At the same time, both Harry and Dumbledore shot spells at Riddle. "Bombarda!" Harry cried, while Dumbledore merely fired silently, a stream of white fire shooting from his wand. Voldemort shouted in rage and quickly pressed his wand against the ground. Suddenly, the ground floor rumbled and two pillars of rock shot from the ground. Both spells crashed into the pillars. Harry's eyes were wide with surprise while Dumbledore glared with a furious curiosity.
"Harry, this is your mind! Use it!" Dumbledore urged, "Osso Briseur!" he shouted, distracting Voldemort who yelled in pain from his now broken hand. Harry was stunned. He closed his eyes and tried to focus. He screwed his eyes shut and sat down, trying to shut out the sound of the fighting before him.
"Harry…" a distant voice called out. He tilted his head, listening intently. "Harry…" it said again, more clearly now. It sounded like Fleur. He breathed in slowly through his nose and exhaled out through his mouth. His senses seemed to sharpen. Everything became clearer.
Albus and Riddle traded spells, each amping up the danger factor with each curse. It started with a stunner and an expulso, then a bombarda and a crucio. Before long, Albus was using rather questionable spells while Voldemort was throwing out killing curses like they were sweets. Suddenly, their environment seemed to change. The details in the walls of Voldemort's occlumency seemed to falter and crack. Voldemort himself winced.
"What is happening?!" he screeched. His anger only made him more deadly as his casting speed increased. It was good Albus was as skilled as he was or else he would've already been killed twenty times over.
Flashes of color illuminated Harry's eyelids. He winced but kept his eyes closed. 'Come on! Focus!' he thought. Fleur's voice became clearer she quickly became his focus. He knew he had to win this fight. Losing was not an option he could afford. Dumbledore, Sirius, and Fleur were relying on him and he would not fail them again.
Suddenly, Harry's eyes snapped open. He felt power pulsing through the background of his mind. Harry's hands glowed red. Voldemort and Dumbledore both immediately stopped casting, focusing their attention of Harry.
"Harry…" Dumbledore said breathlessly. He snapped out of it very quickly, "You've got it, Harry! Finish him off now!" he urged. His wand twitched as if ready to snap back to fighting. Voldemort sneered.
"Please. So boy, you think you can defeat the most powerful wizard of the century? Try your best!" Voldemort jeered. Harry raised his eyebrow and smirked.
"Why would I fight Albus Dumbledore? He and I are on the same side."
"Foolish boy! Prepare to die, this time for good!" Voldemort shrieked, "Avada Keda—" That was all Voldemort could say before his throat constricted. It was as if a pair of invisible hands were strangling him.
"Tom Marvolo Riddle, this isn't your mind, and it never will be," Harry said with authority in his voice. Voldemort winced as Harry's magic continued suffocating him.
"I will… not… die!" Voldemort choked. Harry snapped his fingers and Riddle slowly floated off of the ground.
"I'm not going to kill you in here, we'll do that outside my mind. I'm just booting you out of my conscious," Harry said confidently.
"No! You will be mine!" Voldemort screamed.
"I don't think so, Tom." Harry snapped his fingers once more and the red magic around his hands wrapped itself around Tom. He screamed in agony and disappeared with a pop. Harry dropped to one knee and caught his breath. "That was exhausting," Harry huffed. Dumbledore clapped his shoulder and chuckled.
"I would think so, Harry. That was quite some feat of magic," He lauded. Harry nodded and grinned.
"Thank you, sir," Harry said.
"I believe it is time we dealt with that pesky horcrux once and for all, don't you agree?" Dumbledore asked, holding his hand out to Harry. He nodded and took the headmaster's hand.
"I think so, headmaster," Dumbledore winked and both of them closed their eyes. Harry's mind darkened and he felt a rush as if being pulled to the surface of a lake very quickly.
Both of them snapped their eyes open and gasped. Harry put his hand to his chest and heaved heavily. Dumbledore quickly scooped up the book and started walking to the exit of the medical ward. "Come along, Harry," he called. Harry smiled wearily and stood up. His legs felt like jelly, and he quickly had to grip the rails on the beds as he stumbled toward the doors.
"Ah. I see you've got very stiff legs… or rather the opposite, I suppose, from laying in bed those long weeks," Albus observed, quickly drawing his wand and tapping Harry on the shoulder. Warmth spread through his limbs and he slowly regained feeling in his legs. Harry smiled gratefully and then suddenly turned white.
"Weeks?" Harry choked. Albus nodded solemnly.
"It is to my deep regret that I could not have pulled you out sooner. I am also sad to say that without that hole you found in Voldemort's occlumency shields, you might have been totally lost, forever," Albus responded gravely.
"Well, I suppose we shouldn't dwell on that," Harry gulped. Dumbledore nodded and clapped his shoulder.
"We have much to do, and unfortunately, more horcruxes to destroy." Harry brightened up.
"Oh! I wasn't able to tell you because of the diary thing but, I have information on the horcruxes! He's got the diary—"
"Which will be disposed of quickly," Dumbledore said, glancing quickly at the ground, thinking of the dead Basilisk.
"Okay. He's also got some serious artifacts as other horcruxes. There's Ravenclaw's diadem, Hufflepuff's cup, Slytherin's locket, his family ring, and his pet snake, recently becoming a horcrux," Harry recounted, images flashing across his mind like strobe lights.
"Very bad, yet helpful news indeed," Dumbledore stated. He strode quickly to his office and immediately the gargoyle jumped out of his and Harry's way. Once up to his study, Dumbledore retrieved a stone basin filled with water, or at least Harry thought it was water. It had a sort of whitish color as if it was heavily diluted milk.
"Professor, what is that?" Harry asked, about to dip his finger into the substance. Albus swiftly grabbed his hand. He shook his head and Harry quickly stuffed his hand back into his pocket.
"This is a pensieve, Harry," Dumbledore said. He looked dully at the basin and plucked his wand from a pocket Harry didn't notice before. "This can store any memory of a wizard so one can look at it from a third person viewpoint. It has served me well for many years." He pulled a memory from his mind with his wand and let it drift slowly into the pensieve.
Harry stared in wonder. "Very interesting. What do you need it for?" Harry asked, although he felt he already knew."
"I would like to look at your memory of you writing to Tom and compare notes to some memories I have of him from my past," Albus explained. He smiled and put the basin away. "Now, I believe it's time we took a little break."
"Yeah, I want to go to bed. I could probably go back up to the room and take a short nap. Then we could—"
"No Harry, you misunderstood me. After such a stressing event such as the mental siege from such a powerful wizard, one's mind can hardly focus on such weighty issues such as this. Take this weekend off. Go back to France, where Fleur has undoubtedly been worrying. Heaven knows Sirius has explained as best as he could but… I don't think his description really cuts it." Dumbledore smiled and patted Harry's shoulder.
"I think that we could all do with some rest with friends and family," Albus said, staring at the window, watching the sun begin to set on the horizon, "A war is coming. Soon, there will absolutely be no time to rest. We must enjoy it while we can."
Harry smiled uneasily. He personally felt fine, well no, he didn't, but Voldemort didn't take breaks and neither should they. Dumbledore was not taking no for an answer however. The next thing he knew, green fires erupted all around him and he entered the swirling green and black of the floo network. "Sirius' house!" he had shouted.
Harry tumbled through the fireplace straight onto his face. This reminded him of when he had returned after being kidnapped. Harry supposed in a sense, he did get kidnapped. Mentally, of course.
The aroma hit him before he saw anything. It definitely smelled good. Harry supposed Sirius had finally gotten decent at cooking. He entered the kitchen, still inhaling deeply with a small dreamy smile on his face. Instead of a lean, shaggy-haired ex-con Harry saw a woman with olive skin and raven black hair with an apron tied around her waist.
"You're not Sirius," Harry commented dumbly. The woman turned surprised and nearly shouted. As fast as lightning, Harry was upside-down, hanging by his ankle with the woman pointing her wand at him.
"And neither are you," She glared, Harry heard the door open behind him. "Oh, hello dear. I was just dealing with an unexpected guest," she said brightly. Harry shivered at the woman's tone. What happened to—
"I'm glad to see you've finally met Harry, Hestia dear," Sirius said nonchalantly
"As in, Harry Potter?" she asked, a little shocked and very quickly turning red. Harry groaned.
"That would be me," Harry grumbled. Hestia immediately squeaked and Harry fell on his head, "Thank you oh so much, Ms?"
"Hestia. Hestia Jones, Mr. Potter," she introduced herself, holding out her hand to shake his. Harry rubbed his head but shook her hand.
"Well! Now that you two are acquainted, let's get on to the juicy stuff, huh? I've been worried sick about you when Riddle kidnapped you, again," Sirius said perturbed, smiling weakly.
"Well, Dumbledore was obviously trying to break into his occlumency shield but it wasn't going too well. I managed to escape the mental cell Voldemort had built for me and I eventually found an exit of sorts. Me finding it and Voldemort trying to stop me got Dumbledore's attention. We then quickly booted Riddle out of my head and now he's going to destroy the horcrux," Harry explained. Sirius nodded.
"Well, one down and um… how many did he even make?" Sirius asked.
"He made seven, unfortunately," Harry answered morosely. Sirius choked. Hestia looked very confused.
"What are horcruxes exactly?" she asked, patting Sirius' back. He was as white as a sheet of paper.
"They're a very dark magic that through a murder ritual, allow the user to split their soul and put it into an object, essentially making them immortal. They also have a really interesting feature of being able to slowly possess those who interact with the objects," Sirius told her, his voice almost a whisper.
"At least we know what they are," Harry said optimistically. Sirius brightened a little.
"Really? What are they?" Sirius asked.
"The diary obviously, me but that's taken care of, a snake that was recently created, a family ring, Ravenclaw's diadem, Slytherin's locket, and Hufflepuff's cup," Harry listed. Sirius cocked an eye at the last two.
"I suppose it's a good thing I'm a Black then. As Lord of the house, I constantly get mail about my vaults. Bellatrix currently has the cup of Hufflepuff in hers and I'm pretty sure I've heard of that locket from my brother. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to go back Grimmauld Place if I'm going to find this locket," Sirius said gravely. Harry nodded in understanding. Grimmauld Place was where Sirius grew up until he was sixteen. He didn't really like his family.
"I suppose we will, on Monday," Harry said, "Dumbledore wants to give me a break. I don't like it but I'm not going to go against him on this."
"Well, we could always take most of the weekend off. I could always pop down to my old stomping grounds and we could see about this locket and cup," Sirius said, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Harry smiled.
"What could possibly go wrong?" Harry shrugged. Sirius smirked.
"That's the spirit! Now, I think you should probably go to Fleur. God knows she's been worried sick about you, again," Sirius said. Harry smiled sadly.
"It hasn't been an easy summer, has it?" Harry asked. Sirius snorted.
"That is the biggest understatement of the century, Harry," Sirius joked.
A.N.
Thank you all for reading the 15th installment of Beauxbaton's! I hope you all enjoyed! Please review ~Patchwork Dr.