Chapter twenty-three…I went to see The Lord Of the Rings: Fellowship Of The Rings yesterday. It was pretty good, if a little repetitive. It left it in an awful place though, and now I'll have to read the books…*sighs* You'll all be pleased to know that I finally got my butt into gear and chapter twenty-five is over four times the usual word length of the chapters, and twenty-six has barely even started and is already almost at the usual word limit. You'll all kill me when you read chapter twenty-five though, trust me. On second thoughts, don't. I'm not a very trustworthy person…

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Come now, Harry. Don't you want to be comfortable for our little chat?" Voldemort laughed. Harry remained standing.

"There is no way I'll ever be comfortable with you in the room Tom, so I think I'll stay standing, thanks."

A frown crossed Voldemort's face. "Don't call me that."

"Why? It is your real name, you know, and you did respond to it."

Voldemort scowled at him for a moment, before smiling again.

"How does it feel to be responsible for another death, Potter? That's two in about a month, isn't it? So sad, really. The little golden child causing so much pain. How could you? They all had families, too," He sneered at Harry.

"I wasn't responsible for either of their deaths and you know it."
"Do you really believe that? I'm sure others don't."
"It doesn't matter to me what others think. As long as I know that I didn't kill them, I'll be fine. I'm not that easy to crush, Tom. I've spent fourteen years of my life living with the worst muggles there are, I know what you're trying to do. While we're on the topic of deaths though, how does it feel for you? You have the blood of millions on your hands, and the weight of their deaths on your shoulders. How does it feel to know that, Tom? How does it feel to know your own mother died because of you?"

"Never talk about her to me!" The image screamed, raising its wand.

"Crucio!"

Several people screamed as the spell hit Harry, but none of them were him. He stood still, staring at Voldemort. The curse died away, and Voldemort laughed.

"A little taste of what is to come, Harry dear, just a little taste."

"Pain can be ignored, Voldemort, if the person in pain has a strong enough will," Harry retorted.

"We'll see. Crucio."
Harry's hand shot forward, taking the weight of the curse.

"I've had enough," Harry ground out, teeth clenched. His hand closed tightly into a fist, and the arrow exploded. A shield shot up around the people nearest to it and the shrapnel shot off it to form a pile on the floor. The pieces of wood burst into flame as the image died away.

There was silence for a moment, then everyone started talking at once.

"How did that happen?"
"What did he do?"
"How did he know where Harry would be?"

"ENOUGH!" Snape had stood up from where he had been crouching and was looking about ready to boil someone alive.
YOU TWO!! TAKE CARE OF THE CLASS!! YOU! COME WITH ME!" He roared, pointing at Hermione and Draco first, then at Harry. When Harry didn't move he grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out of the room.

"AND I DON'T WANT TO HERE A SINGLE NOISE FROM IN HERE!" He shouted, before slamming the door of the potions classroom shut. There was silence for a moment before a babble of voices broke out again, the loudest being that of Hermione, who was trying desperately to get everyone to return to their seats. No one noticed a small glow follow the two out of the room.

Snape walked a little way down the corridor before stopping and leaning against a wall, drawing in a deep breath. Harry slumped against the wall beside him and slid down it to sit on the stone floor, cradling his arm. There was silence for a moment.

"Jesus," Snape said eventually, sliding down the wall to sit by Harry.

"Agreed."
"You seem awfully calm, considering what just happened."
Harry shrugged. "Believe it or not you get used to it. You're handling it pretty well."
"What?"
"Well, Voldemort was actually after you, he just wanted to annoy me," Harry explained.

"He must have found out…" Snape said, trailing off.

"That you're a spy? Yes, I would think so." Harry laughed suddenly.

"What do you find so amusing, Potter?" Snape asked, a bit of the bite that usually filled his voice filtering back in.

"A muggle weapon!" Harry gasped. "He hates muggles but he had to use a muggle weapon!"

Snape glanced at him, noticing the way his arm seemed to hang at an odd angle.
"You should be up at the Hospital Wing!" Snape gasped, shuddering as he noticed the bone of Harry's arm peeking through the skin. He reached out to lift Harry to his feet, but was waved away.
"An arm injury doesn't affect my legs, Sir," Harry said, getting to his feet. "And I'm not the only one who should be in the Hospital Wing."
"What?"
Harry pointed to Snape's head. A large gash near his temple was leaking blood, and a bruise was starting to form around it.

Snape sighed. "Come on then."

Harry began to follow, then stopped. "Don't you think you should get someone to mind the class?"
"I'm sure they at least have the level of maturity to stay quiet for five minutes," Snape said dryly.
"Normally they would, but a projection of Voldemort just appeared in their classroom and their teacher was very nearly killed. On top of that you left a Gryffindor and a Slytherin – who don't have very good track records, I might add – in charge. I don't think it's going to stay very quiet for long."

Snape nodded, a small part of him realising that he was beginning to go into shock. "You're right. I'll tell Professor Flitwick when we pass his class."

With that the two set off, managing to make it to the Hospital Wing without killing or maiming one another.

Madam Pomfrey was not impressed with Harry and Severus, to say the least. She looked suspiciously at Professor Snape, who protested that it wasn't his fault.

"Well, just about every time he ends up here you are nearby, it seems!" She said. Snape scowled at her. "At least it didn't take me two weeks to find a simple memory loss cure!"

Pomfrey reddened. "There were complications!"

"Complications, hah! The only complication was your lack of ability!"

"Excuse me, but we did come here for a reason other than to let you two yell at each other," Harry said quietly.

Pomfrey glared at Severus once more before turning to Harry, and healing his arm. Once she had bandaged it for support she flicked her wand irritably at Severus, healing the gash on his head. As she turned to fetch more bandages, her eyes widened. She pointed wordlessly towards the door, and a small glow that had slipped underneath it. The glow grew to become a pair of golden scales, and a hologram flickered into life. A tall, thin man wearing black robes appeared. He looked around the room irritably, before his eyes settled on Harry and he scowled.

"You. Sit down. It's time we had a little chat."