Disclaimer: I am a 17 year old kid having fun on the Internet. This unfortunately means I am not J.K Rowling and I do not make millions of dollars off of my work. I also implore you not to hold me to her standards, I'm not JKR.
Secondary Disclaimer: Though this usually isn't the case with my stories, there will probably be quite a few clichés in this story. It's just kind of guaranteed by the nature of the challenge. So, if you don't like Super Powerful Harry, and other protagonists, and probably a good amount of bashing, (I will try to keep it to a minimum, but with the challenge details it may be difficult) this story probably isn't for you.
If you don't like it don't read it, but don't hate on me, I have warned you.
Challenge Information: DZ2's "Prodigal Son Challenge":
Voldemort has returned and the world is plunged into a war: however, the one facing the worst trial is Harry as, with the Dark Lord's return, someone else returned. Someone who, for all intents and purposes, is supposed to be dead: as if that's not bad enough, Harry's gone from being the Savior to the Spare and all because of one truth: his brother/sister is?
Rules: Grey, Dark, or Evil Harry (Grey at the very least, probably Dark)
The Story MUST start at the graveyard or at the Battle at the Ministry (graveyard)
At some point in either confrontation, Harry MUST be about to die, but he's saved by the reappearance of Lily, James and a third unknown who is revealed to be his brother/sister. (Brother)
At first Harry denies it's them and has NO memory of his sibling (he was just a baby, remember?)
In revealing themselves, Lily and James explain that they've been training Harry's brother/sister and he's been a "decoy" against the Dark.
Because of everything he's going through, Harry's understandably angry, but chooses to go one of three directions: he either: forgives his family and agrees to help his sibling, abandons Lily and James and chooses to try and leave the war between the light and dark or seeks revenge on his "family" for abandoning him at any cost (option 3)
Sirius MUST be on Harry's side no matter what.
At least ONE ally of Lily and James must have known they were alive OTHER THAN the headmaster, who knew already.
If Harry chooses to abandon/seek revenge on his family James MUST hit him, leaving a mark Harry becomes proud of.Whichever year the story starts in, the brother/sister MUST come to Hogwarts in September of the New Year
All pairings are welcome
Guidelines: Super/OP Harry Accepted Super
Dark-Lord Harry Highly Doubt It
Master-of-Death Harry Accepted
The brother/sister has the real Power the Dark Lord knows not No
Whichever power the brother/sister has, Harry discovers he has it/an opposite of it No
Severus becomes Harry's ally Accepted
In choosing to seek revenge, Harry leaves the Potter family for another (e.g Sirius) Accepted
In choosing revenge, Harry seeks to join Tom Highly Doubt It
To help him and/or his family, Harry builds his own "Order" to stand with him Accepted
Harry never WAS Lily and James son, which made it easy to use him as the decoy No
Slash No
Harems No
Harry/Multi No
Harry's friends and allies abandon him for the real hero of magic Some
Somehow, Harry discovers/acquires an Old Legacy to help him with his destiny Accepted
Harry runs away from home in the summer after their return Accepted
Forbidden: Boy-Who-Lived Harry
Lily and James dead
Harry remembering his sibling
Sirius against Harry
Whatever path Harry embarks on, he can not change later
Dark/Evil-Harry James accepting his defection
Dumbledore ignorant to the plan to use Harry as a decoy
Other than that it's up to you Key Pairing: HarryxAstoria Other Pairings: DaphnexNeville and I'm open to more. Author's Note 1 Really random I know, but I saw this challenge on DZ2's profile and had to try it. Honestly, I usually can't stand the whole BWL thing, but for some reason this just clicked with me and I had to try it. I want to make one thing perfectly clear though, I'm writing multiple stories at once, I will update this one, and it won't be an upload a month or anything ridiculous like that, but it won't be my main priority. I won't promise an upload a week or anything like that even, I will try for at least two a month, but this is more for my own enjoyment than anything else so that's that. Author's Note 2 In order to not over complicate this, I'm keeping everything pretty similar to canon. The main difference is Harry actually applied himself in classes. He is not a prodigy, but he is a very gifted student. For all four years at Hogwarts, he's come top of his year in Defense and Transfiguration. He has battled with Hermione for the top spot in charms, and battled her for second in potions behind Daphne Greengrass. Aside from that, everything is normal. Author's Note 3 Please leave a review on the chapter so I can know what you guys think, as always, the first few chapters will largely be building block chapters, just setting out a foundation, but it is important to a story that it's foundations are strong. Authors Note 4 Thank you to my betas James Marx and Akuma's Knight for their work on this chapter. Authors Note 5 Also, if you haven't figured it out yet, this story is my response to DZ2's Prodigal Son challenge. Dedication I dedicate this story to DZ2, he is the founder of this challenge and has some brilliant stories over on his profile that I definitely recommend you go check out! My other dedication is to James Marx, who has gone above and beyond being a beta, and helped me out SO MUCH by taking on some extra things for me, and always being great for bouncing ideas off of, and always coming up with things i would have never thought of. Recommendations I'm going to recommend some stories that influenced this one, so here we go: Cage and Key by Faromir BLOOD TRAITOR by SammieRose28 Sorry for the novel at the beginning, but first chapter, had to be done, now let's go. Chapter 1 Revelations and Resurrection.
Harry knew something was wrong as soon as he felt the all too familiar jerk at his naval. For a second, he thought maybe it was all part of the plan. Surely they would have used a port key in order to easily get them to the front of the maze right? But despite the solid reasoning Harry's gut told him it wasn't the case. It told him something was very, very wrong. And if Harry Potter sensed danger, that usually meant everyone in a mile radius should run for their lives.
Only milliseconds after the pull at his naval, Harry was moving, moving fast, so fast he couldn't make out the blur that was the world around him, he moved so fast it seemed to defy both time and space simultaneously.
As fast as his body was moving, his mind was moving faster.
As quickly as it had all began it was over, as his feet, along with the feet of Cedric Diggory slammed into the ground, Harry's already injured leg giving out. A fresh wave of pain spreading throughout the limb, beginning from, but not isolated to where the acromanchallla had clamped down on it.
"Harry, Harry!" Harry heard Cedric calling his name.
"I'm alright." He said weakly, taking the boy's offered hand gratefully and using it to pull himself to his feet, leaning ever so slightly on Cedric for balance until he was on his feet and than he separated. He knew his left leg wouldn't take his weight, so instead, he leaned all his weight on his right leg, and just let his other foot rest on the ground, taking none of his weight.
"Where are we?" Asked Cedric, a bit of apprehension lacing his tone. Harry tried to make out his expression but it was too dark. The blackness around them almost seemed unnatural, like some unseen force was affecting the very world around them. Harry's mind quickly jumped to Dementors but he quickly dismissed it. If there was a Dementor around he would know, their presence affected him far too much for him to not even notice the presence of one of them.
"I don't know." Harry answered, somewhere in his heart, he felt like he was lying. His eyes were still adjusting to his darker surroundings but the hairs on the back of his neck were on end. For some reason he had an odd moment that was comparable to deja vu. He had been here before, he knew he had been here before but when?
"Do you reckon this is part of the task?" Asked Cedric.
"No." Answered Harry. Now that his eyes were adjusted he could now make out the handsome expression on the face of the boy standing next to him, one perfect eyebrow raised in question to his quick and decisive answer. "Just a gut feeling, this place seems too dark, and I'm not talking about the lighting."
Cedric nodded at that. "I don't see any mountains, we must have traveled a long way from Hogwarts. Wands out you reckon?"
"Yes." Answered Harry immediately. "I don't like this."
"But why, and how?"
"I don't know, but Cedric, just be on guard."
"There's something moving over there." Spoke up Cedric suddenly, pointing ahead of them.
After squinting for a moment Harry noticed he was right. He could detect movement though he would have never have noticed it had Cedric not have brought it to his attention. He recognized the movement, someone was walking towards them. In their black cloaks, and the seeming density of the darkness around them, they almost blended into their very surroundings.
"What do you reckon?" Harry heard Cedric ask from behind him, he did not turn to look at him, he was unwilling to take his eyes off of the approaching stranger.
Harry was about to tell Cedric to stun the man when the ability to speak was abruptly stripped away from him. He didn't know how to speak, he didn't know what it meant to speak, he didn't even know his own name. In that moment, Harry Potter knew nothing but pain as his scar seemed to split open, and white hot agony raced through his veins like blood.
Harry promptly fell to his knees, burying his head in his hands, trying, and miserably failing not to cry out in pain.
"Harry? Harry? Are you okay? Can you hear me?" He heard Cedric's voice as though he was hearing it from a far away land as another voice whispered in his mind.
"Soon, so soon, it ends."
And then Harry was having déjà vu yet again. He was reliving a dream, a snake slithered past on the floor, a door opened, a serpent scrambled, and suddenly Harry, no, Frank was facing a hideous, scaly, seated something. There was a blinding flash of green light and Frank Brice knew no more. But Harry knew, now Harry knew where they were, and he had never been more afraid in his life.
"WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?" He heard Cedric cry out
"No." Harry's warning came out as barely more than a whisper as he heard a raspy, dry, hiss of a voice.
"Kill the spare."
Suddenly, Harry realized what was going to happen and he did the only thing his body would allow him to do, he lunged at about the place he suspected Cedric to be. As he began to move he heard another voice, squeakier, and higher pitched, though it sounded far more confident than it had a year previous.
"Avada Kedavra."
Even through Harry's closed eyelids he could see the flash of green light. He felt himself collide with Cedric's body but he instantly knew he was too late, the body had already been falling when he had made contact, he had been too slow. Harry had failed, it had finally happened, the very thing Lucius Malfoy had taunted him about.
"Shame Harry Potter won't always be able to save everyone."
The taunt floated to the front of Harry's mind, and it hurt far more than his scar ever had, as it felt as if a knife had pierced his heart.
He opened his eyes, he was lying on top of Cedric's body. In that moment he chose, he could have defended himself but he had to know if he was right so he looked down, down into the lifeless sockets that had once contained the eyes of Cedric Diggory, the stars reflected in the vessels that had so recently contained life.
Harry felt rope tie around him from behind but in that moment he did not care, he did not care if he lived or died.
He felt himself being pulled to his feet by the ropes and a hand moving into his pocket as the hooded figure stepped in front of him, and Harry got a clear view of the rat like face of Peter Pettigrew.
Harry tried to speak, tried to spit accusations of treason, but he couldn't. Before he could react he was quickly slammed up against... something, a gag being roughly shoved into his mouth. Than Wormtail was retreating, collecting Harry's fallen wand. Wormtail had set something down, a bundle of something near a large cauldron. Suddenly, the bundle was moving, quite clearly alive as the same raspy voice came from the bundle itself and Harry realized with horror what, or who it truly was.
"Hurry up."
Wormtail scrambled, seeming to try and go as fast as his squat legs would carry him, until he was bustling around the cauldron getting to work.
Pinned to the stone, which Harry now suspected to be a gravestone, unable to move or speak, Harry was forced to watch Wormtail busy himself with the cauldron until it was filled with a poisoned green liquid, and then all of a sudden Wormtail was bending down to pick up the thing on the ground and then... and then he had dropped Voldemort into the cauldron, and the only thing Harry could think was the fact that he prayed that Wormtail was incompetent, that he had made a mistake, that Voldemort would drown, but it wasn't to be.
Then Wormtail was in front of Harry, wand out. And then he spoke, his voice was theatrical, a tinge of nerves lacing his tones.
"Bone of the father, unknowingly taken, you will blindly breathe life back into your son."
With a flourish of his wand the ground at Harry's feet cracked open with a sound like gunfire, and some substance, looking more like grey vapour than bone drifted up from the ground and floated over top of the huge cauldron, easily large enough to pass as a small bath tube, before gently lowering itself into its depths.
The liquid that Harry knew was some form of dark magic, a potion of the most horrid variety, smoked, sparked and hissed, before it turned a bluish, purplish colour, and Wormtail walked away from Harry, walked towards the cauldron, but something was wrong, he was shaking from head to foot.
"F-f-flesh of the s-servant, willingly given -y-y-you shall see your master whole once again." Than, to Harry's horror, he withdrew a small, sharp, silver dagger from a pocket of his robes, and Harry knew, a second before it happened what was about to take place. Closing his eyes at the last second as he saw the dagger drop, Harry heard a terrible sound like a handsaw meeting some soft bit of resistance, a crack, and a terrible, high, drawn out scream. Then, he heard a splash, Wormtail had clearly dropped whatever he had cut off, Harry guessed his hand, into the cauldron.
For several moments the ritual was at a halt. As Harry opened his eyes he felt sick. Wormtail was on the ground, crying, and cradling the bloody stump at the base of his arm. But then he was on his feet again, walking away from the potion that now resembled a thicker version of blood.
He was standing right in front of Harry now, looking straight down at the ground, seemingly unwilling to meet the eyes of his former leaders son. His voice did not shake now, though it was evident he was struggling to keep the words coming out.
"Blood of the enemy, forcefully taken, you shall reawaken your greatest foe." The knife moved again, and Harry, still tied and gagged, could do nothing to stop it, as he felt it pierce his arm, the knife digging in, inches underneath his skin, scraping against the very bone. Harry didn't even feel it, likely it had severed several vital nerves.
"It is done Harry Potter." Weased the man in front of him, a maniacal smile gracing his rat like features. "The Dark Lord shall be reborn, greater and more terrible than ever before, and you shall be his first victim."
With his work done Wormtail made his way back over to the cauldron and collapsed in front of it, making sure to let the vial containing Harry's blood drop into the cauldron, the vial dissolving immediately, allowing the blood to be absorbed into the concoction.
For several, long, terrible minutes there was suspense.
'Maybe something has gone wrong after all.' Thought Harry. However, the second he thought this he knew he was wrong. The potion suddenly turned gold, but the surface was still dotted with red the same colour as blood. And than, grey smoke so thick it blinded Harry from what was going on began to billow up from the cauldron and than a man rose from its depths.
He was tall and skeletally thin. Through all of the smoke Harry couldn't make out much else, except a pair of horrible, scarlet red eyes, focused on him, and him alone.
He stepped gracefully out of the cauldron, black robes already billowing around him.
"Harry Potter." Were the first words out of Lord Voldemort's mouth, as he stared at Harry, a hungry, predatory gleam in his pupil less eyes.
"At long last we truly meet, you meet me as I am, as I always should have been, not as a shadow, not as a shade, and not as an imprint, left behind by my own brilliance. You meet me as the man, the myth, and the legend. You look upon me tonight, not as a former vessel of greatness, but as the last thing you will ever see."
Voldemort let an evil smile grace his lips, if one could even call something so sinister as a smile.
"Get up Wormtail and present me your arm."
"Oh master, thank you master, you are merciful you are great." Gushed Wormtail as he presented his right arm, the one with the now missing hand.
Voldemort let out a high, cold, quiet laugh and shook his head.
"Your other arm Wormtail, I think it is time I get reacquainted with the others." Voldemort purred lazily.
Wormtail whimpered but offered up his other arm with no hesitation.
"M-m-master, you did promise, y-you did."
Voldemort didn't answer him, instead he just pulled up his left sleeve and exposed the dark mark burned into Wormtail's arm. Voldemort smiled again and pressed his finger into the mark, the skull with a snake protruding from its mouth. The mark, grey at first, burned dark red on Wormtail's skin in response to Voldemort's touch. Wormtail let out a whimper of pain but did not complain.
"Now we see," proclaimed the dark lord. "We see who has truly stayed loyal all these years, and who has abandoned the cause forever."
It happened all at once after a long few moments of complete silence with the exception of the whimpers of pain coming from Wormtail.
There was a sound of swishing cloaks and all of a sudden there were about a dozen people standing before Voldemort. They all wore black robes, and white masks. But Harry could picture the same look of awe and shock on each of their faces well enough, their posture practically screamed of their emotions.
Slowly the death eaters made a ring around Voldemort and Harry, still tied to the grave, though he didn't even think they noticed him, it was just the positions of the grave in relation to Voldemort.
"My friends." Began Voldemort. "It has been so long, more than thirteen years, more than thirteen years since we last spoke, more than thirteen years since I stood before you, more than thirteen years since I stood here, the most powerful sorcerer alive, and yet, after all that time, you remain loyal."
Murmurs of the general message of "of course my lord" could be heard from around the circle. Voldemort just let them wash over him, not really acknowledging any of them.
"Yet, loyal as you seem, and you do all seem loyal, answering my call without a moment's hesitation as if it was only yesterday, still seemingly so loyal to the cause. None of you found me, if I am correct in my assumptions, and it is rare I am not, none of you even attempted to search me out. Why not? Why not search out a master you are so loyal to? Why not search out a master you devoted your lives to? Why not search out a master who you still answer to after nearly fourteen years? Why hide behind wealth and influence when you could have had the world, if only you chose to help me?"
One of the men rushed forward and through himself at Voldemort's feet.
"M-m-my lord, we are loyal, we are all loyal, we have never stopped believing in the cause. W-we-we thought you gone, and seeked to serve the cause in other ways. Please my lord, forgive our foolishness."
Voldemort raised his wand and spoke casually.
"Crucio."
The man on the ground let out a loud, gruff scream, and writhed on the ground. Voldemort only held the curse for a few seconds, however, when he raised his wand, the man was panting as if he had ran a marathon.
"I did not ask for your excuses Avery. I was merely pointing out some of my observations."
Voldemort turned to another one of his followers.
"I would however, be quite interested in hearing your reasoning Lucius."
Harry would have gasped if he could.
"My lord," came the smooth, aristocratic tones of Lucius Malfoy, "had there been any signs, any signs at all..."
"There were signs Lucius, if you know where to look. If you do not know those places, perhaps I misplaced my trust."
"My lord." Spoke up another. "How did you do it my lord, we are all eager to know."
"Yes, it is quite the story, and it begins, and ends with our friend here."
Confusion ran through the ranks of those around him, until Voldemort made a long, sweeping hand gesture towards Harry who was still bound and gagged.
Murmurs ran through the ranks of the death eaters as they reeled in shock.
"As you all can see, we are joined by a most honoured guest this evening. But yes, I was saying, the story begins and ends with Harry Potter. The very boy who is likely the reason many of you did not search for me. You believed me gone, you believed me defeated, defeated by a child. How you could believe such a thing I will never understand. Let me tell you all what really happened on that fateful night."
Voldemort had their attention now, every single one of them was leaning forward, seemingly eager beyond words for the secret that had puzzled the magical world for nearly fourteen years.
"You see, it was no unforeseen talent, no mysterious mastery of magic, no power the likes of which I did not know which spared Harry Potter's life. It was, in essence, my own arrogance, and foolishness."
At this the circle of watching death eaters seemed to grow a bit uneasy. It was probably the first time they had ever seen their master humbled, or as humble as Voldemort would ever be at least.
"It was old magic, very old magic indeed that saved Harry Potter's life on that night. Magic I know of, magic I should have foreseen. You see my friends, on that night, Lily Potter cast herself in front of me, acting as a shield. In my foolishness, I gave her a choice. Move out of my way, or be struck down. In doing so, I invoked a very old, very powerful branch of sacrificial magic based upon intent, and love. Due to this magic, I never stood a chance. I could not touch him, let alone the curse I cast. But fear not my friends." A smile graced his lips as he stepped right in front of Harry. "Lord Voldemort adapts, and Lord Voldemort conquers. I have learned from my mistake, and i have corrected it, for I can touch him now."
The last five words were spoken with a stunning amount of force. Before Harry knew what was happening, Voldemort had stretched his hand out and pressed one long, white finger to Harry's scar.
For the second time that night, it felt like Harry's head had split open. Pain unlike anything he had felt before coursed through his body. He wanted to scream, he tried to scream, but the gag on his mouth prevented any sound of protest from escaping his lips.
As quickly as the pain had come, it was gone. Voldemort pulled his hand back, a smug, triumphant smile gracing his lips.
"And now," He began once more. "Now that that obstacle is out of the way I have brought our esteemed guest here to take care of old business once and for all. For tonight, there is no one to save Harry Potter. Tonight, I shall correct my mistake from long ago. Tonight, the boy-who-lived shall live no longer. But I am not an unreasonable lord, I shall of course, give him a chance to fight me. So, let us see, let us test the power of Lord Voldemort, the greatest and most powerful sorcerer who has ever lived, heir to Salazar Slytherin himself, and a man, who, through his vast explorations into magic, and his willingness to push the boundaries of magic further than they have ever been pushed before, has conquered death itself. Against Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived, saviour of the light, and the boy that the world is calling my downfall, my Achilles heel if you would. Tonight, there will be no doubt as to who is stronger, as to who is more powerful. We battle to the death, we decide who is superior once, and for all. Wormtail, get the boy his wand, I have waited for over thirteen years, I will not wait any longer."
Harry was terrified, more so than he had ever been before. Voldemort, with the exception of maybe Dumbledore was the most powerful wizard alive, he had powers Harry could never dream of, not to mention decades of experience that Harry could never hope to match. On top of that, Harry's leg was still on fire, and he doubted his own ability to even walk let alone fight. But he doubted he would have a choice in the matter.
As if in answer to that thought Voldemort flicked his wand, and the ropes that bound Harry snapped, sending him crashing to the ground. He scrambled up quickly, almost collapsing again from dizziness and the pain in his leg. 'Oh great.' He thought to himself, on top of everything else, he hadn't accounted for the loss of blood from his arm.
Suddenly, Wormtail was in front of him again, thrusting his wand roughly into his hand without looking at him and then scampering away once more.
Voldemort moved to be in front of Harry, a hungry, animalistic gleam in his eye, whall Harry, standing across from him, was doing his best to rest all of his weight on his uninjured leg as the death eaters closed ranks around them, trapping him in.
"You have been taught to duel I presume?" Asked Voldemort, lazily twirling his wand between his fingers. Harry did not want to dignify him with an answer but he felt the memory of the dueling club rise to the surface and Voldemort smiled.
"I see you have not learned the formalities as is proper, first, we bow to each other, bow, bow to death Harry." When Harry did not move, Voldemort continued. "Come now Harry, the niceties must be observed, Dumbledore wouldn't want you to forget your manors. I said, BOW!"
With the last word, Voldemort raised his wand, and Harry felt his head jerk forward as his back bent against his will to accommodate Voldemort's wishes, as the man in question gave a deep, sweeping, theatrical bow of his own. The death eaters laughed around them as both of them straightened up.
"That's better, now we duel. Crucio!"
It was pain unlike anything Harry had ever imagined. His scar had been agony, but it was nothing compared to this. All of a sudden, he understood exactly why the Longbottoms had been driven into insanity. He wanted it to end, he wanted to die, every nerve in his body was on fire as he hoped, prayed Voldemort would just end it.
And he did, though not in the way Harry had hoped. Voldemort raised his wand, relinquishing the grip of the curse. Leaving Harry panting, and slowly struggling to his feet, holding onto the grave stone for support.
"Beg me Harry Potter." Said Voldemort. "Beg me and I will end this now, be stubborn, and I will make this a display. Beg for mercy, and mercy shall be granted."
"NEVER!" Screamed Harry as he brandished his own wand. "Confringo!"
The bolt of red energy shot towards Voldemort, but with an upwards motion of his wand, the curse was redirected, sent up into the air, and when it came crashing back down to earth it struck a grave off to the right.
Voldemort kept his wand motions going until his wand was pointed at Harry. Even as Harry screamed "Protego!" He knew it was useless, he knew he was fighting against what Moody had always warned, the unblockable, irreversible, Avada Kedavra curse.
It was not the killing curse which hit him next though, but his shield fared no better against yet another unforgivable curse.
"Imperio."
It was bliss, complete and utter bliss, as once again, Harry felt the imperious curse wash over him.
"Kneel."
'No I don't want to.' Said a small, persistent voice in the back of his head, even as Harry felt his knees want to bend, but they didn't.
"Beg." Voldemort tried.
'That would be stupid, I'm going to die either way, why give him the satisfaction?' The voice said again.
"I said BEG!"
"I WON'T!"
Suddenly, the feeling of bliss was gone, replaced once again by the agony that the Cruciatus curse had left behind, as Harry felt his body go rigid as residual pain from the curse shot through him again and his bad leg threatened to buckle underneath him.
"Impressive."
Voldemort's voice snapped Harry completely out of his trance, and brought his conscious crashing back to reality. Voldemort stood there, his posture was lazy, unconcerned but his eyes shone with curiosity and glee. The death eaters were muttering again, as they seemed awed and shocked that the will of Harry had held up against that of Voldemort.
"Perhaps you are special after all Harry Potter." Conceded Voldemort. "Even if it is not in the way they all think it is. Yes, the trials and tribulations of your life have blessed you with a strong will, I will grant you that. Yes, I can see why Dumbledore is so fond of you, as much of a fool as the old man is, he is not blind to talent of any sort."
The comment about Harry's trials and tribulations touched a nerve. How dare he, all of those trials and tribulations were because of him. If it wasn't for the monster standing in front of him, Harry would never have had to face any of those aforementioned trials.
"Shut up!" Screamed Harry defiantly. "You know nothing about me Riddle."
"Don't I Potter? You may think you know me, simply because you know the filthy, mudblood name I was given. But I know you far more Harry Potter. I do not know you? Is that so? Well, let us find out. You were raised, much like myself, by muggles, and much like myself, you were isolated, ostracized due to your gifts."
Harry was shocked, how did Voldemort know any of this?
"We are not so different Harry Potter. Both talented students who overcame the tyranny of muggles. Don't you see? After living with them, do you not see what I am fighting for? Do you not see the light at the end of the tunnel? This world is better off without them? Surely you, of all people can see that? Look past Dumbledore and all of his useless preaching and propaganda, what have your experiences told you about muggles? Surely you agree we would better off without them? Join me Harry Potter, join me and we can rule. Oppose me, and you must die. This is your final chance to do what is right."
"You're wrong Riddle, you're so short sighted, you never look at the bigger picture. The muggles who call themselves my family are terrible, and maybe they do deserve the worst. And I can't speak for the muggles who raised you, but they must have been bad the way you turned out."
The circle of death eaters hissed in protest but Voldemort did not take the bate he simply observed Harry, seemingly waiting for him to finish.
"But they're not all bad, there is bad in any bunch, you're telling me you like every pureblood wizard you've ever met? You're telling me you've hated every half blood or muggle born. Open your eyes Riddle. You once told me that the world is not black and white, but you do not practice what you preach! Harry was screaming at Voldemort by now. "You say the world isn't black and white, and then you go and generalize billions of people. You are a hypocrite Tom Riddle, and I will never join you."
"Such a shame." Said Voldemort, not sounding sad or surprised at all. "I wish I can say I expected different, you miss the point completely Harry Potter, it is not that I hate muggles, it is their destiny that scares me, muggles are destined to oppose us, it has happened before, and it will happen again. But no matter, a waste it may be, it is time to finish this."
Voldemort moved quickly, slashing his wand through the air as a jet of green light shot towards Harry. Harry, not thinking, reacting on instinct, and instinct alone dove to the side and scrambled behind the gravestone as it took the brunt of the curse.
"Do not hide from me Harry Potter! Die with honour, not with cowardice! I want you to look at me when I kill you, I want to see the light leave your eyes! And here I thought you were brave like your father."
Harry could hear Voldemort coming around the gravestone, so he made a choice, summoning up every last bit of his Gryffindor courage, Harry through himself out from behind the gravestone.
Harry came up, facing Voldemort's back.
"Stupefy!" The jet of red light shot towards him, but Voldemort merely spun on the spot and he was gone, all of a sudden he appeared directly across the circle from Harry.
"Make sure to look at me." Were Voldemort's last words as he raised his wand.
"Have it your way." Was Harry's answer as he brought his own wand slashing through the air.
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
The red and green light shot towards each other at terminal velocity, meeting in the middle. However, as Harry expected Voldemort's spell to simply overpower his own, he was stunned by the outcome. The two jets of light seemed to form into one beam of golden light, connecting Harry's wand to Voldemort's.
"Do nothing!" Cried Voldemort as a dome of golden light seemed to form around them. "He's mine to finish!"
Harry felt blackness creeping into his vision as he pushed every bit of his energy into forcing the beads of light that had appeared on the beam between Voldemort's wand, and away from his own, while Voldemort tried to will the same to happen in reverse. This, mixed with his own exhaustion and agony was gonna be too much. Harry was going to black out right here, he was going to die.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" A voice, not so far away cried out. The voice, to Harry sounded far too familiar, though he could not place it. And then it happened.
A huge, silver stag slammed into the dome of light, shattering it, and the beam connecting the two wands, thus breaking the effect. The last thing Harry saw before he blacked out was the silvery stag, a patronus, his patronus, charge at Voldemort. As only one thought crossed his mind.
'It can't be.'
Authors Endnote.
So, what do you guys think? I normally wouldn't write this type of story, but I loved the challenge and wanted to try, it also tied into another story idea I had, so I'm just gonna blend them together and see what happens.
Please review this chapter to tell me how I did, any feedback is always appreciated. Also, follow and favourite if you want to stay up to date with the story.
Thank you once more to my betas, James Marx, and Akuma's Knight for their work on this story. And a special shoutout to James for the initial proofread and dealing with my typos, along with my grammar.
With all of that out of the way, this has been ACI100, and I hope you have enjoyed, I will hopefully see you all in the next chapter!