My name is Harry Potter.
I yelled as Visser Five threw me to the ground in the Yeerk Pool. My scar was hurting so much that it was nearly blinding. Head hanging, I tried to lift myself up and was only pushed down again.
Someone above me gave a cold laugh that was all too familiar. It made my heart turn to ice. The pain in my scar worsened and blurred my sight as I looked up into the face of Tom Marvolo Riddle.
Lord Voldemort.
Panting, I managed to gasp, "What do you want with me?"
Voldemort chuckled. He idly twirled his wand through his fingers. "Surely you all ready know? No? Well, I wish to destroy you once and for all. You of course know that. I'm just letting my… friend Visser Three borrow you for a while. You do know of the Yeerks, do you not?"
Visser Five answered before I could. "Yes, Master. He came to me for help."
Just hearing those first two words in Dumbledore's voice made all hopes of survival turn to dust. It made me feel as if I should just give up and die now…
"You are a pathetic little fool, Harry Potter. To think people thought you had conquered me! Ha! I have returned, better and stronger than ever before! Now, before I hand you over to my… trusted ally, I think I'll have a little fun. A dose of pain wouldn't hurt, now, would it?"
I spat on his feet. I had survived the Crucious Curse before. As long as he didn't kill me… not yet…
"Crucio!"
I couldn't stop the scream that sounded from my lips. I was vaguely aware of tears flooding my eyes, but I could not see. Pain had blinded me, made me numb. My organs could have ceased functioning and I wouldn't have noticed. The pain… so horrible…
I think this went on for five minutes. I didn't know; all sense of time had fled with the pain's coming. It had seemed like eons when the Curse was released. I gasped and choked on air. I couldn't move. Or, at least, I couldn't have moved if I had tried.
"How was that, Harry? Did you like it?"
I clenched and unclenched my fists. I was slowly regaining usage of my limbs. When he least expected it, I rolled and dived as he shot another curse at me. I leapt to my feet and jumped over another.
Thank God for my Quidditch reflexes!
I ran straight at him. He raised his wand and was about to shout another curse when I hit him and shouldered him to the ground. I cried out in pain as my scar hurt its worst when our shoulders touched for that brief moment.
Voldemort fell to the ground in a very ungraceful movement. Without pausing to think, I jumped on him. I yelled when I felt his cool skin brush mine. My head would explode if I didn't get off him soon!
I grabbed his wand arm and tried to get his wand from him. This wand would work for me. It was one of the two things that connected Voldemort and me. His wand and mine were one and the same. I was weakening with every struggle. My… scar… pain…
I managed to wrap my fingers around it. I yelled the first word that came to mind: "Expelliarmus!"
His wand, my wand, and Dumbledore's wand shot into the air. I rolled off Voldemort and caught the three. It was then I noticed that the Yeerk Pool was silent. Everyone was watching our struggle for life and death.
Panting, tears flowing down my cheeks, I pointed them at him. My scar was throbbing, constantly reminding me that this was Voldemort, the man who had killed my parents, Cedric, and Ron.
Voldemort looked coolly up at me with his red, snake-like eyes. "Do you really want to kill me, Harry?" he asked in a whisper. "Do you really want to become a murderer?"
I spat at him, my heart beating rapidly. "You're the murderer, not me. You killed my parents. You killed Cedric. You killed loads of innocent muggles and wizards alike. Why should I spare you?"
"You would only be like me if you killed me, Harry: a murderer. Is that really what you want?"
"If I kill you, it won't be murder. You aren't human enough for it to be considered a murder. I'll be doing the world a favor."
"No, Harry, you are wrong. I'm doing the world a favor. I'm getting rid of the filth that plagues us. What need is there for muggles? For half bloods? For Mudbloods?"
"I'm a half blood, Voldemort. You sure aren't doing me a favor by killing me off. Why don't you just kill yourself off, if half bloods are such 'filth'? Aren't you a half blood? You're no better than me."
"Oh, I am. I'm much better. You live to protect this filth. I live to destroy it. That is why you should not be permitted to live. I make up for my faults."
"You are nothing but faults."
"Harry, do you know why I was going to spare your mother and kill you?"
I swear my heart nearly stopped beating. Yes, I wanted to know! But—but hadn't Dumbledore said…
"I only killed your father because he put up a fight…"
I wanted to know, but at the same time I didn't. What if he were lying? What if he was being truthful?
"I wanted to kill you, however, to kill you because—"
"NO!"
The words exploded from me. I opened my mouth to shout a spell—any spell—to shut him up, but Voldemort was saying something…
"Strike now, my pet!"
I whirled. A large snake, Nagini I remembered from my dreams, lunged out at me. "No! Stop!" I shrieked in Parseltongue, throwing my arms up to protect my face.
Nagini dropped, confused. Who was she to listen to?
"Bite the boy! Tear him!" Voldemort demanded shrilly. Nagini moved to do as he said but I interjected.
"No! Leave me be!" I yelled.
While I was momentarily distracted, Voldemort dived at my legs and knocked me off my feet. I howled in pain and shock as I fell. Voldemort wrenched the wands out of my hand and pointed them at me, screaming, "Crucio!"
Back rushed the pain, three times as strong. I knew right there and then that I wanted to die, that I didn't want to live. What was there to live for if I knew only pain? All things but the pain disappeared. No longer could I think, no longer could I remember.
I don't know how long he kept the Curse on me. At one point, I felt like I was some bystander watching someone else being tortured. Somehow, I was just floating outside my body, away from the pain.
I wish it could have lasted forever.
I snapped back to reality when the spell was lifted. My throat was torn from relentless screaming. I could feel it bleeding. I had deep scratches in my palms from where my fingernails had bitten into them. My mouth was dry. Breathing was painful. I couldn't focus my eyes.
"How do you feel now, Harry?" Voldemort taunted, standing over me. His face swam in and out vision.
I tried to answer, but I only spat up blood. I coughed, pain searing in my throat. Blood slid down my cheek. I gasped.
"Interesting, what fifteen minutes Crucious Curse can do to you," he said dispassionately.
I spat at his feet, bloodying the hem of his robes and his shiny black shoes.
He sneered at me. "I see your spirit is not yet broken. I wonder, can you resist the Imperious Curse?"
He pointed his wand at me and said the spell. My pain drifted away into a blissful abyss. My eyes slid back out of focus. I felt a small smile touch my lips.
"Do you like the pain, Harry?"
"No." I said, though it caused blood to dribble down my chin.
"Do you want to die?"
"Sometimes. But Hermione and Sirius need me. Dumbledore needs to be saved. I can't just die and leave them."
"Do you hate me?"
"With every fiber in my body."
"Who told you about the Yeerk invasion?"
I thought about this last one. Most of me wanted to tell him "the Animorphs" but a tiny voice in the back of my head was screaming at me. "Don't betray them!" it shrieked, "Don't say anything?"
"Why not?" I wondered vaguely, the question coming from my lips as a mumble.
"Because they're your friends! They trust you! Don't let Hermione down! Do it for Ron!"
"What? What did you say?" demanded Voldemort.
This last statement to myself jerked me. I had friends that trusted me not to turn them over. No matter how good this spell made me feel, I couldn't tell. I felt my eyes focusing again.
"No," I whispered.
"What?"
"NO!" I screamed, spraying blood in all directions.
Voldemort swore and ended the spell. He pointed his wand at me and yelled a spell. I flew off my feet and slammed into the concrete wall. I gasped as all the wind was knocked from my lungs. My glasses flew from my nose. I slid down the wall and, as I did so, felt something wet trickle down the back of my neck. I touched it and my fingers came away bloody.
I crawled forward on my hands and knees, frantically searching for my glasses. I was nearly blind without them. "Ooooh," I groaned.
"Stop it right there, Lord Voldemort."
I froze. Slowly, I looked up to see who had spoken. Even though he was extremely fuzzy, I could make out that long dark hair. I could see that skinny wrist that protruded from the black robes as he held a wand pointed at my torturer. I could see that once-handsome face that was screwed up in a look of total hatred. I could see the dark, hollow eyes that glittered in the candlelight.
"Sirius," I croaked, eyes huge, "No!"
I found my glasses and shoved them on. Weary as I was, I surged to my feet. I ran to my godfather. Every step made my legs throb.
Voldemort raised an eyebrow. "Sirius Black?" he laughed. "What are you going to do?"
I could almost feel the rage Sirius was barely containing. He was shaking with fury. "I'm going to kill you," he said, voice oddly calm, "You've killed my best friend, turned one traitor, and left the other to grieve alone. I can't let you live because of that."
I stopped, panting, beside him. "Sirius, no. You can't do this." I rasped.
Sirius looked at me and jumped. I could only guess how horrible I looked. I turned just as Voldemort said a spell. I quickly tackled Sirius and we both rolled over the stone ground.
The spell hit the stone with a loud crack. Where there was once floor there was now a deep crater. Sirius said a spell as we rolled. I felt my throat heal. The heavy pain in my limbs lifted. I looked down at my palms in amazement. The scratches had healed over without scars. I was suddenly very energetic.
I gasped when I saw Sirius. Blood bubbled at his lips when he tried to speak. He looked very tired, very suddenly. It was then it occurred to me he had taken on all my injuries so that I would have a fighting chance.
He pressed his wand into my hand, eyes full of meaning where his lips moved soundlessly. I nodded and whispered, "Thanks." He smiled thinly.
I heard Voldemort say a spell behind me. I jumped up and whirled, shouting, "Protego!"
Voldemort's spell hit my shield with such force that I was thrown from my feet. Spots exploded in my vision. No sooner had I hit the ground than I was on my feet again, shouting a spell to protect Sirius. Voldemort easily reflected it with a shield spell of his own.
Because the wand I was using wasn't my own, the strength in my spells weren't happening. As we fought (we weren't really dueling), I was vaguely aware of an uproar from those watching. I glanced down when I could afford to and my expression brightened.
The Order of the Phoenix was here!
I fought with more vigor than before. I actually had a fighting chance at wining. As long as I could stay alive…
I nearly jumped out of my skin when a world-shattering roar split the din. Voldemort and I both looked over to see what had happened. At the door of the Yeerk Pool stood a tiger, and with it a bear. An Andalite leapt nimbly down the stairs. Somewhere behind the bear and tiger a wolf howled, joined by the hooting of a gorilla. A hawk shrieked and glided into the room. And with the animals, wand alight, jaw set into a determined line, stood Hermione.
The Animorphs were here!
And with them a new hope.
I turned back to Voldemort with a new determination.
He was going down!
A/N: Wah hoo! How was that? I've finished my summer reading and another chapter! Stay tuned for Chapter 28: In the Heat of Battle (Tobias)!
