Curse of Fate

Title: Curse of Fate
Author: Mistress Nika
Rating: PG-15 (Yes, 15. That's somewhere between PG-13 and R)
Summary: Thousands of years into the future, vampire Harry only wants to join his loved ones in death. However, his curse of immortality is absolute. Therefore he sends himself back into the body of his infant self, vowing to this time refuse eternity. When do things ever go according to plan? Unexpected changes to the timeline, people who aren't as they once were and more send his life spiraling out of his control.
Pairings: Harry/Lucius(main), possible Harry/Severus, possible Lucius/Severus, possible Harry/Lucius/Severus, Sirius/Remus, Theo/Hermione, possible Theo/Blaise, possible Hermione/Ginny, Draco/Luna, possible one-sided Harry/Luna on Luna's part, possible Hermione/Pansy, Cedric/Eleanor(OC), past Harry/Ginny
Warnings: AU, het, slash, angst, language, violence, time travel, VampireHarry, DarkLordHarry
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

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Chapter Five:
At a silent command, Lucius' port key activated and the man disappeared. In the next moment, Harry followed as the shadows lengthened and rose to consume him, then spat him back out in a new location.

To their right stood the impassable stone walls of Azkaban and around them was the raging sea. All that kept them from a watery defeat was a small outcropping of rock. In the distance, he could hear a fight, curses being thrown frantically from both sides. He almost laughed. He had failed to mention to the Death Eaters that the Killing Curse would be made useless. The band of rope around their wrists was more than just a port key. It was also a magic limiter. None of them would be able to cast an Unforgivable, giving the guards more than a fighting chance. If they removed the ropes in order to cast an Unforgivable, the port key would vanish, leaving them stranded in Azkaban.

Moving swiftly, Harry used Voldemort's wand to draw a flaming door on the side of the wall, then tapped it twice. A wooden door appeared then and swung open revealing a darkened corridor beyond.

"Find Dolohov, Mulciber and Rookwood." Harry commanded. "I'll search out Black and the Lestranges. Meet back here when you've found them. If you get caught, grab whoever you've found and port key back. Don't waste time fighting."

Reaching down, Harry picked up a small stone and held it in the palm of his hand. The rock began to glow softly blue and tiny gossamer wings stretched out from it's sides as it lifted off.

"Speak who you're looking for and the Rock Fly will lead you to them."

Lucius went cross-eyed a moment as the Rock Fly hovered in front of his face before saying, "Augustus Rookwood."

The blue glow surrounding the strange creature changed to a light red. It immediately began beating it's little wings faster and started down the dark corridor, Lucius following it after casting a quick Lumos.

Harry started in behind him, his preternatural eyes cutting through the gloom, making wandlight unnecessary. A few guards passed here and there having remained behind to watch the prisoners, confident that the intruders could not get far into the fortress. Harry kept to the shadows as he made his way to the maximum security wing where Sirius should be. The Death Eaters were just a cover. His godfather was his main priority.

Upon reaching his destination, he began to grow slightly concerned. Though he didn't know what Sirius' aura would feel like at this point in his life, he could tell the difference between a regular wizard and an Animagus. None of the prisoners kept here were Animagi. Still, he searched each individual cell carefully.

He cursed when he reached the end. He had found all three of the Lestranges as well as Antonin Dolohov, but no Sirius. 'Surely,' Harry thought, 'they would have placed him here. They believed Sirius Black to be Voldemort's right hand man. They'd want him locked away with the tightest security possible.'

Not bothering with his wand, he drew several complex looking runes in the air around him. One to his left turned a sickly yellow and he frowned. Something very powerful was disrupting it.

Light footsteps echoed almost silently against the stone walls and Harry leaped back into a dark corner as the glow from a wand preceded it's owner down the hall. He sighed when he noticed the flying red rock and stepped out to meet Lucius. Behind him trailed two very weary, haggard looking men.

"Lucius." he hissed. "I see you found Mulciber and Rookwood. Good work." He gestured to the cells holding the Lestranges and Dolohov, Rodolphus having crawled forward to watch them through the bars disbelievingly. "All but Black are here. I tried a locator spell, but it can't get a clear reading on him. All I've managed to determine is that he's alive and somewhere in Azkaban. Do you have any information that could explain this?"

Lucius frowned and looked thoughtful. After a moment, he replied, "I can't be sure, my lord, but I recall hearing someone mention at the Ministry about an exciting find on the island. A prison under the prison. Could he be kept there?"

"The First City." Harry whispered. 'This may be a problem. The First City created by the First People who bore the First Curse, which only the First Ones can penetrate fully. I wonder if I still count. However, unless they've got a First One in their pocket, which is almost laughable, Sirius can't be too deep. But it begs the question, why would they feel the need to hide him away like that?'

"The First City, my lord?" Lucius questioned carefully, seeing his lord lost in thought.

"Nevermind." Harry stated quickly. With a wave of his hand, the cells holding the Death Eaters sprung open. "Get them out of here. I'll find Black."

In a flurry of movement, Harry raced down the corridors, not caring who he knocked over in the process. They could never catch him, even if they did realize he was an intruder. He made a beeline directly for the deepest part of the prison.

Down a flight of stairs, a large, ornate and very old black door was guarded by two wizards. They barely had time to register the third presence, much less go for their wands, before they had both crumpled to the floor in an unconscious heap.

Harry took a minute to stare up at the obsidian doors before him. He had only seen these impressive gates twice before. Twelve feet high, the double doors were locked together by dual handles in the shape of a vicious dragon's head. It's ruby eyes stared out menacingly at would be entrants and it's sharp teeth were bared savagely. The doors were plain otherwise, save for the single strand of carved ivy running along the top and outer edges.

Beyond the Dragon Gate would be stairs leading down to the top level of the First City. It wasn't until he reached the sixth level that he would have to worry about wards. The first five were originally set up for non-vampiric residents. Below that were the ten levels of the Changed. Finally, the three levels of the First Ones.

Originally, the City hadn't been discovered until Harry was twenty three. If the Ministry had managed to uncover it this soon, it was possible they had a vampire working for them; an old one at that. It was highly unlikely they could find a First One, much less convince them to help, so that meant the most likely place to find Sirius would be in the sixth to tenth levels. They would want him in the most defensible place possible, but they would also want him within their reach.

The fact that the Gates were closed was cause for some worry. They could only be opened by one of vampiric blood. If they were closed, the vampire was actively helping them, not just lending a hand here and there. Most likely, he would encounter them below.

Placing a hand on the dragon's snout, Harry spoke clearly in an ancient tongue, "I of the First request entry into my City." Each of the races originally had a key phrase tied to their blood to open the Gates, but when the City was buried, most were stricken from the minds of those who held them. Only a handful remained and Harry had never bothered to learn any but the one which applied to him. He only hoped it still worked. He would really hate to have to destroy the Gate to get in.

A cold forked tongue flicked out of the dragon's mouth, slicing open flesh and testing the validity of the blood.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief as the eyes glowed and the doors swung open.

Stepping in, he paused at the top of the stairs, searching with all his senses, magical and physical, for any sign of Sirius. He smiled when he caught the faint aura of an Animagus from far below. Dashing down the stairs, he raced through rooms and passed the first of the vampiric wards with little more than a tickle.

It was on the fourteenth level that he finally crossed paths with someone.

Just as he was going for the door leading into the passage to the fifteenth level, an arm was suddenly thrown in front of him, obviously to stop him forcefully, which he narrowly avoided by ducking under it. Pulling up short, he spun around to find three vampires blocking his path; two men and a young woman.

"Where do you think you're going?" one of the men sneered. He was tall and broad shouldered with long red hair drawn back in a low ponytail. He was flanked by what might have been siblings; both slender with dark eyes and hair. The man appeared older and looked supremely uninterested in Harry, standing with his arms crossed and staring at the white marble wall as if it held the secrets of the universe. The demure looking young woman peered directly into Harry's eyes and he felt a prickle in his mind which he quickly closed off from her prying.

The tall redhead scoffed and rolled his eyes. "A bloodmad child?" he said gruffly. "Here I thought we'd get a good fight. Who let you in Azkaban?"

'Bloodmad?' Harry wondered briefly before realizing he'd held onto his red eyes and hadn't allowed them to fade back to green. 'Well, I suppose it might appear that way to them. Might as well let them underestimate me.'

"Not a child," the woman spoke softly, her words causing both men to look over at her in something akin to shock.

'Well, there goes that plan.' Harry thought amusedly.

"She speaks!" the redhead cried in mock horror.

The smaller man ignored his comrade's outcry, looking intently at the woman who had yet to turn away from Harry. "Who is he, Anai?" he asked in a voice almost as soft as hers.

Here, Harry began to panic slightly, though he would be loathed admit it. 'Anai. I remember my Master speaking about her. She was one of his Children, the second if I remember correctly. Which would make her currently over three thousand years old. So, the man must be Gabriel, one of her mortal descendants before she turned him. He's around six hundred, I think. I have no clue who the other one is, but she may pose a problem. Anai is rumored to be incredibly powerful. She's not a witch though, so I have that advantage. If I can just get past her and down to the sixteenth level, the First wards will stop her.'

Anai was speaking again, the other two vampire's attention on her. "I don't know," she said in that strange monotone. "He's powerful, ancient, like me."

'Now or never.' Harry decided, using the two men's distraction to his advantage.

Rushing at them, he flung out his hand and sent a powerful blasting curse at them, knocking all three off their feet. 'Wizard.' Harry realized belatedly as Gabriel threw up a shield, but Harry was already gone, through the door, down the stairs and out of their sight. He could hear racing footsteps chasing after him. Anai's soft, almost inaudible footfalls were in the lead, hot on his heels. Behind her were Gabriel's and bringing up the rear were the heavier steps of the redhead.

Harry smirked. They couldn't catch him. He had just reached the beginning of the First wards. His smirk vanished as the ward reacted violently to his presence, flinging him back into the startled Anai with a burst of red energy and sending them both flying into the wall with a sickening crack. He could smell the woman's blood that oozed from her head as he climbed to his feet.

"Fuck!" Harry raged as he stomped up to the barrier angrily. Attempting to stick his hand through resulted in a similar, though much less intense, reaction, leaving it charred and smoking. "If they won't let me through, I'll just tear them down!"

Reaching out with his right hand, he made a fist as if grabbing hard onto something. Red energy crackled around his hand and arm as the ward flared angrily in protest. With a sharp twist, it wrapped around his hand, extending outward and buckling in the center but not giving way. He bared his fangs in response, eyes flashing dangerously. With a growl, he gave a fierce yank. Magic flashed and crackled as the outer edges began to flicker and fade.

Focused as he was, he stumbled and fell to his knees as a ball of fire struck his back unhindered. His cloak disintegrated where it struck and his flesh burned. The ward bounced back full force as Harry lost his grip on it.

Beyond angry, he leapt to his feat and spun to face his attacker.

"What'd you do to Anai?" Redhead yelled, facing him down bravely despite the angry crimson energy Harry was still radiating.

"Jacob, calm down." Gabriel said as he crossed to the woman's side and lifted her up, leaning her against him and using a healing spell on the seeping wound on her head. "Master has come."

Harry's eyes widened at the man's words, his rage calming instantly as a very familiar energy washed over him. Turning back to the ward, he saw a man he never dared hope to see again. His Master stood just beyond the glittering red ward, blue eyes studying him carefully, though not unkindly.

Harry forced himself not to collapse just from being in the man's presence and drew himself up as proudly as possible. He was still in a child's body and the over six foot tall man seemed all the more intimidating for it.

"Give me Sirius Black," he demanded in a voice he hoped sounded at least a little more confident than he felt.

Apparently it worked, because the man narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and replied, "Why do you want him?"

"He's family," Harry said simply.

His Master had what Harry had often described as an overdeveloped sense of family. Obviously the wards no longer recognized him as a First One, even though the Dragon Guardian did, so he would have to appeal to the man's sense of family.

Harry was totally unprepared when his Master instead said simply, "You're a First One."

"Of course not!" Harry managed to spit back disdainfully despite his shock. "If I were, I wouldn't have tried to tear down the wards to get through!"

"If you weren't," the man replied calmly, "you wouldn't have known how to." He regarded Harry thoughtfully for a moment before saying, "Tell me, how did you become mortal?"

'He always was too perceptive for my own good.' Harry thought with a chuckle before dropping his mask of disdain. His eyes returned to their natural piercing green and he relaxed his stance, his body beginning to heal the scorched flesh of his back. Behind him, the three vampires watched in silence.

"Time travel," he explained simply.

The man nodded, as if that explained everything, before asking, "How old were you?"

"Personally, I was six thousand five hundred. All combined, somewhere over twenty-eight thousand years."

Three gasps came from behind him but the man before him just continued to watch him stoically. The memories, as well as the powers, of a First One's predecessor were passed down along with the First Curse.

"I apologize, but I can't give you the wizard, Sirius Black. I owe the warden of Azkaban a debt and this is how I must repay it." He made a quick motion with his hand to Jacob, Anai and Gabriel and the three nodded before heading back the way they came. "I have to ask you to leave now."

"Mas- Malak! Wait!" Harry called as the First One started to leave, nearly calling him Master but changing it to his name at the last moment. "Why have they moved Sirius down here? They couldn't have known I was coming for him."

Malak gave a crooked smile. "I believe it had to do with one Remus Lupin." he remarked amusedly, "It seems they think him a real threat. After all, not even Azkaban could stand against an army of werewolves."

With that, he faded into the darkness beyond the ward and Harry turned to leave. Even if he'd had time to bring this ward down, he would have to stop for each successive one and then have to fight Malak for his godfather. It wouldn't work. The man was too powerful. He would have to come up with some other plan. Harry cursed violently as he wrapped the shadows around himself and returned to Malfoy Manor.

-SCENE BREAK-

All but one Death Eater had returned. Parker, it seemed, had been killed when a guard deflected a cutting curse back onto him, severing his head. The rescued prisoners were being tended to by house elves and Harry had sent the other Death Eaters off as soon as he'd heard their reports.

He hurt where the fiery attack had struck him and he was very hungry. The small snack earlier would have been enough to tide him over until after the meeting. However, with the added stress of injury and the rage he felt at being thwarted in his attempts to rescue Sirius, he was barely able to restrain himself from grabbing the first person he came across and draining them dry.

Knowing Lucius could deal with things, he left the manor and quickly sought out a full meal.

By the time he returned to the Dursley's, it was after two in the morning. They obviously knew he wasn't home and had locked him out. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't be rid of him that easily.

-SCENE BREAK-

Petunia Dursley was terrified. More so than her husband and son. They didn't know, but she did. She knew what kind of evil lurked in their house. She had seen it and she knew what she had to do.

For the tenth time that morning, she cursed James Potter and his freakishness. If it weren't for him, her sister would still be alive. If it weren't for him, the boy might have been normal. If not for that cursed man, she could have had the life she wanted.

The boy hadn't come down to cook breakfast, but she didn't expect him to. Not this morning. She cooked it in his place, all the while cursing in her head while her knees shook with fear. She ignored her precious Diddydums' wails for food "NOW!" and barely responded to Vernon's remarks with a "Yes, dear." So self-centered were they that they didn't notice her odd behavior. They didn't notice how she stared into space, how her heart beat slightly faster than normal and her face was pale with fright. They didn't see, as Dudley threw a plate to the floor with a crash, how she jumped and grabbed for a knife she had placed nearby, just in case. They didn't see how truly, utterly terrified she really was.

Breakfast was rushed. She quickly sent Vernon out the door with a kiss to the cheek and "Have a nice day, dear." Dudley she sent off with his friend and the boy's mother when they came around to collect him for a visit. She was cleaning up the breakfast dishes with a single-minded focus, trying desperately to gather her nerve for what she had to do, when the boy finally made an appearance.

He stumbled into the kitchen, bleary-eyed and limping slightly at ten til nine wearing an oversized tshirt and baggy gray pants that hung limply from his small hips.

"G'morning, Aunt Petunia." he mumbled sleepily as he plopped down heavily into a kitchen chair and let his head fall to the table with a thump before he was instantly back asleep.

Petunia took a deep breath and blinked once, and then she saw it. Her hands shook and she nearly dropped the plate she had been washing. A small smudge of dark red, almost unnoticeable, marred his right cheek. His skin was pale and flawless, almost as if he had been carved from white stone. The hand curled almost innocently next to his head on the tabletop was slender and ended in fingernails that more closely resembled claws. Long, dark eyelashes fluttered in sleep. He was not breathing.

Crossing the room carefully, quietly, she reached out for the heavy curtain that closed off the window, to keep prying Ms. Number Five from seeing anything "unnatural" in their house. With a quick tug, she pulled it back and let the bright morning sun fill the room, falling over the sleeping form in a cascade of warmth and light.

With a cry, the boy leapt from his seat and backed into the hall.

"I'm really tired, Aunt Petunia." he said hastily, all the while backing farther away. "I'm going back to bed. Don't bother me." With that, he turned and fled up the stairs. She heard his door slam shut a moment later.

Petunia let out a shuddering breath and slumped down onto the cool tiles of the kitchen floor, her hand falling away from the window and letting shadows fall once more into her life.

That was it. That proved it. She knew now what she had to do. God help her, it was the only way.