Sixty seconds. Harry wasted one with a moment of panic, adrenaline flooding his system, then almost reviewed everything he knew about magic, every weakness he knew of Voldemort, every tool at his disposal. He almost did that, but stopped. Before thinking of solutions, what was the problem? Harry turned in a small circle, wand pointing down, taking in the scene. The Death Eaters. The obelisks. The tombstones. Hermione. Voldemort.
One minute was not the optimally minimum five, and shortened again but having to think of solutions...but it would have to do. First identify the problem? That was easy.
The problem was an extremely powerful, intelligent, nearly immortal psychopathic wizard viewed Harry as an existential threat and was doing everything in his power to prevent that threat with the denouement being Harry's death. If the wizard was successful, he would then torture and murder nearly everyone Harry cared about as well as thousands of other humans. Untold horrors would continue at the whim of the wizard for eternity. Harry had fifty seconds now, to start talking.
Was the true problem that Harry didn't have enough time to think of a better solution? Yes, but Harry didn't see a way out of that. The only reason Harry was alive was the wizard though Harry may have some special knowledge that would make that wizard even more powerful. Harry wanted to live, yes. But he knew that more importantly he must prevent Voldemort from committing evil. Harry would give his life to remove that threat. Not reluctantly, but with resignation. He could delay his death by sharing the few novel things he knew. Partial transfiguration. Dyson spheres. Artificial intelligence. Arbitrage. The Sorting Hat's secret. The Peverell brothers. Those things he could share, not as trade for the pain-free lives of his parents, for Minerva, and for Neville, but simply to buy some time to think of better solutions to save humanity.
But Harry couldn't talk and think at the same time. The Bene Gesserit could split their awareness onto separate tracks, but Harry hadn't been able to develop that ability despite seven weeks of work when he was nine. He would gain no thinking time by talking.
Voldemort viewed Harry as an existential threat. Is there a way to abate that? Was Harry an existential threat? Harry didn't know the prophecy Voldemort was talking about, did he? Harry closed his eyes and let his mind drift over the past year. Letting his subconscious flash images. Certain images clarified themselves. Comments appeared above those and then some of those popped like bubbles. Others hung in the air.
Death Eater Mask. The Aurors of Azkaban must know that Voldemort has returned. The Dark Marks of the imprisoned Death Eaters would be causing a stir. Harry swallowed, his eyes darting to the severed arm as he turned slowly again in a circle. How would the Aurors know where to come? Regardless, they would not survive. Lucius and Severus might be behind those masks. Harry thought he recognized Mr. White's speech patterns as belonging to Lord Malfoy. But what could they do against Lord Voldemort, aside from die? The mask fell from his vision.
The face of his Occlumency teacher. Harry could try to use Occlumency to pretend to be a different person who would fool Parseltongue and create lies for Voldemort. Harry recalled that Voldemort said that Occlumency cannot fool Parselmouth as it can fool Veritaserum, but he didn't say so in Parseltongue. An interesting line...but Harry felt instinctively that this could not work. The feeling was odd, as if some god had spoken, (though Harry did not find evidence that supported such an entity), so he discarded it. No time.
Owls. Owls had nothing to do here. Why was he thinking about owls? The owl flew away.
Partial transfiguration. Harry envisioned partially transfigured ambient nitrogen wires shooting from the tip of his wand into the left eyes of all assembled Death eaters and then Voldemort encased in transfigured carbonite. That image popped. That was way beyond his abilities.
Harry wished he had had more time. But if wishes were thestrals...
A Dementor. Harry couldn't believe he thought this, but a Dementor would really brighten the place up. A flight of Dementors could send the Death Eaters and Voldemort running, at least temporarily. Voldemort would return quickly. Harry couldn't figure out a way to conjure them. Perhaps if he had a sword, a rope, and a thimble. A small bell went off in Harry's mind. Quirell had said he knew a spell which would bring forth death, but the one that would banish it had been lost.
His Patronus. Harry suspected he had rediscovered it that lost spell. His True Patronus banished death. It had stopped Quirrell's Killing Curse. Harry had thought it was the interaction of magic that had stopped it, but something else clicked into place. The True Patronus was anti-death. The True Patronus could stop Avada Kedavra! Could it stop other hexes? Harry didn't know, but suspected not. His Patronus hung in the air.
Hermione. Hermione. She was part of the answer. She was nearly indestructible. And she had Perhaps more than Voldemort knew. He was bound to her. It was a sliver of hope. A silver sliver. Hermione had been resurrected with the True Patronus, perhaps she could survive the Killing Curse.
His wand bound by gold strings. The Vow. The Vow bound him to consider how his actions and inactions would affect the world. If he was unsure it his actions could result in the destruction of the world, he needed to consult Hermione.
His scar. The horcrux system. Could the horcrux system have weaknesses? Yes, it was likely. Perhaps restoring to a backup would fail if he managed to kill Voldemort. That was a slim hope. Perhaps his own death would cause a backup to be overwritten, but Harry doubted it. Harry couldn't think of a way to exploit those bugs though, aside from promising Voldemort to help patch them. It was unlikely Voldemort would delay his death in exchange for that. There are other smart people who could help, and Voldemort had nothing but time. That hung there with the others, but in the background.
Cedric Diggory. If he could extract Cedric's skeleton, and sharpen-no. Harry moved on, Cedric winking at him and fading.
A Time Turner. Harry could think of no way to leverage time here. His precommit trick could only work if he could summon the power to defeat Voldemort in the next six hours. Passing a note to Professor Flitwick wouldn't work here. There was no way to create a paradox. A dead end. The time turner spun and disappeared.
Snape reciting the prophecy he had heard. Harry could explain to Voldemort that the original prophecy was not fulfilled. Snape was the witness and could verify that truth. But would that change the situation? No, Voldemort would be more inclined to kill Harry, dismantling both prophecies.
Trelawney in the Great hall. Could Voldemort be right? Could Harry be responsible for destroying the world? "HE IS COMING, THE ONE WHO WILL TEAR APART THE VERY S-" Someone thought it was Sun. The centaur mentioned the sky being empty. Of stars? Would Harry destroy the stars? Is that what this is about? Would Voldemort release Harry if he could prove the the prophecy was not about Harry? Probably, not release Harry, Voldemort was too far gone at this point, but it may stall him for a time. And if it was about Harry? Harry could think of ways that dismantling the stars would further human civilization, but that go along with Voldemort's current belief in prophecy destruction. Trelawney's face hung in his mind's eye.
A gold orb. That was how a prophecy was stored.
Harry opened his eyes. After-images hung in his visual memory. His wand wrapped in gold, the Vow. Trelawney's face. A golden orb. The True Patronus. Hermione. His scar.
"It iss true I have knowledge and powerss which you know not. Not many, but sssome. Before I ssspeak of this I am compelled to ssspeak of other things.. By the Vow I have taken, I ssspeak."
Harry continued in Parseltongue, "Ten years ago, did you test see if that prophecy was about you? It is a simple test. One needs to only access the Hall of Prophecy. You can also test if about me. Perhaps the Dark Lord is not you, teacher, but another. Perhaps Death itself. Perhaps the one with the power to vanquish is not me, but another. Perhaps from Hogwarts or elsewhere."
"Ssstupid child. I care not about the first prophecy. If prophecy iss about you, and you die, I win. If it iss not and you die, I eat a sssandwich. You have no time."
Harry said, "Yess, but how will you know if plan is sssuccessful?"
Harry continued in Parseltongue, "I introduce this because there is more I need speak of, but am bound by vow to be cautious. The final threads are waiting to be snipped, but what if that causes the result you fear and I am bound to avert? What if you are the one who will destroy the stars? The centaur thought not, but you and I are similar.
It is enough danger to invoke my duties to action under the vow.
I have heard Snape say that Snape believes he would understand a fulfilled prophecy after hearing of the events. If this is true about prophecies in general, and I die, what happens if you do not get that feeling? Does it mean I am still a threat? Or the prophecy was about another? If that is just Snape's own belief and not true of prophecies in general then there is even more uncertainty. How do you know the 'He is coming...' is about me?"
Harry concluded, "There iss a sssimple way to find out, but not if I die here now. Take me to Hall of Prophecy and sssee which, if any, orbsss float to me. Per the requirementss of the Vow, I expect I will need the counsel of my friend to help anssswer the quesstion whether I myself ssshould live."
Harry's Occlumency barriers were strong, and he did not let slip the image of the True Patronus blocking the Killing Curse; or the image of Hermione possessing the same ability. He did not let slip the thought of future plans. Or of hope.
Voldemort stared hard at Harry. Then he smiled a chilling smile. His fangs reflected the moonlight. He began to speak-
