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There may be mistakes in this; I was kind of rushing it so please excuse.

Chapter 15

"Pasha… what?" Harry asked, startled. Was this some kind of joke? What was she doing?

Pasha grinned. Something familiar gleamed in her eyes, but Harry couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"I finally have you, Harry Potter."

"What are you doing?" he heard Hermione ask behind him, clearly as shocked as he was.

"What, don't recognise me?"

Then Harry remembered where he had seen that sneer, seen that same gleam of hatred: Voldemort. But how was that possible? Voldemort was dead, Harry was sure of it. It had to be Death Eaters performing the Imperious Curse on her. Yes, that had to be it, they were probably getting revenge for the downfall of their master.

"Pasha, you can resist it," he encouraged, remembering his experience with the curse in his fourth year. "Concentrate."

Pasha laughed. It was not the velvety chuckle he had come to know and love. The laugh – Voldemort's laugh – was crueler, more malicious. Something around her neck caught his eye: a fine gold chain he did not remember her wearing before, glinting in the light.

"You think I would perform the Imperious Curse on her, Potter? Yes, I admit that would be much easier, but I'd much rather kill you first-hand."

Harry was beginning to doubt that this really was a Death Eater… but it had to be! How could Voldemort still be alive? He had seen him die; Pasha had killed him. The words of the prophecy suddenly came to him: either must die at the hand of the other… could it be? Did Volemort actually survive the Killing Curse?

"I have you this time, Harry. I will not let you slip through my fingers… not this time," hissed Pasha.

Harry watched the wand apprehensively, his heart thudding in his chest. He silently cursed himself for putting his wand in his back pocket; it was out of reach.

"Time to say goodbye, Harry Potter."

"No!" he heard Ron call out behind him.

Pasha grinned evilly, sending chills down his spine. "Avada Kedavra!"

Blinding green light shot out of her wand, speeding towards him. He stood in shock, unable to move as the jet of light came towards him. Then the world went black.

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It hurt. His whole body ached with pain. He could not see anything; everything was dark. He wondered whether he was dead; if this was how he was going to spend the rest of eternity – in darkness and pain.

Suddenly, he heard something. It was difficult to make out at first; the fuzziness in his head refused to clear, but the voice soon became clearer. Someone was calling him.

Harry

He tried to call out, to say something, but he could not.

Harry

The voice was clearer now, and this time it was accompanied with a dim light. It was only a tiny speck in the distance, getting closer and closer. The sphere of light soon became larger, as if he was looking down a tunnel. And still it advanced closer… and closer… and closer, until it enveloped him.

"Harry!"

"Where am I?" he asked groggily. The light in the room hurt his eyes. He lifted his hand up to shade them.

"Harry, oh Harry, we thought… we thought you were…" he recognised Hermione's voice from somewhere on his right.

Harry finally opened his eyes and saw he was lying on a bed in the Hospital Wing. What had happened? The last thing he remembered was Pasha pointing a wand at him and … she had used the Killing Curse! Then why was he still here?

"What happened?" he asked weakly, sitting up.

"She… she used the Avada Kedavra," said Hermione disbelievingly.

"So… why didn't I –?"

"I don't know. Dumbledore did some kind of weird magic and you woke up," explained Ron.

Harry very dimly remembered the dark place he had been in, and the light that had saved him. And the voice. He realised now who the voice belonged to: Dumbledore. Had he died? Had Dumbledore brought him back to life?

"Where is he now?"

"He went to check on something. Pasha, I think."

"What happened to her?" he was still shaken from the memory of her pointing her wand at him.

"I don't know, Dumbledore wouldn't tell us. All we know is that she's being locked up somewhere. After the spell hit you, we thought you were..." Hermione trailed off. "And then all these Death Eaters appeared, and Dementors - I don't know how they got inside - but then Mrs. Norris attacked her for some reason, and she came back to normal again."

Suddenly, Dumbledore burst into the room. His eyes were not filled with his usual amusement, and his slivery beard was messy. He came to the foot of Harry's bed and looked down at him through his half-moon glasses.

"How is she now?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore's eyes filled with sadness as he answered. "I'm sorry, Harry, but Pasha is gone."

Harry felt his stomach drop, and it was not because of the aching in his body.

"But Professor, didn't you say she was still in the castle?" asked Hermione.

"Yes, she is; she is being guarded by the members of the Order."

"But then why did you say -?"

"Because, Harry, she is Voldemort."

Harry was stunned. He sat frozen, letting his words sink in. She is Voldemort. What was that supposed to mean? How could Pasha be Voldemort?

Dumbledore, sensing his confusion, answered. "She was a Horcrux. I do not know how, for I do not know all the secrets of the Dark Arts, but I suspect that Voldemort encased a fragment of his soul in her, and spelled it to lie, dormant, until his soul was... activated - seems the best word.

Harry was still confused. So Voldemort put a bit of his soul in Pasha, and then when he died his soul was 'activated' and then what happened to her soul? Harry asked Dumbledore, and he replied, his eyes still sad.

"I'm sorry, Harry, I know how much you cared about her – but… she is gone. She is still here in a physical sense, but her soul; it was… pushed out," said Dumbledore, trying to find the right words, "by Voldemort's soul; for two souls cannot exist in one body."

"But Professor, if she was Voldemort from the time he died, how could she remember all that stuff that Voldemort couldn't possibly know?"

"The mind and soul are separate things," Dumbledore explained calmly, "Pasha's mind and body were still the same, however, it was Voldemort's soul inside her. The soul is not our memories, or how we act, or how we think. The soul is our character; like Voldemort's hunger for power, his enjoyment of torture."

Harry sat silently as he tried to get his head around what Dumbledore was telling him. His mind was numb to the implications. Pasha was gone. Forever. He felt a lump in his throat rise. He swallowed back the tears. But soon, his sadness turned to anger. Voldemort had used her. Voldemort had killed her. He would pay.

Dumbledore studied Harry's reaction, peering at him calmly through his half-moon glasses. He expected him to say not to do anything rash, or not to react too quickly. But what he said instead surprised Harry. "I think… it is time to fulfil the prophecy."

Harry nodded determinately. He plucked his wand off the small bedside table next to him and swung his legs out the side of the bed. His body ached all over, but he ignored the pain. Hermione looked at him worriedly as he swayed on the spot for a while, before following Dumbledore out.

He led them down into the bowels of the castle, past various classrooms until they came to a stop in front of a dark wooden door. They stepped inside the large room. About a dozen members of the Order – including Tonks, Lupin and Mad-Eye Moody – surrounded a huddled form in the middle, all pointing their wands at the firgure.

"Harry!" Pasha cried out when she saw him. "Harry! It me, Pasha! Tell them to let me go, Harry."

"Don't move," growled Moody.

Harry walked forward, his heart thudding, nearing the ring of people. Pasha was on the ground – helpless.

"You are the only one who can do it, Harry. You must fulfil the prophecy," urged Dumbledore.

Harry gripped his wand, his knuckles paling to a deathly white. Could he do this? Could he really kill Pasha? No, not Pasha – Voldemort, he corrected himself. He had to do this.

I know, pretty confusing. If you want me to explain more clearly, please tell me so I can include it in the next chapter.

Thanks soooooooo much to:

rkkgirl12, Danica01, pearlwalrus, BLACKvWIDOW