Touches of Insanity
Harry sat in the dark library. The restricted section had been difficult to get in to, but he had done it. Smashed the door open then repaired it with a spell. His scar was hurting particularly badly tonight, and all he wanted to do was beat someone up; Voldemort's emotions must have been very bad indeed. But then again, it had been three months since Christmas, and Harry had not yet found Voldemort's snake to kill it. He researched as much as he could to find out where snakes stayed during the winter, thinking it may have been normal. But Hermione had soon reminded him that this was the snake of the now most powerful wizard in the world, it wouldn't be normal. So Harry had gone to extremes and started to read up on anything he could find about 'the Dark Lord' the time before the prophecy. There was nothing in the normal library, so tonight he had decided to sneak into the restricted section.
It was difficult to see anything the books had written in them, because it was about one in the morning and all Harry had to guide him was a wand that was lit up. He was getting very frustrated, as he had been there for two hours already and had so far found nothing about Voldemort. But he wasn't at all sleepy; he just wanted to find something that would help him kill him.
Suddenly Harry heard a crash from the other side of the door that stood ajar into the restricted section. Then he heard a voice he knew all too well curse at whatever had smashed and he felt a breeze as the door flew open.
"Harry, you in here?" Ginny whispered.
"What if I am?" He whispered back.
"Ron was worried about you," She said quietly, walking over towards the tip of light she could see from Harry's wand. "You didn't even take your invisibility cloak, he gave it to me," She said, throwing it to him.
"Thanks," Harry said, not really paying attention.
"Well, I'll just, go…" Ginny started to walk away slowly.
Since their break-up they had been talking, but it was so different. And with Harry being so pre-occupied doing research he was quite mean to her, but she tried as hard as she could to befriend him, it just wasn't working.
Harry looked up at her; all he could see was a silhouette of her perfect body. But he felt sorry for her, he was being horrible again.
"Wait," He said before she reached the door, "You, you don't HAVE to go."
"Really?" Ginny asked, and she was at his side in a flash.
"Yeah, you can help me if you want," He offered.
"Oh," Ginny sighed, but it was better than nothing, "What are you doing?"
"Research of Voldemort before I was around," He said and Ginny shuddered at the name.
"Mum says he was worse than he is now," Ginny bit her tongue straight after she said it.
Harry took a deep intake of breath and breathed it out again slowly. He couldn't bear to hear any words to do with parents since his had died. Every time he did he either went silent or threw something, but he never cried.
"I, I guess your mum knows a lot about it, with your dad being in the original Order and everything…" Harry said.
Ginny was shocked as she heard him say the words that he hadn't uttered for three months. "Yes," She answered, "But, not as much as others…"
Harry turned to her and said, "You should see them soon."
"What?" Ginny asked.
"You shouldn't go too long without seeing them, I made that mistake," Harry said, "The reason I want to kill him so much is because he was right, I should have gone home to them after Sirius died."
A silent tear fell down his cheek. He was surprised to realise that this was the first time he had cried about his parents' deaths. He had given so many interviews, answered so many questions, gone to their funeral, but there was not one single tear. Until now. And with the person he least expected it to be with.
He sniffed loudly and Ginny instantly put a hand on his face to wipe it away. She did so and as she pulled her hand away again Harry grabbed it.
"I'm not a murderer," He said, "I have to do it. He killed my parents. I'm not crazy."
"I know, Harry," Ginny replied quickly, "No one thinks that of you!"
"But they do, they whisper in corners about why I never go to lessons, spend all my time in here, never play Quidditch anymore," He cried a little harder now.
"Harry, no one thinks you're crazy," Ginny tried.
"But I miss them so much. I have no one to talk to now. I wrote to my parents all the time, and Sirius. Sometimes I find myself up in the owlry, ready to send a letter to one of them, but I don't even remember writing it. They're letters about silly things, and you," He spluttered out quickly.
"Me?" She asked in a state of shock.
"I used to write to Sirius for advice, 'cause I can't ask Ron because he's your brother. And I wrote to my dad about Quidditch skills. And my mum…" Harry paused for a moment, trying to control his fits of tears, "She always used to write to me, worrying about me, asking me how you were…" His eyes shined with tears as he looked at Ginny. "I miss them so much Gin, I want them back…"
He then fell into uncontrollable wails of tears, more than Ginny had seen in her life, more than she had cried ever in her life.
"Oh Harry, you'll see them again," She said, "Just not yet, it's not your time. You're not going to die."
Ginny put her hand on his neck and kissed his cheek. She moved away quickly, but to her surprise Harry moved forward and kissed her hard on the lips.
He wanted her with all his heart, right this moment, on the floor of the library room. He kissed her passionately and stroked her back. All the pain, it was going to go away, maybe just for a while, but it would. She made him so happy, he couldn't resist. He pulled Ginny ever closer until she finally pulled back.
"Don't," She said breathlessly.
"What?" Harry asked, equally as breathless.
"Don't do this, you don't want it," Ginny replied.
"I do, more than anything," He tried.
"No," She shook her head, "I'm not going to let you use me. You said you wanted me safe, so I'm going back to the common room, where you should be."
Ginny stood up and walked towards the door, leaving Harry disturbed and confused. He heard the door close and slammed the book shut that he had been reading. Picking up his cloak, he put it round himself and walked out behind her.
She had gone a fair way, obviously running or using a secret passageway, which was what Harry was just about to do.
He got back to the common room before her and was greeted by Ron and Hermione, who were both half asleep on the sofa.
"Where have you been?" Hermione said angrily as she realised he was there.
"Ginny found you then?" Ron asked.
Harry nodded to Ron's question but didn't answer Hermione's.
"You're all red, what's happened?" Ron asked curiously.
"It doesn't matter…"
At that moment Ginny came in red faced as well, looked at them all and ran off upstairs to bed. Ron instantly rounded on Harry.
"What have you done to her?" He said, his voice raised.
"Nothing, I swear," Harry began quickly, "We were just in the library."
Ron looked him up and down and saw the sweat on his t-shirt. Hermione gave him a warning look that obviously meant 'don't start now'.
"I'm going to bed," Harry said quickly. And he ran off up the stairs and off in the opposite direction to Ginny.
Harry was stood in a forest somewhere in the west side of England. How he knew this he didn't know, but he knew it. The trees were the sizes of castles and they waved widely in the raging wind. However, the forest was so thick with trees that down on the ground, there was no wind at all, not the slightest sound to indicate that anything was even alive.
Harry walked slowly through the needles and thorns on bushes, the only source of light coming from the tip of his wand. He stopped suddenly, hearing a strange rustling in the bushes he had just come through.
Then there was a voice, one he had only heard once before, in his fourth year. It was slurred and wispy. When the voice stopped Harry jumped for joy felt on top of the world. Molly Weasley had been brought into the forest. He was going to torture her until he came to save the day, then he would kill both of them.
"No…"
Harry whipped round and yelled louder than ever, he knew…
-
"No! No!" Harry shouted and jumped out of his bed. "Ron wake up!" He shouted to the whole dormitory. Every boy woke up at the sound of his voice and shouted at him for waking them.
"What's up?" Ron murmured as he slouched out of his bed.
"Your mum! He's got your mum!" Harry yelled, pulling normal clothes on.
"What?" Ron said abruptly, Harry now having his full attention.
"Go to McGonagall and tell her I've gone," He said quickly, running out of the dormitory and down the stairs, Ron close behind. "Tell her I'm going to the west of England."
"What? How do you know it's there?" Ron asked, perplexed.
Harry stopped in his tracks and turned to him. "I was Voldemort, Ron. I was in his body. He was thinking things. I heard his snake talk to him, saying he had your mum in the forest. He's taken her there as bait for me, he thought he's going to kill me. But then he heard me say no, he knows I'm coming for certain now."
Harry turned to run out again, but Ron grabbed his arm, "Is that all he's doing to her? Just holding her for bait?" He asked.
Harry looked at him, the terrible truth, or a nice lie? "Tell McGonagall to notify St Mungo's," He said sadly.
Instantly Ron ran into action. He sped past Harry like a flash and left the common room without another word. Harry looked around the room for a broom, hoping he'd find one somewhere. Then in the corner of his eye he saw one, propped up in the corner of the room. He ran to grab it and as he did so, he opened the window.
He jumped out and flew at full speed to the gates of the castle. Ron had already gotten to McGonagall, because they had been opened for him. He landed outside them and concentrated on where he needed to be, nothing else in his mind but his destination. As Harry clicked his fingers he felt the same sensation of being squeezed through a tube, and then being able to breathe again as quickly as his breath stopped.
He opened his eyes slowly and looked around. He couldn't see a thing, just blackness.
"Lumos," He whispered, and his wand lit up.
Suddenly he saw trees as thick as oak and bushes with sharp needles pointing off them. So he knew he was definitely in the right place, but how on earth was he going to find Mrs Weasley and Voldemort?
He started to walk in any way he could get an almost clear path. But all the way he was cutting himself, and he felt the blood trickling down his legs and arms.
He'd been walking for no longer than five minutes when he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him, the same as what he heard in his dream. He turned quickly and held his wand high, only realising seconds later that he actually needed to point it at the ground. Voldemort's snake was slithering up to him on the slippery ground, hissing and spitting at him. Harry smirked to himself and pointed his wand directly at the snake just before hearing it speak to its master… "He's here, with me" was all it said.
Suddenly there was a flash of light as Voldemort apparated right next to Harry, but as the 'pop' noise came, Harry called out louder than he ever had before "AVADA KADAVRA!"
"Avada…" Voldemort started but fell backwards quickly.
Harry had been almost blown off his feet with the destroying of the horcrux; there was a bang that he thought was going to burst his ear drums which followed a small fizzle. A flash of light almost blinded him and there was a gust of wind. All of this only took milliseconds to happen.
He was in a state of shock as he turned to see Voldemort gasping for breath on the floor. Harry smiled as he realised what had happened; Voldemort's last piece of distributed soul had been destroyed, there was only one seventh of his entire soul left, which meant he was weak, very weak. Not to mention surprised; he had never known Harry was searching for horcruxes.
He could do it now… kill Voldemort forever. Harry considered this as a very likely possibility. Do it now, his head kept saying to him. But another part of him wanted to do it where people would see it. Everyone had seen Voldemort kill his father, and mother, so why should Harry spare him the embarrassment? Harry held up his wand ready to strike, but the voice in his head kept telling him not to, and then another voice pleaded him to help her.
"Harry!" Mrs Weasley called, "Oh Harry! Help!"
Harry's eyes were focused on the wheezing man before him. And if anyone was there to see him, they would have seen his eyes flash red, a blood red that meant he wanted to kill, and only kill. His eyes narrowed and he clenched his fists. The red in his eyes came back and stayed this time, he was going to kill Voldemort now.
"Harry! Help! Where are you?"
Harry blinked his eyes and fell back into the real world where he was. 'Save her, don't do it yet' his head told him.
"HARRY!" Mrs Weasley screamed.
He sighed deeply as Voldemort slowly rose of the floor, his expression livid. Just as he raised his wand, however, Harry disapparated and popped into view next to a calling Mrs Weasley. He grabbed her arm before she even realised it was him and disapparated back to the Hogwarts gates.
A/N Oohh!! Harry's angry!!! Last Horcrux is gone how exciting!! I'll try and update quickly!
