5,159Reviews:
GideonBlackthorn: Thanks a lot.
Delta3950 : Honestly, yeah, it feels like that a lot of the time.
SpiritLord89: At first I considered making longer chapters but I don't have much free time on my hands so I'm sticking with semi-regular shorter chapters that allow me to post one or two chapters a week at least.
Lord Chronus: Thanks a lot, also yeah, distract the kid or tire him out beforehand so he sleeps quickly.
Lucifer-Satani: The Iron MAn reference was intentional, yes, just like the Thor reference you just made. I think that was from Ragnarok, wasn't it? Also thanks for the support and review. Also I've never payed dark souls, I'm not a 'soul's-like' gamer, I do have Black Myth Wukong and honestly I just haven't finished it yet because I want to play other games in between to lower the already high stress levels I have before I play the game, lol.
Chapter 70 -
A while back, Harry would have been horrified at what he had just done, pulling another being into a spell designed to hurt him, pulling her into her death. But quite frankly, he felt she deserved it. The elf had every chance to go and find another master, one that would likely treat her far better than the Crouch family ever had, but instead, she wanted to help bring back the worst dark lord ever. These days, Harry had very little patience for those who wanted him dead. Especially the pale wizard standing opposite him, with that in mind, Harry aimed his wand at the wizard in front of him and shot a high-powered blasting curse.
Voldemort swatted it away before returning fire, soon the two wizards began firing spell after spell at each other, during which Voldemort realised something.
"Non-verbal casting, Harry?" Voldemort asked in an amused voice after blocking an unfriendly red spell. "I'm impressed, when did you learn that?"
"A friend advised me to study it," Harry grinned, ducking an acidic yellow spell whilst shooting a glowing green beam with red spirals at Voldemort.
'Me, I suggested it,' Venom said proudly.
"Advanced as you are, Harry, you're worlds away from being on my level," Voldemort said after vanishing Harry's spell with a swipe of his wand, Voldemort followed by shooting a pulsing purple ball at Harry who stepped to the side and let it pass. The ball stopped a short distance behind Harry and hovered for a moment, a sadistic grin appeared on Voldemort's face as he shot another spell to distract Harry, the infamous dark lord watched in anticipation as Harry blocked his spell. However, a surprised look appeared on Voldemort's face as Harry suddenly twirled his wand and held it in a reverse grip. Without looking, Harry pointed the tip of his wand behind himself and cast a shield that came up just in time to stop the explosion that came from behind him. "How did you do that?" Voldemort asked quietly, there was no way for someone like Harry Potter to know that spell, he himself had discovered it shortly before leaving Hogwarts, nor was it possible for him to see the spell unless the boy had eyes in the back of his head.
"I'm not on your level?" Harry asked, sounding frankly unimpressed. "No, Voldemort, you're not on mine," He added before putting his wand in its normal position and firing a spell at Voldemort who blocked it. "You're nothing more than a big disappointment!" Harry hissed, firing several more spells at the dark lord.
"You dare?!" Voldemort shouted angrily, dealing with Harry's spells before shooting a large bolt of lightning towards Harry who managed to get a gold-coloured dome up in time to protect himself.
"Everyone is so afraid of you," Harry snarled as his dome continued to be bombarded with lightning. "They whimper and cower in front of you. They're terrified, scared. Get it through your head, Voldy, you don't scare me!" Harry pushed and the dome charged towards Voldemort who cancelled his lightning in favour of smashing the dome before it could hit him. Voldemort growled before firing off several more spells at Harry who dodged, ducked and leaned out of the way of all of them. One of the spells had gone past him and spun around before charging at his back. Harry smirked and jumped to the side at the last second and allowed the spell to charge towards Voldemort while casting a piercing spell at him. Voldemort glared deeply before slapping the rebounding spell into Harry's spell, both cancelling each other out.
"You don't know what you're talking about, boy," Voldemort hissed. "You don't know what you're dealing with, you've only heard stories of me."
"I could say the same to you," Harry smirked. "You think you know me? You don't know me, Voldemort."
"And you know me?" Voldemort laughed mockingly, casually shooting out a trio of spells that Harry swatted away. "The things you've heard of me whilst living under the protection of that old fool are nothing more than very heavily watered-down stories, censored by people who would not dare tell one as young as you about the horrors that Lord Voldemort is capable of unleashing."
"Horror?" Harry laughed whilst blocking a heart-exploder. "You're in a horror story, Voldemort, only you're stupid enough to think you're the monster," Harry said, dodging another spell before responding with three golden beams that shot out of the tip of his wand and at Voldemort.
"You insignificant little brat!" Voldemort spat out as the beams bounced harmlessly off his shield. "Who do you think you're talking to? Dumbledore obviously hadn't put in the amount of time needed to teach you manners, don't worry, young Potter, I will be happy to do so." He said before firing a large beam of glowing hot light that shot out of his wand and rushed towards Harry, growing in height until it was well over ten feet tall and wide. A large explosion shook the very ground of the graveyard so hard that the nearby death eaters half suspected that every corpse in the area had started dancing from underneath the ground.
Once the dust cleared, there was a large circle of fire right where Harry Potter should have been. The death eaters quickly started clapping in support of their master, after all, there was no way any wizard at Potter's age could survive something like that.
"An excellent showing, Master," Lucius spoke up once they stopped clapping. "I must say, the little runt didn't last very long now, did he?" He asked rhetorically, earning a round of laughter from the death eaters. Voldemort, who had been glaring at the area where Harry had been standing, stopped and smirked at Lucius.
"Well, what do you expect?" The dark lord chuckled. "He was only a..." Voldemort trailed off as his gaze fell on something that simply should not be possible. "...It can't be!" Voldemort whispered to himself.
"I really hope that's not the best you can do," Harry said tauntingly as the flames slowly died around him. "Because if it is then you'd better give up now. You can't win, Tommy."
"We'll just see about that boy!" Voldemort roared, raising his wand high. A glowing white ball appeared on the tip of it, the energy from it pulsed throughout the whole graveyard and with another roar, he sent it flying straight towards Harry. "Take this!"
"He'll destroy us all!" One panicked death eater yelled just before Harry raised his wand. With a yell, Harry blocked the ball, he felt himself being pushed back several feet but managed to stop it in his place before sending it up into the air. The ball shot up and once it reached the sky it exploded and several white beams shot down, making multiple craters in the graveyard, one of the beams ended up flying towards the Riddle Mansion and damaging the roof, shaking the whole building.
"I took it," Harry glared at Voldemort. "What else you got?"
"More than you can handle, brat!" Voldemort waved his wand several times, causing a large hand to form in the sky above him. The hand - blacker than night - was about twenty feet tall and closed into a fist before slamming down onto Harry, once the hand had gone there was a large crater where Harry was supposed to be. Voldemort took in a deep breath, relaxing slightly. After his third breath, he stopped and realised something, there was no evidence that a boy had just been smashed into pieces there, not even a drop of blood.
"Not bad," A voice said from behind him. With wide eyes, Voldemort spun back and raised his wand, only for it to be intercepted by another wand which blocked it, stopping him in his tracks. "It's my turn now," Harry said, pushing Voldemort's arm away before waving his wand, sending Voldemort flying towards the Riddle Mansion.
The now very angry dark lord managed to stop himself a couple of meters from crashing into one of the less damaged parts of the roof, he floated in the air for a moment, preparing to fly back to the graveyard when Harry Potter appeared in front of him and blasted him through the roof and the loft below it, Voldemort landed on an old bed which quickly broke under him and he fell to the ground, groaning. Voldemort took a moment to appreciate the new durability afforded to him from this new body of his, if not for that then he'd be injured right now or worse. However, the majority of his thought process was wondering when the hell a fourteen-year-old boy learnt how to apparate so perfectly.
Voldemort levitated himself up to a standing position in time to see Harry Potter drop through the hole that he had left in the ceiling, Potter's wand slammed into the ground and a shockwave shot out, blasting Voldemort into a cupboard. Harry waved his wand and the cupboard fell face-first onto the floor with Voldemort still in it.
"I look scared yet?" Harry asked before setting the cupboard on fire. A mental warning from Venom had him ducking, allowing a cutting curse to fly harmlessly above his head. He turned around and blocked an eye-gouger from Voldemort before sending a piercing curse in return. Harry leapt forward and hit Voldemort with a flying knee just after the man had stopped Harry's spell, Voldemort flew back and crashed through another wall, landing on his back and rolling before hitting a bed frame head first. Voldemort barely had time to blink before he felt himself be grabbed by his robes and tossed through another wall, slamming face-first into the next wall before dropping onto his back.
Voldemort forced himself to ignore the pain as he pushed himself to his feet, he looked around and saw he was in the hallway on the top floor. He ignored his growing pain and ever-lasting hatred of this house in order to focus on Potter and it was wise that he did as he barely managed to block the blasting spell that had followed, he stumbled back into the wall behind him when he saw what looked like four black tentacles charging towards him. Voldemort turned to smoke and flew down into the hallway below before turning back to normal. It was becoming glaringly obvious to him that Harry Potter was no ordinary boy. Any previous doubts he had about the prophecy were quickly fading as he thought about how the boy who lived was actively trying to kill him.
The ceiling above him suddenly exploded as those tentacles that he had seen previously burst through to grab him, he was barely able to blink before those tentacles grabbed each of his limbs, tightly and painfully. He was lifted into the air just before a fifth tentacle came down and wrapped itself around his neck. He made a mental note to find and learn this particular spell after killing the boy! Voldemort waved his wand and the tentacles were cut off, allowing him to drop to his knees. Forcibly standing against the desires of his body, he managed to get to his feet just as Harry apparated next to him and blasted the floor beneath Voldemort, causing the man to once more drop-down.
Voldemort fell into the main hall of the mansion, a hall that was probably quite beautiful at one point, but now it was nothing more than dirt, grime, old steps and dusty furniture. Voldemort landed on the chandelier that hung from the ceiling, gasping as he felt a sharp piece of metal pierce through his back, a snapping sound followed and the chandelier dropped from the ground with Voldemort, both of which landed on the floor with a violent crash that sends pieces of broken glass everywhere. Voldemort hissed as he rolled onto his stomach, his body screamed and roared with pain.
He forced himself to his feet, the pain was immense but he had suffered worse when his body was destroyed. Besides, the pain he felt was far, far outweighed by the rage. With that thought, he looked up in time to see Harry Potter drop through the hole in the roof.
"I'm not through with you!" Harry roared as he aimed his wand at Voldemort in mid-air. Voldemort snarled before shooting a spell of his own straight up at Harry.
The death eaters waited anxiously as their master fought in the mansion on top of the hill, even from their position they could hear the loud noises and crashes coming from within. Lights of various colours would occasionally flash in the windows, every now and then bits of the mansion would explode outwards, most of them were really surprised that the building was still standing.
"Why is this taking so long?" Nott whispered to the others. "There is no way our lord and master needs this long to deal with that little half-blood brat, does he?"
"Usually, no," Lucius agreed. "But this is no ordinary half-blood brat, is it?" He frowned, nearly every report he had ever heard of Harry Potter was to say that the boy was an incompetent imbecile. However, Lucius knew that the people he was getting those reports from(his son and Severus Snape ) were not exactly unbiased. But it was hard to ignore the fact that the boy had bested the older champions in the Triwizard tournament, not to mention defeating the dark lord's diary in his second year, not to mention the other hundred rumours about him.
"Should...should we do something?" Bertha whispered.
"You want to get between a one-on-one fight with the dark lord and a child?" Lucius asked her with disbelief. "Implying he cannot beat a teenager on his own? I wish you the best of luck, perhaps our master won't kill you after he's done." Bertha swallowed deeply at that and opened her mouth to respond when suddenly the loud cracking sound of apparition was heard and the bruised body of Voldemort landed a short distance away from them, stunning all in attendance. Harry Potter apparated in a moment later and pushed a barely standing Voldemort against the tombstone of his father.
"You're the legendary Voldemort?" Harry asked, staring at him with an unimpressed look. "The dark demon of Magical Britain?" He chuckled lowly before leaning forward and whispering in his ear. "You're not living up to the legend," He smirked and smashed Voldemort's head into the tombstone, shattering the whole thing. Harry tossed Voldemort away and licked his lips as he stared at the downed man. "It's time to end this," Harry whispered to not just himself but also Venom.
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort suddenly yelled from the ground, the green killing curse shooting towards Harry who was about to dodge but was stopped when he felt his entire body freeze.
'Give it a sec,' Venom told him.
'Wait, what?!' Harry barely managed to think when the killing curse hit him in the face.
"I...I know this place," Harry said as he felt himself wake up.
The young man was more than confused, one moment he was happily kicking the ass of the man who was at the very least partially responsible for the majority of his torment and the next Venom wouldn't let him dodge a killing curse. His confusion was most definitely not helped when he woke up, sitting in a chair in a place that he had only seen in memories that he had been shown by Venom. He was sitting in a chair in his house, his parent's house in Godric's Hollow. He recognised the chair, it was his dad's.
"Hi Harry," A voice said from behind him, Harry got up and turned around, coming face to face with none other than Venom in his larger form. "Hi," Venom grinned at him
"Venom?" Harry asked. "W...what's going on?"
"I kind of realised something and I kind of had an idea, which hopefully has worked," Venom explained in an awkward voice.
"Idea? What idea? Where are we? This...this isn't my actual home, is it?" Harry asked quickly. "I...this is happening inside of my head, right? It's not actually real,""
"It is in your head and it is real," Venom said, reaching forward and placing a large hand on Harry's shoulders before gesturing for Harry to follow him. "When I first bonded with you, I realised something was odd about you."
"Gee, thanks," Harry said sarcastically as he allowed Venom to lead him.
"In your head," Venom continued as if Harry hadn't spoken. "There was something in it, something bad."
"What was it?" Harry frowned deeply.
"I don't know," Venom replied honestly as they reached the steps and started walking up them, Harry in front and Venom following behind him, shifting into his smaller and sleek form. "It had spread all over your body but didn't appear to be doing any harm to you. It was magical in nature and yet it had not been removed despite the fact that you had been checked up in school many times. I wasn't able to remove it from our body," He sounded embarrassed at admitting that. "I was capable of separating it from the rest of you though. I had gotten used to doing so and I was constantly wondering what it was or if it was worth mentioning."
"For the record, anything abnormal in my body is always worth mentioning!" Harry glared at Venom as they got to the top of the steps.
"Fair," Venom shrugged. "Anyway, you know how I've been showing you your memories as a baby, I think you'll recall that there was one memory we hadn't watched."
"What happened after I was hit by the killing curse," Harry nodded slowly.
"Your memories from that point were unaccessible to me for some reason, I now believe I know why." He added as they walked down the hallway. "When Voldemort attacked you, something happened to him, a part of him was put into you, shocking your brain so you don't have any memories of that time until after you woke up at the Dursleys."
"I have a piece of Voldemort inside of me?!" Harry blurted out.
"Not like us," Venom shook his head. "But yes, a part of him was in you. I couldn't get it out but in the graveyard, I felt something when your scar reacted to Voldemort. I realised it was a part of him and then I began thinking. Who better to get rid of Voldemort than Voldemort himself?"
"So his curse hits me and kills the parts of himself?" Harry frowned deeply.
"Exactly, I protected the rest of you while isolating out the parts of him. The curse doesn't affect me and so it goes to the next available thing which was him."
"So, he's no longer in us?" Harry asked hopefully.
"We should check when we get out of here," Venom suggested. "Wherever here is,"
"What do you mean?" Harry asked him as they reached the end of the hallway. "I thought this was all in my head,"
"Kind of, but I'm not exactly sure. Better to ask her," Venom said before pushing open the door in front of him. Whatever Harry was about to say died down horribly as he looked inside the room in front of him.
He had seen this room many times in his memories, he could see the small cupboard and drawers that had once been filled with his baby clothes. He recalled the warm, carpeted floor and the blue-painted walls. There was the same litter of toys scattered all around the room and there was even the same crib he had used to sleep in, though this time it was covered up in a large blanket. Sitting next to the crib in a rocking chair was a woman that Harry suspected he would never see again until perhaps after he had died.
A beautiful face was framed by mid-back length hair that was so red that it looked like it was on fire, her warm smile brought attention to her eyes. The same emerald green orbs that Harry himself had been told repeatedly that he had inherited from her.
"Mum?" Harry gasped.
"Hello Harry," Lily Potter smiled warmly as she stood up. "It's been a while, perhaps you can spare a hug for your old mum?" She asked, barely able to raise her hands before Harry shot towards her and wrapped her into a tight hug which she gladly returned.
"Mum?" Harry whispered as he hugged her tightly, once he was comfortable enough to let go, he looked up at her and wiped away the tears that had squeezed out of his eyes. "Mum, what's going on? Am...are we dead?"
"No, but you did come quite close," Lily sighed deeply. "You're not dead, Harry, you're in between."
"Between what?"
"The living and the dead," She answered softly. "Limbo, I suppose you can call it. And it's because of this," She pulled the blanket off the crib and Harry blinked hard when he saw just what was inside of it. Curled up in a fetal position and looking in extreme pain was a baby that looked like skin and bones. If that wasn't bad enough then the head was not that of a regular baby, instead, it belonged to none other than Voldemort.
"Mum, what the hell is that?!"
"A horcrux," She explained in a disgusted voice. "Or at least the remains of one,"
"A horcrux?" Harry asked.
"There's a lot I have to tell you,"
A.N: For the record, I was going to make this chapter much longer but the baby is causing lots of problems and my wife wants me to tag in.
Also, as for the horcrux, it was something I had honestly forgotten about when I started writing so this is me trying to bullshit my way out of it. I spent ages trying to think up how to do it and I have made it in a way where this does majorly change the way the story is going. Hopefully you all like it and the future direction of this story.