But then he heard Volauvent's hissing voice taunting his da, and Lucius Malfoy's strangled cries as some of the Death Eaters cursed him, and a cold, burning rage abruptly swept over Harry.
TBCтАж
*Chapter 63*: Chapter 63
"Ssso, Sseverus, The Brat Who Lived is now The Brat Who Died, and his blood and your own will be used to resurrect me. Let's see just how much of your blood I can relieve you of before you finally die. Where shall we start? What shall we remove first? An eye? That beak of yours? Perhaps a portion of the anatomy most wizards are rather fond of?" He snapped his fingers, and two Death Eaters hurried forward and dragged Snape to his feet. The Potion Master barely noticed; he was still incoherent with grief.
Lucius lay crumpled on the ground, with several Death Eaters gathered around him, gleefully hexing him as he writhed and screamed.
Voldemort/Bellatrix moved down from the throne, wand swinging lazily in his grasp. He frowned for a moment, finally realizing that Snape was too devastated to appreciate his own imminent demise, let alone react to Voldemort's threats. This would never do - half the fun (not to mention the deterrent value for the other Death Eaters) was for Severus to be fully aware of and dread every moment of the agony he was about to impose. He looked over at Lucius with gratification. Now that was what a real torture session was supposed to be. "Let's see, how shall I get your attention?" he mused aloud, tapping one finger against his lips.
Behind him, Harry got to his feet. His head hurt, and he was in a really, really bad mood. Voldesnort had made his da cry, and those stupid Death Eaters were hurting Draco's father. Harry had had enough.
The two Death Eaters holding Snape's arms watched disbelievingly as Harry rose behind the Dark Lord. They exchanged wide eyed stares behind their masks, and each one abruptly began to question their allegiance and career goals, as there before them was the irrefutable proof that once again Harry Potter had тАУ as a mere child тАУ survived the worst the Dark Lord could throw at him. Furthermore, both realized that their current activity, restraining the guardian of The Boy Who Still Lived, was unlikely to be regarded in a favorable light by the only known survivor of not one, but two, Avada Kedavras.
As the grip on his arms slackened, Snape blinked, unable to believe his eyes. He stared, completely oblivious to the mad wizard pacing in front of him as he struggled to grasp the notion that his son had - again - survived the unsurvivable.
"Leave my da alone!" Harry yelled, sending a nasty cutting hex at Voldemort.
The Dark Lord spun, astounded to find Harry alive and well, and despite Bellatrix's phenomenal reflexes, surprise delayed him enough that he was unable to dodge or block in time. Voldemore shrieked in pain as Harry's hex sliced his face open, destroying one red eye.
The massed Death Eaters, initially dumbfounded by Harry's recovery, were now further horrified by this proof of their Master's vulnerability. As one, they took a step backwards. If Potter could do that to the Dark Lord, what could he do to them? The fact that they were dealing with a lone 12 year old didn't really register тАУ they were all too busy gawking at the sight of a bleeding Voldemort and a breathing Potter.
Even Snape was frozen, still staring at The Boy Who Really Should Be Dead By Now. His brain seemed stuck on the whole "He's alive? How can he possibly be alive?" idea, though his heart had apparently made the unilateral decision to ignore the how and why and released a flood of transcendental joy that was surging through his form. "Harry," he breathed.
Before Voldemort or any of his minions could quite recover from the shock of Harry's attack, a loud series of popping noises broke the stillness of the night, and a group of house elves, accompanied by Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Bones, Moody, and three Weasleys, appeared en masse just outside the Death Eaters' circle.
With one shouted spell and a massive surge of magic, Dumbledore broke through the wards and almost simultaneously grabbed Remus' shoulder, staggering as he did so. The next instant, a re-energized Dumbledore was back on his feet, his blue eyes blazing, while a fully transformed werewolf roared with hunger at his side. Then Remus leapt for the nearest Death Eater, and pandemonium ensued.
Voldemort frantically spun around, trying to sort out friend from foe, even as he was simultaneously hit by an Avada Kedavra, Diffindo, Entrail Exploding curse, and at least five other deadly spells from Harry and everyone else. Shield charms, and even Bellatrix LeStrange's great skill as a duelist, proved of limited use when attacked at once from multiple sides by numerous, lethal assaults. The Dark Lord тАУ all of his horcruxes destroyed тАУ fell to the ground and did not rise again.
Dobby, delirious with joy at finding his Master Potion Master Sir still alive, hurtled into the tall man's knees, hugging him with all his strength. Since a house elf's strength is considerable and Snape's ankles were still bound, Dobby's well-intentioned greeting caused Snape to fall over backwards. As he tumbled to the ground, he saw Dolohov's AK pass harmlessly overhead, and his brain realized this would be a very good time to start working again. He shouted at the little house elf. "Wand, Dobby! My wand!"
"Oooh, yes, Master Potion Master Sir!" In a flash, Snape was unbound, his wand in his hand, and he was viciously returning the hexes and curses that came flying at him.
Molly dodged in and used a well-placed Protego to save Lucius from Alecto Carrrow's vicious Sectumsempra тАУ thereby creating a Life Debt between the Malfoys and Weasleys тАУ while Filius dealt with Amycus. Molly then hit Alecto with a modified bat-bogey hex that distracted the squat witch long enough for Molly's bone crushing curse to catch her in the neck.
"Nice shot, partner!" Filius crowed, leaping over Amycus' bloody form.
Molly grimaced in annoyance. "I was aiming for her wand arm," she admitted, stepping past the witch's body. "I'm a bit out of practice."
"You'll get plenty of chances," Flitwick warned, and then they were into the next group of Death Eaters.
Meanwhile, the instant they caught sight of an alive and well Harry, Bill and Charlie had grabbed him and stuck him between them, much to the 12 year old's annoyance. Hadn't he been the one to draw first blood on old Voldesnort?
Unfortunately for Harry, the Weasley brothers were unimpressed with his past accomplishments, and an attempt to wiggle out from behind their sheltering bulk resulted in two very hard smacks on his rear тАУ one from each. Harry immediately realized why Ron preferred to be punished by Professor Snape than by his brothers, and he hurriedly abandoned further attempts to escape. Instead, he rather grumpily made do with shooting the odd curse from between the redheads whenever he got the chance.
One of the Death Eaters used Serpentsoria against them, and Harry calmly ordered the snake to go away. To his surprise, the snake didn't respond, and Charlie had to blast it before it got close enough to bite. "Harry, snakes don't usually respond to voice commands," the big dragon handler called over his shoulder, rather exasperated at what he saw as the boy's foolish behavior.
Harry blinked in confusion, then belatedly remembered what his mum had said. His parseltongue was from the horcrux. It was gone, and so was the ability to speak to serpents. Harry felt a bit of a pang. He had rather liked his Speaker status.
But then he shrugged and sent a Conjunctivitis Curse at a Death Eater who was targeting Bill. There was still plenty of magic left for him, and he'd rather have the Dark Loon out of his head, no matter what the cost.