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Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory | ||||||
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Category: Post-HBP Characters:All Genres: Action/Adventure, General, Romance Warnings: Death, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Violence Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 259 Summary: After the horcrux hunt implodes leaving most of those Harry loves dead, he starts a new life with a few fellow survivors far away from wizarding Britain. But the discovery of an ancient ritual that promises to send a single memory back in time sparks hope that maybe things can change. Dark ending to DH followed by a tweaked retelling of GoF through DH. Harry/Ginny. Friday updates. Original Timeline Voldemort's Victory - Chapter 1-5 (Feel free to skip if you don't like major character deaths) Tenochtitlán - Chapter 6-9 New Timeline Harry's 4th Year - Chapter 10-28 Harry's 5th Year - Chapter 29-68 Harry's 6th Year - Chapter 69-Current Hitcount: Story Total: 169446; Chapter Total: 1642 Awards: View Trophy Room |
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The room leading to the Hall of Prophecy looked much different to Harry as he quickly made his way through than it had when he'd been prone and levitated through on the way in. Many of the tables had been toppled onto their sides and showed damage from a variety of spells. Assorted trinkets had been smashed upon the floor and some of the larger items, like two of the grandfather clocks, had been set ablaze in whatever pitched battle had taken place in the room. With his Invisibility Cloak wrapped around him, Harry slipped past the wreckage and into the room filled with doors where Malfoy had waited with Yaxley. As Harry instinctively closed the door behind him, the room around him suddenly began to spin around. They came back to a stop, but Harry wasn't sure which he had come from, much less which to enter to reach his friends. He stilled his movement and attempted to quiet his breathing, but no noise indicated which of the doors might be hiding a battle behind it. He searched the room for any visible clues, eventually finding that one of the doors was peppered with small scorch marks that made Harry believe it had been struck by spells recently. He twisted the knob without hesitation, only to be met with the destroyed room of clocks he'd just come from. He swore to himself and started to shut the door again, but stopped just short. "Colorvaria!" With satisfaction, Harry stared at a door the same shade of light blue as many of the rooms on his Marauder's Map. He secured the door and watched as the room spun itself again. This time, Harry easily identified which was the portal he'd already attempted and was able to focus on other options. Another doorway looked to have taken recent spellfire, so Harry cast the Color Changing spell before he entered an inky black room dotted with spheres that resembled planets and stars, leaving the door behind him slightly ajar. Several of the orbs had been blasted apart and now lay in pieces on the floor. A robed figure lay motionless amongst the debris, his bearded face partially covered in a Death Eater mask. Harry conjured ropes that bound the man tightly, ignoring the trickle of blood dribbling from his nose before quickly crossing toward a door on the other side of the room. The sounds of a pitched battle reverberated through the opposite wall, but a loud crack from behind Harry stole his attention. The door he'd just entered through shot open to reveal Dumbledore, Kingsley, and Tonks. As they rushed into the room, Harry yelled to them and removed his Invisibility Cloak. "Harry?!" cried Dumbledore as he hurried forward. "Are you alright?" A mixture of relief and fear coursed through Harry as they surrounded him. "We've got to save everyone! The others are fighting the Death Eaters!" The concern on Dumbledore's face shifted to steely determination. "How many of your friends are here?" "I think it's the five other Defense Club leaders. Umbridge tricked us into coming to her office to talk with Fudge, but it was Malfoy using Polyjuice. He stunned me and brought me here, but I think the others got away from the two who were guarding them and followed me here." If Dumbledore or either of the Aurors found his explanation hard to understand, they gave no indication as Harry relayed the information as quickly as he could. "Malfoy tried to make me retrieve the prophecy, but I pulled him through the ward down there and then knocked him out. Now I'm trying to find the others to help because they're outnumbered." "Then there is no time to lose!" Dumbledore led the way, followed by Kingsley and Tonks with Harry trailing behind. As they approached the doorway, Dumbledore spoke to Harry without looking back. "You cannot join us unless you follow any and all of our instructions. Is that understood?" The questioning look on Tonks' face did not deter Harry as he agreed, stuffing the wand taken from Travers into his pocket. "Very well. Keep your cloak on at all times." With that, Kingsley burst through the door behind a Shield Charm Tonks charmed in front of him, as the four entered the fray. The room was wide and circular with stairs descending around its outermost boundary that led to a floor with a raised section in the middle. Other than the Death Eaters encircling the five students, the only distinguishing feature Harry could see down at the bottom was a tall, stone doorway with a veil gently rippling inside of it. More than a dozen Death Eaters had pinned Harry's friends against a wall in the vast chamber where they were fighting. Hermione, Cedric, and Ron alternated between casting shields to protect their group and conjuring boulders to serve as cover, while Ginny and Cho did their best to return fire at the Death Eaters who were approaching their clustered opponents. Though neither of them was the most powerful of the group, their accuracy was evidenced by three of the Death Eaters who were either hobbled or completely incapacitated when Harry and the three adults rushed into the room. Harry thought that he had seen a fair bit of the magic Dumbledore was capable of producing. The headmaster had shown some incredible feats of magic while in the Advanced Defense sessions he'd joined, and the skill with which he wielded his wand in the horcrux hunting expeditions and dismantling their protections far exceeded most of what Harry had seen accomplished by even the most powerful witches and wizards. But bearing witness to the terrible and furious power Dumbledore wrought on the Death Eaters was well beyond what Harry imagined possible. Judging by the shocked expressions of his friends and the awe on the faces of Tonks and Kingsley, Harry wasn't alone in his feelings of amazement. With a wide swipe of his wand, all but three of the Death Eaters were knocked back, falling through the air in slow motion. As they slowly tumbled, jets of bright light issued from Tonks and Kingsley's wands that stunned several of their foes before they'd even reached the ground. Despite the chaos, Harry did his best to follow their example and managed to stun one of the Death Eaters as he attempted to scramble to his feet. Bellatrix and a wizard that Harry thought might be Crouch, Jr. had managed to resist the spell, as had two others who looked as though they'd been shielded by the bodies of other nearby Death Eaters. With a cry of rage, Bellatrix cast a green spell at Dumbledore wordlessly. Harry's heart leapt into his throat as the Killing Curse soared toward them, but Dumbledore pointed his wand at the ground and then raised it upward. A section of the stone floor emerged in time to shield them from the curse, exploding into pieces as the spell struck it. With debris still falling around them, Dumbledore slashed his wand down and toward the two unidentified Death Eaters who were still upright. In a flash, a bolt of lightning blinded Harry and the rest of the room. The yells of the two Death Eaters were cut off by the thuds of their bodies colliding with opposite walls after being flung across the room by the powerful impact. After deflecting a well-placed curse from Kingsley, Bellatrix glanced around to find that only she and Crouch were still able to fight. He was on the back foot while fending off spellfire from Tonks while the students were beginning to send spells in their direction. With a hateful snarl, she apparated away. Crouch's eyes went wide as she abandoned him and he nearly fell to a jinx from Tonks as he, too, apparated into nothingness. Harry and the three adults rushed down the stairs to join the other students, but Ginny's voice called out to them before they'd made it halfway across the room. "Professor! They've got Harry! We've got to save him!" Tonks was the first to reach Ginny and the others. "Don't worry, we've found him! Is everyone okay?" "Ron got hit with a nasty cutting curse on his shoulder," explained Cedric, still warily looking around the room at the Death Eaters strewn about the floor. "It was bleeding a lot, so I did my best to patch it up. It's not Pomfrey-worthy, but I figured it was better than nothing. Cho's ankle isn't in great shape, but I think that the rest of us are uninjured." Kingsley eyed Ron's wound as Dumbledore whispered to Harry that he could remove the cloak. When he became visible, a red-haired missile rocketed forward to engulf him in a bone-crushing hug that would have made Mrs. Weasley proud. As Harry wrapped his arms around Ginny, he saw that Cedric had not been overstating Ron's injury. Despite a layer of newly-grown skin covering the gash, the wound was clearly very deep. His shirt sleeve had been almost completely ripped off and he had blood dripping down his entire right side. His face had lost a good bit of color, but his smile was warm. Cho was wincing in pain and not putting any weight on her right leg, but her eyes flashed with determination as she leaned on Hermione for support. With a shudder, he saw that Hermione's clothes were also covered with a significant amount of blood. "Stills hurts like bloody hell, but if this is the worst injury we sustained on this little visit to the ministry, I think we'll take that!" Ron hissed with pain after shifting more than he should while talking, and he grabbed his injured shoulder with his opposite hand. "That said, I wouldn't say no to a trip to see Madam Pomfrey." "A wise course of action, if ever I heard one," agreed Dumbledore as he cast Body Binds on the unconscious Death Eaters as a precaution before turning to address Kingsley and Tonks. "Unless you have need of my assistance, I believe it would be best for me to accompany these students back to Hogwarts." "Be my guest," answered Kingsley. "More Aurors should be here soon. Tonks and I shouldn't have a problem taking care of this lot until backup arrives. Unless there are Death Eaters we haven't accounted for yet?" "There was one knocked out in the next room when I got there," offered Harry. "I tied him up before you came in." "Hermione dropped a planet on him!" exclaimed Ron before wincing again. Kingsley nodded appreciatively. "Nicely done!" "There should still be two down in the Hall of Prophecies," continued Harry. "Both of them are injured badly. They couldn't get past a ward that was protecting the place. One of them was hurt from walking into it before I was brought there. Malfoy sent me through under the Imperius, but I managed to throw it off and used a Summoning Charm to pull him through it." Worry built up in Harry's chest as the faces of the adults grew grave. "The Death Eaters were saying that going through the ward would alert the caster, and I wasn't able to cast a patronus even when I managed to swipe a wand. Is it going to kill him?" At the word "kill," a feeling of nausea bubbled up deep inside of Harry. "No, Harry. The effects of the ward are not lethal," answered Dumbledore. "I would expect Lucius to be ill-inclined to repeat such an experience and will likely suffer severe repercussions, but I consider it unwise to construct wards with the capacity to kill. Even the best curse-breakers acknowledge that too much can go awry with such powerful and dangerous magic." "So there are three Death Eaters beyond this room in the Department of Mysteries, all of whom have been incapacitated. Any others?" asked Kingsley. "Two more in the Atrium," supplied Hermione. "The ones who brought us here after Fudge took Harry." "Three, if you count Umbridge," added Cedric coldly. "I don't know if she was in on everything or not, but she was happy enough to bring us to the Ministry after Fudge told her to. We stunned all three of them before we came down here to find Harry." Kingsley nodded along as he surveyed the room around them. "Albus, if you'd be willing to check on those three before you leave and wait with them until Scrimgeour or Robards arrive, that'd be quite helpful. We can handle things down here." Dumbledore nodded curtly and strode up the stairs with the students following behind him. Harry wanted a full breakdown of their escape from Crabbe, Goyle, and Umbridge, but Hermione preempted his question by asking about what had happened to Harry. He did his best to fill his friends in as they walked through the Department of Mysteries, though the story was hard to continue when Dumbledore was gently moving the body of the fallen Auror and covering it with a conjured white sheet. Harry conveyed the main ideas before they reached the lift to return to the Atrium. By the time they had all crammed in, he was very ready to hear how his friends had fared. "How'd you get away from them?" asked Harry, his chin resting on his girlfriend's head as she burrowed her face into his chest. "That was a great bit of trickery from Ginny," replied Cho with a grin. "After Fudge stunned you, he and the two others were holding us all at wand point. He told them he needed to get you to the Department of Mysteries, but that he wanted them to bring us to the Ministry, too. "After he took you through the floo, the other two checked us all for wands. But they started with Cedric and Ron," A scoff of derision emanated from Ginny, though it was somewhat muffled by how tightly she held onto Harry. "Which let her pass me her wand while they weren't looking." "I think Umbridge was too busy looking longingly at the spot where Fudge had been to notice," added Cedric. "I swear she looked like she was about to swoon when he stunned you, mate." Harry grimaced at the thought as Cho resumed the tale. "We all had to hand over our wands, but when they got to Ginny, she lied and said she didn't have it." "Technically, it wasn't a lie," interjected Ginny with a grin. "I didn't have it." "The woman patted her down but didn't find anything, so they told us to go through the floo to the Ministry. The tall guy stayed behind while the woman went ahead with Cedric, and then Ron and Hermione went through next. I guess the tall guy wasn't all the way convinced about Ginny's wand, so he made me go next and was holding onto the back of her shirt as I left." Harry squeezed Ginny a little tighter at that detail. The lift was approaching the Atrium as Cho continued. "When I stepped through, Hermione was gushing blood from her face. I thought that one of them had punched her hard enough to break her nose." A look of protective fury erupted across Harry's face, but the others simply laughed as Hermione explained. "Just because I refused to use them to get out of class doesn't mean I didn't buy a box of Skiving Snackboxes from the twins. I was skeptical enough of Umbridge that I slipped one from my bag into my pocket on the way to her office, even though I didn't think ahead enough to be ready for Death Eaters abducting us from Hogwarts." "While Umbridge and the other woman were distracted, I used Ginny's wand to stun them both before they even realized what was happening," Cho concluded with a grin. "By the time the tall Death Eater came through with Ginny, we'd each grabbed our wands and had him outnumbered. He tried to hold her up like a human shield, but she crashed her head backward into his nose and gave him a solid kick to get free. A few strong stunners left him old cold." The lift doors opened and Dumbledore stepped forward, eyes scanning the expansive Atrium for danger. In the middle of the great room stood a fountain that was adorned with statues. Harry noticed the stone wizard, witch, centaur, and goblin right away, not noticing the small house elf statue until they walked closer. The only souls nearby were the three prone figures crumpled up on the floor near a cluster of cauldrons each labeled to be delivered to various departments. "Am I to assume that you sent your patronus to alert me of the situation at this point in the retelling?" asked the Headmaster, approaching the three unconscious adults while waving his wand in a complicated fashion. Crabbe and Goyle's Polyjuice disguise had long worn off, and Harry could see the resemblance between the fathers and their sons as black ropes secured them both tightly, along with Umbridge. Dumbledore twitched his wand slightly, causing their three wands to zoom into his outstretched hands. "Yes, sir," answered Hermione. "We sent one to you and one to Auror Shacklebolt before we went down to the Department of Mysteries. We didn't want to risk waiting too long before going after Harry, so we thought you two would be likeliest to be able to help and get others here quickly." "It seems prudent to remind the five of you that pursuing an unknown number of Death Eaters without the aid of any adults is an exceptionally reckless course of action. Besting your abductors and providing a warning to me was already a great deal more than anyone could have expected of you under the circumstances." Dumbledore peered over his spectacles at them, smiling kindly. "And yet it is wholly unsurprising that you would press ahead, despite the danger, in order to come to your friend's aid." "Harry would've done it for us," replied Ron simply, as if that settled the matter. "Considering that Nymphadora, Kingsley, and I caught up to him while he was attempting that very task, I shall not dispute your conclusion. But I have sidetracked you from the tale! I am quite interested in learning how your expedition progressed after subduing your captors." "We knew Fudge- Err… I guess Malfoy was taking Harry to the Department of Mysteries, so we headed for the lift," explained Cedric. "When we reached the right floor, we saw two Death Eaters walking down the corridor toward us. I don't think they expected to meet any resistance, so we were able to take them by surprise." "They were in a tough spot to defend halfway through a corridor without cover, so they fell back pretty fast," continued Ron. "They would have locked us out if it weren't for Cedric's Impedimenta slowing the door down when one of them tried to slam it. Once we got into the weird spinning room with all the doors, Ginny was able to stun one of them, but the other got through before we could stop him. Once the spinning stopped, we didn't have any idea which room he'd entered, so we started trying them out." The pain in Ron's voice was growing as he spoke, so Ginny took over for him. "We were on our third door when all the Death Eaters started pouring into the spinning room behind us. We shut the door behind us, and that left us stuck in the space room. We barricaded the way in as best we could while they tried to figure out which room we'd ended up in, but they managed to get through after a few minutes. We retreated back into the big room with the veil in the center, but not before Hermione crashed one of the planets into them. We found a defensible position so that we could hold out as long as possible and hoped against hope that you of Kingsley would arrive with reinforcements before we gave out." "I'm sure that all your other professors will be as impressed with your quick-thinking and defensive prowess as I am," mused the headmaster, slightly nodding his head. His eyes fell to one of the three bodies still stunned on the ground nearby. "Well, perhaps not all of your professors… "While we wait upon the arrival of other members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, perhaps it would be worthwhile to revive Professor Umbridge. I am quite interested in learning more about her role in this evening's activities." With a swish of his wand, the headmaster removed the spell on Umbridge, who blinked as she came out of her stupor. "Dumbledore?! What's the meaning of this? Where's Minister Fudge?" Her voice quickly grew in fury and pitch as she struggled against the constraining ropes. "Dolores, I'm afraid that he was never here this evening. The man who bid you bring Harry Potter to the ministry was a Death Eater using the Polyjuice Potion to disguise himself as Cornelius." Disbelief and consternation flashed across her face before giving way to a sneering delight. "Of course! Minister Fudge would never have given credence to the boy's fanciful tale! He wouldn't be fooled into believing your lies about the Dark Lord's return!" Menacing, cold laughter rang throughout the Atrium as Harry's scar exploded into searing pain, forcing him to his knees. "Ah, Dolores! I hate to disagree with your assessment, especially after you have sewn such helpful doubt regarding my resurgence, but now seems an opportune time to reveal myself." From across the room, a tall figure shrouded in a black cloak stepped into the light. His red eyes seemed to glow with malice against his pale skin as they stared unblinkingly at Dumbledore. "I must admit that when my followers called for me, I thought that perhaps they had completed the task I set for them. While their failure is disappointing, being afforded the opportunity to rid the world of the likes of you will serve as excellent consolation." Voldemort sneered as he methodically moved toward the group, twirling his wand in his hand nonchalantly. Dumbledore took two large steps to place himself between the students and his enemy, while Ginny and Ron attempted to pull Harry to his feet. "It was not wise to come here, Tom," chided Dumbledore, drawing his wand and walking forward. "Your followers have been stymied and your plan has failed." "Don't call me that!" Voldemort hissed, his eyes narrowing in barely contained rage. "I have long since abandoned that name." Without breaking eye contact with Voldemort, Dumbledore addressed the students. The very air around him crackled with magical energy. "You are not to interfere in what is to come. If you are capable of apparating to safety-" "You worry about the lives of those children when your own will be taken from you momentarily? Dumbledore, you are far too predictable!" His cold laugh of derision echoed through the Atrium. "Their fate will be sealed once I finally kill you." Another shot of pain ripped through Harry's forehead. He clutched at his forehead and cried out as his scar felt as though it would split open, falling back to the ground in a heap despite the support of both Weasleys. "I don't think Harry can apparate like this!" shouted Ginny as she stooped beside him, but Dumbledore had already begun conjuring a shield and casting jets of icy blue light. "Cho or Cedric, can you Side-Along him?" "I've never tried it before, much less someone being attacked like that," answered Cedric, his voice filled with uncertainty. "But if it's that or nothing-" Ron swore loudly as a spell from Dumbledore struck the magical fountain and the stone statues sprung to life. "Can the two of you swing apparating with Ginny and Hermione? I'll stay back with Harry and try to get him to a floo!" "Ron, you're injured!" argued Ginny as she tried to pull Harry to his feet. "You all go on ahead and I'll stay with him!" "We're not leaving anyone behind," asserted Cedric, turning to face the chaos of the ensuing duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort. "We'll stay in this defensible position and hold on as best we can." "Good, because I'm almost sure I would splinch us both to death if I tried to Side-Along any of you," agreed Cho, though her voice quavered. "How do we set up our defenses?" "Magical shields and physical barriers," declared Ron. "We're in a corner, so we've got a better position than we had against the Death Eaters, but I think anything he shoots in our direction will be a lot more powerful than what we saw earlier. Cedric and Cho can start conjuring physical objects to absorb unforgivables while the rest of us get some shields up." "Impedimenta!" cried Hermione wildly. A hail of glass shards that had flown past Dumbledore slowed significantly as they flew at the group, giving the two older students the time they needed to hastily conjure large objects to block the glass. The pain radiating through Harry's head subsided as Voldemort's concentration fell to the battle at hand instead of dwelling on his emotions. With a groan, he stood up alongside Ginny and Ron, who were both casting their strongest shields. A shriek of anger emanated from nearby, causing the students to glance back at its source. Umbridge was struggling against Dumbledore's conjured ropes and was livid at her inability to free herself. "Release me at once! I refuse to huddle in the corner with incompetent children!" Cedric finished another object to use as cover, then pointed his wand at her and growled, "Finite incantatem! If you can manage to apparate without a wand, be our guest. Otherwise, it's safer to stay here with us." A crashing wave of flames billowed from Voldemort's wand. Dark blue ice shimmered into being around Dumbledore to shield him from the attack, which heated the air of the entire Atrium in an instant. Umbridge strained to apparate away as Harry tried to concentrate on helping with shields, but her fury and fear had robbed her of the requisite determination required to perform the usually-simple magic. After three failed attempts, she decided to make a run past the cauldrons and toward the nearest floo without even a glance at the six six students. A jet of grey light shot from Voldemort's wand, but deflected off Dumbledore's shield with a loud clang. The light rocketed toward Umbridge, missing her by inches, and exploded into the cauldrons behind her. Several potions burst forth into the air, covering the witch with a sickly yellow concoction and a clear liquid that seemed to sizzle as it coated her. Her long, piercing scream horrified the students, who were still only a few paces away. "What do we do?" asked Hermione, wincing as she looked at the woman. Harry watched from the corner of his eye as a cauldron near her leaked an ooze that resembled dark green tar. As it spilled toward her, bubbles forming in the potion burst at its surface, emitting blue flames as they popped. Despite everything that had occurred in the previous year, Harry didn't have the heart to leave her to whatever unthinkable end the concoction would bring. He pointed his wand at her and yelled out, "Accio Umbridge!" She tumbled across the wet stone floor and back behind the protection of the shields and objects, howling in pain until coming to a halt at Harry's feet. "Insolent brat! How dare you raise a wand at me?!" she snarled, her eyes alight with anger. "I wish I could have used the damn Blood Quill on you!" "Should we stun her?" asked Ron, looking at her with revulsion. "That would be a good idea!" she spat contemptuously. "I'd trade your insignificant lives for mine in an instant, you disgusting little children!" The sound of the centaur statue being blown to pieces by a jet of green light tore Harry's attention back to the duel at hand. Stone debris rained down around the middle of the Atrium and one of the statue's legs careened across the floor and into the dark green potion, which hissed as it dissolved the stone completely. Ginny wasted no more time and fired a stunner at Umbridge without hesitation. The unconscious witch collapsed to the floor as a spell demolished most of the conjured objects they had been using for cover. "Rebuild it!" called Cedric over the ringing in Harry's ears from the explosion. All six did their best to conjure more cover to stack between them and the unfolding chaos. Harry watched Dumbledore swirl his wand, causing the water from the fountain to completely engulf Voldemort in a sphere like the one Dumbledore used against McGonagall the previous term. Voldemort slashed his wand in a fury, jets of orange and deep violet flying from the watery prison. Harry could see bubbles trickling from his mouth as he raged, and hope sprang up that maybe Dumbledore had won. Red eyes locked with green from across the room, and Harry was filled with such unbearable pain that he nearly passed out. His wand slipped from his hand as he screamed aloud, desperately grabbing at his scar as he fell to the hard ground. It was as if some foul creature had coiled around him, constricting his chest so tightly that it was impossible for Harry to know where he ended and it began. It was worse than the Cruciatus, worse than anything he'd ever felt. Harry thought his head would split in two as his mind was flooded by the anger and hate of Voldemort. He opened his eyes without choosing to do so, causing his friends to stumble backward at the sight of the red of his pupils. A horrible smile grew on Harry's face as he called out in a loud voice. "Come now, Dumbledore! You need only kill the boy to be rid of me! Will you not sacrifice for the greater good?" In agony, Harry hoped Dumbledore would take the offer. There was no thought of horcruxes or Voldemort's potential return; the inexhaustible pain clouded everything else out. He could only hope that Dumbledore would do what needed to be done to end his suffering. "HARRY!" cried Ginny, darting forward to his side. "Harry! You've got to fight it!" There was nothing but the pain. Harry strained against the feeling of his head being torn asunder along his scar. From a long way off, he heard Dumbledore's voice, but couldn't catch what he said. He hoped it was a spell that would be enough to destroy Voldemort, no matter what it did to himself. Harry's head cocked to the side much too quickly and robotically as his terrifying smile widened. "Is this the girl to whom Lucius lent one of my possessions? I would have thought it had taught you not to defy my will. Perhaps you would like for the one who saved you in Salazar's chamber to be the one who slays you now? He would be more than willing to oblige! He can end each of you in turn!" "You can beat him, Harry!" Ginny yelled, inches away from Harry's face. "You've got to FIGHT!" The thought of Voldemort using him to kill Ginny released a flood of emotions that had been held back by his pain and fear. Images swirled through his mind, one after another: Ginny and him walking by the lake together, joking with Ron at the Burrow, an exasperated smile from Hermione during a study session, and Cedric and Cho celebrating Hufflepuff's quidditch victory. From deep within, the will to fight and survive bubbled up again in Harry. Not for himself, but for the friends he loved. In an instant, the pressure in his chest melted away. Harry's eyelids fluttered as the world around him faded to black. The last things he saw as he slipped into unconsciousness were warm brown eyes brimming with both fear and hope. |
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