The Weight of the World

Chapter 26 - Confrontation

Harry and Hermione sat and listened to Rooney tell stories about Voldemort and the Death Eaters and all of the different times they had stopped their plans, and about some of the times they hadn't. Hermione was amazed at the things he talked about because most of it, she had never read about in books. Some of it, people wouldn't write in books even if they knew about it, because they were stories that no one would want to read about; stories of torture, murder, corruption and anything else that evil people could do to others. There were some really good stories too. He told stories of bravery, sacrifice, friendships, and unbelievable triumphs that seemed to always light up even the darkest of times.

"Mr. Rooney, do you think we'll ever be able to kill Voldemort?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know Hermione. That's a very good question. I think he's gone further than anyone in history to try to protect himself against mortal types of death. He still needs a body to be strong, we know that to be true, and as far as we know, that body is still susceptible to mortal types of magic and weaponry. I think if someone could kill the body, and take measures to capture his magical presence after the body died, there would be ways to entrap that presence and possibly kill it. There are a lot of things that we don't know about what he has done to make sure he doesn't die. If someone knew more about these measures I think they would be closer to finding the way to correctly destroy him."

"You don't think Professor Dumbledore has an idea about how to do this?" Harry added.

Hermione jumped in, "I think he does, otherwise Voldemort wouldn't have stayed away from him all of these years."

"I'm not too sure. Hermione may be right, Voldemort may think he does anyway, but like I said, unless someone knows exactly what types of magic have been performed on him, they wouldn't be able to properly do away with him,” Rooney said.

"You all want some more tea? I need to walk down to the stream to get some water anyway so we might as well finish the rest of his off," Rooney said holding the almost empty jug.

"I'll go get the water, you can make the tea, Hermione always makes it too weak," Harry said to Rooney.

"I don't like it strong," Hermione said in her defense.

Harry smiled at her then picked up the container that Moody had emptied and the one they had used the night before that was also empty and walked out of the cave down to the stream to get water.

"Be careful Harry," Hermione yelled after him.

The stream wasn't too far away, maybe half of a kilometer or so, but it wasn't an easy walk because of the steep mountain trails to get there. It was a nice day however and being outside of the cave and getting to stretch his legs made it worth the trip. It was late afternoon and being up that high, the weather was nice. The walk took him around fifteen minutes but he didn't really take his time. He reflected on a lot of the stories that Rooney had been telling over the afternoon, as well as some of the strange memories that didn't belong to him that were surfacing in his head. This seemed to be more and more common now. He would hear a story regarding torture or war and he would reflect on memories, stories, spells, and in most cases, stopping the torturers before they could torture again, or fighting in some of the wars. As he got closer to the stream he could begin to hear the rushing water and the sound became louder with every step until he had arrived at its banks.

The mountain stream was very picturesque. The rocks that had been cut away by years and years of water flow sparkled and created different types of reflections as the stream of water passed over them. The sound of the water was enough to relax even a troubled mind like Harry's. He kneeled down at the bank of the stream and closed his eyes and let the sound of the water resonate through his ears and into his head. He felt at peace knowing something so simple and yet so powerful as a stream of water would always be there no matter what anyone like himself or Lord Voldemort did in the world. He could feel its energy and his mind raced with strange thoughts and memories and he slowly stuck his hand down and let the cold water pass though this fingers. He quickly opened his eyes and only had one word lingering in his head. Danger.

Something didn't feel right to Harry. He felt anxiety and nervousness come over him as he quickly dipped the two containers into the river and filled them. He closed them up and draped them over his shoulders and began to walk at a quickened pace back to the cave. He stopped for a second to reposition the straps on his shoulders and it was at this moment, that he felt his scar begin to burn. He instinctively put his hand up to his forehead and rubbed it and then started to walk back to the cave with his eyes squinting as he rubbed his head.

He made it a few more steps when it began to burn again, but this time it was so bad it made him knock his own glasses off of his head as he quickly reached up and used both hands to reach for the scar. He went down to a knee as he eyes began to water from the pain. He pulled a hand from his forehead and brought it to the ground to search for his glasses. He didn't open his eyes, but after a few seconds of feeling on the ground he found them and put them back on his head. He stood up and started walking again even though he was still having difficulty seeing because of the pain in his scar.

Harry began to get very worried. He knew there was only one thing that made his scar hurt this bad and that was Voldemort being very close. He was having a hard time navigating the mountain path because he was doing it mainly with one eye closed and the eye that was open was watering. A couple of times he would stray from the path and run into brush. One time he ran into a small tree and scratched his face on one of the branches. It was a small scratch and it was bleeding a bit but he didn't notice because of the worry, the pain from his scar, and the adrenaline that was flowing through his veins. He reached down into his pocket and felt for his wand. He found it, but also felt the second wand that had belonged to the Death Eater that he had disabled in Dumbledore's office. He had used it to light up the cave and had never taken it out of his pocket after he picked it back up.

As he got closer to the cave the pain continued to get worse. He had to get to Rooney and warn him, and he had to get to Hermione and make sure she was safe.

He was about a hundred meters from the cave when the pain in his scar suddenly stopped hurting. He stopped and pulled his glasses off and wiped the tears out of his eyes so that he could see more clearly. He dropped the water and ran to the opening of the cave.

Harry stopped at the foot of the cave and had instinctively pulled out his wand. What he saw when he got there made his heart begin to race and his stomach drop.

Hermione was bound in ropes and was lying next to Wormtail. Rooney lay lifeless on the floor of the cave his eyes wide open and his face expressionless. Harry looked around the cave and saw a dark figure come towards him from the shadows. Harry recognized this figure immediately. It was Voldemort.

Harry's hand began to shake as he held his wand out in front of him. Something told him he should have attacked Voldemort immediately upon seeing him, but he didn't. He froze.

Voldemort came out of the shadows and with a motion of his hand Hermione flew upright and was standing in front of him, his left hand was on the back of her neck, his right hand held his wand.

"Hello Harry,” Voldemort said with a smile.

"Let her go" Harry said calmly.

"You aren't in a position to bark out orders Harry. Now throw me your wand or I'll hurt her. You don't want me to hurt her Harry do you?"

"I said let her go. This is between you and me,” Harry said loudly.

"Crucio!" Voldemort ripped with his wand pointed at the back of Hermione's neck.

Hermione's mouth was bound by ropes, but her screams were so powerful that the ropes could hardly contain them. The curse didn't last long, but Hermione had never experienced pain like this and the look on her face when Voldemort was finished was one that Harry never wanted to see again.

"Here's my bloody wand!" Harry said throwing his wand at Voldemort who caught it mid-air.

"You hurt her again and I'll kill you,” Harry said. The tone of his voice was one that Voldemort had not expected from a wandless teenage wizard.

"Kill me Harry? You really think you can kill me? No one has been able to before Harry, but I like seeing that dark side of you,” Voldemort said.

He finally looked down at Harry's wand that he held in his hand and right away a smile crept across his face.

"I see you found my wand's brother. I can feel it. Now I know why I was unable to fight it at the graveyard Harry. At first I thought you just might be that powerful, but now I see that we had common cores to our wands. This is very interesting, but at least I know that after I kill you Harry, I'll have a very nice spare wand in case anything ever happens to mine."

"Let Hermione go."

"There you go barking out orders again,” Voldemort said shaking his head. The smile crept off of his face.

Voldemort turned around and looked down at Wormtail who was trying to yell something from under the ropes.

"Wormtail, I knew you would betray me. When Harry and that fool Fudge escaped from the castle I knew that someone had betrayed me, and I knew it had to be you Wormtail. Then I watched you Wormtail, I saw them bring you here and I knew that it would be just a matter of time before the fools went to get their school back. Your Mark told me where to find you Wormtail, the Mark is very useful to me; you have no idea what all it can do for me."

Voldemort was still holding Hermione by her neck and he leaned down with his mouth by her ear and held his wand in front of her face as he spoke.

"What do you think my dear? He has betrayed me too many times don't you think?"

Voldemort knew that Hermione couldn't speak, but he wasn't intending her to speak.

"I think your right; I think he isn't very useful to me anymore,” Voldemort said in a cruel voice.

"Deflagro tarus," Voldemort said. The spell shot out of his wand right in front of Hermione's face and she closed her eyes while the flash happened.

Bright blue and green flames consumed Wormtail, and as Voldemort flicked his wand, the flames got higher. Wormtail was screaming and flopping on the ground trying to get away from the flames but he couldn't. In a matter of a few seconds the smell of burning human flesh had filled the air.

"Have you ever smelled someone being cooked alive before my dear?" Voldemort asked Hermione.

Hermione could do nothing but close her eyes, but this only stopped the sight of Wormtail burning. She could still smell him and hear his screams which were now more audible since the ropes that were around his face and body had burned off; he was now violently screaming and flopping on the ground.

Harry had taken one quick glance at Wormtail and winced, but then shot his eyes back on Voldemort. His hand had slowly crept down to his pocket where he felt the Death Eaters wand that was still in there.

Voldemort had also stopped looking at Wormtail, and had also stopped maintaining the flames, but the body was still burning and the sizzling was still audible. Wormtail's screams however, had stopped. He was now dead.

But Harry has stopped paying attention to this. He was concentrating on Voldemort, and more importantly Hermione.

"If you want me, you had better let her go,” Harry said.

Voldemort looked down at Hermione and smiled.

"Harry, I had no idea that you had someone that you cared so much for. Isn't that heart warming? If I had known that, I would have come after her a long time ago. Since I killed both of your parents, I didn't think you'd have anyone close enough to you that could become useful. I guess I was wrong."

"I swear to God if you hurt her again, I'll kill you,” Harry said softly but sternly.

"You are brave even without a wand Harry. I would love to throw you your wand back and let you fight to the death, but we both know that isn't possible now don't we. We tried it before and once again you showed just how lucky you were by getting away."

Voldemort crept down by Hermione's ear again while still looking straight at Harry with those evil red eyes.

"What do you think my dear; wouldn't you like to watch me hurt him?"

Hermione shook her head violently and gave a muffled scream. She tried again to get away from him, but the ropes around her only tightened and she was unable to move.

She could fell the air from his mouth blow across her ear as he spoke.

"She doesn't want me to hurt you Harry. I guess she wants me to just kill you quickly. I don't think I owe her any favors though," he said pretending to try to remember something.

"Let her go, NOW!" Harry said.

"I warned you not to bark orders at me Harry, didn't I my dear?" He said to Hermione.

"CRUCIO!"

Harry tried to dodge the curse but he tripped over a large rock and it hit him in the chest as he was falling.

He had experienced this pain before, but it was impossible to get used to. For some reason though, instead of wishing for death this time, he had an idea. The pain had almost forced him to black out, but he somehow stayed conscious as he saw something forming in his head that was helping to block some of the pain.

Hermione couldn't watch Harry getting hit by this curse. She was still shaking from the fear and the pain that it had inflicted on her, but when she saw Harry violently shaking on the floor of the cave, she began to sob uncontrollably. She wanted to help him but there was nothing she could do.

Voldemort smiled as he saw Harry writhe in pain and flop around on the ground. He lifted the curse, but the smile remained on his face as he saw Harry curled up and shaking violently from its lingering effects.

"If there is one thing I get pleasure from these days Harry, it is hurting you. It makes me almost reconsider whether or not I want to kill you. I'd so miss being able to watch you suffer."

He looked down at Hermione and leaned his head close to hers again.

"I wish he had been old enough to remember his parents dying. That would have given me a lot of pleasure seeing him cry over his parent's dead bodies. At least I'll get to watch him cry over yours."

Harry slowly stood back up, and what Voldemort couldn't see, was that while Harry was on the floor of the cave, he had managed to get the wand out of his pocket and was hiding it in his hand so that it couldn't be seen.

A smile crept over Voldemort's face as he whispered into Hermione's ear again.

"Try to stay conscious for this; I want you to watch his face while I hurt you...Crucio."

Hermione knew what was coming a split second before it happened. She felt the pain come and hardly noticed that he had dropped her on the ground. The pain seemed to last for an eternity but when it had stopped she still heard screaming. She thought she was hearing her own screams but then quickly realized that these screams were different. She slowly rolled herself over and saw something she could hardly believe.

It was Voldemort, the skin on his face and hands were bubbling and he was screaming in pain. She noticed that both Voldemort's and Harry's wands were laying just a few inches from her face but she was still bound and couldn't get to them.

Harry was walking towards Voldemort and the look on his face was just short of terrifying. The look was dark, darker than any look Harry had ever given before and darker than anyone could ever imagine him having.

He was resonating with power as the wand flicked rhythmically in his hand pointing at Voldemort.

"I warned you not to hurt her again," Harry said slowly.

"You like snakes right? You want to be one right? Well snakes shed their skin from time to time," Harry said powerfully still flicking his wand at Voldemort.

Voldemort screamed in pain as the white skin on his body turned red in places and began to boil and burn. He fell to the ground and as Harry was almost on top of him, he disappeared with a pop.

Harry's wand was still there, but Voldemort had taken his, and... he had taken Hermione.

When Harry saw this he fell to his knees and began to cry as his whole body began to shake. Slowly, everything began to black out as he passed out on the cave floor. The last thing he saw, were Rooney's cold dead eyes looking back at him.