Psukhe
Chapter Two
By Mell8
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"A Horcrux is the word used for an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul…Well, you split your soul, you see and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one's body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged…Killing rips the soul apart."
"If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign…to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin."
"There is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you."
"Are you sure we're in the right place Harry?" Hermione looked around nervously and then jogged to catch up to Harry and Ron. "We could get mugged or shot at!" she said in a high, frightened voice as they passed another broken down building.
A destitute man stumbled onto the cracked pavement in front of them and a long, clearly used needle clacked out of his hand. He laid where he fell and only his drunken groans showed that he was still alive.
Hermione sniffed and walked a large circle around the man while Ron looked on with wide eyes.
"What's with him, Harry?" Ron asked as he followed Hermione in her wide circle.
Harry sighed. "First, yes we are in the right place because I see the remains of the orphanage up ahead. Second, that man is addicted to drugs and probably just overdosed. There isn't anything we can do for him. Come on, wands out." Harry forced his voice to be unemotional and strict. They had learned over the past year of searching for Horcruxes that they couldn't help everyone. Sometimes all they could do was callously walk past.
Harry comforted himself by thinking that in the long run, getting rid of Voldemort would save even more people from death and pain. Taking extra time to help the dying man in the road could give the Death Eaters the extra second they needed to mobilize and attack; or the man in the street was a Death Eater in disguise, waiting for Harry to bend down to see if he was okay before trying to kill him. Both had happened over the past year, once while they had been searching down Knockturn Alley for the store Riddle used to work in. They had only survived that mistake because Tonks and Lupin had been shadowing them.
"But Harry, a Muggle could see!" Hermione gasped. Her hand was on her wand in her pocket and her eyes constantly darted around to check for danger.
Harry sighed again. "Look around you Hermione. We're in the worst part of London. Everyone who lives here is either on drugs, is an alcoholic, or is a criminal. The first two won't notice anything odd about us holding a piece of wood in our hands and we need our wands to protect us from the last. Besides, I would prefer to be safe than sorry. Remember what happened last time?"
Ron shuddered. "It's a good thing you're so quick with shielding spells, Harry. Otherwise that girl would have hurled all over us!"
Harry laughed and led them through a set of rusted iron gates into a weed-choked courtyard.
His throat closed for a second as he saw a memory of Dumbledore wearing a plum colored velvet suit walking up the few steps to the front doors.
Harry shook his head and pushed open the rotted main doors. "This is the orphanage Dumbledore showed me two years ago in his pensive. Tom Riddle grew up here and I think he would feel that it is an important enough place to hold one of his Horcruxes."
Another destitute man stumbled through a side door. He walked like he had three left feet but was otherwise staying upright.
"Ya' going up ta de haunted floor?" he asked and took a long swig from a bottle covered by a paper bag.
"Haunted floor?" Ron asked in a slightly more high-pitched voice than usual.
"Yeah," the man tipped way over to the left but managed to right himself. He laughed with a hard wheeze and pointed upwards. "Anyone tha' goes up, don'na come back down."
"See," Harry said softly. "I told you we're at the right place." He turned to the man. "Yes, that's where we're going. We heard about the haunting and are trying to exorcize it." But the man had found a spot of the wall to speak with and was ignoring Harry.
He shrugged and led his friends up the stairs.
"Do you know where in this building the Horcrux is?" Hermione asked softly. "Did Dumbledore show you?"
"He didn't specifically point out where Voldemort would hide a Horcrux but I have a good idea where it is." Harry led them up to the second landing and into the first door down the long corridor, Tom Riddle's room.
Inside the room were the warped remains of an old bed and a wardrobe that was in only slightly better shape than the bed.
"I think the Horcrux is inside the wardrobe. In the memory Dumbledore showed me, Riddle had a box on the top shelf that held all the things he had stolen from the other orphans. Hermione, will you scan the room?"
She nodded and whipped her wand around in a complicated maneuver that made everything magical on all three of them glow. Aside from them, only the wardrobe gave off the glow.
Harry nodded and slowly strode forward, wand out front and ready. He poked the wardrobe with his wand and it rattled in a familiar ominous way.
"That sounds like a boggart…" Ron ventured. "Like from Lupin's class third year."
"It does," Hermione nodded and Ron looked impressed with himself for a second before returning his concentration to Harry.
"I'm going to open it," Harry said as he carefully reached out. He clasped the handles and nothing happened. Harry gave a gentle yank on the door and again nothing happened.
"Is it locked?" Hermione asked.
Harry nodded and backed towards his friends. "Be careful, I'm going to open it from here." He waved his wand. "Alohomora!"
The doors flew open and a Dementor glided into the room. The place immediately became cold and Harry could hear his mother's screaming in the back of his mind.
Harry pulled in a quick, chilled breath and thought of something funny. "Riddikulus," he yelled. There was a loud snapping sound and the boggart stumbled backwards for a second before righting itself. The screaming in his ears increased and it was Harry's turn to stumble.
"It figures that Voldemort would have a super boggart guarding his soul," Ron grumbled and rubbed his head. His breathing was fast and his face was whiter than Hermione's but his bad memories were not taking control. "Why did your boggart have to be a Dementor, Harry?"
"All together then?" Harry said as he backed into his friends. They nodded and pointed their wands along with Harry's at the boggart. "One, two, THREE!"
"Riddikulus!"
The boggart was blasted back and disappeared in a puff of foul colored smoke. Harry slowly moved forward and waited impatiently for the next monster to jump out of the wardrobe.
"It's not like Voldemort to only have one beastie guarding and no spells." Hermione whipped her wand around the room again and again only the trio and the wardrobe glowed.
Harry stepped up to the open wardrobe and sucked in a harsh breath. Inside was a swirling, opaque black mass that prevented him from seeing further into the depths of the wardrobe.
"What do you think it is?" Ron asked from over Harry's shoulder.
"I'm not sure," Harry answered slowly. "Hermione?"
Hermione dropped her heavy backpack onto the floor and began to dig through it. "I borrowed some books from the Restricted Section last time we stopped at Hogwarts. I think one of them will have some information on this spell." She quickly flipped through two books and discarded them into a growing pile at her side. By the fifth book Ron was tapping his toe in impatience and Harry was ready to try his own, probably disastrous, theories on the black mass. Hermione finally found a short reference in the seventh book she skimmed though.
"Look at this!" She held out the small passage excitedly for the boys to look at.
Harry skimmed it and turned to glare at the black mass. "So it's sort of like the mist I went through in the maze at the Tri-wizard tournament. It made everything seem upside-down when I stepped though it and when I took another step the world righted itself."
"I suppose it could be like that…" Hermione hedged. "Or it could just cut off whatever body part you push through it."
"There's only one way to find out!" Ron snatched up a random book from the floor and pushed half of it through the black vortex. He slowly pulled it back out and turned to smile at an incensed Hermione.
"See," Ron said, holding up the untarnished book. "It's fine."
He dropped the book onto the floor and gaped with the other two when it promptly exploded and left a book sized hole in the floor.
"Right then," Ron said as he slowly backed away from the hole and the wardrobe. "I'm not putting my hand in there!"
Hermione sighed. "You won't have to! As I was trying to say earlier before you destroyed a perfectly good book, I should be able to disable it the same way that mist was disabled when the maze was taken down after the tournament. I asked Professor Flitwick about it." She pulled out her wand and resolutely walked over to the wardrobe.
"When did you have the time to do that?" Ron gaped and held out a hand to stop his girlfriend from walking any closer to the swirling vortex of death.
"When Harry was recovering in the hospital wing," Hermione snapped and pulled away from Ron. "Now with the mist you had to say an incantation and move your wand in the same direction as the mist. I think that if I say a slightly darker incantation and follow the swirls with my wand it should dissipate."
"And if it doesn't you'll be blown to smithereens," Ron growled darkly.
"Don't you think defeating Voldemort is more important than worrying about my own personal health?" Hermione snapped. "Besides, aside from the locket and Voldemort's snake, Nagini, this is the last Horcrux. You really don't need my help any more."
"Hermione, you know that's not true!" Harry said softly while Ron gaped wordlessly.
"I know," Hermione sighed. "But I'm the only one who knows this incantation so you really don't have a say in the matter."
She marched forward and resolutely stuck her wand into the vortex. Harry and Ron watched breathlessly as she began to follow the swirl and mutter darkly under her breath.
With a loud BANG, the vortex vanished and Hermione tossed her wand to the floor just seconds before it blew up too.
"Well," she giggled nervously. "I needed a new one anyway."
Ron snarled angrily at her and snatched another book from the pile. He thrust it into the open wardrobe, pulled it out, and tossed it on the floor.
"Nothing happened!" Ron gasped. "I guess that spell really worked!"
Hermione harrumphed and snatched Ron's wand from his hand. "Accio Hufflepuff's Cup!"
She guided the golden cup to the floor and quickly cast some detection spells on it.
"Alright, Harry. I guess it's okay for you to do that love spell on it now." She handed Ron back his wand and turned to look expectantly at Harry.
"Right, love." Harry closed his eyes and began to run though his memories. His earliest memories of his parents, his memory of meeting Ron and Hermione for the first time, Sirius, Dumbledore, all the Weasleys, kissing Cho, kissing Ginny, Hagrid and Fang, Lupin, the Order; Harry thought of everyone he had ever loved or even remotely cared for and forced all of that emotion into his wand.
"Amour Detruisez," he whispered and gently traced the outline of a heart with his wand. A puff of red colored smoke covered the cup and slowly turned black as the evil in the piece of Voldemort's soul was absorbed. The smoke slowly faded from black to pink as the power of Harry's love overwhelmed the evil. (Love Destroy)
"A power that the Dark Lord knows not," Hermione quoted from the prophecy like she did every time the love spell worked.
"Um, mate?" Ron called from the doorway. "I think I figured out why the drunk man from downstairs said that this floor is haunted."
Ron swiftly backed away from the door while Harry and Hermione rushed forward to see what was wrong.
The entire hallway was hazy like it was filled with smoke except without the smoke.
"I don't think it would be safe to walk in that." Harry said worriedly as what looked like angry fireworks began to pop along the ceiling. "It's brilliant though. Voldemort let us in but won't let us leave. I was wondering why it seemed so easy to get the Horcrux."
"Um, Harry, Hermione?" Ron said softly. "I think the spell is just in the hallway." He looked down the hole in the floor made by the exploding book. "I can see the room below us just fine."
"It's our best chance," Hermione said as she rushed to put all of her books back into her bag. "Hurry, the spell is moving into the room." The doorway faded into the not-smoke and slowly vanished from sight with a cracking sound that made Hermione squeak and Ron and Harry wince. All three moved faster in their tasks.
Harry blasted a bigger hole in the floor while Ron un-shrunk their brooms. They flew down a floor and all the way out the front door at top speeds.
None of them managed to exhale until they were high up in the sky.
"Let's go back home," Ron called. "Ginny's gone to school by now so we'll have the entire place to ourselves. I don't know about you two but I need sleep."
Hermione nodded but gasped as her broom wobbled in the air.
"We need to figure out where Regulus Black is and ask him about that locket. Hopefully the Order will be able to help us because I think Dumbledore helped to hide him from Voldemort in the first place." Hermione carefully nosed her broom towards home. "Plus I need to buy a new wand before we go anywhere else."
Harry and Ron fell into protective positions behind her as they flew towards the Burrow.
They landed hours after the sun had set, bleary eyed and rubbing broom sores.
The front door flew open as they tiredly made their way up the porch and Molly Weasley rushed out.
"Oh, I'm so relieved. When I saw your hands point to mortal peril! But finally it switched to traveling and I know you can't apparate because of the chance of a Death Eater sensing the magic, but I was so worried." Molly gathered each of them into a tight hug as she babbled.
"Mum," Ron said thickly around his mother's tight arms. "Why were you looking at the clock anyway? Usually you'd be in bed by now."
Molly took a sobbing breath as she held the door open for the trio. "Ginny's gone missing but her hand on the clock is always pointing to home." She sank into a chair at the kitchen table accompanied by Ron's strangled gasp, Hermione's shocked whimper, and Harry's silence.
"What do you mean that her hand is always pointing towards home?" Hermione asked as she took Molly's shaking hands in her own.
"Minerva says that it just means that Ginny has gone somewhere that she feels at home and the clock is just reflecting that. Sometimes it will switch to traveling or to shopping so I know that Ginny's out and about. But I'm still always running downstairs to check the clock just incase it moves to mortal peril or, or something worse."
Ron quickly made his sobbing mother a strong cup of tea.
"Thank you Ron. Oh, I don't know why I'm still crying. She disappeared weeks ago on the train back to Hogwarts. Fred and George think that she met up with the guy she's been pining after for the past year and they ran away together, but that just seems so far fetched to me."
"Guy?" Harry said softly.
"Oh, Harry. You didn't realize?" Hermione said gently.
"Realize what?" Ron snapped.
"Do you remember the kitten Ginny received for her birthday?" Molly asked. At both Harry and Ron's nod she continued. "Well it was pretty obvious it was from a boy and well, a few months after you broke up with her, Harry, I think she met someone new."
"Oh," Harry said stiffly but he stood and rushed from the room showing just how upset he really was.
Molly and Hermione looked after him sadly while Ron just looked confused.
"So how long are you planning to stay this time?" Molly asked eagerly.
"Well, we need to go into Diagon Alley to buy me a new wand," Hermione said, glad to be able to change the subject. "Could you ask around the Order about Regulus Black? We think Dumbledore had a hand in hiding him from Voldemort and we think that Black has one of the Horcruxes."
"I can do that. Were you successful this time?" Molly asked with a worried look.
"Yeah," Ron said happily. "No visits to St. Mungo's this time. The only important thing we lost was Hermione's wand and that was only because it exploded."
"Exploded!" Molly screeched. "It's lucky you're alive!"
"Mum, you know we're risking our lives every day to defeat Voldemort!" Ron said sadly. "An exploding wand isn't terrible, honest."
"We're so jaded," Hermione whispered as she listened to Ron. "What have these battles done to us?"
"It's war," Molly wiped away a tear. "It makes you older, more mature before your time. I remember what happened during the first war. Arthur and I went overseas to visit family and the next thing we hear, war had broken out back home. My brothers wouldn't let us leave, not when I was pregnant with you, Ron. But when the war ended I went to check on some of my old school mates." Molly thumped her teacup down onto the table a gasped for breath through her tears.
"They all had this, this haunted look in their eyes! Like they had seen something horrible, terrible! And now every time that you three come home I see that same look growing in strength in you." She reached out and gripped Ron's hands in her own shaking ones. "I worry for you; I worry for all of my babies. Bill and Charlie are always off doing something for the Order, Percy is hiding away in the Ministry, Fred and George are openly defying the scare and depression tactics of the Death Eaters with their flamboyant shop, Ginny ran away, and now I have to watch as you three grow old before your time; yes Harry, Hermione," she added at the bushy haired girl's surprised look and the shocked thump she heard from the boy listening in through the door, "you are both my children now."
Molly shook her head and used her shoulder in a futile attempt to wipe away her tears. "I just want this war to end so that life can go back to how it was before. I just want my family back, safe and sound."
"We're almost there, Mum." Ron dropped his mother's hands and pulled her into his arms. "All we need to do is find Black to get that Horcrux from him, find Voldemort's snake, and then destroy Voldemort."
"It's not that bad," Hermione soothed. "Honest, the worst is almost over. But," Hermione wiped away a tear of her own, "thank you so much for caring for us. It really means a lot."
Harry abandoned his post hiding on the other side of the door and re-entered the kitchen. "Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you so much, Mrs. Weasley." Molly stood up and pulled all three of her children into her arms.
III
"Well, Potter, you might as well be looking for a needle in a haystack if you're after Regulus Black." Minerva McGonagall shook her head sadly and stood from behind her desk in the Headmistress' office. "You were right in assuming that Albus helped Black escape from Voldemort, but Black disappeared from his Secret Keeper over five years ago. We've been unable to locate him since."
Harry groaned and sunk lower into his chair.
"That's not entirely true…" Phineas Nigellus called down from his portrait. "There was one time a few years ago when I saw him walking around the house. He put something in the study, a necklace or a pocket watch or something, and then left. Regulus never came back and I don't believe Dumbledore ever found him."
"Harry…" Hermione said slowly. "Do you remember the locket we found that we couldn't open? Back when we were helping Mrs. Weasley clean up the place?"
"Do you think that's it?" Ron asked.
"It might be," Harry said with a groan. "Professor, can you find Mundungus Fletcher for me?"
"It will take a lot of searching," McGonagall answered carefully, "but I can put in a word at the Auror office. Why?"
"There is a chance that the locket is still at Grimmauld Place, but I caught him flitching things from the house a few years ago and there is a good chance that the locket was one of the things he stole."
McGonagall nodded. "I will have him found."
III
It was nice to be able to relax in the cooling autumn air without worrying. Harry rolled over in the grass and sighed happily. They had torn apart Grimmauld Place in a futile attempt in finding the locket and had returned, disheartened, to the Burrow.
It had been very hard for Harry to return to Sirius's home. The memories had frozen him in place for a while before he was able to come back to himself and help with the searching. It was even more difficult than being in the Headmaster's office and seeing that all of Dumbledore's belongings had been exchanged with McGonagall's.
But now he could forget all that pain and just be. Harry let the soft grass sooth him and the gentle wind fly away with his sadness. Was this what it felt like to not feel? It was wonderful…
Days could pass in this serene solitude and Harry would never notice.
Ron thumped onto the ground beside Harry and gazed up at the clouds.
"It's nice out here," he said softly.
"Yeah," Harry answered in a slow voice. "I wish I never had to leave. I don't want to go back out there and fight, I don't want to go back into that pain."
"None of us do, Harry," Ron said sadly. "I think the only people who do are the ones who started this idiot war in the first place."
"But we have to, don't we," Harry sighed and rolled over to look at his friend.
Ron nodded. "Yes we do." He paused for a second to take a long look at the clouds before continuing. "Fred and George found Mundungus. He sold the locket down Knockturn Alley. Hermione has the exact address."
They helped each other to stand and both took a deep breath of the clean air before squaring their shoulders and forcefully marching back into the house and into the war.
"It's this way, I think…" Hermione shrugged even though it was hard to see her through the bulky coat and hood she wore to obscure her features from the denizens of Knockturn Alley.
They turned a corner and found a side alley filled with disreputable shops and grime and Ginny Weasley froze in place in the middle of the street.
Ron rushed forward and Ginny's hand dove into her pocket. Ron stopped short but started moving again when he saw that instead of pulling out a wand, she pulled out two lockets.
"Ginny," Ron breathed. "What are you doing here? It's dangerous! Mum's been going spare since you disappeared!"
"I was buying you idiots this." She tossed Harry the gold locket and popped open the face of the silver one.
Harry shoved the gold locket into his coat and focused on Ginny. "Why did you leave, Ginny?" he said softly.
"I heard along the grapevine that you lot were looking for a locket with a snake on it that was pawned by Mundungus Fletcher," she said, ignoring Harry's question with ease. "You lot should be more careful with who tell your information to. I passed Rookwood in the shop looking for the locket too."
Her finger hovered over the silver locket in her hand and Harry rushed to stop her. He had a feeling that she would again be beyond their reach in seconds if he didn't hurry.
"Ginny, please! Tell us what happened!"
She paused for a second and cocked her head to the side as if listening to a voice none of them could hear.
"I went somewhere I could be happy," she answered softly before apparently nodding to herself. She pocketed her locket and walked off down the street away from the trio. They watched, openmouthed, as she entered another shop and disappeared from sight.
Ron immediately moved to follow her but Hermione quickly shot out her hand to stop him. "Ron, she said that she's happy. Leave her be. Besides," Hermione glanced nervously around, "she said there was at least one Death Eater around and I would guess that were there's one, there's another dozen. Let go to 'Wheezes and have a look at the locket she gave you, Harry."
Hermione forcibly turned both boys away from the direction Ginny had gone in and propelled them down the street and towards Diagon Alley.
Five minutes later found them pushing through the doors of the always-crowded Weasleys Wizard Wheezes. They gave Fred a wave as they pushed past the counter where he was working and went into the back room.
George looked up from a bubbling potion he was hovering over and gave them a smile. "Don't touch anything," he warned. "Most of the stuff back here explodes if it's not handled right."
Harry found an unoccupied space on the table and dropped the locket into it.
"Is that it, Harry?" Ron asked as he and Hermione hovered over his shoulders to get a look. George abandoned his potion to come over and take a look too.
Harry flipped the locket onto its front and nodded when he saw the engraving of a serpentine S. "Yeah, it's the locket I saw Merope Gaunt wearing in the memory Dumbledore showed me."
Harry pulled out his wand and said, "Amour Detruisez," as he traced a heart in the air.
The familiar red smoke billowed out and covered the locket. George gasped as the smoke faded to black and then went back to light pink color moments later. Once the smoke dispersed Harry bent down and picked up the locket. It popped open to reveal a picture of two grimy people, Merope and Morfin, Harry recalled from the memory.
"It never opened before," Ron said in a surprised voice.
"That means the spell has worn off," Hermione answered. "That just leaves Nagini and Voldemort himself."
"Hey, George," Ron said suddenly. "I know that you and Fred go into Knockturn Alley once in a while. Have you ever run across Ginny down there?"
George looked uncomfortable for a long moment and walked over to his potion. He stirred it three times anti-clockwise and turned down the heat before he answered.
"Listen, Ron, Ginny's safe. Just leave her alone."
"You know what happened to her!" Hermione gasped.
George wouldn't look any of them in the eye. "We've known for a while what's been happening with her. She came to us in her fifth year at school for help with a project she was working on with a boy she liked. She came to us again to tell us that she would be disappearing a few months ago. They knew that we had the best chance of figuring out where she had gone so she came to warn us away from searching. Every once in a while she'll contact us and we'll go out to lunch."
"But!" Ron began when George stopped talking but was stopped when the older boy held up a hand.
"Listen, Ron. I won't tell you anything else. You don't have the right to know what Ginny is doing."
"I'm her brother, just like you!" Ron snapped. "Of course I have the right."
"You haven't earned His trust and you never will," George answered with a snarl.
"Him?" Hermione asked.
George shook his head. "Ginny's fiancé. Now, I won't tell you anything else so please leave."
"Fiancé!" Ron squawked. He stood up so fast that his chair toppled over. Luckily the chair missed anything explosive when it fell but George rushed over to check anyway.
"Ron, you really need to leave now," George said darkly. "I shouldn't have told you anything in the first place." He gripped Ron's shoulders and forced his brother to the door. "And don't go telling Mum either," George added as he motioned for Harry and Hermione to follow him out. "Or I'll feed you a potion that will make your bollocks fall off."
The trio left and George walked back to his potion.
"Sorry mate," George said to the blonde man who was sprinkling lacewings into the potion.
"It's alright," Draco answered. "You didn't tell them anything important and knowing that Ginevra's my fiancé might make Potter back off. I didn't like where his thoughts were heading." He growled but his hand was steady as he squeezed the juices out of a newt's eyeball into the green potion. It slowly faded to yellow and Draco took up a ladle and began dropping dollops of potion into Canary Cream molds.
"I haven't been able to find any information that would help you," George said with a sigh. "I've asked around, discreetly mind you, and haven't found a thing."
"I didn't expect you to," Draco answered with a shrug. "There hasn't been any research done on mind control before so there really wasn't anything for you to find. I did bring you that ingredient you've been looking for." He motioned to a bag on the table. "It should help balance the chemical equation and make everything less unstable and less explosive."
"Thanks mate!" George smiled happily and went to investigate the contents of the bag. "Oh, the trio saw Ginny in Knockturn Alley just now."
Draco sighed. "I know. I read their minds before I came here. Did you know that none of them have even the slightest training in Occlumency? I know that Snape was forced to give Potter lessons, but I have to say that they were a complete failure. The stupid scar-head didn't even notice me poking around! How can you expect him to defeat Voldemort if he doesn't protect his mind? Bloody idiot!"
George sighed. "He's got a pretty nifty love spell."
"Yeah," Draco answered with a nod of his head. "That spell has a good chance of working; I've analyzed it myself; but only if that idiot can survive long enough to cast it."
"Then I guess we'll just have to make sure that he does survive," George shrugged.
"Ginny and I will be there and by then we should have the rudiments of body control perfected." Draco looked up suddenly and smiled. "I have to go pick up Ginny right now. Goodbye."
Draco disappeared with one of his one-shot Portkeys and George returned to putting the Canary Creams out to solidify.
III
Harry ducked another spell and quickly glanced around to find Hermione and Ron. Both were fighting and winning so Harry focused back on his own hide.
Neither side had premeditated the start of this battle; rather it was more of an accident that they were battling at all.
Ron had decided to go back to the twin's shop to interrogate Fred and Harry and Hermione had followed. They Apparated to the Leaky Cauldron and had just walked though the brick wall when they had seen Rookwood, Macnair, and a cloaked man who later turned out to be the missing Lucius Malfoy, exiting Gringotts.
Spells had been fired, reinforcements were called in, and Diagon Alley became the site for the final battle. Harry had felt Voldemort Apparate in a few minutes ago and was working his way towards the Dark Lord just as Voldemort was blasting away people who stood in his way to get to Harry.
After long minutes and numerous battles they met.
"Well, well, Potter. We finally meet again," Voldemort hissed over the sounds of the smaller battles being waged around them. His high, cold voice raised goose bumps on Harry's arms and his heart beat faster as fear began to set in.
He fought past the fear and slung his backpack off his back.
"Voldemort," Harry said genially. "I want to give you back some things that belong to you." He unzipped the bag and upturned it over the ground. Five ex-Horcruxes fell onto the ground. Hufflepuff's cup rolled until it was stopped at Voldemort's feet.
"Oh, Potter, what have you done?" Voldemort snarled in what was supposed to be a nonchalant hiss but Harry could see the beginnings of real fear floating in his red eyes.
"Let me show you." Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at the snake circling Voldemort's feet. "Amour Detruisez."
Nagini hissed one last time and stopped moving as the smoke faded back to pink.
Voldemort didn't hesitate. "Avada Kedavra!"
Harry dove to the ground and the spell passed over his head. "Stupefy! Impedimenta!" He shot back some spells, hoping to weaken Voldemort enough to be able to use the love spell. Voldemort blocked both.
Around them battles ground to a stop as Death Eaters, Order Members and Aurors turned to watch the deciding fight of their existence. If Voldemort won the entire world would be destroyed. If Harry won things could finally go back to normal.
The next spell came from Voldemort but his arm suddenly jerked to the side a half second before the spell shot out of his wand. The curse flew way to Harry's right. He didn't even need to think about dodging it.
Harry felt his arm rise of it's own accord and he heard someone yell, "Stupefy!", in his mind.
Harry quickly echoed the voice and watched as the stunning spell hit Voldemort in the chest.
Before Harry could do anything, Voldemort fought off the effects of the spell and returned fire. Again his arm was shoved to the side by an unknown force.
"How are you doing this, Potter?" Voldemort snarled. Suddenly he forced himself into Harry's mind. 'How Potter?' Harry heard in his mind as Voldemort poked around.
"Get out!" Harry yelled though gritted teeth. He thought of his loved ones and felt Voldemort howl in pain as he fled Harry's mind.
"You're not doing that?" Voldemort hissed. "Then who is? Who dares to invade our fight?"
"And you said I would never amount to anything," a voice drawled from behind Voldemort. "That was right before you tried to kill me and I escaped."
Two cloaked figures stood in an empty space behind Voldemort.
"Malfoy!" Voldemort hissed incredulously. Harry could just make out the telltale smirk under the low hanging hood.
"The one and only," Malfoy answered back, "since I just killed my father."
He stepped forward and the other, smaller cloaked figure followed closely behind.
"Now then, Potter. It seems that you needed some help so we came to win you this war. There is an anti-Apparition ward up to prevent any Death Eaters from escaping so you don't need to worry about that." Malfoy stopped just out of easy reach of the Dark Lord and smirked. "I will hold this half-blood scum still, Potter. You do the spell."
Voldemort's wand arm whipped up but froze before it was high enough to successfully cast a spell at Malfoy.
"Hurry Potter. This bastard is stronger than he looks. I'm afraid that at my half trained state I cannot hold him for long."
Harry slowly traced a heart in the air with his wand as he thought of love and those whom he loved. Faces and memories flashed across his mind.
He almost faltered when he felt Malfoy add in two more memories of his own to the spell. The first was of a beautiful red haired girl, naked and writhing under him. The second was a memory of the same girl happily accepting his engagement ring.
Harry almost faltered when he realized that Malfoy was thinking about Ginny, but caught himself and pulled his focus back to the task at hand. He could force Malfoy to tell him about Ginny later.
"Amour Detruisez," he said slowly, making sure to annunciate every consonant and vowel.
Voldemort screamed as he was enveloped in red smoke and screamed harder as the smoke began to fade to black.
"Cast the spell again, Harry." He heard Ginny's voice coming from the other cloaked figure but chose to ignore her for more important matters. She was right; one spell would not be enough to expunge all the evil incased inside of Lord Voldemort.
"Amour Detruisez," Harry yelled and the red smoke doubled around the Dark Lord. It faded to black quickly and Harry was forced to cast three more times before the black smoke finally began to fade to pink.
When the smoke cleared Harry saw an old man lying on the ground, dead. Stripped of his dark magic Lord Voldemort had been reduced back to Tom Riddle's body.
"He would have been a handsome bloke if he hadn't ruined himself with all that dark magic," Harry heard Ginny sigh as she moved to give Draco a shoulder to lean on so he could catch his breath.
Harry was visibly wavering on his feet from casting such a taxing spell so many times but he somehow found the strength to make his way over to Malfoy and Ginny.
"What-" he began but was cut off by Malfoy.
"Remember those two images I showed you," Malfoy said harshly. "We're leaving so don't bother to look for us. Why don't you turn around," Harry gasped as he felt his legs respond to Malfoy's cue, "and go back to your friends." His legs started walking towards Ron and Harry even as he fought against whatever control Malfoy had on his mind.
For a second he felt his left leg slow but soon found it taken right back out of his control. He was stopped next to Ron and in front of Hermione, both of whom were bruised and bloody but not broken.
"Goodbye Harry." He heard Ginny speak in his mind and it suddenly came to him that maybe it was Ginny making him walk away against his will! "Tell my family that I said goodbye and that I'm happy."
By the time Harry was able to turn his head both Malfoy and Ginny vanished without the telltale pop of Apparition.
"Who was that, Harry?" Hermione asked as she pointed to where Malfoy and Ginny had just stood with the hand not clasped in Ron's.
"That was Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley," Harry said slowly and tiredly. Before Ron could interrupt Harry continued. "They've left and I doubt we'll ever see them again."
Hermione seemed to grasp some of what happened and stopped Ron with a gentle hand on his arm.
"Let them go. We have a job here. After all, we need to put every single Death Eater on trial and reform the Ministry! Plus I think I can really do some good with S.P.E.W. now that most house elves are masterless seeing as the Death Eaters who owned them before are all going to Azkaban.
"We can really do some good in the world!"
--
A.N.
The first quote is said by Horace Slughorn to Tom Riddle in a memory collected by Harry for Dumbledore in The Half Blood Prince.
The second quote is from Dumbledore to Harry in The Sorcerers Stone when Dumbledore was explaining why Quirrell couldn't touch Harry.
The third quote is again from Dumbledore to Harry in The Order of the Phoenix when Dumbledore's trying to comfort Harry.
Amour Detruisez is French for Love Destroy. Blame Babel Fish if the translation is wrong although technically I could be blamed for using an online translator…
I really hope you like how this story is going so far! Please review and tell me everything!
Mell8
