HP/LOTM: Visionary - 44

Chapter 440: A Head-On Encounter, The Writer Arrives​

The instant they heard the noise, Harry and Ethan slipped behind a pillar together. A heartbeat later, the dungeon door swung open, and a witch swept in, dressed head to toe in black, yet dripping with jewels.

It was Bellatrix Lestrange.

Since getting her hands on the Daily Prophet, she had taken control of the entire Lestrange fortune and was now living in luxury beyond anything she had ever known.

“You. Ollivander. Come here!” Bellatrix pointed her wand at Ollivander.

A spell yanked him up into the air, and he floated after her as she left.

With a vicious slam, the dungeon door crashed shut. Silence returned.

Only after they were sure no Death Eaters remained did Harry and Ethan step out from behind the pillar.

“They took Ollivander,” Harry said, looking at Ethan.

“First, we get the others out,” Ethan said, eyes flicking as his mind raced. “Then we go scout. If we can save him, we do. If we cannot, we come back, meet up with Dobby, and leave.”

“All right.” Harry nodded.

They signaled to Dobby, who hurried over, grabbed Luna and Griphook, and Disapparated with them.

Harry pulled the Invisibility Cloak from his bag. Ethan casually flicked his wand at the cell door with an Unlocking Charm, and the two of them slipped out.

Outside the dungeon was a small room, and its guard was the one Death Eater everyone tended to ignore—Peter Pettigrew.

The moment Harry saw his face, his fingers tightened around his wand, and the tip lifted almost on its own. Ethan reached out immediately and gently pressed Harry’s wand back down.

With Ethan’s touch, Harry forced his anger under control, then gave him a look that showed he was thinking clearly again.

Under the Invisibility Cloak, they searched Malfoy Manor, turning over the treasure vault and several bedrooms. But Harry did not sense a Horcrux anywhere. He shook his head at Ethan, frustration twisting in his stomach.

In the end, Harry laid his wand flat across his palm and used a pointing spell, forcing it to lead him to Bellatrix.

Following the wand’s pull, they reached an ornate, lavishly decorated door. Yet the magic leaking from behind it felt ominous, wrong enough that both of them went cold.

Bang!

The door was thrown open with brutal force.

At the head of the long meeting table lounged a lazy-looking woman, her scarlet snake-like pupils locked precisely on the spot where the two of them stood.

A wave of icy dread surged up Ethan’s spine. He did not bother hiding anymore. He grabbed Harry and bolted.

It was useless.

Malfoy Manor had already been altered by Tom. Chaos could pour out from any corner. In an instant, deep darkness wrapped around them, and the entire world was replaced by the Deep Realm.

Sky and earth blurred into formless confusion, and the only things that still held order and shape were a handful of people and the table and chairs before them.

“Good evening, Harry Potter.” Tom’s lips curved into an elegant smile.

Since hiding was pointless now, Harry pulled the Invisibility Cloak off his head.

“Tom Marvolo Riddle.” Harry met her gaze without flinching.

“What a rare delight,” Tom said, fingers interlaced as she leaned forward on the tabletop, unhurried and confident. “You actually came to me. You’ve destroyed quite a few of my Horcruxes lately.”

She did not even seem angry that he spoke her true name.

Tom had already shifted her goal. She no longer cared about that ridiculous obsession with blood purity. The only reason she still kept the slogan alive was to bind together the pure-blood faction under her command in Britain.

After all, they had been her first foundation.

And on the continent, Tom had long since changed the message to one simple truth: magic is power. As for the talented Muggle Dark wizards she recruited later, if the Dark Lord declared their blood pure, who dared question it?

Harry felt crushing pressure bearing down on him. Tom had fused far too deeply with Chaos, almost like its agent walking the human world.

“As long as you keep spreading slaughter, people will rise against you again and again,” Harry said, golden magic flooding his pupils. Behind him, a massive silver stag Patronus lifted its head. “Until your Horcruxes are destroyed and you’re forced to face an endless tide of challengers like a mortal!”

“Tch. So Dumbledore actually had the heart to give you the core of resentment,” Tom said, and a flash of envy cut through her eyes. “That’s a chance to become a god.”

In truth, she had once been one of those who craved Dumbledore’s acknowledgement. But now she believed only eternity was real. Even someone like Dumbledore could fall from the tower one day.

“Yeah. Maybe it’s because they don’t care that they’re favoured by the Protocols,” a clear, bell-like teenage voice said.

A moment later, a terrifying surge of magic punched straight through Tom’s Deep Realm domain.

The sealed black egg split open with a gap.

Ethan reacted instantly. He snatched Harry, then used Accio to yank Ollivander back to them, and ran.

Tom snapped her wand. The shattered Chaos field turned into writhing tendrils that lashed towards the three of them.

But a strange power descended.

It was as if a writer holding a book had quietly put pen to page and rewritten the tendrils’ aim. Every strike missed, all of them.

"Heh. Missed again," the boy’s voice said with a hint of amusement.

“Aiden Pruett!” Tom snarled, her voice dripping with venom. Hatred tore through her like fire, raw and unrelenting.

Black magic exploded, reducing the room’s decorations to dust.

“Don’t bully children,” Aiden’s voice came from all directions, though the room itself stayed empty. “If you want a fight, come to Avalon. I’ll play a couple of rounds with you.”

“Just you wait,” Tom hissed. “I’ll find your agent. Then I’ll kill them one by one!”

Her murderous gaze fixed on the empty air. She whipped out a vicious piece of dark magic, burning a transparent shadow in the void into ash.

The writer’s projected power was destroyed.

Far away in Avalon, a dragon curled as if it had just had a pleasant dream, the corner of its mouth lifting slightly.

Harry and Ethan carried Ollivander and fled all the way back to the dungeon. The violent shaking from above had already startled the guard awake.

Peter Pettigrew saw Harry sprinting towards him and flashed a greasy, pleased grin as he drew his wand and blocked their path.

He had no idea what he was about to face.

“Move!” they shouted together.

A gigantic silver stag slammed into Pettigrew, lifting him clean off the ground and smashing him into the stone ceiling. Cracks spread like a spiderweb across the rock behind him.

But it was not over.

Ethan’s Fiendfyre followed, forming a flaming eagle that dove and pecked viciously at Pettigrew. He barely had time to lift his right arm to shield himself.

The second impact drove him deeper into the ceiling, then punched him straight through it, blasting a hole as he shot up towards the sky.

Harry and Ethan did not waste a second on him. They rushed into the dungeon, where Dobby had been waiting.

“Dobby, now!” Harry said.

They grabbed Dobby’s hands and Disapparated.