When You're Strange: Never Forget {Harry Potter}

Chapter Fourteen; Defeat.

It's been so long since I've seen this side of me; the fighter. I thought Azkaban had sucked the life from me as it had with the hundreds of prisoners before me. Apparently the Alice I used to know is still here.

And I couldn't be more relieved.

"Tisk, tisk, tisk," He shakes his head, "Is death going to be what it really takes to show you what's right?" He asks, highly amused by my resistance.

Death. I cannot count how many times that word has danced around my brain, or how many times I slipped my tongue around it. It's become an inevitable part of my life. Even from birth I had this terrible omen above my head.

I don't even bat an eyelash at the word 'death'. It alone means nothing.

"And what will you get out of killing me?" I ask, honestly curious as to what good I'll do him once I'm six feet under.

He shakes his head once more, wheezes of laughter escaping his throat, sounding like what I imagine a black cloud would sound like. Goosebumps form on the surface of my flesh.

"More than you can ever imagine," He grins, baring those disgusting teeth for me to see.

The disturbing image of Voldemort grinning like that over my cold corpse bursts in my mind without invitation. I'm not entirely sure if it's my own imagination messing with me, or if he's planting images in my head once again.

I just can't trust anyone; not even myself.

"Then what's taking you so long? I imagine a man of your power could have a weak, teenage girl like myself dead in an instant if you really wanted me gone that badly." I taunt him, hitting him right in the weak spot.

He's been unable to kill Harry Potter for years and it's killing him. I probably shouldn't continue to egg him on, but I can't help myself.

If I'm going to die, I've got to put up a fight first.

As the anger flashes through his eyes, fear jump-starts in my chest. Instinctively, I reach for my wand in my robe pocket, where it should be. My heart continues to race and a cold sweat forms on my skin as I realize my wand is missing.

I rack my brain with possibilities of where it could be. They took my wand away from me in Azkaban, so it's no surprise that it's not on me now. But, my wand has to be in the school somewhere.

"Do you have a death wish, Alice Petrowski?" Voldemort asks, flames igniting beneath each of his words. I flinch as he uses my real last name, binding me with the Death Eaters that were my parents - his loyal followers.

Knowing I'll be dead in an instant if I don't have my wand, I do the first thing my gut tells me to do.

Apparate.

Within milliseconds, I'm transported to the only other place that my wand could be. My old dormitory. The moment my feet hit the ground, I take off running up the stairs placed in the Slytherin common room. I've never witnessed this place so bare before.

I burst through the doors of my dormitory, my pulse beating at a dangerously high pace. I can hear my heart beat echoing through my skull.

Bum-bum.

Bum-bum.

Bum-bum.

My fingers tremble as I tear through my wooden chest at the foot of my bed - still full of my belongings - making it nearly difficult to sort through my things. Giving up on searching, I begin tearing through things. I check every pocket in all my robes or clothes, ripping several of them in the process.