Harry Potter and the Headmaster's Pensieve

Chapter 13 - The Eternal Duel

Harry had collapsed into a fitful sleep after destroying the cup, its effect amplified once the bit of Voldemort's soul had been released. He dreamt of his parents, of Sirius and Dumbledore, but their images were blurred and unfocused. He woke in the late evening covered in a cool sweat, unsure of why he felt so on edge. He emptied the memories of his meeting with Snape into the Pensieve, then cleaned up the shards of Hufflepuff's cup. He felt a pang of guilt as he vanished the sparkling shards of gold, but knew that destroying the instruments of Voldemort's power was more important than keeping the ancient relic intact. "Hufflepuff would have understood," Harry reassured himself.

He paced the length of the house, tired but unable to sleep. He thought of sending for Ron and Hermione, but the image of their happy faces Christmas morning stopped him. He wanted them to have a few more days to themselves without the pressure that sharing Snape's information would bring. He dropped back onto the couch, frustrated. He was glad to know where the two remaining horcruxes were, but Snape was right...he had to figure out how he was going to defeat Voldemort, and soon. Eventually he'd realize that his horcruxes were disappearing, and Harry had to be prepared once he had finally destroyed them all. Dumbledore had mentioned the strength of having a complete soul, but so far the only lead he had on that front was the "Realm of Souls" that Neville had discovered. Harry suspected that the veil in the department of mysteries was perhaps some sort of doorway to this realm, but Remus had been so sure that Sirius couldn't come back...since hearing the prophecy, Harry had thought that he might die in his quest to kill Voldemort, but he didn't want to risk going through the veil if he had no guarantee that Voldemort would follow him.

He returned to the threadbare couch, cradling his head in his hands. He'd been so focused on hunting down and destroying the remaining horcruxes that he hadn't even considered what would have to happen afterwards, what he would have to do to fulfill the prophecy. Neville had looked into it, and Hermione probably had, too, but if either of them had come up with some sort of solution, they hadn't shared it with him. He stretched, frustrated, and his eyes fell onto the stacks of books he had laid out before his meeting with Snape, and he snatched the first book eagerly. The golden letters of "Medieval Magic" flashed in his eyes as hurriedly turned the cover. It flipped automatically to a creased page near the center of the book, a chapter labeled "The Duel of Souls." Curious, Harry began to read.

In the height of the Dark Ages, the Wizarding community was chaotic. Purebloods blamed the Half-bloods' muggle ties for the illnesses that devastated entire villages, and Half-bloods accused the Purebloods of using the Dark Arts to destroy the muggles and letting their magic get out of hand.

The sport of Wizard dueling had gained popularity, but the number of wizards (both half-blooded and pureblooded alike) that had died from these duels was taking its toll on the Wizarding community. Malfurian di Gaunt, a member of one of the oldest and most respected pureblooded families and one of the most talented duelers of the age, watched with disgust as his fellow purebloods were slain by those he deemed as "muggle filth," and vowed to find a way to lessen the number of pureblood deaths. He delved into the dangerous waters of experimental Dark Arts, and produced a horrifying result - the Duel of Souls, also called the Eternal Duel.

The Duel of Souls utilizes the Quassian spell to detach the duellers' souls from their bodies and transport them to the realm of souls. It was inspired by the Avada Kedavra spell, but has the added effect of not being permanent. The duelers have exactly one hour to destroy as much of their opponent's soul before both are returned to their bodies. In most cases, the superior dueler would completely destroy their opponent's soul, leaving their body as nothing more than a shell of the person they were. The effect is the same as that of the Dementor's kiss. This was di Gaunt's intention, as he wanted the purebloods to still be able to procreate, even should they come off worse from the duel. Using the Imperius curse on the empty body, their family could still help them engage in relations with their spouse. This led to an increase in female duelers, as it was far easier for their bodies to be used as incubators.

Harry closed the book, stunned. He had never imagined that such a terrible spell could exist; that anyone would resort to such measures just for revenge or a difference of opinion. But he also saw the usefulness, and how it might be the only way he could destroy Voldemort completely. Could this have been what Dumbledore meant? It seemed like the darkest of Dark Magic, something Dumbledore himself never would have used. In such an arena, though, it would be far easier to destroy Voldemort's soul, especially in its already fractured state. Still horrified, Harry returned to the book, determined to learn how to initiate such a duel and how to win.

Harry spent the evening learning how to start the duel, as there seemed to be quite a bit of ceremony involved. The witch or wizard of purer blood must state "I challenge thee to a duel of souls, and may the best dueler win," which Harry thought might be a lot to have to say if Voldemort was tossing curses at him. The opponent could only refuse the duel by backing away and placing his or her wand on the ground, which Harry thought would be unlikely. The details of how to actually defeat an opponent in such a duel were unclear, though it was mentioned that magic was not involved as the opponents did not have wands or bodies in the typical sense. He knew, somehow, that this was how he would defeat Voldemort. His friends would not agree, but it wasn't their battle, wasn't their choice. If he died, he would do so knowing that he had done everything in his power to completely destroy Voldemort.

The next day, Harry sent for Ron and Hermione, reminding Ron to send messages to Neville and Luna of their location. He dreaded telling them of the location of the last horcruxes, as well as his decision on how to defeat Voldemort. They would support him, he knew it, but they wouldn't be happy about it. And he couldn't bear the thought of destroying the happiness that Ron and Hermione had no doubt built up together, but he knew he had to tell them what he was planning. He needed their support far more than anything else.

All four arrived around noon. They seemed happy to see him, if not a bit sad that their holiday was over. Harry busied himself with preparing a large lunch for them, doing anything and everything he could to avoid telling them the inevitable. He could tell that he wasn't being completely effective, thought, and as soon as he sat down at the worn kitchen table, Luna placed her hand over his.

"You seem really concerned about something, Harry. Is everything alright?" she asked in her characteristically dreamy voice. Harry slid his hand out from under hers after catching sight of Neville's shocked expression, fidgeting with his fork.

"I...well, I found out where the final horcrux is...besides Voldemort's snake, I mean," Harry started.

"Do you mean my grandmother's glasses?" Luna asked brightly, her eyes focused interestedly on Harry's face.

"Er, yeah, it sounds like it, from how the horcrux was described. It...it won't be easy to get to, thought," Harry replied.

"Well, anything's better than that maze for the cup," Neville piped up.

"Harry, how did you find out about the last horcrux? Surely we'd have heard about it last year if Dumbledore knew," Hermione asked cautiously, studying Harry's face. He swallowed, not meeting her eyes.

"I...I can't really say. Just that I know where it is now, and I think I know what we have to do to get through it. Hermione, do you remember that potion puzzle we had to get past first year?" Harry replied.

"You mean the one that Professor Sn-"

"Yes, that one. I think we'll have a lot of puzzles like that to get past....and I don't think they'll be easy or fun or anything less dangerous than the maze," Harry said hurriedly, cutting Hermione off. She fell silent, her eyes wide as she finally understood what Harry was telling them.

"But how do you-" Hermione started again.

"I can't say. It'd be too dangerous. It's better that you don't know," Harry said, cutting her off. She pursed her lips, frowning. Her eyes fell on "Medieval Magic" resting on the counter, and she glanced up at him, her expression melting from anger to fear. Harry took a deep breath.

"I...I've also found out where Nagini is. She...she should be easy enough to kill, I think. I'm not sure how, yet, but I'm sure we'll be able to," Harry said, not meeting Hermione's eyes. "And...And I also know what I'm going to do to defeat Voldemort. At least, I know what I'm going to try to do," he added.

"Harry, no! That spell...that duel...it's awful, not to mention illegal! Anyone who participates in such a duel now receives the Dementor's kiss as soon as they're sentenced! It's worse than the Unforgiveables, Harry. You can't!" Hermione exclaimed, tears filling her eyes.

"What are you two going on about?" Ron piped in, wrapping a consoling arm around Hermione's waist. She slumped against him.

"The Eternal Duel," Harry started, taking a sip of butterbeer. "It's a spell that separates the souls of two people from their bodies, so they can duel in the realm of souls. The winner typically destroys the soul of the loser," Harry explained, not meeting anyone's eyes. His words were met with stunned silence.

"Harry, do you think you can beat him?" Neville asked after a moment, breaking the silence. Harry turned to him.

"His soul is destroyed...weak, torn. I think that if there's anyway for me to beat him completely, it's that," Harry replied. His words were met with strangled sobs from Hermione.

"H-Harry, i-if you do that, it's not just that y-you'll die. Even if th-the ministry d-doesn't p-punish you, y-you could die. No! I-it wouldn't even b-be dying...i-it'd be s-so much worse than d-dying. You just w-wouldn't exist anymore. I w-won't let you do that!" she sobbed, breaking away from Ron and collapsing onto the table. Harry stood and walked to her side, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Hermione, you can't stop me. This is what I need to do...this is what Dumbledore meant when he said that Voldemort underestimates the power of a complete soul. Voldemort won't have taken this duel into account...it came about during the Dark Ages, a time he despises because of what the Muggles did to us Wizards. I need to do this, Hermione...my life - my existence - is nowhere near as important as making sure that that madman doesn't destroy everything and everyone. I'm doing this whether or not you help me, but I know I'll have a much better chance of succeeding and surviving if you do help me," he said softly, though his voice was quite clear in the silent room. Hermione's sobs had stopped, but she was still sniffling as she looked up at him.

"Harry, it's so dangerous...I don't think you realize how dangerous it's going to be...that spell, it's harder to cast that Avada Kedavra, you'll have to use every ounce of magical strength you have. And no one knows what you'll have to do once you're actually dueling....I don't know how we can prepare you for that," she said softly. Harry hugged her, whispering a soft "thank you" in her ear. He stood, sending an apologetic look to Ron, who was already gathering Hermione back into his arms.

"I know you can do it, Harry. You're the best," Luna said serenely, breaking the uncomfortable silence as Ron tried to console Hermione, tears still leaking from the corners or her eyes. Neville glanced from her to Harry, seemingly lost. Harry grinned weakly at Luna, unsure of where to lead them now. They had to prepare for Snape's trap, which would by no means be easy. And killing Nagini wouldn't be easy, even Harry did know where to go to find her. They could research that, though. But she'd have to be the last thing they did...Voldemort would want to confront Harry once Nagini was dead, because Voldemort would know that Harry knew about the Horcruxes. Also, Harry couldn't let him create any new horcruxes, so he might even need to duel Voldemort that night - it was a lot to think about.

Luna was the first to leave the table, picking up the plates of half-eaten food and bottles of tepid butterbeer and carrying them into the kitchen. Neville followed her, pulling out his wand and cleaning the plates with a nonverbal scourgify spell, reaching above her to stack the clean plates neatly into the cupboard. Harry murmured his thanks towards them as he stood and moved into the small living room, cradling his head in his hands and rubbing his temples. He heard the sound of chairs scraping against the floor, and felt the weight of someone settling down beside him. He didn't look up.

"You'll be able to do it, Harry. We'll help you," Ron's voice said softly from his right. Harry looked up at his best friend and smiled weakly. Hermione smiled at him from the floor at Ron's feet.

"So, where are Ravenclaw's glasses?" Hermione asked, her voice completely devoid of the despair it had held just minutes before.

"In the orphanage where Voldemort grew up, before going to Hogwarts. Dumbledore had put a memory of it in the Pensieve, so we should be able to apparate there. But getting there isn't the hard part, the traps are going to be dangerous and difficult to get past. I'm beginning to think that Voldemort didn't make them hard to destroy, just hard to get to - I doubt he could even get to them easily once he had them concealed. But he'd never make them impossible to get to...I'm sure he'd want to be able to retrieve then if he felt the need. That's what we need to focus on...if we get that, then all we need to do is kill Nagini, and then..." Harry's voice trailed off.

"What kind of traps will be set around the glasses?" Luna piped in, clearly eager to get people's minds off of what Harry had to do once the final horcrux was destroyed.

"Puzzles, I'd guess. Logic puzzles, probably armed with some foul type of magic ready to spring out if they're done incorrectly. Hermione, you're good at that sort of thing...maybe you can help us prepare," Harry offered. She looked up at him, smiling weakly before standing and making her way to her trunk, assuming her bossy teaching voice and she started to explain the various types of logic puzzles.

They practiced long into the night, Hermione throwing every sort of logic puzzle she could at the group. Neville did fairly well at some of the puzzles, but seemed to have real trouble with numbers. Ron seemed fairly overwhelmed, and kept gazing dreamily at Hermione when she would patiently sit beside him and try to explain the point everyone else had understood minutes ago. Luna, surprisingly, did very well, and often caught Hermione off-guard when she replied with the correct answer right away. Harry beamed at the two of them, happy to see that they were finally getting along in something. The group finally went to bed in the early hours of the morning, pleased with the progress they'd made.

The next morning, Hermione conjured an entire feast of scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, and fresh coffee. The group was famished, having skipped supper entirely in favor of practicing for Snape's traps. She continued to grill them on all sorts of logic puzzles, focusing especially on Ron. He was still struggling, and the cute, lost puppy dog look had now been replaces with the deer in the headlights look as Hermione grew increasingly more irritated at his inability to understand even the basics of what she was trying to teach him.

"Honestly Ron, it's not that hard! Just think about it...if Susan is shorter than Jan, and Jan is shorter than Mary, Mary has to be the tallest of the bunch, and we can continue with the puzzle from there! If you can't understand that, how would you know who lives in the blue house and drinks cherry soda?" she nearly shouted, prompting a high pitched screech from Pig as the small owl toppled to the base of his cage. Ron looked at her helplessly, but she only glared in return.

"Mione, I'm sorry! Give me a broomstick or a wand and I'll be great, but ask me to find the best way to get the chicken and the fox and the sack of corn across the river, and I go to pieces! It's not that I'm not trying, love, I'm just not as smart as you," he exclaimed poutily.

"That's rubbish, Ron. You're an excellent chess player, and you did well enough in school. Now if you just try to concentrate on the problem instead of staring at me, we'll get a lot further," she scolded, and his ears turned bright pink. Harry, Neville and Luna had to hastily turn their snickers into coughs when Hermione looked up at all of them defiantly.

After that, Ron seemed to buckle down and take a real interest in the task at hand, much to everyone's surprise. Hermione had given the rest of them some longer, more involved problems and set them to working on them while she tutored Ron, explaining how he should thing things through calmly and rationally instead of simply jumping at his first impression. By noon Hermione snapped her notebook shut with a satisfied grin on her face, collected the papers she had passed out to Harry, Neville and Luna and stacked them all neatly on the coffee table in the living room. She returned to the kitchen and prepared a meal of sandwiches and butterbeer for the group.

"I'm really proud of all of you," she said as she carried the dishes to the table, beaming at them all. "I really think we'll be alright going into this now."

"When d'you fink we'll be going," Ron said thickly through a large bite of his roast beef sandwich.

"As soon as possible, I'd expect," Hermione said, casting a glance over at Harry. "We don't want to waste any time...every second we wait increases the chance that Voldemort will know what we're up to, and possibly try to confront Harry before...before we need to."

"I want to get my grandmother's glasses back. My mother was very fond of them," Luna said serenely, taking a sip of butterbeer. Neville smiled softly at her, and Harry felt a pang of emotion go through him. Neville had Luna, Ron had Hermione. He...did he even have Ginny anymore? Just thinking of her made him ache...the way she felt in his arms, the way her lips felt against his...he shook his head, trying to clear her image from his mind. He couldn't endanger her like that, couldn't lose her as he'd lost his parents, as he'd lost Sirius. He jumped up from the table.

"I'll get the pensieve and show you where we're going," Harry said, eager to get away from the group. He dashed up the stairs and grabbed the heavy case holding the pensieve from the dusty shelf in the old nursery. He carried it back downstairs, where he found the rest of the group looking up at him eagerly. He placed the heavy box on the table and lifted the ancient looking basin from it. The image of the young Tom Riddle surface immediately, and Harry plunged into the memory. He felt his friends follow suit. He saw Dumbledore's tall profile as the headmistress of the orphanage led spoke with him and led him through the orphanage. A mixture of pain and rage filled him as he watched Dumbledore's eyes twinkling as he explained to Tom Riddle what he was. How he hated Voldemort, hated what he had stolen from him. The memory faded, and Harry was still seething as his friends discussed the boy in the memory.

"You could see he was going to be bad from the start...why'd Dumbledore let him in?"

"You know Dumbledore, he always saw the good in people..."

Harry heard their voices, but didn't take in what they said. He turned away from the pensive abruptly, snapping the lid shut a bit louder than was necessary. The chatter stopped.

"Let's go."