When the killing curse rebounds…
This is it. This is the moment my life has been building up to since before I even knew your name.
When the killing curse rebounds green light meets red light and turns on its head…
This is for mum and dad. This is for Sirius. For Dumbledore and for Remus. Tonks. Fred. This is for everyone I've ever loved that you've taken away
and the path of the light is like the path of all light, bound to a straight line, and the line ends at Voldemort's heart, and so Voldemort must die tonight
You will reap what you sow
But when the light hits Voldemort in the chest he does not crumple and fall to the floor the way Harry has seen too many of his friends die. The light hits and Voldemort falls and his wand, the Elder Wand, flies across the room and into Harry's other hand, but instead of crumpling like a paper bag Voldemort's body begins to unravel. The stuff he's made of spirals rapidly outwards like a storm - somewhere in there amid swirling clouds of black robes is the red glint of his eyes and the green light that should have killed him - and Harry backs away fast, trying to pull those around him to safety, but the storm dies before it can touch a hair on his head. Then everyone in the hall is left with a clear view of what it left in its wake: a wide eyed, very pale, unarmed and completely naked boy on his knees. And no one, Death Eater or otherwise, knows what to make of him.
Tom Riddle runs for it.
"Stupefy!" yells Harry, his instincts kicking in immediately, and at least this time, when the spell connects with Riddle's bare back, it does what it's supposed to do, taking him down instead of turning him into ribbons of soul and magic.
"There's a war to be won," Harry roars into the silence, cutting through the crowd as quickly as he can before the spells fly. Abruptly, the fighting resumes.
Harry grabs hold of the stunned Tom Riddle's arm and struggles to drag him away before any of the Death Eaters (Bellatrix Lestrange is the first to come to mind) can beat him to it.
Ron and Hermione are by his side immediately. "Levicorpus!" shouts Hermione. Riddle's arm slips out of Harry's grasp as he rises above the crowd and floats balloon-like, as though presiding over the battle. "The Gryffindor common room should be safe for now," says Harry, and leads the way.
The frame where the Fat Lady usually resides is empty, the Fat Lady having abandoned it for a prime seat in the Great Hall with all the other portraits. Thankfully she's left the common room door ajar. Hermione maneuvers Tom Riddle into the common room and they climb in, shutting the door behind them.
This is as far as Harry has planned.
"Bloody hell, why is he naked?" splutters Ron as Tom Riddle's nudity registers. Hermione quickly conjures a large cloak that settles neatly over Riddle, covering him from the chest down, and Ron's discomfort grows when he notices the blush creeping up her cheeks.
"Him, Hermione, really?"
"What now?" asks Hermione, ignoring Ron's look of incredulity.
"What now?" echoes Ron. "We kill the bastard, that's what."
"We can't," begin Harry and Hermione together -
"Why not? I know he looks younger and less ugly but it's still Voldemort in there. And Harry you yourself said he was evil from the start. He killed kids at that orphanage."
"If you want to kill him you'll have to do it," says Harry. Ron falls quiet at that.
"I don't understand how this could have happened," Hermione says. "Who is he? He isn't Voldemort but he isn't Tom Riddle either: his soul isn't intact."
Harry stares at the inert figure of Tom Riddle and marvels at the sheer number of violations of the laws of magic that have transpired since their first meeting. This time he thought he'd gone into battle having pieced together the whole picture.. the horcruxes, the protection of his mother's love… But now there's a new piece to the puzzle. Dumbledore would have worked it out, but this is beyond him.
"Do you think he'll know?" Hermione asks suddenly.
"We should ask him," Harry decides. "We'll wake him up and ask him how much he knows about what happened, and if he can remember then he can tell us if Voldemort had some trick up his sleeve to block an Avada Kedavra."
It's a plan that'll do for the moment. They split up - Ron running back downstairs to fight with his family, Harry staying. Hermione is torn, but runs after Ron when Harry convinces her that he is in a better position than he's ever been in when facing Voldemort; Riddle is unarmed and Harry has two wands.
The common room falls into an unnatural silence.
Harry takes the plunge.