The-Little-Beetle-That-Could (III)

*crack* *crack*

Harry snapped the middle finger and the index finger of her left hand in retaliation. Rita screamed at the top of her lungs and she rolled around her head as that was the only part of her body she could still move. Rita continued to scream as tears continued to roll down her eyes and while she was getting the pain out of her system, Harry simply decided to wait.

She finally started to calm down and she glared at the demon with watery eyes, but moments later, the hate and defiance disappeared from her eyes, instead, it was replaced by a look of defeat and submissiveness… "S-Sorry… I won't do that again…" Rita breathed out tiredly. Right now, she was looking extremely hideous with all of her makeup smeared thanks to her tears and snot, not that she cared.

"Good" Harry nodded his head in satisfaction. "So, do you remember the question?" Harry asked as he shifted his position.

"No! No! I remember" Rita blurted out hurriedly as she didn't want to know what he might do if she said no. "Yes, I have used my form to spy on the prominent figures of Magical Britain" Rita answered in defeat, but in reality, she was already planning how to destroy Harry Potter and the entire Potter line with him using her poison quill.

"Hmm… Now, an easy question. How did you find me? I mean, did you simply stumble upon me on luck, or did you come looking for me expecting me to find me, or did someone tell you about me?" Harry asked as he fiddled with the Wand in his hand.

"One of the employees told me in exchange for some extra galleons" Rita answered without missing a beat. She didn't have any problem throwing him under the bus as a part of her mind blamed him for her current predicament… If he never told her about Harry, then she wouldn't be trailing him to get some dirt on him in the first place.

Harry nodded his head in understanding. "Alright! Moving on. What sort of information have you collected on the prominent figures of Magical Britain?" Harry asked once again and once again, Rita hesitated a moment, but she started to speak without any urging from Harry's side.

"The type of information that would ruin their whole Families and see them into Azkaban. Illegal businesses, backroom dealings, smuggling, and whatnot" Rita answered with a painful look on her face.

"I see… So, where do you keep this information?" Harry asked and Rita once again started to freak out and babble something useless and unnecessary from Harry's perspective.

"They will kil…" Rita began to scream in protest, but Harry didn't even give her the time to finish before he snapped her left thumb. Rita screamed and accidentally bit her tongue, but that was it, so Harry decided to wait and let her scream at her heart's content. After a couple of minutes, she finally calmed down and he started to speak again.

"That wasn't something I wanted to hear" Harry warned her coldly as his eyes started to glow with power. Rita would have peed in her robes if her bladder wasn't already empty. She had never felt this terrified until now and she knew that she couldn't handle any more pain or she might break in real…

She never expected someone to use such barbaric means to get information out of her… She had dirt on all the Dark Families and they were the only ones who could have tortured her, but Harry Potter was different… She didn't have any of him, which she could use to threaten him. So, she simply decided to give up for the time being, but she mentally vowed to get back at him, one way or another…

"I… I have… …stored the information in twenty different locations all across the country" Rita answered while struggling with her breath. "I have some pre-addressed letters, which will be posted to their pre-mentioned recipients if I disappear for more than five days" Rita added after a small pause.

"Who are these letters addressed to?" Harry asked curiously.

"The chief editor of Daily Prophet, Barnabas Cuffe, the Director of the DMLE, Amelia Bones, and some of the senior Aurors, namely, Rufus Scrimgeour, Alastor Moody, Gawain Robards, and finally, the Chief Warlock, Albus Dumbledore…" With that Rita continued to mention the names she had addressed her letters to and Harry had to admit, Rita is an extremely smart, cunning, sly woman.

"Thanks for the information, Rita… I am glad that we finally came to an understanding" Harry smiled at her softly and Rita breathed out a sigh in relief… "Now, sleep" Harry said as he waved his hand and Rita fell asleep…

<Line Break>

Harry stepped out of the portal and rolled his shoulders tiredly… Rita has given him a lot to think about… The information she had collected was bound to be useful. She had collected dirt on almost everyone, even the Minister and his Undersecretary weren't spared. He almost felt like he should let her go, the keyword being 'almost'… There was no way he was going to let her leave even with the threat of her failsafe looming over Magical Britain…

Against anyone else, it might have worked, but unfortunately for Rita, the letters weren't supposed to be posted until five days after her disappearance, so Harry had five days to come up with a solution and five days were more than enough for him to come up with a solution.

While Harry would have loved to see the chaos that would ensue, he wanted to have all that information in his grasp, so that he could hold that information over the heads of the people he would be blackmailing in the future. If that information was released then they would lose their value and instead of being important, they would become public knowledge.

A stick would only work as long as everyone is afraid of it…

|Though I still think you should kill her… She might be acting submissive right now, but she won't hesitate to slip a knife between your ribs when the time is ripe| Lily growled angrily. |Hadrian, you are powerful, extremely so, but don't let your power go into your head… It will be your hubris| Lily warned desperately.

|Don't worry, mom. I already know that… That is why she is trapped in here| Harry said with a grin as he pulled out the Potion vial he had grabbed from his apartment, but the vial was no longer empty. Right now, a blue water beetle could be seen lying inside the Potion vial. |I may not know Legilimency, but she is a vindictive bitch. I know she will be waiting for a chance to stab me in the back| Harry admitted with a grin.

|Then why?| Lily asked dumbly… She couldn't help but wonder why her Hadrian was still keeping her alive if he already knew that…

|Why am I still keeping her alive?| Harry finished the question from her and after getting a mental equivalent of a nod from her, he chuckled softly before he finally started to speak. |Because she is going to be a lot more useful if kept alive, but under control| Harry explained softly.

|I already get that, so how are you planning to keep her under control, hm?| Lily asked in a condescending tone, but it was clear that she wasn't angry, but in fact, she was simply irritated at him for being so headstrong.

|I am thinking about my own version of Dark Mark… A much better one. The one created by Voldemort is already a piece of art, even though it has a lot of untapped potential| Harry smiled thoughtfully.

Voldemort could use the Mark to locate any of his followers and in return, he could also Apparate to their location. Not only that, but he could also use the Mark to send short messages to his followers and his followers could also send him short messages in return… Voldemort could use the mark to cause pain to his followers, but that wasn't all. He could use the Dark Mark to draw some Magic from his followers and that was probably the best feature of the Dark Mark.

While Harry didn't need to borrow Magic from his followers, he simply couldn't dismiss the idea as it might come in handy… He would better have the option and not use it rather than not having the option when he needed it… |I simply need to add a function that would make it impossible for the ones I brand with my Dark Mark to hide their thoughts from me| Harry explained and Lily seemed to hum thoughtfully even though she was quite impressed and excited with his idea.

|That could work…| Lily mused thoughtfully and Harry simply raised the potion vial to his eye level and glared at the blue water beetle lying inside.

|That will work!| Harry assured her. |The deadline for her failsafe is five days, which means, I have four days to modify the Dark Mark… I believe four days will be more than enough| Harry mused confidently.

|Oh… I have no doubt you will succeed, my son, especially now that you have made up your mind| Lily beamed at him proudly. Harry nodded his head before making his way toward his trunk. He popped his trunk open and placed the Potion vial inside the Potion ingredient cabinet to keep it safe for the time being… He wasn't going to carry the thing with him all the time, especially when he wasn't worried that she might escape.

He had used Mystic Arts to knock her out, so there was no way she was going to wake up on her own… The Stunning Charm was well and good, but it was lacking in certain regards as it was impossible to indefinitely knock out a Witch or a Wizard with the Stunning Charm as their internal Magic would slowly dispel the Spell in a matter of a few hours.

After closing the lid of his trunk, he finally decided to take a shower for real this time before doing anything else… He yawned tiredly as he made his way toward the bathroom and decided to take a nap after the shower… He was feeling somewhat tired after dealing with Rita Skeeter and a nap would probably do him a lot of good…

Harry entered the bathroom and only finished taking off his shirt when all of a sudden, he heard a soft pop from his side. At first, he thought that it was probably Doxy, but as soon as he got a glance at the unfamiliar house elf from the corner of his eyes, he knew that he had messed up… He cursed inside his mind as he started to raise his hand to attack the unfamiliar creature.

He didn't have his Wand out for the act, but this wasn't the time for an act… This was an emergency… He never expected someone to use a house elf to attack him and that is why he dropped his guard… To be honest, he thought that the Purebloods would probably find asking a house elf to kidnap or attack someone to be beneath them. After all, almost all the Purebloods in Britain believed house elves to be inferior creatures.

"The great Harry Po…" The elf began to exclaim cheerfully when all of a sudden, a red beam struck the creature straight on his face. The house elf slumped down on the ground like its strings have been cut.

|Are you just going to ignore the fact that he was just about to call you 'The Great Harry Potter'?| Lily asked Harry in a weird tone. |And for whatever reason, I don't believe, he was here to harm you| Lily pointed out, even though she herself wasn't convinced of her own words. It was kind of weird, but somehow she believed her words to be true.

|I guess…| Harry muttered in an unsure tone. He didn't miss the excited and joyful look on the elf's face when the elf was speaking… That wasn't all, he also noticed adoration and devotion in the creature's eyes. |Let's see what he has to say for himself| Harry said as he jerked his hand upward to lift the creature in the air and instead of putting his shirt back on again, he simply Conjured himself a shirt with a simple thought.

He returned back to his room and placed the house elf on the floor. After that, he pulled out his Wand and started to draw a Ritual circle… Binding a Witch or Wizard after disarming them was well and good, but that course of action was simply futile in the case of house elves as they could cast Magic without a focus… So, Harry needed to use some special means to stop a house elf from using their Magic and keep it contained…

Sealing the creature's Magic would have been the easiest, but he had no idea how that would affect the creature when house elves are Magical creatures… A Magical Creature would die if it ever lost its Magic and Harry had been looking for ways to contain house elves since he went to the States. After all, he was using Norton to gather information and spy on others, and since he could come up with that idea, the others could too.

With a flick of his hand, Harry cast a Locking Charm along with a Notice-Me-Not Charm on the door as he didn't want to be interrupted by anyone. He nodded his head in satisfaction and finally activated the Ritual circle to keep the house elf contained. Now that all of his preparations were complete, he pointed his finger at the creature and cast the Rennervate Spell.

The house elf woke up and blinked rapidly, revealing his tennis-ball-sized green eyes… The house elf was dressed in a body-sized pillowcase and from the stature of the creature, the house elf looked like he was being abused… Harry deduced that the house elf probably belonged to one of the Pureblood families of this country. The house elf finally noticed Harry and the look of adoration and devotion returned to his face before a look of horror flashed on his face.

"Oh no! Dobby was captured by the great Harry Potter sir. What bes Dobby be doing?! Dobby will iron his hands later!" Dobby exclaimed with a look of horror marring his face and Harry nodded his head in satisfaction… He called it! The house elf belonged to a Pureblood Family or he wouldn't have mentioned ironing his hands like it was a regular occurrence…

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