Finding Solace

"I think that it would be safe to assume that Harry Potter is dead, my lord." Wormtail said, desperately trying to cheer up Lord Voldemort, who tended to torture people when he was in unhappy moods.

Voldemort looked at Wormtail until he looked away, unable to bear the gaze of the red eyes. "He's survived me too many times to make such a broad assumption." Voldemort hissed. "Until I see his dead body decompose, I will consider him a threat."

"Why if they buried him?"

"Then we'll reopen the grave and burn the body!" Voldemort declared. "However, that is not my main concern as of yet. Rumors of a disturbing nature have reached my ears. They must take first priority."

Wormtail shuddered. New projects were never good. "What about Lord Polairix?"

"He seems to be minding his own business." Voldemort replied, almost civilly.

"What are these rumors that you've heard?" Pettigrew said, resigned to the fact that there was no getting around it.

Voldemort's eyes seemed to glaze over as he thought out loud for the benefit of his closest, though not most competent, servant. "The Longbottoms were spectacular Aurors, especially considering their young age. Unfortunately, they also had a side hobby. Spell-crafting."

"I see." Wormtail said, not really seeing, but reckoning that he might as well say it.

"Combining those two things can produce disastrous results." Voldemort stated as a matter-of-fact. "It is said that before their hospitalization, they were crafting a spell designed to utterly destroy me. They were in the last stages of making calculations when I went to the Potters. They only needed one powerful enough to perform the spell."

Wormtail sighed. This was likely to be a dead end sort of project, with lots of pain for those who encountered the dead end first, unless Voldemort hit the dead end himself. Everyone would suffer then. "The Longbottoms will likely never recover! There's not point in worrying about it."

"The things that I have not bothered to worry about are the things that have caused me the most trouble." Voldemort growled. "Lord Polairix is powerful and an unknown factor to boot. He could heal them. I'm going to take care of this one before it comes back to hurt me."

"Your plan?"

Voldemort's red eyes flared. "We'll put the Longbottoms out of their misery."

.....

Bellatrix carefully replaced the lid to a bottle of ink and finished cleaning up for the day. She now had two tables filled with notes and various books from the library of Nair'icaix. There were plenty of sources that led her to a great deal of useful information, however- none of the knowledge she had dug up had provided the answer that she was searching for.

I'll get it eventually, Bellatrix resolved to herself quietly as she unconsciously dimmed the lights and made her way out into the hall. She then quickly made her way up to her bedroom and found dinner laid out. Harry was nowhere in sight however.

She quickly ate all the food and then went in search of Harry. Within a few minutes, she came across Tess. "Do you know where my husband is?" Bellatrix asked.

"I believe he went down to the beach." Tess replied. "Is there anything else?"

"No, but thank you." Bellatrix said absently as she wondered what Harry would find so attractive about the beach.

A few moments later, she had a cloak and was walking toward the double doors in the main entrance hall. They opened for her automatically and she strode through and onto the long bridge that led to the other island. She found Harry laying in a beach chair and watching the sunset on the same beach that they had been washed up on.

"Isn't it a little cold for a trip to the beach?" Bellatrix asked, drawing her cloak around her tightly as she observed Harry in his sunglasses, shorts, and tropical shirt. He even had some sort of drink.

Harry grinned. "Warming charm."

"Oh."

"Join me, and we can both enjoy the simple pleasures of owning one's own beach." Harry said as he conjured another beach chair for his wife.

Bellatrix looked skeptically around at the hard and rocky beach. It was not very ideal for sunbathing, beach volleyball, or sand castles. "It's not much of a beach." she observed as she sat down in the chair Harry had conjured.

"Only one I've ever seen." Harry said as he finished his punch with a big swig. The glass he had been drinking it out of disappeared.

"I didn't know that." Bellatrix said meekly.

Harry shrugged absently as he settled down. "It's okay. I take it that you've been to a few beaches in your lifetime."

"My father would often take us to various places over the summer vacations." Bellatrix said. "We visited the French Riviera a few times. It was a prime meeting place for wizards of the shadier sort. What sorts of vacations did you go on?"

"The Dursley's didn't take me on vacations. If they went somewhere, I had the pleasure of visiting an elderly neighbor of mine. When I turned eleven, Hogwarts seemed to be the perfect vacation for me."

"That's horrible!" Bellatrix exclaimed.

"That's just life." Harry said in a mellow voice.

Bellatrix was now fuming. How dare anybody treat Harry Potter in such a manner! Or any other child for that matter. With these thoughts an idea arose. However, Bellatrix shoved it aside temporarily because their conversation had reminded her of another issue that she had wanted to bring up.

"Harry? I've been thinking." Bellatrix began.

"About what?"

...

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