Harry Potter and the Golden Bell
Chapter 14
Life or Death
A/N: Here it is...the chapter you've all been waiting for. I have been known to kill people in stories, as you know if you've been reading Harry Potter and the 30 Tasks, one of my other stories (and if you haven't been reading it, I really recommend it - it's totally awesome so far) I'm planning to kill off one of the three: Harry, Ron, or Hermione. Keep your mind open as to who you may think it will be because I'll steer you a few different ways for my pleasure throughout the rest of that fic. (I'm not killing anyone in Golden Bell, don't worry...cuz there's still a sequel)
Nothing is mine but the plot, Anna-Nicole, the Pointed Pinkels and the soul extraction spell, Soluiero Exancracito. Yes, I am clever in thinking that up.
"Harry...Harry...Harry..." Harry felt numb in every inch of his body. Every joint felt frozen in place and inflamed. When he heard Hermione's voice calling him to consciousness, he didn't want to open his eyes one bit. Maybe if he pretended to be asleep again...
There was a stumbling sound, followed by a body hitting the floor. Harry opened his eyes at this out of surprise, and saw Ron laying on the floor in a small heap, moaning. Hermione seemed not to have noticed, because she was smiling down at Harry, sitting on the edge of his bed.
"Hi," she said. Harry smiled weakly. "Hi...what happened to me?"
"You just froze there in the air holding your forehead...and er...a Bludger went toward you followed by Colin and Dennis...they kind of made contact with you." She nodded her head toward two beds, each with a large, breathing lump in them. "You were half unconscious, so you didn't exactly know what was happening around you. Slytherin won," she said, finishing, as if that was something worth adding.
"Yeah, I heard that before I blacked out," said Harry glumly, "And my broom?"
"Your broom's allright. It's back in its closet," said Hermione.
"Good," said Harry. He wouldn't care if he was bloodied up from head to toe, he just wanted to make sure that his Firebolt hadn't been crushed to pieces so that when he was healed, he could ride it again. Ron flung his hand on the bed next to Harry's legs and got himself up.
"Hey, mate," he said as if he was wasn't just laying on the Infirmary floor, "Took quite a fall there."
"Me or you?" Harry said smirking. Ron smiled a bit and pulled up a chair to the side of the bed.
"It's a good thing you were only a good ten feet from the ground," Ron added positively.
"True," Harry said, "It was Anna-Nicole, right?" he groaned, pushing himself up into sitting position and laying back against the brass headboard.
"Probably...I'd wager that," said Hermione. "It's allright, though. You'll be getting him out of here tomorrow. At least that's what you said." Harry's heart sank and he felt a strong surge of hatred towards Hermione. He'd be back here the next day as well, in this very bed, all because he was the one who had to fight off Voldemort. All because it was he who was the Boy Who Lived. Why did it have to be him? The feeling vanished a bit and he tried not to show the aftermath of it.
"Er...yeah," he responded vaguely. Just then, the door burst open. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all looked at who had come in, running like a maniac, and they saw that it was Anna-Nicole. Harry's scar gave a painful buzz and he quickly sank back down into his covers and closed his eyes.
"Harry! Harry, I - "
"Shh!" Hermione hissed, catching onto what Harry was getting at, "He's asleep!"
"But he was just sitting up a few seconds ago, I saw him," she said, looking at the "sleeping" Harry. She was holding a small bouquet of purple colored daffodils in her right hand.
"You must be seeing things," said Ron, "He's been out for hours."
"Oh...okay...well, tell him these are from Anna-Nicole. When he wakes up of course." She handed Hermione the flowers and smiled. She hesitated, and bent over and kissed Harry right on his scar. Right then he experienced a pain so powerful. A pain that he had only felt once before: when Voldemort had touched him in his fourth year...in the graveyard the night Cedric died. It felt as though his head was about to split right down the middle of his scar. He tried as hard as he could to keep himself quiet, and the pain inside, and when she stood back up, the ancient spot on his forehead still burnt like fire.
"Bye," she said cheerfully, turning and going down the long aisle back out of the Infirmary door. As soon as the oak door closed, Harry clapped his hands to his forehead and gritted his teeth hard.
"Harry?" Hermione said quietly.
"She kissed my scar. Ugh, it hurts!"
"Er...she brought you flowers," said Hermione.
"Throw them out the window," Harry said, opening his eyes. Hermione looked shocked.
"What?"
"Remember how Broderick Bode died in St. Mungo's? He was attacked by a Devil's Snare disguised as a Flitterbloom! This could be just the same - throw them out the window! Now!" Hermione stood from the bed, opened the window a bit and threw the entire bouquet out. She watched it fall all the way to the green ground in a shower of beautiful deep purple petals. Still feeling awful and sick from throwing a Get Well present out of the window, even one being from someone who was being possessed by Voldemort and wanting to kill her best friend, she tried to ignore it, sighed and closed the window. The pain in Harry's head subsided a bit and he was left with a headache; he took his hands away and sat up again.
"So...I've got a question," said Ron, as Hermione took her place back on the bedside again.
"What's that?" Harry asked, reaching for his glass of water.
"Why d'you reckon Snape wanted to know where the bell was?"
"Well, it'll have to be Lucius Malfoy, won't it?" said Hermione.
"But that would mean Snape wants to kill me as well," said Harry, "And even if Snape was a Death Eater and knows all about how the bell works...and loathes me - well - being a former Death Eater, he'd be against Voldemort, therefore wishing to keep it so Voldemort couldn't locate and kill anyone anymore."
"Maybe that's exactly why he wanted it," said Hermione, "But he can't get it now," she added sadly, "It's because of me it's gone."
"Hermione, it's no more your fault than it is Luna Lovegood's fault," Ron said.
"Oh, come off it. I was the one that was foolish enough to venture outside of the Common Room late at night with the bell. I should have known that somebody who wanted it might be there on the lookout for it, or the person who had it."
"It doesn't matter who's fault it is now," said Harry sounding exhausted, "It's over. As is the year. Soon, we can all go home and none of us won't have to deal with any of this anymore."
"Right. Well...we're going to go get a few study sheets done...and Ronald has to finish his Transfiguration essay," added Hermione forcefully.
"Come on, Hermione, can't we just - "
"No! It's the last assignment of the year and you're doing it if it's the last thing you do!"
"Ron. Hermione. If you're going to argue, do it out there." Harry pointed to the door and both Ron and Hermione looked at each other and stood.
"Bye, Harry," said Hermione.
"See you, mate," said Ron, and the two of them left through the door. Harry laid back down and turned his head so he could see out the window. He was feeling very fatigued, and began closing his eyes for brief seconds, starting to drop off, but opening them again, not wanting to. Finally, sleep blanketed him and he drifted off...
He was standing again in that vivid white room...just standing there looking straight at the source of the light, a white ball of fire on a platform in the middle of the area. A shape was coming into view beyond the fire...
"Sirius," Harry breathed. His heart began pounding hard in his chest and he stepped closer to the platform as his godfather was beginning to do...he reached out his hand slowly and proceeded towards the fire so that his hand went through it. Sirius could now be seen beyond the flames and was smiling. He too reached out his hand and held onto Harry's.
"Sirius," Harry said again, a bit louder.
"Welcome, Harry."
"Welcome to where?"
"Welcome to beyond the veil."
"This is what it looks like behind here?" Harry asked incredulously, still aware that he was still holding onto Sirius, but even though his hand was getting wet and slippery from sweat, he didn't dare let go from fear of losing the connection and possibly waking up. Was he really even talking to Sirius?
"Well, no. Not to the living eye. But if you are among the deceased, then yes. This is what it looks like." Harry stayed quiet for a moment...this didn't sound like Sirius. It wasn't like him to use words like these in the same sentence or way.
"But...what about those people whispering? Were they dead people?" asked Harry, his voice still low.
"No, they are alive. Monitoring who comes in and out of the veil. If you are alive, there is a chance you may be killed, or sent back. But if dead, you are welcome. It's not easy to get here and live in peace."
"But, what is it for? Why are you here? How come - ?"
"You'll come to know in time, Harry. But now, I have to go."
"Wait! Sirius, don't go!" Harry cried, though he was still there holding Harry, but he soon let go, gave a last smile and a wink despite Harry's angry protests, and turned to walk away.
"Sirius! Wait!" Harry moved sideways to avoid running into the platform and began running past it -
WHAM!
His face made contact with thin air and he clapped his hands to his face, his nose bleeding...bleeding everywhere...like a waterfall from his nose...it was soaking his white robes in dark, red liquid. He was beginning to shrink...to shrivel..
"No, NO! NO! GET ME OUT! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" Harry thrust his eyes open and sat up. He was breathing heavily, laying in a tangle of sheets on the floor...drops of blood dripping from his nose onto the white sheets he was wrapped in. He had fallen off the Infirmary bed and had landed on the floor face first. He frowned and anger began to rise up inside him. Why did he try to get across the barrier if there was one? Why couldn't he have let Sirius go? Or brought up something else to make him stay longer? He knew that if he had this dream again, he'd change it for the better and maybe, if this wasn't an everyday dream, find out more about the black veil in which Sirius Black had fallen into just one year ago.
---::---
Morning light poured through the massive windows of the Infirmary where Harry lay, having fallen asleep again on the floor. He awoke to a high pitched shriek, whom which he thought had come from a woman, but when he blinked his eyes open, he saw Colin, still in his pajamas, looking the other way calling to Madam Pomfrey shakily: "MADAM POMFREY! HE'S DEAD! HARRY'S DEAD!" Harry frowned.
"I'm not dead, Colin," he said, his voice skipping on the word: "dead" from his throat still adjusting to talking. There was dried blood on the top of his lip under his nose, and a brown stain on the sheet. Colin's head whipped around to look at him and he began beaming.
"You're not dead!"
"That's what I said," said Harry with unintended irritability. He untangled himself finally, as Madam Pomfrey scuttled into the room and put her hands on her hips.
"He's not dead," she said a bit more irritably than Harry had sounded, as of confirming it to either Colin or Harry. "What happened to you, Potter?"
"Nothing...my nose probably got dry and bled...it's nothing." He stood up and strode to the bathroom in the front of the room. He went in, went to a sink, and began washing his face and nose with a washcloth, then went back to his bed and began precariously making it.
"You can go get dressed and get down to breakfast, Potter. I'll take care of that. You too, Creevey. And wake up your brother, he's out like an old burnt muffin." She bustled around the bed that Harry had halted in making, and he bid his farewells to Colin, and headed out of the Infirmary. He hoped that he wasn't turning any heads, having wearing his pajamas while walking around the school in broad daylight. The halls were pretty empty anyway. It was very early in the morning and since it had been the weekend, everyone had to say goodbye to sleeping in and drag themselves out of bed for breakfast and their morning classes. Harry kept his own head down until he got to the Fat Lady, told her the password, and crawled into the Common Room. Ron was sitting in front of the fire, dressed in everything but his robes, shirt untucked and tie undone, reading his Herbology textbook. His head turned to see who had come into the room when he heard the creak of the portrait opening.
"Hey, Harry!"
"Hey," said Harry, "Hermione got you reading?"
"Yeah, how could you tell?" Ron grumbled, looking at a picture of a particularly ugly plant looking like a cabbage with spikes.
"I didn't think you'd read about Pointed Pinkels on your own."
"Is that what that is?" said Ron, raising his eyebrows, "I wasn't really taking any of it in." He shrugged and continued ominously gazing at the black words printed in the book, propping his head in his hand. Harry went up to his dormitory and dressed. Moments later, he was sitting in the Great Hall eating his breakfast, occasionally glancing at Anna-Nicole over at the Ravenclaw table, and when catching her eye, (which was often - Harry's seemed to be the only direction she was looking in) smiling. Hermione hadn't eaten, she was studying for her Muggle Studies exam. When Harry noticed, it reminded him that his first two exams were Wednesday, and this reminded him that the year was almost over, and that in turn reminded him that today was the day he'd be dueling Voldemort.
---::---
Potions and History of Magic were both in the morning that day, followed by double Charms with the Ravenclaws. This was his chance to really get onto Anna-Nicole and to get her attention. When Professor Flitwick called on Parvati and Padma Patil to hand out example exam question sheets, Harry looked over at his target and raised and dropped his eyebrows, smiling slightly. Ron, seeing this, also smiled a bit. Anna-Nicole blushed and buried herself in her paper.
"No talking please," Professor Flitwick squeaked. Harry picked up his quill, dipped it in his ink bottle, and looked at the first question, then began it. He looked up again, finding Anna-Nicole looking right back at him, then casually going back to her work when she saw he had noticed. He took a piece of parchment out of his bag and wrote a short note to her. He used his wand to fold it into a mouse, and it scurried off of the desk and over to Anna-Nicole. It crawled up onto her shoulder and whispered: "Hi, Anna-Nicole." She giggled and the mouse puffed and exploded soundlessly. She wrote a note back the same way, and it said: "Hi, Harry." This went on for a long time, until Harry's scar gave a rather uncomfortable throb and he decided to put his entire focus on the review sheets in front of him. After both periods, Harry had gotten through all three sheets, with only six unanswered questions. (most were short essays) When the bell rang, he gathered his things together, and slung his bag over his shoulder. Anna-Nicole sauntered over to Harry and smiled.
"Hi," she said.
"Hi," he said back.
"Do you want to - ?"
"Er...no," said Harry vaguely, not having the faintest idea of what she was about to say, "Can you meet me at the edge of the Forbidden Forest around...er...five?"
"Before dinner?"
"Yeah," said Harry, and his scar gave another painful twinge. He looked at Ron and Hermione, who were lingering in the doorway watching and waiting.
"I don't see why not," she said.
"Great. See you then."
"See you." She lunged forward, but Harry ducked and hurried out of the door before she could open her eyes to see that he had gone. When he, Ron, and Hermione had arrived back at the Common Room, there was an owl sitting on the back of the chair that Neville was sitting on.
"The note says it's for you," said Neville, "This thing's been pecking me. I told it that I didn't know where you were, but it wouldn't listen."
"Yeah, it's for me," said Harry, going and untying Mr. Ollivander's response from the grey owl. It hooted and flew out an open window again.
"I wonder why he didn't have it come during dinner though," said Hermione, moving next to Harry to read the message as well. Neville wasn't really listening or paying any attention to the three, as he was absorbed in his own Herbology textbook reading and gazing quite fondly at the Pointed Pinkels depicted on the page he was opened to.
"Dear Harry," said Harry, setting the wand, wrapped in new brown paper, on the chair arm beside him. "Indeed this wand belongs to Lucius Malfoy. I won't ask what you're up to, no doubt something dangerous, but nevertheless, I'm always here to help you and glad to do it. It was smart of you to choose me as your recipient. I'll wager that it was Miss Granger's idea, was it not? Anyway, thank you for writing. I hope you have a fine summer and good luck all of you on exams. Best wishes, Mr. Ollivander."
"We were right, then," said Ron. "I mean...you were right, Hermione. Malfoy's wandless. Harry, keep this in your trunk and away from Draco."
"On the contrary, Ron, if Lucius is wandless, we have to return it to him," said Hermione.
"For what reason?"
"He needs his wand. We can't just take it from him."
"But he's Lucius Malfoy, he - "
"- Needs his wand back," Hermione finished with finality, and turned to Harry. "I want you to leave it somewhere where Draco Malfoy will find it. He'll see that it's his dad's and he'll return it to him for us, without knowing at all who took it."
"But that's the evidence!" exclaimed Ron, "If he has the evidence, we won't be able to prove anything!"
"I'm sure there'll be plenty of evidence," said Hermione, "We're getting close."
---::---
At ten to 5 PM, Harry was in his dormitory getting ready. He had on his white buttondown shirt, Gryffindor tie, belted up pants, and his black robes. He made sure his wand was in a location he could reach quickly, and he headed down to the Forbidden Forest. Anna-Nicole was already there, leaning against a tree. When she saw Harry, she brightened and waved. He waved back and continued walking towards the towering trees. Once the two got there, she smiled and reached for his hand, and they both walked into the forest together. Harry did not attempt to make any conversation...he was too focused on the thing he needed to do. He felt his wand jab at his hip lightly when he walked and it made him think that he was about to use that wand...use it to defend himself.
---::---
It got darker and darker as the forest became thicker. The canopies were shielding any sunlight wishing to creep through to light the ground below. They walked on still in silence, Harry checking around every corner, in any nook or cranny of the area for any signs of movement, but there were none. When the two came to a small clearing of trees where only the canopies of trees circling the area covered the sky and a large boulder lay, Harry halted. His scar was beginning to burn...it was again trying to explode off of his forehead. He let go of her hand as it was getting immensely sweaty, and tried hard to blink back the pain. He felt a rush of excitement pulse through him...like something good was about to happen. But he wasn't happy...he was truthfully scared. But for that moment, he did not feel that way. He felt happy. He assumed it wasn't his feeling. He was feeling the emotion of another...the emotion of Voldemort's. He was close...so close. So close to gaining what he wanted...to dispose of Harry Potter.
"What?" came a voice from Harry's side. He looked to where it came from and remembered his purpose for being there. He also noticed that the muscles in his face were stretched into a grin, and when he did notice, he wiped it off of his face.
"Er...Anna-Nicole...I - " Harry stopped dead in mid-sentence. The eyes of the girl before him had turned a bright blinding red and her face stretched into a grin, her cheeks turning a ghostly white. Harry backed away, and his hand found his wand. Voldemort's red eyes looked up at the sky briefly, and then he closed them. A wisp of vapor began seeping out of Anna-Nicole's head and when it was all the way out, she fell motionless to the ground. The vapor flew behind the rock and emerged again seconds later, not as a white vapor, but as a pale-faced man, his hood over his head, and his red eyes glimmering from underneath it.
"Well, well...we meet again," hissed Voldemort, "Wand out, i see? Fallen right into my trap? Just like you, boy. You're not the only one thinking. I've known your plan ever since the time it leaked out from between your lips."
"How?" asked Harry indignantly, showing no sign of fear, his wand now out steady in front of him. Another sickened grin became visible under Voldemort's hood.
"Oh, it shouldn't matter to you. All that should matter to you right now is you," he answered, "and me. As for the girl...I feel she's served her purpose quite nicely. Remember to thank her for me when she comes back to consciousness." He raised his own wand with a jerk, and Anna-Nicole's lifeless body was flung at the enormous rock. Harry felt anger as strong as he had felt it the day of Sirius's death and he felt that he ought to kill Voldemort...to waste his body away so he would be weak again...as he had when his parents were killed. He raised his wand and pointed it at Voldemort.
"Expelliarmus!" he shouted. The wand that was so like Harry's slipped from between three pale fingers of the snake-like man in front of him and landed near the boulder. This was Harry's chance to run. But he didn't. It would show Voldemort that Harry was still a frightened child. He kept his wand raised and shot another curse at Voldemort, backing up a bit more. "Impedimenta!" Voldemort flew off his feet, but caught a tree branch and let himself fall to the ground again. He swiped the ground covering and uncovered his wand.
"Avada Kedavra!" he bellowed. Harry jumped to the side and the green spark hit a tree...it turned an even darker brown and began slowly shriveling creakily. He got to his feet and began running again. Voldemort still followed, his body hovering above the ground as he went. He continued as fast as he could. As fast as his legs would let him -
"ARGH!" He tripped over a tree root and was launched forward. Harry crawled to his feet and tried taking off again, but Voldemort had been quicker. He grabbed Harry by the back of his robes and held him up.
"No one to save you now. Dumbledore doesn't care anymore. He wanted you to deal with me on your own, he won't come to your aid." Harry began kicking and thrashing wildly.
"LET GO!" he shouted. Voldemort lowered his hood. His once shockingly pale face was now etched with scars and craters of brown, rotten flesh. There was fresh blood leaking from a spot near his temple, but it didn't seem to phase him; he kept his tight grip on Harry and his smile persisted. Then he threw Harry five feet where he landed on the ground, on a series of thick tangled roots and stray clumps of brambles. The points were thrust into his flesh, and stayed there. Harry closed his eyes and kept himself where he was, fearing that if he did, he would only experience more pain.
"There. See? Not that bad." Harry opened his eyes and sent a menacing glare in Voldemort's direction.
"Poisonous, aren't that species? Won't take long. I could leave you there, but I'll make it painful, so you remember in your afterlife. Crucio!" Harry's knees locked, his legs froze in place, and his head felt as though it would burst. Every inch of his body was immovable, feeling like it would explode right there. But it stopped and he was left aching from head to toe. He opened his eyes and looked down at his arm where some of the prickers were. His black robes were bloodstained, parts of them a deep purple from the poison.
"Imperio! INTO THE TREE, BOY!" Harry wanted to fight it, but he couldn't. Immediately he felt his body be jerked upward out of the prickers. They ripped his skin and sent more blood out onto his robes, but he had no time to mop it up - he was launched into a large tree, his head turned sideways. His mind went blank and thoughtless. He collapsed to the ground and he didn't dare open his eyes. He was breathing extremely raggedly and the side of his head where he had hit the tree was feeling cold and wet - the wind running over the new wound.
"This is what it's like when you've waited fourteen years to come to full power. What it's like when you are defeated by a mere child and the only way you can regain power, is to create your own body!" Harry looked up at Voldemort and uttered a few words.
"No one needs to die," he said. "Just because you feel bad for yourself, no one needs to - "
"CRUCIO!" Harry screamed. His body felt bound again and pounding hard. It ceased again and Harry's scar seared painfully, and continued burning.
"Because of you, I've been barely surviving. Having to rely on a band of followers to carry out my needs because if I leave hiding, I cannot get my wish - I cannot destroy you! You smashed my prophecy, you ruined my plans! And you don't think you deserve it?" Harry gathered himself, his whole body frozen and aching, his head feeling fit to burst as his scar still tried to split off of his forehead. "No, I don't."
"Crucio!"
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" came a voice from behind Harry. He couldn't move his head to see who was there: the curse was still acting on him, but Voldemort had seen her, and that was all that mattered.
"Have you come to join us?" he asked, sounding mildly amused, but still in that high pitched hissing tone. Hermione walked fearlessly to the spot Harry lay, her wand clenched tightly in her fist.
"Hermione, go back to the castle," Harry said weakly when the Cruciatus Curse had stopped acting on him, though he was still exhausted and hurting from it.
"No," she said.
"I'd take his advice, Miss Granger. Imperio!" Hermione squeezed her eyes shut trying to ignore the pain.
"Join Mr. Potter on the ground," he hissed, but Hermione's feet stayed as if they were weeds fighting not to be uprooted. She opened her eyes after a few moments, seeming completely unaffected by the curse.
"Okay, we can block that one, can we? Avada Kedavra!" Hermione moved her head and it grazed a few strands of her hair, turning them black.
"Expelliarmus!" she shouted. Then she grabbed Harry around the middle and flung him with all of her strength over her shoulder, then began running. Voldemort picked up his wand yet again and chased after them.
"What are you planning on doing?" Harry asked, his body still feeling limp and hurting.
"The cave," she said, and continued through the woods. They reached the large stone cave that Malfoy had hid in. "Oh no..."
"What, "oh no"?" asked Harry, beginning to panic more. He lifted his head to see through one dirty and one cracked lens, a Voldemort racing to them almost at the cave.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" he bellowed. Hermione jumped out of the way just in time and a crater was made in the rock behind them.
"There's a big boulder in front of the entrance!" she said.
"Do something, Hermione - anything!" gasped Harry, remembering he still had his wand gripped in his sweaty hand.
"I don't know!" she cried desperately. "I don't know - Wingardium Leviosa!" The boulder flew up above the entrance and Hermione quickly crawled inside with Harry and let it fall again.
"He can get in easily," said Harry, who was smushed up against Hermione facing her: there was little room in the cave for two, "He'd just have to use a Reductor Curse and he can get us. I hope he doesn't think of that. Come on, help me take my robes off, I need it for my arm."
"What happened to your arm, anyway?" asked Hermione.
"Nothing...just help me," Harry responded impatiently. The two, with much difficulty, got Harry's black robes off and made him a poorly thrown together sling. Seconds later, the rock in front of the opening of the cave exploded, throwing tiny stones everywhere. Harry and Hermione both turned their heads and closed their eyes, but they impact of the stones were like shards of glass, cutting their faces and skin. They were absolutely trapped. Harry lifted his wand with his free hand.
"Expelliarmus!" he said, but Voldemort hung onto his wand, his eyes bulging menacingly.
"I'll kill you first, then the girl," he seethed, "Avada Kedav - " Voices were heard and Voldemort's bald head spun around in the direction of them.
"Never mind, Lupin, Tonks. He's right here." Voldemort turned to look at Dumbledore, who had his wand also raised. Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks scrambled through the trees each from different parts of the area, and joined Dumbledore.
"Tom, I think it's time you get going," said Dumbledore, with an actual trace of amusement in his voice.
"You're not making me let them go this time," Voldemort hissed, "I will have - "
"I'm going to have to," said Dumbledore, and Harry could have sworn that he had sent a tiny smile Harry's way. He looked around him, at Tonks, then at Lupin, and he just wanted to jump out of the cave and hug them both, but he couldn't.
"Tell me, Tom. How long have you been here?" Voldemort remained indifferent, his angry, menacing expression still slapped across his ghostly white face.
"Long enough to discover what I was going to use to kill Potter," responded Voldemort.
"Professor Dumbledore?" came another voice.
"Minerva, we're over here," said Dumbledore. McGonagall climbed through some trees as well and stood next to Lupin.
"Think about it, Tom. You have four members of the Order in front of you and you're concentrated on murdering two sixteen year olds?" said Dumbledore.
"You know perfectly well, Albus that sixteen years ago - "
"I know what happened sixteen years ago, none of us have forgotten," said Dumbledore, shaking his head. "Now...I think it's time you left."
"You do, do you?"
"Yes, I do. You've caused enough trouble in his life to want to stay any longer."
"That," said Voldemort, taking small pauses between each word, "Is. What. I. Want, Dumbledore. You have no idea what it feels like, you being the secondmost powerful wizard - "
"He's the firstmost!" Harry yelled from inside the cave.
"Potter, remain silent," McGonagall simply said.
"I see you've got a few followers as well," said Voldemort. Dumbledore remained unfazed and actually lifted his hand to look at his nails as if this was just a boring conversation between old friends. Voldemort's scowl became more pronounced at this, and he raised his wand.
"Avada Kedavra!" Dumbledore, without any incantation, lifted his wand at lightning speed and produced a metal shield, that, when the curse hit it, flew forward at Voldemort, encased him in a transparent silver binding. Voldemort screaming loudly inside it for five seconds. Then, the shield wore off, and he lay there panting.
"I've seen you do better, Tom," said Dumbledore. Voldemort flung himself up and stepped up to Dumbledore. He placed his wand tip on the tip of his nose. It was an odd picture: Dumbledore looked at the wand on his nose, cross-eyed, and smiled. He looked like he had gone completely mad. Then, he reached out his other hand and grasped Voldemort's wand tightly. Then, he pulled it completely out of his hand and stuck the point of it onto the pale sorcerer's forehead. He then moved it up onto the top of his head, and said: "Soluiero Exancracito." He began pulling his wand up slowly and the white vapor, wiggling madly and screaming, the screams echoing as though they were in a cathedral, was seeping out of the top of Voldemort's body. His face was blank, and his breathing was brief gasps, and when the vapor was entirely free, it said: "You'll regret this, Dumbledore. You'll regret it with every nerve in your sorry body. I'll get what I want. Some day, you'll see that Evil always defeats the Good. That will be when I defeat you." Dumbledore didn't speak, but drew his wand tip back to his shoulder, the white smoke trailing along behind it, and jerked it forward fast. The vapor broke free and flew into the air up above the trees as fast as a bullet from a gun. The body of Voldemort was still standing awkwardly before them, and the scene seemed frozen. Dumbledore looked at the unoccupied body and smiled a bit. He then looked at Harry, still smiling, walked to the entrance of the cave, bent down, and held out his hand.
"Come, Harry. You need your rest. You as well, Miss Granger. Come on," he said. Harry took the headmaster's hand with his free one and pulled himself to his feet. When he did, he put his hand to his head, suddenly very dizzy. Then, his eyes rolled back into his head, he felt himself falling, and everything went black.
A/N: Officially, the sequel is coming out DECEMBER 12TH, 2004. I won't have enough time to rest from this story if I post it in November, what with still having to write one last chapter, so December it is. Review!!!! Oh, hey and guess what? I forgot about Crookshanks. lol. Oh well. Who cares about Crookshanks?? TOO MANY CHARACTERS! The rest of them are more important.
Keep alert for the next chapter...I'll send you an email when it's finished if you review and tell me to!!!!