Huge rats scurried everywhere through the dark, damp jungle, leaving rows of paw prints in the muddy ground.
Harry looked at these unfamiliar surroundings, yet felt an indescribable familiarity, as though he had come home.
That feeling was something special to him, because as far back as he could remember, Harry had never known the sense of belonging called "home." With the Dursley family, he had merely lived under someone else's roof.
Strangely, though, alongside that sense of belonging, a deep loathing lingered in his heart, impossible to suppress.
Harry was certain he had never been to this jungle, but he knew where those feelings came from, and the realization left him faintly excited.
He had done it!
Clearing his mind late every night without fail had finally allowed him to establish a soul connection with Voldemort again.
Harry felt a growing urgency. He wanted to know where this was, and why it made Voldemort feel both a sense of belonging and, contradictorily, disgust.
Firelight flickered faintly through the dense trees ahead, and Harry cautiously made his way toward it.
After a few dozen steps, Harry finally stopped. Through a gap in the bushes, he saw a clearing, with firelight coming from a bonfire at its center.
The instant he saw the scene in the clearing, Harry's heart skipped a beat. He actually recognized everyone sitting around the bonfire. Peter Pettigrew, Lucius Malfoy, Jacob Rosier, and-
Corban Yaxley, the man he had seen in the newspapers, who had been attacked by Sirius!
Even more surprisingly, Harry saw Professor Snape!
And apart from Jacob, all these men had something in common: they had once been Death Eaters!
Or rather-
Harry's gaze fell on their arms. Though their sleeves concealed them, he was certain their Dark Marks had been activated.
They had