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

192. The Mighty Duel

"So you smashed my prophecy?" Voldemort asked softly, staring at Harry with his pitiless, red eyes. "No, Bella, he's not lying. I see the truth looking at me from within his worthless mind. Months of preparation, months of effort...and my Death Eaters have let Harry Potter thwart me again..."

"Master, I am sorry," Bellatrix sobbed. "I knew not, I was fighting the animagus Black! Master, you should know-"

"Quiet, Bella," Voldemort said dangerously. "I shall deal with you in a moment. Do you think I have entered the Ministry of Magic to hear your snivelling apologies?"

"But Master - he is here - he is below-"

"I have nothing more to say to you, Potter," Voldemort said quietly. "You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Harry did nothing in his own defence. His wand was pointing uselessly at the ground. But the headless golden statue of the wizard in the fountain had sprung alive, leaping from the water and landing on the floor with an echoing crash between Harry and his adversary. The spell merely bounced off the statue.

"What-" Voldemort began in confusion, starting. Then, in nothing more than a whisper, he breathed, "Dumbledore..."

With a flick of his wand, Dumbledore moved Amara's body to the very edge of the room. Voldemort flicked his wand, sending another green jet of light toward Dumbledore. In the whirl of cloaks, Dumbledore disappeared before reappearing behind Voldemort. With a wave of his wand, the remaining three statues in the fountain came to life. A statue of a witch got up and ran at Bellatrix, pinning her to the ground. The goblin and house elf ran toward the fireplaces from which employees apparated and disapparated each day. The centaur ran at Voldemort who quickly disappeared only to reappear behind the fountain. The headless statue thrust Harry back, pinning him to the wall and out of the way.

The golden centaur began to canter around both Voldemort and Dumbledore as Dumbledore remarked, "It was foolish to come here tonight, Tom. The aurors are on their way-"

"By which time I shall be gone, and you dead!" Voldemort spat, sending another killing curse at Dumbledore.

He missed. Dumbledore flicked his wand, sending some kind of powerful force toward Voldemort who had to quickly conjure a shining silver shield out of thin air to deflect it. A deep, elongated gonglike note sounded as they made contact.

"You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore!" Voldemort called, his scarlet eyes narrowed. "Above such brutality, are you?"

"We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom," Dumbledore said calmly, walking closer to his foe. "Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit-"

"There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!" Voldemort snarled.

"You are quite wrong," Dumbledore said lightly, continuing to close in on him. "Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness-"

Voldemort aimed another strike at Dumbledore. The centaur galloped forward, taking the hit and instantly shattered into hundreds of pieces. Waving his wand like a whip, Dumbledore sent a great line of flame which quickly enveloped Voldemort, but just when it looked like he had won, the fire shifted into a serpent, hissing as it turned to face Dumbledore as Voldemort disappeared from the spot.

Voldemort reappeared in the fountain, aiming a strike at Dumbledore just as Fawkes appeared, instantly swallowing the beam and falling as a baby phoenix to the ground. Brandishing his wand in a long, fluid motion, the snake flew high in the air, vanishing in a wisp of smoke. The water in the fountain rose, encasing Voldemort in a cocoon of water. Then, after a few seconds of struggle, he disappeared again, causing the water to fall back into place.

"MASTER!" Bellatrix shrieked.

Harry began to move, assuming it was over, but before he had moved an inch, Dumbledore cried, "Stay where you are, Harry!"

Then, just when Harry had begun to wonder why Dumbledore was so afraid, Harry's scar split open, the pain so great he was certain he had died. He was gone, locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes. Harry felt like he was being suffocated, encapsulated, he was nothing anymore. There was no escape.

From Harry's mouth, a harsh, cold voice said, "Kill me now, Dumbledore. If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy..."

Let the pain stop, Harry thought. Let him kill us...End it, Dumbledore...Death is nothing compared to this. And I'll get to see Sirius and Amara again.

The thought of Sirius and Amara, their smiling faces, their warm, kind smiles, the sound of Amara's surprised laugh as Sirius smeared frosting on her face, the smile Sirius gave each time he saw him, the way Amara's eyes lit up at the sight of him, the memory of Amara's motherly embrace...All of it swelled in his chest, causing the coils binding him to loosen as the creature roared in pain.

The next moment, his eyes opened. There were voices in the hall, too many voices.

"Are you all right, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes," Harry said, shaking so violently he couldn't hold up his head. "Yeah, I'm - where's Voldemort, where - who are all these - what's-"