Chapter 26: The Duel
Wormtail approached Harry, who scrambled to find his feet and support his weight before the ropes were united. The material gagging him was cut by the dagger. Peri briefly hoped Harry would run for it, but he didn't. He stood there before Voldemort as the circle tightened around them. Wormtail crossed to Cedric's body and retrieved Harry's wand and then thrust it roughly into Harry's hand without looking at him.
"You know how to duel, Harry Potter?" Voldemort asked softly, his red eyes glinting through the darkness.
"You bow first, Harry!" Peri called out to him.
"I know, Peri! We will get you back to your family."
Voldemort laughed, "Listen to Peri, Harry. We bow to each other first." He bent a little but kept his snakelike face upturned to Harry. "Come, the niceties must be observed…Dumbledore would like you to show manners…Bow to death, Harry, and let your friend watch you die."
The Death Eaters were laughing again. Voldemort's lipless mouth flashed a smile. Harry did not bow.
"Harry! Bow! We can win this and go home!"
"I said, bow," Voldemort raised his wand and Harry was forced into a bowing position causing the Death Eaters to laugh harder and louder. Peri shook her head in disappointment.
"Very good," Voldemort raised his wand and Harry returned to a standing position. "And now you face me, like a man…straight-backed and proud, the way your father died…"
"And now — we duel."
Voldemort raised his wand, and Harry was hit with the Cruciatus Curse again before he was able to defend himself. Peri listened to him scream louder than ever. When it stopped, she watched him roll over and scramble back to his feet. He was shaking, just as Wormtail had done when his hand had been cut off. Harry staggered into the wall of Death Eaters, who pushed him away from them and toward Voldemort.
"A little break," Voldemort said with excitement flaring in his slit-like nostrils, "a little pause…That didn't hurt, did it, Harry? You want me to do that again, do you?"
There was no answer. Peri muttered a spell under her breath that released the roots from around her, she flexed her wrists but remained still not wanting to make anyone aware of her release yet. She was not going to let Harry fight alone.
"I asked you whether you want me to do that again," Voldemort asked. "Answer me! Imperio!"
Peri continued standing still, hoping in her mind for Harry to respond.
Come on, Harry. She thought to herself. Tell him no and we will fight this together as the team we have become.
"I WON'T"
The words burst from his mouth, echoing through the graveyard. She let out a sigh of relief.
"You won't?" Voldemort asked quietly, the Death Eaters were all quiet now. "You say no? Harry, obedience is a virtue I need to teach you before you die…Perhaps another little dose of pain?"
Voldemort raised his wand, but this time Harry flung himself sideways onto the ground; rolling behind the marble headstone. Peri ducked to the ground herself and met him behind the headstone, "Peri," he gasped in a thankful whisper. "You're free."
"I am. We will battle him together and go home."
He shook his head, "No. Take the cup and go home."
"Never. We are a team, we win this together."
"We are not playing hide-and-seek, Harry," said Voldemort's soft, cold voice as it drew nearer. The Death Eaters laughed.
Harry's green eyes flashed toward her, "Together."
She kissed his cheek.
"Come out, Harry…come out and play, then…"
Peri stood up moving around the headstone, "Harry and I are a team."
Voldemort appeared in a sense of shock, but it disappeared as quickly when Harry rounded the headstone, "We fight together," Harry said standing beside Peri.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted
"Avada Kedavra!" cried Voldemort.
"Levicorpus!" Peri yelled.
A green light issued from Voldemort's wand, as a jet of red light, blasted from Harry's wand, and another shade of green exploded from Peri's wand. The spells met in midair, and Peri's wand was beginning to vibrate as if it were an electric charge surging through it. She clutched her hand tighter around it. She couldn't release the spell even if she wanted to, the spell coming for them would kill either one of them or both. She spotted Voldemort's long white fingers gripping his wand.
The bright, deep gold that connected three spells lifted them into the air with their wands still connected by the golden light. The Death Eaters shouted for instructions as they glided away from the tombstone of Voldemort's father to a patch of land clear and free of graves. The circle reformed as the snake slithered around their heels and Death Eaters withdrew their wands.
The golden thread connecting their wands remained connected, as a thousand beams arced high over them, crisscrossing all around them until they were enclosed in a golden, dome-shaped web, a cage of light.
"Do nothing!" shrieked Voldemort to the Death Eaters, his eyes wide in astonishment at what was happening. "Do nothing unless I command you!"
An unearthly and beautiful sound filled the air. It was coming from every light thread of the light-spun web.
"Harry?" Peri asked him panting.
"It will be alright, Peri. It is the song of hope."
"Hope?" she questioned.
"Don't break the connection!"
She continued to hold the connection as her wand began to vibrate more powerfully than ever. "If my wand breaks, Harry. You owe me another!"
"Let us make it out alive first and you can have whatever you want."
"George! I want George!"
"What?!"
This nearly lost her connection, but she shook it off. "I want George…we make it out of here. I'm choosing George!"
The beam between their wands began to change, it was as though the large beads of light were sliding up and down the thread connecting the wands. The wands shuddered under their hands as the beads slid slowly and steadily in her and Harry's direction. Their wands shuddered angrily.
The closer the bead moved, the harder Peri's wand vibrated; she was sure her wand would not survive contact with the hot bead heading their way. She felt it would shatter beneath her hand. She focused every particle of her mind on defeating Voldemort to return home to her parents and sisters and…George. She wanted George more than anything. Life was too short to not be with the ones you love most.
The beads of light began to move the other way, closer to Voldemort. Voldemort's wand began to vibrate extra hard now, he appeared astonished and almost fearful.
One of the beads of light began to quiver inches from the tip of Voldemort's wand. She had no idea what they were doing or what they might achieve. She continued to concentrate harder than she ever had to force the bead of light into Voldemort's wand with Harry.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
It moved along the golden thread, it trembled for a moment and then it connected.
At once, Voldemort's wand began to emit echoing and screams of pain. Then Voldemort's red eyes widened with shock as a dense, smoky hand flew from the tip and vanished. The ghost of the hand he had made for Bash and Wormtail…more shouts of pain…and then something much larger blossomed from the tip, a great grayish something, that looked as though it were made of the most solid, densest smoke. It was a head…a chest and arms…the torso of Cedric.
Peri nearly released her wand at that moment from shock but gripped her wand tightly to remain connected even if this was possibly the ghost of Cedric. The ghost of Ceric emerged in its entirety from the end of the wand as though he were emerging himself from a very narrow tunnel. Cedric stood up and looked down the thread of light toward them.
"Hold on, Harry! Hold on, Peri!"
The voice was distant and echoing. Voldemort's eyes were wide and red, still in shock. No one had expected this to happen. Frightened yells from the Death Eaters around them.
More screams of pain emerged from the wand. Another shadow emerged from the wand of an older man. He stood before them, "He was a real wizard, then?" the old man said with his eyes fixed on Voldemort. "Killed me, that one did…You fight him, boy…you, too, girl."
Another head emerged.
"Don't let go, now," the voice of a woman cried out to Peri and Harry with wide eyes. "Don't let him get you, Harry and Peri — don't let go!"
The other shadows paced the golden web that enclosed them, while the Death Eaters outside attempted to find a way inside.
Two more shadows erupted from the end of the wand. A woman with shoulder-length hair and a man with a buzz cut.
"Ann…Patrick…Harry these are Hallie and Holly's parents!"
"Hold on, Peri," Ann spoke to her moving closer to her to make her voice less echoing. "We will protect you."
"You look like Holly."
"And you will be with them again soon."
Ann placed a hand on her shoulder, there was nothing there but Peri felt it.
A smoky shadow of another young woman with long hair fell to the ground, "Lily…" Peri spoke in a whisper. "Harry…"
"It's my mother…" he answered mouth gaping open.
"Your father's coming…" Lily spoke quietly. "Hold on for your father…It will be all right…Hold on…"
James came. He looked exactly like a shadow of Harry, but older. James walked closer to Harry, he spoke to them.
"When the connection is broken, we will linger for only moments."
"But we will give you both time," Ann assured them.
James nodded, "You must get to the Portkey, it will return both of you to Hogwarts. Do you both understand?"
"Yes," they gasped as they both fought to keep a hold on their wands slipping in their hands.
"Harry… Peri…" whispered Cedric, "take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my parents…"
"We will," they agreed as Harry's face screwed up with the effort of his hand and Peri started panting.
"Do it now," James whispered, "Be ready to run…"
"Tell our girls we love them and are proud of them…" Ann said.
"Of course."
"Do it now!" James told them.
"NOW!" Harry yelled, but without hesitation, they both withdrew their wands upward with an almighty wrench and the golden thread broke; the cage of light vanished, the and song died. The shadowy figures did not disappear, they closed in upon Voldemort, shielding his gaze from them.
Peri grabbed Harry's arm, "Come on!"
Together they ran faster than they ever had before, they knocked two stunned Death Easters aside as they passed. They zigzagged between the headstones, hearing curses being thrown in their direction.
"Stun them!" Voldemort screamed.
Peri dove for Cedric's body grabbing his hand as jets of red light hit a marble headstone in front of them. "Harry! Grab my hand and the cup!"
Harry grabbed her hand, "Accio cup!"
The cup flew into his hand from ten feet away.
They flew into the air and they soared away with it.
Voldemort's scream of fury was heard at the same moment as the jerk of the portkey sent them teleporting back to Hogwarts. It had worked. They were going home. She clutched Cedric's hand as they became a whirl of wind.