Powerless

He looks… rough.

Ginny had to agree with Harry's assessment. Bill had certainly seen better days, his hair was disheveled and he was sporting the scruffy beginnings of a beard, giving him an unkempt appearance. Despite how horribly he'd acted, she couldn't help but be concerned for how he was taking care of himself.

The café was unassuming, and Bill was one of only three people there when she and Harry walked in. Still, Harry made sure to cast muffiato around them as they approached Bill's table. "Hey, Bill." Ginny said cautiously, while Harry nodded to the man. Ginny didn't blame him for his reticence, he'd barely known Bill before he went off the deep end

A weary smile spread across Bill's face. "Ginny, Harry. Thanks for coming."

They took seats across from him, and Harry inclined his head to Ginny indicating that he would defer to her in this conversation. "You're my brother." She said simply.

"Right. I guess I should start by saying that I'm sorry." Bill's eyes stayed focused on the table, but they could both hear the guilt in his voice "I should have never used what happened with the diary against you. It was cruel and unfair. I shouldn't have accused Harry of going dark after everything you've done for our family. I should have gotten out as soon as Dumbledore started planning on hurting Harry. There's a lot of things I regret." He sighed deeply. "I'm sorry."

Ginny wasn't willing to let him off the hook just like that "Why the change in heart? How did you only realize now that you were being so terrible?"

"This is going to sound like a total cop out." Bill said "But after being left alone for a while it was sort of like… my mind cleared? I can see now that my thinking was… skewed."

"Dark magic." Ginny said, her voice clipped. He was right, it did sound like a cop out, but that the same time both he and Ginny could relate. How much could she judge Bill when she'd spent a year under Tom Riddle's influence?

Bill nodded, but Harry interrupted shrewdly "Wait, what do you mean, left alone?"

Bill shrugged "That's the thing, Dumbledore… he's just disappeared."

"What?" Ginny lurched forward in her seat. "When? What happened?"

"He'd been getting pretty reclusive for a while, even with me." Bill explained "Last week he told me he had something important to do, and that he'd be indisposed for a while… and he just never came back. Haven't heard from him since."

Ginny and Harry exchanged a look. "How hasn't this gotten out yet?"

Bill shrugged again "Like I said, he's been pretty reclusive, and he told everyone he'd be gone for a few days. I think people are going to start asking questions soon, but so far…"

Harry grimaced. Dumbledore being out of the picture might be a good thing, but on the other hand, it probably meant nothing good. They could really only speculate on what had happened and its implications.

"Is there anything else you can tell us about what he had planned?"

"I know that he was trying to lure you into a trap, Harry." Bill said "He was going to send you to You-know-who."

Ginny made a noise of outrage. "What a bastard."

"But the thing is, in order to pull it off, he'd need to actually coordinate with… him…" Bill paled while Harry's expression turned grim "Do you think…"

"Yeah. That seems right. Dumbledore was planning on trapping me but fell right into Voldemort's trap. Who knows what Voldemort knows now."

Ginny swore. Dumbledore knew basically everything, the prophecy, the horcruxes, the ritual… if Voldemort had gotten ahold of him, it would legitimately be a disaster.

They sat in silence for a moment, while Harry mentally worked through the repercussions of this with Ginny and Hermione. Meanwhile, Bill's expression turned wistful, and as the lull in the conversation stretched out, he chanced a question. "How… how is Fleur doing."

"She's doing… good." Harry answered vaguely, sensitive to the fact that he likely wouldn't want details.

"Good." Bill said "So, you and her are…"

"Yes." Harry said quickly.

"Ah." He looked down regretfully, but made no move to protest. "I figured."

"Mum and dad are worried about you." Ginny diverted "I'm sure they'd love to see you."

Bill smiled wryly "Yeah, I wanted to talk with you first, I figured I owed you a real apology."

Ginny nodded, as much as she wanted things to go back to how they were, when she was little and looked up to, almost idolized Bill, she couldn't. But hopefully things could be mended between them, with time.

-----

Taking control of the Lestrange vault had gone better than they could have hoped. The goblins had indeed offered some resistance that needed to be assuaged with 'compensation', but the Wizingamot had been quite cooperative, perhaps too cooperative. Perhaps he was just being paranoid, but Harry's instincts were telling him that something wasn't quite right.

So he was on edge as they entered the ministry- Harry himself under the invisibility cloak while Hermione and Susan flanked him. They'd 'discussed' how many should go- Katie had argued that if something did go wrong, they didn't want Harry to be without backup, but Susan had pragmatically pointed out that bringing too many people would draw unwanted attention.

Hermione and Susan were waived in by Hestia Jones, past a room with a dozen or so cubicles occupied by mostly disinterested aurors. Harry trailed behind invisibly, only unveiling himself when they were ushered into a side room. There were a few other aurors in the room- Kingsley and two others he didn't recognize- and a central table with an array of artifacts placed on it- all of them requisitioned from the Lestrange Vault for being potentially dark, dangerous, or otherwise breaking the law.

He didn't even need to look for it, the cup drew his eyes magnetically and he knew that this was it. Hermione nodded in confirmation to Susan while Harry was approached by one of the aurors. "Mr. Potter, its an honor to meet you." He held out his hand to shake.

"Er, thanks." Harry said awkwardly, quite uncomfortable with the attention. He moved to shake the man's hand politely but something stopped him. Normally, when people acted like this, their eyes went straight to his scar, it grated on him. But this man's eyes look straight ahead, at him, but not anywhere particularly. Harry scrutinized him for a moment, pulling his hand back fractionally, this felt wrong.

Behind him, he felt Hermione reaching out with her fey sight- this was quickly followed by a bolt of panic. IMPERIOUS! She bellowed mentally, the situation too urgent for anything more eloquent. With a flick of his wrist, Harry unholstered his wand, but his earlier reactions had already given them away. The imperioused auror broke the act and lunge for Harry just as he tried to push himself back.

Unbalanced, they both fell to the floor while the rest of the room reacted as spells were sent to where they just were. In the midst of the physical struggle, Harry felt something cold press into his hand, with a rough, strained voice the auror said "Activate."

"NO!" Hermione screamed, throwing herself at them, but Harry could already feel the telltale tug of the portkey as it whisked both him and the controlled auror away.

The world blured, and Harry knew he only had a moment to steel himself. There was no time for fear or doubts. When he crashed back to earth, into a cold stone tile floor, he tried to use his momentum to propel himself forward, but the imperious auror still had a hold on him. The world was still a blur, and he could hardly process what was going on around him, just recognizing the distinctive cloaks and masks of Death Eaters. He fired off overpowered blasting curses erratically- none of them hit their targets, but they did hit the wall and spray shrapnel across the room. With a desperate energy, he threw off the auror, pushing him to the ground as he pushed himself up.

But it was too late, as Harry staggered to his feet, he was struck with the familiar blood red of the cruciatus curse. Despite his brief resolve to fight it out, the pain overwhelmed him, and he fell to the ground screaming.

After an indeterminable amount of time, the curse was released. His glasses were gone, and the room swam in front of him, but Harry could feel Ginny, Hermione, Luna, and Demelza, he felt their fear for him like waves breaking, and he forced himself to action. He lifted a shaking arm up, willing his magic to action when a cord of magic lashed around his chest, scalding his skin with heat that caused Harry to cry out in agony. His magic burst out like a misfired gun, throwing a death eater back violently, but another band of magic lashed around him, and then a third, pulling down and back until he was pinned against a wall, groaning as his restraints blistered his skin.

He didn't need his glasses to recognize who was in front of him now, it could only be him. However Voldemort, perhaps capriciously, returned his glasses to him, allowing Harry to fully appreciate his predicament. His was chained up, disarmed, and surrounded by Death Eaters and Voldemort himself. He had no idea where he was, other than some god forsaken dungeon. There was no help coming.

And for the first time in a long time, he allowed himself to despair.

"Harry Potter." Voldemort said grandiosely "At last." The self styled Dark Lord looked far different than he had at the graveyard when he was resurrected, or when he dueled Dumbledore at the Ministry. Black and red veins crisscrossed his otherwise pale skin, and his face gaunt.

"Tom." Harry managed.

Voldemort's eyes narrowed, and Harry's bonds tightened around him, causing a pained moan to well up. "You are in no position to show me disrespect."

"Give a shit. I'm going to die anyway."

Voldemort chuckled, a terrifying smile growing on his face. "No Harry, I'm afraid you aren't." He inclined his head to the side "Severus."

"The potion is ready, my Lord." Snape responded coolly, withdrawing a vial of clear liquid from his robe. "I'd recommend we not delay too long, given what we now know."

Voldemort contemplated Snape's words for a moment- indecisive between tormenting Harry some more and wrapping things up quickly. "Just a moment, Severus. I want to speak to the boy." He gazed around the room, addressing the other Death Eaters "Leave us! To the ministry, ensure that Scrimgeour dies and that we have full control."

The others left, leaving just Snape, Voldemort and him. "Do you know what this potion is, Harry?" Voldemort asked him.

Harry wordlessly shook his head, he was sure Hermione would know, but what was the point?

"He never was any use at potions." Snape remarked calmly "This, is a form of the draught of living death." Harry felt a shiver run down his spine "Yes, even you would have heard of this potion, and just from its name you could guess what it does. However, I've made a few modifications to it. After you drink this, you will fall into a coma that cannot be dispelled. You will be placed in a state of suspended animation, in which you will stay, forever."

Harry surged against his restraints, despite the pain, but to no avail. Voldemort chuckled "Even now, the ministry is falling. Dumbledore is under my control. How long will your friends last, I wonder? It matters not, I am immortal, and I have you, my horcrux, to thank for that."

It would have been better if they had just killed him. He should have chucked himself off the astronomy tower as soon as he'd figured it out. At least then, there would have been some chance that Voldemort would have been defeated. Anything would have been better than this.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Harry called out to them. To Ginny, the girl who had first held his heart. To Hermione, his best friend. To Luna, who saw him like no one else did. And to Demelza, who had made him feel better about himself than he ever had. They deserved better than this. Bitter tears streaked down his face against his will, for he knew that it would just gratify Voldemort and Snape.

"Yes." Voldemort hissed "This is it, Harry. You've lost. Now, I believe I should make sure that the Ministry is well in hand. Severus!"

Snape jabbed his wand at Harry, and an unseen force wrenched his mouth open. Harry could only watch helplessly as Snape uncorked the vial and poured the potion down his throat. The last thing that Harry saw before drifting into darkness was Snape's cold, impassionate eyes.

-----

Hermione dove, colliding with the floor where Harry had been, where Harry had just been. "No!" She shouted. "No." Susan stared in shock, unable to process, to react to what had just happened.

Neither would have time to properly respond, however, because just moments after Harry's disappearance, the room shook from the reverberations of an explosion. "Shit!" One of the aurors cursed. That explosion was followed by several smaller blasts, and then the sound of spellfire, worryingly close spellfire.

Kingsley was the first to react, grabbing Hermione and Susan and physically moving them out the room. Susan barely had the presence of mind to grab the cup and stash it away.

Outside, it was chaos. The cubicles had been mostly demolished as the room turned into a warzone, one which it was clear the aurors were losing. Kingsley paid it no mind, leading them deeper into the department, past aurors dashing the opposite direction, until they reached what appeared to be a dead end. Kingsley tapped his wand on the wall precisely, much like one would to enter Diagon Alley. "It's a crawlspace. Very old, from the very beginning of the ministry. No one uses it now, almost no one even knows about it. But there should be a way out." A small opening appeared, one which they could just barely crawl through, and he turned to them. "It's not over."

The sound of fighting was drawing closer. "Go!" He hissed, ushering them on. Neither of them had time to think, they just obeyed, scrambling into the crawlspace before it closed behind them, leaving them in darkness.

"L-lumos." Hermione uttered, her wand flickering to light. What followed was the most miserable experience of her life. All she could do was crawl forward uselessly, with nothing to focus on but the torment that Harry was going through. Occasionally, they heard the sounds of distant fighting, but soon, even that petered out.

Hermione couldn't help but let tears fall as the misery closed in on her, but she didn't let that stop her from continuing on. They only stopped when Susan gave in, pressing her forehead to the dusty stone floor and letting out a small sob. "Hermione. Is Harry… is he dead?" She asked this in such a small voice that Hermione heart trembled.

"No. They put him under a version of the draught of living death. They knew he's a horcrux, so they're keeping him alive."

Susan let out a breath. "Thank Merlin. He's alive. Its not… it's not over. We can get him back. We have to get him back."

Hermione closed her eyes and composed herself, taking heart in Susan's unexpected optimism. "Yes. You're right. We just need to regroup with the others, and the Order. And get out of here, of course."

With a bit less misery, the two of them crawled on, and on, not knowing where they were going. Hermione relied on her fey sight to look for any other openings. She couldn't however, use it beyond the crawlspace, space was… distorted around them. She had the feeling that they could have not moved an inch since they set out, or that they could emerge on another continent. She wondered if they were trapped in an ancient, more uncontrolled version of an undetectable extension charm.

Eventually, Hermione spotted another opening. Not knowing whether it was safe, she cast a disillusionment charm on herself and cautiously poked her head out. Her eyes went wide, she'd been here before. This was the central room of the Department of Mysteries, and it seemed to be deserted.

She was about to pull her head back when something caught her attention. Something even more familiar than the room they were in. Almost in a trance, Hermione pulled herself out of the crawlspace and walked towards one of the doors. "Hermione!" Susan whispered loudly "What are you doing!"

It was a door that they hadn't been able to enter two years previously, it had melted the unlocking knife Sirius had given Harry. Dumbledore had told Harry that behind that door, the Unspeakables studied the most powerful force in the universe- love. The magic the Hermione felt from behind that door felt deeply, transcendentally familiar. It was the magic of the ritual, the magic of their bond, the magic that connected her to Harry even now, when she could just barely feel that he was alive.

As she approached the door, she held a hand up to it, and miraculously it opened.