Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 60: An Interesting Oportunity Appears
Harry realized that he had been staring at the artifacts for a good minute and had not heard the old shopkeeper complain anymore.
In fact, the place was in complete silence.
Getting a bad feeling, he turned around and found the old man lying on the floor, clutching at his severed hand. A pool of blood had formed beneath him, and he was no longer moving.
"Mmmm…" Harry used a charm that detected all living creatures in the immediate area and found none. The man was already dead.
"How can someone die so quickly from such a small wound?…" Harry looked baffled at the corpse of the shopkeeper. He had not intended to kill him at all, just to pressure him a bit so he would answer his questions truthfully.
"What a weak old man." Harry shook his head and sighed. "And useless…" Now he had no one to tell him what these artifacts did.
It's not like they came with an instruction manual, and using a dark artifact without understanding its inner workings would be extremely dangerous.
"I'm going to need some test subjects," Harry muttered. When in doubt, just try it on someone else.
He threw away the old man's wand since he had no more use for it and pulled out his own before conjuring a large wooden chest.
"I guess I will be taking the lot." There were almost two dozen artifacts on the shelves. Without knowing their effects, there was no way for him to know which ones would be useful, so it was better to just take everything and figure it out later.
The artifacts all flew into the box before he sealed it up and applied a featherweight charm on it.
With no more business in the shop, Harry was about to leave, but then, he heard the door on the lower floor opening up.
'Oh, great…' His eyes went to the old man dead on the floor. 'I can't afford to become a wanted criminal yet… I still have many things to prepare before we get to that.'
"Will, where are you?"
A voice was then heard, calling for someone named Will, which Harry could only guess was the corpse next to him.
'Wait a moment, that voice is somewhat familiar.' Harry felt like he had heard this person before.
After placing the wooden chest back on the floor, he covered himself with an invisibility charm and went to take a peek at the floor below.
He quickly spotted a well-dressed gentleman with blond hair, standing in front of the counter while looking around, trying to find the shop owner.
"Will! I don't have all day for this. Come out here right now." The blonde man turned to the stairs.
It was then that Harry got a good look at his face.
'Lucius Malfoy?.' He was sure now. The memories of their encounter two years back were vividly engraved in his mind.
Malfoy slammed his cane on the ground to showcase his displeasure. "Are you up there?"
A smirk appeared on Harry's face. This had just given him a good idea where he could kill several birds with one stone.
He moved aside and allowed Malfoy to climb the stairs, waiting for the right moment to strike.
"What is going on here…" Lucius Malfoy was already getting a bad feeling even before he made it to the next floor, and his expression shifted from suspicion to shock the moment he saw the body on the floor.
Harry took this opening to attack.
Even if someone has powerful mental defenses, there is always a moment when they are at their weakest, and this is when the person is under great mental distress, like suddenly finding the dead body of someone you have known for decades.
Harry's wand flashed as he channeled his magic. "Imperio."
Lucius never saw the attack coming. His hand was still clutching at his cane but had not made the attempt to pull his wand out.
Harry's form came back into view, standing right behind Lucius.
He walked slowly around the man, taking the cane from his hand and observing the changes on his face.
There was a visible struggle happening right now inside his mind.
"You can try to fight my curse all you want." Harry produced a chair and sat down in front of him, resting the wand on his lap. "I have patience."
He would curse Malfoy again if he broke his control, and he could keep repeating this until he was satisfied with the result.
"Mmm… I should close the door of the shop, though. This may take a while." Harry knew that this was not going to be easy. But controlling the Lord of the Malfoy House would be worth it, even if it was only for a short period of time.
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An hour later, Malfoy was still standing in the same spot. His face was covered in sweat and he had been clutching his fists for so long that his nails had pierced into his skin, covering his hands with his own blood.
Harry was comfortably sitting in front of the agonizing man. "You have lasted quite a bit. I will give you props for that. Your occlumency is really good. But it is time to end this." His wand pointed at Malfoy's chest and produced large sparks of lightning.
Lucius Malfoy let out a bloodcurdling scream.
This curse that Harry had used was not as painful as the Cruciatus, but it was less likely to cause lasting mental wounds. However, it was more than enough for its purpose, which was to weaken Lucius' defenses even further.
Malfoy's eyes had been continuously losing their usual luster and were becoming paler for the past hour, until the point when they were totally glazed over.
"Alright… you are mine now. I was getting bored of this." Harry stood up from his chair. "It's time to put you to good use."
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