The Death Eaters stood in a circle surrounding Voldemort as he looked around inspecting them. Harry could not tell if he was happy with what he found or not, but the Death Eaters seemed to be nervous. As the Dark Lord began speaking they all dropped to a knee, as if before royalty.
"After all these years, my friends, we have been reunited." Voldemort began. "And yet I must wonder, where were all of you when I needed you the most? For years I was trapped somewhere between life and death, and none of you searched for me."
"I did, my lord." Wormtail bravely, or perhaps foolishly said.
"Out of fear, not loyalty. I suppose you do deserve some reward for your efforts however. Hold out your arm." Voldemort ordered and Wormtail gratefully complied. Using a spell that Harry did not recognize, Voldemort conjured a magical silver hand to appear where Wormtail's had been. Wormtail held up the hand and stared at it in awe. Voldemort meanwhile was looking at his wand with a confused expression on his face, as if something had happened he did not expect. A moment later the look was gone and he was once again standing before his followers.
"Where were you Avery? Or you, Goyle? Crabbe? Nott? And what of you, Malfoy?" Voldemort asked. Harry sat and listened, though he was not at all surprised to see it confirmed that Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater.
"My lord…" Malfoy began to plead pathetically, "I was constantly on the alert. Had there been any sign, any whisper-"
"Quiet, Lucius." Voldemort said forcefully, and Malfoy knew better than to continue. "There will be time to make up for past failures later. Now we must be suitable hosts and attend to our guest." With that he pointed at Harry who was still tied up and bleeding from his arm. Harry could hear the Death Eaters laughing from behind their masks at his predicament. Voldemort began walking towards him as he spoke, and was soon standing right in front of him. "The world was foolish enough to think that this mere child had destroyed the most powerful wizard of all time. It was not he that defeated me that night, but a mistake on my part. Old magic was at work that night, powerful magic. I did recognize it then, but I do now. And I have overcome it. Believe me Harry, I can touch you now." With that Voldemort pressed his finger into Harry's forehead where his famous scar lay. The pain Harry felt in that moment eclipsed anything else he had ever experienced.
"Now Harry, we shall see if the Boy-Who-Lived can truly stand against Lord Voldemort." the Dark Lord said with a sneer. "Wormtail, untie him. And give him his wand." Wormtail rushed to obey his master, and soon Harry was free with his wand in his hand. Harry nervously looked around and knew full well that he was surrounded by potential threats as well as face to face with one of the world's most powerful wizards. Voldemort looked like he was preparing to continue his speech, but Harry thought his best option was to get on the offensive and stay on it as long as he could.
Harry began casting and moving as quickly and as powerfully as he could. Even Professor Flitwick would have been proud of him if he had been there. The chain of spells he used was one he had come up with months earlier and practiced constantly. It included piercing hexes, tripping jinxes, cutting curses, Crouch's acid spell, bone breaking curses, a tickling charm, a cutting curse, a charm that caused boils to break out on its victims face, and ended with a massive Bombarda. But even though Harry was casting at his best nothing seemed to get past Voldemort's defenses. Everything he threw at the Dark Lord was either blocked by conjured or summoned items or simply avoided. When the dust cleared from his last spell, which had been powerful enough to leave a small crater in the ground, Lord Voldemort was still standing there laughing at him.
"I'm impressed, Harry." Voldemort said. "Perhaps you should rethink the offer I made to you years ago. Join me and I will help you reach your full potential."
"Never!" Harry responded angrily. He then transfigured two headstones into massive bears which he sent to attack Voldemort, but before they could reach him the Dark Lord had destroyed them with two lazy swipes of his wand.
"You still have much to learn. A pity you won't get the chance." Voldemort taunted.
Harry wasn't sure what do. Despite all of his training and his relatively easy victory over Barty Crouch Junior he was still clearly not in Voldemort's league. Gathering his courage, Harry went back on attack. He decided that he would have to use his deadliest spells and so cast "Cruormorsus", the same spell he had used against the acromantual in the maze. Voldemort was finally forced to raise a shield to defend himself, but when he did something very strange happened. Beams of pure magic stretched from each of their wands, connecting them. As they did Harry felt a strong drain on his magical reserves and knew he could not keep this, whatever it was, up for very long. Voldemort was distracted by this unexpected phenomenon, and Harry saw his chance to strike.
Harry ended the spell just as it started to form a dome above him and quickly fired off a cutting curse towards Voldemort's head. The Dark Lord had been distracted by what had happened and tried to side step the spell but was only partially successful. A long cut opened up on Voldemort's cheek and blood began to trickle down to his chin. Voldemort roared in anger and then finally began attacking Harry. Harry used his speed to avoid the first wave of spells, but as he tried to jump behind a headstone was struck with the Cruciatus curse.
Harry screamed as Voldemort held the torture curse on him. He had felt the curse before during his fight with Barty Crouch Junior, but the Death Eater's version of the spell felt lick a tickling charm when compared to Voldemort's Cruciatus. The pain coursed through every part of his body and Harry felt as if he were on verge of going insane. A moment later Voldemort lifted the spell and Harry could hear the evil man laughing at his suffering.
"So this is all the great Harry Potter can manage? Pathetic." Voldemort laughed. "I think I shall send your head back to Dumbledore. What do you think of that, Harry?"
"No good." Harry gasped. "He likes socks." The Dark Lord chuckled at Harry's response and slightly lowered his wand. Harry's trembling fingers closed tightly around his wand which he had almost dropped during his torture at the hands of Lord Voldemort. The Dark Lord took a step back and motioned for Harry to stand up.
"Get up, Harry. You do want to meet death on your feet, don't you?" Voldemort said. Harry had been slowly making his way to a standing position anyway and a moment later was finally able to stand and face the Dark Lord. Harry looked around for some last minute way to save himself, but could find nothing. He was still completely surrounded and no help was coming.
'I'm going to die here.' Harry thought with sad laugh. His little chuckle soon turned into an audible laugh which had the Death Eaters thinking that perhaps Lord Voldemort's Cruciatus had driven the Boy-Who-Lived insane after all.
"You think death is funny, do you?" Voldemort asked as he raised his wand towards Harry. Finally Harry stopped laughing and raised his wand to face the Dark Lord. "Any last words?"
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