My Heart Burns
A/N: sheepish Hey guys! I am back with the concluding chapter of My Heart Burns. I am so sorry, really, really, sorry that it has taken such a long time to complete. Real life has just that funny habit of killing all you love. So here we have it, final chapter except for the epilogue which I will actually try and finish tonight. I am almost off school (sometime this week!) for Study Leave which gives me a lot more free time between revising for exams so I should actually get round to finishing my other unfinished baby, Perceptual Distortions. I am so incredibly sorry! Please, accept the completely depressing chapter as your reward for your patience. I LOVE YOU!
Chapter 12: Hurt
"What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt"
- Hurt
A flash of lightening scorched the sky. The rain poured from the heavens as the thick, black clouds encircled the ruin where the silhouetted figures moved confidently. A clap of thunder reverberated throughout the air causing whoops of joy from the figures only properly visible when another bolt of lightening caused the sky to bleed.
Another crack of lightening revealed the figure of a young male whose head drooped lifelessly in the dance of the unconscious. The louder, nearer, whip of thunder caused his eyes to open with a start, the rain beating mercilessly down on his exposed head
"Ah, look." A smooth voice rose higher than the noise of the tempest. "Our guest has finally decided to join us."
A titter of laughter met this proclamation, the boy closed his eyes and let out a loud, feral moan. The laughter abruptly turned into hissing as the group of masked figures stepped towards the lankly hanging Harry.
One of them grabbed Harry by the hair and pushed his head forcibly back onto the stone he was tied to with an audible crack that caused another round of gleeful cheering from the followers.
"Oh, Harry, it is so nice of you to join us on this cold, cold night." Lord Voldemort gracefully stepped towards Harry. Harry defiantly opened his eyes, meeting the scarlet slits with his burning green orbs, framed behind cracked glasses. Pure, unadulterated hatred was exchanged within a single, everlasting stare. "Harry, Harry, do look around you instead of looking longingly into my eyes, boy. Do you see where you are, baby Harry?"
Harry tore his eyes from Voldemort and furiously glanced around him. It was a ruin, dimly lit by floating skull-shaped candles. On either side of the ruin were Muggle houses with their windows brightly coloured and the almost inaudible sound of the late news could be heard. The ruin, it seemed, could only be magical to be hidden in such a typical Muggle neighbourhood. It could have been a building judging by the lack of decoration in the blasted bricks. It was quite recently destroyed, in the last twenty years Harry guessed.
"Do you remember, Harry? It was not a lifetime ago, although it may seem it, when you were pulled from the new rubble and taken with the recently deceased Hagrid to live your life with your mother's sisters, your Aunt Petunia."
Harry knew it deep within but it took the confirmation of Lord Voldemort for the reality to sink in. An eerie feeling of deja vu took over as the long buried memory of a childhood barely remembered came to the surface. Although nothing physically remained of the happy home Harry had, could of continued to have without the intervention of Voldemort, there was something in the atmosphere that spoke to Harry deeply, after all, a home is more than bricks, cement and a newly tiled kitchen.
"Godric's Hollow" Harry breathed slowly, eyes darting through the darkness with another piercing shock of lightening. The figures collectively moved almost closer toward him causing him to take an audible breath of claustrophobic intensity. He wanted to run, he needed to run, a rush of panic, the wave of flight adrenaline, pumped mercilessly through his tortured muscles. His body was shattered, he could feel his leg had been broken somehow in the journey and he could feel the familiar coldness of blood congealing above his right eye. A warmness called to Harry, singing to him from the wound on his head, telling him to close his eyes and drift into the incomprehensible rhythm of his thumping heart.
"Harry, Harry, do pay attention." Lord Voldemort sounded amused as he watched Harry sway side to side with the rain continuing to pelt mercilessly down onto the group. Harry opened his eyes wearily. "Ah, how nice. Now, Harry, I'm afraid to tell you that tonight you will die, please do keep awake, Harry. I want to hear you scream. I want to smell the stench of fear from you. I want to fix a mistake I carelessly made so long ago. Why do you think I brought you here? Poetic justice, a beautiful and tragic thing, Harry, you should remember that."
"Hermione"
"What was that Harry?" Lord Voldemort was more than amused as he took another step toward the weary man.
"Hermione, Hermione" Harry choked out. Harry closed his eyes once more before drawing strength from somewhere. "Hermione. HERMIONE!"
"Hermione, Hermione" A high voice mocked from the group of masked followers. A deadly smile peered out from the crowd as the heavy-lidded eyes glittered manically. "Oh where, oh where, is dear Hermione?"
"Hermione, come and say hello to Harry." Voldemort spun quickly and beckoned to a figure in the group. Hermione pulled the mask from her face and put it neatly onto the ground.
"Hello Harry!" Hermione was almost cheerful, sickly sweet in her greeting. She could have been about to add 'Shall we go down to Hagrid's after dinner?' or 'Oh, Harry, haven't you done your potions homework? Professor Snape will give you detention, again!' but her eyes were blank and the smile was plastered expertly on her perfectly Hermione-masked face. "I'm so glad you could join us. What a fun night we will have, Harry."
"Is she not the most wonderful human being, Harry? Does she not cause you to stare at those beautiful brown eyes? And that brain, Harry, what a resource you neglected. But, fear not, I will never abandon her like you have done. I can see what a perfect gift you have been given. I will use her, I will care for her. I will never leave her to the fate you so willingly gave to her. A friendship with a boy who causes all around him to drop dead. What else could you have given this sweet, fantastic girl? Death, Harry."
"Stop."
"Tell him you forgive him for killing you, Hermione."
"I forgive you, Harry."
"Tell him you forgive him for killing the lovely Weasley family, Hermione."
"I pardon you, Harry."
"Stop."
"And your family, Hermione, your fantastic Hogwarts friends and teachers, tell him you absolve him for their death"
"They had to die, Harry."
"Stop." Harry breathed. "Stop it."
"Tell Harry you love him, Hermione."
"I love you, Harry."
"Stop, please."
"Tell him how you love me, Hermione."
"I love him, Harry. I love him more than anything. He will protect me, he will give me life instead of death. Aren't you happy for me, Harry?"
"Hermione, stop. You don't mean it."
"Say goodbye to Harry, Hermione."
"Goodbye, Harry."
A tremulous bang of a thunder not so far away was drown out by the noise coming from the boy, the man, brutally attached in the rubble of a home what could have been centauries ago. Long, sinuous ropes had snapped quickly around every appendage on his body so tight that a trickle of blood burnt into his skin. Lord Voldemort had sharply flicked his wand and the ropes shot off into opposite directions, causing Harry's body to convulse and become stretched with the ropes cutting deeply into his skin. Harry was screaming, the simple force of the ropes was too much. He was literally being pulled apart, limb by limb.
"For neither can live if the other survives" Lord Voldemort sang quietly over the screaming from his enemy. "Hermione is a wealth of knowledge. She devised your death, you know. In our late night correspondence she told me everything she knew about you, about the prophecy and how it could be possibly fulfilled. A willing traitor, Harry."
Harry could no longer hear the words of Voldemort as the ropes intertwined over his chest causing him to choke as he tried to race for breath, for life. His eyes began to close as the oppressive force of the ropes constricted around his body.
"This way, I can easily kill you. There is no chance of you reflecting my curse upon me, as you have done once before. You cannot use your voice to cast any desperate spells. There is no-one left to die for you. You have no-one, Harry, you have nothing left to live for." Lord Voldemort took an almost curious step towards Harry and put a thin, snake-like hand upon his shoulder. It was quite a reassuring, grandfatherly gesture. Voldemort's voice dropped into a hiss that Harry could barely hear in a language Harry faintly knew was Parsletongue "A fitting death, constriction, do you not see the beautiful, poetic irony in that? The so-called 'boy who lived', the boy who eluded me for such a long time, brought down with a death constructed by his childhood friend. Fear not, little Harry. I will do what you could not; I will ensure the survival of Hermione Granger. You have my word."
Harry snapped his eyes open quickly, desperately trying for one last glance, one last surge of magical power. His emerald green eyes, their spark fading fast, met the burning scarlet eyes of Lord Voldemort and, for one moment in time, the man and the beast who had spent their lives as rivals, as enemies, passed an unsaid message between them.
Hermione will be safe.
"HARRY!" Hermione screamed inhumanely, trapped in her internal hell. She could see what was happening, she could feel her mouth form the words Voldemort commanded, but she was completely and utterly helpless to stop it. The image of Tom watched with a slight smirk as she ran frantically from one side to the other, screaming and trying to physically break her way out of her mind. "HARRY!"
"Oh, Hermione, surely you can see that it is over. All over." Tom purred absentmindedly, arching an amused eyebrow at the hysterical woman. She was crying hard and had began to vomit. "Utterly disgusting, Hermione."
"LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!" Hermione pulled herself from the ground and launched at Tom, punching him, kicking him and basically trying to hurt him in any way possible. He barely flinched as she drew her strength and through her entire body weight behind a punch. "I HAVE TO HELP HARRY! HARRY!"
"Nothing you do will help him. You are trapped here. You can't even hurt me, you are so pathetic, Hermione. Is he really worth disgracing yourself in such a despicable way?"
"Yes."
"It is over, Hermione. Watch your show" Tom sounded almost bored as he threw a dismissive hand to Hermione. She numbly climbed toward the part of her prison where she could perfectly see the ropes come up and tighten around Harry.
It seemed to come naturally. He could almost have been sleeping if it wasn't for the ropes laced delicately around his thin frame, tightening and pulling him apart, like a giant snake coiled mercilessly around a winter mouse. The world did not fall apart when his head fell slowly to one side, the sky did not suddenly lighten, the sounds of mourning could not be immediately heard. Who would mourn him, in any case? Everyone has passed. It seemed like a perfectly natural part of the day to see him dangle lankly with the ropes simply supporting his lifeless body like a broken marionette. Hermione could feel nothing but the numbness she had felt proceeding to her outburst and following it. Nothing mattered now, the cold realisation permeated her unwilling spirit and Hermione slumped neatly to the ground in a mocking representation of the boy she could see.
The masked figures gave a cheer of sickening glee as Hermione could only blankly stare ahead of her as perfectly as her prison had managed. Lord Voldemort flicked his wand once more and the ropes disappeared.
It didn't matter to Hermione. Harry was dead, Hogwarts had fallen to the ground. Everyone and everything that had ever mattered to Hermione was nothing. She was nothing.
"Tonight we will take our revenge. We have risen so quickly from the flames like the phoenix who powers my wand and tonight we will take what is rightfully ours. The world will become ours and there is no-one left to oppose us. Not even dear Hermione Granger."
Hermione blinked, confusion written clearly over her face. Her perspective had changed, somehow, everyone seemed much taller than they had five minutes ago.
"Tom, why has everything changed? What is he planning now?"
"Hermione. Welcome back." Lord Voldemort bowed gently. Hermione's eyes widened in realisation. She was free. Completely and utterly free from the prison of her mind.
What did it matter?
The spark had died in Hermione's eyes. The lifelessness was imminent. She had died with Harry and, seemingly, every other person she had once cared about.
"Come Hermione."
Hermione blankly allowed herself to be led wherever the slim hand desired.