A/N: Another chapter done. This story is almost reaching its end. Another chapter or two should do the trick.
To bucky: no, I am not on crack, whatever that is… I know exactly what I am doing. Have a little faith in me, will you? I said it would be H/G, so that's what it will be…
To Cygnus Crux: yes, I know what I got myself into. But frankly speaking, I was a little disappointed. I thought more people would flame the last chapter, but only one did. Makes you wonder if anyone is still reading this thing…?
To mystical: thanks for the support. I agree with you on the review part, but I think that the period of time that fanfic.net was down had caused some people to lose interest in my old story, don't you think?
On with the story! Hope you will like this chapter. And a little hint for the next chapter. Think Phoenix and reviving. Anyone who had played the final fantasy series would know what I'm talking about.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The name Tel'anran'rhiod belongs to Robert Jorden and the 'Wheel of Time'.
Dreaming of youChapter 12
Phoenix's song
"Ginny?" Harry asked tentatively, his voice breaking the dead silence that had filled the room after Hermione had cast that dreadful spell. "Come on now. Stop lying there. We have to get back to the castle."
Ginny did not answer. She just lay there, a looking of surprise on her face, her red hair fanning out around her. Harry slowly dropped to his knees beside Ginny, his hands reaching out to her. Gently he shook her, then harder when she did not respond.
"Ginny? Wake up." Harry whispered, tight desperation in his voice. "This is no time to sleep. Wake up. We have to get out of here."
Again she did not answer. Her head bopped about as Harry shook her, but she did not make any other move. In sudden despair Harry pulled Ginny close to him, hugging her tightly.
"Harry?" Hermione said in a small voice. She laid a hand on Harry's shoulders, but Harry jerked his shoulders out of the way as soon as he felt it.
"Why?" He whispered, pain filled his voice. His head whipped around to pin Hermione with his gaze. "Why did you do it? Why did you kill her?"
"She was a traitor, Harry." Hermione explained, taken aback at the sight of his eyes, red with unshed tears. "She will betray you to Voldemort."
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, his voice was void of any emotion, letting his face drop down his chest, arms still cradling Ginny. "She would not do that…"
"She will, Harry. Don't you see?" Hermione replied, laying her hand on Harry again. This time he allowed it to remain. "She was under the Imperius Curse. She was commanded to fall in love with you!"
"That's impossible…" Harry whispered, his eyes narrowing. "No one could do that… We were in Tel'anran'rhiod… Nothing can fake that."
"It's true!" Hermione cried, desperate for Harry to believe her. "The voice told me!"
"The voice?" Harry asked, head still down. "What voice?"
Harry waited, but there was no answer. Then he felt the hand on his shoulders slip away, trailing down his back, all the way to the floor, and a heard a 'thud'. Wearily, Harry lifted his head, but Hermione wasn't in her previous position. She had collapsed onto the ground.
"Hermione?" Harry lifted his free hand and gave her a poke. She did not stir.
"Welcome!" Another voice rang out behind him. Harry felt his blood ran cold. He had heard that voice before…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Welcome to my humble home, Potter." Voldemort cried out, almost chortling with gee at the sight of the bleak anguish on Harry's face. "I wasn't expecting you so early. I thought you would take longer to find your way here."
"What did you do to Hermione?" Harry demanded, his voice raising as anger momentary override his grief.
"Nothing, really." Voldemort answered lightly, as he strolled to his throne. "She did it all by herself."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked again, as Voldemort sat down on his throne.
"I merely gave some suggestion to the mudblood there." Voldemort answered good-naturedly, leaning back onto the back of his throne. "Ever heard of the Imperius Curse?"
Harry's eyes widen as Voldemort's meaning sank in. "You… You used Hermione to kill Ginny!"
"Yes, that's right." Voldemort confirmed it, a slight smile on his face.
"But why?" Harry asked despairingly. "Your quarrel is with me. Why kill Ginny? And why Hermione?"
"Because it will crush you." Voldemort replied, his voice had suddenly gone cold and hard. "Your best friend killing your girlfriend. It will break you, and I didn't even have to try very hard."
"What do you mean?"
"I know that your class had experience in resisting the Imperius Curse. Why do you think this mudblood fell so quickly?" He paused for a few moments, waiting for Harry to answer. When no answers came, Voldemort continued. "Because of love! Because she loved you!"
By this time, Voldemort was so excited that he jumped up and paced in front of his throne. "Feelings are such fickle things, don't you think?" He said, his voice growing louder as he went along. "The mudblood loved you, so she dislike anything that got in the way. Normally she would not have done anything, but after just a little encouragement, see what she's capable of."
"But you are the one that was controlling her actions, weren't you?" Harry asked desperately. "You put her under the Imperius Curse, didn't you?"
"The desire was hers." Voldemort replied, his voice dropping to almost a whisper, but Harry had no difficulty hearing what he was saying. "All I did was to give her an excuse to do what she wanted to do."
"But why would you go to all that trouble?" Harry asked. "Wouldn't it be faster to just kill me direct?"
"Of course it would. But what's the fun in that?" Voldemort answered, as he returned to his seat. "I want to see you suffer, to see you in pain. I want you to pay for causing me to lose my body for fourteen years!"
"You wouldn't get away with this." Harry grounded out from clenched teeth. "Dumbledore is on his way here as we speak."
"And you would be long dead, Potter!" Voldemort pulled out his wand as he spoke. "Prepare to die, Potter! Crucio!"
Encumber as he was with both Ginny and Hermione, there was almost nothing Harry could do to avoid the curse. The curse hit him full on the chest, and his world busted into flames. It was almost as if someone threw him into a volcano that was just about to erupt. His past experience with the curse was nothing compared to this. His skin burned and his blood boiled. It was all he could do not to scream out in pain, but he would not give Voldemort that satisfaction. He clamped his teeth onto a fold of his robes, biting with all his might, straining to keep the cry growing in his throat from coming out.
"Pain is like a disease, Potter." Harry heard this seemingly from a long way off. The pain was messing with his hearing. "Long before Dumbledore can even find this place, you would be dead! Dead from pain!"
And yet, even as he heard Voldemort shouted out that last part, the pain began to ease. Then Harry heard a cry, a wild, ethereal music that he had heard only once before. The whole room seemed to be filled with the sound, echoing again and again within the confined area.
Then the ceiling caved in, as if a giant hammer had smashed against it, and the room shook. Dust began to fall from the cracks between the huge blocks of stone that formed the ceiling. Again the ceiling shook, again the dust fell. And that unearthly music rose again to a fevered pitch, sending sharp stabs of pain into Voldemort's mind, so much that he cried out and dropped his wand, clutching his head in pain.
But to Harry, the music did not hurt him. In fact, it seemed to strengthen him. The music supported him, lifting him up. The grief that was in his heart melted away, and Harry felt a peace came onto him, almost like those times when he had sat in the common room with Ginny, just the two of them, talking about nothing in particular. Despite the fact that Ginny still laid heavy in his arms, Harry had a sudden feeling that everything was going to be all right.
As he sat listening to the music, a bemused smiled on his face, the music rose yet again, reaching to such a pitch that had there been any glass within the chambers, they would have shattered under the assault of sound waves. Then, as suddenly as it came, the music vanished, leaving behind a ragged echo in the room. Then the room shook again, and the ceiling busted, breaking apart as a fireball entered through the hole. The fireball streaked down past Voldemort and Harry, then up again to hover near the hole it created. It began to swell, growing like a balloon being blown. A second later, the fireball busted, and Fawkes the phoenix appeared in the chambers, flaring its red-and-gold wings.
Voldemort slowly climbed to his feet, his breathing ragged. "Cursed Phoenix!" He cried angrily. "What are you doing here?"
Fawkes ignored Voldemort, flying lower and lower until it landed on Harry's shoulders. Not opening his eyes, Harry reached up to stroke Fawkes.
"You…!" Voldemort gnashed his teeth in anger, then he raised his wand and cried out, "Avada Kedavra!" aiming his wand at the phoenix.
Alarmed, Harry snapped open his eyes, only to see that dreadful green ray of light rushing towards him. Before he could even move, however, something appeared in front of him. Harry watched opened-mouth as Fawkes almost disdainfully flicked the deadly spell away with one wing, causing it to smash harmlessly into the wall.
If Harry was surprised, it was nothing compared to what Voldemort felt. Almost since his raise as the Dark Lord, he had been able to steamrolled over any opposition with the use of this one curse. Only once had it failed him, when he was trying to kill young Potter. But now, a mere creature had deflected the deadliest weapon he had. For one whole minute, Voldemort stood staring at the phoenix, before coming back to himself. Then he vanished, apparated away.
~~~~~~~~~~
Voldemort ran through the underground tunnels of his lair, trying to gather his thoughts. He had apparated himself back to his bedroom, gasping and winded. He had just remembered his lessons from so very long away, back when he was in Hogwarts, when he was just Tom Riddle. Back to what his Care for Magical Creatures professor had said about phoenixes.
"Phoenixes are creatures of fire," Voldemort remembered. "And of life. They are the bane of the Dark Arts, because of the magic in them, the magic to return to life. The killing curse cannot harm them, for how can a creature that can return to life as the phoenix does be killed? But there is a limit to the phoenix's magic too. Too many killing curses, and not even the phoenix have enough magic to survive. But no one would want to kill a phoenix, right?"
The class had laughed then, Voldemort remembered. But that memory had given him a new plan. To overwhelm that cursed phoenix with so many curses that even it must die.
But for that to happen, he would need his death eaters…
~~~~~~~~~~
They were flying above the Forbidden Forest, following the direction that Snape had pointed out to then when Snape sudden gave a cry of pain, and nearly fell out of his broom in pain.
"What happened?" Dumbledore called out, as Snape climb back on to his broom.
Snape did not answer. When he managed to return himself to his broom, he just rolled up his sleeves and held up his right arm. The Dark Mark burned black on his skin.
"Can you sense where to go?" Dumbledore asked, when he saw the Mark.
Snape nodded and turned his broom, facing a slightly different direction from the one they had been following, and flew off at top speed, the other professors following a little behind.
~~~~~~~~~~
"That was amazing, Fawkes!" Harry said, amazement in his voice. "How did you do that?"
Fawkes gave a soft cry and rubbed its head against Harry. Harry glance down at the phoenix, and a little farther down, at the red hair that was spread over his legs. His good feelings dropped right out of him, as his heart went cold again. Ginny… she was still dead. Fawkes had came too late.
Fawkes cried again, a sad cry as it looked down at Ginny. Harry was surprised to see tears in Fawkes' eyes. Seeing Fawkes' eyes brought his own tears stinging at his eyes. Quite suddenly, all that had happen caught up with Harry and he broke down, sobbing over Ginny. The sadness rose in his heart, so much that he felt it choking him. This was worse then anything he had ever experience, this soul-deep grief that he was feeling now.
How long Harry sat there, weeping his heart out, he didn't know. But suddenly Fawkes raised his head in alarm, calling softly. Harry lifted his tear-streaked face up, and froze. Standing at the doorway was Voldemort, behind him about fifteen people, robed and masked. The death eaters!
"Get him!" Voldemort shrieked, pointing his wand at the phoenix again. "Avada Kedavra!"
A green jet of light shot towards Harry, Fawkes being just beside him, followed by fifteen more. Before Harry knew what was happening, a large wing shoved him aside, just as he saw the green jets hit Fawkes. The phoenix cried out in pain, but it did not fall.
"Again!" Voldemort shouted. And another stream of green lights busted from the wands of the death eaters. Again the green lights hit Fawkes, and again it withstood it. But this time, Fawkes staggered back a few steps, its chest smoking from the curses.
Desperate, Voldemort drew back his arm for another attempt, but before he could shout out the curse again, a commanding voice roared above them.
"STOP!!!"
Surprised, Harry looked up, to see Dumbledore and the other professors floating over them on their broomsticks, Professor Flitwick appearing in the hole that Fawkes had made its entrance in, now noticeably larger. In all the confusion of green lights, no one had noticed the Hogwarts' professors appearing.
As Harry gazed at Dumbledore, a new feeling entered his heart. A feeling he had not dared to feel earlier. Hope.