Bonds of Servitude Ch. 13 (Patreon)

The rising sun left them momentarily blinded as they hugged the narrow cliff face.

"Only a few meters more, my masters!" Tom's squeaky voice encouraged the Black trio as each step knocked a few pebbles down into the turbulent waters far below.

"We know, you little shit!" Bellatrix hissed. If they weren't in such a precarious position, she would kick the stupid little gnome off the cliff.

Of course Voldemort had spelled the cliffside so that it was not reachable via broom. Worst, Arcturus was leading the way, and while the old man was spry for his advanced age, he was still an old fuck. They were moving at a snail's pace.

Andromeda, who was just a bit thicker than Bella, was struggling along the way, especially while carrying her satchel stuffed deep with potions.

They had brought anything and everything they could. This Horcrux would not be as simple as the ring. They had interrogated Tom as thoroughly as possible, but it would not help them much.

Voldemort was many things, but Bellatrix would have never pegged the bastard as a curious intellectual. Yes, he held a library's worth of magical knowledge in his mind, but she'd always thought him a ruthless pragmatist, someone who used only that which served him and discarded the rest. She would never have thought of him as someone to be experimental.

Because, as much as it was meant to protect his Horcrux, this cave had become an experiment.

Voldemort had placed some obscure ward scheme on this cave. According to Tom, he'd taken bits and pieces from things he'd picked up on his travels across Europe and the fertile crescent. What he'd ended up creating was the world's first self-regulating ward.

After the first time Voldemort had tested the defenses, using one of his follower's house elves, he'd left his Horcrux safely inside and locked it up.

Over the years, the cave would lure unsuspecting muggles in, trapping them and keeping them alive, slowly leeching off their life force, using that life force to enact changes. Changes that even the Dark Lord himself couldn't control. The original defenses that Voldemort had implemented; a boat, a sea of inferi, a potion of madness, would either be replaced or repurposed.

Voldemort had know this. He'd planned to visit the cave after a decade, just to see what the semi-conscious wards had morphed into. He'd wanted to dissect the changes, hoping to gain insight into the fundamental nature of magic.

But then he'd fallen, and now, over a decade later, the task fell on the House of Black.

"Blood on the wall." Arcturus muttered as he slashed his wand down his palm, leaving a shallow cut. The Black Patriarch pressed his palm against the stone, letting the wall soak up the blood as the cliffside began to rumble.

Thin lines formed on the rock face in the shape of a doorway. They split down the middle, and the new door opened inward, inward into impenetrable darkness.

"Constant Vigilance." Arcturus warned as he pulled out a gold-rimmed monocle and placed it on his left eye.

Bellatrix tightened her grip on her wand. Andi did the same while also keeping her free hand just inches above her satchel.

Tom straightened up. He had no way to defend himself, but he would do his best to help his masters.

"On we go."

As one. They marched into the darkness, Arcturus, followed by Bellatrix and Tom and finishing with Andi.

When Andromeda had just stepped through, the stone snapped shut behind them.

"Lumos Sequi."

A swirl of pure white emanated from Bellatrix's wand and then hovered above them, bathing them in light, which was struggling to penetrate through the magically enhanced darkness that lay ahead.

They moved forward a few steps, the light following along with them, before Arcturus stopped them on their tracks.

He closed his right eye and squinted with his left, his eye darting every which way from behind his monocle.

"What is it, old man?"

"Mistress Bellatrix, I believe Master Arcturus would like for you to be a bit more respectful."

"Shut the fuck up, Tom!"

"Many points of interest along both walls. Multiple shafts, about the right size for spears, I'd say." Arcturus said.

"Poisoned, I'm sure." Andi quipped as she poked around in her bag.

"That would be an astute assumption, Mistress Andromeda. This is a classic defense in egyptian tombs, it's interesting that the artificial consciousness is aware enough of its constituent parts to pull from-"

"Shut up for a moment." Arcturus grumbled as Andi passed him a large phial with a clear liquid. Tom instantly fell silent as Arcturus looked the glass bottle over before tossing it out into the passage ahead.

Bellatrix shot a blasting curse at it. The spell collided with the phial and it shattered to pieces, its contents erupting outward every which way.

The clear liquid turned a dark green as it simultaneously thickened into a gunky substance. The gunk coated the walls of the cave, triggering the enchantment that sent dozens of arrows flying out from slits on the walls.

The gunk was elastic, and the arrows traveled a few feet before being snapped back against the wall, trapped under a suffocating green film.

"Excellent work, masters! Hopefully we are as successful with the rest of the defenses!"

A warning look from Arcturus prevented Bellatrix from kicking Tom right onto the wall. They passed by the spears, where the gunk was being dissolved by their poisonous tips.

At the end of the passage they came up on a gaping pit. Bellatrix shined her light ball down into the chasm, but the darkness remained impenetrable.

Arcturus tapped his cane against the wall behind the hole. "Nothing here."

Bellatrix conjured an umbrella. "Only one way to go, then."

Andi wrapped her arms around her sister. Arcturus grabbed onto Bellatrix's arm and Tom hung onto her leg.

"Grab onto Andi." Bella hissed at the little gnome.

"Yes, mistress." Tom responded, switching over to the kinder black sister.

They took a deep breath before jumping off the edge, disappearing down into the abyss.

They'd been falling for two minutes when they realized something was up.

"Fuck, are we trapped in a loop?" Bellatrix grit out as her hair flared wildly around her.

They were still slowly floating down. From what little they could see through Bellatrix's light, their surroundings were not changing, and there was no sign of the floor ever coming closer.

"Maybe we should blast our way out?" Andi yelled.

"If I may make a suggestion. Perhaps a leap of faith is required." Tom said helpfully.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you, you little bastard."

"Bellatrix." Arcturus' stern voice brokered no argument. "Let go of the umbrella."

Bella glared at her grandfather before sighing. "Fine, but when we're on our way to hell, I'll curse you out the entire time, old man."

Bellatrix let go. The umbrella drifted off as the four of them began a true freefall. They accelerated, and then they accelerated again, until everything around them became nothing but a blur.

Bellatrix wanted to get started on cursing out her grandfather, but the words were caught in her lungs. Just as she felt as if she was going to pass out from the high velocity air rushing up her nose, the four of them landed with a soft thud.

It wasn't a bad landing, much softer than it had any right to be.

"That wasn't so bad." Andi said as they stumbled forward on wobbly legs.

A new passageway stretched ahead of them, this one gradually curving downward, and lit by torches every few feet.

Arcturus narrowed his eyes before removing the monocle from his eye and putting it away.

"What's going on?" Bellatrix asked.

"This entire place is reeking of magic, I can't hope to make any individual detail out."

That was very disconcerting, but there was nothing to be done.

"Wands at the ready, then." Andi said.

"As always." Arcturus nodded as they moved forward, casting detection charms every few feet.

Despite the entire pathway reeking of magic, there didn't seem to be anything actively trying to kill them. The path was leading somewhere, that they could tell for sure, because there was a blue light off in the distance.

Andromeda remained on high alert. She barely even jumped when she caught sight of a strange eye embedded on the wall, staring directly at her.

It was a single eyeball, the sickly yellow color of its irises looking as if it was about to leak out of them and begin dripping down onto the floor.

Andi couldn't help but stare as she passed by it. Bella and Arcturus' footsteps disappeared as she inched up for a closer look, just to sate her curiosity about this bizzare eyeball. Why was it there? It was clearly some sort of trap. Was it trying to lure her in? To separate her from the others?

Had it already succeeded?

Just as that thought crossed Andromeda's mind and she realized she was only inches away from the eye, a pair of decrepit hands emerged from the wall.

Before Andi could scream, there was a hand covering her mouth. The other grabbed her by the back of the head and with supernatural strength began pulling her in towards the wall. She felt a tug at her shoulder, and to her horror she saw a third hand tugging at her satchel, pulling it off and disappearing into the wall with it.

The seams between the walls melted, revealing rows upon rows of sharp teeth lining them as the yellow eyeball began to bleed red. Andi's scream was muffled as she struggled to pull away, but the hands were far too strong. The wall melted back until it took on the shape of an iron maiden, lined floor to ceiling with teeth dripping a vicious looking purple substance.

Suddenly, Andi felt a small hand snatch away her wand. Moments later, a black mist shot off towards the eyeball, coalescing into a pure black serpent that sank its fangs directly into the iris.

There was a loud, ear-splitting screech as the hands pulling Andi let go. Andromeda gasped, scrambling backwards as the pale hands retracted back into the wall, writhing and twitching as the eye began to gush blood.

Andromeda was on her ass, wheezing for air as she heard footsteps rushing over to her.

"Andi, what the hell happened!" Bella knelt down in front of her, "Andi, where did your satchel go?"

"Mistress," Tom waddled over, holding out Andromeda's wand. "Tom used Mistress' wand, Tom knows Tom broke the rules, but Tom did it to save-"

"You little fucker, you did this, didn't you?!"

"Bella." Andromeda warned as she stood up, grabbing her wand from Tom's outstretched hand. "He saved my life. Thank you, Tom."

"Come on, you two, the more we dally, the more dangerous this place becomes." Arcturus said from further ahead.

"Let's go." Andromeda said, a new determination on her face as she followed after her grandfather.

They emerged into a large cavern. There was a misty greenish light shining from the center of a vast, dark lake.

"The lake is the same, at least." Arcturus said, remembering what Tom had told them about the original defenses.

"I thought the boat was invisible? It's right there." Andromeda pointed out at the small little skiff, big enough for the four of them to squeeze in.

"The enchantment shifted here as well." Tom said.

Arcturus pulled out the monocle and placed it on his left eye. He closed his right eye and squinted hard at the boat.

It took him a minute to properly process the information, but when he did, he let out a dry chuckle. "Very on brand,"

"What is it?"

"The only way across is via boat, and this boat is powered by a specific curse. I'll give you a guess as to what curse it is."

Bella and Andi shared a look before Bellatrix looked down at Tom. "Well, you're going to earn your keep, Tom."

"Of course, mistress."

They stepped on the boat, with the three Blacks surrounding Tom in the middle.

Arcturus cleared his throat. "Bellatrix, I'm guessing you want to do the honors."

Bella grinned gleefully, whipping her wand at Tom with a hateful look. "Crucio!"

The little garden gnome writhed in agony, tumbling about in the middle of the boat as the small skiff pushed off the lake, slowly making its way towards the center.

It was a slow ride across, with the only sound being that of Tom's screams as they cruised on towards a small island in the middle of the lake.

Andi could see glassy eyes staring up at her from the lake. Corpses, magically kept near the surface. Inferi.

She passed by a pair of sharp grey eyes and she swore she recognized them. She decided not to dwell too much on that.

They finally reached the shore and Arcturus smacked Bella's shoulder to finish the spell.

Tom gasped for air. "Good one, Mistress Bella! I really felt the hatred in your curse! It was almost as good as mine!"

Bella grit her teeth but didn't retort. They stepped off the boat and made their way to an altar, where there was a basin filled with a clear potion.

"The madness potion." Arcturus whispered.

"Fuck." Andi cursed. "I lost my potions."

She'd brought a potion that should have been able to neutralize the concoction Voldemort had placed here, but now, there was only one way to empty the basin.

"Well," Bella conjured a goblet and scooped up a heaping portion of the potion. "Get to drinking," she shoved the goblet in Tom's face.

"Of course," Tom's tiny hands wrapped around the goblet, and he quickly drained the potion in a few gulps.

Tom groaned, jabbering about death from above and eternal darkness, but when Bella gave him another helping of the potion, Tom chugged it down.

They whittled it down until there was no potion left. Tom was lying on the floor in a daze, while Arcturus put his glove on and pulled out a golden locket.

"Well, guess we're done with you." Bella said, ready to kick Tom into the inferi infested waters.

"Bella." Andi said. "He's earned a reprieve. Besides, I Think he's proven just how useful he can be for us."

Bella pouted, glaring down at the gnome who was still in the throes of his existential crisis.

"Fine."

The sisters turned as Arcturus shoved a piece of parchment in their faces. "Do you recognize this handwriting?"

Bella and Andi blinked as they looked down at the messy scribble their grandfather had thrust upon them. Confusion turned into shock as they found that they did in fact recognize this handwriting, despite not having seen it in over a decade.

"This is something Regulus wrote!" Bellatrix exclaimed.

Arcturus nodded slowly. The locket was dangling from his ungloved hand, wide open and bereft of any dark presence or sinister whispering.

"I believe we need to head off to Number Twelve, have a talk with Kreacher."

…

Harry woke up the next morning as he did almost every morning, surrounded by a pile of witches.

Penny had wormed her way to his side, her cunt leaking copious amounts of his seed. He felt happy for her. The girls could be very competitive, and especially between Daphne, Susan and Nym, the other girls could be easily frozen out of cuddling with him.

Harry yawned as he extricated himself from her and Daphne at his other side. Today was a big day, and he needed to be ready.

Harry wasn't sure what had happened when the horcrux had been removed, but his world had shifted.

Before, he'd been passive. Yes, there had been that incident with the troll, but overall, Harry had been happy to follow his mistress' lead. He loved the girls, and he'd felt an affection for all of them.

But ever since the Horcrux had been taken, his feelings had shifted. Suddenly, he felt a possessiveness, a need to claim them, a need to dominate, a need to mark them as his own.

He'd started squeezing Daphne's ass in public. He'd also started staring down the girls that he now realized were drooling over him, inviting them to come have a taste of a true man.

It was confusing. It was as if he'd suddenly been pumped full of testosterone. He felt like the girls were his property. It was a dehumanizing thought, but it was the truth.

Then there was his mistress. He wasn't exactly chafing against the slave bond, but he did feel a duality within himself. On the one hand, he wanted to obey his mistress as he always did, to meekly follow her will.

But then there was another, equally strong part, that wanted to tug her by her hair when she was being bratty, bend her over and sodomize her until she begged for forgiveness.

It was like he had two, equally powerful wills within him, and while they were not fighting, they created a paradox. The slave bond prevented him from doing what he wished to his mistress, but his new nature filled him with thoughts of dominating her, of showing her who was boss.

When Harry snapped out of his musings, he found himself stepping out of the shower. His body was changing, almost as if puberty had hit him like a runaway train.

He heard the slow trickle that told him someone was sitting down to pee. Harry strolled over confidently, his cock hardening as he peeked into the toilet.

It was Tracey. Half-asleep and knees bent inward as she sat on the porcelain throne.

"Harry?" The brunette asked sleepily, shooting a wary eye at his bobbing cock.

"Tracey." Harry pinned her down with his intense gaze. Tracey felt like prey, and she couldn't help the thrill that ran down her spine as Harry quickly closed the distance between them. She opened her mouth to offer a token protest, or maybe she opened it because she knew what he wanted, and she couldn't resist.

Harry shoved his thick length halfway down her throat. Tracey gurgled as Harry grabbed her by her hastily tied ponytail and began brutally face-fucking her.

Tracey just sat there, nothing but a fuck-hole for Harry as he used her throat like a cunt, pounding into it as deep as he could go. He was only able to make it halfway down, but that was more than enough. Tracey felt his balls slap on her chin as her eyes watered with tears, her throat feeling raw as it was violated by his thick shaft.

Tracey couldn't help but love it. She loved Pansy, but nothing was better than Harry's wonderful cock. She let him use her, doing her best to move her tongue around, even if she knew it was adding little to the stimulus as Harry raped her throat.

She would get his load flush down her throat, a heaping helping of his wonderful baby-batter.

Baby-batter.

When they were older, perhaps she and Pansy would decide which of them would let him impregnate them for 'their' baby.

Or perhaps, they would both carry his child.

*Glurk*Glurk*Glurk*

The sloppy sounds of Tracey's throat being fucked increased as Harry neared his release. He knew he could never push his entire length down her throat, and so, he went the other way. He pulled back until just his bulbous crown was in her mouth, and then, he unleashed.

Tracey felt a rush of euphoria as Harry filled her. She gulped it all down, doing her best not to choke on the sheer volume of viscous seed he was depositing in her mouth.

She did her best, but she was fighting a losing battle. She managed to swallow his first spurt completely, but she was only halfway done with the second when the third came, and then the fourth proved too much, and she snorted cum out of her nose.

Harry pulled back, spraying her face with yet more ropes of semen. Tracey closed her eyes, basking in Harry's wonderful gift.

Someone knelt down next to her and began licking at her face as Tracey tried her best to swallow what was still in her mouth. She couldn't quite tell who it was, but she kept her eyes shut, trying to use as many context clues as possible to figure out who's tongue it was that was swiping up the side of her face, happily collecting Harry's seed.

…

Harry, Darcia, Hermione and Penny.

Those had been the four chosen to go into the abandoned third floor corridor. The others were waiting in Andromeda's quarters, where her floo, connected directly to Chateau Black, was waiting.

From the moment they'd heard that Dumbledore had gone off to the ministry, they'd sprung into action.

An animated harp from Penny had taken care of the Cerberus. The Devil's snare had been child's play. Next, they found the winged keys, and after some quick work from Penny and Hermione, they were able to pick out the key that should match the lock.

Harry and Darcia flew off to wrangle it, and much to Darcia's annoyance, Harry snatched it easily before she'd even gotten close.

Next they faced McGonagall's chess board, and Penny was easily able to beat the game while keeping all four of them safe.

The next room held the troll.

In preparation for the beast, they'd followed Harry's example from Halloween, with a bit more preparation.

Penny fired off the dozen or so bottles of explosive 'Firewhisky' she'd brought along, making sure to aim for the beasts' eyes, ears, nose, and other sensitive, lightly protected areas.

Darcia and Hermione focused on shooting a constant stream of stinging hexes at the troll's wounds. In concentration, these worked to worsen the irritation on the exposed flesh. When Penny finished delivering her payload, she joined the other two girls in attacking the beast's now oozing wounds, though she used blasting curses instead.

In conjunction, this left a hurt and angry troll, thrashing about as one of its eyes had been blasted clean off, along with half its nose.

Meanwhile, Harry concentrated. He focused on the club, aiming at it with his wand and willing it to transform with his magic.

This time, instead of a needle, the club turned to steel and sprouted massive spikes all along its length. The troll screamed in agony as the spikes on the handle tore through its hand.

With another flick of his wand, Harry was in control of the club. Using his wand as a baton, he began to beat the troll with his newly spiked club, and after only a few swings, the beast was lying dead in a pool of its own blood, its face mangled beyond recognition.

"Very good job, Harry." Penny said proudly as Harry grinned.

The next room was Snape's, which they had not been able to prepare for at all.

Thankfully, Hermione and Penny had worked through the riddle together, though it did leave them with a dilemma. There was only enough of the correct potion for two of them to advance. The other two would have to return.

"Mistress and I will go on ahead." Harry said firmly. "Penny, Hermione, go back, let the others know we should be done soon."

Penny swept forward and gave Harry a deep smooch on the lips, followed closely by Hermione, who also kissed Darcia.

"Be careful, you two. This is the Headmaster's protection. If it's too dangerous, just give up." Penny warned.

"Believe me, that won't be an issue," Darcia drawled. This entire thing had been fun, but she wasn't about to risk her life over it.

And so, the four split off. Harry and Darcia drank the potion, and they stepped through the wall of flames.

They entered a large, well-lit chamber, which they found to be completely empty.

Empty, except for a single mirror.

"Well, what the hell are we supposed to do here?" Darcias stepped up to the mirror, gasping at what she saw.

It was her, but a much older version. An adult Darcia. She had her arms wrapped around a gorgeous woman with curly brown hair that could only be Hermione.

All of their friends were in the background. Tracey, Daphne, Susan, Pansy, her mother, her aunts, even Ms. Skeeter. They were all there, smiling and waving at her with their arms wrapped around each other.

And in the middle, huggin both Darcia and Hermione to his chiseled frame, was a handsome beast of a man with emerald green eyes and raven hair.

It was an adult Harry. And he didn't have his slave collar around his neck.

"W-What is this?" Darcia blanched, glancing at her slave, who was staring at the mirror with hard, determined eyes.

"I see." Harry said softly. His eyes swept over the frame, where some words that were unintelligible to Darcia were written across, before looking back into her grey eyes.

"Mistress, order me to desire the stone."

"What?"

"Do it, please."

"...Harry, I order you to desire the stone."

Harry's eyes shifted, and with a nod, he glanced back at the mirror, with a desire for the Philosopher's Stone.

Harry now wanted the stone, but he didn't want to use it. He didn't want gold, and while eternal life did sound enticing, there was something within him that rejected using the elixir of life.

And so, unbeknownst to him, he had completely fooled Dumbledore's final failsafe.

Harry felt a lump in his pocket. He dipped his hand in and pulled out a ruby-red stone, shaped roughly like a human heart.

"The Philosopher's Stone." Darcia whispered in awe as she stared at it.

They'd done it. They'd successfully stolen the stone.

Now, they needed to stash it away.

"Lets go, Mistress."

…

"You magnificent, beautiful hunk!" Tonks yelled as Harry and Darcia walked into Andi's office. She threw herself on him, not as mindful of her baby bump as Harry would have liked, and gave him a deep kiss. When she broke it off, Daphne was there to give him a loving smooch, with Susan right behind her.

"Let's not go crazy with the celebrations." Pansy said, "Dumbledore could return at any moment, we need that thing out of the castle now."

"Harry and I can put it away." Darcia said. "The rest of you guys should go back to the common rooms."

Nymphadora was staring down at the shiny red gem with a broad, shit-eating grin. "I'm going to frame this thing in my office, I swear."

"We have to go now, Nymphadora." Harry told the mother of his child. "We'll all celebrate when we make it back."

"Oh, you bet your ass we will, lover boy." Susan sent him a wink. "We all worked hard for this, now, it's time to unwind."

Tracey snorted. "As opposed to what we usually do."

Not wanting to delay any further, Darcia took a handful of floo powder and tossed it into the fireplace. "Chateau Black!"

When they emerged on the other side, the two teens quickly made their way over to Narcissa's personal floo.

Arcturus didn't usually spend time in this wing of the castle, and Darcia's mother was always in meetings with Lady Bones or other members of their fledgling faction until at least late afternoon. She wouldn't be back for hours.

Except Narcissa wasn't in any meetings. She was at home, out in the garden, staring off into the distance as she waited tensely for her sisters and grandfather to return from retrieving the Horcrux.

While there was no way for Narcissa to know that Darcia and Harry had just flooed into the Chateau, she felt a tug on her magic the instant someone used her personal floo, and then another tug when they passed through the wards of Malfoy Manor.

Narcissa needed only a second of thought to deduce who this could be. She stood up, marching determinedly off into the house. "Darcia!"

…

"This looks fucking creepy as hell."

Darcia shivered, placing an arm on Harry's shoulder as they walked away from the fireplace.

They were filled with an eerie tenseness as they trudged through the familiar halls of Darcia's childhood home. Everything looked the same, the same as they'd left it only a few months before, but it was all shrouded in darkness.

Dead. That was the word that jumped to Darcia's head, everything looked dead. This place felt like a tomb.

She'd been worried about having to avoid her father while hiding the stone, but the ghost of Lucius Malfoy was nowhere to be seen.

"Where will we hide it, Mistress?" Harry asked.

Darcia had been considering many possible locations. The attic, the basement, one of the dozens of rooms that had gone unused even when they'd all been living here.

But now, as they built more distance between themselves and the fireplace, as the coat of darkness seemed to envelop them that much more with each step, Darcia just wanted to stash the damned thing and be done with it.

"Let's just leave it here." Darcia said, stopping in front of the door of what had been her father's study. "Not like mother is going to be taking strolls around here anytime soon."

Harry grabbed onto the doorknob and turned it. They heard the telltale click as the door unlocked.

And then they were covered in a deep, dreadful cold. A high, malicious voice spoke from behind them.

"You have brought me the Stone."

Darcia screamed as she and Harry spun around.

Floating in front of them was a malevolent black mass, taking the general shape of a human. Its form shifted constantly, the pure darkness at its center intercut by the jagged outlines at its edges that seemed to warp violently. It was void given form, chaos contained in a vessel, and it had two large, blood-red eyes that were staring directly at them.

"What the fuck are you?" Darcia backed up against Harry, who squeezed her arm as he did his best to stare down this abomination.

"The stone. Possession is mine."

Every word it spoke jarred their very bones. Darcia was fighting with her legs, which wanted nothing more than to give out and collapse under her.

"Mistress. Run!"

Harry's words knocked her out of her paralysis, and the two children sprinted off toward where they'd come from, back towards the fireplace.

"Stupefy!"

Harry's curse held true, sailing directly towards his target.

The black mass absorbed his stunner, twisted it around and turned it a deep purple before shooting it back at Harry.

The boy's eyes widened as he ducked, barely managing to evade the curse that left his ears burning. As they ran for their lives, they dared not look back, though the smell of deep rot let them know just what had happened to the wall where the curse had hit.

"Return it to me. Mine. Stone belongs to Voldemort."

"Voldemort? That thing is Voldemort?"

"Mistress, we must focus on escaping."

"Maybe we should leave the stone behind. Then he'll leave us alone!"

"No." Harry growled. "If he's Voldemort, he can't get the stone."

Darcia could have commanded Harry to follow her orders, but in that moment, the terrified girl could think of nothing but escaping with her life.

They screeched by a corner, only a few feet away from the door to the drawing room. To the fireplace. To safety.

Blocking their path was that same black mass. Waiting for them menacingly, its hovering form producing a terrible white noise just by its very existence.

They ran back to where they'd come from. The moment they turned around, Voldemort was there, closer.

"No escape."

A lump of darkness lifted up, taking the shape of a hand. An orb of pure darkness began to coalesce, growing bigger and thrumming with power.

They were frozen in place.

Harry stepped in front of Darcia.

"Mistress, when he hits me, run. Run for the fireplace." Harry whispered.

"Harry!" Darcia choked, her eyes widening in terror.

"I conjured a fake stone in my hand, it should distract him long enough for you to make it to safety."

Indeed, Darcia saw a glint of red held in Harry's left hand.

"B-But Harry." Darcia couldn't let this happen. Harry couldn't sacrifice himself for her. This couldn't be happening.

Voldemort fired, and the mass of black energy rocketed towards them.

Darcia couldn't let this happen. She pushed up against Harry's back, trying in vain to push him aside, to take the impact herself.

But he didn't budge, he stood firm, whispering a soft please under his breath.

Darcia felt tears trickling down her eyes as she saw death rapidly approach them.

And then, someone stepped up in front of Harry.

The spell hit Narcissa square in the chest. It sent her flying against the wall, the darkness eating through her robe, and through her flesh, rotting away her insides.

Harry and Darcia could only stare as Narcissa lay up against the wall, coughing and bleeding, her face paling rapidly as she tried to press a hand to her stomach.

But her stomach was no longer there.

"MOTHER!"

Darcia's ear splitting scream did not register with Harry.

"Stone. Lord Voldemort. Property."

This thing. This thing that called itself Lord Voldemort had wounded his woman. It had cruelly struck down what was his. It had dared attack that which belonged to him.

Harry's green eyes glowed ethereally as he turned to face the dark mass of Lord Voldemort.

"Die. Boy dead. Die."

The hand raised up once more, ready to finish them all off.

Harry felt a burning rage. An animalistic fury. A primal hatred that was beyond description.

Harry's eyes flashed white, and in an instant, that which had connected the shade of Lord Voldemort with the ghost of Lucius Malfoy was torn asunder.

Darcia's head snapped up in fear when she heard the shrieks.

Harry was standing firm as the ghost of her father screamed in agony. White tongues of flame were surrounding Lucius' ghostly form, rapidly burning him away, consuming him, turning him into heavy pearls that fell to the floor and shattered or rolled off into the distance.

The wraith of Lord Voldemort was screaming even louder. Its blackness was being burned by the white flames, and though they couldn't destroy it, they would continue burning it.

Voldemort's wraith let out a final screech before it disappeared through a wall, flying off into the distance, agonizing the entire way through.

Harry's righteous anger subsided, and Darcia's whimpers brought him back to the present.

"H-Harry… I did good… by you. I finally repaid… my debt."

Narcissa was wheezing. Every breath was agony, and it was clear that the only thing keeping her alive was magic.

"Darcia, go back to the Chateau. Get help. I'll stay with Cissy."

Darcia stared up at the boy with disbelieving eyes.

"Now!" Harry snapped.

Darcia jumped. She ran off towards the floo as Harry knelt in front of Narcissa.

He held the Philosopher's Stone in his hands.

But he had no idea how to use it. He had no clue how to make the elixir of life, or even if it would be able to heal the rapidly dying woman.

"Harry… thank you… your love-"

"Cissy." Harry snapped. "You're not going to die. I'm not going to allow it to happen. So stop with the goodbyes, and save your energy."

Narcissa blinked. She didn't believe him, but she listened, and as Harry waited in the cold emptiness of Malfoy Manor, all he could do was hope and wish.