Chapter Forty Seven
Harry couldn't breathe. Fear was gripping at his throat like cold hands squeezing the life out of him, his fingers were clenched so tightly around his wand the circulation was failing. Voldemort smiled. Ron made a noise that could have been a whimper or a gag. Harry didn't blame him for either.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said eventually.
Voldemort creased his forehead; Harry suspected if he'd had eyebrows on that ghastly snake face of his, they would now be raised. "Really," he said pleasantly. "You don't know anything at all about parallel universes, alternate realities?"
Harry licked his lips. "Why would I?"
"Yeah," said Ron, sloshing forward a step against the returning waters, holding his wand up bravely. "You're the ones who emptied the file on Dimensional Hotspots."
Harry couldn't help but let his head drop a little in defeat. Good old Ron, always putting his foot in it. But Voldemort didn't seem surprised that he knew about the Hotspots, he just smiled again.
"Why yes we did," he agreed. "But there wasn't really much in that file my Seers hadn't told me already, but Harry here..." He extended his hand gracefully. "Well Harry here has been to another reality, haven't you?"
Harry swallowed, trying to keep his face blank. "That's absurd," he said, letting a small laugh escape. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"So," said Voldemort tilting his head. "You didn't visit a parallel world last November? Hm?" He shrugged his shoulders as if what he was saying was only mildly interesting. "I wonder in that case what you were doing those few days you were missing? Perhaps your friend here knows."
He gave Ron an easy smile, then flicked his wand and send him crashing to the floor, holding him under the rushing waters.
"Stop!" yelled Harry frantic, dropping to his knees to try and pull Ron up. "Stop it you'll kill him!"
Voldemort held his gaze for a moment. "I have no wish to," he said softly.
Harry pulled at Ron again as he thrashed under the currents, but he wasn't going anywhere. "Okay," said Harry. "Okay, OKAY! I went to another universe, let him go, please!"
Instantly, Ron sprung back up to the surface, coughing up water and gasping for air.
"There," said Voldemort. "That wasn't so bad was it?" Ron tried to say something in response but just ended up choking again. Harry waked him on the back and glared at Voldemort.
"What do you want to know?" he demanded. "I sent myself there by accident, and then my friends in this world brought me back. That's it."
Voldemort chuckled softly. "Yes," he said genially. "I'm sure that is it, in its entirety. But why don't you join me for a little further discussion anyway? Satisfy my curiosity?"
Harry ground his teeth. "Fine," he snapped. "But Ron stays here, this is between you and me."
"Oh," said Voldemort reproachfully. "But you're so much more cooperative when your friends are around. I think he should stick with us."
Harry opened his mouth, but he realised they were no longer standing in the Ministry's archives. He and Ron stumbled as the pressure from the charging waters was suddenly removed, and he looked around at all the Death Eaters staring at him from around Courtroom Ten. His stomach sank. There were right back in the snake pit.
At least it was just them, he consoled himself as he helped Ron to stand. At least the others had got away.
"You see," said Voldemort, strolling around as a handful of Death Eaters lunged forward to take the boys' wands and restrain them. "I've been a little busy, peering into the future with my very talented Seers. They are so useful to have around, don't you find?"
Harry just glowered, but Voldemort took that as enough of a response.
"They've come across a wonderful little prophecy which to begin with I was certain was about you and I."
He looked as if he was going to carry on, but at that moment two figures were thrown through the watery barrier at the entrance to the courtroom. Harry didn't think his heart could sink further, but it did. Hermione and Draco lay panting and bound on the floor as Lucius strode through the waters, which were already lowered to just below the door frame. He dried himself with the flick of a wand, but left his son and Hermione to drip.
The blonde woman who Harry now knew to be Draco's mother Narcissa cried out but stayed stood where she was, near the back of the room. No one held her there, but Harry had the feeling there would be several people ready to stop her if she tried to get in Lucius', or more importantly Lord Voldemort's, way.
"Ah!" said Voldemort. "Excellent work Lucius."
"Thank you my Lord," he said stiffly. He looked especially irked, and his eyes kept flicking towards his son. Harry's insides squirmed uneasily.
"I was just telling young Potter here about the prophecy," then he laughed, as if someone had delivered a punch line. "I do apologise," he said, addressing his followers before looking once again to Harry. "I mean of course Potter, the elder. You are not the youngest of your family anymore."
Harry pulled against the men restraining him but they didn't budge. "If you're talking about the prophecy," he growled instead. "That says I'm the heir of Gryffindor, and you the heir of Slytherin, then I'm way ahead of you, it's old news."
Voldemort stared at Harry, and he quickly wished he'd kept his mouth shut. It obviously wasn't the same prophecy. "Well," said the Dark Lord. "Well, well. That is interesting. I take it you learnt that on you little trip last year." Harry said nothing, but Voldemort looked pleased anyway.
"Trixy?" he called out. "Would you be so kind?"
One of the robed figures stepped out of the crowd, and lowered her hood once she reached the central well. She was a spindly, willowy girl, who could have been any age between fifteen and forty, Harry just couldn't tell. Her blonde, wavy hair was thin and hung limply beside her long, vacant face. She was staring into the middle distance, as if she couldn't see a single other person in the room.
"He who misplaces himself," she began reciting in a trembling voice. "Shall hold the key, and he shall bring light and power and control to all he sees, all he can imagine. And with great force and acumen he will be the instrument of unity, and the king of all will rule."
Once she was done she lifted her hood once again, then melted back into the throng.
"Ah," said Harry. "That's not the one I heard."
"But you see the problem don't you?" asked Voldemort, as if he were teaching a class at Hogwarts. "When my visionaries relayed this prophecy, and we confirmed with the Ministry's prophecy catalogue that it had come into effect now, this very day, I assumed it had to be you. You were the one who travelled across the boundaries of the worlds last year. But you...you're still you, aren't you? You haven't swapped, this is your world." He folded his hands together. "Your sister on the other hand-"
"How did you know that?" snapped Draco, struggling to sit upright. "How did you know Harry crossed over last year."
"Be quiet," hissed Lucius, aiming a kick at him and earning another whine from Narcissa, but Voldemort held up his hand.
"I know a great deal Master Malfoy," he said, looking at the boy curiously. Harry begged Draco to shut up before Voldemort tortured him and Hermione like he'd already done to Ron. "But your question goes someway to confirming it further for me. How, may I ask, do you know Potter left this reality for another?"
"Because that's where this boy is from," spat Lucius, and Harry's insides turned to ice. He stopped struggling against the Death Eaters holding him.
"No," he breathed.
"Lucius?" asked Voldemort.
"The girl may be from the second reality," explained Lucius, his voice full of malice. "But so is this Draco. He is not my son."
The room went very still. Voldemort regarded Draco with new and delighted interest, whilst Draco glared back, chin in the air. Hermione turned her head between the two of them, horror clear on her face. Harry guessed she was thinking the same as him; Voldemort didn't want Harry like he said, but he didn't want Sarah either, she'd been a last resort. The prophecy was about Draco.
"W-what?" said Narcissa, taking a step forward, but no one paid her any attention. Voldemort was drifting towards Draco, oblivious to all else.
"'He who misplaces himself'", he quoted again, his wicked mouth curling into a real grin. "My, my. What a turn of events."
"What do you want with him then!" lashed out Hermione, also awkwardly moving to lean on her knees.
"Hermione-" began Draco, frightened, but Hermione ploughed on.
"She said 'the king of all will rule', rule what?" Her eyes blazed and Harry felt Ron struggling against his captors. It seemed they'd learnt from last time though and already gagged him. He gave a good go at shouting something out anyway.
"Hermione," hissed Draco again, pleading. "Leave it, I can handle-"
"He's only been here half a day," she shouted, cutting him off. "What do you want from him? He can't make you be the king, he can't hand over whatever power he's supposed to have, he just landed here. So how about you go find your own alternate reality to lord over and leave him alone!"
Voldemort looked at Draco, then at Lucius, then at Hermione. "Crucio," he whispered.
Hermione smacked into the ground, flailing and screaming in agony. "NO!" screamed back the joint voice of Harry, Draco and a muffled up Ron. Hermione continued to writhe, and Voldemort turned to Draco.
"Will you talk to me now?"
"I never said I wouldn't!" cried Draco, scrambling forward on his knees, his hands still behind his back. "I don't care, let her go, I'll tell you everything!"
Voldemort seemed to consider this, then abruptly Hermione stopped screaming. She crumpled where she lay on the ground, legs curling into her body as she shook and air shuddered in and out of her lungs. "Draco," she uttered, her voice cracking. "Don't...tell him anything."
Voldemort laughed, good and hearty, before flinging Hermione across the room, smacking her against the wooden railings then letting her fall to the floor, unmoving.
"Hermione!" cried Draco, and Harry strained against the hands on his arms, but they yanked him back without pause. Voldemort lurched forward and seized Draco by the jaw. Harry saw Narcissa scuttle forward another couple of steps.
"How does it work?"
Even from across the room Harry saw Draco's eyes widen. "I..." he stammered. "I don't..." Voldemort slowly raised his wand, pointing it at Hermione.
"The History of Magic classroom!" yelled out Harry. There was a painful moment where Voldemort's arm just hovered, until finally he turned.
"Ah, Mr Potter," he said happily. "What was that?"
"I sent myself through a Dimensional Hotspot by accident, in the old History of Magic classroom," he said, breathing hard. Every pair of eyes in the room was on him. Except for one.
"I was angry, I was casting spells and wrecking the room, I only had one thought in my head."
"Which was?" asked Voldemort, gliding away from Draco and towards Harry. Good, Harry thought, that's it forget about them, come to me.
"I," he said, a lump in his throat. "I was wishing, begging, praying with all I had...that Sirius had remained my parents' Secret Keeper rather than hand the job over to Wormtail." Pettigrew flinched from his position near the back of the room. He never was one to be on the front line.
"Ah," said Voldemort sadly. "But without Wormtail's loyal service, I never would have found you at Hallowe'en, all those years ago."
Harry really yanked against the hands holding him, so much so they even slipped a bit. "You son of a-"
"So am I to assume," Voldemort carried on, waltzing around the room like a lecturer again. "That because you wished it so hard, right by the portal, with all that magic in the air...you propelled yourself there. Of your own sheer will?"
It was Harry's turn to glare. "I guess so," he said through clenched teeth.
Voldemort's eyes lazily roamed over Harry's features. "Didn't anyone ever tell you, be careful what you wish for?"
And then it was Harry's turn to laugh. Hard. Ron stared at him as if he'd lost his mind. "And obviously your Seers never told you what happened over there, did they? Because I destroyed you, again!"
Voldemort stiffened, and Harry knew he was right. "Yeah," he goaded, "I toasted your sorry hide, gave that other Harry a nice lightning bolt scar, just like this one."
Voldemort flashed his wand, and Harry was on the floor, flung from his captor's hands screaming unyieldingly as fire tore across his body. He wasn't sorry though, even as the tears streamed down his face and he heard people wailing his name. He wasn't sorry because he deserved this, he'd caused all this mess and seen far too many other people suffer for it. This was his pain to own.
And then it was over, and he trembled on the floor, staring at the imperfections in the wooden boards. "Don't..." he grunted. "You want to know. How I got back?"
He couldn't raise his eyes to see where Voldemort was or what he was doing, but after a moment he felt his robes swish not too far from his face.
"Explain," he said.
"Dumbledore," Harry groaned, his face mashed into the floor for the second time that night. "Charmed a letter, sent it after me. Pulled me back."
He felt Voldemort's steps thump towards him. "That's it?" he cried. "You seriously expect me to believe you accidentally landed there, then someone else, him, threw you a lifeline to get home!"
Harry laughed. It wasn't quite as impressive as his earlier effort. "I'm sorry to disappoint."
He knew it was dangerous to taunt the most evil wizard that ever lived, but exhaustion was playing a considerable part in diminishing his reason, and as a result he was finding the whole thing vastly amusing.
Voldemort did not respond with torture again like Harry assumed he would. He just cleared his throat. "And how do you explain young Master Malfoy's transformation, and the appearance of your sister?"
"We were just sat there," cried out Draco, and Harry winced. He wanted to talk, he wanted all the attention on him. But he didn't have the exact answers, and Draco had a little more than that so he pressed on while Harry dithered.
"Shut up," Harry whispered, but no one heard, least of all Draco.
"We were just in the classroom, the same one Harry said," Draco shouted, pulling Voldemort further away from Harry. "Then a lightning storm blew up in an instant, the window shattered, and we were here." Harry shifted his head, and could see Draco was sat up on his knees, his hair plastered to his head, his face set.
"I went where I was needed," Draco said, resolute. "Harry came to my world because he knew how to defeat you, my Voldemort, and I," his voice broke. "I...I came back to his world. Because I knew what it meant to have you people in my school. To...let you people in my home, then to fight back, to give everything to try and make it right."
Voldemort turned to Lucius. "What kind of boy is it you have here?"
Lucius stiffened as Narcissa crept forwards again. The only pair of eyes that had not flinched from her son, that didn't even acknowledge her husband or her lord. She was at the front of the crowd now.
"You sound fanatical," said Voldemort to Draco, taking a turn about the room again. "You make it sound like destiny flung you where you were most desired."
"Yeah," said Draco with a grin. "So how about you find yourself a world full of angry mobs and do us all a favour." Harry wasn't even shocked when Voldemort unleashed the Cruciatus Curse on his friend, but it didn't stop him from crying out as Draco jerked in pain, screaming like something unhinged.
"No!" cried Narcissa, flinging herself on her suffering boy. "No, no stop it!" The curse ended, and she cradled her son. "He'll tell you my Lord, you don't need to resort to such cruel methods!"
"What my wife means," said Lucius hastily stepping forward. "Is that the boy will cooperate, he would be a fool not to."
"I see," panted Draco. "Only one fool here." He was looking at Lucius. Harry decided to take the conversation back to himself.
"We can't tell you a spell to jump realities, if that's what you want?" he said from the floor. He was still too weak to stand from the torture curse, but the guards hadn't restrained him again either.
Voldemort bared down on him. "What about the spell that pulled you home then?" he demanded. Harry rubbed his face in an attempt to bring some life back into it.
"It only worked because I had already crossed over. There are only ways to bring people back, not send them over."
Voldemort smirked. "That you know of."
"Exactly," agreed Harry. "So my suggestion would be to go to Hogwarts and get really mad in that classroom, and see what happens."
Voldemort sighed. "And this is all the information I'm to expect from you boys, little more than hearsay and guesses?"
"Sorry," said Draco, not sounding sorry at all. He was still resting against his mother's embrace; Lucius did not look impressed with the situation.
"Well then," announced Voldemort, his tone cheerful once again. "Then I think your work is done here ladies and gentlemen. We have much we can progress with, I still hold every confidence we can bend this prophecy to my will, all is not lost." He turned back to Draco and Narcissa. "All that remains are a few loose ends."
Narcissa stared at her Lord, and blinked. "What?" she stammered.
"I alone," growled Voldemort. "Shall rule. I alone shall see the realisation of this prophecy, and I will not risk anyone else standing in my way. Certainly not this boy."
Harry's heart hammered; Voldemort was going to kill Draco. He glanced around desperately from the floor but he didn't see any way he could stop it. Ron was still restrained and neither of them had their wands. Panic gripped him, and he mustered all his strength, preparing to leapt to his feet and fling himself between the two if he hand to.
Draco just stared at the Dark Lord, his jaw still clenched, almost daring him to kill him.
Lucius looked afraid. "My Lord," he said, his voice shaking. "You are of course correct, this boy should not be allowed to remain. We can force him back to his own world, and our son, our loyal son, will return to us."
Voldemort didn't even look at him, just pulled his wand from his robes. "And leave him free to cross back to us any time he pleases?" He made a tutting noise. "I thought you would know better Lucius, your son is already dead, I am doing you a favour."
"NO!" screeched Narcissa, jumping to her feet and putting herself firmly between Voldemort and Draco, just as Harry had planned to do. "No he is my son!"
"Sissy," cried Lucius, trying to pull her back, but something erupted in this frail, cowering woman.
"NO!" she screamed, thrashing against her husband's grip. "NO DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM!"
Several people jumped forward, some grabbed Narcissa, some Draco who had also started screaming, ordering them to let his mother go. No one grabbed Harry. He launched himself forward on unsteady legs, barrel rolling into Voldemort, knocking him off his feet.
Spells flew, people shouted and yelled, Harry was blasted back, skidding across the floor as Voldemort rose to his feet again. He ignored Harry, and turned back to Draco.
"NO," Narcissa howled again, clawing at the hands that held her.
"MOTHER!" bellowed Draco, struggling uselessly against the Death Eaters, too weak from the Cruciatus Curse still to have any effect. Narcissa, though, was like a force of nature, elbowing and scratching her way free.
"Don't you TOUCH him! Don't you dare, you'll have to kill me first, you'll have to kill me!"
And then her wand was in her hand, her husband and the other Death Eaters blasted away, and she was running towards her son. Harry scrambled back up again, running in the same direction, but he wasn't fast enough.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Voldemort screamed, and green light filled the room just as Narcissa leapt for her son. Harry stopped in his tracks, horror steeling all feeling from his body.
"No," he exhaled, tears filling up his eyes.
The lifeless body of Narcissa Malfoy was strewn on the floor, and for a moment, the entire room was still.
"No," croaked Draco. "No, no, no, NO!" Harry blinked himself awake, remembering his friend was still in danger, but he was too slow. A Death Eater crashed into him, pulling him to the ground as another one seized his feet.
"GET OFF ME!" he bellowed, but no one heard him over Draco's screams.
"Mother!" he howled, thrashing manically against the people holding him. They were losing their grip. "Mum! No, mum NO! PLEASE!" He smacked his head back into one captor and savagely kicked the knee of another. "Not again! Not again! MUM!" He broke free, and tried to run to her, but Voldemort was waiting, watching, a predator watching his prey.
"Goodbye Master Malfoy," he said with a wicked grin.
"NO!" screamed Harry with all he had left.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
And the whole room feel down.