Chapter 4 The only one he never defeated

He was in a darkened room. It was a very tall room, with pillars holding the high ceiling. It looked somewhat like a marble forest Harry thought as he walked down the rows of columns to a place near the middle, where a group of people were assembled. This was the place from where all the voices could be heard. There was a gathering of some sort here; men with dark robes and masks on their faces. He immediately recognized them as being Death Eaters. They were all gathered in a circle around their master, the Dark Lord. It seamed like a very important meeting, or a trial of some sort. Harry stepped a little closer, careful not to let himself be heard. Now he could see Voldemort himself. His hood was up; in the bright light of the moon Harry could even see his glittering, snake-like eyes. There was a cloaked figure close to him and Harry guessed she was a woman. He immediately knew who it was, Bellatrix Lestrange. She was there, next to her lord and master, grovelling at his feet. There in front of them was another figure, it was held down on its knees by two other of Voldermort's lackeys. It wasn't struggling to get up. The hood had fallen off and Harry could see the long dark hair underneath. The cloaked figure was a girl, slightly older than Harry, but still, she seemed to be holding Voldemort's attention. His eyes were locked to her, she did not seem intimidated by his stare. She did not try to look at something else but stared directly back at him with deep eyes. They were like ponds in which he could drown, like endless pits in which he could fall and fall and fall and no one would ever find him. The Dark Lord gave some orders. Harry couldn't really hear what he was saying; he wasn't sure why, whether it was because he was too far away, or because he couldn't understand the language.

One of the men yanked on the girl's sleeve, splitting it and exposing the pale white skin. She did not flinch, nor did she seem content. She was impassable to all around her, yet she seemed to control it all. When her eyes had been looked to Voldemort, she had seemed to be the one in control. Voldemort took out his wand and with a swish, an ethereal form of the dark mark appeared at the tip of his wand. Harry realized she was going to be branded.

So this is why she was so calm, he thought, she wants this. The moment this thought passed through Harry's mind, the girl turned her head and locked her gaze with Harry. It burned him. Hippogriff stares wasn't half as strong, a unicorn's glance wasn't half as pure, and a basilisk's gaze wasn't so petrifying. How could he know anything about her? How could he judge her? While she kept her eyes locked to his, Voldemort touched her with the tip of his wand burning the mark on to her arm.

But something happened at that moment. Harry wasn't sure what. He suddenly felt happy, ecstatic; he had a new weapon against his enemy. The girl in front of him was going to be all he ever needed. He removed his wand from her arm and the mark was incredibly clear to everybody. He bent down to see the mark that stated his possession over her. He couldn't help himself and touched it, but the moment his bony finger touched the mark, it burned him like nothing else and that moment he looked eyes with the girl again. Just like the first time, her eyes only showed him hate and revulsion. He could not get into her mind no matter how hard he tried. He looked deep into those eyes, searching for the slightest trace of fear, pain, panic but she did not know what those things meant. She was stronger than him. He could not break her, he could not possess her. He had to look away before he would lose himself. He glanced back at her arm and to his surprise the mark was rapidly fading away, until in a few moments there was nothing there on her arm, not even the faintest trace of the dark mark. He could not believe it he looked again at her face and he could see a wicked smile playing on her lips. She almost pitied him. He could not take this humiliation; if he could not have her then she was off no use. Taking a few steps back he took out his wand and uttered the killing spell "AVADA KEDAVRA".

But when the words left his mouth, Harry realized it wasn't him doing this; it was Voldemort. He was still in his place behind one of the big pillars. He could not take his eyes off the figure; he knew what he was going to see. She wasn't the first of Voldemort's victims to die in front of him. Yet it did not happen. Instead of her falling lifeless to the ground she broke out into laughter. It wasn't the strange high-pitched laughter of Voldemort; it was a pure, innocent laughter. The laughter of a child. The men had let her go and were backing as far as they could from her. She got up and walked forward, towards Voldemort, the Dark Lord was backing away from her.

"You think you can kill me? You meaningless pawn? You think you can take my life away? I am life, you string puppet. In all this chaos you have created, I am chaos. Just wanted to give you a proof of what I can do, nothing more." And with this she just vanished, without a trace.

Harry woke up. He was sweating. He took his glasses off the table and placed them on his face. When he looked out the window, he saw that the sun was just rising.