Disclaimer- I don not own Harry Potter.
A/N- thank you all for reviewing, and I'm very sorry that I made the last chapter so long. I just couldn't postpone another chapter (I already did it like 5 or 6 times), because this story is already way too long (chapter-wise I mean). I'm going to speed things up from here on.
Chapter 21-The Long Awaited Battle
Harry stayed in the common room all night after Neville had left. He didn't get a wink of sleep that night.
Although he was glad that he made Neville feel better, and about giving him some confidence; that feeling was blocked out by his current problem: his duel with Malfoy.
After Harry was able to sit down and think about it, he realized that accepting Malfoy's challenge was one of the stupidest things he ever did. He and Malfoy were about to have a duel in the air, completely unsupervised. As far as Harry could see, no matter what happened he would end up being the loser. If he won the duel, then chances are, that Malfoy would end up dying, and Harry would end up going to Azkaban for murder. And if Malfoy won the duel, then Harry would probably end up dying.
'Did Malfoy really think this through before he challenged me?' Harry wondered. 'He must realize that an unsupervised aerial wizard's duel is absurd. No matter what happens, we both end up being losers.'
Just then, a new thought entered Harry's mind. 'What if Voldemort is really behind this? Draco is Lucius Malfoy's son. That's probably his plan. He wants to kill me. Even if he gets sent to Azkaban it won't really matter, because Voldemort is probably going to bust him out. He did plan on raiding Azkaban. If Malfoy can take me out right here, then there will be no way to stop Voldemort's army of Basilisks.'
Harry sighed and buried his face in his hands. 'Why did I accept this stupid duel?'
The whole day Harry was unable to concentrate in his classes. In potions class, Snape ended up deducting twenty points from Gryffindor, because Harry's sneezing potion exploded and made everyone in the class sneeze for the entire lesson.
In Herbology Harry almost got his hand bitten off by one of professor Sprout's meat eating plants. Luckily Hermione was able to move his hand away just in time.
In transfiguration, he ended up shrinking his table to a microscopic size.
But the worst one of all was care of magical creatures. While Hagrid was explaining how a Pegasus' wings differ from a hippogriff's, Harry was just standing by himself, leaning on the fence trying to think of a way out of this duel. So far his only idea was to injure himself badly and hope that madam Pomfrey would force him to stay overnight in the hospital wing. That would at least delay the duel for a little while.
"Ready for tonight Potter?" A cold sneer came from Harry's left side. Harry turned and saw Malfoy standing all by himself.
"Where are your bodyguards?" Harry replied. "I thought you never go anywhere without them?"
"I don't need them to finish you off," Malfoy scoffed.
Harry's eyes slowly turned curved themselves into a leer. 'So he really is planning on killing me,' Harry thought to himself. "Well remember, Crabbe and Boyle won't be there to save you tonight," Harry said aloud.
"Like I already said, I won't need them," Malfoy shot back. "Handling you will be a piece of cake."
Harry's leer became even stronger.
"Unlike you, I have been in training all summer," Malfoy continued. "Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you managed to sneak away from the muggles and that pathetic ministry to practice a few parlor tricks on your own. I guess we'll see tonight won't we?"
"Malfoy," Harry gritted through his teeth. "I promise, tonight will be a night that you will never forget!"
"I'm counting on it," Malfoy said with a small nod. "Remember, the prefect's bathroom, at midnight!" He turned on his heal and headed back towards the rest of the class.
Harry was doing all he could to contain his anger at that moment. "I'll be there Malfoy!" Harry said to himself. "And I'm gonna give you such a beating, that even your master will feel it!"
After another few minutes passed by, a new thought entered Harry's head. 'I don't know the new password to the prefect's bathroom.'
"Hermione," Harry said as he sat down next to her at lunch. "Could you tell me the password for the prefect's bathroom?"
"Aren't you a prefect?" Hermione asked. "Shouldn't you already know it?"
"It's a long story," Harry replied. "Could you just give it to me?"
"Why do you want to know now all of a sudden?" She asked, giving Harry a suspicious look. "Are you up to something?"
"No, of course not," Harry responded quickly. "I just want to know it, because I felt like taking bath in the prefect's bathroom tonight. All of the pressure from the wizard's duel is finally getting to me, and I really want to relax a bit."
Hermione looked at him suspiciously for a minute and then said, "Harry are you sure you're being completely honest with me?"
"Of course," Harry said.
"You're not hiding anything from me are you?" She continued, still giving Harry her suspicious look.
"Of course not," Harry said with sincerity in his voice.
"Alright, I suppose you do have a right to know," Hermione gave in. She waived her hand, hinting Harry to come closer.
Harry brought his hear next to Hermione and listened carefully.
"The password is: 'canary'," Hermione whispered.
"Thanks," Harry said.
He took some lunch and began eating in silence, concentrating on the duel with Malfoy once again.
"Harry," Hermione spoke up, snapping Harry out of his thoughts.
"Yes," He said, as he turned his head and faced her.
"You were acting very strangely all morning today. Is something bothering you?"
"It's nothing important," Harry said, brushing it off quickly.
"If it's distracting you this much, I think it might be," Hermione said matter of factly. "Does this have anything to do with that memorichi thing that Ron was talking about?"
Harry froze. With all that was going on, he had completely forgotten about memoritia, and the unicorn.
Harry's face started turning pale as his stomach began to spin in circles.
'How could I have forgotten!' Harry scolded himself mentally. 'On October thirty first, I have to go to that place. The unicorn said that the fate of the world is at stake, and I go ahead and risk everything on a stupid duel! How could I have been so stupid? How could I have been so careless? How could I forget?'
"Harry!" Hermione cried, bringing his thoughts back to the present. "Are you alright?"
Harry quickly nodded.
"I knew it," she said triumphantly. "I knew it since I saw that look on your face that morning. It does have something to do with it. What is it Harry, you can tell me," she urged.
"It's nothing important," Harry replied without thinking. "Really."
"So!" Hermione said triumphantly again. "You know what this memorichi thing is, don't you?"
"No of course not," Harry said quickly, trying to regain some ground.
"The other day you said you had no idea what Ron was talking about," Hermione said shrewdly. "Now you say that whatever it is, is not important. So that must mean that you know what it is."
Harry swallowed.
"Well," she urged. "What is it? If like you say, it's not important, you can tell me what it is, can't you?"
"Er… where's Ron?" Harry quickly said, desperately trying to change the subject.
"Ron's in the Hospital wing getting his foot examined, because the Pegasus accidentally stepped on his foot, and don't try to change the subject Harry," she said in one breath. "What is memorichi?"
"It's really nothing," Harry said.
"Listen," he continued, getting an idea. "I can't tell you what it is because if I do, someone will get into a lot of trouble, okay?" And it was true. If Harry told Hermione about memoritia, then he'd have to tell her about the unicorn, and about the unicorns' special gift. The unicorn that shared his gift with Harry would probably end up in a lot of trouble if the other unicorns found that that a human with whom their brother shared his gift with was telling the world their big secret.
Hermione looked at him for a minute and saw that Harry was being sincere with her, and decided to drop the subject.
"Alright, I'll let you off this time, although I'm still going to try and find out what memorichi actually is?" she stated as she went back to her food. "I'm sure one of the books in the library has something about it."
Harry just nodded.
'Good luck,' He thought to himself. 'Although it will be really hard looking for something that does not exist. Luckily, Ron didn't pronounce it right.'
Hermione kept her word. During every break for the rest of the day, and after classes were over for the day, she would be in the library trying to find out what memoritia [or memorichi in her case] was. So far, she had not even come close to finding out. She even asked madam Pince, the librarian for help, but she was just a clueless as Hermione was.
Harry paid absolutely no attention to what Hermione was trying to do. He knew that Hermione would never be able to find it.
A few days after Harry met the Unicorn Harry also tried to find out what memoritia was. He spent most of his breaks in the library trying to find out what it was before he finally had given up. "If I couldn't find it, then there's no way Hermione will find it. She doesn't even know how to pronounce it," he kept telling himself.
"Besides, I have bigger problems now."
Harry was still worried about that evening's wizard's duel. Now, the stakes were much higher than before. If he died, then he would not be able to go to memoritia, if Malfoy died, he still wouldn't be able to go, because he'd probably be arrested the next day.
Harry's mind was set. He knew what he had to do. He had to find some way for him to win the duel without killing Malfoy.
He knew what he had to do, the only problem was, how would he do it? From the way Malfoy spoke to him that day, Harry suspected that Malfoy had absolutely no qualms with killing Harry, and he didn't seem at all afraid of losing his life.
'What is wrong with him this year?' Harry thought during his last class. 'He seems to be acting almost the same way that I used to act right before the beginning of this school year. He doesn't care about anything, or anyone. Not even himself. Does it have something to do with Voldemort?'
"Oh well," Harry said to himself trying to brush off his thoughts. "His problems are none of my business. The only thing I have to worry about is how to get through tonight's duel."
Harry's answer came to him during that evening's quidditch practice.
The entire evening Harry kept screwing up all of his plays, because he was too busy trying to think of a way to win the duel without killing Malfoy. So far he hadn't come up with any ideas at all. He was about to go back to his original idea of injuring himself, and rescheduling the duel for sometime after October thirty first. When all of a sudden, thanks to a little scolding from Angelina, a plan was formulated in Harry's head.
"Harry!" Angelina yelled, while flying at him, after he once again missed sight of the snitch in what would be an easy capture. "What are you doing? Why aren't you concentrating on practicing for our first game?"
"Sorry," Harry said in a low voice. "I just have so many things on my mind at this moment."
"Well get them out of your mind!" Angelina scolded. "If you play like this during our match against Ravenclaw, then we'll lose for sure!"
"Sorry," Harry said.
"How come we're playing Ravenclaw first this year?" Fred cut in. "Don't we usually play against Slytherin first?"
"The wizard's duel has completely messed up the schedules, "Angelina replied.
She turned back to Harry and said, "Concentrate Harry. Remember, we don't have an experienced keeper, so we'll need a quick catch. You must catch the snitch before the other teams seeker, got it," she said with an emphasis on the words 'got it', as if saying or else.
It was then that Harry thought of an idea of how to win the wizard's duel with Malfoy, without actually killing him.
"What did you say?" Harry cried.
"I said, that since we don't have an experienced keeper, so we'll need a quick catch," Angelina repeated.
"No after that," Harry said.
"I said-" Angelina started.
"Nevermind," Harry interrupted. "Thanks for you help." Harry turned, flew away, and caught the snitch in less than a minute later.
Angelina and Fred just stared at Harry for a minute, wondering why he was acting so weird that day.
"I knew it," Fred spoke up after a minute. "It's that badge. It's turned him from human to prefect. Percy started acting the exact same way before it got him."
Angelina laughed a little and continued with the quidditch practice.
"So did you find out what memorichi is?" Harry asked Hermione as soon a he found her in the common room.
"No," Hermione replied. "But you can rest assured that I will." She looked up and down Harry's wardrobe and said, "Aren't you going to change?"
"No," Harry answered. "I'm too tired. I'm going to wear my quidditch robes until I go to bed." The truth was that Harry never planned on taking his quidditch robes off that day, because he was planning on wearing them in his duel with Malfoy. They were light, warm, and comfortable, and he needed any advantage he could get in this duel.
"So are you ready to get started with today's tutorial," Hermione asked.
"Yeah," Harry nodded.
"Before we start," Hermione said. "Are you sure that you don't want to tell me what's been bothering you all day?"
"Don't worry about it," Harry reassured. "I found a way to take care of my problems."
"Good," Hermione said, while taking out an arithmancy book. "Let's get started with chapter six."
It was half past eleven when the second to last person left the common room.
Harry was the last person in the common room that night. When Hermione and Ron asked him if he was going to bed, he simply told them that he was going to do some extra studying. Hermione offered to stay and study with him, but Harry convinced her not to.
Harry waited another fifteen minutes, and then after making sure no one was in the common room with him, he slowly crept up to his dormitory. He looked around checking to make sure that all of his roommates were asleep. After he saw that they were, he ran to his and started digging into his trunk. He knew that he was making a lot of noise rustling through his stuff, but he was confident that no one would wake up because of it. 'If they could sleep through Neville's snoring, then a little rustling won't wake them up,' He thought to himself.
After around two minutes of searching, he finally found what he was looking for. He took out what looked like an old and dusty looking little box. "This is my ticket out of this duel," Harry said to himself. He was about to put the box in his pocket when all of a sudden, a loud sound startled Harry and made him drop it on the floor. It was the sound of thunder coming from the outside. Harry looked around and realized that no one was awakened from the sound of the thunder, nor were they awakened from the sound of the box falling and hitting the floor. Harry slowly picked up the box and pocketed it.
He looked over to the window and realized that it was starting to rain outside.
"Just great," Harry whispered, with sarcasm in his tone. "What else can go wrong?"
Harry quickly ran out of the room, not even noticing that the curtains on one of the beds was moving, nor hearing some rustling coming from that bed.
Harry left Gryffindor tower, and quickly dashed off towards the prefect's bathroom.
On his way there, Harry saw Peeves drawing black mustaches on sleeping painting, so he was forced to hide behind a sleeping armor and wait for Peeves to leave.
After waiting for a few minutes, he saw Peeves glide through a wall. That was his cue to make a break for it.
"Canary," Harry said as he arrived at the entrance to the prefect's bathroom.
As soon as the passage opened, a hand came from behind it a pulled Harry inside.
"You're late!" Malfoy growled, as soon as Harry was inside and the door was closed.
"I had a bit of trouble getting here," Harry said. He looked at Malfoy and saw that he was also wearing his Quidditch robes as well. 'Looks like I won't have much of an advantage after all,' he thought to himself.
"You idiot," Mafloy snarled. "Don't you know anything?"
"What do mean?" Harry gritted through his teeth.
Malfoy turned to him looking utterly stunned. "You mean you don't know about the schedules?"
"What schedules?" Harry asked looking completely confused.
"The schedules that the teachers, ghosts, and the head boy and girl follow, when making their rounds in this castle! At around twelve fifteen this place will be crawling with teachers and ghosts passing through! Honestly Potter, how did you break the rules so many times without knowing such a simple thing?"
'Thanks to a gift from my dad,' Harry thought to himself.
"Well, anyway," Malfoy continued. "That's none of my business. We have to get out of here before any of the teachers show up." He opened the door checked if anyone was there, and signaled Harry to leave first.
Harry ran out first, and waited for Malfoy to follow. Malfoy picked up the two nimbus 2001's that he brought and followed Harry.
The Bloody Baron, who they easily avoided by sneaking into an empty classroom until the Baron had passed, was their only interruption during their trip outside the castle.
As soon as they left the castle, they were both completely soaked by the rain, which was now pouring onto the earth.
Harry took out his wand, aimed at his glasses, and muttered, "Impervious." Immediately his glasses looked like they were glowing. This blocked all the water from fogging up Harry's glasses.
"I see Granger has taught you a few tricks," Malfoy said. "Come on, let's get this over with!"
They both ran on the soaked ground, all the way down to the quidditch pitch.
"This is it Potter," Malfoy said, as soon as they arrived. He pointed both brooms at Harry, and said, "Pick a broom."
"I have to fly this piece of junk?" Harry scoffed.
"Well, in case you win, you wouldn't want me to say that the only reason you won was because you had a better broom than me now would you?"
Harry took the broom on the right and said, "Where did you get the second one anyway?"
"It's my back up," Malfoy replied simply. "All seekers need a backup broom, just in case something happens to their primary one. I'm sure you have something else besides that Firebolt of yours, don't you?"
"Of course I do," Harry lied.
"Alright," Malfoy said. "Enough talk, what are the rules?"
Harry took the small box out of his pocket and slowly opened it. Inside it was the old golden snitch that Ron had given Harry for his birthday. "This golden snitch," Harry began to explain. "Whichever one of us catches it first, wins the duel."
Malfoy just stared at Harry for a minute and then said, "Potter, what the hell are you on! This is a wizard's duel, not a seeker's duel!"
"I know that," Harry replied. "We'll still do all the stuff that would be done in a normal duel, except that you don't win this duel until you actually caught the snitch. We can use any spell we want against each other, as long as it leads to one of us catching the snitch.
"The only rule is, that you're not allowed to jinx the snitch, anything else goes."
Malfoy thought it over for a second, and said, "Fine. This way I'll prove that not only am I a better fighter than you, but that I am also a better seeker than you."
Harry just gave him a smirk. 'He fell for it,' he thought to himself.
"Just one thing," Mafoy started. "That thing looks kind of old. Where did you get it?"
"Ron gave it to me for my birthday this year," Harry answered.
"Weasley gave it to you!" Malfoy said sounding incredibly stunned. "Are you sure that thing could even fly?"
"Of course it can," Harry said, giving Malfoy a glare. "It belonged to Ron's older brother Charlie. He kept the snitch after winning his last quidditch cup at this school. He practiced with it these past few years in Romania. It's not as fast as the snitch we use in school games, but it is much more maneuverable."
"I'll believe that when I see it," Malfoy sneered.
Harry let go of the snitch, and both he and Malfoy watched it disappear somewhere in the rain. 'I hope I can find it in this darkness and rain,' Harry thought.
"Alright, let's begin," Harry said. He wanted to start the duel while he still had some idea of where the snitch was.
"Not so fast," Malfoy cut in. "Before we start, I would like for you and I to undergo a ceremony."
"Ceremony?" Harry looked at him strangely.
Malfoy dug into his pocket and took out a pocketknife.
Harry's eyes widened as he took a step backward. 'What is he going to do with that?' Harry thought, as he pointed his wand directly at Malfoy.
"Relax Potter, I'm not going to kill you…yet," Malfoy drawled. "This is a tradition as old as time itself. I don't exactly know the history of it, but I do know that it is only undergone by two people, who are each others' greatest rivals."
Harry looked on, curious as to what Malfoy was going to do.
Malfoy took the glove of his left hand off and put it in his pocket. Then he rolled up his sleeve, and cut a line in his arm, right below the wrist. As soon as he removed the knife, blood could be seen oozing out of Malfoy's arm.
Harry was mortified by what he just saw. 'What the hell does he think he is doing!' he thought frantically.
Malfoy just smirked and said, "Your left arm please?"
Harry's eyes widened a bit when he heard Malfoy say this. A lightning bolt shone behind Malfoy, and a great wave of thunder soon followed. But Malfoy hadn't flinched a bit. 'He's serious,' Harry thought to himself. Harry gave Malfoy a huge glare. 'Malfoy, I'll never back down to you!' Harry took off his glove, rolled up his sleeve and held his left arm out.
Malfoy cut Harry's arm in the exact same way he cut his own. Although it hurt, Harry didn't show it. After Malfoy was done, he pocketed the knife and raised Harry's bloody arm upwards into a straight position.
Harry kept his glare up the entire time.
What Malfoy did next completely surprised Harry, but he didn't show it. Malfoy raised his bloody arm up and crossed it with Harry's bloody arms. The two bloody cuts were rubbing against each other causing more blood to ooze out of each of their arms.
"There," Malfoy said while removing his arm. He took two cloths out of his pocket. He tossed one to Harry, and used the other to bandage his own arm. "Use that to bandage your arm."
Harry looked down at his cut, and looked back at Malfoy, keeping his glare on the whole time. "What the hell was that?" Harry growled.
"You and I have undergone the exchange of blood," Malfoy said slowly. "You and I are now blood brothers, rivals for all eternity." Another flash of lightning appeared, followed by the sound of thunder. "We each now carry a part of each other inside of us. In doing so, we have agreed that no matter where we end up, that we will meet and fight again, until one of us dies at the other's hand.
"Of course it won't be like that with you and I, because you're going to die tonight."
"Anyone ever tell you, you need professional help!" Harry growled.
Malfoy just smirked and said, "Let's get started. We'll walk to the end of the pitch, mount our brooms, fly across each other and then start the duel."
They each clenched a broom in their left hand, and held their wand I their right hand. They turned their backs to each other and started marching off to opposite ends of the pitch.
They were cold, wet, and almost blinded by the rain and darkness, but they were each determined.
'Dammit,' Harry thought to himself. 'Because of that stupid tradition, I completely lost sight of the snitch.' Harry looked up into the rainy sky hoping to catch even a glimmer of it. 'Dammit!' Harry looked back and saw Malfoy marching. 'Why is he so serious about this?' Harry wondered. 'He looks like he's really ready to die. What happened to him?
'Is it possible that he wants to die?'
Harry reached the end of the pitch, and mounted his broom getting ready to kick off. 'Oh well, that's not my problem. My only concern is getting out of this duel.'
Harry kicked off at the same time as Malfoy. They flew straight at each other until they were right by each other's side. Their eyes met for a second, right as they passed each other.
Malfoy turned his broom around, raised up his wand and yelled, "Stupefy!" Immediately a red beam of light headed straight for Harry.
'If you're going to start, might as well start big,' Harry thought. He raised his wand and yelled, "Protecto!" A blue wall appeared in front of Harry and easily blocked Malfoy's blast.
Malfoy ascended higher into the sky. Harry, who wasn't too interested in fighting with Malfoy started looking around for the snitch that he had set loose.
"Stupefy!" Malfoy yelled and sent a beam heading directly at Harry.
Harry dodged the beam, and ascended just as high as Malfoy was. 'I'll never get the snitch with him bugging me! I'll have to distract him for a while!'
"Come Potter!" Malfoy yelled. "Let us take this duel to new heights! Kazenio!" Immediately a huge gust of wind appeared at the end of Malfoy's wand. The Wind surrounded Harry and started spinning faster, until it turned into a whirlwind. The whirlwind surrounded Harry and started to make his broom recklessly spin around in a circle. Harry gripped the broom as hard as he could, barely staying on as the whirlwind took Harry higher into the sky.
The whirlwind finally disappeared after a while. Harry started looking around frantically. 'Where's Malfoy?' Then he realized that he could no longer feel rain on his body. He looked around and realized that Malfoy's whirlwind took Harry so high up that he was above the rain clouds. He looked up into the sky and saw the many stars in the sky, and the full moon out.
Harry looked down and saw a beam of light heading from the rain clouds. Harry quickly dodged the beam. 'So much for my perfect plan.'
Harry pointed his wand at the clouds and yelled, "Impedimenta!" His beam was lost in the rain clouds. 'Did I get him?' Harry wondered. 'I hope he didn't fall off.'
"Stupefy!" Malfoy yelled from behind Harry.
Harry turned around and saw a beam of light heading from Malfoy's wand directly at him. With all his might he stirred the broom to his right and barely dodged the beam. 'Dammit! I'm not used to this broom. It's speed and reaction time is much slower than the Firebolt!'
"How do you like our new playing field Potter!" Malfoy called. "I thought it would be a nice change of pace from the rain!"
"Just shut up and fight!" Harry growled. "Impedimenta!"
The beam flew directly at Malfoy, and hit him.
Harry gave a small smirk, which was immediately turned into a gasp when he saw that the beam when through Malfoy.
"That's right Potter!" Malfoy yelled. "I am an illusion!"
Just four other beings that looked exactly like Malfoy appeared. Two behind him, one on his right and one right above him.
Harry was familiar with this spell. He read about it in the book that Hermione had given him for his birthday. It was the illusionary clones spell; a spell that made up to four illusionary copies of a person. All four copies would be under the control of the person who cast the spell. If a person were to make any more then four, they would all become unmanageable.
"Only one of us is real, can you guess which one?" They all yelled at the same time. They all raised their wands, pointed them at Harry, and yelled "Stupefy!"
Harry quickly ascended to his upper left barely dodging all the beams heading towards him.
All the Malfoys once again raised their wands and yelled, "Stupefy!"
Harry knew he'd never be able to get out of his ascension in time to dodge them all. He raised his wand and yelled, "Protecto!" His blue shield appeared and blocked all their blasts. It was pretty easy being that only one of them was real.
The Malfoys started spreading out again, once again trying to catch Harry in the center of a circle.
Harry using his superior flying skill was able to avoid being caught in a circle
He shot the impediment curse on them a few times, but they all easily avoided it.
None of the Malfoys attacked even once the whole time they were trying to encircle Harry. Malfoy obviously didn't want to risk Harry figuring out which ones were the fakes.
Finally after a lot of useless flying the Malfoys raised their wands, and yelled, "Kazenio!" Once again, a whirlwind appeared, and was about to engulf Harry once again.
Luckily, this time Harry was ready for it. He raised his wand and yelled, "Finite Incantetum!" and in a puff of smoke, the whirlwind disappeared.
As soon as the whirlwind disappeared, Harry found himself being barraged by dozens of beams of light. He dodged most of them and used the protecto spell to block the others.
The Malfoys regrouped and flew together. They were starting to get into a 'V' formation.
'I can't keep doing this forever, I have to find the real one!' Harry thought frantically. "But how, they're way too fast for me to get a good look at them! And I can't make my own illusionary clones, because that would take up too much time!"
Harry ascended even higher. He looked up at the moon and back down at the Malfoys heading towards him.
'Of course! That's it!' Harry thought.
He immediately pointed the nose of the broom upward and started ascending at top speed. The Malfoys followed him, while shooting a curse every now and then.
'Almost,' Harry thought.
Harry took a deep breath and held it there. 'Just a little more,' he thought to himself. By now, he was flying so high into the sky that the lack of proper atmosphere was making his nose bleed. 'Just a little more!' His ears began bleeding as well, when he finally looked down and saw that the Malfoys were slowing down, and one of them had a bloody nose and bloody ears. 'That's the real one. The lack of air has slowed him down,' Harry thought to himself as he raised his wand and took aim. 'Good thing I held my breath. Looks like Malfoy should've studied some more Muggle science!'
Harry aimed his wand at the real Malfoy. 'If I try to take him out the he'll probably just block it. I'll just use a spell he can't block!'
"Lumos Flarous!" He yelled. Immediately a blinding beam of light came out of the end of Harry's wand and hit Malfoy blinding him instantly.
Four of the Malfoys disappeared, while the one remaining yelled out, and covered his eyes.
Malfoy immediately descended as fast as he could. He was trying to get back into proper atmosphere, as well as buy some time until his vision returned to him.
By now, Harry had let go of his breath and realized how hard it truly was to breathe in this atmosphere. He descended after Malfoy, shooting a few impediment curses, which Malfoy was able to dodge.
As soon as they were just above the cloud Malfoy stopped, and turned to Harry's direction.
"Stupid move, Malfoy!" Harry yelled. He raised his wand and yelled, "Impedimenta!" A beam of blue light shot out of Harry's wand and headed directly for Malfoy.
"Protecto!" Malfoy yelled. And about a second before the beam hit Malfoy, his blue wall appeared and blocked the spell.
'No Way!' Harry thought frantically. 'He was completely blinded and he was still able to block that?'
Harry looked closer down and realized that Malfoy was just hovering there with his eyes closed.
'He's waiting for me to make a move until his vision returns to him,' Harry thought. 'He's obviously relying on his hearing.'
Harry raised his wand and yelled, "Expelliarmus!' A red beam shot out of his wand and headed towards Malfoy.
"Reflecto!" Malfoy yelled, and this time an invisible wall blocked Harry's blast. Malfoy was slowly able to open his eyes by now. As soon as he did, his mouth made a gasp. For what her saw was, a very blurry Harry flying right towards him. Harry was flying at top speed, and Malfoy knew that he was too close by now to dodge. The expelliarmus curse was obviously the distraction that Harry needed. Malfoy immediately prepared himself for impact.
However, the impact never came. The only thing that even brushed Malfoy was Harry broom, which slid between Malfoy's right arm and his body. 'Where's Potter?' Malfoy wondered.
He got his answer when he heard a loud thud behind him. Malfoy turned and was just able to catch Harry landing on his broom. Malfoy couldn't believe what he saw, Harry had jumped off of his broom, over Malfoy and landed back on his broom perfectly.
Without even turning around, Harry aimed his wand at Malfoy, and yelled, "Lacarnum Inflamoreau!" Immediately a few bluebell flames appeared and headed towards Malfoy.
Malfoy tried to move the broom out of the way as hard he could. He was just barely able to dodge some of the flames, but not all of them. His quidditch robes caught a few, and the end of his broom caught the rest; Malfoy didn't notice this however. Malfoy quickly removed his outer robe, before the fire could spread and threw it towards the rain clouds under him.
Malfoy looked over at Harry, who had just as he turned around. "Not bad Potter!" Malfoy sneered. "But it's going to take a lot more than that if you want to beat me!"
Harry didn't say anything, he just gave Malfoy a wicked smirk.
"Why are you smiling Potter?" Malfoy demanded. After a second, he found out why. He was able to feel the heat on his back as the bluebell flames were starting to grow on the tail of his broom. "Nice trick Potter, but I already know how to deal with that!"
He aimed his wand at the end of his broom and yelled, "Incisio!" (the cutting spell) The part of the broom that held the bluebell flames was cut off and flew away harmlessly towards the rain clouds. "If that's the best you've got, you'd better quit now!"
Harry knew that Malfoy was only bluffing; cutting off a part of his tail put Malfoy at a huge disadvantage. Now, he was unable to maneuver as well as he was before. With Malfoy in that condition, it would only be a matter of time before Harry was able to hit him with a curse.
They both raised their wands, and fired a curse at each other at the same time. Harry shot the disarming spell, while Malfoy shot the stunning spell. The two beams connected in a brilliant display of light. For a second both Harry and Malfoy were stuck in a power struggle as each beam tried to overpower the other. They ended up bouncing away from each other into different directions.
Harry ascended higher, while Malfoy just stayed in one place getting ready for Harry's next attack.
'Good thinking Malfoy,' Harry thought. 'Now that you can't maneuver as well as before it's only logical that you stay in one place and wait for me to make the first move. Luckily, I have a plan that will completely wipe out your little strategy!'
Harry ascended right on top of Malfoy. He was about to take a nosedive, when a very cold feeling shot up his spine.
"No, not now!" Harry cried.
His body started feeling very heavy as the cold feeling spread all over his body. His entire body went completely pale, as the voice that he hadn't heard for over a month now, came back. "It's all your fault," the voice whispered, spreading misery inside Harry's body with every single word. "It's all your fault," it whispered a little louder.
"No," Harry said while shaking his head frantically. "I'm not listening, I'm not listening!"
"It's all your fault!" the voice said, a little louder.
"STOP IT!!!" Harry yelled at the top of his lungs, which almost caused him to fall off. He gripped the broom harder desperately trying to stay on, as he felt himself getting weaker and almost passing out.
"It's all your fault!" The voice chanted even louder.
"IT'S NOT MY-"
"Thundora!" Malfoy yelled before Harry could finish. A lighting bolt shot out of his wand and flew directly at Harry.
Harry yelled out in pain as he felt the full blast of Malfoy's attack. He was forced to grip his broom with both hands in order to avoid falling. Since his wand was in his right hand and he didn't have time grip it properly, it ended up falling out of his hand.
'My wand!' Harry thought frantically. "NO!' He waived his right hand once, and the wand magically flew back to Harry. Harry caught it and was about to use a spell when the voice once again prevented him.
"It's all your fault!" The voice yelled this time.
"Nice trick Potter!" Malfoy scoffed. "But it won't save you!" He raised his wand and yelled, "Thundora!"
'I have to focus, or I'll die," Harry thought to himself. Harry had completely lost control of his lower body by now, and his upper body was so weak that he didn't have the strength to dodge the attack. "Protecto!" Harry yelled, producing a rather weak blue wall in front of him.
However, this blue wall did not stop Malfoy's lighting attack. Some of the lighting was blocked, but the rest just bounced around the wall and hit Harry. Harry yelled out in pain as he fell off his broom, hanging on with only his left hand. His glasses fell towards the clouds after the impact and everything became completely blurry.
"Like that Potter!" Malfoy sneered. "I knew that you would be able to block any old normal curse, that's why I used this one! Water conducts electricity and you're completely soaked. I knew that the lightning would move around your wall to find you!"
Harry wasn't listening to anything that Malfoy had said. His face was completely blank and expressionless. It was as if his mind was completely hollow. How he still managed to hold on, even he didn't know.
Just then, when things were already bad enough for Harry, they became much worse. "No, not Harry, Please!" A female voice cried.
"Mom, no," Harry mouthed.
"Out of the way, silly girl!" A high and dark voice growled.
"No," Harry mouthed again.
Harry heard his mother's voice scream, and then he knew it. 'I'm going to die.'
"I want you to know that," another female voice said in Harry's head. "That I'll always be there for you."
Harry picked up his head and looked straight out into the sky. Only it wasn't the sky that he saw. What he saw was an image of a person. "Hermione," he mouthed.
"Thundora!" Malfoy yelled, and sent another lightning bolt at Harry.
'I have to live! I have to come back home…to her!'
Harry raised his wand and yelled, "Mizumus Protectus!"
Before the lightning could hit Harry, a wall stopped it. However, this time the lightning did not go around the wall. In fact, the wall absorbed the lightning. For the wall that Harry made was not an ordinary old magic wall.
"A water Barrier?" Malfoy cried. "Impossible!"
"Racco!" Harry yelled as he waived his wand and sent the electrically charged water barrier flying towards Malfoy.
Malfoy was so surprised by Harry's accomplishment, that he was only barely able to dodge the attack, by descending under.
Harry immediately pointed his wand to himself and yelled, "Swasso!" The electrically charged water barrier immediately replaced him, and Harry replaced the water barrier.
Harry appeared right on top of Malfoy, and as soon as he did, he fell on him. Malfoy didn't have time to move out of the way. Before Malfoy knew it, Harry was on top of him, holding his head in a headlock. Harry was holding it with his left arm as hard as he could.
"GET THE HELL OFF OF ME POTTER!" Malfoy screamed, as he was desperately trying to shake Harry off.
Harry held on as best as he could. He felt his grip loosening; he was losing strength; losing consciousness.
'I have to do something now!'
Harry pointed his wand straight at Malfoy face and yelled, "Stupefy!" With a flash of light, Malfoy was completely knocked out.
Harry quickly discarded his wand and grabbed onto the broom with his right hand, while he held onto Malfoy with his left.
"It's all your fault!" the voice was back. Harry knew that he was going to pass out soon. He descended towards the rain cloud as fast as he could. He got under them and was once again soaked from the rainwater. His gloves became wet and holding onto the broom became even harder.
Harry once again heard his mother scream, and a sinister laugh followed.
Harry then lost his grip, fell off the broom with Malfoy, and completely lost consciousness before he even hit the ground.
A/n- Wow, that was intense, wasn't it? The next chapter is the chapter that you've all been waiting for. That's right Harry's finally going to go inside Memoritia-in the chapter entitled: "The Sins of the Fathers". R/r.
