Harry Potter and the Dark Sigil
Chapter Eight: Where Dwell the Brave at Heart
By: Harry's Mum Lily
Disclaimer: All characters belong to JKR and her publishers; I'm just borrowing them for a time. Thanks to all who continue to review my story. Your reviews are appreciated, they really are. I'm on holiday now and my cousins have let me use their computer to post this part. Hope you enjoy it. Reviews are good.
You have shown bravery equal to those who died fighting Voldemort at the height of his powers.
Albus Dumbledore
Chapter 36
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
And as he heard Voldemort draw nearer still, he knew one thing only, and it was beyond fear or reason: He was not going to die crouching here like a child playing hide-and-seek; he was not going to die kneeling at Voldemort's feet…he was going to die upright like his father, and he was going to die trying to defend himself even if no defense was possible…
Chapter 34
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Peter Pettigrew followed the Death Eaters long enough to find out where they were taking Harry and then went down another corridor still in his animagus form. He crawled under the door of the very last room in the passage and change back into his human form. His heart was racing and his eyes darted around the cell like room taking in nothing. Voldemort was taking Harry to the Chamber of Slytherin's Darkness. Pettigrew felt his heart plummet for Voldemort only sent people there who needed "special treatment" in order to bend them to his will. There were not many that had gone there that Peter could think of and most of them had not survived the encounter with whatever horror dwelled within that chamber. He shivered at the thought of Harry facing it alone, wandless and as weak as he was at that moment.
The time comes for you to make a choice between what is right and what is easy.
He looked around the room and saw what "rewards" his service to the Dark Lord had gotten him. The room was bare and there was a straw mattress on the floor in the corner. He shivered slightly in the cold air coming from the gray, stone walls. He had nothing and had lost everything because he'd once believed the promises of the Dark Lord. He wished he had not been so naïve, so easily turned. He banged his fists on the wall but held the scream of anger he longed to vent inside his heart.
You know what must be done…when the time is right. Until then you must find a way to help him.
He knew what he must do but could he do it was the question he was asking himself. The Dark Mark burned on his left arm and he knew he might only have but a moment to act. His eyes darted around the room and, for a moment, he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye but when he looked whatever it was had vanished.
Please…do it for the boy and for youself…be the rock that you failed to be in the past. It's your chance to redeem yourself.
He closed his eyes and relived the event that he'd tried for fourteen years to forget, the event that had forever altered the future. The night he had betrayed his friends and the cause they has stood for: the year 1981 and the place Godric's Hollow. He'd seen James and Lily fall defending Harry's life. They had died in defense of the Light that he had turned from and that he had extinguished within his own soul. He had betrayed those who had trusted him with their lives and the life of their young son. They'd been brave and had died but he was a coward who now had to live with the knowledge of what he had done. He'd tried not to think about it, to hide it in a deep dark corner of his mind. It had been so easy when he'd been a rat to forget the betrayals he'd been a part of. He had told Sirius the truth when he'd been discovered: he hadn't wanted it to happen and that he'd been forced to betray them. There had still been a small part of his true self that had remained awake even when he was betraying everyone. That had been Voldemort's way: he always made sure to leave enough of the bespelled wizard's mind intact so that they saw the evil they were doing but were unable to act to stop it. That was the part of him that had run, when Voldemort's curse was lifted, and it was that part that still grieved.
He had hidden as a rat for all those years to escape the memories of what he'd done, memories that he hadn't wanted to deal with. He'd locked the memories of those events in a dark corner of his mind, never examining them until the first time he'd seen Harry after the laters forced exile from the magical realm was ended. Then all the memories had come back full force and everything he'd lost was made clear again. He had nothing left but the memories of how things had been and a wish that things could have ended differently. It was all lost to him now, all of it, and it could never return. The past can't be changed with a wish and the past had haunted him all these years. His betrayal…the betrayal of those he'd once counted friends still rested heavily within his heart
James and Lily died for a cause they had believed in but what had he done. He'd let fear take control of him and had fled from the responsibilities that were a part of life. He's made the easy choice and allied himself with the very darkness his friends were fighting against. While others around him had held their ground, he'd broken ranks and ran. The others had not submitted to Voldemort's will and had surrendered nothing to him but their lives. He'd surrendered all to the Dark Lord and though it had kept him alive at a time when all of his friends were falling around him, he now felt that his life was cursed. He'd lost his honour, his hopes, and his very soul when he'd betrayed his friends and worst of all he'd betrayed the Potters not once but twice.
Peter thought about that night last year with a shudder, remembering with vivid clarity everything that had happened and everything he'd felt then. He had been unable to watch as Voldemort had toyed with Harry and as they had dueled. It was too much like an echo from the past…he could still see James and Voldemort locked in their final duel (for Harry looked so much like James). No, he would not allow himself to betray Harry or his parents a third time. The past would not be repeated. This time he would not run but would stand firm and face his fears.
"I will find a way to save him. I must find the way."
Somewhere in the past he'd lost all hope, honour and bravery but, at long last, he was finding them again. As he Disapparated to the Throne Room, he knew that he would find a way though there seemed to be no way. He didn't know what he was going to do; he only knew that the time had come for him to act.
~
Harry tried to open his eyes but he found that he didn't seem to have the strength to. He felt as if he was floating and the air around him was pleasantly warm and smelled of spring. He could hear a soft voice singing to him as if from a great distance:
Hush-lay down your troubled mind
The day has vanished and left us behind
And the wind- whispering soft lullabies
Will sooth-so close your weary eyes
Let your arms enfold us
Through the dark of night
Will your angels hold us
Till we see the light
He felt a soft hand brush his cheek and his eyes snapped open. He found he was lying on a hillside that was covered with small white and blue flowers. The sky overhead was bright blue and cloudless. He sat up and looked around him. In the distance he could make out the silver ribbon of a river and a distant castle. Birds wheeled overhead calling out to one another and pausing in their flights to bow at him and twitter their welcomes to the Heir of Gryffindor.
He heard the sound of footsteps behind him and, turning around, he saw his parents walking toward him. They had their arms around each other and they were smiling down at him. Harry looked closer and saw that while they were smiling they were also crying. He reached out a hand toward them but they remained a few feet out of reach. Faintly he could hear them speaking.
"Hold on…Just hold on a little longer. There is help close at hand. Please don't give up hoping…"
"I'm so tired…it hurts too much. I can't hold on much longer." Harry's voice quivered and a single tear ran down his cheek. "I am alone."
"Never alone…You are never alone…"
"Harry, please just hold on for us all," cried out another pair of distant voices.
Harry wheeled around and saw a woman who looked very much like his mother. She had red hair and green eyes too. A dark shadow seemed to hover near her and for the briefest moment Harry thought he saw a smiling face within it. The woman and shadow seemed familiar to him. He'd seen them somewhere before. She was also crying but she smiled a trembling smile at him.
"You can hold on, Harry. The blood of the Potters and of Gryffindor flow through your veins," the shadow whispered to him.
Harry looked from one couple to the other and somehow understood that he was seeing both sets of his parents. He reached out his hands and felt two pairs of hands touch his briefly. Tears blurred his vision for a moment as he felt the love and strength flow back into him from them.
"All we ask is that you try," said James, his eyes looking bright.
"Remember that the strength of your fathers lives on in you. The darkness cannot touch you nor can it lay claim to your soul unless you willingly give in to it. You are the stronger," the shadow that was Lord Grindelwald said to him. "You are not of the Dark and you can never be anything but what you are now."
Harry drew a great shuddering breath and closed his eyes a moment, trying to determine how much more he could stand. Finally, after several minutes of silence, he opened them again and looked at the two couples.
"Please let help arrive soon," he shivered. "I can't hold out much longer."
"Help is there waiting and it will come from a most unlikely source…Please try not to be too hard on…"
The hill, warm air and his parents began to whirl around him. Faintly he could hear their voices still telling him to hold on and he swore at that moment that he would do all in his power to hold on. He felt a shock of pain and then he awoke from his dream. Someone had flung him into a cold, dark room. His arms and legs were no longer bound but they were of no use to him. He could scarcely move for the pain that was moving through him. He couldn't move and wasn't even sure if his legs would work properly anymore. One appeared to be broken, judging by the grinding noise he could hear and the stabbing pain that came from it whenever he moved it. He looked around the room but could see nothing at all.
The cold seeped into his very bones, making them ache more and his blood seemed to be made of ice though he knew he was burning up with fever. He began to shiver, as a cold wind seemed to blow across his shoulder. He lay on the floor were the Death Eaters had flung him and waited for something to happen. His eyes darted around in the darkness as he tried in vain to pierce it. He could hear no sound beyond the drip of water somewhere close by. He tried to hold onto the images from his dream but found that he could not. His mind seemed to be drifting off and he wondered briefly how long he'd been here. He felt himself beginning to slip away again, letting the darkness embrace him once more.
When he next awoke, he was shivering uncontrollably and was colder then he could ever remember being before. He tried to sit up but found that he could not even manage that small task for his body was too weak. It didn't matter. There was nothing that Voldemort could do now that would weaken his resolve. He would try to hold on, he would try to survive this encounter long enough for help to arrive. He would not give up nor give in…
Noble and brave sentiments, Potter, but are you willing to die for them and for the Light.
Harry didn't trust himself to speak so he said nothing. Suddenly, the darkness was surrounding him, attacking him from all sides. He stood at its center and tried desperately fighting it with his whole being. He was not evil, not a part of Voldemort's darkness. He would not become a part of it. Never…
Oh, but you already have or have you forgotten this…
An image was burned into his mind and he saw himself standing within the ruins of was once a town aiming a wand at a defenseless wizard.
"I did not do that…it was not me!"
You will find it hard to prove to the Ministry. There have been reliable witnesses that have placed you there and in other places too.
Multiple images flashed across his mind, all of the towns he'd seen in his dreams. He saw himself performing acts that made his skin crawl. Surely he hadn't done those things. It had to be a lie.
But you have the Mark…the Dark Sigil. Feel it.
Harry felt a burning sensation on his left forearm. He looked down at it and found, to his horror, that it was glowing with a faint light and at the light's center was the Dark Mark like the one he'd seen in his dreams. The skull with a snake protruding from its mouth and the skull had a lightening bolt scar. The Dark Sigil disfigured his arm and burned with a white-hot pain that seemed to reach into his very soul. He cried out, trying to deny it was true. The Mark continued to burn and he felt himself grow faint with the pain of it. Darkness began to cloud his vision and he felt himself drifting away.
Come to me, son of Grindelwald. I call you to complete your oath.
"No!" Harry said with more strength then he felt.
You will submit. There is nothing else you can do. You've lost. You are mine at last..
"Never!"
Feel the darkness within you…you are evil…Dark magic runs through you veins…you can feel it.
The darkness closed in around him and he fought harder still. He would not submit no matter what happened, not even if his own life was forfeit.
Crucio!
The darkness came alive with his screams as more pain then he had ever felt ripped through him. He could not think or move and merely lay twitching on the floor. Around him the darkness rippled with cruel laughter and multiple shouts of crucio. He knew nothing but the pain and heard nothing but pleading screams and sobs.
"PLEASE…MAKE IT STOP!"
Harry writhed around on the floor caught up in the spell and in the images that were forced into his mind. He saw himself committing acts far worse then those that Sirius had been sent to Azkaban for in the past.
Do you submit?
"NEVER!'
If you submit the pain will end.
"No…I…Will… Not!"
Yield now. Join your power with mine.
Harry felt hot tears sting his eyes. He couldn't hold out for much longer and he knew it. He felt something inside give way and the pain doubled then tripled until he could no longer bare it. He felt himself slipping away on a wave of pain and darkness blurred what was left of his vision.
Surrender now, Potter and live…if you do not then you will die.
"Pain…cannot hold… Never…submit…forgive me…"
Harry felt the room spin crazily and then all was darkness.
~
Snape stood waiting in the Throne Room wondering what the Dark Lord's summons was about. His eyes did not betray the feeling of dread that had descended on his heart. He was afraid for Harry and what may have happened. He dreaded reporting to Dumbledore that their one chance to defeat Voldemort forever had fallen.
"Don't think that…Harry is strong like all the Potters are. He will survive because he must."
Snape shivered as the chill air of the room found its way through the thick wool of his cloak. The Death Eaters around him were whispering to one another, waiting expectantly for the arrival of the Dark Lord and his guards but inexplicably his throne remained empty. Snape began to pace the room, watching the milling crowd, trying to discern what the summons was about by watching their actions. Their eyes gave away nothing, no clues or any hint of emotion whatsoever, until he looked into a short, watery-eyed Death Eaters eyes. Snape had seen this one before in close attendance on Voldemort himself. This was a Death Eater right in the Dark Lord's inner circle by the insignia on his robes and it was a rank that gave this Death Eater no pleasure by the look in his eyes.
The Death Eater stood apart from the others, near to Voldemort's throne, but his eyes held such an anguished look in them that Snape suspected that this was one of the few who had broken through the Imperius Curse. His eyes darted around the room, moving from the crowd, to the door, to the throne and back again. He shivered slightly and the anguished look was replaced with one of resolve mixed with fear. He seemed to be waiting for something.
"But what?" Snape thought as he eyed the crowd, all of whom were beginning to grow restless and impatient.
Then suddenly ten Death Eaters from the inner circle Apparated before Voldemort's throne where they took up positions as his personal guard behind the throne. Voldemort swept into the room in a swirl of dark robes. He sat in his throne and looked at the crowded room before him and laughed a mirthless laugh, as dark and cold as his heart.
"Welcome my fellow Death Eaters. I have called you here because I have glorious news. We are at last gathered to welcome into our ranks one whose name was once a blessing to all witches and wizards of the Light and who will shortly be turned to the Darkness forever."
The Death Eaters all looked at one another while Snape's heart grew cold.
"No…he could not have…Harry would never willingly…" Snape's heart was racing.
"Long have I waited to bend this one to my will and the task is nearly completed."
The crowd stirred and a final person, wearing tattered, bloodstained robes that might have been scarlet at one time, appeared on the dais at the foot of the Dark Lord's throne. The figure was hunched over and was twitching as if still in the throws of a powerful curse. Voldemort came forward and raised the limp figure's left arm for all to see. Snape could make out the shape of the Dark Mark disfigured by a lightening bolt across its forehead.
"The Dark Sigil…symbol of one who carries the blood of Grindelwald…just as the prophecies of Slytherin has fortold. My soul twin who carries the same Mark as I had returned to my side."
Voldemort bared his left arm and Harry and those Death Eaters close to him could see the Dark Sigil identical to Harry's glowing there. Harry's face paled at the news that he was related to Voldemort but of his shock he showed no other sign.
The face behind Snape's mask also paled and he moved closer on seeing that the hunched figure was Harry. He looked awful. His pale face was bloodstained, bruised and dirty but his eyes where burning a bright green and seemed to be rimmed in fire. He spirit was not broken, not yet anyway.
"Harry Potter will at last take his place among us as has been foretold."
Harry's eyes burned with hatred and defiance.
"All that remains is the oath…You will say the words now, Potter or suffer the consequences."
"Never!" Harry spat, still looking at Voldemort with hatred.
"I think you will…for if you do not then everything you hold dear will die and you will be forced to watch as the world you knew is destroyed."
Harry remained silent, glaring at Voldemort with rage.
"You will repeat the oath now!" Voldemort placed one of his long, white fingers on the Mark on Harry's arm and his eyes unfocused as he screamed in agony. He slumped to the floor. Snape tried to move closer but could not get close enough to prevent Voldemort and the others from casting an Imperius Curse on Harry. Harry's green eyes became instantly glassy and the oath began to be spoken by his broken voice.
~
The oath of service to the Dark Lord was spilling out of his mouth and every time he tried to block it he was stopped by the wall the curse created around his mind. He could feel Voldemort's presence in his mind and he tried to fight its takeover but the pain he was still in made it hard for him to concentrate. The harder he struggled, the more pain was forced through his body but Voldemort. He'd nearly reached the end of the oath when he heard again the voices from his dreams, telling him to hold on and to continue to fight. He forced himself to fight harder to reclaim his mind. He had to do it before he could speak the last word of the oath or it would be too late. The room swam in and out of focus but he fought on with grim determination. He would not be turned, the oath he was being forced to take was false. He was Dumbledore's not Voldemort's. He would remain true to the Light and to his parents' memories no matter the cost.
Suddenly, his mind was his own again and he looked up at Voldemort with defiance burning brightly in his eyes. He closed his mouth on the final word of the oath and refused to utter it. Voldemort glared down at him and pointed his wand at Harry. The light coming from the wand blinded Harry. He was lifted from the dais and slammed to the foot of it hard. He lay there stunned and unable to see or move.
"You have defied me for the last time, Potter!" Now you will die and everyone in the world will know who holds true power here. Everyone will now see that the Heir of Slytherin has defeated the last Heir of Gryffindor."
For the first time Snape noticed that the Death Eaters on the dais were casting a very powerful projection spell, which was beaming this meeting into every wizarding home for miles around. He looked again at Voldemort and saw the sickly green glow that was coming from his wand. He was going to kill Harry in full view of everyone using the very curse that he had used to eliminate every one of the Potters. The last Potter would be dead and the long unbroken line of Gryffindor would end. Snape's heart felt as if someone had plunged it into ice water.
Harry lay unmoving on the floor at the foot of the dais, and stared up at Voldemort with no fear in his eyes only a calm acceptance of his fate. Snape couldn't watch. He didn't want the memory of Harry's death to haunt him as the death of his parents did. This time there was nothing he could do to prevent death from claiming the last Potter. Snape closed his eyes and felt tears slide from under his closed eyelids as he heard Voldemort's cold voice call out the curse that had taken the lives of so many. These would be the last words Harry Potter would hear and Voldemort's cold voice would be the last voice. The Light would die and Voldemort's return to power would be complete.
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort said with a devious smile and a look of triumph.
Harry stared into Voldemort's eyes, which were glistening in the glow of his wand. He stared at the beam of green light that he had no hope of stopping and didn't flinch as it streaked closer to him. His eyes betrayed nothing of the fear inside as he stared death in the face. He would die bravely and the others would take courage, fighting on in his name until Voldemort was defeated. It was the last service he would do for the Light and he would be remembered for his brave stand.
The green light burned through Snape's eyelids and he cringed as he heard the sound of death winging its way toward Harry.
"No!" he heard a voice cry.
Snape opened his eyes and saw the sad-eyed Death Eater run in front of the beam coming from Voldemort's wand and then there was a blinding flash of bright white light. When he could see again both Harry and the unnamed Death Eater were gone. Just then lightening split the sky above Azkaban Fortress and struck somewhere nearby. Several hundred miles away, a phoenix's mourning call broke the silence stillness of the night. A single feather fell from his tail, glowing brightly as it fell and all light was suddenly extinguished within Gryffindor Tower as the lamp, which burned when the Heir of Gryffindor was alive went out.