Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. If I did I would be a far richer man. And I'd be a woman.

AN: Again, thanks to my beta, Grey Raven 09. This chapter is a bit shorter than the norm, but this spot was just too perfect of a location to avoid splitting it off here. Hopefully everyone enjoys the confrontation!

Please enjoy and let me know what you think in a review if you feel like it!

Chapter 14: Confrontations

"You have your Invisibility Cloak?" Rose asked chewing her bottom lip.

"Yes," Harry responded patting a mokeskin pouch disillusioned and stuck, with charms, to the small of his back.

"You have your incendiary runes and explosive potions?" Gabrielle asked running her hands down each arm trying in vain to keep her feathers beneath the skin.

"Yes," Harry replied tapping shrunken bulges on his belt.

"You have your emergency portkey?" Dora asked, her hair a jet black and her arms crossed as she glared at nothing in particular.

"Doubt it'll work, but yes," Harry said laying a hand over his 'locket'.

A bark from Sirius coupled with a whine had Harry nodding and shifting his hand to chest. "Yes, Padfoot, I have the two-way mirror with the channel already opened and silenced as well." Harry smiled at the girls – and dog – arrayed in front of him. "Guys, I'm as prepared for this as I'm going to get. I'm good and I'm ready. We're going to be okay."

"You're about to go face-to-face with the bloody Boogeyman, kid. You're not ready, we can't help, and there's no guarantee that everything is going to be hunky dory at the end of the night," Dora said scowling as her hair briefly flashed to red before settling back to black. "Voldemort is not a schoolkid, or a washed-up Death Eater wannabe, or a stupid reporter, or an evil toad walking around in a person suit. He is a fucking force of nature. Don't get cocky just because you've had some wins and an easy time of things so far, Harry."

"Yes, do not jinx zis when we are so close to our 'appy ending. We can't lose you a second time, 'arry," Gabrielle said, her accent heavier than Harry had ever heard it before. She moved forward and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing her Bonded tight enough he could've sworn he heard a rib crack. "Please be careful."

"I promise, Ella," Harry said softly. He returned Gabrielle's hug as he leaned around her enough to place a soft kiss on her cheek. "I'll be fine. Just be ready to get our people out when I get back."

"We will."

Gabrielle let him go and stepped back. Harry turned to Rose and opened his arms. Rose shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself, turning away and refusing to look at him. "No. No, I'm not doing this. I'm not hugging you, I'm not saying anything meaningful, and I'm not raising any Death Flags. I've played this game, I've read this book, I've seen this movie. I'm not doing it! You're coming back. You're coming back, we're moving countries, and you're going to give Ella and me a lot of little babies with green eyes and blonde and red hair and then we're going to die in a hundred years and get yelled at by our parents for falling in love with each other and risking the world just because we couldn't bear to be apart. So I'm not hugging you!"

Despite the butterflies that had started to fly formations in his chest, Harry chuckled at his sister's speech. "Well I can't fault that logic, Ma'am, but you'll have to forgive me because I myself want a hug. I am going to need a reminder in a few minutes of just why I need to stay calm and not lose my cool in front of that madman." He moved to Rose and pulled her tense form against him squeezing hard. Resting his chin on her shoulder, lips right next to her ear, Harry murmured, "I love you Rose, and I swear to you that I'm coming back. If I don't, you have my permission to fuck this world over. Grab Ella and Dora and Sirius and come get me and then we try again. If you can get some of our friends into the circle grab them too. If you can't, fuck it. We're going to be together forever. No matter what. One way or another. I promise."

Hearing a small sniffle from Rose, he felt more than saw her nod her head. Pressing a soft kiss to the edge of her lips, Harry pulled back and accepted a much more chaste, though no less intimate hug from Dora. "Make sure you get back in one piece," she murmured. "Just because we're like third cousins once removed or something doesn't mean we're not family. I took you guys in and you're mine as sure as if you were born a Black. You kick his arse if it needs kicking or you get the hell out of there. You hear me?"

"I hear you, Dora. I got this. If I can survive Australia, I can survive Voldemort."

Sirius whined and dropped to the ground putting a paw over his eyes. Harry snorted at his godfather's antics and knelt down to ruffle the dog's fur. "Yeah, I know, bad joke. Still, you guys are being all serious and stuff. Someone's gotta stay optimistic or I'm liable to die of a heart attack before the darn thing even starts. That's usually your job, but considering how many people are outside the tent…" Sirius lifted his paw from his snout and shot Harry a look that spoke his exasperation loud enough. Licking Harry's face Sirius shook his head and awkwardly laid a paw on the boy's shoulder. "Quite possibly the weirdest conversation I've ever had," Harry muttered as he stood up.

"Zat's saying somezing coming from someone who regularly speaks to 'is owl." Gabrielle chided with a smile as she bumped his shoulder.

The tent flap opened before Harry could respond and Sprout walked inside with a scowl on her face as she took in Dora, Gabrielle, and Sirius' dog form. "Potter, the Task is starting momentarily. Get out there and try not to embarrass us too badly. Your…friends will have to take their seats."

"You know, Sprout, one of these days, you're going to realize it was a shitty idea to get on our bad side," Rose spat as she glared at their Head of House. "You were supposed to be one of the first adults we could trust. Fat lot of good that ever did."

"Yes, yes, I failed you. What else is new, you spoiled little brat? Some of us have to look out for ourselves little lady. You would do well to remember that lesson. Your brother won't always be there to protect you every second of every day. Get out there now, Potter. I won't say it a third time." Without another word, Sprout turned on her heel and marched back out of the tent ignoring the glares directed at her back.

Dora broke first kneading her temple. "I swear she was never that bad when I was in school. Come on, we better get going."

The others just sighed and nodded, trooping out after her. With one final shared gaze and smile, the others split off towards the stands and Harry took his position next to the other Champions. Now if only he could figure out how to survive this night without resorting to his trump card, everything might just work out fine.

Harry sighed as he walked around another corner and saw yellow mist on the ground in front of him. Whoever his mysterious benefactor in this tournament was, the bastard was still working to make things easier for him this time around just like the original attempt. As Harry strolled through the changing gravity with his eyes firmly shut, he scowled, thinking hard. It was technically a good thing that he was avoiding most of the worst things in this maze, since that was increasing his chances of getting to the Cup first and keeping his appointment with Voldemort. Fleur already knew to keep the others from the Cup if she got there before he did too so it was two against two plus his helper.

Except this 'helper' was an unknown. The conspirator had never been unmasked in the original timeline and they never got around to trying to piece together who he might be in this timeline either considering they were preoccupied with their revenge. It wasn't supposed to be important since they had bigger fish to fry, but if the shite hit the fan…Harry picked up the pace. Whoever was clearing his path could easily screw them all over just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting the jump on them just when they thought they were safe. He needed to hurry and finish this stupid run so that his family could get the hell out of this death trap of a country.

As Harry hurtled around another turn, he came face to face with a boggart. At least, he assumed it was a boggart considering Rose and Gabrielle's mutilated corpses had no business being in the middle of the Third Task hedge maze. A growl rumbling forth from deep within his chest that shook his entire body. Harry didn't even bother stopping to think to of some way to make that funny; there was no way to make the blood-soaked bodies of his loves funny. Instead, Harry hurled a burst of raw, unformed power at the boggart in front of him. The bodies flew through the air, squealing as they impacted with a wet squelching sound against the wall of the maze. A second later the creature had morphed into an indistinct mass of blackness before disappearing down a bend.

Not even bothering to calm his racing heart or slow his pounding steps, Harry kept barreling forwards. Such was his focus on his path that he nearly ran headfirst into Viktor Krum as both boys came into an intersection at the same time. Harry only just barely managed to avoid crashing into the larger man's chest and stumbled to a wary stop as he eyed Krum. "Viktor? You okay?" Something was wrong with the Bulgarian's eyes…Why did this seem so familiar?

"'arry! Get away from 'im, he is cursed!" Fleur's shout rang out just as Viktor lunged forward and planted a fist into Harry's stomach. Harry wheezed out the air in his lungs, though years of living with Dudley and Vernon had taught him how to take a punch and he managed to avoid the worst of the blow, pulling back enough to remain on his feet. It was only sheer luck that the Bulgarian managed to miss the mirror stuck onto his upper chest. Probably a good thing though. The loss of that mirror so early in the game would be a tough blow.

Harry danced backwards getting his wand up to bear as Viktor twisted and shot a spell towards Fleur. The silver haired champion ducked under it and shot a gold colored spell of her own in reply. Viktor's shield blocked it, though he missed Harry's curse in exchange. Harry's bludgeoner managed to knock Viktor's arm aside and break the man's concentration enough for Fleur to shoot off a small chain. The Bulgarian rolled and shot off several spells as well though he couldn't hold for long against both combatants. In short order two stunners crashed into him knocking the large man onto the ground, his wand rolling uselessly off to the side.

Fleur, breathing hard, stumbled up to Harry and sagged down to the ground, one arm wrapped firmly around her left elbow and large piece of her shirt torn off with blood soaking through it as it was tied off around her leg. Harry grimaced as he knelt down to look over Gabrielle's sister. "Dammit. I forgot all about this. Stupid bloody memory charms! Let me see."

Fleur didn't resist as Harry grabbed her arm and started to run his wand down a long gash near her elbow. She just stared at Viktor as he lay on the ground near them. "'e was under ze Imperious. Gabrielle said zat zis was dangerous and a trap, and I believed 'er, but…'ow could someone do zis?"

"Welcome to my world," Harry muttered. He scowled and dropped his wand opting instead to tear off a piece of his shirt and tie it around her arm like she had already done with her leg. "Fleur, I can't heal this. I think it's cursed and I don't know the counter. I'm a brute force wizard; Rose and Gabrielle are the ones who know how to heal. You need to get out here and get that looked at. You're still losing a lot of blood."

Fleur turned back to him, her eyes narrowing. "I can still 'elp."

"You already did. You warned me about Viktor. Now take care of him, make sure they don't crucify him for getting caught up as somebody else's pawn. Guy's not very sociable, but he's not bad and he's actually pretty fun if you can get him talking. You get healed. I got the rest of this."

"What if whoever did zis tries it again?"

"Then I'll take care of it. Now I know to be on the lookout for Cedric. Go Fleur, get back to your sister. She's going to be so pissed at me if I let you die just when the two of you finally got along again," Harry said smiling.

Fleur shut her eyes and slowly nodded. "Give zem heaven."

Harry blinked at that for a second while he processed through what she was saying then chuckled and pat Fleur on her good arm. "Close enough. Tell Ella, I'm okay."

"Go." Fleur raised her wand and shot red sparks into the air as Harry turned and shot off deeper into the maze.

He ran for only another three or four minutes before hearing the distinctive shrieking of an acromantula. The shudder that ran through him at the remembered horror of those eight-legged nightmares was only slightly mitigated by the monster sounding like it was in the next passageway over. With any luck he wouldn't even have to see the thing. Of course he was Harry Potter and luck didn't work like that for him so…

Harry sped up and hit the merge point of the two corridors at a sprint. Yet again he almost collided with a competitor, except this time Cedric was obviously not under the Imperious curse. Had he been a victim like that he wouldn't have been looking nearly as terrified of the giant spider that was barreling down towards them.

Both boys sped up and started tossing spells over their shoulders at the creature, many of which just bounced off it's exoskeleton. The chittering coming from the mandibles was too much like laughter for Harry's tastes and he seriously considering calling the War Staff just to teach the bloody thing who it was dealing with. The issue with that was that if he slowed down to properly deal with the acromantula, Cedric would get the Cup.

The Cup they were rapidly approaching.

The key to his freedom.

The doorway to Voldemort.

The portkey Cup.

The portkey that he and Cedric were both reaching for…

Oh shite…

As the spinning stopped, Harry lurched to his feet and leveled his wand at Cedric as the 'older' Hufflepuff turned to face him, a frown on his face. "Once, just bloody once can't anything go right at the end of the bloody school year?! JUST ONCE!"

"Was that a portkey? Is this a…mansion? What is going on?" Cedric turned to the side utterly ignoring the wand that was tracking him and looking around the large, rather ornate room they had landed in. It was decorated in marble and tapestries along with stained glass windows set high in the walls, coupled with a wide flowing staircase in the center that almost gave the impression of leading up to a throne. An impression enforced further by the high-backed chair set on the landing and framed by the light coming in the window.

Harry's eyes widened as he saw that the throne was currently occupied by a pale, rather lanky individual with beady red eyes, a slitted nose, and a smirk crossing his features. "Butterfly effect…" Harry murmured. "Uh oh…"

"Is this part of the ceremony?"

"Cedric, you stupid, arrogant arse, get behind me right now," Harry hissed. "Does this look the Triwizard Tournament you inbred idiot? Hello, Tom. I see you got your body back."

"Harry. It's a pleasure to have you in my home. You don't seem quite as surprised as I had expected. Though from what Barty has been telling me, I suppose that should not be such an unexpected occurrence. So much about you has been subverting expectations in recent months." Voldemort said inclining his head and gesturing towards a chair that had not been there a moment a before. "Please, sit. Let us discuss events. I will even allow your…friend to live for the moment."

"…Harry? What the hell is going on?" Cedric asked looking between the two other people in the room and shifting his wand between them.

"Seriously, Cedric, shut up and sit down. You have no idea how delicate this is."

"No, I'm not going to shut up without some sort of explanation about what the hell is – "

Harry shot a trio of spells at Cedric catching the other Hufflepuff off guard and knocking him to the ground, tied up and gagged. Harry just stepped over Cedric moving to his chair. "I warned you. Alright, Tom, so you I assume I'm correct in guessing you're the one who had me entered into the Tournament then?"

"Of course, Harry. I had originally intended for us to meet near the grave of my father where I would stage a grand rebirth ceremony and then summon my Death Eaters and kill you in front of them while proving how insignificant you were compared to me." Voldemort leaned forward grinning as Nagini slithered out from behind his throne and hissed at Harry. Besides Harry's chair Cedric started making incoherent noises and flopping around. Apparently, he had finally realized they were a landing down from the Dark Lord. "Plans have changed though, obviously."

"Seeing as how you're corporal and we're not dueling to the death, I figured as much." Harry felt sweat beading on his brow and tried to force it back. He couldn't appear weak here no matter how off balance he was. While this wasn't going according to the script that didn't mean it was going badly. If Voldemort was willing to sit and talk that was even better. It increased the odds of Harry walking away with a non-aggression pact exponentially…as long as he kept his cool. "I have to admit; this is a new one. I figured you'd be all murdery right off the bat."

Voldemort chuckled. "I know how to make use of an opportunity when I see one, Harry. Now forgive me, but I do believe we have several guests before we proceed any further."

Damn, damn, bloody damn. Harry was able to stop his scowl from spreading if only barely. Several doors around the perimeter of the ground floor opened and allowed a small stream of Death Eaters to flow into the atrium. This whole thing was looking more and more like he was going to have to take his chances with the War Staff. Those weren't good odds with nearly a dozen enemies in an unfamiliar mansion, with unfamiliar wards, facing off against a clearly prepared Voldemort. At least it wasn't Rose here. Things would already have devolved into fire and explosions the way she had been handling events lately.

And wasn't that just ironic as all hell?

"I feel a bit underrepresented here, Voldemort."

"Back to titles then, Potter?" Voldemort asked leaning back and chuckling.

"Well, we have an audience now. It seemed appropriate."

Voldemort just shrugged. "Oh, don't stand on propriety for my sake, Potter. Anyone who repeats anything said here tonight will simply be killed. My followers know better than that."

"Gee, I see why people just flock to work under you," Harry snarked. He felt the mirror on his chest heat up slightly and snapped his mouth shut. Right. No intentionally pissing off the tyrant.

Thankfully Voldemort just laughed. "Ah, but you see, for every one that I kill, another four take their place. That is the benefit of choosing the established side, Potter. We have eager recruits."

"And the Muggleborn have the replenishable reserves," Harry said sighing. "Look, let's get something clear right off, Voldemort: I have chosen a side, but it's not the one you think. It's my own. Do I prefer the Muggleborn? Yeah, I do. Do I prefer them enough to risk the life of my sister and I? No, not really."

Voldemort clapped his hands together and leaned forward an evil smile splitting his lips. "Yes! That, that right there is why we are speaking, Harry! That is why you are sitting in that chair instead of tied up and being bled dry for a strengthening ritual! I wish you offer you a deal." He pushed up to his feet and started to pace in front of his chair. "You and your sister have been increasingly violent over the past few years. You have shown incredible levels of power. And even more recently, people who have frustrated you have begun to…shall we say, 'disappear'." Voldemort grinned as Harry's blood chilled.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course, you don't," Voldemort said chuckling. His faceless Death Eaters all followed his lead and softly laughed as well until they abruptly cut off along with their master. "Harry, you shouldn't have slaughtered Severus. I would not have noticed had you left him out of your rampage."

Harry couldn't help the twitching of his eye or the scowl that ghosted his face and he knew that Voldemort caught them as well. Shaking his head, he clenched his fists and let out a slow breath trying to smooth the furious sneer off of his face. "The bastard shouldn't have tried to take my sister from me and turn her into his own personal potioned-up sex slave." He ended up hissing the last part in parseltongue though the Dark Lord's grin just grew wider.

Voldemort nodded emphatically from his position by his throne, gesturing widely. "Such rage! Such passion! Channel that anger, Potter. Join me and I can show you power you could only dream of! I can give you the strength to always protect your sister. Pledge yourself to me and you will never have to worry about anyone hurting her again." Voldemort leant down staring into Harry's eyes though, surprisingly enough, he didn't push any sort of legilimency attack.

Harry took a deep breath and held it unclenching his fists as Cedric renewed his kicking beside him. "While it's tempting, I'm honestly more trying to stay as far away from this war as I possibly can, Voldemort. Rose and I, we just want to be left alone. By you, by Dumbledore, by the Ministry. That's all we want. We don't want to fight anyone and we don't want to hurt anyone as long as they stay the hell away from us. I can protect her already. Thank you for the offer, but I'm going to have to pass."

There was a renewed round of chuckling amongst the rank and file Death Eaters and Harry felt the goosebumps raise on his arms along with the hairs on the back of his neck. If it came to a running fight, he'd free Cedric and leave the other man to fight on his own as a distraction. "Ah, Harry. While I'd like to believe that, you must understand that I simply can't take the chance that you would fall under Dumbledore's lure. You understand of course." The Death Eaters moved forward, closing ranks and surrounding Harry. He fingered the pouch on his belt with his explosive potions though didn't draw them yet.

"Me joining the man who consigned us to torture for over a decade is pretty far-fetched, Voldemort," Harry said softly. Voldemort held up a hand and the Death Eaters stopped where they were though several shuffled in place and grumbling was heard in the ranks.

"And yet, I killed your parents."

"I never knew my parents. I know in my head they loved me," Harry said with a soft sigh not even bothering to try and lie, "but that is not the same as feeling it in my heart. You killed people who contributed to my birth, Voldemort. I care about that, but I don't care enough to place that over the safety of me and mine. I am a…practical creature. I kill those who need killing and I avoid those who need avoiding. You and Dumbledore both fall into the latter category."

Voldemort leaned back and steepled his fingers. "You sound as if you don't care about Britain at all, Harry."

Harry couldn't help himself: he let out a short bark of bitter laughter. "Try despise the place! This country has brought me nothing but pain. You lived through the war, barely, only coming out the other side as a shadow of your old self. My sister and I are the same way. We are not the people we would have been and we have Magical Britain and its people to blame, along with a few particularly uncaring Muggles. This country can burn to ground for all I care, Tom! You and Dumbledore can fight over it until it's nothing but ashes. Rose and I will come back and happily piss on the embers."

"Such hatred…" Voldemort murmured. He reached a hand down and lightly stroked it over Nagini's head the snake staring at Harry in turn. "I will still need assurances that you are not intending to get involved in our conflict, Harry. A Blood Oath would suffice I think."

"No. Hell no. Do you think I'm stupid? My godfather is Sirius Black, I've been spending summers with Dora Tonks, and her mother is Andromeda Tonks. I know better than to sign a fucking Blood Oath, Tom."

"Then we are, again, at an impasse it seems," Voldemort said, his voice coming out as more of a hiss than anything else.

Harry cast about for something, anything that could stop the coming fight. He needed a way out of this. He was so close to walking away without having to worry about Voldemort coming after them! His gaze settled on Cedric and his eyes narrowed to slits. Cedric who had constantly belittled him for months and turned the entire House against them at the beginning of the year. Cedric who had never really actually apologized for his actions. Cedric who was the son of one the ringleaders at his trial – a man who was high up in the Ministry of Magic. "What if I was to give you a gesture of goodwill? A show of how much I truly mean what I'm saying?"

Voldemort leaned forward and cocked his head to the side. "I'm listening."

"Fudge is…let's say, not long for this Earth. For reasons that I have no intention of explaining, there is soon to be a power vacuum in the Ministry of Magic. When he shuffles off, there are going to be two primary candidates for the next Minister: Amelia Bones and Amos Diggory. You could do an awful lot, holding the son of Amos in your hands."

All movement in the room seemed to stop and had a pin dropped it would have rang like a cannon. It was broken by Cedric starting to immediately bounce around on the ground as he tried in vain to get away from his position next to Harry's chair while Voldemort started to laugh above them all. "My, my, my, I must say, I have severely underestimated you, Harry Potter. What are your terms?"

"I'm leaving Hogwarts tonight and Britain in several days. I need a distraction though, so that Dumbledore doesn't pursue me. Seeing as how you've been back for awhile, I'm guessing you're strong enough to make an appearance?"

"I was intending to send a message tonight one way or the other. Either a corpse or a personal appearance depending on how the evening progressed. So to answer your question, Harry, yes, though I have no intention of striking at Dumbledore directly just yet of course. I do not trust you not to have set a trap for me after all. Instead, I will be retrieving more of my followers. Will that be sufficient to distract the old man and get you out of my country?"

"As long as you show your face and make sure to leave just enough people alive to confirm that you're really you, sure. That's not really a term though, just more of a note that makes life easier for the both of us," Harry said nodding and casting a silent summoning charm to pull the rolling Cedric back to his heel.

"Obviously."

"My actual terms are this, leave the following people alone unless they attack you first: Rose, all of the Delacours, me, all of the Tonkses, Sirius Black, all of the Grangers, all of the Greengrasses, all of the Davises, all of the Perkses, Susan Bones, Neville Longbottom, all of the Finch-Fletchleys."

"That is quite an extensive list, Harry," Voldemort said as he smiled and stroked Nagini again. "All for one little bargaining chip."

"One bargaining chip over the future Minister of Magic."

"Potential Minister of Magic. And I could just take the boy myself."

"Not before I kill him."

"We would kill you."

"I'm pretty hard to kill."

Voldemort laughed again, a deep rumbling chuckle that reverberated around the entire room. This time, the Death Eaters didn't join in with him. "Yes, yes you are indeed. Still, I need more if I am to agree to leave such prominent members as Neville Longbottom and Susan Bones aside. Greengrass in particular is a problem as they were quite…vexing when they did not pledge their support to my cause in the previous conflict despite numerous overtures. I find it is best not to let such insults slide and I have assured several of my returned Death Eaters that I would make an example of them."

Harry scowled and gestured wide, encompassing most of the masked men. "Your Death Eaters are cowards and pragmatists who abandoned you once it was convenient. I'm offering you a way to get Dumbledore's prime figurehead off the board without lifting a single wand. None of my people have even fought you or opposed you directly and none of them are staying in the country. Every one of them is coming with me when we leave. That's why I'm not asking for Amelia Bones or Augusta Longbottom. They're fools and they're staying here to continue to battle it out in a pointless Civil War that never ends and just keeps repeating itself again and again!"

"Nevertheless, Harry, I need more. You are giving up nothing, while I give up everything. What else can you give me? What other sacrifice can you make? What other assurance can you provide?"

Harry's scowl could have impressed Snape. He growled and swiped the fringe of hair covering his scar up revealing the lightning bolt. "Immortality – at least for another 8 or 9 decades."

Voldemort frowned. "You'll have to explain that, Harry."

"You came to kill me 13 years ago after you'd already done the ritual. While you didn't succeed in killing me, you did kill two others and you pseudo-killed yourself. It was enough to break off the portion of soul you'd prepared, except the remainder of the ritual never completed. I'm a pseudo-Horcrux for you, Voldemort. I don't have any of the magical protection that a real Horcrux gets, but I also don't have to worry about possession or having my soul drained by it. With good Occlumency barriers neither of us can see into the other's head though we can be aware of each other. You and I are linked.

"You don't have many Horcruxes left, Tom. I destroyed the Diary when Lucius tried, and failed, to use it to eliminate a minor annoyance two years ago. Regulus destroyed the Locket when he turned against you, after you used his elf to test the defenses. Tonks destroyed the Ring before you resurrected yourself when we found the Gaunt shack. Rose and I stumbled across the Diadem in the Room of Hidden Things at the beginning of the year and we destroyed that one too. The goblins are aware of the Cup and it's in the process of being removed and destroyed from Bellatrix's vault. All you have left is me and Nagini. I know how to get rid of the one in my head without killing myself. Do you really want to rest your immortality on the life of a single snake, Voldemort?"

Several of the Death Eaters had looked back and forth between Harry and Voldemort as he spoke their confusion evident even through the masks on their faces. Three of them though had begun slowly backing up from the group almost as if they were getting ready to run for the exit. This was a calculated risk. Voldemort would either accept that killing Harry was a gamble worth taking or accept the compromise and walk away with a win for both sides. Though that would likely result in quite a few of the less well-trusted Death Eaters being sacrificed to protect his secret. Harry certainly wouldn't be shedding any tears for these men that's for sure.

Rather than shifting into murderous rage and lashing out at everything around him, Voldemort instead slowly got to his feet and walked down the staircase. He stopped in front of Harry, reaching out to hover a finger of the scar. Ever so carefully, he made contact, both of the men grunting in pain as the protection inherent in Harry's skin from his mother flared to life and started to burn Voldemort, doing nearly as much damage to Harry himself thanks to the link between them.

With a hiss, Voldemort pulled back. "You speak the truth. No wonder you are so ruthless. You have grown up with my own voice whispering in your head telling you the best course forward to safeguard your goals."

Harry didn't bother correcting him. The soul shard didn't speak to him and never would. That portion of Voldemort's ritual was never completed. He just wanted it out of his head so that he wasn't connected to the bastard anymore. It didn't look like that was an option anymore though. "Do we have a deal?"

"Now that I am aware this connection exists, I will know if you try to destroy it," Voldemort said softly. "I will seek you out wherever you have made your home and I will destroy all you care for. I will make you beg for death as I torture and murder everyone you have ever loved in front of your eyes. Only then will I finally allow you to die."

"And if I leave it alone, my friends, my family and I are all free to do as we like with no interference from you or your followers."

"Unless they attack us first, none shall touch you or yours."

"Then we have an accord," Harry said nodding.

"We have an accord."

"Excellent. If you'll direct me to the door, I need to sneak back into Hogwarts and get my sister and my friends out of the country. When are you hitting Azkaban?"

Voldemort stepped back and jerked his head towards a large ornate set of doors behind several of the Death Eater escorts. "The front entrance is through that corridor. We will strike in 15 minutes. I expect word to reach Dumbledore and Hogwarts in 20. Leave and never come back to these shores."

Harry nodded. "Give me two days to get out of the country. I just have to finish things up with Fudge and my Muggle relatives first. Then you'll never see us again."

"For your sake, Harry Potter, I would certainly hope not."

Alternate title for this chapter: The One Where Harry Proves He's Just As Vindictive As Rose

Fanfic Rec: 'Harry Potter and the Last Chance' by LeQuin. This is a Harry/Hermione and another Reptilia challenge one. It's set with Harry being sent to 4th Year and the twosome becoming good friends with Luna. Also features an Asshole!Ron. I honestly don't remember much more though my notes remind myself that it was very good plus it's complete!

Second rec: 'Under Guard' by VonPelt. This is a medium length oneshot featuring Tonks/Hermione. It's set at the beginning of summer fifth year just after Tonks joins the Order and meets Hermione. Neither is impressed with things there though and they bond with each other after which Tonks takes Hermione on a date to loosen up. It's very cute and as with most things by VonPelt, very well-written and stays in character for the two front and center characters. All in all, a very fun fic with an unusual pairing.