The Dursley's house disappeared in a flurry of wind and darkness. Harry held tightly to Malfoy lest they be separated and tried to see through the whirl of nothing. It wasn't like apparating or like traveling by portkey. It was both somewhere in between and worse, with his whole body feeling like it had been ripped and torn and spread apart in the middle of a hurricane.
With a sharp crack the wind disappeared, although the darkness stayed. Harry peered around him, and in the faint sheen of some kind of light he saw Malfoy do the same.
"I don't want to cause panic or alarm," Malfoy said drily. "But I think we're in a cage."
Harry's eyes focused on metal bars in front of him just as a blinding flash of green light filled the air, accompanied by the dreadful scream, "Avada Kadavra!"
Harry felt something solid hit him around the middle and he crashed to the floor. He winced as his head hit the ground and stars filled his vision, but took it as a good sign that he was still alive.
Malfoy moved from above Harry, where he had fallen pushing them both to the ground. He threw his wand arm up and snarled a curse in the direction the noise had come from. The door blew off the cage.
"Run," Malfoy yelled, grabbing Harry and pulling him to his feet.
They pushed through the doorway and ran, trying to take in their surroundings at the same time. They appeared to be in some kind of warehouse. The cage was an abandoned elevator, now blasted off its cables and hanging loosely in the shaft, little more than a pile of rubble.
Movement to their left caught their eye: a black cloak whipping the air.
"Duck," Malfoy hissed, shoving Harry bodily to the ground as another killing curse shot over the top of them.
"Sectumsempra!" Malfoy yelled, shooting his wand back toward Twilfitt. They heard a scream.
Harry whipped his head back to look at Malfoy, shocked.
"It's not bloody amateur hour," Malfoy snarled, shoving Harry to keep running. "This is not the time for a conscience."
Another curse flew at them, missing widely but proving that Twilfitt was still alive.
"Harry!"
Hermione's scream brought them to a crashing halt. Hidden behind a metal barrier, it took all of Harry's willpower not to run toward her scream. If he did, he knew Twilfitt would kill him immediately.
He would say this for the Death Eater, he was a little more on task than Voldemort. Less talking, more action.
"Harry, don't move! He has his wand pointed at you." Hermione yelled, before a loud thud cut her off midway.
Harry flinched. Malfoy brought an arm up and rested a hand on his shoulder, both a warning and a comfort.
"You have ten seconds, Potter," a new voice yelled. It sounded breathless, like he was badly injured. "Or I kill the girl. Another ten seconds and the redhead will follow. Ten. Nine."
Harry ripped his shoulder from Malfoy's grasp and moved to stand. Malfoy grabbed him and pulled him back.
"Eight. Seven."
"If he kills you, he wins the wand." Malfoy hissed, his face contorting viciously. "There's always another way, remember!"
"What way?!" Harry hissed back, struggling to break free.
"Six. Five."
"My way," Malfoy said with a grin.
"Inferiate!" Malfoy yelled, jumping to his feet and aiming his wand over the barrier.
Harry leapt to his feet and laid eyes on Twilfitt for the first time. In the split second before Malfoy's curse hit, Twilfitt aimed his wand at Harry and opened his mouth. Before he could speak, his face changed into a horrified mask of fear. He screamed.
Harry yelled "Protego," aiming the shield charm over Ron and Hermione so that they were protected from everything but the Killing curse, which Twilfitt would hopefully be too preoccupied to use just now. He turned back to Twilfitt and recoiled as he saw the effects of Malfoy's curse.
Three Inferi grappled over Twilfitt, pulling and dragging him down as he struggled. Malfoy dragged Harry away.
"It won't last," he said as they ran. "It's just an illusion."
They ducked behind another barrier as the Inferi began to fade. Malfoy yelled "Sectumsempra!" at Twilfitt again, this time hitting the side of his body. Twilfitt screamed, although it looked as though the fading Inferi had absorbed some of the curse. Before Twilfitt could react, Malfoy had thrown another curse, this one familiar to Harry. He had seen Bellatrix do it when she realised the Snatchers had the sword of Gryffindor.
The rope twisted around Twilfitt, hurling him through the air, far away from Ron and Hermione. Harry saw, to his relief that Hermione had managed to free herself and was working on helping Ron, although they didn't seem to have their wands.
Twilfitt had already recovered. He staggered to his feet with a curse and aimed his wand at Harry.
"Time to run," Malfoy said lightly, shoving Harry away again. "Split up and make as much noise as possible," he yelled, running backwards. "And hit him with as many curses as you can so he can't think or aim."
Harry hesitated, but ran forward. He saw metal stairs ahead of him and leaped onto them, making as much noise as he could. When he reached the mezzanine that wrapped around the warehouse, more than two storeys high, he sent a stunning spell at Twilfitt who dodged just in time. Ron and Hermione were nowhere to be seen, presumably having made it to safety.
Malfoy must have been on the other side of the ground floor, because a jet of fire roared through the floor, missing Twilfitt narrowly. Twilfitt sent an immediate shoot of fire back in the same direction.
Harry flinched. His knowledge of curses was painfully limited compared to Malfoy's, and it was clear that this intense, relentless stream of curses, rather than simple hexes and spells, was what they needed to wear Twilfitt down. It meant that Malfoy was more likely to draw Twilfitt's attention.
Harry sent another stun down at Twilfitt. "I'm up here!" He yelled, running along the metal mezzanine and hoping Twilfitt took the bait. Then Malfoy could stun him from behind and they could get out of here.
He heard Malfoy fire a stunning spell that clearly missed, and then Twilfitt's footsteps were clattering up the stairs.
Harry turned back to the front and skidded to a halt as he realised he had reached the top of the elevator that he and Malfoy had materialized in. Unfortunately, it was just as broken at the top as it was at the bottom, and a steep drop led down to a mangled pile of metal and machinery. He turned to climb around it, but saw Twilfitt had caught up to him.
"Sectumsempra!" Harry yelled, forcing Twilfitt to duck for cover.
Harry backed up, but there was nowhere to go. When Twilfitt rounded the corner of the mezzanine, there would be no cover between Harry and the next corner. He would never reach it in time. A stunning spell fired over Twilfitt's head, but the angle of the mezzanine barrier meant there was no chance of it hitting him. Harry looked down to see Malfoy standing in the open, his face contorted in anger and frustration. Ron and Hermione were running out to him from where it seemed the three of them had been hiding.
And here Harry was, yet again trying to escape from death even though Voldemort was long gone.
That was when it hit him. What had he always sought most to reject, but death? Even when he had accepted it last year, it hadn't happened, had it? Did Death feel cheated, as he had with the brothers?
Harry turned back to Twilfitt, who had been forced to duck beneath another of Malfoy's Inferi illusions followed by a stunning spell.
When Twilfitt reached him, Harry would die. There was nowhere to hide, and the fall was too far for him to survive, even if Twilfitt only knocked him over the edge. Twilfitt would win the wand, unless Harry accepted what he had always sought most to reject.
If Harry died before Twilfitt could reach him, Twilfitt would never win the wand. He would be just another pathetic Death Eater trying for power well above his means.
Another thought hit him. He turned his head to stare at Malfoy, who was sending curse after curse at Twilfitt, keeping him behind cover but never reaching him. Malfoy seemed to catch Harry's movement, and turned slightly to share a glance, his eyes full of frustration. Something in Harry's face must have shown, and for a split second, Malfoy froze.
Malfoy was the previous owner of the Elder Wand, even if he had never been able to use it. If Harry died while the previous owner still lived, could it revert back to him? If Harry gave him the wand, could he make it work?
And if he left him the cloak, too, passed on through death, Malfoy would only need to find the stone to achieve Mastery, whatever Mastery turned out to be. Harry found an amusing sort of irony in the fact that he had always rejected Malfoy, too.
Malfoy's face drained of colour. "No, you idiot!" He yelled. "You've got it wrong!" The arm holding the wand dropped slightly.
"Draco, I give you my Invisibility cloak!" Harry yelled, and threw him the Elder wand.
Twilfitt stood and rounded the corner. He brandished his wand and yelled "Avada Kedavra!" just as Harry leaped over the side of the balcony toward the crumpled pile of metal and debris below. He heard a roar of fury from Twilfitt as the curse flew over his head.
Then an enormous pain shot through him. More than the sensation of metal tearing him on impact, he felt like he was on fire. It took him a second to realise that there was no feeling of impact, only a burning, floating sensation.
Looking to his side, he saw that he was suspended in mid-air, with Malfoy glaring at him in fury. Malfoy's wand arm was raised and he held the Elder Wand aimed at Harry, appearing to hold him in a glowing cocoon of what looked almost like fire. It certainly felt like fire.
Malfoy yanked his wand arm back and Harry flew through the air, landing in a roll at Malfoy's feet.
"You promised you wouldn't be a stupid Gryffindor," Malfoy hissed.
Harry groaned. "But death was what I had to accept. What I kept rejecting."
"No it wasn't, you idiot," Malfoy snapped, barely looking to throw a curse at Twilfitt, who had run back to the stairs. "From now on, you let me or Granger do the thinking. I told Granger the centaur's message and she figured it out."
Harry turned to Hermione, who was standing a little back from him with Ron, looking as though she was scared to touch him. Looking down at himself, he realised he was still cocooned in the glowing fire.
Ron wrinkled his nose. "You alright, mate?" he asked.
"Can we postpone the touching reunion for a minute?" Malfoy sneered, finally managing to pin Twilfitt against the wall with a body-bind. He unfortunately slid out of sight, and so was temporarily out of range.
"Harry, it wasn't death you had to accept. You never really rejected death, even though you fought it," Hermione said quickly. "If you unite the three Hallows, you achieve Mastery: ultimate power. When I read further, Grindelwald's book explained it. Mastery means you no longer require a wand as a conduit for magic, you become a conduit. The wand transforms you into a magical creature with power well beyond a wizard."
Harry blanched. "But I don't want ultimate power."
"Exactly," Hermione said pointedly.
Harry felt his jaw go slack. All his life, he had rejected power as much as he could, accepting only what he had to in order to save others. He started to shake his head vigorously. "No. I don't want it. Give it to someone else."
"Well, we have quite an eager volunteer over there," Malfoy said, jerking his head toward Twilfitt. "So if you're going to say no, I think we can all guess who might step up to the task."
"Just accept it, Harry," Hermione said. "Dumbledore already said you were the best kind of person to be given power."
"But think of what I could do with it," Harry said, his face white.
"Exactly," Malfoy interrupted. "Think of what you could do with it. And then don't do it, if it's a bad thing. Or do it, if it's a good thing. You can make that choice later. Right now, you have only one choice to make and its a pretty clear answer." He shoved the wand at Harry. "Take it," he said.
Harry paused before slowly reaching out to take the wand. "But we don't have the other two Hallows," he said.
To that, Malfoy held up the stone with a smirk. "Twilfitt dropped it during all the curses I threw at him at the start. Granger picked it up."
"And, Harry, the cloak can't be stolen," Hermione said. "It can only be gifted or passed down through the generations."
"So you can have it back," Malfoy said. "I don't want it."
Harry nodded slowly. He held up the Elder wand. It felt like it had before, light and almost alive, but more-so, now that the stone was no longer hidden in the forest but back in his possession. He held it up just as Malfoy doubled over in pain and shock.
Without making a sound, he crumpled to the floor, a pool of blood spilling alarmingly quickly beneath him.
Harry made a cry of despair and moved to grab him, when he felt something change in the air nearby. Reacting on impulse, feeling for a split second as if he were back on the oval with Malfoy, doing a Seekers' run with the cloak, Harry aimed his wand at empty air and fired a stunning spell.
There was a sound of the spell hitting something solid, and then the cloak slipped aside to reveal Twilfitt standing metres from them. He must have shielded, since he was unharmed. He threw the cloak aside and grinned at Harry, although there was a look of careful suspicion in his eyes that Harry had located him so easily.
"We'll go back to the hostage situation, will we?" Twilfitt said, smiling and pointing his wand at Hermione. "That worked well. You could hex me, but which one of you could I kill first? I don't think you'll risk it." He aimed a sneer down at Malfoy. "Didn't think you'd partner up with a Death Eater. How hypocritical of you, Savior. I'll have to admit, I wasn't prepared for you to play dirty."
"You shut up," Harry warned, raising the Elder Wand.
"I don't think so," Twilfitt said, smiling. "This was meant to be a very easy task. Kill you immediately, don't waste time talking like the Dark Lord loved to do. But you've really pissed me off, now. I think I might enjoy dragging this out." He flicked his wand and Ron dropped to his knees with a whimper. A deep line of blood began to spill from his stomach where it looked as though something had split him open.
Harry made a move, but Twilfitt snarled at him. "Don't move!" Twilfitt yelled.
"Who the hell are you?" Harry yelled back, trying to draw his attention from hurting anyone else. "I've never even heard of you. You're a nothing. What are you doing, trying to get the Elder Wand? You really think you can pull it off?"
Twilfitt sneered. "I know I can," he said. "The Dark Lord made the mistake of fearing death so much he had to secure his safety before pursuing the Hallows. He convinced himself that he was too powerful to really need them, but look where that got him."
"You're a pathetic nobody," Harry repeated. "You could never be worthy of the Hallows." He closed his eyes briefly, drawing strength, and opened them again, making his decision.
"You will live to regret that," Twilfitt yelled, his face contorting with rage. As he opened his mouth, the Killing Curse on the tip of his tongue, Harry flicked his wrist experimentally.
The same stream of fire that had cocooned him to safety enveloped the Death Eater. As Harry watched, Twilfitt screamed and was gone, his body disintegrated in a fire so hot it left no trace.
Harry pulled back his hand and the fire disappeared. Looking down, he saw that it had finally gone from his body as well. Hermione dropped to her knees and grabbed Ron, checking his pulse frantically.
Harry dropped down beside Malfoy and rolled him over so that he was looking at Harry's face. His eyes were wide and unseeing. Harry made a noise of despair and ducked his head to Malfoy's chest. After several agonizing moments, he felt warm breath on his skin.
He grabbed onto Hermione's shoulder and disapparated them to St. Mungos.