Chapter 24
I Killed a Man
Harry and Issamir stared disbelievingly at the fallen enemy. The carcass of the giant snake still twitched slightly until at last it gave one last great jerk. Harry froze as he sensed a presence leaving the dead body; he knew what it was.
This exposed a huge hole in their plans. Nobody knew how a horcrux in a living body would react if someone succeeded in killing the host. Obviously the horcrux most likely would seek another host, the most likely candidates being either Harry or Issamir. Other possibilities existed, from the best case (if unlikely) scenario of the horcrux merely dying with the body of the serpent, to the horrible (though equally unlikely) thought that killing the host could cause the killer to die as well. At least Harry knew this last possibility did not occur, but that provided little consolation at the moment. For whatever reason, the presence moved inexorable towards Harry.
Should he run for it? Could he do something to the horcrux before it reached him? This and a dozen other thoughts caromed inside Harry's head over the next few seconds, but he took no action, frozen. The horcrux entered his body.
"Great," Harry thought, "here we go again!"
To his surprise, he felt no pain. This horcrux appeared to be of an entirely different nature from the others, or perhaps the same but weaker. Harry definitely could feel it inside of him, but it did not attack, and in fact he could sense its injury. Had he had a moment to concentrate, he would have tried to attack the horcrux immediately, to kill it before it had a chance to recover.
Unfortunately circumstanced did not afford Harry this opportunity. As he looked around the room, he realized that Nagini and he must have created a tremendous amount of noise, as the ruins of blood-stained chairs and overturned tables gave evidence. While engrossed in the battle, Harry heard nothing. By this time, a matter of perhaps fifteen seconds had elapsed since that fatal blow to the giant serpent, and Harry now heard footsteps in the hall. Running feet. Quite a few of them.
The next gaping hole in the plan: How would Harry return to the closet where Ron and Hermione huddled? Switching the bloody knife to his left hand, he grasped his wand in the right. Immediately the first death eater, a pale, gaunt blond man in his thirties, ran into the room, his wand at the ready, but Harry had prepared. Before the man even saw him in the darkness of the unused room, an unspoken expelliarmus spell struck him squarely. The death eater's birch wand flew from his hands, and the powerful spell thrust the man sideways into the wall. Bouncing off, he stumbled and fell forward, suffering a fatal piece of bad luck. A shattered leg of what appeared to have been a workbench impaled the unlucky death eater through his abdomen. He died within seconds.
For the first time in Harry's life, he had killed a man. True, he did not intend to, but a fact is a fact. In another situation, Harry may have been devastated by what he had done, but now he thought only one thing, One out of the way. For indeed more could be heard. As Harry dove behind an overturned table, two more men arrived at the door. Unlike the first, they did not rush in, most likely due to the bloodcurdling scream of the impaled man. Their caution actually worked to Harry's benefit, as he had the opportunity to position himself and train his wand towards the open door. Suddenly one death eater burst through the door sending out a spell or hex, but he did so blindly in the darkness.
Harry's eyes, however, had fully accustomed to the dim light, and he quickly aimed his wand while thinking, "Stupefy." The spell traveled the fifteen feet and hit the man before he had a chance to erect a shield. He crumpled to the floor.
The third death eater either acted less bravely or more intelligently, depending on one's point of view, for he ran down the corridor yelling for more help. Harry needed to leave right away.
"Issamir, where are you? We need to go," Harry hissed.
"I am here," the serpent answered, "enter my body once again. I will be able to escape."
Harry had not had a chance to develop a better plan, so he found his serpent friend and chanted the possession spell. Once inside its body, Issamir bolted out the door and across the wide hall to the other side, then slithered as quickly as it could in the dark corners back towards the closet where Ron and Hermione hopefully awaited them. The speed of the snake amazed Harry, and they left the room containing the carcasses of Nagini and the anonymous death eater well behind by the time the others arrived. They would be shocked by the scene, Harry figured, and perhaps that would afford them enough time to reach their destination.
The death eaters acted too quickly, however, and in moments Harry heard the sound of footsteps running up the corridor. The closet remained far away, and they could not make it before the death eaters, for a running human moved much faster than the small snake. Issamir apparently made the same calculations and quickly darted behind a storage cabinet of some sort. Four men ran by, Harry only seeing the bottom of their robes.
"He can't be far," huffed one of them, "He had to have snuck in because of the apparation wards. The dark lord will be furious. We HAVE to find him."
Harry could feel the fear in his voice. The death eaters knew that if Harry escaped, they would be held responsible by Voldemort for Nagini's death and for failing to capture the intruder. There would be hell to pay, and they could only hope that the dark lord would kill them quickly and with a minimum of torture.
Issamir carefully slid from under the cabinet but moved more slowly now, constantly flicking its tongue to test the air. The death eaters could no longer be heard, so Harry hoped that they had passed by the closet. Painstakingly, Issamir closed in on their destination, and Harry thought that they would make it in time, when he heard footsteps returning. The death eaters now searched every room, recklessly barging in and desperately throwing spells at random. One of them closed in on the closet, now within Harry's view. Ron and Hermione had the invisibility cloak, but Harry could not be sure they had it on. Even if they did, a spell likely would hit them anyway in the small closet.
"I must leave you, Issamir. Try to get inside the closet," Harry communicated to the snake, and before it could respond, Harry released the snake, and his body appeared. Quickly he grabbed for his wand, but the death eater saw him. Each man froze for a moment.
"Stupefy," yelled Harry, not having the presence of mind to use an unspoken spell. At the same moment the enemy yelled, "Petrificus Totalus." Fortunately for Harry, he cast his spell quicker. Harry just dodged the oncoming spell while his stunner hit his opponent in the shoulder. The man crumple unconscious to the floor.
The others heard the yelling, of course, and came running. Harry dashed for the door of the closet, Issamir on his heels. A spell came at him from down the corridor, but Harry opened the door just in time to block it. The force of the spell shattered the thick wooden door, leaving it dangling from the upper hinge.
"Harry!" Hermione yelled, but before she could say more, Harry bumped pass them and with his wand drew the three parallel and one diagonal lines on the back wall.
"They're coming," Harry shouted, "hurry up." Ron and Hermione rushed through, while Harry bent down to pick up Issamir. The death eaters now had to be just feet away, so Harry pointed his wand and yelled "Reducto" at the door, trying to cause the biggest explosion that he could. By chance, the first death eater appeared right at that moment, hit both by the spell and the exploding door. As Harry backed through the opening in the wall, the three friends saw the body soar to the far side of the corridor, head and neck slamming into the stone wall and slumping to the ground, almost certainly dead. Just before the closet wall closed in front of them, they saw the victim: Draco Malfoy.
The realization that Harry had just killed his childhood arch enemy stunned the threesome, who momentarily could not speak.
After staring at the wall for some ten seconds, Issamir finally broke the silence, hissing, "I believe we should keep moving, Harry Potter."
"Let's go," Harry responded in English, his voice rough as sandpaper. He pressed his hands on his two friends, prodding them to move.
"What happened, Harry?" asked Ron as they clambered up the stairs. Hermione and he could see and smell the blood of Nagini on Harry's clothes.
"I killed Nagini. It was a horcrux," Harry panted, "Let's get out of here first."
The hidden stairway only allowed them to climb one floor at a time before reaching another wall. The wall had to be opened with the wand movements and the next closet entered. The wall would close behind them, and Harry would then have to open the wall again to go up or down another floor. While the process in each closet took less than half a minute, it allowed an enormous amount of time for the death eaters to find them.
Upon reaching the third floor, they knew that plenty of time had passed for Voldemort's followers to figure out that they were climbing from one closet to another. To be safe, Ron and Hermione crouched as low as they could next to the wall as Harry drew the lines on the wall. Their wands pointed forwards, ready to fire. As soon as he scratched the diagonal line, Harry jumped to the side, his back flat against the wall. Issamir wrapped himself more tightly around Harry's neck.
Their caution paid dividends as they caught two death eaters unawares when the wall vanished. They had been checking behind the boxes and buckets in the small room, and when they turned towards the nonexistent wall, Ron and Hermione picked them off like ducks on a pond. Harry rushed forward and pressed an ear to the door, hearing faint voices. He stepped back to the wall, which had reappeared, and opened it anew. They had two more floors to go.
They performed the same strategy on the next floor. When the wall vanished, the closet appeared empty, and they moved to step through. The moment they did, however, a death eater jerked the door open, leading two others, all with their wands raised.
"STUPEFY," the first two shouted in unison, merging into one voice. Two yellow jets of light burst forth, one of them hitting Hermione in the shoulder. She slumped awkwardly to the ground. The other jet through a stroke of good luck whizzed by Ron's ear and exploded against the wall of the stairwell, just before the back wall of the closet closed again.
Immediately Ron and Harry cast their own stunning spells. As they had practiced during their DA meetings two years previous, they aimed their spells about three feet apart. One of the unknown wizards moved to his right, avoiding Harry's spell but not Ron's, which struck him squarely in the chest. The two boys then dove to the ground, taking cover behind large pallets of blank parchment. The other death eater tried to find cover too, but Harry's unspoken stunner hit him in the side, not allowing him the chance to erect a shield. Two down, one to go. The death eater who had opened the door remained hidden. Harry made eye contact with Ron. He pointed to himself and then pointed to the higher potion of the door; pointing at Ron, he then pointed to the lower section. Ron nodded, and they turned back to the door.
This second DA tactic also worked to perfection. As soon as the death eater jumped from behind the door into a low crouch, seeking to avoid a spell at the normal height, Ron's low stunner hit him right in the forehead. Harry and Ron jumped out from behind the pallets to grab the fallen death eaters by the neck of their robes, yanking them into the closet. Closing the door, Harry placed a locking spell on it. Lastly, Ron and he used the incarcerous spell to bind the three enemies so that they could not move when they awoke.
Hermione had fallen awkwardly, and her friends now saw her splayed out in unnatural angles. Harry and Ron first moved her legs and arms into more natural positions before saying, "Ennervate." Hermione awoke, her head throbbing and her right shoulder screaming in pain. Momentarily disoriented, she looked around like a patient awakening from anesthesia. After a few seconds, she recalled what had happened and tried to push herself up, only to fall back down. Her shoulder stabbed her with pain and appeared to be separated. Harry and Ron carefully helped her to stand, but the pain proved too much, and she had to grab on to Ron's shoulder with her left arm.
"What are we going to do?" asked Ron frantically, "She can't run like that. She's in too much pain. I don't know any healing spells that would help this." He gingerly wrapped his right arm around her waist and helped her to lean against the pallet of parchment.
"I'm sorry mates," she grimaced, "I can move. I'll do my best." Harry had been thinking furiously.
"Hermione, what's that pain reducing spell? That would at least help a little."
Hermione forced herself to think through her pain, "Asperius. Flick the wand up and to the right when you say it." Harry did as she instructed, and immediately she felt relief. "Oh, that is much better, but I still can't use my arm. I think it's dislocated."
Thinking quickly, Harry snatched a sheet of parchment, and taking his wand transfigured it into a large white cloth, which he then fashioned into a sling for her arm.
"That's the best we can do for now, I'm afraid. Look, we shouldn't go up to the next floor. They know about these closets now. This is what we're going to do."
Harry briefly explained his impromptu plan, and in a few moments they stepped out the door. Harry again possessed Issamir, while Ron and Hermione followed behind under the invisibility cloak. Harry's plan at least won points for its audacity. They intended to walk right out the front door. He knew that they were on the Ministry's main level, where a year and a half earlier he had witnessed the incredible duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore. They progressed extremely slowly, as Harry needed to communicate to Issamir where to go, and a couple of times they had to turn around, for Harry did not know the building that well, especially from the eyes of a snake. Ron and Hermione needed to keep their eyes both on the snake and on the lookout for death eaters.
As Harry had expected (or hoped), the death eaters had abandoned the main atrium in their search. Ron and Hermione had to freeze a couple of times at first as a couple of death eaters ran by, but once they arrived at the atrium, it appeared to be completely abandoned. As quickly as they could, staying close to the wall, they hurried to the entrance elevator, hoping against hope that it would work. Again Harry expected that the elevator would not allow anyone to enter but would allow those inside to exit. Voldemort certainly would not expect attacking aurors to enter through the elevators. Taking one last look around the enormous empty space filled only by the various sculptures and fountains, Ron pressed the button. After waiting for a few seconds, the elevator door opened.
The normal female voice on the elevator apparently had been disabled, as no voice greeted them. Since the elevator had the form of a phone booth, there were no buttons to push inside. Harry reappeared, bloody clothes and all, placing Issamir around his neck again.
"How do we get to the surface?" he asked.
"Street level, please," stated Hermione forcefully, adding the "please" for good measure. Up the elevator rose, through the levels of earth, until finally they reached the dingy parking lot next to the abandoned building in commercial London. The last time they had been here, they captured Severus Snape.
The lot almost exactly appeared the same as that early morning months earlier, the time being 2:00 am or so, though none of them had bothered to check their watches.
"Grimmauld Place," Harry instructed, "Can you apparate, Hermione?" She nodded her head, and in a moment, two wizards, one witch and one snake disappeared from view.
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By the time they walked through the door of Harry's house, he became conscious again of the foreign presence in his body. Without the surge of adrenaline and the distraction of the escape, Harry now could feel the vaguely debilitating effect of the horcrux, as much mental as physical.
"I've got to get to my room, mates. Don't touch me! Dobby!" Harry had forgotten that he had already touched his friends several times during their escape, without negative effects.
The house elf immediately appeared, his head topped with a red nightcap. "Yes Harry Potter," he answered, showing no sign that he had been fast asleep seconds earlier.
"I'm feeling weak, Dobby. Don't touch me, but please levitate me to my room." Dobby first waved his hand to remove the blood from Harry's clothing, and then pointed his finger at his master, raising him three feet off the ground, and in a minute Harry lay on his bed. He definitely felt sick now.
Gazing at his concerned friends staring at him in confusion, he briefly explained, "I killed Nagini when I knew it was a horcrux. The horcrux left its body and entered mine. . . . It's inside of me."
"Oh no, Harry!" cried Hermione, "What can we do?" She had forgotten all about her dislocated shoulder. Harry Potter's face for the first time betrayed fear.
"Just stay with me. Don't leave me alone."
"We won't," Ron exclaimed, ending any possible discussion of the matter.
"It's not like the other one, is it?" Hermione asked, noticing that Harry did not show signs of severe pain like the other times.
"No, it's weaker, or injured, I'm not sure. I can feel it, but I can't really locate it. It's just there," Harry explained, as he stretched out on his bed, kicking off his shoes. Now that he rested, he did not feel especially ill and wanted to talk. The snake had released Harry's neck and slithered on the bed next to the wizard.
With a smile Harry gushed, "Issamir was great. You should have seen him buttering up Nagini. Arrogant git! That snake was as bad as Voldemort. I can't believe we got away, but it seemed like there weren't that many death eaters around. And Voldemort wasn't there either; at least I couldn't feel him there." He pointed to his scar, then hissed his thanks to Issamir.
Despite the little matter of the horcrux in his body, Harry felt better than he had expected. Killing Nagini and escaping with nary a scratch, and leaving through the public elevator, left him with a deep sense of accomplishment.
"Voldemort's going to blow his top when he finds out," he laughed, "I almost wish I could be there."
"We were lucky that he wasn't there," Hermione countered severely, bringing Harry back to earth, "We never would have escaped if he had been. I wonder what he was doing? It can't be good. But what's important now is the horcrux. How are you going to kill it? Can you do it before it gains more strength? It looks like it's barely affecting you right now."
Ron chipped in, "Yeah, Harry, we'll have plenty of time to talk afterwards. Get rid of that thing as fast as you can."
"OK, OK, I get your point. Let me concentrate for a minute." Harry relaxed into his pillow, closing his eyes. The horcrux remained inside of him, of that he was sure, but he could not pinpoint its location. For a moment he felt something in his stomach, and then it disappeared. Something felt fundamentally different about this horcrux than the others, and Harry did not feel sorry about it in the least. The pain of the other battles remained fresh in his mind, and he had no desire to go through it again. Still this felt so strange, and Harry could not avoid a sense of insecurity. The other times, he knew more or less what he had to do, even though terribly hard. Now he dealt with the unknown.
While thinking this through, Harry relaxed. He realized how tired he felt, and after all it was almost three in the morning. Before long, he fell asleep.
"I have left you alone, Harry," he heard in his head, an angry hiss of a voice, "and look what you have done. I am upset now, Harry. Truly upset. Recently I have been distracted by other matters, but I have not forgotten about you. You have overstayed your welcome on this planet, Harry Potter. There is no longer room for the two of us. You have irritated me one time too many."
Though asleep, Harry understood that this was not a dream. Voldemort had renewed their link, but this time the communication would not be one sided.
"You cannot kill me, Tom Riddle. You have tried and failed. There is a prophecy. I know it, and you do not. I know that the prophecy ends with your death. Your days are numbered, Tom."
Voldemort must have been surprised, for he delayed his response.
"I see you have gained a certain amount of control over your mind. Quite an accomplishment; you should be commended. But you have not spent the years I have in developing my mind. You are no match for me, Harry. Do not delude yourself."
"I know more about you than you can imagine, Tom," Harry responded, "You are a coward. When have you ever fought a fair fight with me? I have no reason to fear you. Only I truly know you."
"You know nothing, Harry!" Voldemort spat, enraged, "I have powers you will never know, much less understand. Never has any wizard gained the power and knowledge that I now possess. No longer am I a wizard; I am much more. You are lying about the prophecy. You know that you must die. I am pleased that you are showing more spirit than in the past. It will make killing you even more of a pleasure. I must take my leave now, Harry, but we will meet again. Soon."
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Harry's rage subsided and he returned to a more restful sleep. Ron and Hermione stayed in his room, holding hands for a time, and watching Harry in near silence.
As Harry's breathing became regular and his face relaxed, Hermione finally whispered, "I think he's asleep." She waved her hand over him but felt no magical aura emanating from his body. Taking a chance, she grazed her hand on Harry's cheek. Nothing happened. "I think the horcrux is dead, Ron. I can touch him."
Ron stood and approached the bed, "Yeah, I think you're right. He looks exhausted. I'm beat too." Soon the two friends had returned to their chairs, shoes strewn about on the carpet, and they closed their eyes from exhaustion. Hermione's shoulder hurt, but she refused to seek treatment for it, only allowing Ron to perform the asperius pain-reducing spell. It could wait.
Several hours later, Harry awoke with a start. Light flickered into the room around the edges of the window shades. The sun had already risen high in the sky outside, he could tell, as he tried to remember why he lay on top of his bed fully clothed. The sight of Hermione and Ron sprawled over their chairs awkwardly, sound asleep, surprised him even more.
"The horcrux!" he whispered to himself, and he tried to locate it within his body, but he could sense nothing. Sitting up in the bed, he rubbed his eyes and put on his glasses, internally examining his body again. Nothing. He felt perfectly normal. Could it be? Could the horcrux have died while he slept?
Swinging his legs off the bed, Harry sat with his hands gripping the crumpled sheets and bedspread. The vision of the death eater impaled by the broken table leg entered his mind involuntarily. At the time, he did not realize the gruesomeness of the scene. He also replayed the head of Draco Malfoy smashing against the stone wall, his presumably dead body slumping to the cold, grey floor. The realization of what had happened started to sink in. He had killed a man. Two men. His head slumped down.
The rustling of the sheets awakened Hermione, who had slept restlessly in the chair. Every half an hour or so she would check on Harry, see that he remained asleep, and then close her eyes again. This time she knew Harry had awakened, but at first she only opened one eye, making no movement. She could see that Harry looked fine physically, but something was wrong. Finally when Harry looked down at his feet, she quietly moved from her chair and sat next to him on the bed. Ron remained sound asleep.
"Are you OK, Harry?" she whispered, as she wrapped her good arm around his back. Harry did not look up but gave a slight nod.
After a few moments, he whispered, "I killed a man, Hermione." His voice sounded cold and troubled. "I wonder how many more I'll kill before he gets me or I get him." Hermione assumed that Harry referred to Draco, who must have died from the force of the reducto spell.
"It was an accident, Harry. You didn't know he was there. Draco made his choice, and he paid the price." She pulled Harry an inch closer to her. The two friends sat quietly for a few moments, their hair pointing in all directions after having just awakened.
"He wasn't the only one," Harry added softly, "I killed another one after I killed the snake. That was an accident too, but I killed him." He did not describe what had happened, as the gruesome image of the table leg protruding through the man's back in the room covered by the blood of Nagini far exceeded anything he had ever seen. Hermione knew better than to ask for details.
"You're the one who always tells me, 'This is a war.' People will die on both sides. They have died. The difference is that you feel badly about it afterwards."
Harry finally looked up, turning towards Hermione. They looked into each other's eyes for several moments, their faces only inches apart. Hermione thought she knew every one of Harry's expressions, but this time she could not read his eyes.
Finally Harry snarled, "There's at least one more that I'm going to kill. And that one will not be an accident."