Chapter Three
"I'm the last Horcrux." Harry faced Ron and Hermione, his heart pounding, as he made the confession. Exactly as he had made it on the suicide note he had intended to leave them. That single sentence was all the note contained. All, and everything.
It took Ron and Hermione awhile to get over their shock.
The two of them had been with Harry when he destroyed all but three of the Horcruxes: Nagini, Voldemort, and one unknown, which turned out to be Harry himself, although none of them knew that at the time. Harry had told them adamantly to search for the unknown while he went after Nagini. They hadn't been happy about leaving him alone, but they did. One night, alone, Harry killed the snake in the Riddle house, and hehad just buried the body in the forest when he encountered a Death Eater. Harry had managed to get past the Death Eater, but then he had run into Voldemort.
That night, everything came to a head.
Ron and Hermione knew nothing of what had passed after they parted ways with Harry to search for the unknown. After Voldemort's downfall, Harry had refused to be interviewed by any publication, including the Daily Prophet, and he had evaded his friends' questions, telling them only that he wasn't ready to speak of what had happened yet. They accepted that, and didn't press him. Harry told them only to stop searching for the unknown Horcrux, because it was all taken care of.
Now, for the first time, Harry had decided to tell them what had taken place in the Riddle House on the night Voldemort died. Hermione set aside her shock and took charge.
"Okay. Before we deal with that — your being a Horcrux, I mean — I have a list of questions, and I want you to answer all of them honestly," Hermione said briskly. "Then we'll come up with something. First: how did you find out?"
"Voldemort told me," Harry said, then explained.
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"Since you are about to die anyway, Potter, I may as well tell you: you are a Horcrux."
The words didn't register. Harry simply glared into the red slits that were Voldemort's eyes — and then it clicked. His rage turned into horror.
"Ah, yes, Potter," said Voldemort softly. "The light dawns. I needed to kill you myself because I wanted the chance to save the part of my soul within you, perhaps transfer it to another object. But it turns out that is not possible. The bit of my soul inside you has been corrupted by your goodness." He said the word as though it left a bad taste in his mouth. "Even if I managed to extract it, which would be difficult enough, it would be worthless to me."
Harry had backed into the forest by then, and he grasped at a tree trunk for support. Furiously, he shook his head. Whether he was denying the fact that he was a Horcrux, or the fact that even if he was, Voldemort would still kill him, he did not know.
"After I kill you, there will only be two pieces of my soul left. The one in me, and the one in Nagini," Voldemort said. His tone became deadly. "Since you managed to dispose, against all odds, of the others. But no matter. The part of my soul within you, which you suppress with the willpower that tainted it with vestiges of your own heroism, is a necessary sacrifice. You must die. If I held you captive, you might be rescued, or you might escape, and you will not rest until you have killed me. You've proven yourself a formidable adversary." He smiled; a chill went down Harry's spine. "A compliment, Potter, from the Dark Lord himself. You should be flattered." Harry clenched his fists and made an incoherent sound of rage, which caused Voldemort's mirthless smile to widen. "But you are not. Such foolish honor. You could be my right hand man, and you would be more valuable and more powerful than all others, for a part of me is within you. But you choose to fight me instead. Very well. You shall die."
Voldemort raised his wand.
And Harry shouted, "Nagini is dead!"
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Hermione clutched Ron's hand. Both of them were visibly shaken.
"Why did you tell us only now? That was months ago!" Ron said.
Harry shrugged wearily. "I thought the only solution was to kill myself, and you would have stopped me."
"Damn right, we would have!" Ron looked outraged. "As if we would have let you commit suicide! You-Know-Who's not going to rise again just because a bit of his soul is stuck inside you."
"I can't risk that," Harry said quietly.
"So why are you telling us now?" Hermione asked.
Harry hesitated. "I was going to kill myself. But I didn't go through with it because — because I don't want to die. If that's the only way to make sure Voldemort is gone for good, I'll do it, but what if there's another way? I'm hoping that there could be, and—"
"There has to be," Hermione cut in, her expression determined.
"I need your help finding a way out," Harry finished. He and Ron traded hopeful looks. The last time they had seen that look on Hermione's face, S.P.E.W. was born.
"We'll help, of course," Hermione said, the brisk tone back in her voice. "But first, let's hear all the details. I'm glad you decided to finally open up to me and Ron, Harry. We've been curious for so long. Next question: how did you kill Nagini?"
"I was scared," Harry admitted. "I only did it because I knew, from Moody, that the Auror spies suspected Voldemort was away at the time, trying to convince the giants that had joined with Grawp to come back to his side. And, of course, searching for me. For some reason, Moody said, Voldemort had suddenly become more anxious than ever to find me. I think it was because he knew it was me behind the destruction of his Horcruxes. But Moody didn't know that."
Hermione and Ron nodded. They had decided to keep the secret of the Horcruxes to themselves. If Voldemort knew that his secret was out, then he would guard his Horcruxes more protectively than ever.
"According to the Auror informants," Harry went on, "Voldemort had left his pet snake behind, at the Riddle House. I went there to kill Nagini."
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Harry whistled. The clear sound echoed through the night. Then he stopped. Could snakes hear? Damn,he didn'tknow. He wishedhe could askHermione.
Harryhesitated, then picked up a rock and threw it at a window. The glass shattered. He picked up another rock, and hurled it through another window. He threw rocks until all the windows in his vision were broken.
There. Surely the snake would notice that. He waited in the shadows outside the Riddle house, his wand held tightly in his sweaty hands.
It wasn't long before the snake slithered out to investigate
Harry knew that he had only one chance to cast a spell on Nagini. If he missed, the snake would be upon him in seconds, and he would be defenseless then. He took careful aim with his wand.
"Petrificus totalus!" Harry shouted.
For a terrible moment, he thought he had missed. Then, with a shudder, the snake jerked forward, stiffening, frozen in place.
Harry didn't waste time. He knew that Nagini had a connection with Voldemort, and he didn't want to give the snake time to make use of it. Instantly he emerged from the shadows of the trees to the moonlit patch of ground where Nagini was immobilized, and crushed the snake's head under his boot. He stomped again and again, not only on the head but down the length of the snake's body, until all that remained was a pulpy mass of blood and scaly skin.
Harry looked down at the gore. He stamped one more time on the bloody mess that used to be Nagini's head, then scraped the bottom of his boots clean on the overgrowth of weeds at the edge of the Riddle house.
"Reparo," he muttered, pointing his wand at a window. He pointed his wand at another one. "Reparo." On and on he went, until all the windows had been repaired, although they were no longer as dusty as before. He hoped Voldemort wouldn't notice.
Harry went back to the dead snake. He levitated it with a spell and held out the stringy pulp in front of him as he ventured into the depths of the forest behind the Riddle House. But not before he covered up the blood on the ground with dirt. He didn't want to leave evidence. He wanted Voldemort to believe that Nagini was still alive for as long as possible.
In the forest, he dug a hole and dropped the snake inside. And, without a twinge of guilt or regret, he buried Nagini.
He was about to leave when the Death Eater arrived.
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"You should have told us all this right after it first happened!" Ron said, looking quite pale at the thought of going one-on-one against a Death Eater.
Harry said nothing. It had been three months since Voldemort had died, and he had spent most of that time in a haze of depression and misery, putting off his death for as long as he could. He hadn't wanted to talk to anyone.
Funny that it was Malfoy who had, in the end, convinced him to open up.
"All right," said Hermione. "Question number three: what happened after you killed Nagini?"
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Peter Pettigrew stared at him, stunned. Harry stared back.
The Death Eater recovered first. With his silver hand, the one he had been given to replace the hand he cut off on the night Voldemort was reborn, he whipped out his wand and pointed it at Harry. His speed was stunning. "Don't move!" he cried.
Harry, frozen, simply stood there, his wand dangling at his side. The shock on Peter's face changed to triumph.
"What rewards I shall get when I bring you to the Dark Lord," Peter breathed, his eyes glinting. "The Boy Who Lived! He has been searching for you… and it is I who will bring you to him…"
For a long while, the two of them stared at each other, at a standoff. Harry's mind whirled. Peter definitely had the upper hand... and yet...
"Wormtail." Harry's voice was low and toneless. "You owe me. I saved your life."
At the sound of the name, perhaps remembering the Marauders, Peter's wand arm trembled. "There are no pacts between Death Eaters and Muggle-Lovers! I owe you nothing."
"You owe me. I saved your life," Harry repeated, but his mind continued churning, calculating whether or not he should raise his wand right now, and hope he got off a spell before Peter did whatever he had to do. He tensed, his green eyes intent on Peter's wand, ready to strike —
"Then go!" Peter cried, his voice high and strident. He looked surprised at his own words, but he lowered his wand. "Go before I change my mind, Potter!"
Harry wasted a moment gaping. Then he turned and hurried away. He was shaking; only then did he realize how afraid he had been. But he couldn't resist looking back. Peter was still within sight, staring after him.
The Death Eater muttered something. Harry thought it sounded like, "You look exactly like James… but you have Lily's eyes."
Harry felt neither anger nor gratitude, only emptiness. "Wormtail."
"My debt is repaid," Peter shouted, his eyes darting around frantically, as though to check if anyone witnessed this treason to the Dark Lord. "Go!"
This time, Harry didn't look back. He left.
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"You ran into Wormtail?" Ron breathed.
"Oh, Harry — you realize what he risked? Voldemort is skilled at Occlumency. Seeing into Wormtail's mind, seeing that he had let you go… It would have been easy for Voldemort. Wormtail would have been doomed," Hermione said.
Harry looked away. Despite everything, he couldn't quite bring himself to forgive the man who had betrayed both his parents, and Sirius, too. "Yeah."
"He did what was right," Hermione said gently. "He was weak, but perhaps a bit of the Marauder remained inside him. He mentioned your parents, Harry. He let you go for James and Lily."
Harry nodded, unable to meet her gaze. He wondered what Hermione would say after she heard the rest of the story.
Ron saw that Harry was uncomfortable. He cleared his throat to distract him and said loudly, "Let's move on, next question. What happened after that?"
"That's not exactly it," said Hermione. "The fourth question is, how did you kill Voldemort?"
"Same thing," said Ron.
Harry took a deep breath. "How did I kill Voldemort? That's a good question. The truth is, I couldn't have done it on my own."
Author's Note:
To be continued…