Chapter 546

The eyes of the surrounding wizards burst with intense hope at the sight of the old man with the white beard who had suddenly stepped out, and they murmured in unison, “Dumbledore.” The voices of thousands of people mingled together like a muffled thunderclap that exploded in Voldemort’s ears.

He jerked back, “Dumbledore?”

At that moment, an invisible blade sliced towards Voldemort, the air was sliced and the Serpent made of Fiendfyre split in two from the middle.

Voldemort turned his head and raised his snakewood wand, and from its tip a lush, tangled mass of snakewood tree branches twisted around each other to form a sharp spear of incredible length, cutting straight through the bright white flames and sending sparks straight at Felix.

Felix flickered through the air like a fish and reappeared on the ground. He held a short sword in his hand – the ebony wand morphed into it, the front end of which featured a transparent blade extended by magic – and a Severing Charm flew swiftly towards Voldemort, shredding the snake-like branches.

“Headmaster Dumbledore?” Felix paused and showed a puzzled expression as well.

Dumbledore shook his head slightly and walked calmly towards Voldemort, “You are destined to be disappointed today, Tom.”

Voldemort returned a cold smile, “Dumbledore, you are talking down to me again without knowing what I have done and gained?” He took two steps back to keep Dumbledore and Felix in his field of vision at the same time and smiled crookedly, “Two against one?”

Felix waved his hand at him, “I’ll take a break.” He narrowed his silvery grey eyes and walked away.

Voldemort turned his attention to Dumbledore and raised his hand to release a deadly green light, and Dumbledore flicked his wrist as the stone on the ground turned into a golden shield, there was a loud bang in the air and the killing curse was deflected.

“Transfiguration.” Voldemort said in disgust.

Bondi, the house-elf within the crowd, nodded its head dramatically, “Nasty magic.” Draco Malfoy glanced at it, only to be met with a pair of intimidating eyes that he subconsciously avoided it, then became annoyed at himself for flinching.

But the house-elf was completely unconcerned and just stared at the battlefield, as it whispered, “I hate Transfiguration, like candy.”

“Of course, I know what you’ve done, Tom. You had just committed a terrible murder and another innocent life was lost because of you.” Dumbledore said, taking a step closer to Voldemort. The Phoenix Fawkes which hovered above his head, chirped softly.

“You know that? Then you should know exactly whose wand I’m holding right now, and you’re no longer my match, Dumbledore. Try this!”

Voldemort raised his snakewood wand and leaned back slightly, his magic pouring into it with unrestrained vigour as he and the wand simultaneously emitted a haunting hissing sound, as if thousands of snakes are hissing, and the surrounding air twisted grotesquely with light and darkness.

“Parseltongue!” Harry shouted out nervously from the crowd.

“What did he say?” Ron shouted, covering his ears. The wizards gathered around either mirrored him or fought it off with a Quietening Charm or Shield Charm, but the sickening, vomit-inducing feeling lingered in their stomachs like a worm.

Fawkes flew over and let out a sharp chirp, singing a song. Then the discomfort disappeared.

People looked up one by one –

“Avada Kedavra! (Parseltongue)” the evil hoarse voice continued to vibrate through the air as countless solid strings sprang out of the snakewood wand with great speed, as the green light around them converged into a cloud emanating an unearthly aura and poured down in Dumbledore’s direction.

Dumbledore paused as the ground rippled beneath his feet, an earthquake tumbled the ground around him, forming constantly rising clumps in the centre that resembled a fast-growing ancient tree. Powerful vines then extended from the top of the ancient tree and lashed out in unison toward Voldemort.

The vines and green cloud swept away everything in their path, and Felix’s heart sank as he created an invincible barrier around the crowd.

The earth vines broke into large parts, and crashed from hundreds of feet above, shattering like old crumbling pillars, but the thing about Transfiguration is that it can be sustained as long as the magic keeps up, and the shattered pillars started to reassembled under Dumbledore’s control.

Voldemort had difficulty holding out the curse, so he paused and disappeared from his original position.

“Bang, bang, bang, bang!” The continuous attack of countless earth vines shattered the remaining twisted strings and green clouds completely.

Dumbledore gasped slightly, as the wrinkles on his forehead eerily started to smooth out, and he instantly looked several years younger. The scene fell silent and Voldemort looked at Dumbledore in disbelief, he had tried to overestimate this old man as much as he can, but once again the strength Dumbledore had shown shattered his perceptions.

Could it be that he didn’t use his full strength a decade ago?

Voldemort felt a strong sense of humiliation, and with it, a sense of fear rose. But immediately afterward, his gaze froze, “Your hand!”

Dumbledore looked at him with a calm gaze, a few more wrinkles disappearing from his forehead, a change that became more obvious, even to Harry and the crowd. “How did Headmaster Dumbledore’s face become younger …” Ron muttered in a small voice. Harry’s heart elevated, he intuitively believed this is not normal.

Hermione’s eyes went wide, and she drew in a short audible breath.

Felix also felt shocked that Dumbledore’s magic had permanently altered a large terrain, such a powerful transfiguration … but he suddenly remembered about the ‘special method’ Dumbledore had mentioned earlier, the one he had many times used to defeat Voldemort.

He gazed at the smoothened wrinkles on Dumbledore’s face and wondered what it would cost.

Voldemort didn’t notice these subtle changes, his full attention fixed on Dumbledore’s dry, charred hand, or to be precise, on the inconspicuous black jewelled ring on his hand.

His face instantly contorted with anger.

“Tom, you are too arrogant to believe that no one can find out your secret.” Dumbledore said calmly, waving the Elder Wand as the earth suddenly sunk downwards and Voldemort got sucked in by a powerful suction, but he still stared intently at the ring in Dumbledore’s hand before he disappeared, his snake-like pupils trembling in disbelief.

The Horcrux, his Horcrux.

Dumbledore had found it! He then turned his head to look at Felix, who had a solemn look on his face.

In the next second, Voldemort was pulled into the vortex.

For a split second, the battle seemed like it was over. Everyone remained silent for a few seconds –

“He’s dead?” A wizard asked with a shudder.

“No.” A voice said without thinking. The nearby wizards stared in unison at the person who had spoken, it was Harry, who is now clutching his forehead with a pained expression.

Voldemort’s mood swings are too violent for him to turn a blind eye to. A picture appeared in Harry’s mind that showed Voldemort of different ages, all of them shared the common trait of committing appalling murders without a moment’s hesitation for a ritual …

Then the scene abruptly changed: a Voldemort with blurred, wax-like features handed a diary to a young blond man, who took it obediently.

Voldemort, who had failed his job interview for the professor position, appeared in the Room of Requirement and placed a diadem on a mountain of rubbish with a smug smile on his face.

A pale hand dropped a black jewel ring in an old abandoned shack.

The Slytherin locket was thrown into a glowing green liquid.

A baby hand stroking a huge python, as a cold voice called it ” Nagini … “.

And the sight of a familiar woman, excitedly holding up a golden cup, the reflection of her in his pupils confirmed that this scene had happened not so long ago …

Dumbledore struggled to control the magic. The earth continued to crumble, thorn after thorn pricked out of the ground, and a chilling muffled sound came from the tightening vortex, followed by the reappearance of Voldemort, looking slightly ragged, with a dozen cuts on his face.

The snakewood wand in his hand emitted a soft chant as a glowing green light spread from his pale hand and covered his entire body, as every cut and wounds on his body and face were smoothed out. He stared at Dumbledore, a hissing sound escaping his lips as the sensation everyone had felt earlier returned, the snakewood wand twitched as if thousands of snakes echoed him.

“a-VAH-dah ke-DAH-vraaisss…”

“Headmaster Dumbledore, Watch out! He is going to curse using the Parseltongue-”

“Keep quiet, Harry!” Dumbledore blurted out.

In the next second, Voldemort suddenly disappeared and Harry found himself firmly trapped in a circle entangled by a monster with red eyes.

The monster looked like some kind of slimy glue or a parasite, and it entangled with him so tightly that Harry didn’t know which is his body and which is the monster’s. Harry got trapped inside, falling deeper and deeper into the swamp-like body, just like Voldemort had fallen before, but unlike Voldemort, he didn’t have the ability to escape on his own.

The scar on his forehead ached with greater intensity than ever before and Harry felt like he would die anytime soon, which is fine, at least it would bring him a relief from this pain. Everything is out of his control, the monster tried to speak, using his own mouth, so Harry felt his mouth opening and closing in excruciating pain.

The people outside got taken aback, “Invisible? Or did he use the apparition to escape?” The Ministry of Magic’s Aurors and Hit Wizards looked around, when Harry suddenly fell to the ground, as his body twisted stiffly, his neck raised like a snake, his pupils somehow turning into the vertical eyes of a snake.

“Harry?” Sirius called out.

“Can you kill me now, Dumbledore?” From Harry’s mouth came a hoarse voice that sounded almost identical to Voldemort’s.

The onlookers backed away in panic.

“What’s going on, that boy …”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“No, that voice–”

People subconsciously formed a circle around Harry, and Dumbledore leaned down to meet Harry’s snake-like eyes as he said sharply, “Harry, pull yourself together and never forget who you are!”

“Who am I?” ‘Harry’s’ eyes turned blood-red abruptly as a hissing sound escaped his mouth, “I am, of course, the greatest Dark Lord in the history-”

“Oh my God! The boy is possessed!”

Dumbledore took Harry by the shoulders and said in a deep voice, “You’re Harry Potter, the son of James and Lily, think of them Harry, they would be proud of you if they are still alive! And remember all those friends you made at school, Harry! Remember who you are!”

Harry found himself trapped in endless darkness, his consciousness blurred from the pain, and he felt himself constantly falling down … Then he heard a blurred voice, it was Dumbledore, he was calling his name.

What’s my name again?

Harry’s memory blurred little by little as he sank into the darkness, is he Tom Riddle, or is he Harry Potter?

“Harry, snap out of it!” Hermione said anxiously, “Think about Sirius, think about Remus, think about Hagrid …” She recited one name after another, all of the people Harry knew best, and in the endless darkness, Harry’s consciousness cleared a bit.

“I am Harry Potter.” Harry muttered to himself, as he stared up at the red-eyed monster that had a death grip on him, “and you’re Voldemort.”

Outside, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Sirius, and Dumbledore tightly surrounded Harry, calling out his name over and over again. Amelia Bones looked worried, but then she turned her head and shouted, “All Aurors, isolate the perimeter and stay alert, healers take your positions.”

Bondi, the house-elf, watched the scene, as he appeared a little too calm compared to the panicking crowd, “It’s kinda scary …” when a figure suddenly stumbled and leaned towards him, Bondi looked up indifferently and found it is the same young man that had wrapped himself tightly before, with only half a sharp, thin chin showing.

“A student?” He muttered, as he snapped his fingers, and disappeared from that place.

Draco Malfoy fell to the ground, as he was pushed and shoved by the crowd, and saw Harry’s face, contorted by pain, through the messy gap between the legs. He climbed to his feet in complete shock, unable to imagine what kind of pain a person his own age is suffering.

He saw Harry’s mouth widen and his eyes turn back to emerald green again.

“Get out of my head, Voldemort!”

Harry’s roar carried far and wide, his fist slammed into the ground and the ground shuddered strangely as small stones jumped up from the ground.

“Hiss … I’m you, Harry Potter is the name we share …”

“No – not at all -” Harry said through clenched teeth, fighting a little bit to break free from the red-eyed monster’s arms.

“Get – out – of – my – head -”

He hammered his fist into the ground, his arm slamming into the ground with a loud thud like a drum, the sound seemed to hit people in the heart.

“Oh my God, look at that boy, what is he going throu-”

“Unbelievable!”

“Who is he?”

“It’s working, keep waking Harry up, it’s a battle of wills.” Felix stood at the back of the group, his eyes changing colour like a torch, with astral rings circling around his pupils, and silvery grey wisps gathered at his fingertips.

Ron, Hermione, and Neville shouted eagerly which echoed through Harry’s mind as each of the words filled with intense emotions-

“I’m Neville, Neville Longbottom, Harry, you taught me magic, remember?”

“Think of Ginny, Harry! Don’t you want to see her again?” Hermione called out.

“We flew halfway across England in a car together Harr-” Ron suddenly froze and stared at Harry with disbelief, losing his words, “Merlin’s socks, ah, you and Ginny? When was that happened?”

Eventually, a black mist rushed out of Harry, Felix reached to grab it, but he grasped it in vain, then he threw a ball of silvery wisps at it, as a scream came from the black mist, and it floated far up in the air, where it reverted into Voldemort’s body.

His snake-like face looked like a grotesque mask, holding too many emotions at once, joy, anger, sadness, and happiness …

He gave Felix a vicious glare and disappeared without a warning.

Unfazed by Voldemort’s vicious glare, Felix continued to ponder silently, ‘It seems to have some effect, but it’s not that obvious … Did I choose the wrong emotion? What could it be correct then? A Horcrux … complete soul … killing … incomplete soul … repentance? Repentance!”

He had originally wanted to try to see if emotions could have an effect on Voldemort’s soul like state, and if they worked, he could research them in a more targeted way. But now, he suddenly got a new train of thought.

The Horcrux is a way of splitting the soul and gaining immortality by doing so. Of course, There’s a cost, like the intense suffering and pain caused during soul splitting, becoming less and less human, insanity as the split increase, and the ensuing problems caused by soul instability. Harry became a Half-Horcrux because of Voldemort’s soul instability – when Voldemort was hit by a rebounded killing curse in the Potter’s house in Godric’s Hollow, a fragment of Voldemort’s soul was blasted away and attached to the only living soul in the collapsed house for survival.

And Voldemort didn’t even notice the missing soul fragment after that.

Of course, it’s not impossible to make one’s soul whole again after creating the Horcrux, Felix thought. According to the notes in the Advanced Dark Magic Uncovered book, “true repentance” would allow the split soul to return to its original source if it remained intact, but the pain that would follow would be devastating.

Presumably, Voldemort had no intention of trying this. But even if he didn’t want to, others could help.

This can be accomplished by capturing Voldemort alive and leaving him defenceless. Then brainwash him at every opportunity to make him repent. … But it is No easier than killing Voldemort’s main soul directly.

Harry panted and shivered as he slumped on the freezing ground, then he found himself floating, lying on a stretcher, footsteps heard everywhere around him, and Harry tried to say something, followed by a spinning sensation in his head.

He heard someone talking overhead, but he couldn’t tell who it is, it could be Headmaster Dumbledore or Professor Hap, or it could be Ron and Hermione. He opened his eyes and his vision became blurry. A hand reached towards him and placed his glasses on his ear, and the environment became clear all of a sudden.

Dumbledore’s nose looked close at hand, and he could see the concern in his azure eyes as he looked up.

“Are you all right, Harry?”

“Quite well.” Harry said, slightly embarrassed. “Drink it up, boy, it’ll make you feel better.” Harry looked up, and it was Mr. Slughorn who spoke now, holding a thumb-sized vial in his hand and looking at him with very mixed emotion, his gaze tinged with a mixture of chagrin and admiration.

“Thanks.” Harry grunted and drank the potion.

He found himself lying in a makeshift tent with a school crest printed on the wall, and he stared at it for several moments before realizing that it isn’t Hogwarts’ crest – despite the resemblance, it is the crest of Ilvermorny.

Harry suddenly realized that this was Ilvermorny Headmaster’s tent. The thought that this headmaster had been killed by Voldemort gave him a heavy pang, and this increased his hatred for Voldemort who had done this. His consciousness became increasingly fuzzy and in a trance, a light flashed, and he suddenly remembered the memories of Voldemort he had seen earlier.

Harry grabbed Dumbledore’s arm and stammered, “Crup – Beltriaxss.”

“What? Harry, what did you say?” Dumbledore lowered his head.

“Bellatrix! He gave Bellatrix Lestrange a golden cup!” Harry shouted, then passed out completely.

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