Chapter 6
Voldemort on the other hand looked positively proud of himself as he approached Dumbledore again. The headmaster was being held by two of the death eaters after trying to stop the curse that had been sent into the woods.
All of the other professors were now being restrained as well, and the students were being held at wand point, the dark lord just begging them to give his servants a reason to attack them.
"What did you think of that you insolent old fool? The boy is probably either insane now, or if he's lucky, dead. If you had just given him to me in the first place, then he wouldn't have had to go through that." He said in a sing song voice, obviously very proud of himself and feeling no remorse at having tortured a sixteen year old boy.
"I would highly recommend that you don't judge a thing till you know what's inside it Voldemort" said a clear and unwavering voice from the direction of the forbidden forest.
Voldemort turned slowly around and saw what he had been dreading, the image of Harry Potter looking straight at him with his wand pointed right between his eyes.
"But, you should be dead, how is this possible?!" exclaimed one of the death eaters that had participated in the curse moments earlier.
"Because I am never going to give in, never going to give up, until this piece of filth is dead" came the icy reply.
"This is impossible, no one could have survived that, you must have dodged it boy!" said one of the others who had participated accusingly.
"No, I received your curse, but you see, I still have another fight left to fight, and I refuse to give in to your curses until I have fought that fight and won, so I would recommend you get out of my way. I think it's time you face the face that you will be beaten Voldemort."
With that, the fight began. The students all sent curses at the death eaters surrounding them, and the teachers attacked their captors with a new wind of energy coursing through them.
Harry began to walk toward Voldemort steadily, his green eyes full of a powerful fire that couldn't be put out, but as he drew with in thirty feet of his enemy, he heard someone familiar behind him scream in surprise, causing him to turn and run toward his earlier hiding spot. When he entered the area, he saw Ron and Hermione both lying unconscious on the cold forest floor, a swarm of dementors surrounding them.
Harry didn't know where the sudden burst of energy came from, but he held his wand before himself and screamed "expecto patronum" at the top of his lungs, successfully producing a brilliant white stag and sending it toward the advancing dementors, ignoring the cold sensation in his own body and the screams growing louder in his ears.
The patronus succeeded in driving the dementors back into the forest and began to circle Ron and Hermione like a type of self assigned sentry guard over his friends.
Assured that they were in good hands, Harry turned around and headed back toward Voldemort, meeting his enemy in the middle of the manicured courtyard with pairs of dueling wizards on all sides of them.
"Ah Harry, I thought you got scared for a moment there, running away like that, but thankfully I was wrong. Let us finish what I started fifteen years ago, shall we?"
Voldemort then erected a shield around himself and Harry, successfully shielding any curses others might try to impose on them.
"Shall we duel, Mr. Potter?"
"Looking forward to it, Mr. Riddle" Harry answered a slight smirk on his face at Voldemort's expression at his words.
"You will pay for that Potter!" he screamed and shouted a curse that sent Harry flying painfully into the back of the barrier, grunting as he hit it hard, but getting to his feet again quickly.
"Expelliramus" Harry shouted back as he got back to his feet, but Voldemort just laughed as he side stepped the curse easily and sent Harry flying into the barrier again.
"Come on now Harry, you aren't making this very challenging for me" Voldemort spat at the boy on the ground in front of him before saying "Crucio" and putting Harry back into a world of immense pain once again.
This time though, Harry wasn't able to keep his screams inside and they burst from his mouth, so agonizing sounding that all the others fighting stopped their duels and starred at the sight in the middle of the courtyard in shock.
Harry was withering on the ground in utter pain and unable to hide it for the first time that day. As they watched in amazement, they could see very easily why he was crying out. His robes were being shredded on his body and underneath them they could see blood pouring from thousands of needle sized holes all over his entire body, effectively coating his skin in a thick layer of the fluid as he continued to scream in pain for nearly ten minutes.
Suddenly though, the screams ceased and his body fell limp on the grass that was now stained red. "Now it is done, the dark lord has succeeded in defeating the one they call his downfall. This pathetic bloody heap was not as strong as they all though now was he?"
No one spoke a word as they starred at the pathetic sight before them. No one even breathed, praying it wasn't true.
"Harry!!" someone shouted from inside the forest and immediately two death eaters left to catch the red headed gird that had just started running across the ground toward them. It was Ginny.
The fighting began again, and it was obvious that the students and teachers were loosing the battle. Many students were lying on the ground unconscious from either curses or physical injuries, and no matter how many death eaters were beat, more seemed to always take their place. Even with Ron and Hermione now fighting after awakening in the forest they were still hopelessly outnumbered.
Voldemort dropped the shield that was surrounding he and Harry and began to walk toward his servants that were restraining Ginny.
"My, my, my, this is a pleasant surprise. If it isn't the love of Harry Potters' life come to try to rescue her pathetic boyfriend. You will pay for the company you choose to keep girl, with your life." Voldemort spat at the petite girl who was struggling fiercely against the death eaters grasp.
Just then, another person joined the small group, gaining the attention of all present.
"But perhaps I'll give Mr. Malfoy the honor of this task, seeing how much he and your boyfriend despised one another he might rather enjoy this task. What do you have to say Malfoy? Would you like to destroy the girl for me?"
Ginny looked at Draco with her eyes burning with hate, but his next words shocked all four of them immensely.
"No"
"What do you mean no boy? This is an honor the dark lord has given you, you would be wise to see it as such." Said one of the death eaters holding Ginny
"Listen to your father boy, he knows what he is talking about, though you will still be punished after this, I will let you live" said Voldemort icily.
"No, she is innocent, I will not kill her, and I will not allow anyone else to kill her either." He said, never taking his eyes off the girl that was still struggling in the grasp of the two men who were much larger than herself.
"Very well, I shall kill you both then. Put the girl down Malfoy, Nott, and go join the others, I will deal with these two children on my own" said the icy voice.
The two death eaters did as they were told and turned their backs on the trio, Malfoy not even looking over his shoulder as his only son was about to die.
Draco kneeled down in front of Ginny, taking her hands into his and speaking quietly to her.
"Ginny, I'm sorry for everything I have put you and your family through. I didn't realize just how powerful Harry was or how brave until he said he was willing to give his life to save all of ours. I didn't realize I was on the losing until now. These men are monsters and they worship a monster. Can you ever forgive me?" he looked into her tear filled eyes for several moments before she closed them and nodded her hear, forgiving him.
"As sweet as this is, it is time for the two of you to die now, both of you" said Voldemort cruelly from behind them.
"No Voldemort, you are mistaken again. It is time for you to die not them" said a voice from behind the dark lord, who spun around in shock.
"Potter, do you ever die?"
"Not until you do Riddle, let them go and lets finish this once and for all"
"No, I think I shall rather enjoy you having to watch your precious girlfriend die"
"That will never happen Riddle, and you know it"
Harry had been steadily moving closer to Ginny and Draco and had now successfully put himself between them and Voldemort. Something was missing though, Harry's hands were empty, his wand was nowhere in sight.
"So you say Potter, but you seem to be forgetting something. You need a wand to defeat me, and you seem to have lost yours."
"No Voldemort, I don't need a wand to defeat you."
Voldemort looked confused for a moment before speaking again.
"And what are you planning to do to me without a wand Potter?"
"Destroy you once and for all by taking you to a place where there is no one else you can hurt, and where anyone who enters is forbidden to leave as long as they are alive."
"And where might that be Potter"
"It's a secret, you'll find out soon enough Tom, just be patient, and be prepared to die there, I know I am because there is no escape from hell" Harry said with a frightening looking smile on his face, making Draco think that the intensely powerful curses from earlier had defiantly taken their toll on Potters mind.
Voldemort was enraged, he lifted his wand and pointed it straight at Harry's heart and screamed two words that echoed across the ground, catching the attention of death eaters and Hogwarts people alike. They all just starred in shock at what was about to happen. The last any of them had seen of Harry he had been lying in a bloody unbreathing heap in the middle of the courtyard, but now he was standing on a far side of the grounds between Voldemort and Draco and Ginny. He looked strong and radiated power greater than any of them had ever seen before, his bright green eyes lit with a deep fire and focused intently on the enemy before him with complete hatred.
"AVADRA KEDAVRA" Voldemort screamed at the boy standing before him, sending a bright flash of green light right at his chest, but what happened next was still a complete mystery to the entire wizarding world.
To those watching, they say Harry fly through the air as though hit with a strong force, but before his lifeless body hit the ground in front of Draco and Ginny, another bright light flashed through the grounds, but this one was white and it blinded everyone present for several moments. Once they were able to see again, Harry and Voldemort had vanished, and so had all the other death eaters that hadn't been stunned as well as all the dementors hiding in the forest.
Dumbledore rushed up to Ginny and Draco who were both lying on the ground, afraid they were dead, but he was relieved to find that they had both just been knocked unconscious by the force of whatever energy it was that had caused Harry and all their enemies to vanish. Summoning stretchers for the two students and all the others that had been injured, Dumbledore took the two of them to the hospital wing immediately, hoping they had heard what had gone on between Harry and Voldemort and their stories might help him to find out what had just happened.
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"How's he doing this morning Mary?"
"About the same sir, maybe even a little better. It seems as though this boy has lived a rough past couple months, both emotionally and physically. He spent the entire night tossing and turning and muttering the same few sentences in his sleep."
"What was he saying, perhaps it could help us find out who he is." Said the doctor, while he carefully pulled back the sheets covering the boy to examine him and see if his injuries had begun to heal at all within the past two week that he had been in their care.
"Well, I couldn't make it all out, but I did catch something along the lines of 'hide in the forest' or something and he kept saying something about 'if he has me then he'll leave you alone'. And then he said some names, but nothing about them other than he was sorry to leave them and then there was one he kept saying he loved, a girl named Ginny.
I don't know what to make of the other names though, they were strange, so I don't know if they are real people or just some figments of his imagination, there was Dumbledore, Remus, Sirius, Hermione, Ron, and Draco. What do you make of all of this doctor?"
"I don't know Mary, if only he would talk when he was awake instead of just starring at the ceiling with that blank haunted expression on his face we could find out who he is and where he belongs." The doctor groaned in frustration.
The past two weeks had been some of the hardest the young had been forced to endure during the course of his short career.
After the boys violent nightmare had subsided and the strange tattoo had been discovered, a team of the brightest and most talented doctors in the whole of London had evaluated the boy and all had said the same thing.
He shouldn't be alive.
Voldemort on the other hand looked positively proud of himself as he approached Dumbledore again. The headmaster was being held by two of the death eaters after trying to stop the curse that had been sent into the woods.
All of the other professors were now being restrained as well, and the students were being held at wand point, the dark lord just begging them to give his servants a reason to attack them.
"What did you think of that you insolent old fool? The boy is probably either insane now, or if he's lucky, dead. If you had just given him to me in the first place, then he wouldn't have had to go through that." He said in a sing song voice, obviously very proud of himself and feeling no remorse at having tortured a sixteen year old boy.
"I would highly recommend that you don't judge a thing till you know what's inside it Voldemort" said a clear and unwavering voice from the direction of the forbidden forest.
Voldemort turned slowly around and saw what he had been dreading, the image of Harry Potter looking straight at him with his wand pointed right between his eyes.
"But, you should be dead, how is this possible?!" exclaimed one of the death eaters that had participated in the curse moments earlier.
"Because I am never going to give in, never going to give up, until this piece of filth is dead" came the icy reply.
"This is impossible, no one could have survived that, you must have dodged it boy!" said one of the others who had participated accusingly.
"No, I received your curse, but you see, I still have another fight left to fight, and I refuse to give in to your curses until I have fought that fight and won, so I would recommend you get out of my way. I think it's time you face the face that you will be beaten Voldemort."
With that, the fight began. The students all sent curses at the death eaters surrounding them, and the teachers attacked their captors with a new wind of energy coursing through them.
Harry began to walk toward Voldemort steadily, his green eyes full of a powerful fire that couldn't be put out, but as he drew with in thirty feet of his enemy, he heard someone familiar behind him scream in surprise, causing him to turn and run toward his earlier hiding spot. When he entered the area, he saw Ron and Hermione both lying unconscious on the cold forest floor, a swarm of dementors surrounding them.
Harry didn't know where the sudden burst of energy came from, but he held his wand before himself and screamed "expecto patronum" at the top of his lungs, successfully producing a brilliant white stag and sending it toward the advancing dementors, ignoring the cold sensation in his own body and the screams growing louder in his ears.
The patronus succeeded in driving the dementors back into the forest and began to circle Ron and Hermione like a type of self assigned sentry guard over his friends.
Assured that they were in good hands, Harry turned around and headed back toward Voldemort, meeting his enemy in the middle of the manicured courtyard with pairs of dueling wizards on all sides of them.
"Ah Harry, I thought you got scared for a moment there, running away like that, but thankfully I was wrong. Let us finish what I started fifteen years ago, shall we?"
Voldemort then erected a shield around himself and Harry, successfully shielding any curses others might try to impose on them.
"Shall we duel, Mr. Potter?"
"Looking forward to it, Mr. Riddle" Harry answered a slight smirk on his face at Voldemort's expression at his words.
"You will pay for that Potter!" he screamed and shouted a curse that sent Harry flying painfully into the back of the barrier, grunting as he hit it hard, but getting to his feet again quickly.
"Expelliramus" Harry shouted back as he got back to his feet, but Voldemort just laughed as he side stepped the curse easily and sent Harry flying into the barrier again.
"Come on now Harry, you aren't making this very challenging for me" Voldemort spat at the boy on the ground in front of him before saying "Crucio" and putting Harry back into a world of immense pain once again.
This time though, Harry wasn't able to keep his screams inside and they burst from his mouth, so agonizing sounding that all the others fighting stopped their duels and starred at the sight in the middle of the courtyard in shock.
Harry was withering on the ground in utter pain and unable to hide it for the first time that day. As they watched in amazement, they could see very easily why he was crying out. His robes were being shredded on his body and underneath them they could see blood pouring from thousands of needle sized holes all over his entire body, effectively coating his skin in a thick layer of the fluid as he continued to scream in pain for nearly ten minutes.
Suddenly though, the screams ceased and his body fell limp on the grass that was now stained red. "Now it is done, the dark lord has succeeded in defeating the one they call his downfall. This pathetic bloody heap was not as strong as they all though now was he?"
No one spoke a word as they starred at the pathetic sight before them. No one even breathed, praying it wasn't true.
"Harry!!" someone shouted from inside the forest and immediately two death eaters left to catch the red headed gird that had just started running across the ground toward them. It was Ginny.
The fighting began again, and it was obvious that the students and teachers were loosing the battle. Many students were lying on the ground unconscious from either curses or physical injuries, and no matter how many death eaters were beat, more seemed to always take their place. Even with Ron and Hermione now fighting after awakening in the forest they were still hopelessly outnumbered.
Voldemort dropped the shield that was surrounding he and Harry and began to walk toward his servants that were restraining Ginny.
"My, my, my, this is a pleasant surprise. If it isn't the love of Harry Potters' life come to try to rescue her pathetic boyfriend. You will pay for the company you choose to keep girl, with your life." Voldemort spat at the petite girl who was struggling fiercely against the death eaters grasp.
Just then, another person joined the small group, gaining the attention of all present.
"But perhaps I'll give Mr. Malfoy the honor of this task, seeing how much he and your boyfriend despised one another he might rather enjoy this task. What do you have to say Malfoy? Would you like to destroy the girl for me?"
Ginny looked at Draco with her eyes burning with hate, but his next words shocked all four of them immensely.
"No"
"What do you mean no boy? This is an honor the dark lord has given you, you would be wise to see it as such." Said one of the death eaters holding Ginny
"Listen to your father boy, he knows what he is talking about, though you will still be punished after this, I will let you live" said Voldemort icily.
"No, she is innocent, I will not kill her, and I will not allow anyone else to kill her either." He said, never taking his eyes off the girl that was still struggling in the grasp of the two men who were much larger than herself.
"Very well, I shall kill you both then. Put the girl down Malfoy, Nott, and go join the others, I will deal with these two children on my own" said the icy voice.
The two death eaters did as they were told and turned their backs on the trio, Malfoy not even looking over his shoulder as his only son was about to die.
Draco kneeled down in front of Ginny, taking her hands into his and speaking quietly to her.
"Ginny, I'm sorry for everything I have put you and your family through. I didn't realize just how powerful Harry was or how brave until he said he was willing to give his life to save all of ours. I didn't realize I was on the losing until now. These men are monsters and they worship a monster. Can you ever forgive me?" he looked into her tear filled eyes for several moments before she closed them and nodded her hear, forgiving him.
"As sweet as this is, it is time for the two of you to die now, both of you" said Voldemort cruelly from behind them.
"No Voldemort, you are mistaken again. It is time for you to die not them" said a voice from behind the dark lord, who spun around in shock.
"Potter, do you ever die?"
"Not until you do Riddle, let them go and lets finish this once and for all"
"No, I think I shall rather enjoy you having to watch your precious girlfriend die"
"That will never happen Riddle, and you know it"
Harry had been steadily moving closer to Ginny and Draco and had now successfully put himself between them and Voldemort. Something was missing though, Harry's hands were empty, his wand was nowhere in sight.
"So you say Potter, but you seem to be forgetting something. You need a wand to defeat me, and you seem to have lost yours."
"No Voldemort, I don't need a wand to defeat you."
Voldemort looked confused for a moment before speaking again.
"And what are you planning to do to me without a wand Potter?"
"Destroy you once and for all by taking you to a place where there is no one else you can hurt, and where anyone who enters is forbidden to leave as long as they are alive."
"And where might that be Potter"
"It's a secret, you'll find out soon enough Tom, just be patient, and be prepared to die there, I know I am because there is no escape from hell" Harry said with a frightening looking smile on his face, making Draco think that the intensely powerful curses from earlier had defiantly taken their toll on Potters mind.
Voldemort was enraged, he lifted his wand and pointed it straight at Harry's heart and screamed two words that echoed across the ground, catching the attention of death eaters and Hogwarts people alike. They all just starred in shock at what was about to happen. The last any of them had seen of Harry he had been lying in a bloody unbreathing heap in the middle of the courtyard, but now he was standing on a far side of the grounds between Voldemort and Draco and Ginny. He looked strong and radiated power greater than any of them had ever seen before, his bright green eyes lit with a deep fire and focused intently on the enemy before him with complete hatred.
"AVADRA KEDAVRA" Voldemort screamed at the boy standing before him, sending a bright flash of green light right at his chest, but what happened next was still a complete mystery to the entire wizarding world.
To those watching, they say Harry fly through the air as though hit with a strong force, but before his lifeless body hit the ground in front of Draco and Ginny, another bright light flashed through the grounds, but this one was white and it blinded everyone present for several moments. Once they were able to see again, Harry and Voldemort had vanished, and so had all the other death eaters that hadn't been stunned as well as all the dementors hiding in the forest.
Dumbledore rushed up to Ginny and Draco who were both lying on the ground, afraid they were dead, but he was relieved to find that they had both just been knocked unconscious by the force of whatever energy it was that had caused Harry and all their enemies to vanish. Summoning stretchers for the two students and all the others that had been injured, Dumbledore took the two of them to the hospital wing immediately, hoping they had heard what had gone on between Harry and Voldemort and their stories might help him to find out what had just happened.
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"How's he doing this morning Mary?"
"About the same sir, maybe even a little better. It seems as though this boy has lived a rough past couple months, both emotionally and physically. He spent the entire night tossing and turning and muttering the same few sentences in his sleep."
"What was he saying, perhaps it could help us find out who he is." Said the doctor, while he carefully pulled back the sheets covering the boy to examine him and see if his injuries had begun to heal at all within the past two week that he had been in their care.
"Well, I couldn't make it all out, but I did catch something along the lines of 'hide in the forest' or something and he kept saying something about 'if he has me then he'll leave you alone'. And then he said some names, but nothing about them other than he was sorry to leave them and then there was one he kept saying he loved, a girl named Ginny.
I don't know what to make of the other names though, they were strange, so I don't know if they are real people or just some figments of his imagination, there was Dumbledore, Remus, Sirius, Hermione, Ron, and Draco. What do you make of all of this doctor?"
"I don't know Mary, if only he would talk when he was awake instead of just starring at the ceiling with that blank haunted expression on his face we could find out who he is and where he belongs." The doctor groaned in frustration.
The past two weeks had been some of the hardest the young had been forced to endure during the course of his short career.
After the boys violent nightmare had subsided and the strange tattoo had been discovered, a team of the brightest and most talented doctors in the whole of London had evaluated the boy and all had said the same thing.
He shouldn't be alive.