Ch 16 The Seventh Soul
They stood immobilized in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Voldemort, fearing no one and nothing, wiggled in with the woman at his side. He was nothing more than an deformed, abhorrent snake-like creature and it surprised Harry that words could even come from the reptile lips. The wizard glanced once at the dead snake and moved past Harry to stand in the middle of the room. The cabinet sat there as well. It was obvious it was out of place and that Voldemort recognized it.
"I'm having a hard time deciding who to kill first," he said and placed the remnant of his hand on its surface.
Harry cringed inwardly and prayed he would not open the doors. It's too soon, he thought. Something was wrong and he couldn't put his finger on it. Harry stood across from Hermione and saw the look of absolute horror on her face. Neville looked as if he would go into some kind of catalytic seizure when he started drooling and shaking. Snape was standing very still.
Unknown to all of them, the portraits were in a flurry of activity. Occupants of portraits throughout the castle were busy ferrying information from floor to floor, teacher to teacher or were hiding behind their frames. One portrait, in particular, was currently empty. It's occupant was rushing and everyone was getting respectfully out of the way.
"Since the day Sybil Trelawney gave a prediction about me, my life has been unsettled," Voldemort was saying. "I do not choose to kill you all now, particularly you, Severus. I wish to see you suffer, as I have suffered. Severus, you have been like a son to me and yet you have committed the worst betrayal... ."
The voice droned on and yet Harry did not hear the words. He heard only one word and that was 'Trelawney'. The cards. She read the cards, he thought. What did she say? What were her words? Something about a surprise. Something I wouldn't believe and yet if I don't believe it, it will be the end of me.
Harry fingered the wand in his hand. Hermione, Neville and Snape were at equi-distances from one another in a circle around Voldemort and the cabinet he leaned against. It was as if they had stationed themselves at the North, South, East and west ends of the room. The cabinet stood in the center and Voldemort walked, or rather slithered around the tight circle. The woman stood at the side of the cabinet and stared into space.
Harry's gaze was drawn to her.
To him, she looked like anyone else would look. Her flesh looked real, she moved and breathed and to him, looked human- not like a ghost. But then he had only ever seen Hogwarts ghosts and knew nothing about Haunts. He managed to look at Snape whose eyes were on her as well. A Haunt? he asked himself. How could this flesh and blood woman be a haunt? The dark eyes looked up at her son and for a moment Harry read something there. Was there still a mother there? he asked himself. Could she still feel for her son, a son she had not seen in many, many years.
Focus Harry. What is it that you need to know? He fingered the wand again and looked across the room directly at Hermione. She was trembling and he felt sympathy for her. She had never face Voldemort directly, had never seen him in person. And yet, she was composing herself. She was looking at him with such a grave expression that he forgot his rambling thoughts for a moment.
"I want the boy. The Malfoy boy," Voldemort was saying. "I presume you have sent him through the cabinet. Such a bother Severus. You cannot hide him from me."
The time is growing near, Harry thought. He's going to send her through the cabinet to get Draco and the Boggart will reflect her fear- or it will be gone. There would be no surprise to give us time to raise our wands. Or something else will go wrong. We must all be ready to raise our wands at once, but we can't kill him yet. The turmoil was distracting him. Harry knew in his heart that if he didn't figure out the problem soon, their chance would be gone and then they would all be dead. The others were waiting for his signal.
Voldemort pulled his long cape around and faced Harry. "I have you to thank, Harry. I have learned so much from you. The little trick in the graveyard with the wands, and then the visit this evening! You have escaped me so many times that I have long since gotten over my anger." Harry blinked and Voldemort moved so fast he was suddenly before him breathing in his face. "I will so enjoy killing you. And you will be the first to go since I no longer need you."
The face moved away and Harry shuddered. He knew they had minutes, if not seconds. His mind was suddenly empty of thoughts, and this, more than anything, terrified him. He was about to speak and try and draw Voldemort to the cabinet again when he glanced behind Hermione and saw something. He couldn't believe his eyes. Standing in a picture beside two goblins was Albus Dumbledore. And, his lips were moving.
Harry squinted and tried to make out the words. His attention was diverted by the sound of the woman. Elvira Snape had walked past her son and studied the pile of ashes that lay on the floor. She drew in a hissing breath. Voldemort's attention was also drawn to the sound. Harry immediately looked back at the picture on the wall.
Se...sev...Severus? Harry mimicked the words Dumbledore was trying to speak. When he mouthed 'Severus' Dumbledore shook his head vigorously and said the word again. Sev...sev...en...teen. Harry again mouthed the word 'seventeen' and Dumbledore nodded. He held up two fingers. Harry couldn't believe his eyes. They were playing charades while the world's most evil wizard was reminiscing.
"So this is the book," Voldemort stared at the ashes. It was hard to tell if there was anger there. The face was now so foreign and reptilian that Harry couldn't tell. "We shall put this right Madam, and your son will help us."
He waved an appendage and a golden chalice appeared on the teachers desk. Harry gulped. It was the cup. Voldemort was going to perform the charm. He would need Draco. It was all going to happen soon. He turned back to the portrait. Dumbledore was now mouthing another word.
Buh...Burrrr...th...day. Harry mouthed and did not yet understand the word he spoke. Hermione was staring at him with eyebrows raised. And then he knew. Looking at her and repeating the words, he pulled it all together. Seventeenth Birthday! The time-turner. Hermione had given him a time-turner and it was on a chain around his neck. Yes, But what to do with it all? He pondered the question even as his fingers crept up to his neck.
Voldemort was using his wand in his mittened fingers to pour a potion into the chalice. He motioned Elvira Snape to his side. Harry knew he meant to kill her as part of the incantation. Only he needed Draco first.
"You will all be witness to my rebirth, once again," Voldemort hissed. "I am happy to see you are not trying to resist: for resistance would be futile. Elvira open the cabinet door and I will summon the boy to me. Prepare to aid me, stand here." He gestured with his wand to the cabinet and he moved the chalice with his wand and stood in front while she stood off to the side.
Yes, that's good. Stand directly in front of it. Harry felt mild relief that the Dark Lord had taken a perfect position directly in front of the cabinet and Madam Snape had stepped to the side. He reached and felt for the tiny time-turner with his fingers. It was very small and probably would give him a minute, or even less, seconds. What could he do with seconds? he wondered.
"Open the doors," Voldemort demanded.
Harry broke the chain holding the time-turner and gripped the Gryffindor wand tightly.
She reached for the door and to everyone's surprise, even Voldemort's, her hand slipped through it. Although she looked very real, it was obvious she was a ghost. She stood staring at her hand and Voldemort in his haste to complete his task and thinking her hand had merely slipped, grew angry and raised his own wand.
The doors flew open and instead of a dark cupboard space a set of four large black horses came running out. Each had tall, dark feathered plumes rising from its' head, the kind of tack used on horses pulling hearses. And in fact, what trailed behind was a driver-less black carriage, detailed in silver with silver lamps on each corner of the elongated body and with clear glass windows covering both sides. The very fancy silver lettering on the glass panes read: Caput's Funeral Home.
They all peered in to see a coffin with a glass lid. Tucked into the black coffin with the white satin lining was a very familiar figure. It was the figure of a much younger and completely human, Tom Riddle, Jr.
Voldemort was the first to recognize the corpse as the wagon stopped in front of him and the horses huffed and heaved to catch their wind. The rattle at the end of his tail shook violently and there was a screeching, "Arghhhh!" erupting from his mouth.
Harry squeezed his eyes shut so he could not be distracted by the view. Instead, he frantically fingered the time-turner and asked the question; What am I supposed to do?, over and over.
This time his eyes opened and he saw each of them raising their arms with the wands pointed at Voldemort. The wizard was not aware of what was happening but was beginning to turn towards them. At that moment, Hermione shouted, "Now!" and Harry shouted, "No!" and flipped the time turner.
Time stopped for everyone but him. He had looked at Neville at the last second and the words of Sibyll Trelawney burst into his head with the force of a hammer, 'Whoever welds the wand must be true in their heart and the wand will answer its' master.
Harry staggered on his feet at the realization. I'm not a Gryffindor. He changed me when he gave me this scar.
He knew what to do instantly.He walked over and yanked the Slytherin wand from Snape's hand. When he did he felt the same tingling feeling he had gotten the day his own wand was picked for him by Ollivander. He looked into Snape's face. The man was just forming the words to the killing spell on his lips.
"You lied to me, didn't you?" Harry asked rhetorically. "You should have been sorted into Gryffindor."
He shoved the Gryffindor wand into Snape's outstretched hand and took three steps back to his own position. Trelawney had been right. No matter how badly he had wanted to believe Dumbledore's protestations and how many times he had tried to convince himself that he belonged in Gryffindor, Voldemort had changed that.
Harry took a breath. Time shifted just as he raised his hand.
Four wands came up and four voices shouted, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
What remained was a woman standing in the middle of the room looking at the figure of a man who was approximately the same age as Snape, but with white hair. The reptilian features were gone and what was left was not unlike the false corpse shown by the boggart.
Harry recognized Tom Riddle and it was very clear he was dead. Elvira Snape on the other hand was disappearing. She was still standing in the middle of the room but her feet were no longer visible. She was disappearing from the feet up. The effect had reached her waist. She looked up into her son's face and began to form words. Before they were out of her mouth she blinked out . One minute she was there and the next she wasn't.
"Where...?" Harry began.
"Don't worry," Snape said, quietly. "She's joined Lucius Malfoy in her old apartments. We'll see her again."
Harry looked at him closely. Snape had not yet looked at the wand he held in his hand.
The boggart horse-drawn hears
whizzed off into the cupboard when Neville had the where-with-all to say, somewhat weakly, "Riddiculus." The gold chalice dropped out of midair to the floor, spilling its' contents and rolled to Harry's feet.
He reached to pick it up when Hermione screamed, "No, Harry don't touch it!"
He looked up at her, his fingers almost skimming the surface. He could see his own bug-eyed reflection in its solid gold surface.
"Don't touch it," she said again. "It contains the Seventh Soul, Harry. If you touch it, he can possess you and come alive through you. We have to find a way to destroy it."
She had walked over and Neville and Snape closed in with her. The four of them stood looking at the cup.
"I know how to destroy it," Neville said.