Chapter 23
I Left Him
Hermione and Ginny rushed towards Harry, who lay flat on his back after collapsing from the heat and exertion required to destroy Tom Riddle's trophy, but before they could reach him, Evan Harrington grabbed them roughly by the sleeves of their blouses and pulled them back to the far wall.
"Stay away from the fire!" he ordered them angrily, upset that he had to distract his attention from the horcrux. Not concerned that he may have offended the two witches, he spun around to look back into the fire.
Harry's sweat-soaked body lay awkwardly, but his right hand continued to grasp his wand tightly. Ron backed away from the furnace towards his sister and friend, but he paused a moment to check on Harry. His chest rose and fell, so Ron knew that he was alive, but completely soaked with perspiration and white as a sheet, he obviously would not be waking soon.
"What should we do?" Hermione asked frantically, realizing their predicament. The plan, of course, called for Harry to summon the horcrux to him again, just as he did at Grimmauld Place with the Slytherin locket horcrux, but lying unconscious on the floor, he could hardly accomplish that feat now.
"Get out of here, all of you!" Evan commanded them, sweat dripping off his nose and chin, "We can't let the horcrux enter any of you. I'll take care of it."
"We're not leaving Harry," Ron yelled, indignant that this interloper that he barely knew believed he could order them around like house elves.
They all looked back to the furnace and saw the mist emerge from the remnants of the trophy and begin to swirl in a helix.
"You can't do anything for him," Evan tried to convince them urgently, "I'll try to force the horcrux into his body. It has to go there. You know that as well as I. If it enters one of you, it will be a disaster. Please leave."
"What if it enters you?" Hermione asked rapidly, "Why is that any better? Let's all help." She stood next to Ginny, both also dripping sweat in the stifling room. The fire in the furnace continued to rage.
"Look, we don't have time," Evan urged frantically, gritting his teeth, "If we all stay, we make too many targets. I can protect myself. And if the horcrux enters my body, then you'll have to kill me. Understand? Harry is strong enough to absorb it, but we are not. I'll try to push it into Harry, but it will be much harder if all of you are here."
The mist began to take shape, and they knew that one way or the other, they had to decide immediately. Everything inside of Hermione told her to stay, but her brain understood that they needed to follow Evan's advice.
"Let's go!" she tried to yell, only managing a choked utterance. Grabbing Ginny by the arm, the two girls ran out the door before she could change her mind. They rushed down two corridors before Hermione, overcome by guilt, burst into tears and nearly collapsed to the floor.
"I left him," she sobbed, "I left him."
"We had to," Ginny replied anxiously, not sure herself that they did the right thing, She slid her arm under the older witch's shoulder and prevented her from falling, and then slowly pulled her away, looking back to see if Ron followed them.
He did not. Whether this Harrington fellow was right or wrong, Ron determined that he would not abandon Harry. Evan glared angrily at the tall red head, but Ron glared back just as menacingly. They both returned their eyes to the fire where they saw that the mist had nearly transformed itself into the form of a handsome young man in dark robes and clothing. Harry remained unconscious on the floor.
With no time to argue, Evan and Ron stepped forward, their wands pointed at the miniature form of the young Tom Riddle.
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Surprised to find the Minister's office unoccupied, Cho Chang looked both ways to be sure that nobody saw her enter. Of course, she had the right to be there, as she had been instructed to set several files on the table in the office, but given her status as a "spy" for the Order of the Phoenix, she determined that she would take the opportunity to look around. She knew, however, that she could not take more than a minute.
Her long black hair shimmered from the light of the lamps on the wall as she set the files in their place and moved over to Scrimgeour's desk, quickly rifling though the many sheets of parchment stacked into neat piles. While Cho may not have liked the man, she had to admit that the Minister kept a tidy desk. She did not have time to view each document and did not know what to look for in the first place.
But the following words from a document near the top of the third pile caught her eye: HOGWARTS OCCUPATION PLANS. Cho had no idea to what that could refer, but it sounded ominous. She pulled a blank sheet of parchment out of her robe and set it on the desk. Tapping the official document, she muttered a copying spell, and then tapped the blank parchment. Within seconds, an exact copy appeared, and she quickly folded the parchment and returned it to her pocket. After replacing the original to its place, she rushed out of the office, afraid to stay any longer.
It never occurred to her that several portraits along the walls silently witnessed the entire incident.
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I guess I missed the lesson about fighting horcruxes, Evan considered, thinking back to his auror training. He had encountered dozens of dangerous situations during his career, but nothing prepared him for this. His brain frantically attempted to devise a plan of action while the horcrux completed its formation in the still-blazing fire.
Would a spell work on a horcrux? Could it be stunned or petrified? He knew that Harry summoned the locket horcrux, but Harry's capabilities could not be generalized to all wizards, especially in this instance where he possessed a special connection with the dark lord's soul. If Evan tried a spell and it failed, then the horcrux may take its vengeance on him or the Weasley boy. Why did he have to stay? he growled to himself, angered by the complication.
Finally Tom Riddle's partial soul floated out of the fire and into the large workroom, seemingly taking stock of events. It measured about three feet high and seemed almost solid, though in fact it was no more solid than a ghost. It noticed Harry's body on the floor and then the two men on the far side of the room with their wands pointed at it. The horcrux sneered at them. Suddenly, Evan came up with an idea.
"Do what I say," he whispered to Ron, "Bow when I tell you."
Ron glanced momentarily at the auror but did not respond. He had no intention of bowing to Lord Voldemort, however.
"Master," Evan cried out, lowering his wand, "Master, you are here. We have worked hard to find and to free you. We are overjoyed to see your rebirth."
Evan bowed and hissed to Ron, "Bow now. Just do it." Ron hesitated. He barely knew Evan Harrington and did not know what he had up his sleeve. Harry and Hermione trusted him, however, and for the moment, that mattered more than anything. Reluctantly, he bowed.
"Who are you?" asked the smooth voice of the young Tom Riddle, appearing to be only nineteen or twenty years of age and dressed in a typically dark wizard's robe.
"We are your disciples, Lord Voldemort, and we have worked tirelessly to recover your horcruxes in order to bring you back to us."
Riddle's image floated towards them, temporarily ignoring the body stretched out below it. Ron had never seen the young Tom Riddle, but he could readily see that he was a handsome, impressive youth, clean-cut, athletic and engaging.
"What has happened to require my liberation?" Riddle asked smoothly, clearly appraising the two wizards.
"You accomplished great things, Master," Evan explained, "and you attracted many followers, my friend and me included. But then a terrible accident happened. You needed to kill a baby who had been the subject of a prophecy, but the mother sacrificed herself for her son. This placed an ancient blood protection on the baby, and your killing curse rebounded on you, killing you. We do not know where the portion of your soul that remained in your body is, but many of your followers are trying to find it. We have been charged with locating some of your horcruxes so that you may lead us by entering another body."
Riddle continued to float left and right, remaining in the middle of the room, closer to Harry than to Evan and Ron. The horcrux appeared to be skeptical of Evan's story.
"How many years have passed since my creation?"
"Many years, master. More than fifty. You became the most feared dark lord in history, possessing magic beyond description. You made great progress towards cleansing the world of mudbloods and half-bloods, but we met much resistance. Especially Dumbledore."
"Yes, Dumbledore. Is he still alive? He must be exceedingly old by now. Even when I attended Hogwarts, he was a pest," Tom sneered, "Surely, I would have disposed of him."
Evan nodded and forced a smile as he explained, "He just recently died, Master, at the hands of your servants. With the muggle-loving fool gone, we can rid the world of the filth. But we need your direction, Master. The boy there, you must enter his body."
"Who is this boy?" Riddle inquired, directing his eyes towards Harry's motionless body, "I sense something familiar about him."
"Yes, Master, of course you do. You sense yourself, for we previously freed another of your horcruxes, and it entered his body. He is young, Master, but extremely powerful magically. For that reason, we chose him to receive you. With his power under your control, you will be unstoppable!" Evan spoke as enthusiastically as he could, but he worried about his performance. Acting had never been a strong suit. "Can't you feel his power, Master?"
The partial soul lowered itself, approaching Harry's body. Evan remained silent. By now, Ron understood the auror's plan and decided he should remain silent as well, acting as an assistant to a death eater.
"Yes, I sense it. He is magically powerful, and I can sense myself as well, though it seems strange to me."
Evan nodded fervently, "That is why we need you to enter him as well. He is a strong wizard, and while one horcrux has partially served our purposes, we have determined that we need another one to complete the transformation. When you enter him, the combined power of the two horcruxes will be enough to control him fully. Then we can reassert our power."
Tom Riddle's horcrux floated around Harry's body, still considering the situation. It all made sense, but he had one last concern.
"Why is the boy unconscious?"
"Because only he possessed the power to destroy the trophy. We tried, Master, to do it ourselves, but we failed. The boy has tremendous power, as much as Dumbledore. Under your control, you can accomplish all that you desire."
"Yes, yes," the horcrux greedily agreed, "I do feel it." And without so much as a thank you to his two supposedly devoted servants, the horcrux dematerialized into a mist and slowly seeped into Harry's stomach.
"It worked," Ron declared, his voice full of astonishment. Suddenly his respect for the auror grew.
"Now we'll see what happens," Evan responded, and the two men approached Harry's body. They waited for half a minute, not sure whether they should levitate his body back to his bed or try to wake him where he lay.
Harry made the decision moot, for suddenly he shook violently, and his eyes opened wide, glowing bright green for an extended time - ten, fifteen, twenty seconds. Finally they dimmed to their normal brilliant green, and Harry gasped for air in the still stifling room. He turned over and crawled to his knees, when without warning his stomach convulsed, and he vomited.
"It's inside of you, Harry," Ron informed his friend, kneeling down beside him, "Mr. Harrington convinced it to enter you. Now you need to control it. Are you OK?"
Harry inhaled deeply several times while still on all fours, and gradually he began to improve.
"Never better," he declared sarcastically.
Evan and Ron helped him to his feet, and they each grabbed an arm and helped an extremely weak Harry walk out of the room. A moment later, Evan returned to extinguish the fire. He also vanished the mess created by Harry, and took one last look around.
Two to go, he thought, unaware of the elimination of Nagini by Voldemort himself, and he wondered how Harry would react to this horcrux.
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Edging silently into the master bedroom of their current lair, Peter decided he would check briefly on the dark lord before retiring to his own room. The horror of the previous night had only partially receded, and more than anything, Peter needed to sleep.
He gasped at the sight before him. The master had killed his snake, the only creature that could remotely be considered his friend. Why? Peter stood frozen for half a minute, attempting to make sense of it all. Finally he directed his gaze at the sleeping Lord Voldemort. Immediately Peter noted the improvement in the dark lord's appearance. He slept comfortably, breathing easily.
I don't want to know why, Peter told himself, realizing that Voldemort intentionally sacrificed the life closest to him for his own well-being. He'd sacrifice me too. He'll sacrifice all of us, if he has to.
Peter levitated Nagini's carcass off of the bed and set it next to the wall, a couple of feet away from its head. He then noticed the blood-soaked bedding.
"Scourgify," he whispered, causing the blood to vanish. Turning a lip up at the sight of the dark lord, he silently backed out of the room and rushed back to his own. Despite his exhaustion, sleep came to him slowly.
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While Ron and Evan dealt with the horcrux, Ginny managed to pull a still inconsolable Hermione into the Gryffindor common room and helped her to a sofa near the fireplace. Both girls would have been horrified to see themselves in a mirror, as their hair remained wet and matted down from the sweat in the furnace room, and their clothes remained damp from their perspiration. Hermione no longer cried but clearly remained in emotional agony, and as she dropped into the cushions, she covered her face with her hands.
"It will be OK, Hermione. Mr. Harrington knows what to do," Ginny consoled her unconvincingly. She found it strange to be comforting Hermione rather than the other way around. After all, if anyone needed comforting prior to the events of the evening, that person would have been Ginny, still trying to come to terms with Harry's lost affection.
Hermione continued to cover her face but countered bitterly, "How do we know that? He doesn't know Harry. He doesn't know anything about horcruxes. I should have stayed. Ron stayed; he didn't abandon Harry."
Ginny wondered whether Hermione noticed that Ron did not follow them, but even in her emotional turmoil, Hermione retained enough of her wits. Ron's refusal to leave Harry's side only deepened her despair.
The two girls sat nervously, neither speaking. Though Ginny understood Hermione's distress, the severity of it surprised her. Hermione had always been so strong; her reaction to this situation did not match Ginny's expectations. Clearly Hermione felt horrible that she had "abandoned" Harry, but Ginny "abandoned" him too, and though she also felt extreme concern for Harry's well-being, she had not broken down like Hermione.
For the first time, Ginny wondered about the nature of Harry and Hermione's relationship. Closest of friends, obviously, but did Hermione's reaction signify something more. Harry spent about a week with Hermione before coming to the Burrow, spending most of their time together. Ginny knew that she should not be thinking such thoughts while at the bottom of North Tower, Mr. Harrington, Harry and Ron battled a horcrux, but she could not avoid it. What exactly did Harry and Hermione do during all that time together? And was Hermione entirely truthful when she told her about that girl in Liverpool? Or did she have ulterior motives?
Hermione settled down in one of the padded chairs by the fireplace and sat silently, deeply depressed. She did not notice the narrowed eyes of her younger friend, focused instead entirely on her decision to heed the advice of Evan Harrington. Even now, she understood that Harrington made sense, but Harry and she had faced so much together over the years. Trolls, three-headed dogs, dementors, hippogriffs, and more. She should not have abandoned him. The guilt upset her stomach.
Then she jumped from the sofa as Ron helped Harry through the portrait door, Harry's arm wrapped around Ron's back. Evan stepped through behind them. All three men's hair hung limply from sweat, and they appeared exhausted from the sauna-like heat in the bowels of North Tower.
"HARRY, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?" Hermione shouted from her turmoil, even though he stood only a few feet away.
"I'm fine, Hermione, don't worry. Just a little weak." He smiled weakly, and did not seem too badly off.
"He's probably dehydrated," Evan noted, "Get him some water." In a flash, Hermione whipped out her wand and conjured a glass of water and handed it to Harry. He downed it in one gulp, and after Hermione refilled the glass, he drained it as well. She hooked her arm around Harry's free arm and helped Ron lead him to the nearest sofa.
"What happened?" Ginny asked, worry in her voice.
Ron stretched his arms, sore from carrying Harry, but answered with a broad smile, "Mr. Harrington buttered up that horcrux, convinced it that it needed to enter Harry's body. Riddle bought the whole story." Ron's opinion of Evan had greatly improved after his performance, and the red-head nodded approvingly at him. "He almost had me convinced with his story."
Evan did not acknowledge Ron's compliment but instead sat on the low wooden table in front of Harry's sofa, gazing appraisingly at the youth.
"You need to rest, Harry. Drink lots of fluids, and you should be fine by tomorrow. Just take it easy tonight. Get a good night's sleep." Harry nodded his agreement, though he did not need to hear the advice. Given his exhaustion from the stifling heat and the tremendous energy required to shatter the trophy, he could hardly create any mischief.
"I need to get back," Evan informed the four teens, checking his watch and then turning towards Harry's friends, "Make sure he rests tonight and tomorrow." Turning back to Harry, he instructed, "Have your mirror with you. I'll contact you and try to come by tomorrow. I'll have to see what I can do. I'm supposed to be tracking down the hidden location of the Daily Prophet." He chuckled.
"Thanks, Evan," Harry spoke softly, and the auror could tell that the boy truly meant it. Evan reached out, and the two men shook hands.
After Harrington left, Ron described in detail the events in the furnace room, clearly impressed by the skill, creativity and quick-thinking of the auror. After her initial reaction when Harry first arrived, Hermione remained uncommonly quiet, and once Harry relaxed and started feeling a little better, he noticed.
So far, he did not notice any difference from the absorption of another horcrux, but of course his physical weakness probably masked any change. Hermione's clearly troubled face concerned him much more than his own well-being. Finally, he had to ask.
"Are you OK, Hermione?" he interrupted Ron, who continued to talk excitedly about the events of the evening.
Hermione nodded extremely unconvincingly, given that Harry's question almost moved her to tears. She said nothing.
"She's not OK," Ginny answered for her, "She feels that she abandoned you, even though we just did what Mr. Harrington told us to. She's been a mess ever since."
Hermione's face briefly displayed irritation with Ginny, but a second later she again exerted all of her efforts to avoid bursting into tears once again. Harry immediately understood the situation, and also knew that Hermione must be terribly embarrassed by her behavior in front of Ron and Ginny. He slowly stood.
"Come here, Hermione. Let's talk." He reached out his hand to her. Initially surprised, Hermione hesitated before taking his hand in hers, allowing the weakened wizard to pull her up. She followed him as he moved slowly towards the stairs to the boys' dormitories, climbing them slowly until they reached the first door on the right. They entered the large bare room with seven beds spread about. Harry closed the door behind him.
In the common room, Ron and Ginny mutely watched their friends disappear from view. Ginny especially wore a severe expression, evidently not pleased.
"What's all that about?" Ron asked his sister, completely confused.
"I don't know," she answered stiffly, "I truly do not know." She turned away from her brother, silently informing him that she did not wish to discuss the matter further. Ron opened his mouth, but decided against it, instead standing and pacing by the common room windows.
"What's wrong, Hermione?" Harry asked as he sat heavily on the nearest bed, "You did the right thing. Surely you know that." She remained standing, but took a few steps forward, and refused to look at her friend.
In response to Harry's assertion, she shook her head, "No, I don't know that. I left you. Ron stayed. I should have stayed too!" She sniffed audibly, and her eyes began to water.
"You were very brave, Hermione. I'm proud of you for leaving." She finally turned around sharply, with eyes that asked whether Harry had finally gone mad.
"Brave? How was that brave? I ran away. That's cowardice, not bravery. You wouldn't have left." Hermione again looked away, deeply disgusted with herself.
"I probably wouldn't have," Harry nodded, "but that's because I'm stupid and you're brilliant." Hermione scoffed and turned her back to him. Harry merely smiled as he continued his line of thought, "Harrington was right. It never would have worked the way it did if Ginny and you had stayed. Riddle wouldn't have believed that the two of you are death eaters. We're lucky Ron didn't ruin it by staying. I appreciate his intentions, but he's as stupid as I am. I'll have to talk to him about it. This time we got away with it; next time we may not be so lucky."
Hermione stopped her nervous pacing and considered Harry's points. More than that, she considered his tone of voice. He truly did not seem disappointed with her, and she felt the constriction around her heart relax. Maybe she had not let him down. Maybe she did do the right thing.
"Do you really mean that, Harry?" she asked softly, turning slowly towards him, her eyes glistening, "Are you just saying that to console me? Tell me the truth."
Harry motioned for her to sit down next to him on the bed, and she reluctantly complied. He softly lifted one of her hands in his.
"I mean ever word of it, Hermione. You did the right thing, and the bravest thing. I know that you wanted to stay; that's the Gryffindor way. You would never abandon me. You did what had to be done."
Tears again came to Hermione's eyes, but this time the tears fell out of happiness, or better said relief, at Harry's words. Now even more embarrassed, she blushed slightly but stood up, holding out her hand to Harry to pull him off the bed and into an embrace. She squeezed him more tightly than she ever had before.
"You don't know what that means to me, Harry," she whispered, "Thanks."
Sitting by herself at a table in the common room, Ginny wondered what exactly may be occurring in the boy's dormitory. Her eyes narrowed, and Ron knew that he best stay away from her. He had some questions of his own, and returned to his seat on the sofa deep in thought.
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Harry and Hermione emerged from the dormitory, and Harry drank several glasses of water before showering and retiring to his bed. He slept ten hours straight and woke up the next morning feeling like a new man.
So did Lord Voldemort.