A lot of people seem unhappy about my frequent cliffhangers. Well it got you to review didn't it?
The light snapped off and Harry opened his eyes. Voldemort was staring down at the thing in his hand.
"Hmm..." Harry frowned in mock confusion. "Your wand appears to have turned into a chicken."
The chicken managed to free itself and dropped to the floor. It took a look at the two wizards on either side of it and wisely decided to be elsewhere. Squawking and flapping it scampered through an open door.
“Was it, meant to turn into a chicken?” Harry tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Is this some poultry variant of the killing curse I was not previously aware of? Is that a chicken of death? Or perhaps...” Harry’s hand dipped into his pocket. “Were you looking for... this wand.”
Voldemort’s eyes went wide.
“I mean for god‘s sake mate. Never let a pickpocket hug you.” Harry chuckled. “I mean that‘s just stupid.”
The dark lord’s hand twitched to his pocket.
“Oh look!” Harry drew something else from his robes. “And here‘s your other wand. How did that get in there? Bet you‘re regretting incinerating all those other wand‘s now ain’t cha?”
“Potter you...” Voldemort boiled with anger. “You... you... you...”
“Me. Me. Me.” Harry grinned like a tiger. “The moral of the story Tommy boy is this: Don‘t you EVER mess with a marauder because we can bury you. And we never lose.”
“Potter I will-”
“Shut up.” Harry stabbed his wand forward, keeping the other two safe in his left hand. “Shut your ugly murdering face. Happy, civil, ‘lets all be B.F.F.s‘ time is officially over. Now is the time for the other thing. The bloody hate filled battle that culminates with the killing of you.”
“You think you can win?” Voldemort hissed out through clenched teeth. “Even without a wand I am still the dark lord. I am still more than a match for you.”
“Evens the playing field a bit though doesn‘t it.” Harry cracked his neck first to one side, then another. “So come on snake face. Hit me. Hit me with your best shot.”
The dark lord hissed, his fingers clenching into claws. Then a moment later he exploded into smoke, whisking away through an open door. What the? Harry's magic eye focused through the wall, onto the floor in the next room. On the floor next to a prone body was-
WAND!
Harry's feet moved of their own accord and skidded across the floor to the door. His own wand lashed out.
"Difindo!" The wand on the floor snapped just as the cloud coalesced around it and but Harry was already moving again. His eye making walls and doors meaningless. Another body, another wand! He felt the smoke behind him, catching up.
He rolled as it passed overhead and snarled, "Tempesto!" The cloud convulsed as wind lashed through it but it stayed together, swirling and reforming like ink. Harry dashed along the floor and snapped the wand up from beside the bundle of robes that was all that was left of the victim of an inferi. He skidded to a halt, his eye dancing madly to find any remaining wands... nothing in the prophecy room...
The cloud circled, reeking of malevolence. Harry could almost feel Voldemort doing the same check that he was, using dark magic to find any remaining weapon. The cloud contracted then shot away like a squid. Harry was off and after it in a second, a second more and his eye had found it’s target. The death chamber, a wand rolled into a crack in the floor. Harry pelted through the corridor, the black smoke ahead of him. Too far! Too quick!
Harry threw another tornado ahead of him, kicking up shards of debris but the moment it reached the cloud it was squashed like a frog. The wind going flat in mid air. The smoke disappeared under a door and Harry crashed through it a moment later. The wand! Right there! Voldemort reappeared with a thunderclap and jabbed his hand forward. The wand leapt from the floor and spun towards the dark lord. Harry aimed desperately,
“Ferio!”
There was a crack from the air and splinters clattered on the floor. The dark lord’s hand snapped back like he’d been stung.
“That‘s the last of them snake-face.” Harry panted. Keeping his wand trained on the dark lord he stepped down the steps till he was next to the fluttering arch. He picked the three wands he’d acquired out of his pocket and chucked them through the veil. The dark cloth fluttered for a moment, then went still. “All wand‘s out of play, except for my one. And the only way you‘re getting that is to pry it from my cold dead hands.”
“What an excellent suggestion Mr Potter.”
Harry had just a moments warning before the orb of darkness flew from the dark lord’s hand. Harry spun behind the arch and ducked down.
“Accio!” The bench behind Voldemort shot forward towards his head. The dark lord spun and shattered it with a hissed curse. “Jupitall!” The ball-lightning hissed from Harry’s wand and forced the dark lord to dodge to the side. The orb exploded against the wall, filling the room with sparks. Voldemort spun and cried,
“Garta!”
Harry felt the flagstones beneath his feet disappear and he plummeted into darkness. He jabbed his wand straight up.
“Hammus Missus!” Chain shot up and slammed into the ceiling far above. “Rapellet!” The chain felt like it jerked his arm out of its socket as it pulled him up into the light. As he shot from the ground like a bullet a ball of darkness flew towards him.
Someone not expecting it would have been hit. Someone without a magic eye.
Harry kicked off the edge of the archway and swung out of the way. He let go of the chain and aimed at the dark figure below him.
“Avada Kedavra!” The green light left him stunned but he landed like a cat on the side of the stepped arena. The killing curse blew a hole in the wall but Voldemort was dashing away, disappearing through a doorway. “Come back you slimy coward!” Harry was laughing with bloodlust and raced after him, his eye tracking him through the maze of halls. Harry dashed back through the entrance hall and shot into a long room of desks. Voldemort’s fleeing shadow was just visible at the other end.
“Avada Kedavra!” The nightmare curse sped through the wreckage but Voldemort spun and summoned a desk into it’s path. The explosion filled the air with emerald sparks. Three bolts of lightning thundered through the explosion and Harry threw himself to the side. One of them grazed past his leg and he bit back a cry of pain. A freezing charm numbed the burnt flesh as Harry furiously dashed after the dark lord. As he skidded to a halt in the hall of prophecies the dark lord disappeared. Harry furiously glanced one way then the other, but neither eye could pick up a trace. A wisp of spoke curled around one of the shelves, only to disappear a moment later. Harry cursed, the eye wasn’t so good for incorporeal things. He slowly turned, letting his eyes sweep through the gaps between the shelves. Voldemort was in here somewhere. Harry closed the door and whispered a vicious trap on anyone who tried to get through it. Voldemort wouldn’t be able to break it, some things required a wand.
Harry walked slowly out into the prophecy hall. The glass spheres had not escaped the carnage of the battle, many were left in glittering shards on the marble floor. The little snaps of glass cracked under his boots. Was that smoke? Harry's heart hammered in his chest. Was that a-
FIREBALL! Harry spun and yelled,
"Ferio!" The hex blasted into a spinning orb of flames, exploding it in the air and throwing Harry backwards into a shelf. The wood buckled and Harry fell through backwards in a pile of burning splinters. There was an ominous creaking sound and Harry had to scramble to get out of the way of the collapsing shelves. Orbs of shining smoke bounced off his shoulders and shattered on the floor, their white smoke spilling out and going inky black like swirls of midnight.
Harry's eye swirled and he just caught a glimpse of the dark robed figure before he dissolved again. Harry picked himself up and held himself at readiness. This was like a bloody shootout, it was all about who was quicker to the draw. Unfortunately Voldemort didn't actually have to draw... The air moved, Harry moved faster.
"Symplegades!" Voldemort appeared out of nowhere but Harry had already cast his spell. The shelves crashed together as if drawn by magnets. The dark lord's shadowy form was trapped between them. Before Harry could cast another spell the shelves exploded outwards, Voldemort stepping out wreathed in flames. He raised his hands, about to become smoke again. Harry stabbed his wand out again.
"Tartrate!" It was a wild stab in the dark. The charm was used to make liquids into jelly. Voldemort stumbled, his form blurring a moment but not turning to smoke. "Avada Kedavra!"
The dark lord threw his hand forward and a slab of the marble floor was thrown into the air to catch the curse. Voldemort hissed and the fire behind him leapt up into a column of flame, curling and splitting into a glowing red snaked head. The serpent roared and bit forward, it's teeth dripping with molten venom.
"Excalabus!" Harry slashed through the burning apparition but his shining sword slipped through it like water, leaving not a scratch. The snake struck forward like a viper and Harry dropped to the floor, his eyebrows charring off his face. "Ardor-Algidus!" Harry yelled the flame freezing charm and leapt up into the hellfire monster. He stabbed his wand at the shadow beyond the inferno and yelled the killing curse again. The redness flashed to green and Harry could see the dark lord's shocked expression as he had to dodge a spell from within his own creation.
Harry didn't give him an inch, he threw himself forward, shot another curse at his off balance enemy and found a cloud of black knives flying in his face. He dropped to the floor and heard them clatter behind him. He threw himself to the side but the knives jerked to follow him. He grabbed a plank of shelf from the floor and spun it in front of him, hearing the heavy thunk of the blades impacting the wood. Harry spun to face the dark lord and banished the knives towards him. Voldemort waved his hand distastefully and the knives melted into smoke.
The dark lord was panting, breath hissing in and out through his lipless mouth.
"You cannot win." He hissed, anger and arrogance battling for prominence in his voice. "You must realize that YOU CANNOT WIN!"
"Shut. Up. Wanker." Harry gasped through heavy breaths.
"You are just extending your suffering!"
"Isn't that what life is all about?" Harry drew himself up, grinning. "And besides- Ferio!" The spell caught the dark lord by surprise, smacking into his shoulder with a bone splintering crack. Voldemort roared and Harry felt the floor under his feet buckle and rumble. He flipped backwards as the ground where he had been standing became a swirling quicksand pit, ready to draw him down into it's depths. Harry danced backwards as stone upon stone became sucking death. His feet hit a shelf and he clambered up like a spider. The shelf lurched as it began to sink into the stone. Harry spun, holding on with one hand and leapt to another towering shelf just before the one he had been standing on was obliterated in a cloud of dark lightning.
It wasn't safe up here. Harry clambered to the top and dashed along the slanting wood. Being up here made him too much of a target. Harry's eye spun to find the dark lord and he almost fell off in shock as he found Voldemort hovering up from the ground with murder in his eyes. The bastard could fly!
"Tempesto!" Harry's tornado sprung out of nowhere, drawing sand from the floor and filling the air with yellow-white grains. Harry called another twister, and another. The dark lord disappeared in the sandstorm. Disappeared to normal eyes that is. "Avada Kedavra!" Harry shot through the murk at the shadow in the air and dashed away along the top of his shelf, he leapt across to the next one just before a lightning bolt flashed through the air behind him. The dark lord could not see him in all this but he could see where his spells were coming from. Only a fool attacked and stayed in the same place... unless...
"Acerbus cuspis!" Harry called the pain spears, flashing out in their slow fan. He twisted them in the air like a snake to strike the dark lord from both sides. He was rewarded with a howl of pain as one of the shining bolts struck home. Harry cast again but the dark lord summoned a silver shield. "Motus!" Harry didn't even have to think. He just struck out and made the dread orb vibrate with unbearable noise. He twisted to find the resonance but Voldemort was slyer than Michelson and cancelled the orb. Harry turned to run but the dark lord was quicker and lightning caught his arm, burning like hell. Harry lost his footing and dropped off the side of the teetering shelf.
Harry spun his tornado and blew himself up into the air again, shooting like a rag-doll through the sandstorm until his fingers caught the edge of a shelf and he held on for dear life. He pulled himself up and tried to stand, his eye spinning to find the dark lord. There he was, but what-
"Ulkaa Avaskanda!" The shrill cold voice of the dark lord shouted out of the storm, then. "Finite Syrtis!"
The sand vanished like mist but Harry had bigger problems. He leapt into the air as rocks the size of cars obliterated the shelves behind him. His feet hit another shelf but it was already shattering and falling. Harry's wand whipped out and a hook impacted into the ceiling. Harry swung out over the expanse of nothingness. A boulder came hurtling out of nowhere but Harry still had his storm.
The wind pulled him out of the path of the meteor with a whisk of his wand and he let go of the chain, catapulting himself onto a standing shelf. He leapt again and saw two boulders hurtling towards him. His wand flashed out again and one rock veered into the path of the other, shattering them both to fragments. Harry felt the wood beneath him shift again and this time let it carry him down a moment before leaping off and dropping to another collapsing shelf, his eye found firm footing and he jumped again as the last shelf collapsed into splinters.
Harry dropped to the top of a pile of wreckage. A pile three times as tall as he was and full of broken wood, shattered glass and the smouldering remains of spent boulders. Harry waited while the last of the crashing and clattering stopped, then folded his arms.
Voldemort was hovering in the air level with Harry. The dark lord slowly floated down to the floor (which Harry idly noted was back to being marble) and settled back down onto his feet. Harry watched with a crooked eyebrow. Voldemort's teeth clenched in rage as he stared up at Harry standing on his pedestal of ruin.
"What are you?" Voldemort sneered through his teeth. "You should not be alive! No human should be alive!"
"What makes you think I'm human snake face?" Harry smiled evilly. "Aren't you the one who's always saying we're better than mere mortals?"
"DO NOT MOCK ME!"
"But you make it so easy!" Harry put his hands on his hips. "Anyway, it's hard not to mock you when I'm winning!"
"YOU ARE NOT WINNING!"
"I'm not loosing." Harry grinned. The dark lord's fists clenched but he said nothing. Harry smiled. "Of course, you could surrender."
"Surrender?" Voldemort spat the word. "Surrender to you!?"
"Hey mate, you're the one that wants to live forever." Harry cracked his knuckles. "You won't live forever if you surrender but I can guarantee you'll live longer than if you keep fighting. Not much longer but still..."
"I ask again Mr Potter!" Voldemort raised an accusing finger. "What are you?"
"Me? I'm the runner of the roofs at night." Harry laughed. "The hero of the blood war. The only survivor of the torrent of ages and the Hogwarts triwizard champion."
"But-"
"I'm the mirror-blade," Harry spread his arms wide. "Serpent's bane and wolf-slayer. I'm the buccaneer of the Spirit of Njordr.”
“You-”
“And, to my distress, I am Dumbledore's little changeling child.”
“What-”
“But that doesn't matter because I'm also a marauder! Invincible cutthroat bastard and badass extraordinaire! I. Am. Harry. Potter! The choosing one!" Harry trained his wand on the dark lord, his face set in unshakable resolve. "That is why you should surrender. Right now. Or I swear on this pile of prophecy that I will burn you from this world."
Voldemort took an involuntary step backwards, faltering before Harry's stare.
"Last chance." Harry snarled. Voldemort straightened up, his eyes burning red.
"Never." The dark lords hands clenched to fists. "I will never surrender to a half blood boy like you."
"Whatever," Harry grinned. "In that case... suck it bitch! Depulso!" Harry jammed his wand straight down and the pile of wreckage exploded out in all directions, the wood becoming deadly splinters and the rock singing out in razor sharp shards. The dark lord threw up a silver shield but Harry was already on the ground. With a flick of his wand the shield screeched and Voldemort threw it away from him as if it was red hot. Harry rolled to the side to dodge a spray of black orbs and threw his wand up. "Avada Kedavra!"
The dark lord fled through a door and Harry rushed to follow, casting death curses before him. Harry vaulted a desk and skidded through a door only to find his body rising into the air. A lightning bolt grazed his shoulder and Harry was spun around like a top. Planets were floating in this room! There must be some spell screwing with gravity!
Harry shot a hook at Saturn and pulled himself out of the way just before another lightning bolt flashed through the air. Harry jabbed his wand at the sun and yelled,
"Confringo!" The ball of plasma exploded but Harry cast another flame-freezing charm and pushed off Saturn directly into the inferno. From behind the cover of flame Harry shot a killing curse at the dark lord but had to twist in the air to stop his head being taken off by a dark blade flickering through the air. He had used the flame-cover trick one too many times. Well lets try another.
"Esurio Esurio!" Harry aimed at the spinning red planet next to Voldemort. It grew a gaping mouth and snapped angrily at the dark lord, who blew it into fragments but Harry had already trained his wand back on the dark lord. "Avada Kedavra!"
Voldemort swung a chunk of planet into the path of the spell and fled, pushing open a door Harry hadn't even seen. He pushed off the wall and floated weightlessly after him. As soon as he reached the door he dropped to the floor again and raced through, skidding to a stop when he saw where he was.
In total contrast to the rest of the department this room was a sort of zoo. Cages full of creatures filled the room up to the ceiling and were stacked in a pile in the middle. Some looked normal, some... not so much. Harry shuddered as his eye flickered over a mutated blob of flesh with what he sincerely hoped was not a human arm coming out of it. His magic eye swirled in it's socket, trying to get a fix on Voldemort but all the life and movement in the way made it tricky.
Harry tried to trace out the room. Long, not so wide... The door at the other end was closed. That meant that Voldemort was either at the wall behind one of the cages at the side or crouched down behind one of the ones in the middle. Harry grinned,
"Alohomora!" He pointed his wand at the pile of cages in the center and all their bars sprung open. Creatures scattered in every direction. Something that looked like a mutant wolf made a starved leap at the cages to the left and was thrown back by a spell. There! Harry's wand was trained there in a moment. "Confringo!" The hex blasted the cage out of the way, revealing Voldemort's grey skin. "Avada K-" Harry had to break off the curse to duck behind a desk as more orbs of darkness rained through the air. Harry heard a door slam open and leapt up from where he was crouched. He dashed to the door and swung through, his wand out.
The death chamber! Back here! Harry saw Voldemort just reaching the door at the other side of the dimly lit room and aimed his wand.
"Colloportus!" The door squelched and glowed red. Harry spun and locked the other doors too. In a moment he had his wand trained back on the dark lord. Voldemort was just staring at him from the other side of the vast room, his lips contoured into a sneer. He clearly knew he could break the poxy locking spell, but doing so would give Harry the moment he needed to kill him. Harry tried to keep his breath even as he spoke, "Got you. No more running."
"Then you have signed your own death warrant." Voldemort slowly stepped down the side of the chamber.
"I doubt that." Harry mirrored the dark lord and slowly walked down the steps. "I rarely sign things."
"I will cast you through the veil myself."
"What...ever." Harry shrugged. "I've had enough of your self important threats. Time for the showdown. Let's end this."
"Nothing would please me more Mr Potter!" Voldemort reached the bottom of the room. Harry was just a step behind him. They stared at each other from opposite sides of the pedestal that held the arch of the veil. Voldemort's lip curled up in a sneer. "If I had my wand you would have died long ago."
"That would be why I nicked it." Harry chuckled. "And anyway... Lumos!" Harry jammed his wand towards Voldemort and the ray cut through the dimness like a spotlight. Voldemort threw his hands up to protect his eyes. “Avada Kedavra!"
The dark lord dropped to the floor, letting the spell pass over his head and jabbed his arm up at the ceiling. The shadows above them became alive, a writhing cauldron of darkness. Harry dodged wildly as a tentacle of night shot down and tried to wrap itself around him. Harry felt another grab his leg.
"Excalabus!" The tentacle was sheered off but Harry had been thrown to the floor and had to roll as bolts of thunder slammed into the flagstones where he had been lying. A ball of blackness caught the side of his leg, simply obliterating flesh and skin. Harry screamed and pulled himself to his feet, jumping out of the way of another tentacle. He had to get rid of that thing! He couldn't fight it and the dark lord at the same time! But how to kill something like that... How else? Harry jabbed his wand at the ceiling. "Avada Kedavra!" The green spell impacted the dark creature and it wailed in pain, it's tentacles going limp.
Harry spun back to face Voldemort just in time for an black orb to take a chunk out of his shoulder. He was bleeding too much. Had to end this! The dark lord raised his hand for another bolt of lightning. Harry tore two flagstones from the ground and hurled them in the path of the spell, one after the other. The first was blown to splinters but the second, hidden by the cloud of rubble, shot through like a marble discus and crashed with a hideous crunch into Voldemort's ribcage.
The dark lord was thrown back, his arm coming up to cradle his injured chest. Harry pressed his advantage and Voldemort was driven back by spell after spell. The dark lord was pushed onto to the steps and stumbled back, lying prone against the stone. He seemed exhausted.
"Avada Ke-"
“Fulgar Fletch!” The dark lord's hand swung up! It had been a trick! Harry saw a cloud of black blades erupt out of nothing and sail towards him. He had no protection! He could not dodge! There was just one chance...
"Protego!" Harry called out desperately and was driven back as the knives clattered against his weak shield. Harry let it go and stepped forward, only to have his knees buckle and drop him on the floor. What the? Harry tried to stand but his legs wouldn't move. Was this some sort of curse? Harry looked down and saw the reason.
There was a knife embedded to the hilt in his stomach. Two more in his leg. Draining blood down his thigh and pooling on the floor.
"Bloody shield...." Harry's arms dropped down, suddenly too weak. His wand rolled away on the dark stone. He hadn't felt the knifes go in, adrenalin perhaps, but he felt it now. Pain and fire raging out from the hole in his abdomen. "Bloody... Shield.... And I was doing so well..."
"Yes Mr Potter you were." The dark lord picked himself up from the steps and dusted his robes off. Now that he had won the friendly, almost fatherly, tone was back. "I applaud you."
"I could have beaten you ya know." Harry coughed weakly and saw droplets of blood spray from his mouth. "The very first spell I threw. Back when I jumped the count. Back when you had the fake wand. If you'd have just tried to shield like any normal wizard... I could have won on the first spell. That was... that was the plan."
"It was a good plan." Voldemort must have seen no reason to be angry now that he had won. "Against a normal wizard it would have no doubt worked."
"Damn it." Harry raised his hand to spread his fingers around the knife blade in his stomach, but he couldn't stop the blood. His life was draining out onto the floor. The ones in his leg would maim him. The one in his stomach meant he was dead.
"Do you have any last words my beloved enemy?" Voldemort asked calmly. "I did not hear any satisfactory ones from Dumbledore. Anything?"
"Can't think of anything..." Dark dots swam before Harry's eyes. He had failed. "Are my friends still watching?"
"Oh yes." Voldemort nodded. "I would not have the wizarding public miss this event."
"Then my last words are... keep fighting." Harry raised his eyes to meet Voldemort's. "Keep fighting him."
"Not very original." The dark lord shrugged. "But better than Dumbledore's."
"And..." Blood was pooling beneath Harry's legs. "And tell Thea I tried."
"An admirable sentiment."
"That's..." Darkness was closing in on Harry. "That's all I got."
"Very well." Voldemort raised his hand. "I shall miss you. My... interesting opponent." Voldemort opened his mouth to speak the last words Harry would ever hear.
"Wait." Harry whispered, he had no strength to speak normally. "I've thought of some better last words."
"Really?" Voldemort asked, amused. "And?"
"The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord will be born as the seventh month dies." Harry's whispered words rang out in the quiet room. "Born to those who... those who..."
"Thrice defied him." Harry licked his lips, his voice was barely coming out now. "And the dark lord will mark... will mark him..."
"Yes? What then?" Voldemort leant close in to listen.
"Mark him as his equal..." Harry's lips were barely moving, his words just disturbances in the air. "But the dark... the dark..."
"Yes..." Voldemort put his hands on Harry's shoulders, steadying him. "Please finish it!"
"The dark lord, shall never..." Harry's eyes were closed. "Shall never learn."
"What?" Voldemort's eyes narrowed to slits.
"The dark lord... shall never learn."
"What did you say?"
"I said you never bloody learn!" Harry's eyes flicked open. "Do you?"
Powered by the last gasp of dying rage Harry pulled the knife from his flesh and drove it into Voldemort's neck. Harry fell backwards as blood fountained from his stomach and his eyes clouded black. As he slipped away and his heart stopped beating all he could hear was the rustling of the veil.
Cliff. Hanging. Again. I know. Sorry. Review anyway.
Write a Review Harry Potter and the Other Path: Harry Potter and the Changeling Child: Chapter 10: Thunderdome
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