HP/LOTM: Visionary - 397

Chapter 397: Humiliation and Parting Before September

"By the way, Bellatrix, I heard your niece Nymphadora is with some poverty-stricken man?" Tom said, tilting her chin up as she looked at the Malfoys. Her real aim was still to humiliate Lucius.

She wanted to test his limits and see what this cunning friend might still be hiding. After all, he had been a Hogwarts governor. Perhaps he had some connection to that irritating man.

"Yes, my Lord. She is the shame of the Black family. I will eliminate her," Bellatrix said, cutting across Tom's probing. A flicker of displeasure crossed Tom's face.

Bellatrix, who knew Tom well, realised her mistake and immediately lowered her head.

"Speaking of which, Draco, I seem to recall you failed to complete the task I set you," Tom said suddenly.

She dissolved into black mist and reformed beside Draco, sitting on his lap and leaning her face close to his.

Draco's face twisted, trembling. His misery drew roars of laughter from the other Death Eaters.

"My Lord..." Snape spoke up.

"I believe that in the mission to assassinate Dumbledore, he played a very important role. After all, he opened the path into Hogwarts for us and bought precious time for the assassination, did he not?"

Snape still defended his student. Hearing her champion speak on Draco's behalf, Tom let him go.

"Ahhh!" A scream in the distance shattered Tom's good mood.

"Wormtail!" she shouted toward the back. "Did I not tell you to treat my guests properly?"

"Y-yes, my Lord," Peter stammered, scurrying out.

"Oh, speaking of guests," Tom said, rising from Draco's lap. Her body turned insubstantial and passed through the long table, returning to her seat at the head.

She raised Lucius's wand and pulled over a woman who had been floating nearby.

"Look who we caught. An old friend from Hogwarts. Professor Burbage. She seems to think we are no different from Muggles and taught Muggle Studies at Hogwarts?"

Voldemort let out a mocking laugh first, and only then did the Death Eaters around the table dare join in.

"Silence!" She raised her hand, and the room fell so quiet a pin could have been heard.

"Severus, save me. Aren't we friends?" Burbage, tortured to the edge of death, begged Snape.

But Snape ran Occlumency at full strength, his face utterly blank.

Snape knew this was a warning and a show of dominance from Tom. After all, he was about to take charge of the British branch of the Death Eaters. He did not dare look back at the woman in the seat of power, even though she was about to claim the throne of the European wizarding world. Her rule still spread violence and slaughter.

Seeing Snape's reaction, Tom nodded in satisfaction. "Avada Kedavra."

A flash of green light, and Charity Burbage's life was cruelly snuffed out. The last warmth in her body went to the tear of terror at the corner of her eye.

"Dinner time, Nagini," Tom murmured, stroking the great serpent behind her.

Nagini slithered onto the table, opened her great jaws, and bit down on Burbage.

......

"Ha!"

The massive serpent's maw jolted Harry Potter awake, far away on Privet Drive. He reached for his glasses but accidentally cut his hand on a shard of the two-way mirror.

He opened the door to find bandages but stepped on a cup of cold tea left on the floor.

"Damn it," Harry muttered, gathering his things and wrapping his hand.

The chaos at the Ministry made Harry afraid to use spells. He feared that after Dumbledore's death, if the protective magic on him failed, Voldemort would sense him.

He glanced at the biography written by Dumbledore's friend, then at the Daily Prophet, now under Bellatrix's control, which hurled insults at Dumbledore. The hired writers had even insinuated that Dumbledore's relationship with Harry was unhealthy.

The vile words enraged Harry, but he knew it was all part of Tom's trap to flush him out. So he could only endure. Endure. Gold flashed through his pupils for the briefest instant.

Having calmed himself through special means, Harry turned over the two-way mirror and thought he saw a flash of blue eyes.

"Am I hallucinating from missing Dumbledore too much?" Harry said bitterly.

"Harry Potter!" Vernon's voice bellowed from downstairs.

Harry went down and found the entire Dursley family. Vernon looked at him with disgust. A month ago, Harry had warned Vernon that the coming days would be very dangerous. But Vernon had decided it was all a trick by Harry to take over the house.

"Enough. I already have a house. And why would I want this place? For the happy memories?" Harry's outburst silenced Vernon.

After a while, Vernon glanced at his wife and son and blustered about demanding higher-level protection. He wanted Kingsley's personal protection.

Harry did not humour him. He dragged Vernon to the television and turned it on.

Train derailments, plane explosions, collapsing bridges filled the screen.

"See this? Voldemort and her followers did all this. If you want to die like these Muggles, clueless and afraid, we'd best sever ties right now," Harry said.

His meaning was clear. Though the Dursleys had been targeted because of him, dedicated protection had also saved them from random death.

Harry swept a disappointed look over his so-called family. He desperately wanted to fly to Sirius's house. But keeping the protective magic active until his seventeenth birthday was a promise he and Dumbledore had made. Harry had to keep it.

"Don't you understand? They will torture you. Kill you. Just like my parents!" Harry's hoarse voice echoed through the house.

"Dad," Dudley said suddenly. "I want... I want to leave with the Order people."

The Dursleys, who doted on Dudley, naturally agreed. Five minutes later, Order members arrived. They told Harry the original plan had changed and he should wait at the house.

The final parting came. Vernon tried to say goodbye but could not bring himself to do it. His raised hand did not open but instead shook two clenched fists at Harry.

Petunia awkwardly checked her handbag clasp, not daring to meet Harry's eyes. She held her silence for a long time, her lips trembling, but could not speak.

Instead, it was Dudley, the boy who had changed after being moved by Dumbledore's words last year, who spoke. "Why isn't he coming with us?"

Vernon and Petunia froze.