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The change was immediate…Voldemort's grip slackened on him and he stumbled away but Harry saw the brown bleeding into the crimson, muddying it up. He took the opportunity and stepped forward before wrapping his arms around Tom and hugging him tight,
"Come back…Please…Come back…I need you, Tom…Can you hear me? I need you so much…"
Tom squirmed in his arms but Harry held on tight. He refused to let go. He absolutely refused to allow Tom to fall back into captivity. This opportunity would not come again and he needed to make the most of it,
"Tom…Just listen to me…Focus on my voice…You need to get out…Don't let Dumbledore tie you down again…Don't let him hold you."
Tom began writhing in his arms and it took Harry all the vestiges of his strength and will to hold him. He screamed like he was being burned and the sound echoed around the bathroom. Harry felt exhausted…he hadn't been eating or sleeping. He barely had any energy in his body and whatever he had was being spent on holding Tom's writhing, screaming form. Every muscle in his body cried in protest, telling him to let go but he couldn't…He couldn't let go. If he let go today, Tom would be lost forever and he, himself would be enslaved to Voldemort for an eternity.
He couldn't bear that. He'd thought that he could but now that he had lived through it, he knew that one more day under Voldemort would destroy him. He couldn't…He just couldn't…
Tom screamed again and there was so much agony in it that Harry wished that he could take Tom's pain upon himself. But that wasn't meant to be so he did everything he could by speaking. He encouraged Tom with his words…encouraged him with his voice…He hoped that it was enough to help Tom win.
Eventually though, his body couldn't handle the strain and Harry collapsed to his knees and brought Tom down with him. Pulling Tom's head in his lap, he spoke,
"Wake up…Please…Tom… Wake up…"
He had no idea how many times he repeated that but he kept at it even when his throat was raw and his eyes were swollen with tears…He kept speaking…kept holding him because he knew that he was the only one who could free Tom…he was the only one who could truly get him out of Dumbledore's clutches and he was not going to get another chance at it.
He was practically on the verge of passing out, but he held onto his consciousness like his life depended on it because it did…It truly did. His life…his future was intertwined with Tom's. Tom's fate was decisive for his. They were both dependant on each other so it was imperative that Tom emerge victorious in this battle,
"Tom…Tom…I know you can hear me…I just know you do… Don't let him win…Don't let that monster win…He'll ruin both of us…"
Tom's form went utterly limp in his arms for a moment. Harry stared at his face for a moment feeling a mix of anxiety and trepidation that made him nauseous and dizzy. And then it happened. Tom's fingers wrapped tight around his wrist and a wave of pain coursed through his body…burning his nerves… fraying them…He couldn't breathe…couldn't think…couldn't move… It was pain beyond imagining, pain past endurance – He was gone from the bathroom, locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes, so tightly bound that Harry did not know where his body ended and the creature's began: they were fused together, bound by pain, and there was no escape – And when the creature spoke, it used Harry's mouth, so that in his agony he felt his jaw move,
"Kill yourself."
Blinded and dying, every part of him screaming for release, Harry felt the creature use him again. He felt his arm moving…felt his fingers close around something cool and metallic…He struggled to stop his fingers from moving but he had no control over himself…Someone else was controlling them…
He felt himself life whatever it was and then his breath hitched in his throat when he felt the sharp edge right over his wrist…
No…No…No…
It was a knife…Dumbledore was making him slit his own wrist,
"This will all be over, Boy…This is all going to be over…."
He struggled against the suffocating hold but it was no use. The pain worsened and he tried to scream but couldn't because Dumbledore had control over that too. He felt trapped…he was suffocating and on top of that the pain was killing him. If Dumbledore didn't make him slit his wrist then the pain would surely be the end of him.
He made another effort but it was useless. He couldn't breathe at all and his muscles were ready to give up the fight. The darkness was closing in and all he could do was hang on for as long as he could. It felt as if his lungs weren't there as he tried to bring air in. he could feel his nerves straining and the thoughts in his head turning to a dizzy confusion.
The pain could stop if he just slit the wrist. Death was nothing compared to this. But Tom…
He would die but Tom…Tom would be trapped forever. How could he abandon him to that fate? And as Harry's heart filled with emotion, the creature's coils loosened, the pain was gone; Harry was lying face down on the tiled floor, his glasses gone, shivering as though he lay upon ice, not wood … Harry opened his eyes, saw his glasses lying by the claw foot of the bath tub along with the knife gleaming wickedly in the bathroom light. He put them on and raised his head a little to see Voldemort lying face down a few feet away. Harry was shaking so violently he couldn't hold his head up properly but he had to move… He couldn't just lie here…He had to get up.