A/N: Okay, finally, the new chapJ Happy Easter, if you celebrate it! If not, Happy Sunday. Lol. Thanks to all reviewers!!!
Potter-mad1- OMG! I was so surprised when I saw your review! I'm glad you didn't give up on the story! Lol. Here's your chapter :-)
Chapter 69:
Harry froze. His scar was on fire…
The lone figure on the other side of the room began walking towards them. Harry felt Ginny tense at his side. "Harry-" cam Lenore's voice inside of his head. "It's him! We're all here, Harry, by your side! We can help you, Harry! You can do this- we're with you; you aren't alone!" Harry didn't answer, but he grimaced and managed to look at the pained look on Lenore's face, and he nodded at her.
The figure was ten feet away from them when it stopped. It was tall and thin, and wearing a hooded robe. Harry gripped his wand and held it in front of him.
The figure, Voldemort, removed its hood. Scarlet, profound, yet empty pools of hatred gazed at them through his eyes. Harry stood up, despite the growing pain in his head.
"Potter," hissed Voldemort. "So nice of you to finally arrive…"
"Where is everyone?" asked Harry in a shaking voice.
"Who?" asked Voldemort slyly. "Your little teachers…. And friends?" Harry suddenly remembered. Think of love… He tried to summon up a memory as he stalled for time.
"Yes! Where are they?" he asked.
"Tell me, Potter… what did the Prophesy say?"
"Which one?" he asked, improvising as thoughts raced through his head.
"You know," said Voldemort. "The one concerning you and I. When your precious godfather was killed…" A surge of hatred ran through Harry and Voldemort laughed. Suddenly Harry understood… Voldemort fed off of his hate, and became stronger… but when Harry thought of love, the thing that room was filled with- Voldemort was weakened. Harry tried to think of a memory- any memory- of love. With Sirius? No… that was too painful!
"It smashed, Tom," whispered Harry. "Voldemort… you'll never see it. I didn't see it. Nobody ever will," he said in a falsely confident voice, getting panicky. Love, love, love… any memory of love… come on, Harry! Think of Lenore, Ginny, the Weasleys, Hermione… think!
"You say my name without fear… Such foolish courage. You could have been a Slytherin, Harry. It would've suited you far better." He turned to Ginny.
"Ah… Virginia. How nice to see you once again, after all of this time. Lucius told me about the diary. So long ago… But my memory was thwarted by Potter. Yet I still have knowledge and memory of what happened, Virginia. We shared so much. You loved me… and don't deny it." Ginny was shaking fearfully next to Harry. "Virginia… Come. Come to me. You could be my Queen, Virginia- and you could have whatever you desire. Come to me… Come, Virginia…" And to Harry's horror, Ginny was seemingly in a trance, walking towards Voldemort. He exchanged terrified looks with Lenore and Draco.
"Ginny, don't!" cried Lenore. "It's a trap!" Voldemort turned to Lenore angrily as Ginny hesitated for a moment.
"Crucio!" he shouted at Lenore. A green spark hit her in the chest. She fell to the ground, screaming.
"No!" yelled Harry. "Expelliarmus!" he yelled at Voldemort. He deflected the curse angrily, pulled the Crucio off of Lenore, and turned back to Ginny.
"Lenore, are you all right?" he asked worriedly.
"Harry! That hurt- so bad… I think I'm okay, though… I'll sit up in a moment… What l-language was he speaking to Ginny? Was that P-P-Parsletongue?"
"It was English," said Harry, frowning. Suddenly Ginny began walking again. Maybe- but could it be? Was Voldemort speaking in Parsletongue? And then, Ginny suddenly spoke. It was Parsletongue.
"Tom… Tom… I-I- Let me go, Tom… I h-h-hate you, I don't love you…"
"But you do, Virginia. That's it. Keep walking… Away from Potter- they can give you nothing. They will lose this war."
"Ginny!" yelled Harry, thinking as hard as he could of snakes. "Ginny, come back! He's evil… you love me, Harry. Think about Bill and Charlie and Percy… and Fred and George and Ron, and Hermione and Lenore and your Mum and Dad… we all love you, Ginny! Voldemort- Tom- He doesn't love you! He's the Dark Lord!"
"Shut up, Potter!" yelled Voldemort. "Imperio!" he cast on Ginny. Harry suddenly remembered that Ginny was very talented in fighting off the Imperius curse.
"Come, Virginia…" hissed Voldemort once more.
"Mobilicorpsis!" yelled Harry at Voldemort. Feeble vines entwined around his hands and legs.
"Crucio!" Harry dodged the curse, panting.
"AVADA-" began Voldemort, but Lenore had gotten up and she shot a Stunner at Voldemort. It hit him, but failed to knock him out as was intended. He turned angrily to her.
"You! Girl! Heiress of Slytherin- what have you got, what powers- from Slytherin? You bastard- I am the Heir of Slytherin and Acacia, and-"
"You are not!" yelled Draco. Voldemort turned to him for the first time, his lip curling.
"Malfoy… Lucius's son, am I correct? You look just like him. An independent streak, I see. No pawn of your fathers'? I admire that, Draco. But there are other ways… you don't need to follow the Muggle-loving crackpot Dumbledore to be different from your father. Hand me Potter or either of these other heirs- rise above everyone else in my ranks. You have the makings, Draco! You and I could rule together, unstoppable, we could be. How would you like to be the next Dark Lord, Draco?" Harry saw Malfoy's eyes widen with greed, but he was relieved as Malfoy shook it off.
"No thanks; I'd actually prefer to overthrow you on my own, thanks," he retorted, looking afraid but defiant.
"Ambitious, are we? Ambition is a good thing, Draco. Very helpful and useful in manipulating others and doing whatever it takes to achieve what you desire. For me, it's eternal life. What do you want, Draco?" Draco took a step back, his long blonde hair swaying slightly. It was down to his shoulders now, and Mrs. Weasley was getting on him to cut it. She had warmed up to the boy pretty quickly, considering.
"I want to help Potter defeat you," spat Draco. "Not that I'm too fond of Potter- but I hate my father, and I hate you. And I love Lenore, the real Heir of Slytherin. Who wants to support a half-blood heir of some unknown founder that nobody cares about? Not me, thanks."
Rage contorted in Voldemort's already hateful eyes. "Crucio, you insufferable brat! CRUCIO!" It hit Draco full-force. He was knocked onto the floor, where he laid, a brave grimace on his face, holding in his screams.
"Stop!" shrieked Lenore. "Leave him alone!" While Lenore was shrieking and crying about Draco, Harry suddenly noticed Ginny pick herself off of the floor, a sinister gleam in her soft brown eyes. She walked slowly over to Voldemort, wand out in front of her. Voldemort was turned to Lenore, and Harry knew what Ginny was about to do. Draco looked up and saw both Ginny and Harry. Harry nodded at him. There was a sort of unspoken agreement between the three.
"Lenore," said Harry urgently in his mind, "On the count of three, shoot the killing curse at Voldemort. Trust me! Just do it! One-" Ginny was looking at Harry. Harry took a step closer to Voldemort. Draco moved into a siting position, and Lenore's green eyes darted towards Harry's as she pretended to listen to Voldemort as he tried to convince her to join him.
"Two-" he said, holding up two fingers to Draco and Ginny.
"THREE!"
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" came the voices of the four heirs, as four scarlet beams of light shot towards Voldemort. They made contact, and he fell to the floor, screaming.
The next moment there was a loud pop and he had turned into a large snake. Harry and the others tried to shoot hexes at it, but it was too fast. It lunged at Lenore, biting her.
"Crucio!" yelled Harry at the animal.
The curse missed. The snake sped out of the Hall, onto the Grounds, where the moon had risen, and everyone else was battling. Much of the DA was outside fighting Death Eaters. Harry saw Dumbledore and other professors- and there was Wormtail, running towards the snake.
Harry was suddenly quite torn. He didn't see Snape or Calista- and he didn't know what to do. But a part of him, deep inside his soul was making him get vengeance on Wormtail- that filthy scum…
"STUPEFY!" he yelled at Pettigrew. He dodged it. Nobody noticed Harry and Ginny and Draco leave the castle; they were all too busy fighting. All of the Order and Aurors were all here- and there were at least a hundred Death Eaters and Dark Creatures… and suddenly Harry felt sickened as the moon reached its height in the sky. Full moon. At that very instant there was a loud howl from the Forbidden Forest- and the world seemed to freeze. Nobody moved. Everyone was silent for an instant. Harry then knew what he had to do.
"VOLDEMORT- ESCAPING! WORMTAIL! VEGA IS ALIVE!" And suddenly fighting broke out once more. Wormtail was making a run for the edge of the grounds along with several other Death Eaters. Once they reached Hogsmeade, they could Apparate! Harry felt sickened. He chased after Wormtail when he was hit from behind by a hex and he fell to the ground.
"Stupefy!" he shot over his shoulder. Someone screamed.
Harry jumped up. His arm was throbbing, and he wondered what hex it had been hit with. "STUPEFY!" he yelled, his wand at Wormtail's retreating back- and he was hit! But then a nearby Death Eater yelled Ennervate- Harry kept running. Suddenly he thought of using his broom- but it was too late. They were gone.
Harry stopped in defeat, and, out of anger hexed the closest Death Eater. "STUPEFY!" he yelled.
"Petrificus totalus!" he yelled again. He then sensed, somehow- a curse coming and put up a shield charm. Not a second later, a jinx bounced off of it. He needed to find Lenore- she was hurt, by that snake!
He had just turned around when he saw a horrible sight behind him. There was a fire spreading on the grounds, and the dragon was lying on the ground, surrounded by Death Eaters. Harry knew what he had to do.
"Accio Broom!" he yelled.
Nearby, Susan was knocked out by a Death Eater. On the other side of the lake, some dispersed DA members were fending off Dementors. And he could've sworn that he saw a Vampire on the other side of the grounds. A moment later, his Firebolt was whizzing towards him. He caught it and mounted it, soaring into the air a second later. It was a much more efficient way of travel. He raced over to Mango, behind Hagrid's hut. None of the Order seemed to notice, and Harry was getting worried. What if they already had a scale?
Harry was bracing himself, getting ready to attack the four Death Eaters who were prying at the dragon, when he was startled by the arrival of six more people quite suddenly.
"Hey, Harry." Harry jumped and spun around on his broom. His entire old Quidditch team was sitting there, with a box of balls!
"What on earth are-" began Harry, but Fred wouldn't let him get a word out.
"Harry, Dumbledore told us to keep an eye on Mango, just a moment ago, and we were inspired by your flying idea at the Triwizard tournament. Hope you don't mind; just got here a moment ago."
"It's fine," said Harry, dazed.
Oliver grinned and patted Harry on the back. "Just another Quidditch game, guys." He winked. The then lowered his voice to Harry. "Dumbledore called the Order a few hours ago, and we picked up Katie a moment ago. Anyway," he said, voice resuming its normal pitch. "Fred and George, knock the Death Eaters out. Be creative. You-Know-Who's left, but they still want the scale. Chasers, you three try to help the dragon. Help its wounds and such. Me, I will guard it from any other injury. And Harry, if a scale gets cut, it is the snitch! And we CANNOT lose this game! You GET that scale! Ready?" Everyone nodded. Harry couldn't believe this. "Let's go!"
A/N: Review so I can post the chapter sooner! :- )