Lucius's eyes widened that the man would recognize him after so many years. That had not been something he had planned on. He had assumed that he would've had to remind Finneus who he was. Lucius wasn't sure if he liked this or not.
Harry and Draco shared a shocked look. Interesting. They wondered why Finneus would've remembered Lucius. They had only met the one time, right? And Lucius had been a child at the time, what was it about him that would make Finneus remember? Harry was a little annoyed that Finneus hadn't taken his eyes off of Lucius, the man wasn't even aware that there were other people in the room.
"Finneus Flamel." Lucius countered. He took great pride in the way Finneus's eyes widened. Good. Whatever the man had hoped to gain by his announcement was thwarted. Power games was not something that Lucius had the patience to mess with. Finneus would know soon enough that he was at their mercy and that he was not getting out of this alive.
To say that Finneus was surprised would be an understatement. He had been hoping to throw Lucius off by knowing his name. He figured that he could make Lucius wonder who he was. He had doubted that the man would remember him, Lucius had only been a child when he went the Manor. Had he made that much of an impression? Abraxas was supposed to have taken care of Lucius's memory.
"How is it that you know who I am?" Finneus wondered. Even if he had remembered him from the Manor there was no way that Lucius would know that he was a Flamel. Abraxas hadn't even known that. So who was Lucius talking to that would have known who he was? He had an uneasy feeling growing inside of him. Had his parents done something? He could honestly see his mother give his information out.
"Because I know who you are." Harry said gaining Finneus's attention. He narrowed his eyes when the man looked to him. Those creepy brown eyes were what nightmares were made of. He was not looking forward to this conversation. Part of him wished that he hadn't even come across Finneus but he knew that this was an important step in trying to find out how to deal with the darkness.
Finneus licked his lips as he stared at the entire reason he was in this mess. The man with the power. He was so close to the power that he could almost taste it. The smell of the power permeated the entire room and it was enough to get his blood pumping. He was annoyed that he hadn't realized this as soon as he woke up but to be fair, it wasn't every day that you see a pair of eyes that you recognize, ones that got away from him.
"How is that you know who I am when no one else does?" Finneus demanded. Power and knowledge? That just didn't sound fair. Finneus hadn't told a soul in his entire existence who he really was. He knew the dangers of admitting that, he knew that people would be curious and that could lead to something worse. Silence was the key to living such a long life. When no one knows who you are then they won't bother you. There is no way that some stranger he never even met before today, knew who he was.
Harry raised his hand and their glamour charms fell off. Draco grabbed hold of Harry's hand to keep himself grounded. He felt exposed. He knew that Finneus would have no idea who he was but he still felt like he was on display. Draco felt better when Harry squeezed his hand in reply to the emotions he knew were being broadcasted.
Finneus made a surprised noise in the back of his throat as he blinked rapidly. His mind was whirling in a thousand different directions. This man before him was a ghost of his past. A ghost that shouldn't be alive. There was no way that Ethan survived. They checked his dead body. He took his bloody eyes for crying out loud. This... was impossible. He forced himself to calm down and to think rationally. Ethan had died, no doubt about that. So then this must be a descendant. He was having a hard time buying that as well because of the eyes. They were the exact shade of eyes Ethan had. When it comes to descendants, eyes may look the same but they aren't. There are shades and hues that can be minutely different. Eyes were his specialty and he could spot a million different ways to tell apart familial eyes.
"You recognize me, do you?" Harry taunted taking a step forward. He wanted to see the emotions on the man's face. He wanted to see it when it all clicked into place.
"You should be dead." Draco growled at the statement and had to be held back by his father. Finneus glanced at Draco quickly but immediately looked back to Harry, which did not sit well with Draco. He didn't like the look in Finneus's eyes. He didn't like it one bit. There was a possessive glint to the man's eyes that raised his shackles. Harry was not some power that the man could have. Harry was not Finneus's. Harry was his. His soulmate. His lover. His best friend. His fiancé.
"Yes, you and your parents killed me. That is true." Harry assured him. He was taking pleasure in only giving him half statements. It was reminding him of the way that Draco had handled the goblins. He was making Finneus ask questions. He was enforcing that he was in charge and not the other way around.
Finneus growled internally and had to force his expression of one of neutrality. He could tell by the amusement on the man's face that it didn't quite work. This was beginning to test his patience. Something he already had little of.
"Then how is it that you stand here before me?" Finneus asked through gritted teeth. He tried thinking of ways that this could be. Was it somehow necromancy? That could be possible but there hadn't been a true necromancer who could perform something like that in centuries. So that didn't quite fit. But what else could explain how a man who died nearly 700 years ago was standing in front of him, alive and healthy.
Harry smirked unkindly at him. "Ever heard of reincarnation? I am sure you have. You have lived a long life, I doubt ignorance is something that is in your vocabulary."
Finneus ignored the insult and stared at the man in consideration. Reincarnation was not a foreign concept to him. It was something that he had wondered for a long time if it really did indeed exist. He had hoped that it existed and that he would come across Athena again but that was just a fleeting whimsical notion. Reincarnation was one of life's mysteries. It was something that there was no actual evidence of. There were arguments on both sides of the topic that get debated thoroughly. His mother said reincarnation was something that lonely people made up when they couldn't find someone to be with. Perhaps that was why he liked to believe in it.
"So this is some form of revenge for what happened to you?" Finneus snarled out angrily. This was not who he thought would have such power but overall it didn't really surprise him. Ethan had a lot of power back then too. It was so sweet and enthralling even then. But this time... it was different. It was more powerful. Bigger. Not to mention there was a darkness inside of him that had not been there when he was Ethan. He was quite curious as to what had caused such darkness inside someone so dominantly light. It was intriguing but highly frustrating at the same time.
Harry shrugged. "Not for me. But perhaps for them." He tilted his head to the two Malfoy men glaring daggers at Finneus. Harry honestly wasn't interested in revenge. He didn't care that they had killed him. He was more concerned with the present situation that was at hand.
Finneus cocked his head to the side as he stared at Lucius and the man who was obviously his son. They were nearly identical in many ways. From their skin complexion to their hair and even their eye color. But the more he stared between the two of them he could notice that Lucius's eyes had darker shades of grey around the iris. While his son had light hues throughout and even white near the pupil.
"Your father I can understand but you?" Finneus asked Draco. "What did I ever do to you?" He was honestly perplexed on why the boy could hate him so much as to want to enact revenge. It couldn't be because of the baby he killed.
Draco clenched his fists tightly and stepped up to Finneus right beside Harry. "You took Ethan away from me. You had no right to just discard him like he meant nothing." The anger in his voice was clearly heard.
"Oh." The surprise in Finneus's tone irked Draco to no end. "Then you must be Noah reincarnated." Finneus smirked at the surprise in those lovely grey eyes. He was itching to have those beauties in his collection. He still had the unnamed Malfoy eyes but he wanted more. He wanted to have a complete set. He would have been satisfied with just Lucius's eyes but now he wanted the both of their eyes to make a Malfoy trio.
"You know." Finneus began conversationally. "He cried out your name right before he died. Touching really. Never begged for his life. Never pleaded to live. He only thought of you. Revolting, isn't it?"
Draco didn't even stop to consider his actions. He reared his fist back and punched him square in the jaw. There was a bang as Finneus's head smacked into the wall from the force of his punch.
Finneus didn't even make a cry of noise. His mother could hit harder than that. This was nothing but an annoying itch to real pain. He wasn't sure how he was going to make it out alive but he was determined to see this through. This was the only bit of excitement that he has had in a long time.
Harry pulled Draco away slightly and held onto his hand in warning. Draco nodded briefly. He wouldn't actually say his agreement out loud because he knew that he would probably punch the little shite again. It irritated him that his anger made him resort to muggle tendencies.
"Touchy subject." Finneus spat out a mouthful of blood. "So then you are going to kill me for taking away your precious Ethan?"
Draco didn't even hesitate. "Yes." Harry bit his lip a little worried about that. He didn't want a death linked to his lover. He knew that Finneus isn't innocent but it is still a murder. Would this tarnish Draco's soul? He doesn't want Draco to have to deal with the fall out of murder.
"I don't think you have what it takes to kill me." Finneus argued ignoring the narrowing of everyone's eyes. "Death is permanent and personal. Even a simple killing curse is personal. To have the drive to take one's life means something. Good people don't murder other people. I don't think you have what it takes to kill me."
Draco stepped forward. "What makes you think that I am a good person?" he whispered in his ear before punching him in the gut. "You have no idea the things that I have witnessed."
Finneus scoffed. "Oh please. I have been alive for nearly 700 years boy. Can you even begin to imagine the things I have seen let alone done? I myself have done things that would make your stomach clench and your toes curl. Nothing about you is threatening at all." He assured him, loving the way the blonde's eyes narrowed in anger.
"You stay under the radar. There hasn't been a whisper or a word of you in generations. You may have done terrible things in your life but I have to wonder if you ever branched out at all. I have no doubt that you still murder people. You had a sick fascination with eyes that I doubt ever left you. It wouldn't surprise me if you are just some twisted serial killer. But there are other dangers out there in the world that I think you don't even know about. I think that you like to seclude yourself away. I think that you are dangerous but only marginally." Lucius spoke up interrupting anything that Draco might have said.
Finneus growled at the insult of being considered only marginally dangerous. Just who did Lucius think he was? He is a Flamel for crying out loud. Danger is a prerequisite to even join the family.
"Tell me Flamel. Ever heard of Voldemort?" Harry and Draco gaped openly at the fact that Lucius actually said his name. Draco had to pause and replay the words back in his mind to see if his father actually just said what he thought he did.
If there was one thing that Lucius was good at, it was faking. Never, ever had he called The Dark Lord by his given name. Doing so while the man was alive was a one-way ticket to hours of the pleasure that the cruciatus curse could provide. Not to mention every single time someone said The Dark Lord's name in physical contact to a deatheater, it would cause a sharp pain to stab into the Dark Mark. That was another reason to hate the courage that the light side loved to taunt by saying The Dark Lord's name. It was easy for them. They didn't have physical repercussions on their body. Lucius was almost afraid that his mark would twinge or that he was about to be subjected the cruciatus curse for just saying the name. He knew that he would never be able to openly continue using the name but he needed to for this discussion. It would show a sense of weakness to Flamel if he couldn't bring himself to say the name.
Finneus tilted his head back in consideration. "I hear he is dead." He replied bluntly. To be honest, Voldemort had always disgusted him. Someone who obviously had power and skill was wasting it. The man had wasted his power on trying to change the world. Who cares about the rest of the world? There was so much that Voldemort could have done if he only thought of himself. Political beliefs were pointless and had no bearing on what really matters. Not to mention the man had such temper tantrums. He wasn't discrete with his magic and when things didn't go his way he became sullen like a sniveling child. He had preached about wanting to make wizards great again but openly used magic on muggles. Allowed the dementors to freely run wild, not that anyone could control them anyways. It was almost like the idiot wanted muggles to know of their existence. Voldemort had been utterly useless in all things that mattered. Having power isn't enough unless you have the knowledge to use such power. Killing anyone who opposes you will not win you the popular vote. Eventually you will run out of people to kill.
He hadn't cared how the silly war was to go. Whether Voldemort won or not, it had no bearing on what he did but he was glad that the world was free of him. It had made finding victims more difficult when everyone was always looking over their shoulders, afraid of what could be out there. Now that the war was over, everyone went right back on living like they had once done before the war started. Finneus had a lot be thankful to Harry Potter for. It sure made being a serial killer easier.
Lucius ignored the statement and rolled up his sleeve showing Finneus his Dark Mark. It had faded quite a lot but it was still recognizable.
Finneus's gut filled with unease. He had known that the Malfoy family was a firm believer of Voldemort and had known that he was a deatheater but the implications of being held prisoner of a deatheater hadn't really clicked until now. The things that Voldemort taught his deatheaters wasn't something that was kept a secret. It was just another thing that made him dislike Voldemort. He himself was incredibly twisted but Voldemort trained his deatheaters to do things that he himself would never do.
"You are going to torture me in a show of revenge?" Asked Finneus again, wanting to be sure. He was mostly calm. He could handle torture. Pain was a longtime friend of his. Something he learned to deal with as a child. This would be unbearable but he has dealt with far worse.
"That is entirely up to you." Lucius told him, rolling his sleeve back down. "We want answers from you. If you give us the answers that we seek then your death will be painless. Torture doesn't even have to be on the table if you cooperate with us."
Draco almost protested. He didn't like this at all. He wanted Finneus's death to be painful no matter if he gave them the answers they needed or not.
Finneus furrowed his brows slightly. "What could you possibly want from me?" Things were starting to make more sense. He had wondered why they would just take him. If it was revenge wouldn't they have come after him long before now? They wanted something from him. Well that put him in a position of power.
"You can start off by giving us the whereabouts of your parents." Lucius told him firmly.
Finneus arched a brow. "Why would I do that?" It wasn't out of some misguided notion of protecting them. He was just honestly curious as to why they wanted to know where his parents were. Was it just more revenge or was there a purpose somewhere that he was missing?
Lucius stepped forward and quickly bent back the man's pointer finger till the crack of the bone breaking echoed off the walls. Finneus sucked in a sharp breath and let out a surprised noise. They meant business. They really wanted to know where his parents were. He was a tad insulted. Had they only taken him as an end to find his parents?
"Maybe he can help us and we won't even have to go find them." Harry suggested hopefully. He really didn't want to have to find Nicolas or Perenelle. If Finneus knew the answers to getting rid of the darkness, then that would be enough for him.
Lucius shot Harry a disbelieving look but turned to Finneus anyways. "How would you go about destroying the Sorcerer's Stone?"
Finneus laughed out loud. "You don't." What a silly question. He thought for sure that Lucius would've had some smarts to him.
Lucius snapped another finger, this time his thumb.
"Fucker. I didn't mean you as in you. I meant in general. The stone can't be destroyed." Finneus grumbled angrily.
Harry and Draco shared uneasy feelings through the bond. There had to be a way to destroy the stone. If they knew the way to destroy the stone, then the same method might be able to destroy the darkness.
"Even if we countered the runes and chanted in the language of the dead?" Harry wondered out loud.
Finneus looked at him curiously. "Do you actually know the language of the dead?" The silence his question brought was answer enough. "I thought so. Even if you were to know the language, I do not believe that you could be able to destroy a true stone."
Draco narrowed his eyes. "How do we know that you are telling the truth?"
Finneus glared at the implication. "You don't."
Lucius snapped his middle finger causing Finneus to glare at him. "You didn't even ask me anything before breaking it."
"My mistake." Lucius replied in mock sincerity before breaking his ring finger. Finneus closed his eyes and blocked out the pain of his left hand.
"Why do you even want to destroy the stone? What does it matter if we live forever?" He opened his eyes when an uneasy silence broke out. He realized that they were trying not to tell him something. Well that just wouldn't do.
"I can't answer your questions without knowing the full gravity of the situation." Finneus pointed out.
Lucius didn't like his tone of voice so he snapped the last finger on the man's left hand. Finneus gasped slightly in pain and leveled the strongest glare that he could at the man. When Lucius smirked he knew that he was just being messed with.
Harry bit his lip and looked at Draco in indecision. These questions were getting them nowhere. They needed to tell him otherwise it would be like playing twenty questions. He could feel the same unease coming from Draco and it helped him some. When his lover nodded once he knew that it was a decision to go forward.
"I touched the stone." Finneus snapped his attention away from the rude blonde and gazed wide eyed at the powerful man in front of him.
"Say that again." Finneus demanded weakly.
"I touched the stone without any protection." Harry expanded looking at him directly in the eye.
Finneus let out a surprised puff of air. "You are serious?" He let out a moan of pain when Lucius snapped the thumb on his right hand. "Fuck. It was just a question!"
Harry tried not to be amused by Lucius's antics but he was failing miserably.
"Wait. That doesn't make sense." Finneus said more to himself than anyone else. His parents kept the stone in a safe place that was guarded at all times. There was no way that this man had touched the stone. Besides, if he had then that would indicate that he knew where his parents were.
"Are you calling him a liar?" Lucius asked before breaking his pointer finger.
"Ow. You just wait till I get out of here." Finneus warned Lucius darkly. Lucius smirked ferally. "What makes you think you are walking out of here alive?" He emphasized his point by breaking his middle finger.
"Because you need answers from me." He retorted with a smug grin.
Lucius snapped his ring finger. "Not enough to let you go." He promised with satisfaction.
Finneus grew worried at that statement. If that was true, then they really were going to kill him. Not that he was opposed to death. If he was going to die after all of this time it might as well be dramatic. And torture sure was one for the drama books.
"When would you have touched the stone?" Finneus ignored the threat from Lucius and paid attention to the other man.
Harry narrowed his eyes at the acceptance of death that Finneus seemed to hold in his eyes. "My first year at Hogwarts."
Finneus furrowed his brows. He thought back to what his mother had once told him and his eyes widened and looked at the man in front of him with a new light. He leaned his head forward as much as he could and stared at the man's forehead. The lighting of the room was dreadful but he could just make out a thin jagged line behind his hair.
"Well well. This is an honor. Harry Potter as I live and breathe." Finneus thought the dramatics to his voice was a nice touch, or it would have been if Lucius hadn't broken his pinky finger. The last couple words had been filled with pain. He was just glad that he was now out of fingers for the man to break.
Harry Potter. That was a surprising turn of events. It did however explain the light inside of him. Of course the champion of the light would be so good. He recoiled internally at the sheer lightness that Potter held within him. Potter and Voldemort were alike in so many ways that it was despicable. Potter wasted his potential just as Voldemort had. Someone with so much power was raised just to get rid of a Dark Lord. How useless. If Potter had thought of himself instead of the rest of the world, he could have accomplished so much in his life. But considering that Ethan had also wasted his potential made the revelation not much of a surprise.
Finneus tilted his head as he narrowed his eyes at Potter. He was vaguely aware that Lucius was using a spell on him. He blocked that out so that he could concentrate on the power of Potter. He pushed past the power and the light to focus on the darkness. His nostrils flared and his eyes widened in realization. How could he have not noticed the resemblance earlier? Potter wasn't kidding. This was definitely from the stone. But something was off about it. It wasn't like the stone that he was used to. Something was wrong.
"Mmm." Finneus hummed in realization. Brilliant. His mother was utterly brilliant. And that just killed him to think about. The pain of a finger breaking startled him.
"What?" Finneus breathed in bewilderment. He looked over and noticed that his fingers had been healed... horribly. It was the worst heal job that he had ever seen in his life.
"I set your fingers to heal crookedly. I will continue to break your fingers and heal them incorrectly each time." Finneus growled low in his throat. Even if he somehow made it out of this alive, Lucius's actions would cause irreversible damage to his fingers. He would never be able to hold a dagger straight again.
"Care to explain your findings?" The question was rhetorical, that much Finneus knew. He ignored Lucius and turned back to Potter.
"As you know, there were three failure stones before we had perfected the final stone. When Dumbledore got wind of Voldemort wanting the stone, my mother sent him one of the failures. Dumbledore didn't know much about Alchemy to tell the difference. What you touched, stupidly, I might add." He was cut off by his pointer finger breaking.
"Ow. Okay, I get it. When you touched the false stone you gained the darkness inside of you from that. It is intriguing that your body has been able to hold all of it inside of you. Especially with the sheer amount of light you possess. They are warring enemies by nature but yet you seem to be fine." Finneus stopped talking to stare at him. This was a puzzle that he didn't mind trying to solve. This was a better puzzle than the crazy Luna girl and her imaginary creatures.
He squinted trying to figure it out. "It is almost as if you have something grounding you. Something grounding your darkness, holding it in place and keeping it from taking you over."
Finneus rolled his eyes when the three of them exchanged looks. Yeah, like that was subtle. But it did let him know that he was on the right path. He frowned when he tried thinking of what could possibly have grounded so much darkness. He didn't know of anything that could do that. He turned his attention to the Malfoy heir just to try and clear his thoughts and narrowed his eyes at the power inside of him. Well, this was surprising. He could feel a lot of darkness surrounding the boy's magical core but that wasn't surprising considering that he was a Malfoy. But there was something else inside of him. Something light in nature. Normally that wouldn't be something he would've even batted an eye at but this wasn't light in a way that Potter was. This was pure light energy. Pure white magic. He hadn't ever felt pure light magic like this in anyone else but his parents. But that was because-
"No way." Finneus breathed out in awe. Soulmates. He could feel the pure light of a soulmate bond. A strong one too. Their connection was incredibly powerful. No wonder the darkness inside of Potter hadn't taken him over. This was astounding at how powerful their bond was. His parents held the bond as well but theirs wasn't like this. Theirs wasn't as strong nor as bright. A soulmate bond by nature is light. But dark wizards can find their soulmate too. Finneus had a theory that the longer his parents cheated death that the more the bond was put under strain. Soulmates, by legend are supposed to be able to find each other time and time again. But to never die goes against the bonds original purpose. There was no evidence to support this but there was a reason that as each generation goes by, his parents' bond dims. It used to be bright when he was a child. The magic from it was brighter than anything he had ever felt but as the years went by, it dimmed to just a flickering candle instead of the supernova of a star that it once was.
"Ow you wanker!" Finneus ground out tearing his eyes away from the boy and glaring at Lucius. There went his middle finger.
"Would you care to share with the rest of the class?" The condescending tone grated on Finneus's nerves.
Finneus breathed through his nose a couple times calming himself. "I answered my own question. They are soulmates. That is what has grounded him." He raised an eyebrow when they all stared at him in surprise. He scoffed incredibly insulted. Did they think he wouldn't have figured it out? Sure, it had taken him longer than he would care to admit, to figure out but he did in the end.
"How did you know that?" Harry asked him through narrowed eyes. He didn't like that Finneus seemed to have picked up on it so quickly. Was there something that he was able to do that the rest of them couldn't? Or had they accidentally given it way somehow?
Finneus wrinkled his nose at him. "Did you forget that my parents are also soulmates? I am sensitive to magic. I sensed the soulmate bond from blondie." Talking about soulmates didn't bother him. He knew that his soulmate was long dead over the years. He hadn't ever met them and he never even wanted to. No one would ever have been able to hold his attention since Athena. A pang of sorrow filled his gut at the thought of her before he angrily pushed that away.
Harry felt silly for not thinking about Finneus's parents. It made sense that he would be able to recognize the signs.
Draco furrowed his brows in confusion. "Why me and not Harry?"
"Because Potter has a lot going on inside of him. While you on the other hand have nothing going on, so therefore it was easy to spot." Draco narrowed his eyes at the insult. It was obvious that the man thought he wasn't as competent in the magical department as Harry but he wasn't going to let Finneus's opinion get to him.
Another snap of his fingers breaking made Finneus regret his words. Keeping a lid on his mouth wasn't something that he was used to.
"You want to know how to get rid of the darkness inside of you." Finneus now fully understood why he had been taken. They were hoping that he could shed some light on the situation at hand.
"I don't see the problem. It is just darkness. It isn't like it is harming anything." When no one responded to his statement, Finneus hummed in thought. "Or has it?" He asked curiously. This was turning out to be far more interesting than he thought it would be.
Harry sighed heavily before giving in. They had already revealed this much to him, might as well say it all.
"The darkness attacked the soulmate bond." Finneus raised his eyebrows in disbelief.
"Are you trying to tell me that the darkness is sentient?" The awe to his tone had Harry blinking rapidly as his heart sank. He had a feeling that Finneus had absolutely no idea how to help him. He nodded his head once.
Finneus's mind was going off in a million different directions. The darkness was sentient enough to know that the soulmate bond was keeping it in check. That thought alone was almost mind blowing. That made no sense. Normal darkness shouldn't do that. He knew that the stone wasn't normal but still. This wasn't making sense. He knew that he was missing something but he couldn't quite figure out what it was that he was missing. To think that the darkness then attacked the soulmate bond. That was making his mind go blank with zero solutions.
"This must be what a wrackspurt feels like." Finneus mused out loud. His brain had definitely gone fuzzy trying to understand the implications of the darkness inside of Potter.
"What did you just say?" Harry asked dangerously, taking a step toward Finneus. Draco and Lucius shared a confused look. Neither of them could figure out what could be bothering Harry about what he had said.
Finneus looked up at him curiously. Did Potter know what a wrackspurt was? Did that mean they were real?!
"Where did you hear of a wrackspurt?" The controlled anger was actually making Finneus a little nervous. He didn't understand what the big deal was.
"My last victim talked about it. That and a bunch of other imaginary creatures. The girl was raving mad." Finneus said half smiling at the odd girl and her weird ways of saying things.
Harry's heart stopped beating for a moment. Did he just say his last victim? Had he killed Luna? Harry's eyes flashed black and the green was completely gone.
"What did you do to Luna?" Finneus shivered at the pure darkness seeping out of Potter. This was not Potter any longer. This... was the sentient darkness...
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Author's Notes:
I know that there wasn't really anything torture in this chapter. There will be more stuff involved in the next chapter but it all depends on the willingness of Finneus. He will be harmed and he will get what is coming to him but the more he talks, the less physical pain they are going to inflict on him. So I am sorry to all my blood thirsty readers who were hoping that this chapter would be filled with a lot of sickening torture. Perhaps a little later.
I think my favorite person of the chapter goes to Lucius. I just kept cracking up at each finger he broke. Love him.
If you are wondering why Finneus thinks of Lucius by his first name but thinks of Harry by Potter. There is a good reason for that. Remember he has wanted Lucius's eyes since the moment they met. He considers Lucius one of his conquests that got away. To him there is a level of intimacy that there isn't with Harry just yet.
If you are wondering why Finneus didn't recognize Harry as Harry Potter, that would be because he knows of Harry but not exactly what he looks like. He is sort of a recluse. He hears things but he isn't in on the intimate knowledge of what is always going on. So he knows of Harry Potter but that is about it.
Now for the bit about the dark mark. I thought back to all the times in the books when Severus would get upset at the sound of Voldemort's name. In some ways it struck me as odd. So I decided to make a reason for that. Anytime someone said Voldemort's name while the man was alive, in speaking distance of a deatheater, that same deatheater would experience mild pain from the mark. Voldemort disliked anyone calling him by his name and therefore made his followers suffer his wrath. I thought it was interesting.
So, who else can't wait to see what angry Harry is going to do to Finneus? No one messes with his friends and gets away with it.
Let me know what you all thought of this chapter.
-XxTheDarkLordxX