Harry stood in front of Voldermort, shirtless, emaciated, and beaten almost beyond recognition.
"So Harry," Voldermort said smirking maliciously, "how does it feel to be standing next to the most powerful wizard in the world?" Harry just smiled to himself and rolled his eyes slightly.
"Other than the fact that it's a lie? It feels like shit." Voldermort was enraged.
"Who is more powerful that me?!" Spittle flew from his mouth as he spat out in fury. Smirking even more broadly Harry replied,
"Why Dumbledore of course." Voldermort shook silently with rage before letting out a short little humorless laugh.
"I have you don't I?" He hissed. His voice was low and deadly. "Your precious Dumbledore can do nothing ab-"
"Cunning," Harry interrupted, "has nothing to do with it. If you are asking if you are more cunning than Dumbledore then the answer is a resounding yes, but Ol' Albus is still more powerful." Voldermort's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Yes, well power is nothing without cunning and strategy behind it."
"True," Harry nodded, "then you better just hope that Dumbledore doesn't find you, it would be such a pity if you had to duel with him." Harry smirked broader than ever even allowing himself a little chuckle at Voldermort's incensed expression.
"Crucio!" Voldermort shrieked before Harry even had a chance to wipe the smirk from his face. However because of the repeated regularity of this curse in the past few days Harry had grown accustomed to it. He ground his teeth just standing his ground, praying that Voldermort would see that it didn't affect him as much anymore and take it off. It was a desperate attempt to keep calm because even when the mind has given up the body still wants to fight for survival. A few minutes later Voldermort raised the curse and sneered at Harry,
"Still have doubts about my power boy?" Harry just rolled his eyes.
"Oh give me a break. Even Wormtail can do that curse." He yawned widely to emphasize his point.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Harry was picked up and thrown across the room. His head hit the stone harder than either of them had anticipated and Harry blacked out. This left Voldermort to his thoughts as the-boy-who-lived got a much deserved rest.
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Back at Hogwarts the air was getting stressed with tension as the minutes wore on. This was especially noticeable for four in particular. These four were getting visibly more harried as the day wore on dreading with every fiber of their being the evening that was approaching, but as things often do when you are dreading them, dinner that evening seem to rush at them with alarming speed and before they knew it they were one of the last ones sitting down to dinner. Fudge and Mr. Weasley were the only two ministry officials to arrive but the students were already talking excitedly about the unexpected company.
Ron and Hermione looked up to the head table to see the minister discussing furiously with Dumbledore. He was no doubt about the fake letters they had received. Hermione hoped that Dumbledore could come up with a reasonably plausible story because she was at a complete lack of ideas of what they could be told. The truth was a bad idea they would probably burst up and try to arrest Snape, not that they wouldn't try and do that afterwards, but they might be too stunned.
They heard the front doors burst open as the rest of the heads of departments came in. Dumbledore motioned for Mcgonagall to go greet them and she left through the side door hurriedly and a few minutes later they entered through the larger doors and took their seats at the newly elongated head table. Dumbledore stood up and the chatter died down almost immediately.
"It seems as though these admirable witches and wizards received fake notes from me asking for them to attend dinner with us in the great hall. Alas, while there is no special occasion, they are already here so I have asked them to stay anyways and enjoy the fine cooking of the Hogwarts house elves. Please try not to make them feel uncomfortable." Dumbledore sat down, his face set; it would seem, with inexplicable sadness. Ron leaned over to Hermione, "Oh yeah, don't want to make them feel uncomfortable, imagine how they are going to feel after the little show. Imagine how Harry's feeling!" The last part was said in a vehement hiss that caused several people to look around for the source of the noise in confusion. Hermione's eyes began to tear slightly and Ron immediately regretted mentioning anything. He leaned over to comfort her and the two spent the rest of the half hour watching Snape closely for any sign of movement.
Finally at about 6:29 Snape stood up and walked convincingly without emotion around the edge of the table. He walked to the center so that he now stood on the other side of the table directly across from Dumbledore. He raised his wand with the great hall going silent in its wake.
"Apparexpo!" A bright light burst from his wand and landed on the Slytherin wall of the great hall. Everyone stared in rapture as a fuzzy picture about half as big as the wall appeared, slowly coming into focus. When it was completely visible many students gasped and Hermione buried her head in Ron's chest. A man with snake-like piercing red eyes stood over a bloodied lump of rags and skin lying crumpled on the cold stone floor.
"Crucio!" Voldermort shouted and everyone in the great hall flinched expecting to hear a pain filled scream issue from the poor person's mouth, but it never came. The unrecognizable figure just lay there taking the pain with a passive acceptance. Most students stared wide-eyed at the tortured human on the wall, a few of the Slytherins actually running up and pressing there noses against the wall trying to figure out who the unlucky bastard was but his face was hidden by a mop of blood stiffened hair and they all returned to their seats a few minutes later, their question unanswered. After a few more seconds Voldermort lifted the curse (seeing at how it was a little less effective than he would have liked). "Ardeossis!" The people in the great hall, the ones who hadn't already left or fainted, cringed at each of the audible cracks that sounded as his ribs were snapped one by one. Once this was finished Voldermort shouted another spell and most of the teachers and seventh years that knew the curse opened their mouths horrified as tiny holes the sizes of pinpricks were made all over his entire body. The younger students who didn't know what happened watch horrified as a puddle of blood steadily grew under the body. "Reparaso" Voldermort whispered and the blood stopped flowing instantly. "We don't want you to die yet do we?" Voldermort added slowly circling the body as experimenting with new more painful curses.
Fudge's face was deathly pale. Dumbledore almost felt sorry for him having to accept the return of Voldermort this way. The rest of the Ministry officials were whispering horrified amongst themselves. The ones who followed Dumbledore already knew about Voldermort but were just as revolted as the others. Everyone was worried about the poor soul that Voldermort was demonstrating his power on. Many thought, from lack of reaction, that he might already be dead. Just as this notion was about to be accepted a tortured scream filled the air. Voldermort had just used the "Dementia Visula" curse on Harry. This caused his worst nightmare to only appear before him and all around him. This caused some of the younger students who were unfamiliar with the curse to glance around in confusion, unsure of what was causing this boys pain.
About eight minutes into the torture Voldermort lifted his current curse and conjured a mid-sized glass tank filled to the brim with water. The crowd started to whisper and glance around at each other in bewilderment. Their questions were answered though when Voldermort lifted the boy with a curse and dumped him in the tank. Immediately a top was added to the tank allowing the figure no air. Terror for the tortured spread through the crowd as the water immediately turned a murky pinkish-brown with all the blood that dissolved off him. This while a disgusting sight, did clean up the boy remarkably. The Slytherins who were sitting closest to the glass tank on the wall were now able to see who it was. Draco Malfoy stood up in shock.
"Bloody hell" he spat, "that's Potter." Immediately a small roar of babble broke out between those left in the hall. Many glances were thrown at Ron and Hermione. It was now painfully obvious that they had known beforehand what was going to happen.
After about a minute and a half of Harry being in the tank, people were becoming steadily more worried as the boy-who-lived moved less and less. Just when most had lost all hope that he might survive the glass shattered startling the half of the student body that was left in the hall. Harry rolled onto the floor, his body forcing him to cough up the water in his lungs despite the fact that he didn't care about living. Harry's body, now clean of the dried blood that had covered it previously, allowed people to see the true severity of his injuries. Voldermort chuckled mirthlessly and looked, had this been a muggle movie, exactly where the camera would have been. This created the terrifying illusion that Voldermort was staring at each person individually.
"Do you see these bruises, you marvelous wizards, you protectors of the all-mighty potter, do you see them?" He moved aside allowing the great hall of clear view of Harry on all four coughing up both blood and water. This also allowed them a perfect view of his unclothed back. The entire hall gasped in unison and a few sobbing students were heard as they saw the extent of the bruising seeing all the cracked ribs that Voldermort had broken with his spell. Voldermort reappeared closer to Harry so that you could now see them both. "Only half of those are mine," he laughed, "and do you want to know where he got the other half? He got them from a muggle, a great worthless oaf of a muggle, his uncle." Tears filled the eyes of quite a few more people as Voldermort paused for emphasis. A small voice was heard in the background, but it was not soft enough to be completely incoherent.
"Yeah a great big ugly muggle if I do say so myself." Harry was sitting painfully up against a wall now breathing heavily from the efforts it took to get him there. Voldermort whipped around angrily. A few uneasy chuckles were heard from the crowd.
"Stupid boy," Voldermort sneered, kicking Harry in the side causing him to groan slightly as he was forced to fall sideways splayed now on his back, "do you not understand who you are talking to? I am Lord Voldermort! The most powerful wizard alive! I was going to torture you a bit more," a smirk broke out of his face as he said this, "but you are grating on my nerves." Harry pushed himself up onto his elbows as he still stayed lying in his back. "I think I will kill you now." There was a split second of silence before Harry burst out laughing. It was a hollow, dry laugh that held absolutely no humor. Voldermort stared, paralyzed by shock, the same state evident in the great hall. Harry just kept on laughing.
"You want to kill me?" He managed to choke out and Voldermort's wand hand twitched slightly. "Go ahead and kill me, nothing's stopping you." He closed his eyes and chuckled slightly to himself. "Never though you'd be on the one to do it," he said almost to himself. Voldermort stared at him skeptically. Harry continued, "You know," he rolled his eyes when Voldermort still stood still, uncomprehendingly, "put me out of my misery, make me happy, give me what I want. I always expected a long painful death. Just having to lie there as life slowly drained out of my body, and here you are offering to kill me in a split second." Voldermort opened his mouth to speak but Harry interrupted him, "Yes that right, you heard me, I want to die. Nothing you could do would upset me now. I am going to die sooner or later." Voldermort's mouth had closed and now it slowly elongated to a horrible sneer.
"Is that so Mr. I-want-to-die Potter? Well guess what I am going to do after you die?" He took turned away from Harry and took a step towards the "camera". "I am going to take down Hogwarts. I am going to murder your friends brutally and painfully. I will track down your family and murder them. Oh wait," he smirked in sick humor, "I already did that, and did the world a favor if you ask me." He was about to turn around and look at Harry again when a fist came flying at him hitting him squarely in the jaw. He stumbled backwards and tripped over one of the larger pieces of glass lying sprawled out on his back. Harry walked over to him and stepped heavily on his wrist causing him to drop his wand. Harry was about to lean over and pick up the wand when Voldermort kicked him sharply on his broken femur. Harry stumbled in pain and Voldermort jumped up and grabbed his wand again. "Thought you could beat me Harry?" The great stared up at the wall enraptured with what was happening many miles away. Harry began to speak in gasps.
"You," he paused for a breath, "you will not hunt my friends." He paused painfully again, "You will not take down Hogwarts. You will not hurt anyone else because of me. I have enough murders on my mind; I don't need a few hundred more to add to my conscious. Voldermort just laughed.
"Oh yes? And what are you going to do to stop me? I have a wand and you don't. I am healthy and strong, and you are withered and nearly dead. What can a little brat like you do to stop me? Crucio!" Harry stepped nimbly aside, dodging the curse completely and surprising everyone who had thought that his broken bones would crumble upon use. He began walking steadily, unnervingly towards Voldermort, his broken leg strangely healed. He lifted his hands up and Voldermort began to rise slowly in the air as his wand flew out of his hand. It landed in Harry's hand and he snapped it in two. Voldermort who was hanging in midair began to scream in pain as Harry wandlessly cast some unknown curse at him. He stopped screaming and stared in shocked fright at the still approaching Harry who stopped about two feet in front of him. He slammed Voldermort into the wall allowing his head to slam painfully into the stone. Shackles appeared out of nowhere attaching his wrists to the wall. Harry dropped his hands and Voldermort dropped helplessly so that he was now hanging at eye level with Harry. Harry raised one of his previously lowered arms and punched Voldermort squarely in the jaw again. His limp head swung back and hit the wall with a painful sounding thwack. The great hall still stared in rapture as Harry lowered his arms and gazed into Voldermort's blood red eyes.
"Going to kill me now Potter?" Voldermort spat, blood flying from his mouth. Harry shook his head.
"No," he pursed his lips and said resolutely, "I am not like you. I don't kill for fun." The picture in the great hall was beginning to fade. The half hour was up. People screamed in protest. They were able to hear one last thing Harry said before the image faded completely. "No, you are going to come with me. Stupefy!"