Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't even own Dudley.
Harry walked quickly through the forbidden forest. His eyes darted around – where was Bane? He needed to know what the centaur had seen! The forest itself wasn't helping much, either. The wind was blowing around the underbrush, making it impossible for Harry to spot movement. The sounds of the trees swaying made it impossible to hear sounds, either.
Suddenly, he caught sight of two eyes peering at him a short distance away. As soon as Harry noticed them, they blinked, and the creature took off. Harry noticed the flick of a tail and the sound of hooves. "Bane!" he yelled, and ran after the creature.
It appeared the centaur wasn't trying to escape Harry. Every time Harry thought he had lost track, he'd catch the sound of hooves and take off again. Was Bane leading him somewhere? What was this all about? He wondered.
Harry finally came upon a clearing, where the centaur stood staring at him. "Bane?" Harry asked tentatively. At his words, the centaur burst in a cloud of smoke, and Harry heard a low hoarse laugh from behind him. Harry turned around, and was greeted by the sight of a black robe with two red snake-like eyes staring out at him.
"Voldemort!" Harry exclaimed.
"Harry Potter, we meet again, and I must say you've grown much stronger," Voldemort remarked. Voldemort noticed that Harry didn't seem to be afraid of him. "Do you no longer fear me? Am I too weak?" he asked sharply.
"No, I don't fear you. And it has nothing to do with power," Harry replied
"Yes," Voldemort hissed, "that is good. You know, the death eaters are nothing compared to us. They cower in fear when they see me, and they will soon cower in fear when they see you. They are but mere servants. Don't deny it. You are more powerful than all your teachers, and you are but 15 years old. You could be great, you know. You could never be a death eater, but you could be something far more."
Harry squirmed, and Voldemort seemed to notice it, "You like power, don't you? When you made that first Nunquam Communatatus spell, and no one could remove it, you felt it, didn't you? A surge, realizing you're greater them? You didn't stop there, did you?"
Harry couldn't answer. The truth was, shortly after he found out about his new strength in willpower spells, Harry secretly spent some time refining his skills. Yet Harry couldn't brush away Dumbledore's warning about treading down the same path as Tom Riddle.
Voldemort sensed Harry's hesitation, and continued gently, "Power isn't evil, Harry. It's natural, not something to be feared."
"No," Harry replied, finding his voice, "power isn't something to be feared. Just how it can be used."
"There are only two types of people, Harry. Those with power, and those who are too afraid to use it," Voldemort harshly replied.
"No, there are two types of people: Those who are good, and those who are evil. There is no difference between you and your death eaters," Harry retorted.
"Power," Voldemort thundered, "separates us. I am powerful. They are not. Power is the only thing that matters!"
Harry then realized the difference between Voldemort and himself. Why he would never turn down the same path. "No, power is nothing. Your power doesn't mean anything," he simply replied.
Voldemort was quaking in anger, and before Harry could do anything, whipped out his wand and yelled "Crucio!" Harry braced himself for the pain, but it was muted somehow. He felt like he was in liquid electricity, but it was far from the nerve searing pain he remembered from Malfoy. He opened his eyes, and noticed that Voldemort appeared to be in pain. Harry cleared his mind, and the pain almost completely vanished. He only felt some mild pangs from his feet, which were easily ignored. Voldemort, on the other hand, was looking far worse off. His teeth were gritted and his body was hunched. A faint grunt emerged from his throat and Voldemort slowly lowered his wand.
Suddenly, four death eaters appeared off to the right. Apparently, they were far enough in the forest that it was possible to Apparate in. Harry whirled around, but none of the four had their wands out. They were staring at Voldemort, who was lightly panting. "15 years ago," Voldemort hissed, "I tried killing you. I was thwarted then by your mudblood mother. But she's not here for you now, is she? Kill him!"
The last two words were directed at the death eaters; Harry quickly concentrated and cast, 'Nutusus Aegis' upon himself. One of the death eaters cast 'Avada Kedavra' upon him, which just disappeared when it his shield. The death eaters were stunned. There was no way to block the Avada Kedavra spell. The only way to defeat the killing curse was to be immensely more powerful than the caster. But this was just a 15 year old boy!
Harry was inwardly relieved. He didn't know whether the shield would work for sure. Voldemort whispered, "So, you cast a willpower spell. That's quickly remedied." Harry was beginning to worry. McGonagall or Snape couldn't remove his spells, but Voldemort was more powerful than either of them.
"Finite Nutus!" Voldemort cast. He seemed to be drawing on some inner reserves, then opened his eyes and yelled, "Crucio!"
Harry didn't feel anything, but Voldemort visibly flinched in pain. "How," he asked, "is this possible! You cannot defeat me at this!"
Harry whispered, "I already did last year. Don't you remember the wands? I forced yours to regurgitate its spells. That was based on willpower too."
"You are nothing! Crucio!" Voldemort yelled.
Voldemort immediately doubled over in pain again. When he looked up, and noticed the death eaters. More were popping up behind the first four, and all were looking at the pair differently than before. They were looking at Harry almost reverently, but they were looking at Voldemort with something between loathing and pity.
"Crucio!" Voldemort called upon Harry again, and he fell upon the ground, heaving. Harry simply looked down at him. Voldemort was lying on the ground, a complete wreck of himself. If it were anyone else, Harry would have felt pity. But the day where Voldemort deserved pity passed far before his time.
"Kill me," Voldemort whispered. Harry looked at him in shock.
"Kill me," Voldemort whispered more insistently. Harry's head immediately screamed Do it! He killed my parents! He deserves to die! But Harry simply shook his head no.
Voldemort grew angry, pointed his wand at Harry, but surprised him by hissing "Avada Kedavra." Harry watched the spell hit his shield and penetrate it. Although he felt a small part of himself being ripped from his body, he certainly wasn't dead. Voldemort let out a high-pitched wail, and his body collapsed into a pile of dust, which slowly blew away into the wind. Harry felt more than saw a blackish apparition fade away into the forest, seemingly rustling the trees as a cold breeze as it left. He stumbled for a second, then steeled himself and took stock. He felt tired, but he could deal with that later. He held his hand up to his scar, which was painlessly throbbing, and turned to face the death eaters.
The death eaters were doing the last thing Harry would have expected. They were kneeling, with their heads bowed. "Get up," Harry spoke. As if their life depended on it, the death eaters immediately rose.
"Master?" one of them ventured.
"I am not your master!" Harry yelled.
They all cringed. Another finally spoke up, "You defeated our lord. We did not know you possessed such dark powers."
"That had absolutely nothing to do with power, let alone dark powers" Harry snapped.
"But…" sputtered the death eater.
"Peter Pettigrew gave his flesh to resurrect Voldemort. But two years ago, I saved Peter's life. He owed his life to me, and so did part of Voldemort. Without the ingredient from his father, he couldn't have killed me even if I were a muggle," Harry finished, and started walking back to the castle grounds.
He didn't know for sure what would happen to the death eaters. Hopefully, most of them wouldn't want to go back to Voldemort, seeing Harry defeat him. Of course, Harry had defeated Voldemort before, and Voldemort still managed to collect followers.
Harry was almost to the edge of the forest when exhaustion started fully setting in. He stumbled again, fell down completely, and was then greeted by the blurred vision of a centaur. "Bane?" Harry croaked.
"Hello, Harry Potter. I heard you calling my name. Did you need something?" Bane replied politely. Harry tried to laugh, but it took too much effort.
"The end?" Harry managed. He felt quite week.
"I still cannot see it."
"But, are we at a better start?" Harry asked, falling into unconsciousness. The last thing he remembered was Bane's voice whispering in the darkness, "Yes, I believe so."
Harry tried to open his eyes, but only managed to get them open a crack. He moaned softly, and the hand he didn't know was around his tightened.
"Ginny?" he croaked.
"Not now, Harry. You need to rest," Ginny replied gently. Harry fell back into sleep.
Several hours later, Harry came to again. While he was feeling as though he'd been trampled by a rampaging hippogriff, he felt much better than before. He opened his eyes, and noticed Ginny was still sitting there, holding his hand, but she was asleep. He squeezed her hand gently, and she woke up.
"You realize," he whispered, "I'm going to have to stop doing this."
"Stop doing what?" Ginny asked.
Harry smiled, and said "Almost dying,"
Ginny smiled too, and said, "You know it's been hard for me to do this."
Harry's smile turned a little sad, "I'm sorry. I've done this to you twice so far."
Ginny grinned, and said, "No, I mean it was hard kicking Ron and Hermione out of here. They wanted to wait for you too, of course. And I probably wouldn't have been able to get them to leave at all, if it wasn't for the two of them…" At this, Ginny didn't even need to finish, and Harry laughed softly.
Suddenly, the hospital door flew open, and Ron and Hermione bounded in. "Harry!" Hermione screamed, and threw her arms around him in a big hug. Harry grunted a little in pain, and Hermione released him. All the noise seemed to attract Madame Pomfrey, who stormed in with evil looks at Ginny, Ron, and Hermione. But before she could open her mouth, Professor Dumbledore entered as well. Madame Pomfrey saw him, pondered her situation, turned around, and exited muttering about how hospitals and headmasters did not mix.
"You know, this is the fourth time you've wound up in the hospital at the end of the year," Dumbledore spoke with a grin, "Keep this up, and I might start worrying about you." At this everyone laughed. Dumbledore continued, a little more seriously, "Harry, what happened out there in the forest? If you want, we can discuss this privately."
"What, no they can stay," Harry started, "I entered the forest because I needed to talk with Bane. Hagrid was going on about how he said 'He hadn't seen the end'. Hagrid thought it meant that Bane didn't foresee your battle with Voldemort, or didn't witness it. I realized that what Bane meant was that the end wasn't in sight yet. Which meant Voldemort was still alive. I needed to ask him specifically what he had seen, and I managed to find him. Or what I thought was him. It turned out to be an illusion, which led me to Voldemort. Voldemort tried to convince me to lead the death eaters with him." At this, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny flinched. Harry continued, "I told him no, how power didn't mean anything, especially his power. He cast the cruciatus curse on me, but…" Harry trailed off.
"It didn't work out right, you didn't feel it," prodded Dumbledore.
"Well, I did at first, but I could just dismiss it in my mind. But it looked like it was actually hurting Voldemort. He looked like he was in pain when he did it. He then asked some death eaters to kill me. I cast the willpower shield spell, and the Avada Aedavra spell they cast dissipated in it." Ron and Hermione's mouths fell open.
Dumbledore noticed this, and told them, "It's not completely true that the Avada Kedavra curse is unblockable. It is unblockable if the victim does not have a lot more willpower than the caster."
Ron sputtered, "But, that means that, that Harry is…"
Harry interrupted, not wanting to hear any more about how powerful he was, and continued his story. When he got to the part about the death eaters calling him master, Hermione and Ginny shuddered. Ron laughed, and wheezed, "A 15 year old dark lord! That would've looked funny!" Hermione and Ginny shot him severe looks, and Ron quickly said, "Er, I mean, you would've looked very intimidating, Harry."
Harry laughed, "I don't know Ron; I think it'd be funny to have hordes of masked freaks running around, tending my whims. 'Get me my drink, lackey!'" Harry fake commanded in a high pitch voice, which caused everyone to laugh.
"Oh, shoot! We need to get to the end of term feast!" Hermione remembered suddenly, and then noticed Dumbledore sitting next to her. "Er, Sir, shouldn't you be down there?"
Dumbledore smiled and said, "That's ok, the faeries are taking care of it." Hermione and Ron sniggered, but Ginny looked confused.
"Faeries alter time, Ginny. Time's going a lot slower for them down there right now," Harry explained.
"But Hermione is right. We should get down there. Harry, do you feel up to it?" Dumbledore asked. Harry took stock of his condition. He had aches around his chest and legs, but didn't want to miss the end of term feast. He nodded, and the five of them made their way down to the Great Hall.
On the way down, Harry had a sudden realization. "Hermione," he whispered, "the O.W.L.s?"
Hermione bit her lip, and said, "Er, you missed them." Harry didn't even want to think about what that exactly meant.
Ron caught what they were saying, and whispered, "I wish I could've missed the O.W.L.s. How are you so lucky?" Harry and Ginny sniggered, while Hermione playfully hit Ron on the arm. Dumbledore chuckled, and threw open the doors to the Great Hall.
Everyone inside seemed to be moving in very slow motion. Once inside, Dumbledore nodded imperceptibly to the faeries, and they all flew away. Time resumed; Dumbledore walked to his place at the staff table, and the others walked to an open spot on the Gryffindor table.
"Another year, gone, and yet again we haven't had a lack of excitement. I believe the house cup needs awarding now, as well. In 4th place, Hufflepuff with 292 points. In 3rd place, Ravenclaw with 337 points." Dumbledore addressed. At this, Harry could see all the Gryffindors and Slytherins sit forward anxiously. Right now, Harry didn't care who won. Voldemort was gone, what did it matter if Slytherin got the house cup? Dumbledore continued, "In 2nd place, Slytherin with 361 points, and in 1st place, Gryffindor with 723 points." The majority of the great hall burst into cheering, but Harry wondered about the point total, until he remembered Snape's contribution.
After the excitement died down to a bearable level, Dumbledore spoke, "There is one other affair I would like to talk about. As most of you know, Harry Potter has spent the last several days in the hospital, even missing his O.W.L.s. Most of you are not aware that this is because he was forced to fight Voldemort again." After the traditional cringing when Voldemort's name was used, Dumbledore continued, "However, I have good news. Voldemort was forced back into his formless existence which he spent 13 years." Almost everyone in the hall began celebrating wildly and everyone nearby clapped Harry on the back enthusiastically. Even the majority of the Slytherin table was rejoicing at the Dark Lord's downfall. Harry was too busy thinking. Back into his formless existence? But that means he's not dead. That means he can rise again. Harry quickly got over it. If Voldemort rose again, we'll just have to face him again. What did Dumbledore say? 'If he is delayed again, and again, why he may never return to power'. Harry joined in with his friends celebrating.
For reasons unknown to Harry, Dumbledore still insisted he at least start the summer at the Dursleys. But he knew the first chance he'd get he would be over at the Burrow.
The train ride back to King's Cross with Ginny took far too short of a time. He wanted to spend some more time with her, considering how he wouldn't see her for while. At least Ron and Hermione decided to get a different compartment. However, as the train slowed into the station, Ron opened the door and spoke to Ginny, "C'mon, we need to go Ginny."
"Just one minute," Ginny replied. "Harry, I need to show you something." She then pointed her wand at him and muttered "Nutusus Aegis." She looked up at him, and asked, "Can you remove it?"
Harry smiled at her, and brought out his own wand. "Finite Nutus," he incanted. He then cast jelly legs at himself, but nothing happened. He blinked.
Focusing hard, he said "Finite Nutus" loudly. The next jelly legs didn't work either. He looked up at her, his face a question.
"Harry," she spoke, "Dumbledore told you that power wasn't the end-all of magic."
"But…" he studdered.
"Harry, Voldemort was more powerful than your mom. But she still saved you from him," she prodded.
Harry started, "But that was because of her…" But he never got to finish, as Ginny kissed him, gave him an odd smile, and followed her brothers back to the Burrow.
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First, I'd like to thank all those who reviewed! Risi, Atheis & Aeris, Camelot, Caius, Stardazzle, LakerGurl, Avide Reader, Katydid, Blackletter, Ariel, JKButcher, Athena Keating-Thomas, and Rav – A giant thanks to all!
Second, I am writing a sequel to this, entitled 'Harry Potter and the Possessions of Voldemort' Harry returns for his 6th year, to find the school yet again under attack. Dementors attack, Malfoy returns, and there seems to be a traitor within the school…
For those of you wishing to find the story, it is under the following information:
StoryID: 1075815
Categories: Action/Adventure, Mystery
Characters: Harry, Voldemort