Narrative Summary

All was well.

For Voldemort, that is. Harry had discovered and developed an exotic ability, believing it to be the "power known not" to the Dark Lord. Potter had come, and they had clashed, but the outcome was not something Harry had expected. The "power" was not the power, and Voldemort defeated his adversary in front of his Death Eaters.

Bewildered and desperate, the true power spoken of in the prophecy reveals itself. However, Harry has already lost for he had no time to develop it. He was thrown onto the torture rack, never to be seen by anyone but his eyes, and the violet eyes of one other.

Voldemort whistled to himself as he strolled past the dungeons of Hogwarts, his new stronghold. Hoarse screams of pain floated down the corridor, and he smiled blissfully to himself as he recognized Harry's voice.

The screams reached a fever pitch, and abruptly ceased.

Alarmed, he enters the torture chamber, and finds a witch standing over a bloodied, naked, and mangled body. The body of Harry Potter.

"I... think I broke him," Bellatrix whispered tearfully.

In another timeline, Harry discovers his apptitude for a discipline of magic, and believes it to be the power known not.

He begins killing the Death Eaters standing in between him and Voldemort, and has nearly reached him. He kills Bellatrix Lestrange, and prepares for the finale, when he encounters her again.

This time, she is from the future, and is seasoned with even more years of combat. She is obsessed with forcing the position of "toy" on Harry as she did in the future, but when Harry makes use of the fraud power known not, she laughs and lets slip that he has the wrong one.

This warns Harry off and he Disapparates just before Voldemort could arrive.

In a twisted way, Bellatrix saved him, yet thrust him into an even greater dilemma.

The Challenge
Poor Harry's more confused than Hermione is when conversing with Luna.

He's wasted years on building up his supposed power known not.

It could reveal itself in his moment of need, but he cannot rely on that. It will be of no help if he's already defeated.

Bellatrix, having witnessed the true power known not in the future, holds the answer.

Only, there's the problem of her questionable sanity.

How does he extract the answer and succeed where his future self failed without losing his virtue and ending up tied to the torture rack again?

The Rules
All's fair in love and war...


So, any takers?

 

I love your ideas! Were I not determined to complete my current fic as an introduction to fanfiction, I'd be flailing away at my keyboard in response to this challenge.