chased off over a hundred dementors at the end of his third? No? How about his exemplary performance in the Tri-wizard Tournament? After all of that, you truly believe that he is not only unready to take up the mantle of my counterpart, the mantle that he has been practically groomed for, but that he is also still a child? You disappoint me, Minerva."
"Um, explanation please?" Harry asked in bewilderment.
"You're supposed to be the next Lord of Light," Snape explained carefully, causing Hermione to drop her bag with a loud thunk in shocked understanding.
"It's not like we can do it now so it's a moot point, and who even says I'd qualify?" Harry pointed out tiredly, the entire ordeal starting to catch up with him, for all that Voldemort and Snape were already moving slowly and were clearly in pain.
"Actually, we can do it now," Voldemort said softly, ignoring Hermione as she bent down to retrieve her bottomless bag of goodies.
"What do I have to do?" Harry asked wearily, as his shoulders slumped in minor defeat.
"Simply declare your intent. The magic will take it from there," Voldemort explained. "The ritual is similar to that of attaining the title of Dark Lord, however as a Dark Lord you have to either forcibly take the title from the previous Dark Lord or otherwise earn it before initiating the ritual. For the Light Lord, the magic does everything for you."
"But Dumbledore... How can I replace him? Fill his shoes..." Harry started almost helplessly before trailing off, begging them with his eyes not to ask this of him.
"Harry, this is important and something you can do," Hermione cajoled, only managing to gain a lost look from her friend.
"You have to want it, Mr. Potter," McGonagall explained quietly. "The Lord of Light is the one who protects the life and love of the magical world. He protects the light and those in it. Dumbledore was the Light Lord because he loved all magical people and he wanted to keep them safe, for all that he became a bit misguided at the end. You don't need to be Headmaster or Chief Warlock or Supreme Mugwump or anything but a protector of the Light."
"You want that, don't you, Harry?" Hermione asked gently. "You want to protect us. You've been doing it ever since you learned you were a wizard. Even if you didn't realize it, you started protecting Hogwarts and its students, even when the teachers didn't see the danger posed."
"You also tried to warn the Wizarding world that the Dark Lord had returned, and kept up the warnings, even though most called you a liar," Snape added, continuing even as he watched Harry's Gryffindor mask slip back into place. Seeing that mask made him realize that he had been seeing the real Harry since being tossed into the same cell with them. "Even when most of the Wizarding world turned its back on you, you still tried to protect it from something... someone you saw as a threat."
"You have everything you need to accept the role, to be my counter-part, my equal, in every way," Voldemort informed him solemnly. "From what I've seen, you've already accepted the position. We're just asking you to make it official, so that you get the benefits and respect that go with it."
"The definition given by the library book I read about the Lords of Magic says that the duty and ultimate wish of the Light Lord is to protect life, love, and magic. Harry you've been doing that since we fought that stupid troll in first year!" Hermione explained almost desperately. "You've never stopped, never given up! We just want be allowed to help, but we can't unless you take up the title of Light Lord to help balance V-Voldemort's title of Dark Lord. Besides, if you really aren't supposed to be the Light Lord nothing will happen when you declare for it and we won't bring it up again."
"Just allow your magic to guide your words and go from there," Voldemort suggested, fighting to shove aside his slight guilt for practically trying to force Harry into the position as his equal and counter-part.
"Fine," Harry caved, he stopped, mentally and physically taking a deep breath and made his declaration from the heart. Allowing his magic to choose the words and infuse them with power that grew until it resonated throughout the room, deep into their very bones. "I, Harry James Potter, do stand as the champion of the Light. The Lord of the Light has fallen and I have been asked to take upon myself his title of Light Lord. Let magic judge my worthiness. So Mote It Be."
A bright light immediately enveloped the Gryffindor, blinding those watching and seeping through flesh, fabric, sinew, bone, and blood as the power bound itself to the very essence that was Harry James Potter. The power briefly lifted him from the floor he stood upon, stripping away his glamours, rushing through his body, reconstructing his muscles to enhanced perfection, restructuring and reinforcing his bones to support the improved muscle and sinew.
Harry's blood was washed as clean of contaminants and other harmful junk as magic could make it even as it repaired every single internal injury and regenerated the scarred or badly damaged organs and tissue. Leaving only the scars on his skin untouched as evidence of his trials and history. As the magic and light faded, Harry was gently set back down where he had been standing. His eyes, when he opened them, were momentarily pure white before they faded back to his normal vibrant emerald green. His gaze immediately meeting the gleaming ruby of his counter-part's as he stood tall in front of them.
"That felt... interesting," Harry said, his voice momentarily unsteady before he looked down at himself and saw what he was wearing. "What the hell am I wearing?!"
Harry's clothes had become a pure gold robe of the finest quality, made from Acromantula silk, woven by the purest magic in existence. Voldemort smirked as Snape gave a quiet snort, earning a glare from the newly declared Light Lord. It was when he saw the pink, lavender, robin egg blue, and silver colors shaped into moons, planets, and stars scattered over the robe winking in and out that he reared back in disgusted shock.
"EW! I look like Dumbledore dressed me!" Harry exclaimed, completely horrified by this unexpected turn of events. "Why couldn't it have been a dark green or even black? I like dark colors!"
"You become a star of the Light and the first thing you worry about are your clothes?" Snape asked with a derisive snort, amusement clear in his voice as he leaned back against the nearest wall, propping himself up and easing some of his pain from the earlier draining.
"This is one of the reasons I'm always wearing black or dark colors," Voldemort said, his tone almost completely flat, trying hard to hide the mirth that was merrily bubbling away in his ruby gaze. "The magic won't let me wear lighter colors, they always shift to a darker hue or change to black. I actually can't wear yellow, pink, mint green, white, and sky blue. Not that I would want to wear most of those colors but I would at least like to have had the choice."
"I'm sorry to say that even your Hogwarts robes would turn white," McGonagall explained sympathetically. "It's one of the reasons Dumbledore never wore anything that looked sensible or at least relatively normal. He couldn't. It takes a phenomenally powerful Lord of Magic to wear anything from the opposite of the colors they are associated with. The fact that Voldemort can even wear mostly black with a touch of green shading into light green is a mark of his power. If you can manage any dark color it will equally be a mark of your own power and position as one of the Lords of Light. Regardless, you're stuck with what you have for the first week, unless you have the power and skill to rival the first remembered Lords of magic, Merlin and Morgan Le Fey. Both of them could wear any color they liked and could change their robes within five minutes of receiving them."
Harry just gave her a mutinous glare, next sending his robes another disgusted look before glaring at Hermione, having decided that she was the one to talk him into taking on the title that forced him into the hideous robes. It would take Harry three days to figure out how to change his robes to properly dark colors that didn't burn his eyes or make him want to bleach his brain. However, they would discover much later that it would take Voldemort either giving the clothing to him as a gift or physically dressing him for Harry to be able to wear black or the darker shades of grey. Just as they also discovered the reverse was true for the lighter colors that Voldemort might want to wear.
Just as Harry was becoming resigned to his current attire for the moment, Fawkes decided to appear, flaming right into the air next to Harry and next to lots of very flammable paper records scattered everywhere in the room they were standing in. Upon seeing all of the flammable material the Phoenix quickly reeled in his flame before adroitly landing on Harry's shoulder where Hedwig used to perch when she had still been alive. A moment later he bit into Harry's ear, drawing blood and an irritated "OW!" from his new master. A soothing beautiful song and a few tears later were all it took to make everything well again.
"Well, at least the blasted bird will help us get everyone out of here," Snape remarked scathingly. "Though it would be immensely helpful if we could find our wands before we left."
Fawkes squawked angrily at him before flaming away, returning a moment later dragging a chest which the phoenix practically dumped at the feet of the scowling potions master, before returning to Harry's shoulder looking pleased with himself. The beautiful fire bird preened as people stared at him for both his presence and bringing them what Snape had just discovered, when he opened the chest, were their wands - every last one of them. They heard a shout from out in the hall way and sounds of more fighting but it quickly quieted down, indicating that their fellow witches and wizards had won the skirmish.
Snape silently summoned his wand from the chest before starting to hand out everyone else's wands, using what little magic he had at the moment to speed up the process. It took a moment for everyone to find their personal wand but every last one of them were delighted to have them back. The next group of guards that rounded the corner heading for the holding area, found out how painful many school yard curses, hexes and jinxes could be, as the older witches and wizards allowed the students their vengeance first.
The adults had realized that they would probably need to side-along apparate the younger members of their group in a hurry and were doing their best to make sure they actually had the power reserves to do it. None of them had been particularly happy to discover their magic was being restrained. The small group who had been in the planning room rejoined everyone else in the hallway. Harry was still grumbling about his change in attire while the other four were practically gloating, if a bit sympathetically, over his new look.
"If I get the chance I'm burning these robes," Harry informed the quartet sourly as they came into sight of the other former captives.
"I do believe that Albus once mentioned he could easily will the robes into a single color. He just didn't feel like fighting the magic into something more average when he was coming to enjoy the clothing styles that magic had provided him with," McGonagall mentioned with a smirk, as if she were in her animagus form and had gotten into the cream someone had been hiding from her.
"Why didn't you say so before?!" Harry demanded indignantly before quickly focusing on the robes and with a relieved sigh managed to shift them into a solid, and slightly darker shade of gold. Harry looked down at the results and muttered. "Damn, I was hoping to get it to go darker. Maybe it's too early? And why didn't it at least shift to something more muggle?"
"Ah, you can't, not for a few days at least. You could get it to shift to battle robes but the magic will reject anything muggle for at least the first few days. Not even Merlin was able to get around that declaration of his new station," McGonagall offered in a stunned tone of voice at the fact he was able to get his robes to go even a little bit darker so soon.
"Worry about what you're wearing after we're out of here," Snape snapped at them irritably, managing to break out of his surprise to try and get everyone moving. "It doesn't feel like we have to worry about apparation wards but we all need to arrive at the same place. Somewhere that isn't inherently magical for a head count before moving to somewhere safer with plenty of strong wards."
"Harry! When Dumbledore died, anyone who knew the address of a place that he had put under the Fidelius charm or held the secret for automatically became one of its secret keepers!" Hermione informed him quickly, having a burst of inspiration.
"What's that got to do with anything? By the way Fred and George found some sort of room with lots of, what did you and 'Mione call them? Telly's?" Ron asked coming over to stand with them. When he saw what Harry was wearing he did a double take and gave his friends a look demanding an explanation with his eyes alone.
"Later, Ron. If your brothers could wreck the Telly's and anything attached to them, that would be grand," Harry told him briskly, seeing Ron's demanding look before turning back to Hermione. "You really think it would work?"
Hermione nodded firmly and opened her mouth to add something, but before she could they heard Draco Malfoy's shocked voice cut through the noise of the group.
"Oh My God! Potter's the new Light Lord!" Draco cried in absolute horror, looking paler and just a bit green around the gills. Drawing everyone's attention almost the moment he saw his old school rival, after having just gone to retrieve his father from one of the less public extraction rooms that they had taken him to.
Lucius stood behind his son looking stunned at the latest turn of events. He was more than a bit on the pale side, from both shock and the magical extraction process. Lucius' eyes met the amused ruby ones of his sworn lord, who nodded slightly in agreement of Draco's assessment of the situation. The blond nudged his son before bowing to the new Lord of the Light, his son quickly following suit with a scowl on his aristocratic face. Most of the group followed suit, bowing or kneeling to the green eyed Lord in various forms, much to Harry's extreme embarrassment. The Weasley clan didn't bother to give more than a perfunctory bow before bustling over to him and enveloping Harry in a sea of redheads and hugs, embarrassing him further.
"Oh Arthur! Our Harry is the new Light Lord!" Molly exclaimed joyfully, tears beginning to leak from her eyes as she hugged Harry to her tight enough to almost suffocate him. The twins quickly rescued their adoptive little brother from the Weasley Matriarch, pulling him into hugs of their own.
"Good on ya!" Fred declared gleefully as he and his twin joined them.
"Now we don't have to worry as much about you getting into trouble," George agreed, equally gleeful.
"Boys, let Harry breath a bit. We can congratulate him when we're somewhere safer," Arthur scolded, breaking up his family's attempts to trap the young man in a sea of red.
"Alright, can we apparate?" Harry asked, quickly taking back control of the situation. Fred and George grinned wickedly before apparating a short way down the hall and back again, with precision landings, making Harry blink and causing Molly to start scolding them for their recklessness.
"I'll take that as a yes," Harry said slowly, slightly disconcerted, before quickly moving on, giving out orders. "Order Members, I want you take as many as possible with you and apparate to the park just in front of headquarters. When we have everyone accounted for take everyone inside, and I do mean everyone."
"Are you sure that's wise, Potter?" Snape asked his former student quietly.
"You have a better idea?" Harry retorted, equally as quiet.
"No," Snape admitted stiffly. Harry nodded sharply before turning back to the group as a whole.
"From this point onward our war between Light and Dark is on hold until we've figured this shite out and how to handle it. If someone is magical or a squib you do not leave them to the mercy of the muggles. Any muggles must be vouched for by at least one magical and confirmed with Legilimency or Veritaserum. No exceptions. Traitors will be dealt with harshly," Harry told them, steel and power in his voice, practically radiating off of his very presence. "This is no longer about Light or Dark, or the restrictions on members of the magical community, this is about survival. I, like Lord Voldemort, have first hand experience of just how far the muggles are willing to go. Use everything at your disposal whether the Ministry says its illegal or not. When we're safe, we'll work from there. Now, get moving!"
"Well done," Voldemort told him quietly, an appreciative and possibly avaricious gleam in his ruby colored eyes, as they were surrounded by the pops of apparation. Snape remained behind to help sort out whoever couldn't be taken by the other Order Members as they quickly transported everyone by a combination of apparation, portkey, and phoenix flame.