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\\\\\\\\\\\\ Chapter 1 Nepenthe
It's been hours since you've been gone but I'm still standing here where you left me. Even the ice-cold rain that has drenched my body isn't enough to remove the burn of your kiss on my lips. Your scent is all around me and it's driving me insane.
'I hate you'.
The wounds on my chest are bleeding. I stifle a groan as I bend to kiss you again. You look so peaceful as if asleep, but the marks of my hands when I squeezed your throat had turned purple and blue on your porcelain skin.
What were you thinking when you saw the darkness approaching? Did you try to go back and plead with your last breath? Did you see, before your eyes closed for eternity, how my tears fell on your cheeks as my hands tightened their grip?
It didn't have to end this way.
"Harry! Are you alright?"
Hermione Granger ran towards her friend through the freezing rain despite the sting from the cuts on her skin. It has been two years since the death of Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort had unleashed his wrath upon the wizarding world. The Great War is on. Unfortunately for the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter is on the point of breaking down.
Harry was still kneeling on the ground when Hermione found him. He was clutching Ginny's dead body. For a moment Hermione stood still, then she knelt beside Harry and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I had to do it."
Harry's voice was flat and empty. Hermione put her arms around her best friend as he trembled.
"I know."
-
The little town of Hangleton was dark and dreary. Not a soul stirred in its empty streets and its houses had been razed to the ground. Shards of glass and broken furniture here and there, a few crumbling walls and scattered debris were the only things that gave the signs of a finished battle. In the middle of this barren landscape, the Riddle House stood firm. But it wasn't the same house that stood there years ago, it had been turned into a towering castle surrounded by high stone walls with dementors guarding its perimeter and grounds.
Lucius Malfoy walked in quick hurried steps as he went into the Dark Lord's chamber. He stopped in front of a door made of dark wood and was about knock when he heard his master's voice.
"Enter."
The eyes of the statue of a silver serpent on the door glowed and the door vanished to reveal a spacious chamber. He could see the silhouette of a tall man standing by the tall arched window. Lucius walked forward, kneeled, and kissed the hem of Voldemort's robe.
"My Lord."
"The plan has succeeded, the Order of the Phoenix is weaker than ever." Lord Voldemort said. "Gather the Death Eaters, we are going to finish the war."
Lucius couldn't hide the smile that crept to his face. "Then the horcrux managed to kill the boy?" he asked.
"No. The Weasley girl was too weak. Although the part of my soul that possessed her gave her more power, the stupid girl wasn't able to kill Harry Potter," Voldemort narrowed his eyes.
" It never was a good idea to make a horcrux of a person because there is a possibility that the will of that person would override the soul. And I had almost killed him, if only the girl didn't try to interfere. But still..."
The Dark Lord paused as his lips curved into a cruel smile. "The sight of the boy's anguished face was enough."
"But my Lord, you only have one horcrux left!" Malfoy exclaimed.
"My body is the safest refuge for it," Voldemort spoke calmly.
Lucius tried to say something else, but he knew it wouldn't do good to express doubt about his master's thoughts.
"Go," Voldemort commanded.
-
"Death Eaters! Attack at the headquarters!"
Harry was on his feet in no time. Someone blasted the door of his room just as he had reached for his wand. Quickly casting a protective spell, the curse bounced before touching his body and hit its maker. Harry jumped over the limp body as he ran out to the corridor.
It was dark and jets of light hit the walls as spells and curses were thrown in different directions. Bodies fell on the floor while shouts of pain filled Harry's ears. Someone screamed.
"Stupefy!" Harry yelled as a masked Death Eater ran towards him. He dodged a jet of blue light and sent a curse at the nearest Death Eater while punching another that had its back on him.
How did the Death Eaters get in the here? Harry wondered.
But he knew it was only a matter of time before the Order finally gets infiltrated. The Order has grown weaker with each passing month. Harry tried to ignore the Order's steadily decreasing number although he knew that the time will come when he would have to face the truth. He only hoped that Hermione, the only one left of his small circle of friends, would not meet the same fate of the others who had gone before them.
'You're all going down Harry, just like my brother.'
No! Harry shook his head, trying to banish the image of piercing brown eyes and bloodstained hair. He had no time for this, he needed to fight the Death Eaters. He needed to find Hermione.
And there she was, fighting with two Death Eaters. Kingsley was lying still behind her. Is he dead?
"Expelliarmus!" Harry disarmed one of the Death Eaters, Hermione hit the second.
"Harry, they're all over the place!" Hermione exclaimed, " Some of them got Kingsley and Tonks. I don't know if Professor Lupin-"
"Never mind, " Harry said. There was a bruise on Hermione's left cheek and she had a cut on her lip. "We have to get out of here. Where's Hagrid?"
Hermione furrowed her brows and she was blinking fast. " H-he was...he didn't know how to fight using a wand... there were so many of them-"
Harry gulped. There was a painful squeezing in his chest. It was nothing.
"Let's go."
Harry grabbed her hand and they ran only to find several Death Eaters running towards them.
"Expelliarmus!" one of them shouted.
Harry ducked, hearing the muffled fall of the Death Eater behind him. Hermione threw a curse but a Death Eater caught her from behind. Thick ropes encircled her right hand and suddenly erupted into flames.
"Hermione!" Harry screamed. He was surrounded by masked men in black robes. " Relashio!"
But it was no good, he got hit by a cruciatus curse and he fell on knees screaming. The Death Eaters were closing in on him.
Sectumsempra! Harry thought while pointing his wand in front of him.
Two or three Death Eaters were thrown away with long deep cuts across their chest. Harry stood up and ran while he sent another curse to the other Death Eaters blocking his path. A spell hit him and Harry fell hard on the floor. He tried to get up but he slipped from the blood on the ground. He tried to hex them but thick chords of rope issued from the men surrounding him and bound his body. A man with silver hair raised his wand.
"Stupefy!"
-
Harry woke up with his scar burning. He couldn't feel his arms and his legs felt like lead. He tried to move only to hear the clanking of chains. His wrists were raw from the shackles holding him up while his feet were weighed down by heavy iron balls. The metal felt cold like the rough stone wall that scratched his back. He could hear the soft sound of something slithering near him. Through the darkness, Harry could see the crimson eyes of the Dark Lord watching him.
"I believe you've seen Nagini before, Harry," Voldemort said. His voice was soft but it echoed throughout the chamber.
Harry couldn't move, but he could feel the heavy body of the snake crawling up to his body. He suppressed a shiver as it slowly wrapped itself around him until its head was in level with his eyes. Dumbledore was wrong to think that Nagini was a horcrux.
"Where's Hermione?" Harry asked.
The moment he said it, pain suddenly burst from his scar he thought his head was splitting. He could see Hermione tied up and gagged in a dungeon with several Death Eaters ripping her clothes off and fucking her hard on the floor. Burn wounds ate the skin from her right hand up to her shoulder. The smell of blood and burned flesh was overwhelming. A Death Eater continuously smashed Hermione's face on the stone floor to stop her from struggling. He could hear her desperate screams as she cried from the pain.
"Stop it!"
Harry's screams came out with Hermione's. His nerves were on fire. He tried to free himself from Nagini but the snake tightened its embrace and bared its fangs in a threatening hiss. He could feel the warm blood running down his wrists as the cuffs dug deeper into his skin. The taste of bile rose in his throat and his body trembled convulsively. Stop it. Don't do this to her. Stop it stop it stop it- They could've hurt her using magic but they didn't. They were killing her slowly with their own hands and they liked it.
Voldemort smiled cruelly as he watched Harry writhing in agony before him. His scream was like music to his ears. He could taste the boy's pain and it made him want more. He clutched the boy's throat in a crushing grip, his sharp nails drawing blood.
"Do you like it Harry? That mudblood friend of yours will soon join the rotting corpses of your family and friends," Voldemort raised his finger and traced the lightning shaped scar, smirking as the screams grew louder. " You are fools to think you could win against me."
Blinded from pain and gasping for air, Harry could barely hear the Dark Lord's words or feel the wetness on the side of his head where Voldemort licked him. Hermione was bleeding profusely, her screams rang on and on in his head.
"I've always wanted to kill you Harry," Voldemort hissed, the metallic taste of blood lingering in his mouth. His scarlet eyes narrowed. "But Dumbledore's right you know, there are more ways of destroying a man."
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hehehe...I'M BACK!
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more info on what really happened between harry ginny and voldemort in later chapters.