The unusual duo appeared out of thin air with a soft pop, but the unconventional way in which they had simultaneously been captured by Voldemort’s Portkey caused them to land in a heap on top of each other.
“Gerroff!” Draco yelled in frustration, attempting to untangle himself.
Blinking his eyes in the dim gloom, he struggled to look around from beneath Harry’s arm sleeve. They were outside, lying on frozen grass surrounded by fog, or maybe it was mist, so much mist. The smell of the damp, salty air brought back a memory as a small boy visiting his great-aunt who lived in an alcove of the high rock face on a secluded beach. Finally free of each other’s jumbled limbs, the two wizards struggled to their feet, wands at the ready.
“Where are we?” Draco asked in complete disorientation. They appeared to be standing on the edge of a towering cliff, over the side of which sounded like high waves of water crashing over rocks, though it was hard to tell through the shower of sea spray. He looked over to see if Harry knew, and way in which his mouth was set in a grim line against his face seemed to say that he knew exactly where they were.
“Such poor imagination, Tom,” Harry muttered under his breath, then turned to Draco as if acknowledging his presence for the first time. “This is where Voldemort came to as a child to torture the other kids in his Muggle orphanage. Below this cliff is the entrance to a cave in which Dumbledore and I searched for a piece of Voldemort’s soul hidden inside an object the night he died, but it had already been taken by someone else. There were six pieces of his soul hidden inside various objects, making his own broken soul inside his body a seventh piece. Ron, Hermione, and I have been searching for these pieces, and we’ve managed to destroy all of them except for his snake and himself. Once all of the pieces are destroyed, he will be mortal, and he can be killed.”
Attempting to absorb this information, Draco’s face gradually took on an expression of complete disbelief.
“So that’s why that snake seemed to be his third arm,” he said, mostly to himself.
“Yes, and it looks as though he’s led us into a trap,” Harry mused as he peeked again over the edge of the cliff.
Thinking fast, Draco realized something. “He led you into a trap. He won’t be expecting me.”
Before Harry could voice his protest, Draco bolted for the opposite end of the cliff, out of sight through the thick mist. Not a moment too soon, for Draco heard the loud crack of Apparition as someone joined them. He could see the dark shape of a black cloak suddenly appear between him and where he knew Harry to be. Now was his chance.
“The great Harry Potter,” a cold, familiar voice spoke. “Suddenly without the old fool to protect you. But no matter, you will soon have a chance to thank him for leaving you with nothing to help you.”
“I’d hardly call the means to defeat you as nothing,” Harry replied calmly, or at least his voice sounded calm. “Such a shame to destroy such valuable artifacts. Helga Hufflepuff’s cup? Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem? Salazar Slytherin’s locket? So obvious, Tom, as if you were leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.”
“Enough! That filthy Muggle name shall never leave your lips again!” Voldemort cried in a tone as close to panic as he seemed capable of producing. “Goodbye, Harry Potter.”
As Draco listened with his eyes closed to Voldemort’s cruel voice ringing throughout the cliff top as if amplified, he allowed his intense feeling of hatred and revulsion for the snake-faced monster to fill him to the upmost brim. He remembered his mother, every detail of her beautiful face as Voldemort’s killing curse sucked the life out of the eyes that were so like his. He remembered how scared she was, but her fear was let go during that short moment they had shared, and he could see how much she really loved him, her son. His every nerve became saturated in fury that he would never experience his mother’s love again, and he was soon trembling from head to toe. His eyes still closed, he allowed his wand to come up and point in the direction of the source of his agony, the source of so much pain and death for thousands of wizards and witches weaker than him, unable to defend themselves.
Upon Voldemort’s last words, Draco’s eyes snapped open.
“Avada Kedavra!”
A burst of dazzling green light flew from the tip of his wand for the first time and sailed straight into the black cloaked back, which then arched as if struck with a solid object. Draco ran forward to join Harry.
“Avada Kedavra!”
The black cloaked figure recoiled in the opposite direction, having been hit from the front by Harry’s spell. The two young adults now stood side-by-side, and Draco had the chance to see into Voldemort’s face. Their blows were causing him some pain, but hadn’t killed him. Harry and Draco looked at each other and nodded, then looked back at Voldemort.
“AVADA KEDAVRA!”
The two of them cried out the curse in unison, and the sheer force of their combined hatred seemed to shake the ground. The two jets of green light met each other halfway towards their target, and then balled up together. As the luminous orb met Voldemort’s chest, his body was suddenly lifted into the air. With a sonic boom that forced the two boys to duck and cover their ears, the ground began to shake violently. The body then fell back to the ground with a thud, and large cracks in the frozen grass began to snake from beneath it.
“Come on!” Draco roared as the edge of the cliff began to collapse beneath their feet.
He managed to use several large pieces of ground to find enough footing to more solid earth, but Harry was behind him, and not so lucky.
“Malfoy!” he yelled, and Draco turned.
Grabbing wildly at the pieces of earth crumbling in his hands, Harry was slipping downward out of sight. Voldemort’s body had long since tumbled over the edge to meet the tips of the rocks protruding through the misty spray. Throwing himself onto his stomach, Draco threw out his hand to catch Harry’s just before the rest of the disintegrating earth fell away; Harry was now dangling over the newly eroded edge of the cliff.
Just then, a strange black smoke arose from the crashing waves below. There was no fire, there was only sea water beneath Harry’s hanging feet, and this smoke seemed to be one entity, holding itself together as a mass and travelling in a certain direction. Draco stared at it in sudden fright, forgetting for a moment that a person depended on him for their life.
“Oi! Hoist me up!” Harry yelled, unable to see the smoke behind him.
Draco continued to ogle the thing as he struggled to pull up, but Harry had little footing and relied almost entirely on Draco’s strength.
“Uh, uh–” he stuttered as the smoke made a sudden bee-line for them, and Harry twisted around to find the source of Draco’s hesitation.
As soon as Harry had the smoke in sight, he let out a shriek of pain; the black entity had begun to enter his head through his scar. Draco could feel a horrible chill reach him through their linked hands, and felt the sudden impulse to let go, but he held on tighter than ever.
“NOOO!!!” Harry screamed.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Tom Riddle wasn’t dead; his body was merely ruined. His dear Nagini seemingly destroyed, though he didn’t know how, he had only one last tether to life, and it was this boy. Somehow, that fateful night at Godric’s Hollow, a piece of his soul had torn off and been placed into a baby. How could he not know that this had happened? But it was all for the better. He could not be forced to move on as long as this boy’s heart still beats, and he would take the body for himself. He would recover, and become more powerful than ever. And what irony, to use this vessel that was meant to destroy him as his new keeper. The boy’s mind was weak; he would be able to crush it before he became consumed in filthy weaknesses he couldn’t withstand, the emotions that had forced him out before. He must be able to, or shall be forced to wander the earth as only one fourth of a complete soul with no means of recreating his body.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry could feel Tom’s presence overtaking his mind. The evil, maniacal laughter that was echoing around his head was sickening, but becoming familiar. As the smoke continued to enter his body, he felt a longing in his heart for it to join him, for it to become a part of him. No! If Tom grew powerful inside of him, he could overthrow his mind and take over his body completely. Think happy thoughts, think loving thoughts. Tom can’t stand love.
Who was that man I used to know, he rode on a Hippogriff, he was in prison, but I think he died. My friends! I can’t remember their faces. There’s a girl that likes to read. I remember the one that makes jokes all the time, but what’s his name? I remember… red hair… and chocolate brown eyes.
And then a face forced itself through the haze in his mind, the beautiful face of the girl he loved. Ginevra Molly Weasley. Her name was so clear to him now; he couldn’t imagine himself ever forgetting it. He realized he would never see her again, and his heart began to ache. Her face was already growing fuzzy; Tom was taking her away from him. Harry knew what he had to do.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“Potter, snap out of it! Harry!” Draco screamed the name in hopes that Harry would wake up.
After the smoke had forced its way into Harry’s head, both of his eyes had turned entirely black and he went completely limp. Draco continued to struggle to pull him up, unable to reach his wand to levitate him unless he let go with one of his hands. With the dead weight he was attempting to hold up, letting go wasn’t an option.
Suddenly Harry’s head jerked up and looked at Draco eerily through the empty, black expanse where there should have been the whites of his eyes and color.
“Neither can live while the other survives,” he whispered.
“Pull yourself up! I can’t do this alone!” Draco yelled, attempting to ignore the strange words.
Harry continued to keep his gaze locked with Draco’s, making him more uncomfortable by the minute though he couldn’t look away. A single tear slid out of one of Harry’s eyes, oddly clear as it escaped the dark depths.
“Take care of her,” Harry said louder, in a strangled voice.
In that moment, time seemed to stop as Draco searched for Harry in the blackness of his eyes, but there was nothing there. If only he could just pull him up, then everything would be okay.
Harry reached down with some difficulty with his dangling hand, as if each movement were forced against an unseen enemy. Grasping his wand, he brought it back up. Draco’s eyes followed this movement with bated breath, hoping he was wrong, that no one could possibly be that selfless. Harry touched the tip of his wand to the hands clasped around his, and emitted red sparks that burned.
“No!” Draco yelled as he was forced to let go, and Harry fell silently as he closed his blackened eyes, disappearing into the sea spray. Bracing himself for the sound of impact, Draco lay silently with his eyes closed, hardly daring to imagine what state he would find The Chosen One in now. The sound of the crashing waves seemed to have engulfed any sound of a body landing against rocks, and he was somewhat thankful for that.
After what felt like hours, he pulled himself up, swiping at a few tears that had escaped unnoticed down his cheeks. Disapparating on the spot, he appeared just outside the gates of Hogwarts, his heart heavy with the news he would have to deliver. He had a fleeting thought of disappearing to somewhere far away, envisioning what could happen when he returned alone, given his history. But then he remembered Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, the boy who died to save them all, and he held his head a little higher.
Almost immediately, before he could even summon them, he saw a crowd of figures running towards him. The faces of Hermione, Ron, and McGonagall all came into focus in the fog, as well as another figure he couldn’t see the face of running along behind them. One by one, each of their faces took on a spectrum of expressions from panic to shock at the sight of him.
Once he had gained entry, he nearly collapsed onto the ground from mental exhaustion, but he refused to let his weakness become the center of attention. The crowd gathered around him anxiously for news.
“It’s done; Voldemort’s gone,” he said hollowly, unable to fathom anything better to say.
“Where’s Harry?” Hermione squeaked through the hands held over her mouth, her eyes puffy and her face tear-stained.
Taking a breath to answer, Draco closed his eyes and attempted to force the horrifying images from his mind. The breath caught in his throat, and the painful expression on his face seemed to answer her question.
“NO! HARRY!” Hermione screamed, and Draco opened his eyes to see Ron’s arms wrap around her as she sobbed into his chest.
He caught Ron’s eye and braced himself to meet the loathsome look of blame, but the brown eyes so like his sister’s were swimming in tears, and he allowed them to fall shamelessly for his lost friend. Giving Draco a nod before he buried his face into Hermione’s hair, the two of them cried together.
Feeling a hand slide into his, he turned away from the mourners to look with shock into face of the one person he had been most afraid of never seeing again. One never usually returns to tell the tale after having had Voldemort’s claws dug into them. Ginny’s radiant hair set her face aglow with angelic luminescence, the tracks of tears running down her face sparkling in the wandlight.
“I’m… so-glad… you’re… safe,” she choked out as she reached up to touch his face.
Her voice was music to his ears, her touch intoxicating. He hadn’t realized how very close he had been to never feeling her skin on his again, never hearing the sweet sound of her kind words until this moment. The relief was almost too much to bear.
“I tried, I really tried, but I couldn’t. I never wanted–” he stammered around his broken words, unable to finish a thought as he gazed with a somber release into her eyes.
“Shhh, I know.” She whispered as she took her pointer finger and placed it against his lips. Her hand then came around to rest again against his cheek, and he closed his eyes to savor her warm contact.
“Thank you for helping him.”
Grateful for the lack of demand for an explanation, he pulled her into his arms and allowed her to soak his robes with her tears.
Author notes: Thank you so much for reading! Please leave a review!
Next chapter: As Seen Through Greasy Curtains
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