To Have and to Want

"What do you want with that?" Harry asked. If Voldemort intended to simply kill him, he already would have.

"Ahh... I intend to learn your heart's desire."

"What's in it to you?" Harry asked. "Last time--"

"I have accounted for everything that happened last time," Voldemort said.

"Your mistakes, you mean? Maybe so, but what's to stop you from making new ones?"

"Silence, Potter," Snape said. He lowered Harry in front of the mirror.

Harry couldn't help his curiosity. He looked and saw himself.

Snape was behind him in the Mirror, just like the real Snape was. It took Harry several seconds to realize the difference between what he saw and what was around him.

There was no Voldemort in the mirror.

"What do you see, Potter?" Voldemort demanded.

"Everything as it is," Harry said.

"Don't lie!" The scar throbbed with pain as Voldemort dropped his Occlumency. Harry had got used to his scar being calm over the past two years and was now paying the price--or maybe the pain really was worse than it ever had been before.

"I see... a world without you," Harry admitted. If Voldemort tried Legilemency, he would succumb, and he wanted to save his strength for something else. What, he didn't know.

"I see," Voldemort said. "Very well. So Wormtail betrayed me... It's to be expected of him, wouldn't you say so, Potter? But no matter. Once again, Potter, you proved useful. The final part for the use of the Mirror--"

Harry, more to save time than anything else, ventured a guess. "It's a Horcrux, isn't it? The last one?" he added, hoping the reminder that his opponents had managed to destroy all others would anger him.

It didn't. Instead, Snape spoke up. "Very impressive, Potter. Unfortunately, that knowledge will die with you."

"Why didn't Dumbledore destroy it when he had it?"

"Aah..." Voldemort was suddenly pleased. "The fool didn't know. He may have suspected, but Severus took care of that--he didn't tell you anything, did he, Potter?"

Harry had to admit that Dumbledore did not. On the other hand... why didn't he ask about this from the portrait in McGonagall's office? He cursed himself for such short-sightedness.

"It wouldn't have mattered. We removed the Mirror from its storage in the Department of Mysteries a few days after that. When we managed to put Rufus Scrimgeour under the Imperius Curse, that proved an added bonus.

"Relying on that proved a mistake, but fortunately, not a very costly one," Voldemort continued. "In the end, it makes no difference. You are here... and so is the Mirror. Prepare to be reunited with your parents, Potter."

Voldemort raised his wand. "Ava--" he began.

Something flashed in the room and before Harry knew it, his wand was in his hand, one spell, and his bonds were gone. He rolled away before Voldemort could finish the spell.

The dark lord never did so, clearly afraid he'd break the Mirror if he missed. Harry now saw the source of mysterious light--it was Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix. Harry didn't know how he arrived, or why,but the timing couldn't have been better. Snape was shooting killing curses at it, but the red bird managed to dodge all of them.

Harry aimed at Voldemort. "Sectumsempra!" he cried, and in the next second, regretted it as the curse rebounded off Voldemort's shield and hurled back at him. Harry blocked it with a shield of his own.

"You are not using your wand, are you?" Harry asked.

"Haven't I told you I have encountered for everything, Potter? Avada Ked--"

Voldemort stopped again as Fawkes pushed the Mirror of Erised between them. Voldemort lifted it back into an upright position and looked at Snape, who continued throwing curses at Fawkes and missing--Harry saw he was also careful not to hit the Mirror.

And then, Harry half-heard, half-felt--he didn't know any way to describe it, but he was pretty sure it was meant for him alone, and that he alone could hear it.

Concentrate on what you saw in the Mirror, it said.

Huh? Harry thought. A world without Voldemort. Yeah, great, but how's that going to help?

Concentrate. Despite his doubts, Harry did so. A few things happened. Pain in his scar became more bearable, Voldemort stumbled for a second, Snape screamed yet another curse as Fawkes managed to avoid getting hit once again, and then, Harry knew instinctively what he had to do.

"Stupefy!" he yelled, not knowing why he was doing so--trying to use this against Voldemort was like trying to beat up Grawp with a pencil. The red bolt was ready to be dissipated on Voldemort's shield, but before it did so, Fawkes swooped, right down into it. Harry expected Fawkes to fall stunned, but something totally unexpected happened instead.

The red stunner nearly doubled in length and turned fiery orange. Voldemort's shield appeared to have no effect on it, it simply went straight through and set his robes on fire. Voldemort attempted to put the fire out, but couldn't, and the fire began spreading even further and consuming him.

"Severus!" Voldemort yelled. Harry turned, preparing to duel Snape. But the ex-Potions master raised his wand and exclaimed, "Reducto!", shattering the Mirror.

Voldemort screamed in fury, and Harry's scar erupted in pain once more. Harry fought it and watched as Snape fought another kind of pain as some erupting from the glass chunks lying about engulfed him and were blackening his body. Harry got a sudden desire to help Snape--unexpected, unexplainable--but he didn't know how. He turned from Snape to Voldemort, who was being slowly reduced to nothing. Just like in the Mirror, Harry thought.

Voldemort attempted to cast a spell, but his wand had already burned away. Harry thought it was over, when another wave of foreign thoughts entered him. This time, they were far more unpleasant.

Save me, they commanded.

No.

Save me. And unbelievable pain, not just in the scar but over his whole body, surged through him.

No.

Murderer.

Harry began to raise his wand. No. He stopped himself. Don't throw that word around--

Mur--

NO! And he tossed away his wand so he wouldn't do it accidentally.

Harry was shocked when he saw Voldemort--what was left of him--hold up another wand. It wasn't the one he tossed away--it was Snape's wand. Snape's dead body was lying on the floor among the pieces of the Mirror.

Harry remembered at the last moment that he also had a second wand on him. His mother's wand. He drew it.

"Avada Kedavra!" a roar came out of the fire, and Harry's world blackened and was gone.