Warning: Major DH spoilers!

Harry and Edmund walked on either side of Aslan, heading away from the camp, the grass light and springy under their feet. Harry found himself traveling alongside the great lion in a sort of daze. He could only feel a sense of awe as he followed him. Edmund, on the other hand, looked down the entire time, painful guilt etched on his features. Aslan stopped as they reached the grassy edge of a large cliff. A magnificent castle stood at the end of a peninsula in the distance, a large cove separating them.

Suddenly, as though commanded, Harry stopped, Edmund doing the same to his right. Aslan stepped forward, and turned to face them, his brown mane blowing in the wind off the ocean.

"What did you mean…before?" Harry asked. Aslan glanced at him for a moment, then turned to Edmund.

"Come with me," he said. Aslan turned and began to walk, and Edmund followed, a look of trepidation on his face. Aslan led him a distance away and sat back on his haunches. Edmund slowly walked up to stand before him, Aslan's head almost a foot higher than Edmund's.

Harry waited in silence. Aslan spoke to Edmund in a soft voice that Harry couldn't hear, and Edmund would occasionally nod or say something back. All the while there was an intense, fiery look to the lion's eyes. Suddenly Edmund's seemingly perpetual downturned head lifted, and he looked Aslan in the eyes. He slowly nodded. Aslan nodded as well, and then the two of them walked back to Harry.

"Wait for me here, Harry," said Aslan. "I must speak with Edmund's brother and sisters." Harry nodded and watched them as they slowly walked back to the red tents. Harry looked out at the ocean, and closed his eyes as a gentle wind rushed through his hair. In what seemed like no time at all, he felt, rather than heard or saw, Aslan approach behind him. Harry turned.

"So, what did you mean about me?" he asked. Aslan looked at him with sadness in his eyes.

"You were not meant to know this until a year from now, but circumstances have changed," said the lion. "There is a piece of Tom Riddle inside of you." Harry blinked, unsure that he was hearing correctly.

"What?"

"The reason Riddle is transformed so, the reason he is more monster than man, is because it is true. Riddle's greatest fear, and thus also his greatest downfall, is death. Through evil magic, he effectively made himself immortal."

"How?" Harry asked quietly, his heart beginning to fill with dread.

"He committed six murders, each time splitting his soul from his body and placing it inside an object of personal significance," said Aslan. "His goal was to split his soul seven times, and he was going to end with you." Harry swallowed.

"But…he disappeared that night…after he tried to kill me." Harry touched the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Aslan nodded.

"And in that accident, Riddle's soul still split…and disappeared into you. This, my son, is how you have been able to see into Riddle's mind, to feel what he feels." Harry's eyes widened. Suddenly everything, his entire life, made sense. Everything was falling into place like the long-awaited finishing of a puzzle.

"So…what do you want with me?" Harry asked. Aslan stared at him solemnly.

"While seeing into your nemesis's mind might have helped you in the past, if you had not taken the step into Narnia, it would have led to your godfather's death.

"Wait, what?" Harry asked.

"Don't worry, he is safe now," said Aslan comfortingly. "What we must now concern ourselves with is what lies hidden inside you. You cannot be a Knight of Narnia with that evil inside you." Harry was silent for a moment, his mind still reeling.

"All right," he finally said. "What do I need to do?"

"Sit down, and close your eyes," said Aslan. Harry slowly did so, then let his eyes fall shut. He heard Aslan walk closer to him, then realized that the lion was nose to nose with him. He heard Aslan breathe in deeply, then gently exhaled.

"Harry smelled the lion's breath, and was surprised to find it sweet. It was the sweetest thing he had ever smelled in his life. Then, as though a curtain was falling away, he felt everything fall from him, almost how being put under the Imperius curse felt. But there was something different.

He saw himself sitting in a white void, an aura about him. But deep in the ore of it where his heart should be was a dark cloud, a poisonous black snake. Suddenly Aslan burst into view, shining brighter than the sun. Harry turned away and shielded his eyes, such was the brilliance of the lion's majesty. Aslan slowly approached Harry's sitting figure.

"TOM RIDDLE!" Aslan's voice rang with power, his eyes suddenly flashing with red fire. "YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN THIS BODY! IN THE NAME OF THE DEEP MAGIC, I COMMAND YOU TO COME OUT OF IT!" There was a blood curdling scream, and then Harry realized it was his own voice. Suddenly he was thrown back to himself. His scar was on fire, and a black shadow clouded his vision. Something was ripped from him, and Harry slumped forward, weak. The shadow swirled in the air before them, forming into a dark figure.

Who are you that you can banish me? Voldemort asked.

"One whose allegiance lies with the power of the light," said Aslan, staring calmly into the shadow's face.

Light! The shadow laughed. Light has no power against mine! The shadow looked to Harry. So weak, it said, beginning to advance on him. So vulnerable. Aslan let out an earsplitting roar as Voldemort came within a foot of Harry. Aslan moved over to it and looked it in the eye. Harry swore he spotted the same heavenly fire in the lion's eyes.

Aslan said nothing more. Harry slowly found himself rising, and he looked at the deathly form of Voldemort directly in the face.

"Go," said Harry, suddenly finding his voice and miraculously knowing exactly what he should say. "Go to Hell, where you belong." Suddenly Voldemort went rigid and let out another piercing scream. The shadows around it whirled like a black tornado as the scream continued, inhumanly long. Voldemort convulsed, and suddenly the shadows exploded shooting in all directions. Harry fell backwards as he was struck by a wall of wind. But then the gentle breeze of the ocean returned, and the remains of the shadow were blown away like chaff on the wind. Harry's breathing was heavy, his heart pounding.

"Thank you," Harry breathed.

"Kneel," said Aslan quietly. There was a new warmth in his eyes, and the lion smiled at him. Harry kneeled, and Aslan placed a paw on Harry's left shoulder, then his right, and then his left again. He realized what had happened after a moment- he was being Knighted, like Aslan said!

"Rise, Sir Harry the Purger," said the lion, letting his paw drop, "Knight of Narnia."