Amulet of Time 3: The Wolf and The Pelican

Chapter 18: Full Moon Fun

Harry froze when he heard Voldemort's plan. He knew what would happen, how the whole thing would play out. This was the decisive event he was now witnessing. The one meeting that would lead, in five year's time, to the death of his parents. He now knew specifically why the Potters had been targeted, why Voldemort had chosen them specifically to be killed, and why he had been orphaned at little over a year old. Some of the questions that had been plaguing him for years were finally answered. The puzzle with so many missing pieces was now complete. Everything he had been meaning to find out from Dumbledore since the end of his first year now came into sharp focus. He had suspected the reason, and had come up with some fanciful ones of his own, but now he was faced with the grim reality of the situation, and he wished he had never found out. Of course, it was a relief to finally know why he had been left at the Dursleys, and what the reasoning behind Voldemort's obsession with him was. He also realised that something else made sense. When his parents had been killed, Voldemort had told his mother to stand aside. He knew that much from his encounters with the Dementors. He now understood that he and his father were the heirs of Gryffindor, and not Lily. On the other hand, if Heather was anything to go by, then Voldemort may have planned to take his mother if she had lived to use as the same form of mental torture on his unseen enemy as her sister.

When Harry thought about it carefully, he realised that it would in fact be five years before his parents were killed. He also understood why. From what he had recently learned, Minh's father was a Gryffindor. As her parents were never recorded in the human world, only in the elven realm, Voldemort would not have been able to find out the relation. Harry was confused by this. Even if it had taken five years for the information to come to light, it still seemed strange that the information had been leaked somehow. Minh never told anyone that he was aware of. He would have heard about it. And Gaerwyn wouldn't tell. She was wise, and was sure to recognise the danger of announcing her grandson to be Gryffindor's heir when the heir of Slytherin was rising to power. Harry's brow wrinkled in thought. He couldn't imagine how it could possibly have come to pass that anyone would give up such a closely guarded secret.

Harry was dragged from his thoughts by cheering from the assembled Death Eaters. His head snapped around as a tall woman was led forward, a blank look on her face and dull empty eyes looking forward towards her 'master'. Harry let out a loud gasp as he recognised Heather. A nearby Death Eater looked around at the noise, wondering where it had come from. Harry slapped a hand over his mouth and cautiously moved back over towards Sev. As he made his way to his friend, he called back his snakes. He had a feeling he would need to leave soon, although he couldn't understand why. Better safe than sorry, he thought as he quickly opened a mind link.

~Simbi? Nirah? Come back now. We'll be leaving soon~

After a few minutes, the pair of snakes came through Crabbe Sr.'s legs and attached themselves to Harry's ankles. Relieved to have them back, Harry turned his full attention to the monster in front of him, who had his arm around Heather in a way that made Harry's blood boil.

" My loyal Death Eaters. I am proud to present our spy in Dumbledore's ranks, and the ticket to my nemesis' downfall. Some of you will know this, but most of you won't. She is a trusted member of the Order of the Phoenix, and with my Imperius curse in place will be an invaluable asset. She is also a relation of Harry Evans, a wizard who has plagued me for thirty years. Last time, he got away with his life. This time, he will not be so lucky. But first, I will show him what a Dark Lord is really capable of. With the help of my young concubine, I will truly break him once and for all."

As soon as Harry heard the word 'concubine', his temper started to rise. Anger flowed through him until he was balling his fists so hard, blood was trickling onto the floor. How dare he? She's just a young woman. He's pay for this, he thought as he imagined the implications that single word had. As his wrath reached a peak, he unleashed his rage through the Dark Mark on Voldemort's arm. Immediately the Dark Lord let go of Heather and grabbed his throbbing limb with a cry. The Death Eaters watched in shock as their Lord and master screamed out in agony and fell to his knees, tears of pain flowing down his cheeks. Harry watched in grim amusement as his enemy squirmed and humiliated himself in front of his followers. It brought him little satisfaction, but it did give him a reasonable outlet for his fury. After about ten minutes, Harry's ire had calmed to a reasonable level, although he was still looking at Heather in pity. He knew he couldn't help her, as Dumbledore needed her to feed false information to the Dark Lord. This made him more than a little disgruntled at Dumbledore, especially now that he knew what his aunt had to be going through.