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Harry took a few staggering steps back and covered his mouth with his hand as a cry nearly escaped from his lips. He stood there, as he felt his heart cracking like glass, spreading its pieces throughout his body. I could hardly bear the sight. Voldemort rose to his feet and his eyes…crimson eyes… darkened with concern at, no doubt, the sight of bruises crisscrossing his chest. That thick, viscous darkness clung to him and the snakes were back. Voldemort took a step closer to him and Harry stumbled back,
"No…"
He felt so bloody hopeless in that moment. Everything…Everything he'd been trying to do was in vain. The waves of helplessness and anxiety that hit him, didn't catch him unaware. He knew that they had been silently building up and gaining momentum while he had been getting soaked in the rain and floating in the lake. The receding waves dragged him into the sea of abysmal darkness. The despair was a heady blackness; the ways forward he had thought possible had vanished to black, not blocked, but like they had never been there at all. Without sound, his mind plummeted downward into less and less light, and darkness beyond measure. Was there a bottom to this pain? Was there any branch of hope, or something to catch or hold onto? Was there some rescuing idea that could come into his thoughts and save him? How much darkness was he capable of taking?
This curse couldn't be broken, and he couldn't leave either. The notion of hope became meaningless. Voldemort took another step closer to him and Harry couldn't hold his tears back anymore. He slumped back against the wall of the hallway and his voice broke when he spoke,
"Please don't touch me…"
The darkness surrounding Voldemort suffocated him and made his bruises ache worse. He felt like they would catch on fire as soon as Voldemort would touch him. He squeezed his eyes shut and his nails scrabbled at the wall behind him as he wished he could dig through it and get away from the smothering darkness.
Instead of retreating, Voldemort grabbed him by the neck and Harry gasped in a breath before his air passage closed completely. Voldemort dragged him away from the wall and growled,
"What happened to you?"
Harry kept his eyes shut and kicked his legs as his body starved for oxygen. Voldemort's grip relented, and he pinned him against the wall. The back of his head hit the wall with a sickening crack and the breath he had managed to regain whooshed out of his lungs. His bruises felt like someone had doused them with kerosene and set them alight.
"Tell me!"
He bit his tongue, but the scream burned its way up his throat and burst out before he could stop it. Voldemort's hold on him was unyielding. He writhed under his touch and struggled to get away, to put as much distance between them as possible but it wasn't working. Nothing was working. Voldemort leaned forward and demanded,
"Open your eyes!"
Harry turned his head. Voldemort gripped his wrists and pinned them over his head with one hand while he gripped his chin with the other and roughly turned his head back,
"LOOK AT ME!"
Harry shook his head and felt a trickle of something warm run down the back of his neck. He managed to choke out through the overwhelming burning pain and the thick darkness that was gradually consuming him,
"Kill me."
Voldemort released his chin and growled out,
"Do not think that I shall hesitate in taking your life."
Harry's head rolled back to the side as the blackness grew darker. He pressed his cheek to the cold stone wall and another hoarse scream escaped from his lips. Death was better than all this. Death would free him from all this. His knees softened, and he would have collapsed on his knees if Voldemort wasn't holding his wrists so tight. He repeated weakly,
"Kill me."
Voldemort released his wrists and he slid to the floor. The pain receded as soon as Voldemort stopped touching him. The reprieve was short lived, and he didn't stay on the floor long though because Voldemort grabbed him by the locket and dragged him back to his feet. Before he knew it, he was being led through the corridors. His legs gave out several times, but Voldemort didn't halt or allow him to regain his footing. The chain dug painfully into his skin.
He kept his eyes firmly shut throughout the way. Voldemort shoved him, and Harry fell. He felt the damp earth between his fingers and breathed in the rain-washed scent of the forest. It soothed him to some extent and he rested his forehead against the cool ground. Bella's cry startled him,
"Harry!"
He opened his eyes, but his vision was groggy. He couldn't really focus on where Bella was. Bella cried out his name again and Harry forced himself up on his knees, willing his vision to stabilize. The sight that met him made him wonder if he was hallucinating or if this was all a horribly lucid dream. He was kneeling in the very center of a clearing in the forest and he was surrounded by werewolves, death eaters, dementors and several other nameless creatures, he would have been fascinated by under normal circumstances. His sight was drawn to Bella who was chained to a tree trunk and blood was flowing down her arms in a steady stream. She looked deathly pale, her lips were colourless, and her eyes looked dull. She was crying for him. In these circumstances, she was still worried about him. He looked down and saw that the ground around her feet had darkened with it,
"Please stop."
Leaves rustled, and Harry felt Voldemort grip his hair and yank his head back. Harry instantly closed his eyes and Voldemort pressed the tip of his wand to his throat,
"Harry, look at me."
Harry couldn't force his eyes to open up. Voldemort grip tightened on his hair and he snarled,
"Look at me or I shall be forced to show you just how much of a monster I am."