(PROLOGUE)
Harry Potter and the War of Shadows, Book 3
A/N Here we go again, I must be insane. As is usual for my long fics, this will be R rated, so there's your warning. Strong language, Violence, Sex and everything else will abound. The majority of the story as of the next chapter will start about six years after the events in Harry Potter and the Lions of Gryffindor and its prequel Harry Potter and the Darkness before the Dawn. If you haven't read those, then some of this might not make sense. As you might have guessed since HBP is coming out in like 40 days as of this writing, this will technically be AU.
Rating: R (Mature)
War of the Shadows: Prologue
Prologue
*Chamber of Secrets, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Northern Scotland
"Your mudblood is dead Potter," The hooded man cackled, the red glow from his eyes growing brighter by the second. "She did not escape me a second time" Voldemort turned from the lifeless body, and turned back to him. Voldemort idly twirled Harry's wand. "I have your wand, Godric's sword is buried under the rubble and you are weak, so weak Potter, if you hadn't let me distract you with her fate you might have destroyed me. As it is, oh well, it is time to end it." The red glow illuminating his eyes grew bright as he pointed his wand at the feet of the statue, "OPEN" Voldemort hissed, but the words came out in Parseltongue. A panel appeared, with a carved channel that seemed to exactly replicate the outline of a sword, the very dark blade that Voldemort carried in fact. Voldemort turned back to Harry and idly pointed his wand at parts of Harry's body, as if deciding what part to torture first. "Shall I kill you now, Harry? Or shall I wait until after I have activated the chamber so you can see how utterly pointless your resistance was? Before you die."
Harry looked up with pure hatred in his eyes, but even so it did not consume him, for he knew something that Voldemort did not, it wasn't over not yet. Damn that's going to leave a mark. Hermione muttered in his mind, her thoughts colored with pain. He purposely put that fact out his mind, and on the job at hand.
Harry slowly, painfully, stood up, he could feel the ends of at least two broken ribs rubbing together and he panted with the pain. His eyes flicked to a spot slightly behind Riddle and with a last hiss of pain, a smile slowly grew on his face, and he laughed bitterly, "Tom, you just never learn do you, you have been trying to kill me for sixteen years, and you know what?"
"What?" Voldemort snarled.
"That power you know not, it's behind you."
"EXPELLIARMUS" Hermione bellowed, her hand outstretched, she had rolled onto her back, and fired the spell directly at Voldemort's back wandlessly, her sudden movement flinging blood from a gash on her forehead onto the stones below. A wave of pure force hammered the Dark Lord, Voldemort's wand and Harry's captured ones flew twenty feet from him. He started to spin towards where Hermione lay, her eyes glowing, panting slightly, blood plastering her hair to her forehead and staining the stones beneath her, but very much still in the fight when he froze, impossibly Harry had once again vanished from in front of his very eyes.
"Hello Tom." Harry hissed, and the Sword of Gryffindor danced. Voldemort barely caught the edge on his blade. A strike to the head, another to the body, both blocked. The clang of the ancient swords echoed off the walls. Harry struck again and again, each strike driving the Dark Lord away from the statue and his goal. Desperately, Voldemort fought back, his blade a shadowy blur, but in the end, despite his skills, despite his vast and dark powers, he was alone. A red stunner bolt snapped past his ear, he turned for an instant, and a silver blade hissed.
