The Disgraced of the House of Black - A Multi-Character Fanfiction - Part One

110. Torture

"And here he is...the boy you all believed had been my downfall..." Voldemort was saying as he turned toward the gravestone, facing his prisoner. Raising his wand, he shouted, "Crucio!"

Ellis felt his hand jolt convulsively into a fist. Voldemort did not draw it out, however, and soon relinquished the spell. Harry leaned his head back against the gravestone, breathing heavily.

"You see, I think, how foolish it was to suppose that this boy could ever have been stronger than me," Voldemort drawled. "But I want there to be no mistake in anybody's mind. Harry Potter escaped me by a lucky chance. And I am now going to prove my power by killing him, here and now, in front of you all, when there is no Dumbledore to help him, and no mother to die for him. I will give him his chance. He will be allowed to fight, and you will be left in no doubt which is the stronger. Just a little longer, Nagini."

Ellis' eye instantly flicked to where he just noticed a snake, hissing and slithering forward toward her master.

"Unbind him," Voldemort ordered. "And give him his wand."

Wormtail instantly went forward, cutting through the cords with his new, metallic hand. Harry only just caught himself before collapsing. While Wormtail fetched his wand, Harry fixed his eyes on Ellis. Ellis was looking resolutely anywhere but at Harry. A rage such as Harry had never before known rose within him. He was terrified, that much he knew, but to see someone he would have gladly called a friend with hardly a little better acquaintance standing with the Death Eaters, made him feel sicker and angrier than he would have ever believed possible.

Upon sensing Harry's eye, however, Ellis glanced at the ground at Harry's feet. Wormtail returned, thrusting Harry's wand into his hands just as Ellis shifted his gaze back to Voldemort.

"You have been taught how to duel, Harry Potter?" Voldemort inquired. When Harry said nothing, he resumed, "We bow to each other, Harry." He bowed slightly, but not enough to qualify as much of anything. "Come, the niceties must be observed...Dumbledore would like you to show manners...Bow to death, Harry..."

The sickening laughter of the Death Eaters roared around Harry as he stared Voldemort resolutely in the eye.

He stayed standing straight.

"I said bow," Voldemort said, raising his wand slightly. Harry's spine bent forward, seemingly against his will. "Very good. 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, instantly forcing Harry to the ground with a scream. He had been hit by the same spell again. The moment it was over, he rolled over back onto his feet, shaking more than a frightened rabbit. He staggered, losing his balance toward Ellis and Lucius. Lucius instantly shoved him back toward Voldemort.

"A little break, a little pause," he remarked, beginning to move in a circle and forcing Harry to mirror him. "That hurt, didn't it, Harry? You don't want me to do that again, do you?" Harry, who Ellis could now see across from him, remained silent. "I asked you whether you want me to do that again," Voldemort said softly. "Answer me! Imperio!"

Harry's expression contorted to one both of bliss and yet a strange something wrong about it as though some internal battle was being waged in his mind. After a few seconds of struggle, he shouted, "I WON'T!"

"You won't?" Voldemort said in some surprise. "You won't say no? Harry, obedience is a virtue I need to teach you before you die...Perhaps you need another dose of pain..."

Before Voldemort could strike him again, however, Harry suddenly dove out of sight, rolling out of the line of fire and behind the gravestone.

"We are not playing hide-and-seek, Harry," Voldemort said. "You cannot hide from me. Does this mean you are tired of our duel? Does this mean that you would prefer me to finish it now, Harry? Come out, Harry...come out and play, then...it will be quick...it might even be painless...I would not know...I have never died..."

Throwing himself around the edge of the gravestone, Harry shouted, "Expelliarmus!"

"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort cried.

Ellis had expected an explosion, some kind of sign of impact, but instead, the moment the streams of light connected, they became one, neither the green of Voldemort's curse nor the red of Harry's: it was a vibrant gold. Suddenly, as though the ground itself was moving, both lifted into the air, flying above the Death Eaters and landing several feet away.