Chapter Thirty
An Unforgivable Lesson

Ginny searched and searched the crib, but could find no child. Ginny knew that Harry in fact was not in the crib that night; he was on a cot. But there was no cot either. Ginny continued to rush around looking for baby Harry, when all of a sudden, she screamed, "James! Harry's not up here!"

Harry came dashing up the stairs and burst into his old bedroom that he scarcely remembered. He too searched and searched, but no child was found.

"Where could he be, James? He was up here only a few minutes ago, before you came home!" Ginny cried, almost in hysterics at this point.

(And that was exactly what had happened that night that the Potters died. Up until that point exactly, Harry and Ginny had been reenacting the scene perfectly. But something had gone wrong after that. Two people were forgotten about in that attic, and they were the ones who cancelled out the forced reenactment, because what they did made the reenactment completely impossible.)

Just as Ginny and Harry turned to where the small cot should've been, upon which should've sat whoever was to portray young Harry Potter, they saw nothing, and the reenactment was over.

"There should be a cot here. I sat on that cot there. And my mum should've stopped panicking, and my dad should've went back downstairs to discover Pettigrew gone, and Voldemort should've knocked on the door, and then…" Harry thought, but since he could now speak and act freely, Ginny heard every word he just said.

"Harry! We can talk now! Something must've happened…someone moved the cot…" Ginny hypothesized.

Harry walked around for a few seconds until he heard someone approaching the front door.

Harry and Ginny looked at each other with equally terrified expressions. They both knew that it was time…time for their deaths.

"Harry, what do we do? We can't just let him kill us! He must be able to act freely now too, so he doesn't need a reason to kill us. He'll kill us whether it's a reenactment or not, and you know it Harry! You can't go down answer the door when he knocks," Ginny pleaded, but Harry shook his head.

"Do you think that just because I don't answer the door, he'll give up and go away? He'll be even angrier Ginny! I can't let him be angry. Whoever moved that cot had to be able to move freely the whole time. So they didn't have a role to play in the reenactment in the first place. Who else was in that attic…?" Harry trailed off.

"EBONY! IVY! GET OUT HERE NOW!" Harry screamed, looking in all directions for somewhere they could be hiding.

All of a sudden, Ebony and Ivy appeared in the corner of the room, pulling off of them an invisibility cloak; Ginny's invisibility cloak.

"Where is the cot? Who is the baby? Quickly!" Harry whispered frantically, for Voldemort had just knocked on the door.

"Well, erm, the cot is in that bedroom down the hall, and the baby is…the baby is Severus Snape," Ebony explained with a disgusted look on her face.

Ginny ran down the hall to retrieve the cot and Harry ran downstairs to answer the door. Just before he did though, he had to give Ebony and Ivy an assignment.

"You two have to use that invisibility cloak to follow me downstairs. You have to go capture Pettigrew. He should be somewhere nearby. When you find him, make sure he can't transform into a rat. Use the anti-Animagi spell on him. Bring him back here. NOW!" Harry shouted and Ebony and Ivy covered themselves with the cloak and prepared to follow Harry.

Harry took two stairs in one step, moving as quickly as possible. He needed to think quickly because Voldemort would attempt to kill him as soon as he opened the door.

Harry's heart was racing as he placed his hand on the door handle and turned it, then pulled it to reveal no one.

Although he was tempted to stick his head out and look for Voldemort, he didn't and took a deep breath, letting it penetrate his lungs. But that breath was not nearly satisfying enough. He could hardly breathe. He needed air desperately…he could hardly stand up.

Harry was then on all fours gasping for breath. 'What the hell is going on? Where is he? I need to kill him now…I can't die…'

Harry blanked out.

James Potter rushed downstairs to answer the door. He turned the handle and pulled the knob. Just as he stood there facing the most terrible wizard of all time, James looked over his shoulder and saw his wife standing at the top of the stairs.

"Lily! Take Harry and run!" James shouted; his last words full of fear, yet at the same time compassion for his son and wife's safety.

"Avada Kedavra!"

James fell to the floor, lifeless in a flash of green light. Voldemort stepped over his body and walked up the stairs.

Lily Potter dashed up the stairs and back into Harry's bedroom. Harry was sitting up on the cot, and she sealed the door magically. Holding her son in her arms, she heard him outside the door.

"Woman! Don't make me kill you! Just give me the boy!"

"NO!" Lily shouted and clung onto her son harder than before.

Voldemort burst into the room and laughed. Lily Potter was now guarding her little son with her life. She was trembling, but she kept standing there with her outstretched arms blocking her son from view.

"You silly girl, get out of my way!"

"NO! HARRYYYY…"

"Avada Kedavra!"

Lily Potter fell to the ground in a lifeless heap, just as her husband had. And Voldemort turned to the innocent child and laughed once more.

"It's all your fault, little Harry Potter. If you weren't born, you parents wouldn't be dead. Oh well, it's your turn to fall down like Mummy and Daddy! Avada Kedavra!"

A blinding flash of green light was emitted from Voldemort's wand, and someone fell to the floor. But then Harry Potter woke up, seventeen years old and ready to kill.

Ginny pushed the cot down the steps, waking Snape up. He crashed to floor, underneath the cot, cursing that he might've broken his leg.

Ginny jumped over the cot and picked Harry up. She had seen him collapse just a few seconds before. She peered out the window and so no one coming up the path. She had heard the knock on the door as clear as Harry had back in the bedroom, but why wasn't he here?

"Harry! Harry wake up!" Ginny pleaded as she held Harry's head in her lap.

Harry opened his eyes, and stood up, pulling himself free of Ginny's warm grasp. His face was without expression, and he clenched his wand tightly in his right hand.

"WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU AFRAID OF ME? IS THE DARK LORD AFRAID OF ME?" Harry screamed as he stepped outside of the house, pacing up and down the walkway.

"COME OUT, DARK LORD! COME OUT AND FACE ME LIKE A MAN!"

"Harry! What are you doing? You're going to get yourself killed!" Ginny whispered frantically s she looked over her shoulder to make sure Snape was still immobile.

But Harry ignored her. His eyes became cold and he scowled as he saw Ebony and Ivy rush up the path with Pettigrew attached to Ivy's wand.

"Get the scum over here," Harry snarled and Ivy released the rat-like man.

"Well, well, well. You seem to be a tad braver than you were the first time I met you. Not so afraid of your master now are you?" Harry whispered in a deadly voice.

"If you haven't forgotten, something else happened the first time I met you. I spared your life. Now I realize that was one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made. But I can avenge that mistake now," Harry continued in the same terrifying voice. Ebony and Ivy looked as frightened as Ginny was, still standing in the doorway, almost crying.

"P-p-please! I'm in your debt! I can, I can help you! Whatever you want! You wouldn't kill me if I still had some purpose!" Pettigrew squeaked.

"Then bring him to me. Bring your Master to me. NOW!" Harry bellowed, "And if you aren't back in one minutes, I will kill you myself. GO!"

Harry stood there with a scowl on his face. Ginny as so terrified, she didn't even notice Snape slipping away.

"Stupefy!" Ebony yelled as she pointed her wand at Snape. She pushed him into a small cupboard underneath the stairs, and locked it.

"He's another one. Ginny, kill him," Harry commanded without turning to face her.

"H-Harry, what's gotten into you? Why are you acting like this?" Ginny inquired, her voice quavering in fear. She saw out of the corner of her eye: Ivy praying.

"The anger that I should've had all along. I'm going to kill him. I'll kill him I swear. I'll do whatever I have to. Avada Kedavra, if I need it.

Just then, Wormtail came running up the path. Out of breath, he approached Harry and knelt on the floor.

"He'll be here in a few moments. I told him that you passed out, and that S-Snape had killed her," Wormtail finished, pointing towards Ginny.

"Now what am I to do! I haven't passed out. What do I do, lie on the floor and wait for him to come and the take his legs out?" Harry questioned, slightly calmer.

"You-you could hide somewhere. I-I could meet him at the door, and you could get the first attack. P-please, let me live a little longer!" Wormtail suggested, now begging for his life once more.

"Ginny, get into the cupboard with Snape. Ebony and Ivy, wait upstairs. When one of us is dead, then take Ginny and get out of here. GO!" Harry ordered.

He hurried into the house behind them all. Standing behind a tall rubber plant in the far corner of the house, he kept a close eye on Wormtail who was cautiously looking around.

Just then, Voldemort knocked again. Wormtail opened the door, and in a flash of green light, he was dead. Voldemort looked bewildered as he looked down at his servant's corpse. Obviously he had expected Harry to be standing there.

"Crucio!"

Voldemort fell to the floor and his limbs twitched a bit, but Harry's curse had done nothing more than startle him.

"Well, I see you haven't used many Unforgivable Curses in your lifetime, have you Potter? Allow me to demonstrate how it's really done…"

"Imperio!" Voldemort shouted, and Harry was forced to walk into the kitchen and remove a knife from the silverware chest.