𝐑𝐄𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒-ℍ𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕪 ℙ𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣❥

𝐃𝐇 𝟑𝟒

Still feigning death on the ground, he understood. Narcissa knew that the only way she would be permitted to enter Hogwarts, and find her son, was as part of the conquering army. She no longer cared whether Voldemort won.

"You see?" screeched Voldemort over the tumult. "Harry Potter is dead by my hand, and no man alive can threaten me now! Watch! Crucio!"

Harry had been expecting it, knew his body would not be allowed to remain unsullied upon the forest floor; it must be subjected to humiliation to prove Voldemort's victory. He was lifted into the air, and it took all his determination to remain limp, yet the pain he expected did not come.

He was thrown once, twice, three times into the air: His glasses flew off and he felt his wand slide a little beneath his robes, but he kept himself floppy and lifeless, and when he fell to the ground for the last time, the clearing echoed with jeers and shrieks of laughter.

"Now," said Voldemort, "we go to the castle, and show them what has become of their hero-"

Emily suddenly threw the two men off her, rising to her feet and running at Voldermort.

Voldermort slashed his wand in the air and Emily was thrown backwards onto the floor, yelling out in pain.

Harry thought every part of his body that told him to get up and protect her, he couldn't.

"YOU KILLED HIM!" Emily screamed, "YOU HAVE TOOK . . . EVERYTHING FROM ME! EVERYTHING!"

"Well, I can give you one thing." Voldermort smirked, "inflectere tenebris custodia"

Emily fell back once again to the floor and when she rose, she was breathing heavily, black veins on her face whilst a black liquid covered her pupils.

"Now then, who shall drag the body? No- Wait-"

There was a fresh outbreak of laughter, and after a few moment Harry felt the ground trembling beneath him.

"You carry him," Voldemort said, "He will be nice and visible in your arms, will he not? Pick up your little friend, Hagrid. And the glasses-put on the glasses-he must be recognizable-"

Someone slammed Harry's glasses onto his face with deliberate force, but the enormous hands that lifted him into the air were exceedingly gentle. Harry could feel Hagrid's arms trembling with the force of his heaving sobs; great tears splashed down upon him as Hagrid cradled Harry in his arms, and Harry did not dare, by movement or word, to intimate to Hagrid that all was not, yet, lost.

"Move," said Voldemort, "Emily, stand beside me. Let us show them that you have made the correct choice."

Emily walked directly beside Voldermort and Hagrid stumbled forward, forcing his way through the close-growing trees, back through the forest.

Branches caught at Harry's hair and robes, but he lay quiescent, his mouth lolling open, his eyes shut, and in the darkness, while the Death Eaters crowed all around them, and while Hagrid sobbed blindly, nobody looked to see whether a pulse beat in the exposed neck of Harry Potter. . . .

The two giants crashed along behind the Death Eaters; Harry could hear trees creaking and falling as they passed; they made so much din that birds rose shrieking into the sky, and even the jeers of the Death Eaters were drowned. The victorious procession marched on toward the open ground, and after a while Harry could tell, by the lightening of the darkness through his closed eyelids, that the trees were beginning to thin.

"BANE!"

Hagrid's unexpected bellow nearly forced Harry's eyes open. "Happy now, are yeh, that yeh didn' fight, yeh cowardly bunch o' nags? Are yeh happy Harry Potter's-d-dead ... ?"