AUTHOR: Glinda

TITLE: Worse Things Than Death: An Eye For An Eye

CATEGORY: angsty, revenge

WARNING: PG-13 just to be safe...

SPOILERS: Pretty much all the books but mostly CoS

DISCLAIMER: Not mine, don't own anything. Just a poor little Uni. student trying to stay sane by letting her imagination run wild. J.K.Rowling owns everything I'm just playing with her rather fabulous toys! Not making any money...just doin this for fun! Plz don't sue!

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I started off writing something funny...and then something comic...and the two fit together quite well. However they've become quite a long fic that won't be finished for absolutely ages. In the meantime this little fic wrote itself. My excessive re-reading of the books threw up this quote:

"Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving the school...travelled far and wide...sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognisable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here." Dumbledore - CoA p242

And it occurred that Hagrid knew Voldemort was a Slytherin and, more importantly, when he was at school. And despite his obvious fear of Voldemort and refusal to say his name, he was in the original Order of the Phoenix and has always expected Voldemort to return. Hagrid remembers who Voldemort once was...

"Allo Tom," said Hagrid quietly. "Long time no see."

The shattered body of Voldemort lay on the ground not six feet from him. He could see Harry's equally battered body lying unconscious not far off. They'd fought, as prophesised, as equals, their brother wands screaming till they almost destroyed each other. Voldemort's powers were gone and Hagrid knew that in all likelihood Harry's might be too. But if Voldemort was defeated the price was surely better than loosing his life.

"Hagrid..." hissed the broken man on the floor before him.

"Aah...yer remember me now do yer? Thought as much."

"Come to gloat have you?"

"Me, gloat...? No, that's yer style, not mine."

"Why, then? Come to rescue the boy?"

"Rescue Harry? Nah, Harry don' need rescuing. He'll come round in a minute. Finish yeh off good and proper he will, not cause he wants to, not cause he likes killin', but cause o' something you believe in so strongly. Cause agains' his will he's destined to."

He was interrupted by a snort of laughter that was choked by a coughing fit.

"Oh yeh can laugh but yeh know its true. Yeh may be Salazar Slytherin's heir, but Harry...he's Godric Gryffindor's, ain't he. An' yeh've known all this time. Yeh must've done a heck of a lot o research to find out your connections so I'm betting yeh checked. Wanted to find the descendants of the other three founders. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff wouldn't have interested yeh, but Gryffindor...well he defeated Slytherin didn't he? I wondered, yeh see, during the early days of the last war, why so many relations of James Potter died in 'mysterious' circumstances. They were, after all, a prominen' and long, long established pureblood family. Yeh knew, though' yeh could wipe out the bloodline, didn't yeh? But James was safe at Hogwarts, and then came tha' prophesy and tha' little boy and yeh knew."

"Of course I knew...How could I not...but the question is...how did you know...?"

"I'm not as daft as they like to think, yeh know. Once I knew you were Slytherin's heir, little things that had happened o'er the years started to make more sense. Harry pullin' Gryffindor's sword out of the Sorting Hat, his parents picking Godric's Hollow as their safe house. A thousand lil' pointers if yeh just knew where to look..."

The hoarse voice from the floor spoke again, "Well done Hagrid, I may have underestimated you...but the question remains: why are you here? You clearly realise that this is a game played by gods, in which you have no place and should not presume to interfere..."

"Oh I'm not here to kill yeh, Tom. That's Harry's job, he's the only one who can, and after all tha' you and your Death Eaters have put him through and stolen from him, I think he's earned the right. It'll be swift and merciful, mores the pity, he's not the kin' fer torture. Above such thin's he is. But until he reawakens I'm here to exact a lil' private revenge."

"You never struck me as the vengeful type, Hagrid. Whatever would Dumbledore say if he knew his favourite half-breed was threatening torture?"

"Torture? Nah...I won' lower myself ter your level Tom. See, my being here with yeh like this, is almost enough in itself. I know, an' yeh know that I could easily lift yeh up and crush yeh into nothingness with my bare hands. Cause even without magic I'm twice the man yeh ever were, and not just physically either. I thought of all sorts o' suitable punishments for yeh in...darker moments...they sustained me during those few months in Azkaban I served for your crimes. But I remembered somethin' tha' Dumbledore told me once. Great man Dumbledore."

Hagrid leaned forward and gently prised the remains of Voldemort's wand from his hands.

"He's righ' yer know: yer failure ter understand tha' there are things much worse than death has always bin yer greatest weakness...right up there wi' yer inability ter love. There are other ways ter destroy a man. An eye fer an eye, Tom Riddle, an eye fer an eye."

Without another word Hagrid held his once fellow student's wand in his hands, meeting Voldemort's wide-eyed stare unblinkingly, and snapped the wand into pieces. Then, laying them on the ground, he drew his own recently reconstructed wand from his pocket and - never breaking eye-contact - announced "REDUCTO". Without a further word, he turned and walked away seemingly unmoved by the heart-wrenching screams that rent the already shattered body of what had once been the most feared Wizard in history.

Close by Harry stirred. As the screams grew fainter he sat up and adjusted his glasses. Despite the pain racking his body, he forced himself to his feet. He'd come this far, he owed it to all those who'd sacrificed their lives, their happiness, their sanity, their freedom and other things beside to get him this far. Straightening his robes Harry walked forward to finish his date with destiny...

There's a semi-sequel regarding Lupin, Neville and the LeStranges in the works...if people like it I may make it into a series so whatever your opinion hit that review button and let me know!!