I sat up suddenly, gasping for breath. Hands were holding my shoulders.
I looked around the bright room. Three sets of eyes were staring worriedly at me. Derrin, Sam, and Tom. Sam was trembling, and Tom didn't seem to have a clue what to do. Derrin was holding me steady as I gasped for breath.
"You've really got to stop doing that, mate."
"Oh, no shit, Sherlock." I mumbled. He grinned."Keep digging, Watson." "Uuugh. Nevermind."
I looked over at Sam and Tom, who stood staring wide-eyed at me. Then Sam burst out "It's Derrin's fault!"
I went bug-eyed. "What?"
"It's Derrin's fault! He wouldn't let us call an ambulance!"
I looked over at Derrin and he shrugged. "Thanks."
It was Sam's turn to go bug-eyed. "Y-you're thanking him? Harry, you could've died!"
"I wouldn't have died, Sam."
"Why does everyone keep calling you 'Harry', James?" Poor Tom was completely lost.
"Cuz it's my name." He stood still a moment, his face blank. "Those two can fill you in on the details later."
I stood up suddenly, making everyone jump. I cringed a little as my back gave a small twinge of pain, but then stood up straight and walked over to my locker. I had to get out of there. Voldemort was waiting. Ron and Hermione might have already been dead.
"Harry, what are you doing?" Sam asked in a small voice behind me.
"I have to go." The lock opened with a 'click', and I swung the locker door open. Derrin stepped up behind me. "You're not going anywhere without me."
I rummaged in my backpack, looking for something. "Yes, I am."
I found what I was looking for. I pulled out a thin, pale stick from my bag. The other three eyed it questioningly.
Derrin looked deep into my eyes. "You can't do this alone, mate."
The other two looked at him. "Do what alone?"
"Yes I can." I turned back to my bag and continued rummaging.
"No, you can't, Harry!" He said, louder this time. I sighed, then turned to look at him.
"Listen. I don't know if I can or not. But that's not the point. I know I'm the only one who could stand against him and have a bloody chance at defeating him. He's hurt a lot of people. He's killed a few people that were very close to me. Right now, he's got my two best friends in the world, and I don't have a fucking clue whether or not they're still alive. I'll be damned if I lead more friends into that situation. So, I'm going alone."
Derrin looked hurt, as well as Sam and Tom, though they were both still extremely confused. All they knew was that lives were at stake somehow, I probably needed help, and I wasn't going to accept it.
I turned and pulled a small pouch from the backpack as well and put it into a pocket.
I then faced them, holding the strip of wood. This was going to be really hard. "Listen, guys." I said. "Thanks for everything. Ever since I came here I've had so much fun with you. This place was practically my home, and I loved it. Please don't think too harshly of me, I just count your lives far higher up than my own, and I know I couldn't live with myself if someone else died because of me."
"Harry..." Sam had ears in her eyes.
I pointed the wand at them. The wand I had re-acquired when I escaped from Voldemort before.
All this time, I had never used magic.
Until now.
"Obliviate."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ron writhed on the ground, tugging at the bonds that held him. Sweat dripped from his forehead as the bonds constricted more. He moaned in pain, then stopped moving for a little while. The bonds loosened again. His eyes traveled over to Hermione, who lay, also bound head to foot, at the base of a tall gravestone. She still hadn't woken up.
After they had seen Voldemort's eyes, they had instantly known it was him, though neither had actually seen him before. They had attacked him, but he had easily overpowered them both. When Ron had woken up, he was tied up and sore everywhere.
His eyes left Hermione and travelled over to the big villain himself. Red eyes watched him, a slightly amused expression twinkling somewhere in their vile depths.
"What is the matter, Ronald?" A pale tongue traced nonexistent lips. "Do you not like your accomedations?"
A stream of muffled swear words flew from Ron's mouth.
"Tut, tut, Ronald. What would your mother say if she heard you speaking like that? You need to wash out your mouth." That said, he flicked his wand lazily at Ron, who gagged and rolled over, attempting to spit the soap suds out of his mouth through the ropes gagging him. As he coughed and sputtered, Voldemort watched him, chuckling silently to himself.
About this time, Hermione was waking up. Through bleary eyes, she saw Ron being tormented. She was about to cry out when a hand clamped hard over her mouth.
"Ssshhh. It's all right."
She relaxed a little as she felt something cold cutting the ropes binding her hands.
"Close yours eyes." the voice whispered. She did so. For a moment, she felt as if she were being compressed on all sides by rubber walls, but then the pressure stopped, and she opened them.
I was kneeling next to her, already cutting through the ropes binding her. All this time, I hadn't looked at her. As soon as she was free, she spun around and hugged me tightly. I hugged her back, my eyes clenched shut.
"Oh, Harry!" She cried.
"Sssshhhh, Hermione." I pushed her away. "Not now. You need to go get Dumbledore and the Order. Here." reached into one of my pant's pockets and pulled out the small bag I had grabbed from my backpack. It was full of floo powder. I held it out to her, and felt her take it.
"Now go." And with that, I disapperated again.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Voldemort had heard the 'Crack!' of someone disapperating as he tormented Ron, but by the time he looked over, the girl was gone.
Furious, he had stormed over to the spot where she had been and looked everywhere. She was gone. He knew that the girl could not disapperate, which meant...
'Crack!'
"Stupify!"
"Protego!"
I fell back. I had just barely blocked the spell. Voldemort turned and glared at me. Ron struggled in his loosened bonds, still spitting out suds. I had only managed to get his hands free.
"Well, well, well." Said Voldemort as he stepped towards me slowly. "Harry Potter. So predictable. Always playing the little 'hero'. Heh. Disgusting."
I stood up and pointed my wand towards him. My scar was stinging along with my back, but I ignored them.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something. Hermione's wand was laying about ten feet away at the base of a tall cracked gravestone. For a moment, I wondered whether Ro would see it. For an even shorter moment I wondered if I would be able to use two wands at the same time. I figured I wouldn't dare risk it.
"Do you wish to duel again?"
"Well, we all know how good that worked out last time, now don't we?" I snarled.
"Big words, boy."
Lend me your anger, your hate, your fear...
I relaxed a little, though I was still poised and ready to attack or defend in an instant.
I could feel my anger rising. Blood was pumping in my ears, I could feel it. Everything around me fell into a red mist.
"You." I hissed.
Voldemort grinned. "Me." At the look in my eyes, his grin widened. "Well, it looks like I broke you after all boy. How does it feel to be crazy?"
"What, you can't answer that yourself? You are crazier than I'll ever be. "
"So, are you ever going to live up to those promises you made while I tortured you?"
I suddenly grinned. "You have no idea."
'Crack!' I was gone.
'Crack!' I appeared behind Voldemort, already swinging my wand. "Stupify!"
Voldemort flicked his wand, and the spell was deflected back at me. I dropped to the ground and rolled to the side.
"You stole my life from me!" I screamed at him. "You killed my parents!" I dodged a blast from his wand. My anger continued to grow. "You took away everything in my life I held dear!" I dodged again.
I suddenly got a plan. Well, not really, but I guessed it would tick him off. "Is that how you get off or something?" I ducked behind a gravestone as Vlodemort screamed at me and unleashed a barrage of curses. "Of course, I understand. You could never get a girl. No one loves you."
I knew I was getting to him, no mater how calm he was able to make himself look.
He grinned again. "Dear boy, I do not need love. I have never needed love. Unlike you. Your passion, your love for your friends, that is what makes you weak."
I laughed. "Oh really? And all those stories where the evil guy rules through fear have happy endings do they?" A blast hit the gravestone I was crouching behind, and the top corner was blown off. Talk about Deja vu.
I turned and stood in one swift movement and fired a jinx at him, but he dodged and countered. I remembered a spell. but didn't want to give it away. I though about it hard as Voldemort's curse flew towards me. Much to my relief, it worked.
Yay for wordless spell-casting...
The energy from the curse flew together and became a large ball at the tip of my wand. It then doubled in size. I flicked my wand and it launched itself towards Voldemort. As soon as it left my wand, I shouted "Crucio!"
He just barely deflected the first blast, but was too slow to stop the second. I let my hatred flow into the curse. This wasn't like the time I had hit Bellatrix Lestrange. This wasn't just righteous anger. I loathed Voldemort more than anyone in the world. I wanted him to hurt. I wanted him to get a taste of his own medicine. And he was.
He was on he ground, twitching, writhing, screaming.
I laughed at him. "How does it feel?" I yelled over his screams. "What's it like, huh? All the times you tortured me. All the times you tortured your followers. All the times you tortured innocent people simply for your own sick amusement! I bet you've never even felt what it's like! Well, here's a sample."
I watched him writhe on the ground for a while. For a moment, I saw Moody standing over a desk holding his wand over a twitching spider. That's all that Voldemort was. A stinking, ugly spider.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ron had managed to free himself from his restraints. He now sat huddled by a large dead Oak tree, watching the scene with horror. Harry was torturing Voldemort. Sure, the bastard deserved it, that's not what bothered Ron. What stunned him was that Harry seemed to be enjoying what he was doing. He was laughing at the pathetic creature writhing and screaming on the ground. Finally, Harry released the spell. Ron sat there, stunned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Voldemort scrambled up to his feet, panting and furious. His face was red. He reached up and wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Funny," I said. "I didn't know you could actually bleed. That almost makes you human-like." I held my wand towards him. I knew I could never just kill him. I had to come up with a plan.
He pointed his hand towards the ground where his wand lay. It flew up into his fingers. He looked at me, and his eyes seemed even more crimson and full of hatred than they had before. "You will pay for that." He spat out, his voice quivering with rage.
And the duel continued with renewed ferocity.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The members of The Order of the Phoenix were sitting in the kitchen of 12 Grimmauld place when the fire roared to life. Almost everyone in the room jumped- they hadn't expected anyone else to show up.
Dumbledore had called the meeting together to organize a search for Ron and Hermione. They had been gone far too long, and everyone was getting nervous. Dumbledore had long since told everyone his suspicions about Harry, and everyone present, even the sobbing Molly Weasley had agreed that it was best for his two best friends to find him first.
Everyone was looking into the fireplace. There was a collective gasp as Hermione stumbled out. She was crying, her hair was all tangled up, she had bruises all across her arms, and had a cut above her right eye.
Remus Lupin, who was sitting the closest to her, jumped up and rushed to her side.
"Hermione! What's wrong? What happened?"
Everyone else had gathered around as Remus helped the sobbing girl into a chair. Molly pushed through the crowd with a wet towel and bean to wash Hermione's face.
"It's okay, dear." Said Minerva McGonogall.
Dumbledore stepped forward. "Hermione, we need to know what's happened."
Hermione had gotten control of herself by now. The initial panic of what had happened had worn off, leaving the grim determination to do her job right. She gently pushed away Mrs. Weasley, saying, "I'm all right. No, really, I'll be fine."
She looked around at everyone assembled. "We found Harry...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was losing the battle. I was tired and exhausted. Apparently I had done something to really piss him off...
He shot a spell at me that was so powerful I could feel it coming the moment it left his wand. I had no choice but to copy his move from a few years ago and conjure a shield out of midair. The spell bounced off of it, but I was thrown back ten feet into a tombstone which cracked behind me. I moaned and slumped down to the ground, panting heavily.
"Harry!" Voldemort and I looked up to see Ron staring down at us, his eyes wide.
Oh, shit, I forgot...
Upon seeing Ron, my back erupted in pain again. I yelled and fell flat to the dead grass beneath me.
Through a haze of pain, I saw Voldemort raise is wand at Ron, laughing.
No...
He began to say something. The wand seemed to be already glowing green in anticipation of the spell.
NO!
Time seemed to stand still. The pain in my back was suddenly trivial. So was the pain in my scar. I jumped up and ran towards Voldemort, shooting every hex, curse, and jinx I could think of. Voldemort turned in what seemed like slow motion. He smirked and deflected my attacks. As I ran towards him, he turned his wand towards me and whispered something. A bright yellow light shot out of the wand. I turned enough that it didn't hit me dead-on, but it still ran down the length of my left arm.
Time resumed.
I fell heavily, clutching the bloodied limb. The spell had torn the flesh apart from my shoulder to my wrist.
Voldemort laughed.
I clenched my teeth. My eyes were watering with the pain. My scar still burned on my head. My back still ached.
I looked up slowly at Voldemort. There was something different about him. Then it hit me. Every time he hit me with something, he would pause for a moment, as if weakened. As I looked up at him, the strength seemed to be ebbing from him, though he made a good show of ignoring it and looking strong.
"How could you have ever thought you win against me?" he hissed.
Now I understand. All those times he failed killing me, all those times I got away...
I looked at him. I stared into those crimson pits in his face. In my head, everything was falling into place.
You never really wanted to kill me, did you? You were afraid.
"I don't have to win." I said quietly. Voldemort arched a nonexistent eyebrow. "I just have to make sure that you lose."
I turned my wand away from him, and instead pointed it straight into my own chest.
Voldemort's eyes widened, and for the first time, I saw fear wash across his face. I knew I was right.
"Avada..."
"NO!" He lunged at me
Ron sat gaping under the dead tree.
goodbye.
"Kedavra."