The Weight of the World

Chapter 30 - Envisioning the End

Ron saw Harry's wand, along with something else, glowing below him. He touched down and was a bit out of breath from flying so hard. He looked at the object below Harry and when he examined it closely he knew right away that it was the portkey.

"I'm guessing that's it?" Ron said.

"Yeah," Harry said. "Got almost ten minutes to spare."

"Harry, you sure about this?" Ron asked.

"Yeah Ron, I'm sure."

"Well I'm going with you then,” Ron said.

"You can't Ron. He said he'd kill anyone that came with me."

Ron kicked some gravel on the ground and then reached up and grabbed handfuls of his own hair. "You can't just go in there like that Harry!"

"Ron, what am I supposed to do, just let her die? Is that what you'd do?"

"Of course I wouldn't. You're right. You're right,” Ron said still kicking at the ground.

"Ron, can I have your wand?" Harry asked.

Ron was confused by the question. “Why Harry?"

"Because I can't fight him with mine." Harry said handing his wand to Ron. "Here, it's a good wand. It's got one of Fawkes' feathers you know."

"I know Harry. God! You're saying it like you aren't coming back or something,” Ron said looking at his wand.

"I might not be Ron. Sooner or later my luck's got to run out,” Harry said.

"It's not going to be tonight Harry. And anyway, from what I've seen from you lately you're needing less and less of it,” Ron said.

"Yeah... well let's hope I don't freeze up. Ron, if something should happen to me, I want you and your family to have my stuff. You get my Firebolt and my cloak, and I want your family to take over my vault in Gringotts, my key's hidden in my trunk. If Hermione makes it out and I don't, there's also a letter in there for her. Make sure she gets it, okay?"

Ron just nodded. He knew that if he tried to talk right now he might break down, and he didn't want Harry to go in there with that on his mind.

"Well here I go,” Harry said.

Before he could reach down, Ron intercepted him and pulled him into a hug. Harry could tell that he was crying when he spoke.

"Harry, you get in there, and you don't do anything stupid. When Hermione gets out, you run. When she gets out, just run for it. That old bastard won't be able to catch you. Don't try to get revenge for your parents or anything. Just run Harry. Promise me."

Harry hugged Ron back and closed his eyes and when he did, he felt a tear squeeze out of one of his eyes.

"Ron, I don't know what I'm going to do when I get in there. But I can promise you that something will come to me. If I use what I've learned Ron, I'll be safe. I don't know how exactly I know that, but I just do."

They pulled out of their hug, and Ron wiped his eyes and sniffed loudly.

"When you get back, start teaching me some of that stuff okay? What you did to Sirius earlier was wicked and I want to do it to Percy next time I see him!"

"I will Ron,” Harry said smiling.

Harry looked down at the portkey. He leaned down to a knee and then touched it.

He felt a tugging at his navel and the rush of motion across his body. Before he knew what was happening, he was on the floor in a dimly lit room. When he pulled himself to his feet what he saw was enough to make any wizard start shaking with fear. He was inside of a circle formed by about thirty dark wizards. Hermione was tied up right behind him and was bound tightly so that she couldn't speak or move. None of the wizards seemed at all surprised to see him; in fact Harry could tell that they had been waiting for him. Harry pulled out his wand and flicked the ropes holding Hermione away from her.

The Death Eaters began chanting something in a language that Harry didn't understand.

"Shomu-gotu. Shomu-gotu" was echoing in the large underground room. It looked to be the same large room from Harry's dream.

Harry reached down and helped Hermione up.

"Harry, you shouldn't have come!" Hermione said wrapping her arms around him.

"It's nice to see you too Hermione, what's all this?" Harry said hugging her, but never taking his eyes off of the circle of wizards.

"I don't know Harry. I was tied up and brought here. The wizards all came in after and formed this circle."

"Hermione, let's reach down there and touch that medallion, maybe it will take us out of here,” Harry said leaning down to a knee.

"Ready, on three. One, two, three." They both touched it, but nothing happened and it wasn't glowing anymore.

"Damn,” Harry said.

They both stood up and when they did, the chanting stopped and the circle split to form two lines on both sides of Hermione and Harry.

On one side there was nothing but a wall, on the other side, Voldemort was walking towards them.

"Nice of you to come, Harry. I was just telling my followers that you would in fact make it. I knew that you wouldn't pass up a chance at all of this fun."

"Let her go. You said you would let her go back on the portkey,” Harry said.

"I did, didn't I, and you are inside of the time limit. I am a man of my word,” Voldemort opened his hand and the Dark Mark medallion flew into it. He took out his wand and touched it to the medallion and then threw it down just below his feet.

"There you go Hermione Granger. You have been a very nice guest. Perhaps sometime you will return and we can spend more time getting to know one another." Voldemort said smiling.

Hermione looked up at Harry, and then to the medallion that was glowing again down on the ground by Voldemort.

"Take it Hermione. It will get you back to Hogsmeade. Ron is there waiting. My Firebolt is there. Ride it as fast as you can back to the castle,” Harry said.

"Harry.. I.,” Hermione stopped.

"Hermione, please go before he changes his mind."

"Harry thank you for coming back for me,” Hermione said as tears began to stream down her face.

She hugged Harry more tightly than she ever had in her life. "I love you Harry."

"I love you too, Hermione. Now please go."

She was crying very hard now and she fell to her knees and started crawling towards the portkey that was right in front of Voldemort. She got just within reach of it and turned around to look at Harry one more time.

He smiled at her and mouthed the words 'I love you'.

She was crying harder now as she turned around and grabbed the portkey. Within a few seconds she was on her knees at the base of the train tracks and Ron was just a few feet away from her.

He ran to make sure she was alright, but he wasn't sure when he saw her kneeling there shaking and crying uncontrollably.

"Hermione! Please tell me that you're okay,” Ron said trying to help her up.

She was trying to talk but Ron couldn't understand anything she was saying.

He finally pulled her into a hug to comfort her, and to stabilize her because she looked as though she was going to fall back to her knees at any moment.

"Hermione, are you hurt? Please tell me if you're hurt and I'll go and get someone,” Ron said.

"He..came...for...me. I told..him not...too..but..he..came..for me."

Ron could barely understand her because she was sobbing so hard.

"Hermione, can you ride back to the castle with me?"

Hermione just looked at the ground and didn't answer.

"Hermione, we need to get back to the castle, you need to ride with me."

Hermione wiped her eyes and then looked around and saw Harry's broom lying beside the tracks. She pulled herself away from Ron and reached down and picked up the broom and then wiped her eyes one more time.

"You sure you're okay to ride?" Ron asked her.

Hermione didn't say anything; she just nodded at him to acknowledge that she was okay.

She then mounted the broom and took off in flight. Ron watched her go and then looked down at the medallion that was lying on the ground. He reached down and picked it up and then mounted his broom and took off to catch her.

- - -

Harry stood there staring at Voldemort almost as though he was oblivious to the others around him. He knew that they were there, but he also knew that they were harmless until Voldemort gave them an order to do something.

Harry stood, wand in hand, slightly shaking, staring at Voldemort.

He had no idea what was about to happen. It had crossed his mind a few minutes ago that the moments ahead might very well be the last of his life, but not now. Survival was the only thing on his mind. His view towards Voldemort had gone from wanting to kill him, to now just wanting to survive him.

"Harry, here we are again. How lucky you are to keep escaping me. Sooner or later your."

"I didn't escape you last time," Harry said loudly to make sure everyone heard him, "you took Hermione and disappeared screaming in pain, remember?"

Voldemort seemed very angry by this, and some of the Death Eaters looked to him almost hoping for him to immediately deny Harry's story.

"Yes, Harry, you did get a sneaky curse off didn't you?" Voldemort smiled as he surveyed the Death Eaters. "Harry, you have no idea how much I could teach you. I'd like to give you one more chance to join forces with me Harry. The wizards you see before you are but a few of my many faithful. They would be at your command as well Harry. You could do anything, have anything, and be anything."

"Never." Harry said smoothly. "Never."

Voldemort stared at him for what seemed like hours to Harry, but it was only a few seconds. He then smiled at him and shook his head.

"Then it ends here Harry. It ends now,” Voldemort said loudly.

He then surveyed the two lines of Death Eaters once again and another smile crept across his face.

"I am going to give you a fighting chance, Harry. Let's see how your dueling skills have developed shall we?"

Voldemort then pointed to one of the Death Eaters, who walked over to him, and then turned around to face Harry.

"Harry, I will be very disappointed if you die right off. I am hoping that you give us all at least some demonstration of what you've learned at that great school that you and Dumbledore speak so highly of." Voldemort then said something quietly to the Death Eater that was facing Harry, and then stepped out of the way to watch.

"Bow to each other!" Voldemort said loudly.

Harry didn't bow, but the Death Eater across from him did, never taking his eyes off of Harry, and never getting rid of the evil smile that his face had been wearing ever since he stepped across from him.

"Begin!" Voldemort screamed.

At the sound of Voldemort's voice the Death Eater had already thrown a curse at Harry, but Harry was ready for it.

"Declo!" Harry yelled, and when he did, a large blue sphere formed around his wand and his hand and he used it to hit the curse that was thrown at him, almost like someone swinging a baseball bat at the ball. The curse was deflected and hit one of the other Death Eaters who began screaming in pain.

The Death Eater threw another curse at him, and Harry did the same thing, and the deflected spell hit another Death Eater that was standing outside of them watching, but this time Harry didn't wait for another curse.

"Extrudiate!" Harry said and a wide light of magic hurled towards the Death Eater. It was much too large for him to deflect or to dodge, and when it hit him, he flew a hundred meters across the floor of the entire room and crashed into the wall.

Harry couldn't tell if the force killed him or just knocked him unconscious, all he knew was that he wasn't a threat anymore, and neither were the two that had been hit by the deflected curses from the sound of their screams.

Voldemort then yelled, "Karrigan!" and another Death Eater stepped out in front of Harry.

Karrigan bowed to Harry, but this Death Eater didn't have a smile on his face, it was more of an evil look of determination. When he arose from the bow, Harry was ready.

"Onus Aufero!" The Death Eater was hit with the curse but didn't seem affected by it. It wasn't until he shrugged it off and threw a curse right back at Harry did he know what had happened to him. The curse Harry had hit him with had made him weightless and the force from his own wand made him fly up into the air and backwards slowly, but out of control nevertheless.

Harry dodged his curse easily and yelled "Aquilo!" which forced a strong wind through the room that blew the weightless wizard across the large hall with arms and legs hopelessly flapping at the air, until he slammed into the wall hard and fell not too far away from the previous Death Eater.

Harry stood there wand still raised and slowly looked across the room at the Death Eaters. He noticed right away that their expressions had changed from when he first appeared in the room. There was now a hint of seriousness about them and a stronger hint of fear.

Voldemort still had a smile on his face though, almost as though he were proud of Harry.

"I'm glad that you didn't come to run away this time Harry. It's so much more fun standing and fighting instead of running and hiding don't you think? Have you had enough? Shall we keep going or are you ready to join us?"

Harry didn't say anything. He just kept his wand at the ready and stared across at nothing as if he were just waiting on his next opponent.

- - -

Sirius and Dobby had appeared in what looked to Sirius like the middle of nowhere in the middle of a blizzard. He didn't have a winter cloak or any cloak for that matter and Dobby was in nothing but his latest summer shirt with an apron both of which he had made himself.

The snow was hitting the side of Sirius' face at a stinging speed. His entire body was already freezing when he leaned down to talk to Dobby.

"Dobby! Are you sure we are in the right spot?" Sirius said at a yell so that Dobby could hear him over the howling wind.

"Dobby is sure sir!"

Dobby then clapped his hand and said something into the howling wind and what looked like a large black hole appeared in the endless white ground. It shook the ground as the large doors opened revealing an endless staircase going deep down into the bowls of the Earth.

Dobby wasted no time going down them and Sirius followed. Sirius barely had his head below the ground when he heard the large doors begin to close leaving the snow, the howling winds and everything else above them, behind. There was a loud echoing boom when the doors closed, but when it was gone, the only sounds were coming from Dobby's small feet as they quickly began to walk down the stairs.

The torches in the stairwell were limited, and the dark staircase seemed to go down forever. Sirius had already passed Dobby and was taking the steps as fast as he could.

He yelled to Dobby to hurry, and then changed into Padfoot to make better time.

- - -

Harry tried to calm his breathing as another Death Eater walked in front of him. This wizard was older than most of the others there, and Harry could sense that this one might not be as easy as the other two had been.

After he bowed to Harry, he just sat there with his wand raised in the air. Harry did the same. He had expected a quick attack, and when it didn't come, it threw his thinking off a bit. Finally Harry decided to make the first move.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry had shot the disarming spell at the Death Eater, but it hadn't traveled half way to him before the wizard yelled something back. Harry noticed this, but not quickly enough. The wizard had somehow made his curse turn around on him, and the next thing he knew he was on the ground and didn't have his wand.

Harry rolled instinctively and felt the heat from a curse that barely missed him. He quickly glanced around for his wand, but didn't see it.

Another curse had been thrown at him while he was wildly searching for his wand, and this time he didn't manage to get fully out of the way. The curse hit his left shoulder and Harry was immediately engulfed by the feeling that someone had poured melted iron on his shoulder and down part of his arm.

He fell to the ground screaming in pain and clawing at the shoulder of his robes trying to peel off whatever it was that was making his arm burn.

The crowd of Death Eaters began to laugh loudly, including the one that had hit Harry with the burning curse. It gave Harry just enough time.

He concentrated on the spot across the large room, where the Death Eaters had fallen earlier. He concentrated his energy despite the scalding feeling of his shoulder and the next thing he knew, he heard the clatter of wood scratching on the stone floor and then felt a wand come to his hand.

The laughs stopped immediately and Harry knew that another curse was coming for him.

"Confugio" Harry said pointing the wand at himself and he then pushed hard off the ground. The curse went well past him as he flew quickly over the wizards head and landed behind him; all in a fraction of a second.

Before the wizard could fully turn around, Harry had hit him with a curse that made him slump to the ground unconscious.

Harry himself went back down to a knee. The burning was back in his shoulder and even after he threw a small cooling spell over his arm, the pain refused to go away.

Despite the unbearable pain, he didn't want to look at his shoulder and upper arm under his robe. He was afraid of what he might see. Instead he tried not to show the pain he was under and stood up and turned back around with his new wand in his hand.

"Very well done Harry! But we now see you aren't invincible after all are you? Did that hurt?" Voldemort asked getting another rise of laughter from the group.

"Madison, this has gone far enough, why don't you end this?" Voldemort said glancing over his shoulder.

"Yes master. Can I at least have a bit of fun first?" he asked Voldemort almost imitating a child asking his father for some ice cream.

"Of course you can, but not too much. We have other things to do as you know,” Voldemort said.

The wizard that emerged from the group was by far the most formidable looking to Harry. He made Harry imagine what Moody probably looked like when he was in his top form, although this wizard was much larger and had all of his limbs and eyes.

Harry's left arm and shoulder had begun to shake badly from the pain of the injury but he concentrated as hard as he could to try to block it out.

He held the wand steady and had it pointed at his next opponent as he saw the wizard bow to him and then immediately pull his wand back at the ready.

Harry was faster to throw, but the other wizard was deceptively quick as he dodged the curse and had already returned the attack. Harry barely rolled out of the way and when he did so, he landed on his injured shoulder causing a fresh wave of pain to engulf his body. He stumbled backwards and dodged another attack and blindly threw a curse at the man and heard a yell as he fell backwards.

Harry completed a clumsy backwards summersault to find that he had hit someone with the blind curse that he had thrown, but not the one he had intended to hit. This delay was just enough for Madisonto hit him in the leg with a curse that Harry would never forget.

Harry vaguely remembered hearing something resembling "compunger" but all of that left his mind the second the curse hit him.

Harry felt as though he had been stabbed with a thousand needles. The pain was everything as powerful Cruciatus Curse, but the difference was that this curse left marks. He opened his eyes to see small pools of blood forming red dots all over his hands, and from what he could tell by the pain shooting through his body, he was bleeding everywhere else as well.

Harry fell to the ground and the wand he was holding rolled a few feel from his hand. All of a sudden, the room full of Death Eaters blurred away, the sound of the room was gone, and more importantly, so was the pain. He was back in the small room at Hogwarts where he had first met Godric Gryffindor.

- - -

Sirius was making great time as Padfoot. He was in rhythm and was getting down a flight with only two large strides. He was horribly out of breath, but refused to stop. It wasn't long before he was at the base of the steps and was staring down a long corridor. He transferred himself back to Sirius and pulled his wand out as he tried to catch his breath without making too much noise. He had no idea where he was going, but he guessed that wherever Harry was, Voldemort and the others were as well, so he headed down the corridor as fast as he could, ready for anything that might be waiting for him.

- - -

Harry didn't feel the pain in his shoulder anymore, and he didn't see the small, bleeding holes in his hands as he had just a few seconds ago. He was still glancing down at his hands when he heard the door open and again saw Godric walk through it just as he had earlier in the summer.

But this time he wasn't smiling when he greeted him.

"Harry, you must hold on. You have to hold out just a few minutes longer and help will reach you,” Godric said.

"What do you mean hold out? I was lying on the ground and the next thing I know, I'm here,” Harry said sounding confused.

"Harry this place isn't of the mortal world. You came here because you are but a step away from death,” Godric said.

Harry stared at him speechless for a second. "Death?" he finally asked.

"Yes Harry, but it is not time for you to die. You must go back, you must hold on."

Harry was suddenly conscious of the pain all over his body again, and was also conscious of the loud talking and laughter that was coming from the Death Eaters as they cheered on his torture.

Harry tried to get up but he couldn't move. He knew he had to find a way to defend himself. Godric had told him that help was on the way and so all he needed to do was get up and defend himself just a bit longer.

He tried again to get up, but still could only barley move. It must have looked comical to the Death Eaters because he could hear laughter every time he attempted to get to his feet.

After his second failed attempt he thought of just lying there and letting the Death Eater finish him off, but he then though about Ron, Hermione, Sirius, Hagrid and all of the others that loved him. He thought of their faces and imagined their reactions when he didn't return to them. He then thought of his parents and what they would see in him when he finally met them again, but as a teenager, and not an old man with grandchildren. This seemed to spark something in him.

The Death Eaters didn't notice the wand come flying back into Harry's hand, and they couldn't hear him say the words 'motus' over and over again.

But they did feel the shaking and rumbling of everything around them.

"Motus...Motus" Harry said a bit louder after taking another deep breath trying to block out the pain. He thought of Hermione, "Motus" he thought of Ron, "Motus" he thought of Dumbledore and Sirius his Godfather, "Motus."

Each time he said the word, the room began to shake and rumble louder and harder.

Large chunks began to fall from the ceiling as the rumbling began to get louder and louder. Some of the huge chunks fell on top of confused Dark Wizards crushing them to death. The floor began to develop large cracks as well. One of the cracks opened so suddenly that it swallowed a few of the Death Eaters that weren't ready to move out of the way.

Voldemort stared around at the room and was just as confused as the others until his eyes stopped on Harry who was still crumpled on the floor. His eyes stopped because he could sense a great energy coming from Harry. The room was in chaos as wizards were trying to shield themselves from the caving ceiling and at the same time just trying to stay on their feet from the violent shaking of the room. Voldemort didn't pay any attention to that though. He was more concerned with Harry and what he was doing to cause all of this destruction.

Voldemort in one swift motion flew over to where Harry was lying and could see immediately that Harry was in fact the source of the problem. With one quick snap of his fingers the wand Harry was holding flew out of Harry's hand and into his. The effects of the spell were still in motion however. The room continued to crumble and destroy itself.

Voldemort reached down and grabbed Harry by the robes and then flew the both of them to the entry way of the room. Harry was only partially conscious of what was going on. He continued to whisper "Motus" even though he didn't have a wand.

Voldemort grabbed him around the neck and held him at eye level which made Harry's feet dangle a few inches from the ground. He had done it so violently that Harry's glasses flew off of his head.

The pain from the curses, made him oblivious to the fact that he could hardly breathe, or even the fact that Voldemort's long fingernails were cutting into his neck causing a stream of blood to roll down his chest. By this time, the tiny holes that were all over Harry's body, had all bled enough to start showing through his clothes. It was a terrible site.

"Harry, I think we are finished playing games. I am impressed with what you have done today, but we are now finished. Say hello to your parents and give them my best,” Voldemort said with an evil look on his face. He then took out his wand and jammed the tip of it under Harry's chin.

He had begun to say the words when something crashed into him, causing him to hit the ground hard and his wand to fly several meters away back into the crumbling room.

It was Padfoot.

After knocking Voldemort to the ground, Sirius changed back to a human and immediately reached down and grabbed Harry. He was in shock at first when he looked down at his bloody Godson. He then began to run back through the corridor holding Harry who was now completely limp and had no idea what was going on.

Sirius had managed to pull his wand from his pocket and was holding it behind him and screaming "interitio," every few seconds, causing massive explosions that caused cave-ins behind him blocking the Dark Wizards from following them back through.

"Harry!" Sirius screamed as he glanced down at Harry to see if he would respond.

"Harry! Answer me!" Sirius said once again.

Nothing.

He could tell that Harry was still breathing, but he wasn't sure for how much longer.

He wiped the tears out of both of his eyes and kept running towards the end of the corridor. He was just short of exhausted. When he got there, he saw a large figure standing in his way.

It was Voldemort.

Sirius was in a bad position. He couldn't drop Harry to fight Voldemort, and even if he did, Voldemort was already waiting for him, he wouldn't be quick enough. But as he walked closer he noticed something.

Voldemort didn't have his wand.

Sirius was just a few steps from him before he finally stopped.

"Hello Mr. Black,” Voldemort said.

Sirius was in no position to attack him; he was using both of his hands to hold Harry and the hand that did hold the wand was right by Harry's head.

"I don't think you can save him, Black,” Voldemort said looking down at Harry. "If there is one thing that I can smell, it's death."

Sirius was beyond rage, and for a split second he considered dropping Harry for a quick attack on Voldemort, but he held back. He knew Harry might not survive it.

"Get out of my way,” Sirius said.

"Go ahead and take him. You didn't get to bury his parents as I recall, so at least you'll get to bury their son, and take a message to Dumbledore for me as well. I won't be stopped this time, and I won't be as forgiving as I was before. You and your friends are on the losing side Black,” Voldemort said coolly.

Sirius silently rushed past Voldemort and was at tears from the sheer rage he was feeling and from the sight of his bloody Godson that was lying limp in his arms.

He spotted Dobby coming down the stairs and yelled hysterically for him.

"Dobby! Take Harry back to the castle; get him to the nurse immediately."

Dobby already had tears in his eyes at the sight of Harry. He magically lifted Harry and began to move quickly up the steps with him.

Sirius made sure they were on their way and knelt down to a knee to try to catch his breath and stop himself from shaking. After a few minutes he changed to Padfoot and began the climb up the stairs even though he was just short of collapse from exhaustion.