Lord Voldemort had returned, he was standing in front of Harry and Riddle, yet to say anything.
"Now that the three of us are here, I think it's time for an explanation, wouldn't you agree?" Riddle questioned Harry.
"You've got what you want, let me go."
"Ah Harry, it's so weird to see you through my own eyes." Voldemort walked over to Harry and held eye contact with him.
"Not yet." Tom Riddle warned the older version of himself, which confused Harry.
"I bet you think you got every trace of us out of you with that silly little muggle surgery. They very nearly succeeded in removing the whole shard, however a piece of it remains, as well as the piece given to you on Halloween twelve years ago. You see, you have been operating under the belief that your brain is healing properly. What has actually been happening is the remnant of the shard has been shaping your brain in the image of our brains, once my older self touches your scar, you will join us, you won't have a choice."
"I'll never be evil like you two, I could never murder like you do!" Harry shouted out, angered at the insinuation.
"But you already have, Harry," Voldemort began, and paused to savor the look of dread rising on Harry's face. Then with Voldemort's next words, his fear was made true. "You killed your uncle Vernon." He laughed at the horror spreading across Harry's face.
/*** **-** ***/
The vampires had been slowed down by the Devil's Snare and some were dead by it. They were all sending sharpened sticks at the vampires, turning the ones that were hit to dust.
There were enough vampires held down in the Devil's Snare that they had formed a bridge over it.
"Your time is up Wizards. Stop fighting," the lead vampire challenged, only to be met with another sharpened stick through the heart. Professor Sprout magically grew some offensive plants, including an extreme itching Berry and a neurotoxin laced shrub, the leaves of which she was sending at the vampires, in conjunction with the itching berries, making so that they would always suffer from the potent neurotoxic poison.
The wizards were getting pushed back, almost to the greenhouse doors, and things were looking bleak. As Theo sent another sharpened stick towards a vampire something was thrown that cleaved his wand in two. They needed to do something now or they would die.
"Put your hands on my shoulders and funnel as much magic into me as you can, I have one last gambit," Blaise called out after setting a vampire on fire. The boys present did just that as Blaise raised his arms again. This time the ground around them became quicksand and the vampires couldn't gain any ground.
"Fine then, if we cannot feed on you we will kill you," one of the vampires snarled at the group, before throwing a knife at Dudley. Time slowed down as the knife flew towards him, he felt as if he was lightning in a slow motion world. In that moment Dudley was no more and a Thunderbird had taken his place. The knife clattered uselessly to the floor and the Thunderbird screeched before rising and summoning a storm. At the same time as this happened a herd of Centaurs had left the forest to remove the vampires, after discovering one of their own dead. The Centaurs shot arrows into the vampires' hearts, causing them to turn to dust, before they witnessed the majesty that was a Thunderbird. They set down their weapons and bowed as a storm picked up the few remaining vampires and began spinning them so violently fast that their insides were liquefied. So intense was this storm that it pulled a single feather from the giant Thunderbird, landing by Theo, who picked it up.
Once the storm had died out the Thunderbird-that-was-Dudley began to fly away from the area, towards the school, landing on the Astronomy Tower and climbed over the railing before settling down at the top of the tower.
The group that was still down by the greenhouses walked with Professor Sprout to open the doors and return the students to the school. As soon as they had counted heads, and saw everyone was there, they began heading to the school. It was at this point that two things happened, first the Professors finally showed up, and secondly all of the Vipers rings began sending the sound of Harry screaming and arguing with another person, before they heard something that made their skin crawl.
"Lord Voldemort has returned."
At the same moment they heard those words, their rings began flooding their minds with a specific location.
Knowing he could trust the man, Theo took off his ring and handed it to Professor Snape, explaining to him to put it on and help Harry. Once he could feel the location in his mind, it was almost screaming it, Professor Snape instructed the Professors to grab onto him before disapperating from the grounds of Hogwarts, which was only possible due to the wards being down. Deciding there was nothing else they could do, the Vipers began leading the traumatised first years, as well as Professor Sprout, to the Hospital Wing.
/*** **-** ***/
"You're lying, I've never killed anyone!" Harry shouted defiantly, disturbed at the idea that he had killed his uncle.
"I was controlling your body at the time Harry, I can see it right now. Would you like to see?" Voldemort closed his eyes at that and Harry's scar began to burn, followed by the images of him brutally murdering his uncle. He vomited on himself more than once while watching the scene unfolding.
"You are one of us, Harry, all you have to do is give in. The shards in you are gaining strength, I have literally no idea what the splitting of a shard of soul will do, but isn't that part of the fun? The same shard of soul resides within my older self and within you. Face it Harry, the three of us are the same," Riddle taunted Harry, a cruel look on his face, mirrored by his older self.
"Besides, Harry, there won't be any way to tell us apart when parts of your soul are torn out and placed within us. Then we will all share a soul, My Heir," the older version of Voldemort also taunted Harry.
This was it. Harry was going to lose himself entirely. As the two Voldemorts approached him, with glee covering their faces, the older one was suddenly sent flying back from a blast by Dumbledore.
"I always knew you would be back, Tom, what I didn't expect was two of you."
"Dumbledore! Always interfering in business that doesn't concern you," Voldemort and Tom snarled in unison.
"You won't win tonight, Tom, the magic of sacrifice is in play and you know it's more powerful than you can destroy right now," Dumbledore said as calmly as if he was answering a question from a first year.
Tom cursed and sent out powerful waves of dark magic as he and his older version vanished from the shack.
Professor Snape untied Harry and carried him out of there as he had passed out the second the two Voldemorts had left. The Hogwarts Professors left to head back to Hogwarts and to take Harry to Madame Pomfrey to be looked after.
Only Snape could tell something was off.
/*** **-** ***/
