The Little One with Green Eyes

47: The Showdown

"You are his kidnapper!" Dumbledore retorted, apparating a few feet away from Voldemort just as Voldemort fired a killing curse. The green curse hit the ground where Dumbledore's head had been only a few seconds earlier, leaving an ugly scorch mark in the middle of the grass. "You stole him from his loving family!"

"His loving family murdered him without hesitation!" Voldemort screamed, dodging another spell as it hurtled past his face. "Those monsters killed my child! You're the one who left him with them!"

"Did they?" Dumbledore asked, using a spell to throw some of the rubble at Voldemort's head. "Or did you? How did Harry really die that night?"

Voldemort dropped to the ground as the rubble soared over his head. His eyes were wide as he forced himself to focus on the fight and not the night that his precious child was slaughtered. With a wordless screech of rage, Voldemort summoned all the shards of glass from around his castle and hurled them at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore dodged as much of the shards as he could, but several shards managed to hit him, embedding themselves in his skin. With blood trailing down his face and arms, Dumbledore cast a barrage of different spells towards Voldemort, and Voldemort recognized one of them as the killing curse.

Voldemort stepped out of the path of the killing curse in favor of hitting a hex that caused his knees to buckle. In the time it took Voldemort to regain his footing, Dumbledore had inched close enough to throw a cutting curse that hit its mark in Voldemort's back.

"Everything I do," Dumbledore said as Voldemort rolled out of the way of another green curse. "I do for the Greater Good! I will rescue this world from your tyranny!"

"What are you even talking about?!" Voldemort demanded, kicking Dumbledore in the shin to knock him back. When Dumbledore kneeled over for an instance, Voldemort shot up, ignoring the flames of agony in his back, and cast a killing curse. Too slow. Dumbledore apparated once again, managing to miss the killing curse by a millimeter as he reappeared a meter away from him. "What tyranny?!"

"You wish to corrupt this world with Dark Magic," Dumbledore huffed, wiping the blood that has fallen into his eyes. "I see what you are, Tom Riddle!"

"You are a true hypocrite," Voldemort laughed, summoning a sword. "You speak of corruption but ignore your own wrongdoings. You kidnapped a child from his father, and for what? To fight against a foe that exists only in your head?"

"You are not Harry Potter's father!" Dumbledore said, and the response sent a wave of rage through Voldemort's body. "You murdered that child, admit it! You killed him and brought him back as a weapon!"

Dumbledore's conclusion was so far off, Voldemort had to laugh. But even as he laughed at the stupidity of Dumbledore's assumption, a traitorous voice in the back of his head reminded Voldemort of the night. Voldemort viciously shook his head, throwing the traitorous thought out of his head.

"You cannot defeat him with a wand," came Death's voice from across the clearing. Voldemort had completely forgotten that Death was there. Voldemort slowly nodded his head so that Death knew he heard him. "You must fight him in a different way."

"Admit it, Tom," Dumbledore continued, bringing Voldemort's attention back to him. "Why did you really bring Harry Potter back? Did you think I would hesitate because he was Lily and James' boy?"

Voldemort snarled. "He's my boy!"

With a loud crack, Voldemort apparated to Dumbledore's side, using the man's surprise to swing the sword at his gut. Dumbledore narrowly dodged the weapon, the tip of the sword slicing through the flesh of his side and drawing a small amount of blood. Dumbledore grunted in pain and Voldemort once again swung, this time pulling the sword down on Dumbledore's head.