We were like strangled rabbits, choking on the odious perfume of near-death which surrounded us. I clutched my wand tightly, terror fusing in my olive green eyes as I felt the ground rattle and shake slightly. Seismic activity now, of all days...
The wind howled, and my indomitable professor looked terrified, yet earnest in keeping me safe, as he was blocking his view of me, acting like a makeshift human shield.
"Protecting the insolent Harry Potter, are you Severus? I find myself disappointed, you had such promise. I might still spare you if you give me the child," Voldemort uttered in a sugary voice, waiting for my hopes to be dashed and torn apart.
"I'd sooner entrust Potter to a wolf than to you," Severus scoffed, reviling his former dark master to his very face.
Voldemort grinned, "Wise of you, my lying snake."
The berries near the forest we were in seemed mouthwatering, seeing as I had been starved for days before Snape rescued me. Between Voldemort and us sat a beautiful fountain, with stone cherubs swimming in it and carnations sitting on the stone ledge of the fountain, in full bloom.
How I wished I was swimming in a faraway pool instead of worrying about ending up in a pool of my own blood. I could faintly hear hummingbirds and the howling wind, but they were not important. Survival was.
"Harry," the Dark Lord addressed me, "Harry, give yourself over and I swear on my honor not to harm a hair on Severus's head."
"You have no honor," I told him, although I was tempted, extremely tempted to take him up on the offer. I didn't want my professor to die for my sake, then it would be my fault. Like Cedric, like Sirius...
"Hmmm, then perhaps, a short fight will do," Voldemort mused, smiling viciously at me. I might be hidden from view but I just knew, he was taunting me.
"I do hope you have learned more spells than Expelliarmus, Harry. Unless you are willing to hide like a coward?" Voldemort asked.
I'm itching to get out, to show him who the real coward is, but professor Snape isn't letting me, dragging me back behind him and glaring at me.
Voldemort cackled. It was the ugliest sound I've ever heard.
We moved together quickly to a tree and he deposited me behind it, shooting at me the same look he used in potions class.
"Potter, if you move an inch I'll do the Dark Lord a favor and kill you," he whispered harshly.
"But then he'd repay your favor by killing you for taking out his kill, professor," I said softly, my voice trembling.
"True, the dark lord is very mercurial," my professor replied, while his billowing robes obstructed my vision and fear crept in back again into my bones.
I had to help him somehow...
The scene reminded me too much of the graveyard, the mist of dark magic hanging in the air like the foul stench of putrid flesh. The odor filling my nostrils to the brim as my eyes tear up and I'm left shaking, trapped to a tombstone.
And then the duel began.
Each opponent was using dark spells the kind I've never seen nor heard about. My breath came out in puffs, as a flurry of dead leaves flew past my vision.
Their rust-tinted color reminded me that it was near Christmas, and I should be at Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione. They must be worried sick.
I briefly took a furtive glance toward the battle, it was like watching an intimate affair if one considered this twist of legs, this deadly dance of death something intimate. Strangely though, it was.
Their moves were almost ritualistic, on this black, delicate soil, as they spun around, eyes never leaving the target. Brilliant sparks shot out of their wands, taking different shapes. I was looking at fiery dragons flying at breakneck speed only to be intercepted by globs of water, transfigured from I don't know where and I don't know how.
It began to thunder, the awestruck feeling never left me. I was anchored, I was safe.
The Killing Curse flew past my head...perhaps I was not so protected.
Why was Dumbledore not here already?
Snape was outmatched. I had to do something. As a time-freezing curse flew past Voldemort's wand, I shot out of my hiding place, and quick as a sparrow I said the first curse that came to my mind.
"Potter!" Snape shouted and this would be a grand time to hide again as to not be used as potions ingredients, however, it seemed the Potter luck had struck again.
In my attempt of helping I created a flash of light that engulfed Snape, Voldemort, and I. We were transported, Merlin knew where.