Rating:
PG
House:
Schnoogle
Characters:
Ginny Weasley Hermione Granger Ron Weasley Severus Snape
Genres:
Action
Era:
Multiple Eras
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire Order of the Phoenix
Stats:
Published: 11/19/2004
Updated: 12/24/2004
Words: 447,573
Chapters: 24
Hits: 89,177

Harry Potter and the Ring of Reduction

semprini

Story Summary:
As Harry starts his seventh year at Hogwarts, he becomes more directly involved in the fight against Voldemort than ever before. Seeing death far more often than any seventeen-year-old should have to, Harry struggles with the costs of leading the fight: seeing those closest to him suffer for following where he leads, the necessity of making moral compromises, the burden of knowing that a lapse in judgment could have devastating consequences... and the fact that his pursuit of the "nice, boring life" he so desperately wants but has never had must always be secondary to his pursuit of Voldemort. Blaming himself after a mistake lets Voldemort slip through his fingers, will Harry take one step too far in his attempt to fulfill the prophecy?

Chapter 23

Chapter Summary:
Voldemort has taken refuge in the ninth and last room of a Ring of Reduction, and plans to stay there in suspended animation for two hundred years, until 'the one with the power to defeat the Dark Lord' is gone. Harry and Hermione go in after him... but must first get past eight rooms, set up with spells and environments of Voldemort's choosing. And if Harry fails, Voldemort will re-emerge immediately, and with no one to stop him, resume his reign of terror.
Posted:
12/22/2004
Hits:
3,033


Chapter 23

The Ring of Reduction


They were suddenly inside, and the first thing Harry saw was a blur of movement, heading towards them. He registered in an instant that it was a four-legged animal of some sort, but a huge one. It had short, light brown fur with dark green spots, and it had to be seven feet tall and fifteen feet long, though he couldn't be sure, as it was moving toward him very quickly. Hermione touched the toggle of the time-stopping device, but the creature, or at least part of it, was inside its radius of effect. Harry had already decided that if there were any kind of creatures, he would first try the area-effect Imperius Charm. He quickly cast the Charm, hoping there would be an immediate effect, but there wasn't. The animal moved with lightning speed, and a huge paw slammed into Hermione, pushing her into Harry, knocking him across the room.


In an instant, he saw Hermione crumpled against the wall of the room, unconscious; it was as if she had Apparated there. Turning, wand at the ready, he saw the creature frozen in time, and he understood-it had knocked Hermione across the room, and the device had moved out of the creature's range and into Harry's. He had been deactivated by moving out of range, and then activated again.


He rushed to Hermione's side, and winced as he saw blood coming from nasty-looking slashes in her stomach, two large ones and a small one. To his amazement, the claws had ripped through all of her clothes, including the ones that were supposed to protect against physical damage. He saw the end of another gash in her right shoulder, and gingerly moved her to check on her back. There was a gash in the backpack; clearly it had protected her from further damage. The cut on her shoulder stopped where the backpack started.


He reached into the backpack for the first aid kit, now grateful that he'd had the first aid training. With a Severing Charm he cut open her robe, then the protective clothes, until her bra and bare stomach were exposed. He wanted to report what had happened, but had to use both his hands to help Hermione. He stopped the bleeding, applied pressure magically as he'd been taught, then held up his hand. "We were attacked by something really big, with claws. Hermione got slashed, the creature's frozen in time, and..." He trailed off, annoyed at his own stupidity: the same effect that was keeping the creature frozen was causing the same for the outside world, from his perspective. Ginny's face, he saw in his hand, was as still as a Muggle photograph. He couldn't start time to talk to the others, or get advice from Healer Haspberg, without also activating the creature. He was on his own.


He followed the procedure he'd been taught for healing cuts, though these were so big that he knew it would take a while. He then checked magically for internal bleeding, which there was. She could die, he thought in frustration, I don't know how bad her injuries are. He thought about using the Time-Turner and getting her to a hospital, but looking at the creature, he saw a major downside to it: the creature was right in front of the entrance, and would likely stay there if he left using the Time-Turner. That meant that the next time he tried to get in, it would be right on top of him, and would probably kill him before he could react. He thought of putting on the time-stopping device himself and trying to lure it away, but he realized it was so fast that once he activated the device, he wouldn't be able to de-activate it before the creature attacked him. We can't get back out the way we came either, he thought, not without huge risk. Using the Time-Turner was the same as giving up, and therefore giving up on the people two centuries in the future. He had to consider it only as a last resort. He didn't know Hermione would die, he just feared it.


So, what do I do, he thought. I've done all the first aid I can, there's nothing else I can... the bracelet! Yes! He quickly took it off. He knew she would be angry with him, as would Snape and McGonagall, but he didn't care. He had to save her, that was what mattered at the moment. He put it on her, then looked carefully for a control or switch, which he didn't find; once on, it seemed perfectly smooth. He moved it up her wrist as far as possible, in case all parts of it had to be touching her skin, but it did no good. Was it the case that you just put it on the injured person, and then it worked or didn't work? He didn't know what else he could do, so he had to conclude it hadn't worked.


He knew also that he didn't have infinite time to wait for her to get better, as the device would at some point run out. He didn't fancy his chances against the... he turned for a better look, and saw that it looked like a leopard, though perhaps three times the size of a normal leopard. As he looked at it, he vaguely recalled having read about the creature in the first-year text 'Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them,' but couldn't recall what the creature was called. He did remember that if it was the one he thought it was, it took a hundred wizards to kill one. While he was much stronger than average, he didn't want to take it on if he could avoid it.


He turned back to Hermione, angry with himself. I dragged her into this, and for all my wonderful spells that I come up with, there's nothing I can do for her... or is there? He suddenly remembered something that Healer Haspberg had said during their first aid training, that she had seen people perform nearly miraculous feats of self-healing by sheer power of will, by the belief that it would happen. He wondered if what he had in mind could work, then decided there was only one way to find out.


He cast the Imperius Charm on Hermione, willing her to wake up, if only a little, enough to hear what he was saying. Nothing happened for a half a minute, then she blinked, awake, but barely. "Hermione, can you hear what I'm saying?" he asked. She slowly nodded, eyes almost closed. "Good. Hermione, you're going to get better, and you're going to do it very fast. I want you to tell your body to get better faster than usual; you're going to be able to walk within twenty minutes. Tell your body to do whatever it has to do to make that happen. You can do it; you will do it." He stopped talking, continued the Imperius Charm, then sat next to her on the floor. He touched her forehead and held her hand, willing her to get better quickly. He spoke occasionally, telling her she would soon recover, trying to reinforce the message he had already sent.


Ten minutes later, she blinked again, and looked up at him. He smiled, the Charm still in effect. "How are you doing?" he asked.


"I feel wonderful," she said, "which I suppose is because of the Imperius Charm. I recognize this feeling. Why are you using it?"


"I'm using it to help you get better," he explained. "I'm telling you to tell your body to heal, and it's working. Your wounds are even getting better," he added, gesturing to her stomach; there was already visible improvement.


She smiled and said, "Healer Haspberg will start demanding that you be on call at St. Mungo's, since you're the only one who can do it. It is working, I can feel it working, I can feel myself getting better. I think I'll be able to get up in a few minutes or so. I know we can't stay long." She looked up, at the frozen image of their attacker. "Wow, a Nundu... how in the world did he even catch one, never mind get it in here? Good thing we're using the Bubble-Head Charms, that thing's breath can kill you."


"I forgot about that," he admitted. "We won't be able to start time moving again until we're in the second room. Well, until we've dealt with whatever's in the second room."


She reached for her wand, and began to fix the clothes Harry had Severed in his haste to reach her wounds. "Thank you, Harry," she said seriously. "Just to be safe, you should keep the Charm going until I'm able to get up and walk a bit."


He sent the next question rather than speaking it. Are you speaking and acting the same way you would if you weren't under the Imperius Charm?


Yes, she sent back. I'm in no pain and feel wonderful because of the Charm, but you're not affecting what I think or say, because that's not what you're trying to affect.


As she finished repairing her clothes, she noticed the presence of the bracelet on her arm; she reacted first with horror, then calmed down quickly and sent him a reproachful feeling. I should have known better than to trust you with that.


Again, that feeling of fear, he sent. Why?


Now, she spoke. "Because I don't want you to die."


"I know that," he responded, "but the feelings you've had connected to the bracelet have been more than that, like you're afraid for yourself too. It feels like there's something about it that you're not telling me. What is it?"


She answered immediately. "Snape lied to you about how it works. It does heal people who are almost dead, but the way it does it is by channeling the life energy of another person. Its purpose here was that if you were near death, I could bring you back, but I would die in the process. That was part of what was causing my fear; looking at it was like looking at my death. I wouldn't hesitate to do it, of course. I know you're angry, I can feel it. You need to stop, if you want to keep me under the Imperius Charm; I don't know if you can do both. Pay attention to Fawkes, he'll send you feelings of calm." Realizing that she was right, he did his best to do as she asked. His anger started to fade, replaced by sadness, as he tried to continue concentrating on sending love as part of the Imperius Charm.


She chose feelings to communicate next. I understand that you can't bear the idea of my deliberately sacrificing my life for yours. I can feel your feelings, you know I understand. But you also know that you can't die. If you die, he comes out now, or in two hundred years. Either way, many will die. You know that, and I know that doesn't make the feelings go away, but it's still true. I'm sorry, but you just have to accept it.


I wish I hadn't done this, he sent, not really meaning it. I could have chosen not to, it could end up costing you your life.


You had to do this, she reminded him. It only seemed optional, it really wasn't. And I don't want to die, but if I do, at least I know where we go. It's not so bad. But if I die, it's only me. If you die, it's a lot of people. Another one of your burdens, I know. Now I feel like Snape was right, and Bright was wrong. You've done so much, this decision was yours to make. You should never feel bad about that.


I understand you didn't tell me about the bracelet before because you knew how I'd react, he sent. But why tell me now?


You asked, she sent. I'm under the Imperius Charm, remember. The purpose is to heal me, but while I'm under it, if you make a request or a wish, I have to follow it. If I weren't under the Charm, I would have avoided your question, like I did before we came in. I just had no choice but to answer it.


He cringed in discomfort as he understood her point. He sent his feelings of regret and anger at himself. I know you didn't mean to coerce me, she sent, you just forgot. I'm happy you were able to use it to heal me, to make me heal myself. I wouldn't have thought of it.


"I come up with the spells when I have to," he said, half-jokingly. "Do you think you're okay to get up?"


"I think so," she replied. "You should lift the Charm, see how I do."


He did, and she grimaced in pain. "Wow, the Charm really does mask the pain. It makes you feel so great, you don't even notice it. Don't worry, it's not that bad, just a surprise." Sensing his feelings, she added, "Please don't feel bad about that. It was a new situation, you'd never had to use the Charm for a long time on someone you cared about. You learned, you'll know not to do it again."


He nodded. "Why was I not killed, then, when I put the bracelet on you?"


"Fortunately, there's a certain thing you have to do once it's on, for it to work the way it's supposed to. And no, I'm not going to tell you what it is. You don't need it for me now anyway, you can do what you did again. Come on, help me up."


He took both of her hands, and slowly pulled her to her feet. "That thing is nasty," she muttered, referring to the Nundu. "We'd have been done for, if not for this device. But the odd thing is, he knew we had this. Why put something in the first room that we can avoid by using the device?"


"Remember, it was in the range of the device," Harry pointed out. "That had to have been deliberate. He figured we wouldn't be able to use it, and he was right. It was just sheer luck that it happened to knock both of us out of range. I guess it likes to play with its food before it eats." They slowly walked towards the door leading to the second room.


"Can you imagine what would have happened if we weren't wearing these clothes? It probably would've ripped a big chunk out of me." Harry found that he definitely didn't want to think about that.


They continued walking until they were in front of the second door. Harry put his hand on it, and it opened to reveal an inferno. They could see nothing but fire, the most intense fire Harry had ever seen. "Well, at least we can do this," he said. "But again, this is strange, he knows I have the area-effect fire-suppression charm. Why do this?"


She shrugged. "Maybe he thinks it won't work if it's intense enough. I'm sure he's wrong, of course. Ready?"


"The charm will go on as soon as we're in," he said. "Seems strange to walk into a fire, but... okay, here we go." Wands in their hands, they walked through the barrier into the second room.


Harry felt the fire for a fleeting instant before the fire-suppression charm took effect, creating a large, fire-free area around them. The door closed behind them. "Okay, you should turn off the device now," he suggested. "It's not going to help in here."


She did so, and within a second he felt a sharp pain in his right arm, then another in his left thigh. "Turn it back on!" he shouted, and she did.


"Look," he said, pointing to his arm. Something metallic was sticking out of it. He had never seen anything like it before; it was roughly spherical, but with razor-sharp edges protruding all around it. "It's not the same, but it reminds me of those things ninjas throw, in those movies."


"I tried not to watch movies where lots of people got killed, but I have read about what you mean. It does look like it's the same principle, yes. Sit down, I'll take care of it."


"There's one in my leg, too," he added, wincing in pain.


She took out the first-aid kit, and applied a local anesthetic to his arm, then removed the metal ball, using her wand. She moved his robe aside, and unbuttoned enough of his protective shirt to move it aside to get to the wound. It took her only a minute to repair it. She started on the one on his leg; the metal was embedded in the side of his left thigh. She removed the metal, then pulled his robe off. "You have to get these off, or at least past the wound," she said, gesturing to the protective clothing that covered his lower half. Feeling his embarrassment, she added, "You're still wearing underwear, Harry, and this is no time for modesty anyway. And you saw my bra, after all."


"Okay, I see your point," he admitted. "Just a usual reaction, I guess." He pulled the pants down to his knees, and she took less than a minute to heal the wound.


As he stood and put his robe back on, he said, "I guess we're going to have to use the Repulsion Charm too. But I can't do both."


"I'll extend mine around you, too," she said. "Stay right behind me, I'm pretty sure it'll work. Once I start time going again, we'll just walk straight, and we'll talk to Neville and Ginny, let them know what's happened. I'll tell them about this room, you tell them about the last one. Ready?"


She pushed the toggle of the device, and they moved forward again. He felt his hand tingle, and he looked at it. "We're fine, we're going through the second room now." He went on to describe what had happened in the first room. They reached the door leading to the third room, and stopped in front of it to complete their accounts, Harry now standing against the wall so Hermione could protect him with her body and Repulsion Charm. He saw Ginny speaking as he spoke to her; he knew that she was repeating what he said to the others as he said it, to save time.


After he finished, she said, "Snape is surprised the second room isn't worse than it is; Voldemort should know you could get through it. I see what he means."


"Me, too," Harry agreed. "Maybe they'll get worse as we go along. I'm opening the door to the third room now."


"Sand," Harry reported. "All I can see is sand."


"Snape says it's probably quicksand," Ginny reported. "He says that Voldemort mentioned once that he liked the idea of quicksand. He also says there must be something else in there that you can't see now, it wouldn't just be quicksand. That's too easy to get past with a Hover Charm."


Harry saw Snape's point. "Okay, I'll reach in with a hand, see if the air's any different." He put his left hand through, and yanked it back immediately, in considerable pain, grimacing.


"What?" exclaimed a very concerned Ginny.


"Extreme cold," said Harry. "There's no way we can get through it without some kind of protection against it, we'd freeze solid before we got to the next door."


"Snape's surprised again," said Ginny, "because he says that while this is difficult, it's not overly difficult. Like the last one, he expected something worse. He thinks the temperature is absolute zero."


Hermione turned to him. "McGonagall says I should do the Hover Charm for both of us, you should generate the heat to protect us." Harry had learned the spell from the Aurors, who sometimes had to operate in very cold environments; he assumed that Hermione knew it too, but that he should do it because a lot of magical power would be necessary to compensate for a temperature of absolute zero. "The hard part will be the transition from this room to the next. We'll have to jump into the next room, as high as we can; I'll switch from the Repulsion Charm to the Hover Charm, and you from the fire-extinguishing spell to the heat-generating one. You can't switch your spell too soon, or we'll burn to death; if I do mine too late, we could get trapped in quicksand. Are you ready?"


"Ready," he affirmed.


"Okay, on three. One,-"


"Wait a minute," he interrupted her. "When you say 'on three,' does that mean the one just after three, or-"


"I've never understood why that's not clear," she said, exasperated. "On three means just that, on three. You say, one, two, then you go when you would say three."


"Just making sure," he said defensively. "A misunderstanding right now could kill us, you know."


"I just never saw that it could work another way, but yes, it's better to be careful. I'll say, one, two, then on three, we jump. Okay?"


"Okay," he agreed.


"Ready? Okay. One, two, three!" They jumped, and Harry felt a brief blast of extreme cold before activating the heat-generating spell. But in the same instant, he felt himself being yanked downward, and before he knew it, he was thigh-deep in quicksand. He knew Hermione hadn't done the Hover Charm incorrectly, since he had the feeling of being pulled down rather than falling.


"Harry!" screamed Ginny in his head; he tried to ignore it, since he had to focus on getting he and Hermione out of the situation. "Hold onto me, and do the heat spell!" he shouted at Hermione. As soon as he felt the extra heat from her wand, he ceased his own heat spell and conjured an Attaching Rope, as the Aurors had taught him; the rope had the property of sticking to anything it touched, except for the person who conjured it. Without Hermione's Hover Charm, they were starting to sink faster; the quicksand was up to his chest as he magically sent the end of the rope up to the ceiling. Hermione grabbed the fabric of his robes around his right shoulder, causing him to wince in pain as she pressed the spot where the metal ball had hit him in the second room, then she was able to get her left arm around his neck. The added weight pushed him down further; now only his neck and arms were above the surface of the quicksand.


Firmly holding onto the Attaching Rope, he was no longer sinking, but it was taking all his strength to hold onto the rope; it still felt like they were being pulled down, and he knew he didn't have enough physical strength to pull them up. Remembering the obstacle in the Triwizard maze that had made him feel as though he would fall into the sky, he decided that something like that was necessary. Not stopping to wonder whether it existed or had ever been done before, he silently cast a spell, and got what he wanted: the ceiling suddenly became the floor, and he and Hermione plunged toward the ceiling. Not expecting to suddenly fall upwards, Hermione yelled in alarm, but continued to hold onto Harry's neck. Fortunately, the quicksand didn't fall upwards with them, but stayed where it was.


As they fell, Harry modulated the degree of the spell, and they started falling more slowly. Just as they were about to hit the ceiling, Harry modulated it further, and they were hovering in midair. Hermione reflexively threw her free arm around his chest and clung to him, not sure what would happen next.


Harry let go of the rope, and it floated freely. His left hand free, he looked at it. "The... gravity, I guess, of this room seems to be different," he reported. "Hermione did a Hover Charm, but we fell anyway. I did an Attaching Rope to stop us sinking, then I did... well, I don't know what it is, but I reversed our gravity, and we fell up. I've got it just now so it compensates for whatever Voldemort did. We're floating near the ceiling now, Hermione's doing the heat."


"Not very well," she added, speaking into her own hand. "I'm doing it the best I can, but it feels like it's zero centigrade, it's pretty cold."


"Snape's mad at himself, he says he should have thought of that, that the room would have extra gravity," said Ginny. "McGonagall's saying we can save the blame for later, now we have to get you out of that room."


"Hard to argue with that," agreed Harry, still talking into his hand. "The only thing I can think of right now is another Attaching Rope. Hermione, start wrapping this one around us. When I conjure the new one and send it to the wall, the room's gravity will take over for a few seconds, and we'll have to hang onto this rope."


Hermione let go of Harry and started wrapping the rope around them, then clung to Harry again, left hand with wand around Harry's shoulders and neck, right hand holding the rope. Harry hoped he could manage the dexterity to do what he had to do, since one hand would be supporting his weight on the rope, and the other would have a wand in it; he had to use that hand to throw the new rope against the far wall. "Ready?" he asked Hermione.


"As I'll ever be," she responded.


Harry conjured another Attaching Rope; gravity pulled hard, and he barely managed to hold onto the first rope as he grabbed the new one at one end. He sent the other end hurtling toward the door, guiding its direction with magic; it hit and stuck to the wall a few feet above the door. He resumed the gravity spell, and he and Hermione were floating again. He flexed his left hand, which felt raw from the cold, and supporting so much weight. He looked into it and said, "Okay, the second rope is in position. We should be able to pull ourselves over."


They let go of the old rope and used the new one, Hermione still holding onto Harry, Harry pulling them along the rope. They were still hovering, but slowly descending, as the rope was attached to the wall at a lower spot. After a minute, they arrived at the far wall. "Okay, we're there," he said into his hand. "We're hovering in front of the door; I'm going to open it to see what's in the fourth room."


He put his hand to the door, and it opened. It looked completely blank, with nothing in it at all; he reported it to Ginny. After a short pause, she said, "Snape says, 'whatever is in there will no doubt manifest itself once you enter. You should prepare to react to whatever might suddenly appear.'"


"Tell him, I will," he replied.


"We have to go in together," said Hermione, "since it takes both of us to stay alive in this room. Ready?"


"On three," he said. "One, two, three!"


They pulled themselves through the door, and fell to the ground as Harry gradually diminished the spell he was using to compensate for the extra gravity in the third room; Hermione turned off the heat generated by her wand. Harry looked around, alert for danger, but there was none.


Suddenly, Voldemort appeared in the center of the room. "Welcome, Potter."


Harry immediately cast the Imperius Charm, but it had no effect. He ran forward, thinking it had to be because Voldemort was out of range. Sending a message of caution mixed with the knowledge that he wouldn't heed it, Hermione ran as well, just behind him. He tried the Charm again from a range of ten feet, and again it was ineffective. As he wondered why, Hermione spoke. "It's an image, Harry." She started speaking into her hand quietly.


"I have become immune to that spell of yours!" said Voldemort loudly, sneering at what he knew would be Harry's attempt to use it on him. "Well, perhaps not. I am a mere memory. Soon you will be as well, simply in a different way." Hermione continued speaking; Harry realized that she was repeating Voldemort's words to Neville, who would then relay them to the others.


"I would applaud you for getting this far, Potter, except that I have not made it as difficult as I could have. If you are here it means that Pettigrew, worthless creature that he is, provided me one final service: his betrayal of me. I knew he would go to you, and the spell I put on him only made him want to do it all the more. Of course, I knew he would travel as a rat. You could let me rest, and live out a long and happy life with many children," continued Voldemort, with an especially nasty sneer, "but you came here instead, as I knew you would. You may be strong, but you are terribly easy to manipulate. That is no less true now than it was two years ago, when your beloved godfather met his untimely demise because you were too foolish to think clearly." Harry felt anger building, and he suddenly received strong feelings of calm from Hermione. He's trying to bait you, she reminded him. Focus on love, stay focused. Calming down, he did his best to do that as Voldemort continued speaking.


"Harry Potter, boy of destiny," Voldemort went on. "'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord,' says the prophecy. You became obsessed, you had to find me, to fulfill the prophecy. But you did not understand that the prophecy has already been fulfilled; you 'vanquished' me the day I killed your parents. Especially now, you cannot do so again. I saw in your mind that you are convinced that you will, which is foolishly wrong. That you would subject yourself to this danger only proves that you are not in your right mind. You would do much better to turn back, live your quiet and happy life, and leave fate to itself. But of course, you will not. I suspect you did not even consider the question of whether to come in here, that you knew you would, and did not consider the counsel of those who do not blindly agree with your every thought.


"You had your chance, and you didn't manage it. Now you have no chance at all. Well, that is not true. You have one more chance, simply a different type. You can do what you have refused to consider. You can turn back; I generously offer this warning. Entering the fifth room will seal your fate. You will not die there, but you will know immediately and unquestionably that you are doomed. I do not expect that you will do as I suggest, but the offer is there anyway. I tell you only that if you do not do as I suggest, you will soon wish you had. And when you do die, I will be awakened, and resume my rightful place as the most powerful wizard in the world.


"So, there you are. Do as you will." He stopped speaking, and the image vanished.


Harry exchanged a look with Hermione, then looked at his hand. "I want to know what Professor Snape thinks."


"It does not tell us much more than we already knew," said Ginny, repeating Snape's words verbatim. "He is overconfident, which is amply illustrated by the fact that he used an entire room for this purpose."


"Basically, he's taunting me," observed Harry.


"Yes, which is another sign of weakness," said Snape through Ginny. "Even inducing you to come here was such an indication. Nothing has changed, Professor. There is still no reason to believe that you cannot handle whatever is to come."


"Does he believe that whatever's in the fifth room will finish us?"


"Yes, he does; the Dark Lord does not make empty threats. But he does miscalculate, as we have seen."


"Ginny, would you ask Professor Flitwick if he thinks it's even possible for the doors to be set so that they can't open?"


Now repeating Flitwick's words, Ginny said, "I don't think they can be set that way, but I also wouldn't have thought it was possible to get a Nundu in there. I have a feeling that whatever it is, that's not it."


"Me, too," said Harry to himself. To Ginny, he asked, "Ginny, how are you doing?"


She gave him a brave smile. "I'm all right, as long as I don't think too much. It probably helped that even though it's been almost a half hour for you, it's been only ten minutes for me. Keep using that device, and it'll be over before I know it."


"I'll see what I can do," he said. "By the way, there's something I think I should mention. When we entered the third room and we fell into the quicksand, you yelled into your hand-"


"Yes, I know, I'm sorry," she cut him off. "McGonagall and Snape already talked to me about that, said that it could have distracted you, maybe enough to get you killed. I'm really sorry. I just reacted, because I could see from your face that you were in trouble. This is really hard for me, too, you know."


"I know," he assured her. "I just wanted to make sure you knew."


"Professor McGonagall says to remind you that he said the fifth room wouldn't kill you. Even if it looks like he's right and you seem doomed, there's always the Time-Turner. He doesn't know that you have that."


"That's true," said Harry. "Not that I would have stopped anyway, just because he decided he wanted to gloat in advance. I'll just be extra-ready. Hermione?"


She nodded, and they walked forward, up to the door of the fifth room. He opened the door, and again, they saw nothing. "I don't suppose it's more taunting?" Harry joked to Hermione. "Like, 'ha, ha, made you look?'"


"Somehow, I don't think so," she said, standing near the edge of the door to see in better. She talked to Neville on her hand, reporting what they saw. "Harry, I'm going in first. If whatever it is-"


"No way," he said vehemently. "I will, if anyone will. I can defend myself better."


"He said we wouldn't be killed here, and I think it's probably true," she pointed out. "I'm just thinking, what if it seals us in there somehow, or does something else strange that we can't imagine. You can still get back out-"


"We can both get back out, with the Time-Turner," he reminded her.


"Yes, but still, I'd feel better. Please don't argue with me. I promise to jump right back through if something happens."


With deep reluctance, he nodded. She stepped forward, and seemed to walk right into a wall. Harry put a hand through the opening, or tried to, and he too came up against a wall. Having a sudden idea, he took Hermione's hand, and successfully moved their hands through the opening. "It looks like it has to be both of us," he said.


"It seems like that's not really good," she suggested nervously. "Whatever happens, he wants to make sure it happens to both of us."


"It'll be okay," he assured her. "Ready?"


She nodded. Hyper-alert, ready to use his wand at the first sign of anything, he stepped through the door, her hand on his shoulder. They were through... and to Harry's astonishment, not only was the wand suddenly gone from his hand, but his clothes had disappeared as well. He and Hermione turned to each other, shocked, and reflexively used their hands to cover themselves. The same thing had happened to Hermione, he saw, and it included the pack with the supplies, the extra wands... he looked at his neck, and saw that the Time-Turner was gone as well. A sickening feeling of dread overtook him, and he wasn't sure whether it was his or hers.


He held up his left hand, keeping his right hand where it was. "Well, now we know what the fifth room does."


Ginny stopped his explanation. "We saw," she said. "Everything suddenly appeared just outside the Ring. Your clothes, the artifacts, Hermione's backpack. They appeared at exactly the places they would be at if you were wearing them, and fell to the ground. Harry, this is really bad." He felt fear, but she was clearly more frightened that he was. Hermione, talking to Neville on her hand, was having difficulty in looking at her hand while both arms were busy covering herself.


"Harry, Professor McGonagall wants to know if you and Hermione are using your hands to cover yourselves."


"Of course we are," he said, mildly annoyed. "I think most people would be."


"She's saying the same thing to Hermione, through Neville. She says, quote, 'Put your hands at your sides, and look at each other."


Too stunned to answer immediately, he finally managed, "Why?"


"She says, 'You have much greater problems than being unclothed. Your full attention and focus must be on your situation and your surroundings, so you must adapt to the current situation. You cannot accomplish anything with your hands where they are now.' Honestly, I think she's right, Harry. I know it's strange, but you have to be able to focus on getting out of there."


"Easy for her to say, she's not the one standing here naked," grumbled Harry. "Don't repeat that," he added quickly.


"Sorry, too late," said Ginny. "I'm repeating everything; if you want something not to be repeated, you have to tell me first."


He sighed, and turned to Hermione. This has to be the weirdest situation we've ever been in, he sent. And, really embarrassing.


I'm embarrassed too, she sent. Speaking, she added, "But McGonagall's right, we have to get past this. We'll move our hands away at the same time, all right?"


"On three?" asked Harry, and they smiled. "One, two, three."


They moved their hands to their sides, and Harry found he had competing impulses to look and not look. I feel the same way, she sent. I feel like it's rude to look, but I know we have to get used to it. Don't worry about it, and I'll try not to as well. He got feelings from her that he knew she wasn't deliberately sending, a mix of embarrassment and determination to rise above it. Feeling her determination motivated him to try to get past it as well.


More embarrassed as soon as the thought occurred, Harry accidentally sent his concern about unintended physical reactions. The first reaction he got back was amusement. If that happens, don't worry about that, either. I've learned that men don't have total control over that.


More like, almost no control at all, he sent. Did she say how long we were supposed to look?


Until we get used to it, she sent. Until we can focus on our situation without being tempted to take glances, or think about it much.


That could be a while, he responded.


She sent him back part of what he'd inadvertently sent her. You're attracted to me, she sent, and you don't want to admit that you are because it makes you feel bad thinking about how Ginny would feel. I understand, but you shouldn't worry about that, either. I'm attracted to you, too, right now. It's the most natural thing in the world to react like that when you're with a naked person of the opposite sex. That's part of the reactions we have to get used to. You shouldn't feel bad; again, it would only be a problem if you were thinking how you preferred me to Ginny, and I can tell you're not thinking that. So, don't worry.


I'll try, he sent. Funny thing about people, how I can be worried about us having lost our clothes when it looks like we can't possibly survive this. He looked a little more, then said, "Okay, I think I'm as used to it as I'm going to get for now. So maybe I can stop thinking about us being naked, and instead, think about this unbelievably grim situation we seem to be in."


"Yes, it looks really bad," she agreed. "Obviously, there's no going back. The problem is, of course, that there's probably equally bad, or worse, waiting for us. Any ideas on what we can do about it?"


"I think," he said, "we're going to find out exactly what, if any, wandless magic I can do. I mean, I did say that I came up with stuff when I had to, but this is a totally different situation. But who knows, remember, children do wandless magic when they're in life-threatening situations. I know it looks extremely bad, but I'm not going to give up."


She gave him an encouraging smile. "I'd be amazed if you did." Looking into her hand, she said, "Neville, ask Professor Flitwick if there's any chance at all of Disapparating out of a Ring of Reduction." She listened for the answer, and nodded glumly. "I didn't think so, I just wanted to make sure." Harry was surprised he hadn't heard the answer in his head from Ginny; she usually repeated everything any of the professors said.


After a minute, Ginny spoke. "Professor Snape says, 'Please inform Professor Potter that while I did not foresee this particular circumstance, I remain confident that he will find a way to do what is necessary to escape the situation and defeat the Dark Lord.'"


Harry raised his eyebrows. "You did say 'Snape,' right?"


Hermione chuckled as Harry waited for the response. "He says, 'I will forgive his little joke at my expense if he comes out of there carrying the Dark Lord, unconscious, in his arms.'"



"Tell him I'll do my best, but I find the kiss you promised to be a better motivator."



"He just rolled his eyes," Ginny reported. "But I'm glad to hear it."


"So, ask Professor McGonagall, what's the situation regarding wandless magic? I've never heard much about it one way or the other, but I know it can be done, I've done it several times without meaning to. If there's a way to get out of here by blowing someone up, then we're all right. I just need to get mad enough."


After a slight pause, Ginny said, "Professor McGonagall says, 'Relatively little is known about it; what little is known works in your favor. The more life-threatening the situation, the more likely attempts at wandless magic will be met with success. The best thing to do is imagine that you have a wand in your hand, and do what you would normally do."


"Sounds reasonable to me," agreed Harry. "Ready?" he asked Hermione.


She spoke rather than sent, but he could feel her fear through their link. "Do you really think we have a chance? I mean, look at us. I don't mind admitting-"


"You don't have to, I can feel it," he said. "And yes, I think we have a chance. Something just occurred to me. The reason the phoenixes made this link for us was that they thought it could save our lives. Well, it hasn't done that yet, so it's reasonable to think that it will still happen, which means we'll get through at least one more room. But I also think it means we have a chance to go all the way. I think 'saving our lives' means 'making sure we get through this.'"


"An interesting point," she admitted. "That's definitely what you'd call looking on the bright side. Okay, that's enough for me, for now. Let's go."


They walked to the door of the sixth room. "Harry, I just noticed something," said Hermione, looking at him intently. "You still have your glasses. Why is that?"


Harry was so used to his glasses, he hadn't even noticed that they should have been gone. "I don't know. Maybe... ah, okay, I do know. It's another taunt. It's his way of saying, 'I'll let you keep your glasses, for all the good it'll do you. See, you should have listened to me.'" His face became a mask of determination. "He's going to regret that. Come on, let's go."


He opened the door, and they looked inside to see yet another empty room. "Well, there's no raging inferno, so I'd say it's fairly good so far," remarked Harry. Hermione reported in on her hand, then nodded her readiness to proceed. They entered the room, Harry again at full readiness... to do what, he wasn't sure. But he was ready, he knew that.


Wondering when something was going to happen, they slowly walked to the center of the room. "Remember, we have to turn right at the center to get to the door to the seventh room," Hermione reminded him. They reached the center, and the lighting started to dim. As he was about to say something to Hermione, who was on his right, he heard a voice from his left. "Harry!"


He turned, and gaped to see a smiling Sirius Black standing a few feet away from him. "S-S-Sirius?" he stuttered.


"Harry? What's going on?" asked Ginny in his head, obviously having seen his expression in her hand.


"Just a minute, I'll explain later," he said, staring at Sirius.


"Yes, it's me," grinned Sirius. "I'd give you a hug, but, you know, it doesn't quite seem right at the moment. Are you sure you aren't having one of those dreams where you forget to put your clothes on?"


Harry chuckled. "Yes, it kind of feels like that. What are you doing here? I thought... well, I mean..."


"That I'm dead," Sirius clarified. "Yes, that's true, but we are allowed to visit once in a while, so you're my first visit. Okay, maybe it's not such a great compliment, since now that Dumbledore's gone, the only people I'd really want to visit are you and Remus. Well, and there is old Snivellus, I could say hello to him, just to bother him. Hang around for a bit, make him worry that I'd start haunting him."


Harry chuckled; Sirius's sense of humor was much like he'd remembered. "Well, he's a lot better now, though," explained Harry.


"Yeah, but he still hates me, though. Not that I care, but you'd think he'd let some things go. But let's talk about you! Been having quite a busy life, I see. I really envy that. Twelve years in Azkaban, then when I finally did get free, became a prisoner in that rat-hole of a house, all because Dumbledore was so 'concerned' about me. If he was so concerned, he'd have let me live! Live, not just survive. People need to be useful, and not just so they can order some demented house-elf around. You know that, look at what you've been doing. At the center of the fight against Voldemort, not safely rotting in your room at Privet Drive. There are worse things than death, Harry. Dumbledore didn't understand that, but I think you do."


Harry was surprised that Sirius was this bitter, but then he remembered, Sirius had an unusually hard life. "He meant well."


Sirius shook his head. "Maybe he did, but he didn't act like it at times. You should know that, all those times he left you to stew for the summer with the Dursleys, when the Weasleys would have loved to have you. Hell, he could have left you at Hogwarts! You'd have been just as safe, and it would have been a lot more fun. People could have visited you, you could have learned more, and Dumbledore, who supposedly cared about you so much, could have spent time with you, helped you deal with being Harry Potter. If safety was the only reason for your staying at the Dursleys', then it wasn't a very good one."


Harry had wondered the same thing before, but didn't want to admit it. "Maybe he just didn't think of it."


Sirius laughed. "Hell of a thing not to think of, when it could have made your life so much less miserable. And speaking of that, did he really have to leave you with the Dursleys in the first place? He knew perfectly well what they were like, McGonagall even warned him that they weren't the kind of people who would treat you well. He said that they were the only family you had. Ridiculous! I was your family, Harry, and we weren't related. The Weasleys are your family, and you aren't related. The dictionary may say family are the people you're related to, but I know better, and so should he have. Family are the people who love you and care for you, who want to be with you, who don't consider it a burden to have you around, no matter for how long. The Dursleys were never that, to put it mildly. He said it was to protect you, but there were other ways. All those long days, those times you wished you were somewhere else, all the times you were made to feel bad for no reason, he was responsible for that. If he had really cared for you, he would have made sure you didn't suffer like that. He would have made sure you were happy instead of making sure that you just survived."


Harry's heart was beating faster; he heard Ginny saying something in his head, but he ignored it, caught up in the feelings that were overtaking him. He didn't want to think that way about Dumbledore, but Sirius had said several things that he himself had wondered about before. He knew Dumbledore cared for him, but surely it was better to be placed in some risk rather than be subjected to the childhood he had been subjected to. "He may have made a mistake," Harry admitted. "But he meant well."


Sirius snorted. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions, you may have heard. But I can see why you'd sympathize with that point of view. You meant well, when you ran off to the Ministry two years ago. You meant to save me from being tortured, which is a very good intention. But, look what happened."


Harry's face fell; Sirius couldn't be suggesting what it sounded like he was... could he? "Do you mean... you think what happened was my fault?"


"Well, you meant well," said Sirius, imitating Harry's tone when he had said it about Dumbledore a minute ago. "I don't have to tell you that, Harry, you know it already. You've told yourself dozens of times. You eventually stopped, but only because you'd have made yourself crazy if you continued. People can rationalize anything, if you give them enough time. But you know the truth. If you'd just stopped and thought, you wouldn't have gone running off, and I wouldn't have had to go and get killed trying to save you. And if you had tried to avoid the dreams instead of welcoming them, it wouldn't have happened either. You did what you wanted, with no regard for the consequences."


Ginny's voice was fading, now almost gone; his whole focus was on Sirius, and the sadness welling up. He fought back tears as he answered. "I... I thought you would have..."


"You thought I wouldn't say things like this," said Sirius, looking at Harry as though he could see through him. "You thought I'd be all heavenly and forgiving and Dumbledore-y. I'm not saying I couldn't forgive you, but you have to face up to what you've done, all of it. This is your history, this is who you are. You've never stopped rushing into action without thinking, doing things that a little thought would have helped you understand could get people killed. Or even yourself; look at what you did with Ginny and that Portkey in Hogsmeade. Rushing in without thinking. You didn't even seriously consider not doing this, and look where you are, without a chance of getting out alive. You have to own up to it, and then maybe I can forgive you."


Harry felt the tears coming, and tried to stop them, but couldn't. "I'm sorry," he managed to get out. "I'm so sorry..."


"Well, that does me a lot of good, doesn't it?" sneered Sirius. "But as long as you're being sorry, it shouldn't only be me that hears about it. I think you may owe them an apology, too." He gestured to Harry's right, where Harry saw, to his horror, the girl and three boys who had been killed in the Three Broomsticks in the first attack on Hogsmeade.


The tears stopped, if only because Harry was so astonished. He had forgotten where we was and what he had been doing; he was totally preoccupied by what he was experiencing. "What are you doing here?" he asked them.


"We were your first sacrifices, to your cause," said one. "The first of many." More Hogwarts students suddenly appeared behind them, the ones killed in the assassin attack.


Lisa Turpin stepped forward. "It turned out that criticizing your friends brings the death penalty. If I'd known, I'd have kept my mouth shut. My father was right, and you know it. You should have left, conducted your crusade where there weren't so many innocent lives at risk. All of us were seventeen or younger, our lives cut short because of you. And it turns out to be all for nothing, after all. Yet you keep telling yourself you're doing the right thing."


"I didn't kill you!" Harry shouted through his tears, fighting the urge to run.


"You might as well have," she shot back. "I don't have to tell you this, you know it. You just put it out of your mind, in the same place you put all the things you don't want to face up to, that you tell yourself you have to do, for your cause."


"Things like us," added a female voice from behind. Harry whirled to see Rita Skeeter and Cornelius Fudge. "We were innocent, or at least, didn't deserve to die. But you condoned our deaths, you not only let our killer go free, you helped him, you supported him."


"You didn't like us, so you didn't mind seeing us die," said Fudge, his gaze boring into Harry. "You protected Bright and not me because you like him and you didn't like me, that's all there was to it. You were hoping I'd die, so you could get a new Minister, maybe one you thought was better-"


"That's not true!" shouted Harry, breathing heavily, tears occasionally rolling down his face.


"You can't lie to us," said Skeeter contemptuously. "We know better. We're dead, remember? Maybe you didn't think it consciously, but it was in the back of your mind. And you were happy I died, don't deny that."


Sirius stepped forward. "This is your legacy, Harry. The path of destruction you've left in your wake. The consequences of your carelessness, your impulsiveness, your moral compromises-"


"No!" Harry screamed; he felt as though he literally couldn't stand still, couldn't stand to hear any more. He ran away from them, as fast as he could. He wasn't looking around him, he didn't know where he was, but he kept running.


Sirius's voice seemed to come from all around him. "You can't hide from us! No matter how far you run, we'll always be with you!" He kept running until finally he fell to the ground, exhausted.

* * * * *


He felt love, reaching out to him. No, it's a trick, he thought, they just want me to come out again, so they can tell me more about how bad I am, what I did. I can't listen to it anymore, I can't stand it. I have to stay here.


Don't be afraid, she sent with love. It's me, it's Hermione.


Go away, he thought, leave me alone. You're trying to trick me, to get me to come out. You're just going to tell me about how I got you killed, how all these awful things happened to you because of me. Leave me alone.


She sent him more feelings of love. I'm not dead, she sent, and I chose everything that's happened. I don't regret anything I did to help you. I love you, I want you back. Please come with me.


You couldn't love me, look at what I've done. You're not dead, but you soon will be, because of me. I should have gone alone, I should have done everything alone. Look at everyone who's died because of me. Leave me alone, no one else will suffer because of me if I stay here.


People will suffer if you stay there, she sent patiently. You're doing this to save people, and you have. You've saved dozens, hundreds. Please come out, they're gone. They won't bother you again. Ginny needs you, she's worried about you. For her sake, please come back. Just look around, there's nobody there. Just me.


He sent his feelings of fear; she continued to reassure him that he was safe, that he would be all right. He sent images of what had happened. That wasn't Sirius, she sent. None of those people were real. We're in the Ring of Reduction, and the room you were in was set with some artifact that causes people's worst fears to come to life. They run away, hide in their mind like you are now, and eventually go into a coma and die. If that happens, Voldemort wins, and I'll die too. I can't get out of here without you. I love you, Ginny loves you, we want you back. Please come back.


She continued sending him love. He was afraid to move, but he didn't want her to die, he didn't want any more people to die because of him. He had to help her. How do I come back, he asked.


Just focus on my feelings, she sent. Focus on that, and open your eyes. You can do it.


He felt as though going back was difficult, like a leap off a cliff. He knew he had to, though. He tried to open his eyes, to will himself back.


He looked up and saw Hermione's worried face. He looked around and saw that they were sitting on the floor in the Ring, in the fifth room. Then he remembered what had happened, what he had seen, and he burst out in tears. She moved closer to him and held him, one arm around his back, one holding his head. He put his head on her shoulder and cried.


It'll be all right, she sent. It's over now. That wasn't real.


The people weren't real, but what happened to them was, he sent as he continued to cry. I'm responsible for that.


No, you aren't, she sent. You only fear that you are, that's what the room does. You've been through all this, and the conclusions you've reached aren't rationalizations, they're the truth. Fewer people have died than would have if you'd done nothing. That's the truth. Your mind showed you that because it's what you fear, but it's not the truth. You're not responsible, the ones who did the killing are. You know that.


It's hard to accept. Part of me knows you're right, it's just hard to accept.


I know, she sent, but it's true.


A few seconds later, as Hermione continued sending love, Harry heard Ginny's voice in his head. Desperation in her voice, she exclaimed, "Harry, I was so worried, I'm so glad you're back. It'll be all right, I heard what happened. I love you, we all do. You'll be all right. Just remember I love you, I always will."


His tears started to fade as he focused on her. He moved his left hand off Hermione's back and held it up. "I love you too," he said. He took a few deep breaths, trying to recover. He felt he was finally getting back into his right mind. He moved his head off Hermione's shoulder, and looked at her. "Thanks," he said.


She nodded compassionately. "I'm just glad you made it back."


"I never would have, if not for you." He wiped his eyes with his hand, and with a very small smile, asked, "Do you have any tissues?"


She chuckled, happy that he felt better enough to make a joke. "I seem to be out, sorry."


"I assume the same thing happened to you," he said, thinking about it for the first time. "And I assume it was Skeeter. How did you get out of there?"


"Yes, it was Skeeter," she said, clearly troubled at the memory. "It was pretty bad, as you can imagine. As for how I got out... ironically, it was because of you, indirectly. Neville was able to pull me back before I got too far gone-"


"I heard Ginny too, at first, but I kept ignoring her. Eventually, I couldn't hear her."


"The same thing would've happened to me... except he was able to fight for my attention in a way Ginny couldn't. Talking to Ginny, he found that you were slipping away from her, and he could see the same thing happening with me. But unlike Ginny, he could turn up the volume on the way my hand tingled. It tingled so much it was painful, and I couldn't ignore it. He talked to me, made me tell him what was happening. Skeeter's image kept trying to get my attention away, but Neville was persistent, and he talked me back. Apparently Snape had heard of the artifact, and was able to tell Neville what it did, so he could tell me. That helped me get the strength to ignore Skeeter, and get out of the room. Once I was in here, my mind cleared up, and I was able to go in there and drag you out, then try to get you to come back. It took a while, I was afraid it wouldn't work. But it did, and the reason is..." She prompted him with her eyes.


His mouth opened slightly as realization dawned. "The phoenixes, what they did, the link they made. Without that, you couldn't have reached me."


She nodded. "I don't think it would have worked through them, it would have been too indirect. I had to be there in a strong and direct way."


"I still think we can get out of here," he said. "I don't think they'd have bothered to do this if we were certain to die, and maybe their intuition would have told them if we faced certain death, and they'd have told us. Are you ready to go to the seventh room?"


"Ready when you are," she agreed. "We have to go through that room again, of course, but this time we know what's going to happen, we can deal with it. They'll talk to us; Skeeter did when I went back in to get you, but I was able to ignore her. We'll both have to do that. Okay?"


"I can do it," he said. "The real Sirius wouldn't want me to pay attention to that, I'll just keep that in mind. By the way, do you think-or, does Snape think-that this was put here just for us to suffer a bit?"


"It could easily have killed us," she pointed out, "but yes, Snape thinks that's basically it, that he wanted us to suffer. Whatever's in rooms seven and eight, he must be pretty sure we can't get past it. Snape still thinks he's wrong."


"Funny, I was saying before that a lot of the times I've survived it's been because of others, not me, and that happened now even though we're in here alone. Without the phoenixes and Neville, we would've been done."


"And I'm sure we'll get outside help again, if we need it," she assured him. "Let's go." She took his hand to make sure they wouldn't be separated.


They walked into the sixth room, and Sirius appeared again, about ten feet in. He talked to Harry, taunting him, but Harry resolutely ignored him, walking through his image at one point, and looking over to Hermione for support at another. They were soon at the door to the seventh room, and Harry put his hand on it to open it. They saw a vast space, with no walls or ceiling; it seemed to go on forever. Harry wanted to pause before going in, but he wanted to be away from the images that continued to harass him. "Ready?" he asked Hermione, who nodded.


Again ready to attempt wandless magic, he walked in, still holding Hermione's hand. They waited for a few seconds, but nothing happened. Looking around from the inside, they could still see no ceiling or walls, except for the one behind them. Hermione looked at her hand and reported what they saw. "This may be the room's only feature," said Ginny, relaying Flitwick's response. "If you can't see anything, it's at least a few dozen miles in every direction." Harry remembered from Flitwick's lectures that every dimension in the room had to be the same length.


"The Dark Lord is powerful, so it could be vast," Ginny now said, and Harry didn't have to wonder who it was, since only one person around him referred to Voldemort as 'the Dark Lord.' "It could conceivably be thousands of miles in each direction."


That wouldn't be good, thought Harry, wondering how long it would take to cover thousands of miles. Probably we'd starve to death first, he thought. "I assume, Professor Snape, that this is also so we can suffer? Slow, painful death, that kind of thing?"


"Yes, exactly," came the response. "I strongly suspect that whatever is in the eighth room is something much like what was in the first three, something he believes will surely stop you. Of course, the sixth room should have stopped you as well, but it did not."


"What's the situation as far as Apparating inside a Ring of Reduction?" asked Hermione into her hand. Good question, thought Harry; if it is thousands of miles, that's our only chance.


"Professor Flitwick says, 'You can Apparate as much as you want within one room, it's just like Apparating in real life. You just can't from outside to inside, or from inside to outside.'"


"That's good, I didn't know that," he said, encouraged by the information. "Then there's hope, because I know I can Apparate without a wand, I've done it before. I should be able to Apparate us across."


"How far do you think you can go at once?" Hermione asked him, speaking into her hand so Neville could hear her question and report it to the others.


He did the same, holding up his hand. "I don't know if I want to try to go farther than I can see, so maybe five miles at a time. If I can do that, and if I can Apparate once a second, I could cover three hundred miles in a minute. Even if it was several thousand miles long, it wouldn't take that long to make it across. It's definitely worth a try."


"Okay, let us know when you're going to start," said Ginny. "Professor McGonagall wants you to check in every five minutes-or what you guess is five minutes, since you don't have watches-and for me not to talk to you so you don't get distracted. If she needs to say something, Neville will say it to Hermione, who you'll be escorting, right?"


"Yes, I will, we have to stay together," he agreed. He turned to her and said, "Ready?"


She nodded, and he stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. As he was getting ready to Disapparate, he involuntarily glanced down, and once he had, found it hard to move his eyes. He suddenly received a feeling of great amusement. Now you're really getting distracted, she sent.


I didn't see this before, he sent back, somewhat embarrassed but glad that she wasn't bothered.


I should have done a spin for you, she sent jokingly. But I'm glad you like it. Not that it matters a lot, but it's good for my ego. I've never been that happy with my body.


Why not? he sent, it's really good. I'm sure Neville's happy with it.


Yes, he is. I know it's all right, I think a lot of women feel this way. All those women in those Muggle beauty magazines, we think there's something wrong with us if we don't look like that. I hope you compliment Ginny about that often.


I do sometimes, but not that often, I just don't think of it. I'll try to remember to do it more. Okay, I'm going to start Apparating now.


Looking at the horizon, he Disapparated them away. Upon Apparating, they turned around; they could see the wall, but it was far in the distance. As he looked carefully, trying to gauge the distance, he got an impression of her, behind him, looking down, as he had at her a minute ago. You're doing that just to tease me, he sent.


Only partly, she replied with humor. What, you can but I can't? That's not fair.


No, it's just not so interesting with men, he sent, as he turned to face her.


For you, maybe, but I'll be the judge of that. I think Ginny and I will be exchanging opinions after this is all over.


Harry chuckled. You'd better not, he sent. I could do the same thing with Neville, about you.


No, you couldn't, I could feel your embarrassment just at the thought. Enough joking around, we should get going. Be careful to go in a straight line, or it could be hard to find the door once we get to the other side.


I'll do my best, he sent. Here we go.


He chose a point far ahead, and Apparated them there, then again, and again, and again. Trying his best to go in a straight line, he did manage to do it about once every second. He guessed they were traveling between five and ten miles every time, but of course, there was no way to be sure. He focused on going straight, and fast.


After a while, Hermione sent that he should stop. He did, and she said, "I'm looking ahead, forward, or what's my best guess at forward since this started. If we both turned and looked, we'd have no way to know which direction to go, since there aren't any reference points, and we don't have a wand for the Four Points spell. So I'll keep looking ahead, and you look around, see if you can see anything." She then held up her hand and started reporting in.


Harry looked in all directions, but saw nothing. "I'll start trying to go farther each time, maybe fifteen or twenty miles." She nodded, and they started again as she pointed in what she thought was the right direction.


After another period of time, they stopped again. Harry was starting to tire from all the concentration, and the scenery was exactly the same: the floor was visible, nothing else. "We must have gone over ten thousand miles by now," he reported to Ginny in annoyance. "Does anyone have any ideas about how long this thing could be?"


After a short pause, Ginny replied, "Professor Snape says that theoretically, it could be anything. Professor Flitwick... they're having a disagreement; Snape thinks it's not impossible that it's hundreds of thousands of miles, but Flitwick doesn't think it could be that long. Snape says that Flitwick wouldn't have thought it could be as long as it's been so far; Flitwick says he can't be sure, he just thinks it's not that long."


As they argued, Harry had a sudden recollection of the last time he'd had to Apparate blindly for a specific purpose: the end of the Apparation crisis the previous summer. Remembering how he'd helped end it, he had an idea. "Hang on a minute, I'm going to try something." He put his hands on Hermione's shoulders, concentrated, and Disapparated. They Apparated a few feet from what was clearly the door to the eighth room.


Hermione gaped at him, and reported their position. Anticipating their questions, Harry said to Ginny, "Tell Snape and Kingsley I did the same thing I did at the end of the Apparation crisis. They can explain it to everyone else."


"Kingsley says, 'I can tell them about it, but I can't explain it,'" reported Ginny. "Snape is telling everyone, I guess you knew he got it from your memories. And from me, great job. You're so close, only one more, and you're through."


Harry couldn't help but think that this one would be the hardest, but Ginny was happy, and he didn't want to bring her down. "Okay, we're going to open the door to the eighth room now, see what's inside." He glanced at Hermione, and placed his hand on the door to open it.


What he saw made his heart sink. It looked like a downpour, but of magic, not of rain. He looked closely to try to identify what was in it, then spoke into his hand. "It's a bunch of stuff going from the top of the room to the bottom, like the heaviest rain you've ever seen; I doubt there's a half inch between any two things. There's Killing Curse bolts, there's... what looks like foot-long strands of fire-imbued lightning, and there's metal things that are moving so fast I can't tell what they are, but I'd guess they're the same things from the second room." In that instant, he felt sure that he and Hermione weren't going to walk out of the Ring alive. Choosing a grim understatement, he added, "So, it doesn't look really good." From how Ginny's expression had changed as he reported the room's contents, he could tell she felt the same way. She looked sick, trying to put on a brave expression and not doing very well.


Hermione had bent down to the floor, and yanked a finger out from the doorway, wincing in pain. Alarmed, Harry asked, "Are you crazy? Why did you put your hand in there?"


"Just a finger, so it wouldn't be a big deal if I lost it," she half-joked. "Don't worry, I found a spot where the stuff wasn't hitting, because of the angle of the door. Not that it matters that much, but it's also absolute zero in there."


Oh, great, thought Harry. He really put the kitchen sink into this one. Ginny reported, "Professor Flitwick is really impressed that Voldemort managed to put four separate characteristics into a room." Obviously speaking in a faint whisper so that only he could hear her, she added, "Nobody else seems that impressed. Mum and Ron gave him dirty looks when he said it. I wasn't exactly thrilled."


"I can understand that," he agreed. "This is when I'd be using the Time-Turner, if I still had it. Ask Snape what he thinks of our chances now."


A few seconds later, she said, "He says, 'My confidence remains unwavering.'"


Despite the direness of the situation, Harry laughed. "Tell him I appreciate it, and just for that, he'll get a hug when I get out."


She smiled as she relayed the message. "He says that your intuitive skills have taken a sudden turn for the worse. Speaking for myself, I don't suppose there's any chance that you'd believe me now if I told you I got a message from Albus."


"Afraid not," he said. "Hang on, let me think for a minute." Suddenly weary, he sat on the floor; Hermione joined him. He exhaled and said, "This is really amazing. I mean, we wouldn't have a chance even if we had wands, and every artifact that was ever invented. What I wonder is, why didn't he just do this in the first room? We'd have been dead before we could react."


"Maybe he just wanted to make sure we suffered first, or that he got to gloat," she suggested. After a few seconds, she added, "Or, maybe he was afraid that if you were suddenly faced with it, with no time to think, you'd instantly come up with something to defend against it. This way, you look at it in advance, and decide there's nothing you can do."


"Interesting thought, although I can't imagine what I could come up with."


"You couldn't have imagined coming up with the Cruciatus Curse shield until you did it," she pointed out


He nodded in acknowledgment. "Yeah, but this seems really different."


"'Seems' is the key word there, I think," she said stubbornly.


He thought for another minute, then said, "I should tell Ginny to tell the others to start teaching the energy of love more often, as much as they can. Maybe if enough people know it, they can defend against Voldemort better. He'll need time-"


"No!" she scolded him, and he could feel her anger as well. "You're not going to talk, or think, like that. We will get through this. We are not going to die."


He paused for a moment, taken aback. "Um... you have looked into that room, right?"


"Yes, and stuck my finger in too, if you remember," she retorted. "But I'm with Snape, you're going to come up with something. If you can't think of anything, then we're just going to walk into the room anyway, and I'll trust that something will happen before the things hit us."


"I would think that you're kidding," he said quietly, "except that I'm getting your feelings, and I know you're not. Thank you." He paused, and thought for a minute. "Okay, I'm going to think about it the way you think I should. We will get through it. The way must exist, I just have to figure out how."


"That's better," she said encouragingly. A minute later, Harry could feel her feeling of being struck by a sudden idea. "What Ginny said, that joke about her getting a message from Albus, made me think of something. You might want to try asking him yourself."


Puzzled, he asked, "You mean, try to fall asleep, or wait until I do?"


"If you have to. But I was thinking of something else. You could try to reach him here, now."


Harry shook his head. "He's said he can only talk to me while I'm asleep."


"You told us that he said it was because your mind was too active the other times," she pointed out. "There is a way to do this, I've read about it. Mystics especially do it when they want to communicate with the deceased who aren't ghosts. The key part of it is clearing your mind, and you're already good at that. I think we should try."


"We?" he asked.


"I could help you, because of our link!" she said, suddenly becoming excited. "I could reinforce what you'll be doing. I've read that when you do this, you want to get into a really deep mental state, a place where you're not aware of anything physical. What you'd be looking for is... you know how it is when you're really involved in something, that you forget about the passage of time, or anything else? You look up at the clock and think, wow, has it been an hour already? That's the basic form of what I'm talking about. In this case, you're going to just not think about anything, clear your mind completely, for a long time. If you do it well enough, Albus will be able to talk to you, and maybe even you to him. This can work."


He nodded, again receiving her conviction through their link. "And you think he'll tell me something that'll get us through that?"


"I don't know, but it's absolutely worth a try," she said firmly. "Remember, he's helped you before when it seemed crucial, even when it wasn't what he would usually do. The whole reason he did what he did, gave up his life and went where he is now, was to defeat Voldemort. He wants that, and to protect your life so you can do that. This is the critical moment, where either you'll defeat Voldemort, or you'll die; there's no in-between. If he's ever going to do something he wouldn't usually do, it's now."


"Or maybe he can do something else, like somehow shut off what's going on in that room," Harry suggested. "Something we can't imagine but that would help us. It's a good idea, and definitely, the best one that could be thought of right now."


"Good," she said. "Just a minute." She spoke into her hand, letting the others know what they were going to attempt, and cautioning Neville and Ginny very firmly not to look at their hands for any reason until they heard from she or Harry. Ginny joked to Harry that she'd ask Molly to take the Portkey back to the Burrow and get her an oven mitt so she wouldn't be tempted.


"I assume you just got that," he said, referring to an impression he'd just received from Fawkes, that he and Hermione should sit facing each other, holding both hands, as they had when the phoenixes had bonded them to each other.


"Yes, I did," she said. "It's interesting that they have advice like that. It must be that the kind of state we'll be looking for is one that's more common for phoenixes. Fawkes can commune with Albus, after all."


"That makes me wonder," he said, "if he wanted to tell me something, couldn't he do it through Fawkes?"


"I thought of that, but maybe it's the kind of thing he couldn't tell you that way," she suggested. "Phoenixes can't transmit some kinds of information, and the way spells work may be one of them." Harry nodded his agreement.


"Okay, let me mention a few things before we start," she continued. "While we're doing this, don't think specifically about the fact that you want to talk to Albus, or what you want him to tell you. Just decide in advance that it's your intention, then don't focus on it. Be receptive to whatever comes, even if it doesn't seem all that connected to what you're looking for. Just keep making your state of mind deeper and deeper; stuff will come to you without you having to look for it. Okay?"


"I understand. It's a little like the energy of love, in a way, just more so. We have to focus to do that, too."


"Which is why I think we can do this," she affirmed. "Ready?"


"Let me get comfortable," he said. "Or, as comfortable as I can get, sitting naked on a hard floor. It's funny, though, it's got to the point where I don't even think about being naked, except for things like comfort problems. I'm beginning to see why some Muggles like to go to those nudist colonies, it's kind of... I don't know, freeing, once you get over the embarrassment."


"We'll go to one after we've finished our time at Hogwarts," she teased him. "We'll get Ginny and Neville to come with us."


"Well, we have to invite Ron and Pansy, too," said Harry. They both burst out laughing at the thought of how Ron would respond to the suggestion. "Okay, I'm ready," he said after their laughter had died down.


They reached out and took each other's hands, wrists resting on their knees. Harry cleared his mind, just as he did every night for Occlumency practice. He reminded himself that he wasn't going to sleep, and then he closed his eyes and focused on having no more thoughts. He could feel Hermione doing the same thing.


He started reaching a deep state of mind very quickly, because of his link with Hermione. It was as though when she went to a deeper level of awareness, she tugged him along with her, and vice versa. Each one reinforced the other, and helped the other along. Within ten minutes, he had no thoughts, just an awareness that he was experiencing a type of consciousness he never had before.


A few minutes later, images started coming to him. He saw himself Disapparate to the roof of a building as a child, to escape Dudley and others chasing him. He saw himself make the glass at the zoo disappear. He saw himself and Voldemort in the small, enclosed space in the airplane, as he performed the Severing Charm that took off Voldemort's hand, then snatched Voldemort's wand. A memory of Dumbledore appeared, from the first class of the sixth year, emphasizing the primacy of thoughts in magic; the image changed to Dumbledore talking to him in his sleep, during the summer. "Our thoughts are highly creative, far more so than is commonly understood in the physical realm; in the spiritual realm, our thoughts are instantly creative," he heard Dumbledore say again.


Images started to come faster; he calmly let them pass, taking in each one and waiting for the next one. He saw himself telling the others that having spells come when badly needed might be a characteristic of the energy of love. He saw himself an hour ago, causing Hermione to heal serious injuries with a spell and a suggestion; she had done it because she was convinced she could. He saw Snape suffer pain after the Cleansing had been reversed because he thought he would. He saw himself come up with the area-effect Imperius Charm because he suddenly knew he could. He saw Dumbledore saying, "You would be amazed at what you can do if you simply believe that you can." He saw himself suffer terrible pain after hitting a giant in the head with a tank. He remembered how his power suddenly increased after he fell in love with Ginny. Other such images came to him, and without conscious thought, he felt as though they were pieces to a puzzle, and the pieces were coming together.


He felt another small push from Hermione, making him feel more and more that he would soon understand. He saw himself and Dumbledore in the phoenix place, as Dumbledore explained to Harry that they were creating it with their thoughts. He saw Dumbledore explaining the nature of the spiritual realm, that it was composed of love. He saw Dumbledore telling Harry that his 'power the Dark Lord knows not' was love, and for the first time connected it to the idea that the spiritual realm consisted of love. He heard the Sorting Hat sing, 'So keep in mind that you may know/What you think you do not/And what you think that you don't have/You have already got.'


Then he saw Dumbledore-not in a memory, or as he saw him in the phoenix place, but in a less physically distinct way, like a slightly fuzzy picture. Dumbledore spoke, in a deeper tone than Harry had ever heard him use before.


"Magic is thought, made manifest. Some thoughts are creative; others are limiting. You think you must use a wand, so you do. You think you cannot do certain spells, so you do not. You are now understanding what you have known all along, but did not allow yourself to believe, except in the most dire of circumstances."


In a way, it sounded much like things Dumbledore had said before, but Harry's state of concentration was so deep that he was able to put it together as he never had before. Dumbledore's words were the final piece to the puzzle; with a flash of realization, he knew what he needed to know, he understood how it worked. In an instant, he fell back into his normal consciousness.


He opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was Hermione's face. Eyes wide, she looked at him, a question in her eyes. He sent the question, how much of what happened did you get?


Images, feelings, just pieces, she sent. I know something important happened, I know how you feel, I know we're going to be all right. I just don't know the details, I don't know how it happened. Please tell me.


"It's better if I use words, maybe I'll send some things," he began. He related the details of what he had experienced, sending feelings when he reached the part about Dumbledore.


She stared in amazement. "It sounds wonderful. But what did you learn, or understand, about magic?"


"Anything that can be done by magic, I can do," he said simply. "And I don't need a wand."


Again, she gaped. "I don't believe it... how does that work?"


"A lot of it was stuff he'd already told me, I just hadn't put it together that way before," he said. "He had said that thoughts are highly creative, and that magic had a lot to do with thoughts. But the really important part was... he had said that the spiritual realm is made up of love, what we would call love. That's why love is the best feeling in the world, it's what the universe is made of. When we feel it, we're in tune with what we really are, where we come from. So, when we use the energy of love, and love and the spiritual realm are the same thing, what we're really doing is using spiritual energy, the energy of the universe, to put it that way. That's why it doesn't work for anything destructive, because you can't be destructive in the spiritual realm. Love in its purest form can't be destructive.


"And because it's spiritual energy, and the spiritual realm is the source of everything, there's pretty much nothing it can't do. The only things it can't do are the things it shouldn't do, like kill, deliberately cause pain, and so forth. The only reason I couldn't do things before was that I thought I couldn't. That's how I was able to come up with new spells when I needed them badly; in those situations, I managed to overlook the fact that I couldn't, or shouldn't have been able to, do the spells. Albus helped me realize that I can do whatever I need to do. And it's the same thing with wands; they aren't necessary, it's just that we think they are. It's like, if you learned to walk from being a baby using crutches, you wouldn't be able to walk without them. The energy of our thoughts is what makes the magic, not the wands. It all made perfect sense."


"It sounds beautiful," she enthused. "I hope I can learn that. You'll have to try to teach the other five of us. I could feel what you felt, and it was incredible. I'm so happy the phoenixes bonded us, that I got to share that with you."


"I couldn't have done it without you, you know," he said sincerely. "You helped me reach a state I'm sure I couldn't have reached on my own. And the phoenixes... I think this was what they meant, this was why they bonded us."


"It makes sense," she agreed. Looking at the door to the eighth room, she asked, "So, how do we get through that?"


"Like this," he said, as he waved his hand as though a wand were in it. They were immediately surrounded by an energy field, roughly spherical in shape, which they could see through easily. It didn't have just one color, but had horizontal bands of color; the colors of the rainbow, slowly moving up and cycling through continually. "This will protect against anything-magic, physical damage, mental attacks, and negative environments. While you're in this, nothing can hurt you. Shall we?"


She smiled, and turned to walk through, but then stopped. "Harry... you said you can do anything that can be done by magic. In that case, could you conjure us some robes? I'd really rather not go out of the Ring like this."


Smiling, he nodded, and conjured two robes. They were shaped like normal wizard robes, but they had an unusual design: like the shield, their color was horizontal bars of the colors of the rainbow, each color gradually becoming the next. He handed her one, and as they put them on, he said, "I made them so the colors would move up, like the spell, but very gradually, about an inch a minute. I just thought it would be neat."


"Why the rainbow? For the spell, I mean? Does it have to be a rainbow?"


"No, it could've looked like anything. I just liked the idea that the rainbow covers all the colors, and this shield covers all negative magic. I think I got the idea from something Remus once did. I'll tell you about it later." He held up his hand. "Everything's okay," he said. "We're going into the eighth room now."


"Are you sure?" asked an amazed Ginny.


"I'm very sure," he replied. "I'll be expecting that kiss." He put his hand down, took Hermione's, and they walked through the door. They both looked up as they walked through, as if they were looking at rain. Everything created by the room simply vanished when it encountered the shield.


"Pretty nice umbrella," she commented.


"Glad you like it," he said. They walked straight, until they reached the next door. "We're leaving the eighth room, entering the ninth," he reported on his hand. The door opened, and he blinked in surprise as he saw Hermione look around in confusion. Except for a small bed in the far corner of the room, there was nothing there. No Voldemort. Harry activated the spell that would reveal anything invisible, but nothing changed.


He and Hermione exchanged a look of confusion, and Hermione pointed to the wall near the bed. "Look, there's some sort of display on the wall." They briskly walked over, and saw on the wall a two-foot-by-two-foot magical diagram showing each of the nine rooms. In the ninth room, there were two dots near the far wall with the names 'Harry Potter' and 'Hermione Granger' under them; it reminded Harry of the Marauders' Map.


"He's been keeping track of us, he must have been awakened when we entered the Ring," realized Harry out loud. "He must have left when he saw the eighth room didn't kill us."


Hermione shook her head. "He must have left after we got into the fifth room," she said confidently. "He thought we were dead after that, there'd be no reason for him to stay. He only waited that long because if he left sooner, he'd have been seen by the others, who would have told us, and we could have gone back the way we came. He wanted to make sure we were trapped."


Makes sense, thought Harry. "Well, no point in hanging around. Let's go." They took a few steps, and Harry put his hand on the door.


They walked through, and were suddenly outside, on the snowy ground. The first thing he saw was Ginny bolting from the shelter, running towards him so fast that he was concerned she would slip and fall in the snow. She didn't, though, and ran into him so hard that she almost plowed him over. She held him tightly, and he could feel her start to cry. Confused for a second, he realized that they were tears of joy and relief, the pent-up emotion that she couldn't release while focusing on communicating with him, being his link to the outside world.


"I can't believe it, I can't believe it," she gasped as her crying wound down. "I was sure, we were sure you were finished." She kissed him, then hugged him again; he got the impression that she never intended to let go of him.


"It's over," he whispered. "It's all over."


She shook her head. "This one, maybe, but-" She stopped herself in mid-sentence at his smile. Giving her a significant look, he repeated, "It's all over. At least, it will be, very, very soon." Neville and Hermione had just finished their reunion, and the four headed back to the shelter.


McGonagall approached them as they entered. "Harry, Hermione... I am, not to put too fine a point on it, overjoyed to see that you made it out of there. But even more, I am completely amazed. What happened?"


Harry told the story as succinctly as he could, and enjoyed their stunned expressions when he demonstrated the rainbow shield he had used in the eighth room. "I feel like I should be surprised, too," he said, "but everything made so much sense that it just seems natural now. The energy of love makes it possible to use spells that weren't known before, and what I know now makes it possible to do anything that can be done by magic. Now, the challenge is going to be to find out exactly what that is. I have a feeling that in some cases, the main limitation will be my imagination."


McGonagall appeared speechless, as did all of the others, even Snape. Finally, she said, "Well, as Albus said after you came up with the Killing Curse shield, it is difficult to know what to say. 'Stunning' does not even begin to cover it. It definitely makes what you did worth it, even though Voldemort got away."


Harry smiled broadly, surprising the others again. "He's not getting away."


"He already did, Harry," said Hugo somberly. "After you went into the fifth room-"


"I know," Harry interrupted Hugo. "I mean, he's as good as caught. Kingsley, would you get me some of that red stuff that Hermione put on him last year?"


Kingsley raised an eyebrow, then nodded and Disapparated. "So, I assume he came out after we went into the fifth room?" Hermione asked McGonagall.


McGonagall nodded. "It was shortly after I instructed you to move your hands and look at each other." Harry felt the mental sensation Snape had once demonstrated, and understood that Snape was 'tapping' him. A glance at Hermione told him that Snape had done the same to her, and he held up a hand to stop McGonagall's story as he and Hermione cast Legilimens.


Looking at the memory from Snape's viewpoint, out of the shelter in the direction of the Ring, Harry saw Voldemort suddenly appear. Reacting quickly, Kingsley tapped his pendant and shouted, "Full alert! Everyone to the Ring!"


Wearing the same evil smile with which Harry was so familiar, Voldemort flipped a silver disc the size of a large coin toward the shelter. As Aurors started Apparating in, Ron, Pansy, Ginny, and Neville rushed out of the shelter to assist the Aurors. Voldemort then Disapparated, and the disc projected an image of him. The full complement of Aurors was present by the time the image spoke. As it started, Kingsley quickly directed ten Aurors to Diagon Alley, ten to Hogsmeade, and the rest to the Apparation detection room.


"None of you had enough influence with him to keep him from his folly, I see," said Voldemort's image smugly. "I did warn him. You are all fools for allowing him to think he ever had a chance, but at least you may now say goodbye to him before he dies. But you need not say goodbye to me, for I will see you all again. None of you will survive for another year; I will see to that personally. Fear not; most of your deaths will be quick and relatively painless... except for Parkinson, I believe I will allow Lucius to take his son's revenge on you." In the memory, Harry saw Pansy's eyes widen in fear, and Ron put a protective arm around her shoulder. Harry remembered that at this point, they all thought he would die, which made Voldemort a far more real danger to them than he had been.


"And, of course, Snape," continued Voldemort, his expression turning from smugness to anger. "You will be made a living example of the price of betraying Lord Voldemort. You will live a long life... far longer than you will wish it to be. I strongly suggest that you take your own life now, or you will soon regret having missed the chance. You will see me soon." The image disappeared.


Harry raised his eyebrows slightly as he observed Snape's emotional state while viewing the memory; Snape was surprisingly undisturbed by Voldemort's threat, and Harry got the impression that Snape wished that Voldemort were speaking personally, so he could retort that he still believed that Harry would prevail. Harry now understood that Snape's belief in Harry's eventual victory had been genuine, not a posture to bolster Harry's spirits.


In the memory, those in the shelter exchanged uneasy glances. Standing next to Ginny, Neville raised his left hand; Ginny grabbed his wrist and pulled it down. "We do not tell them about this," she said emphatically, daring with her eyes anyone to contradict her. "The last thing they need is to think about this. They have to focus."


"Miss Weasley is correct, of course," agreed Snape. "Professor Potter's mental outlook is crucial to their chances of escaping the Ring, and it will suffer if he is made aware of this. Knowing this will not help them. They will find out when they reach the ninth room."


Harry's friends traded impressed looks. Eyebrows high, Kingsley repeated, "When?"


"When," repeated Snape. "The harder things are made for Professor Potter, the more he does. The Dark Lord will regret having challenged him in such a way." Harry saw Ginny give Snape a look of appreciation, which he felt Snape acknowledge with his eyes. A fleeting emotional impression just before the memory ended told Harry that Snape sympathized with Ginny, and was glad that what he said lifted her spirits.


Hermione put down her wand. "He does love to gloat, doesn't he," she muttered.


Snape nodded. "As I have said, a weakness."


Kingsley approached Harry with a jar of the red substance. It now occurred to Harry that he needed only a tiny amount, but he hadn't specified to Kingsley how much he should bring. "He won't be gloating for long," said Harry as he opened the jar and put a very small amount onto his finger.


Confused, Ron asked, "How's that going to help find him? We need relays, and he could be anywhere in the world."


Happy that their difficulties would soon be over, Harry smiled again. "This is the part where the 'anything that can be done by magic' thing comes in handy. I might not have had this idea if I hadn't seen the Room of Requirement come up with something like it."


Suddenly next to him was an image of the Earth, much like the one of Hogwarts that the Room had created in December; the others appeared no less impressed than Neville had been at the time. Focusing on what had been absorbed into his finger, Harry concentrated, and suddenly there were ten red lights on the surface; eight closely concentrated in England, and two in Greenland, very close to each other.


"These two are Hermione and I," explained Harry to his friends. "Hermione, I assume these are the researchers, and the people you tested it on?" he asked, pointing to the lights in England.


"Yes, but we can't know that one isn't Voldemort," she said. "Any could be him. Can you tell the exact locations from the lights?"


"I can do better than that," he said. "But first, let's make sure one of those is him." The image of the earth started to spin slowly, and soon they saw one more light. Harry knew the continent was South America, but had no idea of the location beyond that. It didn't matter, of course, but Harry supposed he should learn more geography. I'm sure John would be happy to teach me, he thought with a wry smile.


"Brazil," said McGonagall. "The rain forest, I believe. It has to be him."


"Indeed," agreed Snape. "He had various hideaways all over the world, usually in remote locations. It will be a modest structure, made invisible to observers."


"Well, let's make sure it's him," said Harry. The image started changing; the South American continent became larger and larger, and they were looking at only a portion of the earth's surface rather than at the whole planet. The red dot remained at the center of the image; the effect reminded Harry of a camera zooming in. Above the planet at first, it zeroed in on the dot. Soon a jungle was visible from above, and as the 'camera' approached the ground, they could see a small structure, similar from the outside to the one they were in. The view zoomed through the ceiling, and they could suddenly see Voldemort, sitting in a chair, apparently deep in thought.


"This won't take long," said Harry as he prepared to Disapparate.


"Professor," said Snape sharply. He said nothing more, but Harry soon felt a memory being viewed: he saw Kingsley walking with Neville, in the Auror compound, toward where Bellatrix Lestrange was being held, last summer. Harry had not actually seen the memory; he realized that he had created the image in his mind's eye as he had been told the story, and Snape was showing him that. Harry immediately understood Snape's intent; it was a request to be taken along, and something Snape felt would help him, as Neville had been helped by his encounter with the powerless Lestrange.


Harry nodded to Snape. "Ready?"


"You must activate the anti-Disapparation field very quickly," advised Snape. "Since you developed the ability to render him unconscious, he decided that he would instantly Disapparate upon hearing the sound of any Apparation which he was not expecting. You could find him again, of course, but it could quickly become tedious."


"He won't hear us coming," said Harry, as he and Snape vanished and appeared a few feet away. His friends gaped yet again; he wondered how long it would take for them to become accustomed to his doing any magic he wanted. "This is pretty much what phoenixes do, so I figured I could do it too. No Apparation noise." Looking at his friends again, he added, "We'll be back soon." Without a sound, they vanished again.


Harry and Snape appeared behind Voldemort, and Harry immediately put down the anti-Disapparation field. Were it Harry alone, he knew he would have just used the Imperius Charm immediately; he felt no need or desire to say anything to Voldemort, or to gloat at Voldemort's downfall. After what had happened in the seventh room, his encounter with Dumbledore, Harry felt more calm and peaceful than usual; he absently wondered if that was because he could now do any spell he wanted, or because of the deep state of consciousness he had reached.


"My Lord," said Snape, and Voldemort leaped from his chair, as startled as Harry had ever seen anyone. Voldemort turned, and shock registered on his face as he saw Harry.


"It cannot be," said Voldemort in disbelief. Looking at Voldemort, Harry knew that Voldemort was sure that someone had adopted Harry's appearance by using Polyjuice Potion. Then Harry felt the familiar sensation of Dark magic about to be used. Voldemort pointed his wand at Snape and shot a Killing Curse at him, but it was barely away from his wand when Harry's rainbow shield went up; the Curse seemed to just disappear.


Snape smiled, clearly enjoying Voldemort's astonishment. "It is my honor to again be in your presence, my Lord," said Snape, his sarcasm subtle yet clear. "Please forgive me if I do not kiss your robe."


Voldemort tried to Disapparate, and failed, which both Harry and Snape noted. "Less than an hour ago, you said you would see me soon," continued Snape. "Do you now wish to leave so suddenly? There is so much we could discuss. Surely you have more ideas about how to eliminate Professor Potter."


Fear now in his eyes, Voldemort started casting area-effect spells. The rainbow shield remained up, and Harry and Snape were unaffected. Snape gestured to the shield and said, "This is the spell which, naked and wandless, Professor Potter created in order to get past the eighth room of your Ring of Reduction, my Lord," said Snape, with a sarcastic emphasis on the last two words. "It defends against any sort of magic, though I am sure that Professor Potter will not mind if you try." Voldemort continued trying spells; Harry wondered if it was only because Voldemort couldn't think of anything else to do.


Snape slowly walked around the chair to face Voldemort; Harry made sure Snape remained protected by the shield. Snape stared at Voldemort, saying nothing, taking in the fear and increasing panic in Voldemort's eyes. "You will pay for this, Snape-"


Snape's wand flashed, and he said "Crucio" almost casually. Voldemort collapsed and screamed, and continued screaming. Harry winced, but said nothing. He was acutely uncomfortable; he felt as though he were holding someone while another person beat them up. But Harry knew what Snape had been through, how much pain and suffering Voldemort's presence in Snape's life had caused him. Harry decided to let Snape do whatever he wanted to do.


Just as Harry had the thought, Snape stopped the spell. Voldemort looked like every other person who Harry had seen subjected to the Curse: shaking, gasping for breath, and very frightened. Snape bent to one knee and leaned over Voldemort. "I stopped for his sake, not for yours," said Snape, gesturing at Harry. Contemptuously, he added, "You deserve exactly the sort of treatment you threatened me with an hour ago. Alas, it is not a just world. But I thought you should know what that feels like from the other side."


Snape stood again, and cast Legilimens. "Your Occlumency skills seem to have declined, my Lord. You are weak, frightened, pathetic... stripped of your power, you have no more courage or fortitude than Wormtail. Having been so powerful, I suppose you never had to develop any.


"One more thing... his power is, in fact, love. That you could look at his memories and not understand that shows that the headmaster understood you better than you understood yourself. He also understood that there are indeed things worse than death, which you will be finding out very soon. His sacrifice ensured your defeat..." Snape glanced at Harry, then continued, "...and he knew the queen could be sacrificed, because there was a passed pawn which you could not stop."


Snape was not smiling now, but Harry felt he had never seen Snape look so content; it was as if a long-held ambition was finally being realized, which Harry supposed was truly the case. Voldemort was still on the ground, unmoving, bewildered, seeming to have no idea what to do. Like a house-elf who's lost his magic, thought Harry. This is what Snape wanted, to see Voldemort like this. He can remember him this way; weak and powerless, not the one who inspired awe, fear, and terror.


Snape spoke again. "Well, I believe that is all I have to say." He bent to one knee again, his face less than a foot from Voldemort's. "Goodbye, Voldemort." He stood, and gestured to Harry that he was finished. Recovering from his momentary surprise at finally hearing Snape say the name, Harry applied the Imperius Charm, and Voldemort collapsed, unconscious.


Harry levitated Voldemort over to the bed in the corner of the room, and conjured a chair next to it. "This won't take long, it'll be much faster than it was with you."


Snape nodded, clearly unconcerned with how long it would take. He gave Harry a look, one that after so much time with Snape, Harry had learned meant Snape had something important to say.


"Harry..." began Snape, and Harry realized that it would be very important indeed. With a very serious expression, Snape continued, "Thank you, both for making that possible, and for your indulgence. I know you did not enjoy that."


Equally serious, Harry responded, "If anyone deserved to be able to do that, it was you. And I enjoyed it more than I would like to have."


"But you would not have done it yourself, even given what you have suffered at his hands," pointed out Snape. "You have nothing to feel badly about. And to borrow a phrase I have seen you and your friends use, I would go so far as to say that your reaction passes 'the Dumbledore test.'"


Harry slowly nodded, pleased at the compliment. "Maybe. I have a feeling the others will agree with you. Anyway, thanks." Harry sat, and began imprinting love on Voldemort's mind.


Author notes: In Chapter 24: The final chapter. What will the future bring?