Harry Potter And Bellatrix Lestrange

Harry glanced around the table. "Okay… Count Hiscophney, Queen Xerina, please begin moving your troops into position. You can coordinate with Kinglsey Shacklebolt at the Ministry to set up defensive positions and wards, spelltraps, and whatever nasty surprises you can think of for Voldemort's forces. Professor Snape, Remus, Moody, please help them with that. Neville - I'm sorry, but the Legion is going to sit this one out. General Rotan, I'd like to make a request. Minister Mockridge will no doubt be a prime target for Voldemort, right after me and Dumbledore. I was wondering if you could personally arrange for his security."

Acknowledgements rang out from across the table, and Harry stood. "Any further questions or suggestions?"

"How will we know if Voldemort has taken the bait?" Hiscophney asked from across the room.

Moody answered for Harry. "Trust me, when he does, we will know," the old auror said.

"Potter, if you're going to go through with this hare-brained scheme of yours to go down into the ruins beneath the fortress of Azkaban, then I'll be coming along with you," Snape called out. "I can do a better job breaking wards than I can baby-sitting soldiers who I know nothing about."

"Amen to that," Moody agreed. "I'd go, too, but someone's gotta tell these Ministry nitwits who is friend and who's foe."

The fortress of Azkaban was an eerie place to be, even without the Dementors and the prisoners. The sea was rough as always, and by the time the boat had arrived, Neville was green in the face, looking like he was going to throw up any minute. Luna, on the other hand, was smiling serenely as usual. Harry glanced up at the walls he'd spent the worst days of his life behind. That seemed like a lifetime away now. He felt Bella squeeze his hand in a gesture of comfort, and smiled grimly. Some good had come out of that, after all. As they moved closer to the fortress, he could see the changes the guard of Ice soldiers had made. New fortifications had been built, and old ones reinforced. The gates had been replaced and magical lights were littering the place, bathing the formerly pitch-black courtyard in light.

Once the boat settled on shore, they all hurried into the fortress, Harry and Snape leading the way. They were received at the gates by a group of Ice soldiers from the contingent that Harry and Xerina had left on the island when he'd repossessed it from the British Ministry. They exchanged few words, General Rotan having informed the men of Harry's plans and his party's arrival, and then four Ice soldiers led the way down into the deepest level of the fortress they had uncovered.

"We've begun excavating the ruins beneath the fortress," one of them explained as they climbed down rickety stairs in the flickering torch light, "but it's been slow progress, mainly due to the collapse of three different structures on top of each other. There may be more that we haven't identified yet." The soldier gave Harry an apologetic look. "Sorry, milord, but this fortress has been rebuilt so many times it's almost impossible to tell one stage from the next. As it is, we managed to uncover doorways that lead down into the lower ruins, but we have not found anything resembling a tomb or a gravesite yet."

They stopped at the bottom of a staircase that seemed to abruptly cut off in mid-air, and the leading Ice soldier gestured down into the dark space below them. "We have gotten this far, but it appears someone deliberately destroyed any means of going deeper down into the fortress ruins. No matter where we excavate, we encounter the same difficulty, as if any path further down into this castle's history was sabotaged."

Harry glanced down the sheer drop before them and kicked a pebble over the edge. It vanished after only a second, swallowed by the darkness beneath. He frowned and then kicked another pebble down, straining his ears to listen for the sound of impact. When he heard nothing, he looked around for something bigger. The rest of his party had noticed his odd behavior and was standing back, watching him in confusion as he picked up a galleon-sized rock and hauled back, hurling it down where the stairwell was broken off.

This time, all of them heard it, the distinct crack of stone against stone, even as they watched the rock sail down into the darkness. "Not sabotaged," Bella finally commented, "warded."

Snape and Bella took a step forward, standing precariously on the edge of the very last stair they could see, and drew their wands. " Finite Incantatem," they intoned in unison, hurling the dispelling charm at the wards before them. When nothing happened, Bella frowned and began muttering more complex charms, Snape matching her phrase for phrase as the two attempted to unravel the spell that had been woven around the ancient ruins.

While they were working, Harry pulled Neville and Luna aside. "Did Bella talk to you about the potion for your parents?"

"Yeah." Neville nodded. "I'm… she wants to wake them up as soon as possible."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming…"

"I don't know," Neville shrugged. "I'm not sure if we should wait till this is all over, you know? They already lived through one war… and what if… what if we wake them up now, only to get killed when the fighting starts again?"

Harry didn't quite know what to say at the distraught look on his friend's face, even as Luna put an arm around the other boy's shoulders. "The only guarantee for victory is love," the girl said with a soft smile, causing both boys to look at her strangely.

"It's your call, Neville. But honestly, if it were my parents… I'd want to talk to them, at least once." Harry smiled sadly. "But I understand your reasons. Whatever you decide, let me know, and we'll arrange things, all right?"

Neville nodded, sniffling slightly. "Thanks, Harry."

"We're done!" A brilliant flare of light lit up the ruined staircase, and when it faded, gone were the moldy walls and crumbling bricks, replaced by gleaming marble and fine mosaics.

"What the-"Harry gaped at the sight around him. The group slowly wandered into the exquisite mausoleum, looking around themselves in awe at the statues and paintings that presumably depicted the failed uprising. At the center of the grand hall was a sarcophagus, intricate designs carefully chiseled into the sides and lid. A flowing inscription ran along the side of the stone coffin. Neither Snape nor Bella could begin to translate the strange writing - it wasn't English, or Latin, or Gaelic. Oddly enough, it was Luna who offered a translation.

"Here lies the last master of freedom in eternal rest. Peace to all, but death to those who dare to enter," she recited, her eyes unseeing, once again making Harry wonder if Luna wasn't the seer Trelawney always claimed to be.

The small group looked at each other in confusion. "Are we in the wrong place?" Neville asked, "I mean, I thought this guy led the rebellion against Polairix, didn't he?"

"No, this is the right place." Bella countered as she examined the mosaics that were set into the walls of the chamber; mosaics that were, uncharacteristically, unmoving. "This is the rebellion, look. And here's the rod he's holding."

"Then I don't get the inscription."

...

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