Next Time Around

The One Plan That Failed

'Expulso!'

'Reducto!'

'Bombarda! Bombarda maxima! Crucio!' Harry cast, finally getting a hit on Quirrell.

Quirrell fell to his knees and grunted. 'You goddamned little nuisance!' He yelled at Harry as the pain flowed through him like burning oil.

The boy in question held the curse steady. 'Yeah...' he said with a sick smirk on his face, 'that hurts, doesn't it?'

With a yell, Quirrell managed to send a petrificus totalus towards Harry, forcing him to drop the Crucio.

With a muffled curse, Harry blocked the petrificus totalus. It was immediately followed by a Cruevo and a Tongue-Tying curse, forcing Harry on the more defensive side.

'Circe,' the boy cursed, 'confundo! Finestra!'

None of his spells hit mark, and even worse, he got a cutting spell straight to the ankle. Glancing down, he spotted it spurting blood. Fantastic. He'd nicked an artery.

Diving behind a pillar, Harry assessed how much blood he'd lost so far. He frowned. Maybe a quarter liter by now.

That was fine. He'd be ok. He didn't have much time left though until Quirrell'd be able to hit him again, so carefully his pointed his wand at the wound.

'Episkey. Ferula.' He cast softly. As an afterthought he added a numbing charm too.

That was all the time he had until the next curse was heading his way. He clumsily blocked it with a 'protego'.

He coughed. This was not as easy a fight as he had intended it to be.

'Ah!' He grunted as a bombarda hit him square in the chest, smacking him into another pillar.

He heard Quirrell mumble a dark levitation charm. 'Oh no...' he whispered.

'Yeah that's right.' His teacher said gleefully. 'A little difficult now, isn't it Potter?'

The spell hit him straight in the chest. Harry couldn't hold in a scream. The spell was made to feel like there were hooks in your muscles holding you up in the air. It was... excruciating. Honestly the only reason it wasn't an Unforgivable Curse was because it wasn't very well known- like so many other torture spells.

Harry thrashed in the air, held pinned tight. 'Let me go and fight with honor, Quirrell.' He said spitefully.

'Oh no,' Quirrell said with a mock-despairingly look on his face. 'I don't think so Potter. We're going to have a lovely time together, just the two of us.'

'I don't think so,' Harry gritted out after a moments thought, as he forced a blast of magic to expel from his body, destroying the Mirror in the process and thereby any access to the Stone.

Quirrell swerved around to look at it. Furiously, he turned back. 'Now look what you've done, Potter! That stone was for the Dark Lord! You really think he's going to simply let that slide?'

'He doesn't have to know about that,' Harry said whilst slowly trying to undo Quirrell's curse. 'If you were to just disappear from the globe, like I'm planning on doing, he'll never know.'

Quirrell glared at Harry. 'Are you trying to let me stray off my path? I am a devout follower, you cockroach! You'd never understand the love I have for my Master! I'd never flee from his reign like that.'

Harry shrugged for so far that was possible underneath the bindings and winced. 'I'd say better fleeing than dead, but I suppose I don't see your side very clearly.'