Chapter 4.

Chapter 4

The Nightmare Man

Summary: In the depths of the Ministry, there is a cell for the world's most dangerous man… and he wants out.

Pairing/s: None.

Warnings: Time travel, OOC-characters, Light!bashing, Twisted!Harry, Evil!Harry, violence, mention of gore. Yeah, stuff like that.

Disclaimers: I don't own Harry Potter nor do I make any money writing this.

-o-

Edited 2020

-o-

Chapter Four

While Albus was just getting to the Ministry, Harrison landed on his feet in front of large set of gates, the guard holding onto him for dear life.

Harrison looked up at his home with its towers and black stone, and smiled when he saw it was in perfect condition. He had made sure in the past to put his home away from any kind of population, and keep it hidden behind powerful wards that were still holding up.

He opened the gates and started walking up to the manor. To be honest he didn't know how the inside looked like. He hadn't thought of telling anyone to keep it tidy and neat if he happened to be captured because he hadn't expected to be captured. If he remembered correctly his last order was to await his return.

There was only one way to find out. The set of double doors opened as he closed in, and he entered almost dragging the guard behind him. Harrison stepped into complete darkness, only a bit of the hall illuminated thanks to the light coming from behind him. Still he could see the dust lay thick in the air. Harrison moved his arms and snapped his fingers. Magic surged.

Heavy curtains that kept the light of the day out were swept away from all the windows and said windows sprang open. With another snap of his fingers fires throughout the manor sprang up in the fireplaces and it was soon starting to feel much livelier.

Had he had house-elves they probably would have kept it clean for him without him giving them orders to do so but Harrison had never owned any. Why should he have house-elves when he could just take half-dead people and make them his servants? Perhaps they couldn't do all the things house-elves could but then again, house-elves weren't capable of all the things wizards and witches could do with magic.

Speaking of, it was time to call on them. He clapped his hands, and Harrison smiled as they came, silently crossing the floor to come closer. He was happy to see them. They weren't half-dead anymore, and didn't stagger, or moan, or held their arms out like in some bad zombie movies he had seen from the Muggle world. Movies he had seen in this time, in what felt like ages ago. Maybe he should refresh his memory, if only to get a good laugh about it.

Harrison knew people would never believe if he said this was truly his own time. Those few who knew about him assumed he came from a long time ago, a beast formed in a more uncivilized age. They couldn't be more wrong. He had been born as a normal child, by loving parents. It was what happened later in his life that made him into what he was today. That, and his own choices.

He gazed around as his servants gathered around him, silent, waiting for their master's word.

"Why don't we get this place cleaned up?" he said as greeting. "It's rather dusty in here, after all."

Several of them bowed and moved away.

"You," he told one, "prepare a bath and then get me some clothes. Not anything like these ones. If necessary, get me new ones. Nothing fancy, just wearable until someone can go and properly get more clothes."

That man bowed as well and walked upstairs.

One woman, the head of the servants, stepped forward. Harrison remembered her when she was alive. She was a feisty, headstrong young lady, and he had enjoyed breaking her down. She no longer remembered that time, he usually erased those memories to ease their pain, and as a result she was stubbornly loyal to him and appeared to be that still after all these years with him locked away. Well, he didn't expect anything less from her.

"The man?" she asked.

"Oh, he will soon be one of you, Elise," he told her. Then he turned to the guard. "I forgot to ask. What's your name?"

"Christian…"

"Well then, Christian, I'll take care of you in just a moment. You'll feel much better in no time, I promise you that. Elise, I need you to go and gather information about the whereabouts of a man named Voldemort. He's a Dark Lord and might be hard to find."

"Age?"

"I never really thought about it, but late sixties perhaps? I don't know what he looks like now," Harrison added. "Things appeared to be different this time around."

"Different?" Elise asked.

"Yes, different. Things aren't playing out as I remember them."

"They're not? Why?"

Harrison shrugged. "I have no idea. Now, I need to go and sort out Christian, and you need to get on and find out where Voldemort might be hiding."

"Of course, master."

He liked that about Elise. Harrison had never asked her to address him with any sort of respect. She had just started one day and never stopped. Others followed her lead and he had to admit being called "master" had a certain pleasing ring to it.

As Elise left the manor Harrison marched off with Christian the guard, already thinking what he could do to improve the guard, and then how lovely that bath would be.

-o-

Seeing the bath full with steaming water, Harrison didn't hesitate to pull off the rags that once had been robes, and slid into the tub. He relaxed, leaning his head against the edge of the tub and just enjoyed the feeling. It was hot, it was wet and most importantly, he wasn't going to be stinking much longer.

Sinking down just a bit more Harrison couldn't believe his luck that led to his successful escape earlier that day. In the beginning of his captivity he hadn't done much to try and escape to be honest. He was often left completely alone to the brink he sometimes screamed just to check he still had his hearing.

He did forget some of the years, just letting time pass by, freaking people out by not aging, not dying, or even appearing to be that dangerous. A few joy kills and they learned just how dangerous he was. Harrison was partly to blame for that long imprisonment. He could have controlled himself better and not kill people on a whim. Control had tightened, and he had been left in the dark to "punish" him for his actions. He didn't regret them at all. They were called joy kills for a damn reason.

But still, having Fudge coming down to "interrogate" him and at the same time bring a nervous guard near him… one who had no idea he had to protect himself not only physically but also mentally against the Nightmare Lord. The same guard, no, Christian now, was resting in one of the rooms but would soon rise to be part of Harrison's servants. Harrison assumed most of the man's personality was intact. He would only know when Christian woke up and they could have a proper talk.

Not that his servants were the only army he had. He had his own Inferi too. Hopefully at least. Before he was captured he had put them to rest in bogs and lakes, and he assumed they were still there, quietly sleeping until he called for them. If they had been destroyed… well, Harrison could make new ones, but he wouldn't like it. His Inferi weren't random people. He had carefully selected each individual to make them into an animated corpse, putting in a lot of time and effort into them. Doing that all over again would be time-consuming.

"Voldemort," he said out loud, distracting himself from thinking his Inferi army might be gone. "Voldemort. Once a mortal enemy and now… hell, I don't know. Ally? Hah! Shows how much people know. I wonder… oh, I do wonder…"

He snapped his fingers. Normally Elise would show up but since she was out someone else did.

"Ah, Lucian," Harrison said. "I'd like to know if there's someone here in the United Kingdom with the name of Harry Potter."

He probably could have done it himself but his magic was still adjusting to free life and the attack on the Ministry had put it in a bit of unbalance. He wouldn't want to upset it, since it was the most precious thing he had resting in his body.

So instead Lucian, a pale shadow, wordlessly took out his wand and cast a spell. It was one of his own spells, and the thought of Lucian using his spells made him a bit giddy. People usually didn't use his spells, not even back in the old days. Harrison waited while Lucian performed the spell.

"Yes," Lucian spoke after a few minutes. "It says here he's around fifteen years old, lives with his parents in a village called Godric's Hollow and attends Hogwarts. What is Hogwarts?"

"It's a school, you know that."

"No, I don't."

"You… oh, I'll explain later. Thank you, Lucian, that's all for now. Dismissed."

Harrison was left alone with his thoughts and it didn't take long before he was frowning.

"Why the hell is James Potter alive?" he muttered. "What did I change? Did I change something? No, I can't have. How on earth would I know what to change?"

He stared up at the roof.

"This is just not making sense… forget it, I can't do this, I need to talk it out with someone."

He submerged himself in the water, sat up and then began to vigorously scrub himself clean.

-o-

Since Elise was still gone and the others were busy cleaning the manor Harrison sat down in the living room with Lucian.

Lucian used to be one of those who had hunted Harrison before he was captured by the Nightmare Lord in person. Elise had been too, but unlike her, Lucian still had much of his own personality left. Only he wasn't hell-bent on killing Harrison.

Harrison sat down, and watched Lucian. Or more, watching the tattoos he had placed on Lucian's skin in some form of ownership. He traced them with his eyes, and thought it was morally wrong marking a person like that. But Harrison was possessive over things he did claim ownership over, and was surprised he hadn't marked more servants like he had Lucian.

Because yes, he did consider his servants his… property? His things, that no one was allowed to take away from him.

"Do you know who I am?" Harrison asked.

"Of course I do," Lucian said where he was sitting opposite of Harrison. "You're my master, the Nightmare Lord."

"Do you know my name then?"

"Master has no name."

"I do. Well, I did. I threw that one away a long time ago but now I took a name again. It's sort of like my old name."

"What name would that be then?"

"My new name, or the old one?"

"Both names, master. I'd like to know both."

The curiosity was Lucian's own, something Harrison hadn't taken from him. It was one of the traits that Harrison had liked in him from the start, combined with the fact Lucian could be rather blunt and straightforward.

"My name now is Harrison," he said. "The other one… was Harry James Potter."

Lucian frowned.

"But I searched that name. He's a mere boy, and still exists."

"Yes, I know, isn't it marvellous? I don't even know if this is the universe I grew up in. Perhaps me going back into the past twisted things. Or… no, I can't even begin to paint up the different scenarios for this to have happened. Maybe the Harry Potter you found even had a happy childhood."

"Has he not lived how you lived, master?"

"He can't have. I didn't have any parents growing up. James and Lily Potter died when I was a toddler. But here James is alive, and I can only assume Lily is alive as well."

"Master never said much about how he lived."

"I know." Harrison looked over Lucian. "You know, your hair used to be really dark. I changed it."

"I know."

"It was because of your name, Lucian. It reminded me of Lucius."

"Was this Lucius important to you?"

"Not really. When I was a teenager, he was an enemy. Later, he was becoming an ally. So maybe I just missed seeing a familiar face when I went back in time. However I managed that."

"Does master regret going back in time?"

"No, not really. It's just… I was so different back then. As a child. I was terrified of everything. I just put on a brave face and pretended I wasn't scared."

"Master doesn't fear anything."

"Oh, your master fears a lot of things," Harrison told him. "I'm just good at hiding it, I suppose. Most of the time. Not always. Sometimes the frustration wins over the fear. Not back when I was a teenager. When I was a teenager I just feared things, and wanted things to be over with. Which might have been a mistake in hindsight, but then again, it also led to today so I can't have too many regrets over it."

He got up and began to walk around the room. It was a big room, and he liked his rooms big. Most rooms in the manor were big, and more importantly, they were his and filled with things he liked to look at and to read and touch and poke.

For now he picked up a jar with a preserved heart in it. Alright, so some rooms were filled with slightly disturbing things but Harrison was a strange person. Besides, it was his manor. He could fill it with corpses and blood and no one had the right to say anything about it.

"Voldemort was my enemy."

Lucian turned his head, silent but eyes begging for Harrison to continue.

"This story of mine isn't a fairy tale. It's just messy, and I'm not very good at telling things. You still want to hear it?"

Lucian nodded, so Harrison put the jar back and wandered over.

"You know I dislike Muggles."

"Yes, master. Your killing of Muggles was one of the reasons why people tried to capture you."

"I was a very reckless back then, angry and impatient. My old potions professor wouldn't have been surprised. Perhaps if I had had kinder Muggles taking care of me certain things wouldn't have turned out like they did. You see, I grew up with Muggles who absolutely loathed magic. They loved to use their words to abuse, but one of them took to the belt or his fists when he deemed it necessary. The words got to me. I believed them myself in the end."

"Believed what?"

"That I was worthless," Harrison said. "I was just a freak to them. By the time I was ready to accept that truth about myself the magical world was revealed to me. I was a wizard. I had been all along. It was the first time I remember feeling truly happy. I wasn't a freak, there were others like me. But of course that feeling didn't last long."

"Why not?"

"I was the hero of the magical world, the Harry Potter, remembered for something I had no idea I had done. Harry Potter, the one who defeated the Dark Lord."

"You defeated a Dark Lord as a child?"

"Hardly. Have you ever heard of a one-year old kill a grown, experienced wizard? I don't know what really happened, just that I survived when others didn't. But no, obviously I was the Chosen One, the one who had to kill Voldemort. I was just a child, a weak child. I didn't even know that magic existed until I was eleven years old!"

"Hearing you say this… it's to strange. You are so strong. Why do you call yourself weak?"

"Because back then I was weak. Back then which is just a few years ago. Feels like longer. Well, it is longer for me. Anyway. School was fun if one looked past people staring and whispering things about me. It took me years to realize that people on my side not only worshipped me but outright feared me too. I mean, I survived a mean Dark Lord and was supposed to have the power to defeat him again!"

"What happened?" Lucian asked.

"I did defeat him again. I mean, with people pressuring me left and right I wasn't left with much of a choice. The funny thing is what happened after that, when I defeated their enemy."

"What happened?"

"Have you ever heard of a prison called Azkaban?"

"Vaguely. They didn't put master in there so it didn't matter to me."

"Azkaban was put into use after I was imprisoned, so how do you know about it?"

"… Something told me."

"Oh. Well, Azkaban is rather good prison, at least in this time. They have powerful guards. I, as Harry Potter, was put in there. I was their saviour and my enemy's body hadn't even gone stiff before I was in a cell!"

"Master got no… what is it called, no trial?"

"Oh, they made one up to make people satisfied. They made sure no one would think it strange for their hero to be locked up. A fake trial that served its purpose; I was never given a chance to defend myself. Instead, I was just locked up."

Harrison huffed at the memories.

"It's such a cliché but it was in there I truly began to hate," he continued. "Did you know that hate could be such a wonderful feeling, Lucian? It's much easier to hate than to love. I gave up loving things."

"But you love us?"

"Of course I do!" Harrison grinned and reached over to give Lucian's cheek a light pat. It had taken him many years to love again, but that was beside the point right now. "However, I was seventeen when I was thrown into Azkaban. You don't love much in there. In fact, the guards don't give you much chance to love, or even feel joy at all. After all, Dementors take that away from you."

"But the Dementors are… they are master's…"

"Not when I was young," Harrison said. "First time I met them, they took my joy away. I was thirteen. But when I was in there, with them all day, and more bitter than before, they knew. Somehow, they knew I was their maker, they had figured it out since the last time I saw them. They treated me well once they and me both had found that out. I learned their language, and found out that they called me maker."

That had been a bit shocking to hear, Harrison remembered that. He remembered the initial feelings too, being there in Azkaban. Rage and anger, then despair, sorrow… it was easy to start hating when he had been sitting in that cold, damp cell.

But things had begun to change shortly after he arrived. The Dementors didn't bring the cold, or took anything from him. It was more like that they gave him warmth, gave him joy, perhaps from other prisoners, perhaps allowing him to still feel it. Perhaps he just felt happy when they called him their maker. When Harrison had been Harry Potter he hadn't understood why they called him that. Only years later had he known, that he actually created them. He introduced them to the magical world.

"What happened after that? Master?"

Harrison returned to his living room, to Lucian's curious gaze and cleared his throat.

"They took care of me even as my hate grew. It's easy to let it grow and fester, turn your heart dark and miserable. I wanted revenge. But I was happy at the same time. I had found something that I could use. The idea that I had created Dementors somehow… it was appealing. When I was younger I feared them. They were cold monsters in my naïve, young eyes. How wrong I was."

"Did you get out of the prison?"

"Yes," he said. "A re-trial cleared me from all charges and people sent letters, praising me. Said they never doubted me. By that time, I had been in Azkaban for almost three years. After three years in there, they expected me to be their hero and puppet again without protesting. Albus Dumbledore was the man who put me in Azkaban, and when I came out he was the one who tried the hardest to make me forget that fact. But I never did. Don't give up on a grudge, Lucian. Don't be soft-hearted."

"Master is soft-hearted."

"Yes, learn from example, don't be soft-hearted like me. I even give my enemies too many chances. I should stop with that, actually. Don't know if I'll manage. But I wasn't particularly soft-hearted against Albus."

"He became your enemy?"

"Of course he did. He threw me into prison. Albus Dumbledore became my enemy alongside all of my friends. They had thrown me aside the moment they had a chance. That's not a very friendly thing to do, remember that."

"I will."

His servants were more cold-hearted towards enemies than he was, because they weren't reckless fools like Harrison was. Perhaps he should learn things from them. They wouldn't have left Cornelius Fudge alive like he did.

"Would you like to hear more?" he asked.

"Yes," Lucian replied. "All of it, since master is in a sharing mode today."

"Well, I haven't had the chance to chat with someone for this long for… I don't remember how many years. Anyway… I got out, and I distanced myself from my former friends. Their world no longer concerned me. I did get soft-hearted for a little while back then. I was ready to forget about what had happened and move on. But then they decided to take me out, and instead destroyed one of the few I still cared for. Not too long after that, I was thrown back in time."

"How did that happen?" Lucian wondered.

"I'm not sure even at this point. Accident? I was in a bad room for it. Time-turners have never been something I enjoyed being around. We probably shouldn't investigate too deeply in that."

"But how are you still alive, master? I've existed for almost as long as you have, but that's because I'm bound to your magic. What keeps you alive?"

"That's a secret for now." Harrison slumped back against the couch. "Now that was me talking for a long time. Did you like hearing about it?"

"Yes, master."

"Hmm, still not a very good story," Harrison said. "And I skipped a lot of details."

There was a knock at the doorway, and Elise stepped into the room. Harrison waved her over.

"I've found Voldemort's whereabouts," she stated.

"That was fast."

"His wards are rather shoddy compared to ours, master."

"You just like to break other people's wards," Harrison replied. "Well then, how about we go and pay him a visit?"

To be continued…