The Dark Prince's Ascension

Chapter 4

Harry's shirt was mostly opened, his sun-kissed skin revealed to Tom's hungry eyes, his dark. In front of him was another situation, just like the his first lesson with Tom. Tom just sat in his chair, a look of amusement on his handsome face as he twirled Harry's wand in his hands. "You have one more try, Harry," he said. "I have far more planned to do tonight than this exercise. Do it again."

Harry sighed and stared at the situation in front of him. It was not the Great Hall like last time, but instead he was dealing with two small armies. His goal was simple: kill the opposing army's leader (who looked like Dumbledore) without losing any of his soldiers, or even having his killer noticed at all. So far he had tried anything he could think of: an archer trying to kill the leader from far away, sending in a solder under the cover of darkness, using a group of soldiers act as a distraction as another circle around to kill the leader, trying a one-on-one duel between his strongest soldier and the leader as another one tried to kill the leader from a distance. ...Anything he could think of he tried, and they all failed. He was quickly growing frustrated with this, and it was affecting his performance.

"You can have them do anything pet, remember that," Tom said. "Now... take a deep breath in... good, hold it... ... now slowly release it." Harry did as he was instructed and found himself slightly more at ease. "A calm commander can find the solution that a stressed commander misses," Tom said. "Now, keep breathing until you are calm."

Harry continued to breathe deeply, every breath carrying a tiny piece of his stress, his frustration, our of his body. When he was fully calm he looked at Tom, giving him a small smile and said, "Thank you," before looking back at the small table in front of him.

The table was divided by two sides, near Harry was a small castle in which his soldiers waited for his orders. A path connecting his castle to the enemies' went through the middle of the table, surrounded by hills. The enemy forces patrolled the hills regularly, moving in a pattern that Harry quickly memorized. Even though it was a dream, Harry couldn't help but feel a little thirsty. He looked at Tom and said, "Tom... I'm thirsty... can I?"

Tom chuckled and nodded, "There is a glass behind you pet."

Harry turned to see a glass of pumpkin juice already prepared for him, and he had an idea. Turning to Tom he said, "My units can do anything you said? Then how about they try to make a truce?"

"A truce?" Tom asked, raising an intrigued eyebrow.

"Yeah, a truce, so that Dumbledore—I mean the enemy leader will be in my castle. There under my control, I can have my soldiers pretend to serve a meal and give him a poisoned goblet. When they all raise their glasses to honor this truce, the enemy leader will drink from the goblet and die from the poison," Harry said. "That way none of my soldiers would die, and he would not know which one has poisoned his cup."

Harry smiled as he waited for Tom's response. The sixteen year old just smiled at Harry and waved his hand, "Play it out," he simply said. So Harry did.

He sent a single soldier with a message down the road and towards the enemy castle, carrying a white flag. The enemy patrollers stopped him, they talked, and soon the two patrollers started to escort his messenger the rest of the way to the other castle. In the mean time, Harry had his other soldiers to prepare a meal and separate drinks. His assassin prepared the enemy leader's goblet, dropping a lethal potion into the cup as his messenger and the enemy leader walked out of the castle. The two made their way across the path, past the patrolling soldiers, and into his territory. Harry couldn't help but smirk as he watched his plan unfold. His assassin finished making the finishing touches on the enemy leader's goblet just as they entered the castle. Harry watched as a model of himself and Tom greeted the enemy leader and invited him to the banquet hall. His and Tom's models sat close together and the enemy was seated in the guest of honor's chair. The soldiers served the food, the assassin handing the goblet to a waiter who walked directly to the enemy leader to hand it to him. He took it gladly and waited for Tom's model to stand. Harry's stood also and looked at Tom's model as it seemed to be making a speech. After the speech they all drank and Harry smiled in victory as the enemy-leader who looked like Dumbledore immediately started choking and fell over the table, dead.