Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 14: Round Two
Despite the immense amount of time that had passed from his perspective, Harry was able to keep his most important memories alive, and his encounter with this woman had been vividly remembered to the last detail.
It had been a constant reminder of his inexperience and something he worked hard to fix.
A cruel smirk appeared on the face of Bellatrix Lestrange. "A duel, you say? Pfff!" She had to contain herself so as not to burst into laughter.
Had the situation been different, she would have loved to take her time and torture Harry until she was satisfied, but she was aware that time was of the essence.
If her cousin Sirius was here, that meant that Dumbledore's group of vigilantes had become involved, and the Aurors could arrive at any point now.
"Tsk… too bad." She lamented the situation. "Give me the Prophecy already, Potter. Time for playing is over." The smirk was now gone from her and was replaced by an expression that would have terrified the old Harry Potter.
For his part, Harry had many things he wanted to say to this woman.
While trapped inside the frozen world, the one thing he had the most was time… time to think about everything that happened in his short life and how he would have liked to make things different, after becoming wiser and more mature.
'Pointless… she would not listen.' He had already determined that nothing he could tell right now would be taken seriously.
The image she had of Harry Potter was of a newbie wizard who didn't even know magic existed five years prior.
One of his favorite pastimes was to make use of his Occlumency to replay scenarios inside his mind.
He could replicate the people that he knew with complete accuracy and interact with them in different ways.
Developing this method was something that Harry had to do out of necessity… for a long time, this was the only thing that allowed him to maintain his sanity.
In the frozen world, he was alone, but inside his mind, this was never the case.
And he could do more than just talk with the mental constructs… he could also fight with them.
Boxers like to call this method 'shadow boxing,' where they imagine an opponent and spar with them, throwing punches and dodging imaginary blows.
If there were titles for using this particular skill, Harry would no doubt deserve the 'GrandMaster' one.
"Crucio!" Bella jabbed her wand towards Harry, hoping to take him out of commission in one go.
The Cruciatus Curse was nearly invisible, and it's considered impossible to dodge. But if one were to analyze the spell enough times, they could detect a thin line of red light leaving the wand and traveling quickly toward the target.
Inside his mind, Harry had seen this woman use that curse many millions of times.
He tilted his body just enough to avoid the near-invisible line, and before Bella could react, he responded with a spell of his own.
Harry gave the wand a simple, sharp twist.
"Urggg!" Bella groaned and nearly fell to the floor when she felt something sharp cut into her leg. When she looked down, she found a deep, bleeding gash on her right calf.
"Weak…" Harry had intended to sever that leg completely.
His eyes went to the wand.
'Of course… I nearly forgot.' He had grown accustomed to using a different foci to cast his magic. To the point that wands felt almost alien to him, and on top of that, the wand he took from the Death Eater didn't seem to respond well to him.
Because of this, the outcome of his spells is much weaker than expected.
"How dare you…" Bella gritted her teeth as rage filled her mind. Forgetting about her Lord's orders, she aimed her wand at Harry. Her eyes were almost red with bloodlust. "Avada Kedavra!"
Harry saw the green spark leave her wand.
"V!"
"Yes!" The hat on top of his head let out a cheer before opening its mouth.
A powerful vortex formed at the center, and Bella's deadly curse was redirected slightly from its intended target towards the hat.
The green spark of light went inside the mouth of the hat before it closed up.
"Puff…" A bit of green smoke left the corner of the hat's mouth. "That didn't taste as good as I thought…"
"What…" Bella's eyes opened like plates. The rage that was numbing her rationality seemed to vanish in an instant due to the insanity of what she had just witnessed.
A hat had eaten her Killing Curse… and then complained about the taste.
Harry glanced up. "Are you complaining about eating spells? You never said that before."
"That's because I like your magic. But this… mmm…" The folds on the leather that gave shape to its eyes moved slightly, as if reacting to something. "He is here."
Harry didn't need to ask who this was, as he had already detected the presence.
A shadowy figure flew over him and landed next to the shocked Bella, revealing himself as a tall man with pale skin and no hair.
The snake-like features of his face contorted slightly to signify his displeasure.
"Bella, dear… did I hear you use the Killing Curse on the boy?"
"My Lord!, I…" She had no excuse. For a moment, she had lost her senses after being injured by Harry and did something inexcusable. Had she succeeded in killing the boy, her Master would never have forgiven her for it.
Voldemort seemed to take a moment to analyze the situation. He spotted Bella's deep cut on her leg, the unconscious figure of Sirius, and Harry Potter standing a short distance away, still alive and in good shape.
The Dark Lord's eyes rested for a moment on the peculiar hat that Harry was wearing. He felt something strangely familiar about it, but there was not much time to dwell on it.
If he was going to get the Prophecy, it had to be now.
His red eyes met with Harry's green ones, and he immediately tried to use their connection and dive into the boy's mind to gain control of him.
A.N: - Remember to comment, vote, and/or leave a review if you have the time. Those things help me a lot and I would really appreciate it.
You can Support me on P@treon if you like and get 20 advanced chapters. You can also find characters images to view for free in Collections/Time Images
-patreon.com/Kriogenix
For donations and commissions, go to ko-fi.com/kriogenix