Chapter 20 - Specula

"Where there's life, there's hope." - Cicero

"We all must choose what's right, Harry, even me. No magic or she dies, by magic ."

"This is ridiculous." Harry snapped back to Riddle.

"I knew that you would not agree with me, so I had to do what I must do," Riddle sipped his tea calmly, infuriating Harry even more. "You see, Hope is the first of your line, Harry. Hope is the first born."

"I knew that." Harry didn't understand though, Genevieve was also technically a first born in Harry's family tree.

"Yes, but what you did not know is that the Potter line has never had a daughter, and the line of Hope has never had a son," Riddle smirked, "Your mother was adopted, Harry. Your original magical line never had a squib, and so that makes you a pureblood."

"That still gives nothing to you." Harry did not want to go through a history lesson.

"Yes it does. You are a pureblood descended form the likes of the family of Arthur, which was split in two when Hope and Genevieve orphaned their children. During the marriage of Lily Evans and James Potter the magical blood of Arthur, which was split in two, came back together. You, Harry are the elite of pure magic." The bastard sipped his tea again.

Harry's brow was knitted together, "How am I different?"

"People like me and Merlin, their bodies take the magic surrounding them and command it to take from of their desire when they send a spell. Arthur did not need the magic surrounding him, his magic came from within himself. He could use the energy of his soul, an unlimited source of energy, one that does not cause stress for the body or the mind. That is the height of magical poweress, the knowledge and skill that you contain." Hope had silently taken care of her business, but not without some struggle, bruises marred her arm.

"Out I see," Riddle stood up, the table, chairs and cup vanishing as he did so. "Took you a bit longer than I thought."

"Your wards slipped out of your grasp a bit sooner than you would've thought." Hope sneered, her hand coming up light particles coming together to form a ball of spinning energy in her palm.

"Nope, I just overestimated muggles. I'm sorry I'll make sure that such a thing will never happen again." Riddle walked around to circle both of them slowly.

"Never thought that you would give the muggles such importance, Riddle." Hope sneered as Harry said this.

"Their technological advancements are a true achievement. A simple EMP mine, which was all that it took to disable your magic, so simple and so effective." Riddle came to a stop to a hidden alleyway. "You know where to find me Potter."

After he apperated away, Harry turned on Hope, "What the hell is a EMP grenade?" Harry didn't want to sort out all the information in her mind; she was too tired to do so. They both started walking down the alley, and Hope suddenly turned down another small back alley.

"Electro Magnetic Pulse, disables all electronic equipment. Lancelot and Gawain had doubts that such a thing could work. After all, electricity is a form of energy, and so is magic. Therefore if you detonate an EMP grenade, theoretically, you would be able all wizards and witches form channeling the magic around them." Hope came to stop at a small door. "Gawain and Lancelot are in here, detained by some sort of muggle explosive device."

"So...what do we do?" Harry was hoping the idea of using magic to detonate the Claymores came to Hopes mind.

Hopes hand flashed to the door and a streak of stark red energy erupted from her arm, streaking towards the door. The magic hit and blew the door apart, but also detonated the Claymores and Harry and Hope were blown backwards by the sheer sonic power created by twenty Claymores turning to ash at the same time.

"Damn that hurt."

"Let's go in, " Hope shot up and sped into the door. The small room inside could only be considered as a storage cell. Gawain and Lancelot were lying in the corner, darts still protruding out of their spines as they laid face-down. Harry and Hope plucked them out, turning them over, Harry saw that Lancelot had a lot of cuts that were still bleeding, but were too small to consider that he had a lot of blood loss.

"We need to get them back to the manor; Genevieve will be able to patch them up." Hope held Gawain and Lancelot, while Harry still held Lancelot's back upright.

Appering at the manor, Harry and Hope both levitated the two men and took them to where they knew the mens bedrooms to be. Hope came to a sudden stop in front of Harry, causing the other girl to collide with the older one. "What was that for?" Harry got up and struck Hope with a sharp look, only to find that she was standing stock still looking forward. Harry followed her eyes and froze. There for all of their sore eyes to see, was a smirking Riddle standing over a unconcious Genevieve. He reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a small muggle device, flipped the lid and hit the bright red button. A large boom could be heard as the ground shook, and Hopes magical grip on Gawain was lost and the man fell to the floor, moaning while his hand was crushed hitting the floor first.

"You..." Hope stared, into the deep sapphire eyes.

"Yes, me. I did tell Potter where to find me, no?" Riddle threw the electronic device down to the ground, and crushed it with his foot.

In less than a blink of an eye, Hope had sped forward, bringing her arm out to swipe Riddle with a forearm that was flaming in blue energy...only that such a thing did not come and she collided with the floor as Riddle stepped away for her to pass.

"Do you think that such low magical techniques would have worked when I detonated the EMP mine?" Riddle smirked. "Let me tell you, Potter what this little thing will do. It will discharge and the magical energy that surrounds will start to react by jumping around, aroused. The magic will become confused, confounded let's say, and a normal wizard or witch will not be able to control the highly active energy around them, thus making them unable to cast magic for a certain amout of time. They will be come a squib. They will gain control again when magic will settle down from it's hyperactive avtivities." Riddle sneered as Hope groaned and tried to sit up. "None of your charms will work now, lady." He rounded up on Harry, "See how magic has degraded us, Potter. Your little friend can't even sit up because now all of her cushening charms don't work any more. We have become too dependent on magic, it has taken us to become it's slaves. We are addicted to magic. This has to stop."

Hope had taken the time to sneak up on Riddle and grab his leg and give it a good yank. Riddle growled as he hit the floor, snapping back up to his feet, he looked viscously down at Hope, "Fool of a girl!" A ball of red energy gathered up in his hand, and he sent it down to Hope who had her eyes closed.

Something sparked up inside Harry and she threw her hand up, summoning the ball of energy and then throwing it back at Riddle.

"So, the Griffindor bites. Now, why don't we play follow the leader for a while?" Riddle burst into particles of energy, which soon disapated.

Harry consentrated on the four bodies laying around her, and dissappeared only to reappear again in the hospital wing of Hogwars. "Promphey! These patients need your immediate attention, NOW!" Harry then disappeared again to go the grounds.

Riddle was dueling Dumbledore, or rather it looked like Riddle was humiliating Dumbledore. Whenever Dubledore tried to send a spell, Riddle simply took his hand to slap it away.

"That's enough, Dumbledore, my adversary is here." The old man's eyes searched the grounds to land on Harry, and he nodded, backing away.

The students looked shocked, the beacon of the wizarding world was backing away from a duel. Harry looked at Riddle and felt anger, more anger than she thought she could have handled.

Harry flew at Riddle, Excalibur outstreched. The snow blowing away to make room for her. Reaching Riddle, Harry struck down and met the Dark Blade.

Spinning back, she saw Riddle throw a pulsating ball of red light at her. Landing and bringing her arm in front, she waited for the impact.

BOOM!

The ball of energy hitting her shield, sent waves of magic back to the spectators, which resulting in the students being blown off of their feet. Harry staggered, but held her own.

Right after, Harry launched her own attack. Jumping into the air, she floated and brought her fist up sharply. The ground shook and Riddle lost his balance as the earth split below Harry.

Soon after, Harry sped down the ground and brought Excalibur down to meet the black steel again, and she shrunk the form of Riddle down a crouch.

Riddle threw her off and sent a beam of light in her direction, Harry dodged it, but could not dodge his swipe of the blade. Bringing the sharp steel of Excalibur up she blocked the blow.

Parry.

Block.

Slash.

Crouch, slash, jump.

Land behind Riddle and bring the blade down into his back.

Riddle hissed in pain, and sped away. Spinning towards her, "So you have learned a few tricks. Impressive"

"Yes, very impressive." Tired but still Harry slashed up and brought her hand to meet Riddle's eyes.

Emerald Lighting came up and struck Riddle's body. The creature in front of her game a inhuman shrill as he withered afloat in pain. She could see his body swapping apperances, and for a momeny Harry saw something that even for her was a very sore sight. She wanted to retch in its ugliness.

But she had to let go; but she wasn't done. Bringing down Excalibur to the ground, a large flame of ruby came to meet Riddle and his eyes widened in suprise as he was blown off his feet to be rocketed in to the sky above, never to meet the ground of the past again.

Harry sagged and collapesd from the physical strain on her, brought her eyes to meet the rushed ones of the Headmaster. She collapsed into her blissful state of unconciousness.

Harry got up to meet the sparkling blue eyes of her guardian again.