Harry Potter and the Fortress of Woe

a/n: Finally, the penultimate chapter!. I am not sure when I will update next, because my exams are approaching and require at least some of my time and attention. Enjoy! Oh and if you are wondering: yes, I did get back my rucksack and everything which had been stored inside. Sometime you just have to be lucky :)

Harry appeared at the base of a small forest, hidden from view by his reliable Invisibility Cloak. Ahead of him the Fortress of Woe loomed, its blood red granite walls glittering in the last few rays of the dying sun. Harry took his time studying Voldemort’s refuge, wanting to find out as much as possible before entering a place that dangerous. The Fortress was titanic. Its size defied vision, seduced it and defeated it. In the falling twilight, its walls seemed to go on forever and while he did not know if it was a mere trick played to his eyes by the protective enchants, which were without doubt shrouding the walls, or indeed the by-product of that vast a size, he knew that in each case that he would have to find an entrance.

Easier said than done. All Harry could see were the blood-red, slightly glowing marble stones, adorned with frescos of twisted human faces and topped with black, almost foot-long spikes. As his gaze searched for any doorway, Harry suddenly spotted a dark shape towering over the Fortress, barely visible in the twilight of the evening. It was a tower, dwarfing even the gigantic Fortress.

Thrice as high as the Fortress and made of black marble instead of red, it was enthroned over the massive building like a king over his country. Harry could not make out where exactly it met the Fortress, but at least he knew the general direction in which it lay. He guessed that this probably was where Voldemort had erected his personal chamber, having gotten to know his nemesis arrogance very well over the last years.

Harry was raking his brain for any idea. Did he know any spell to find hidden doors? Was it possible to fly over the wall? He did not have a broomstick with him but maybe he could transform one of the trees into a ladder… but Necraal was just bound to have placed a bunch of protective enchantments on the wall preventing just that, wasn’t he? Maybe he could blast his way through, but that would surely give his presence away and it was not at all sure that he had enough energy at his disposal to severely damage the walls.

A sudden plopping sound caused Harry to jerk out of his musing. Glancing around, he quickly spotted the sound’s source. The wall in front of him was changing from blood-red to ebony, changing its texture as well as his colour. What a minute ago had been solid stone turned to black wood, which had turned as hard as iron over the eons of its existence. Right in front of Harry’s eyes a door appeared, as high as the wall and at least twice as broad as it was high. It swung open without a creak, apparently in good shape despite its age, revealing the forms of at least thirty Death Eaters, all of them dressed in their trademark black robes and masks. Harry pressed himself at the Fortress’ wall next to the door, realizing that this was his chance to enter the building without having to worry about any protective enchantments.

While the Death Eaters were busy leaving their stronghold, whispering excitedly with each other over whatever evil scheme their master had cooked up again, Harry seized the moment and slipped inside the fortress, careful not to step on anybody’s toes in the process and giving himself away. His fingers were itching with the desire to curse his nemesis’ goons into oblivion, but Harry forced himself to remain calm, knowing that despite his tremendous process over the year past, he would not stand a chance against thirty Death Eaters. Harry felt the familiar feeling of stepping into the area of effect of Anti-Appartion wards; apparently Voldemort was not too fond of unexpected visitors.

A few stealthy steps later, Harry found himself standing in a large entrance hall. Two great pillars supported the slightly domed ceiling and the room was bare except for two largish coal braziers dousing the room in flickering twilight. Two doors made of the same black wood as the front door were located the left and right end of the room and Harry knew that both of them hid corridors leading deeper into the building. The only question was which of the two ways to take. After a short moment of contemplation Harry chose the one to his right.

- - - - -

It was a good night for murder or at least Sandro though so. The moon stood blood red in the sky, a sight he had not seen for a long time indeed. The last time he had been walking the night under a red orb, he had still been human. Memories started to rise in him like, bubbling back to the surface like methane in a swamp. For the first time in at least fifty years, Sandro remembered.

He had been working for the Ministry that night – the fact that assassins were considered ordinary murderers did not diminish their usefulness and in the past the Ministry had been less than hesitant to employ them, should they deem it appropriate – searching for a troublesome group of smugglers who unfortunately enjoyed the protection of several high-ranked members of the Wizengamont. Therefore it had not been Aurors haunting them, but Sandro and two of his fellow assassins. Sandro had never bothered to learn their names – relationships between assassins usually did not run very deep and were terminated very swiftly – and at first everything had worked just fine. They had busted the place together, bringing quick death to every one of the smugglers, who had been meeting in a mausoleum on an old Muggle cemetery this day. What Sandro did not know, however, was that his two fellow assassins were old friends, both with the nasty habit of cheating their partners.

After the job had been done, they knocked him out cold from behind, stuffed him into a coffin, threw him in one of the open graves and filled it with earth. Then they walked away, planning to take his share for themselves. Sandro could still remember waking up in the dark and tight coffin, he could still feel the way the air seemed to be growing thinner with each rapid breath and he could still remember the all consuming hatred he had felt at his two cheating partners. It had not taken long for him to pass out and then… he had been reborn.

He still did not know what had happened; one moment he was struggling for his life and the next moment he was able to free himself in a few heartbeats. He had not taken the time to thoroughly examine his new form that night; he had been too busy taking revenge. He had considered it appropriate that he returned the favour to his would-be murderers, after teaching them a lesson in pain, of course.

Tonight he would teach Voldemort a lesson, showing the bastard that cheating an honourable assassin was a bad and foolish thing to do. Currently he was flying in the frigid night air, towards his final destination: Voldemort’s stronghold, the Fortress of Woe. Sandro was not entirely sure if it was one of that good an idea to break into the building, but he was determined to show the self-declared Dark Lord how dangerous it was to mess with him. Of course Sandro was not stupid enough to attack Voldemort himself; no he was just going to kill as many of his henchmen as possible and maybe disrupt whatever hideous plan his enemy had planned. In fact Sandro did not really care what he did, as long as it really ruined Voldemort’s day.

Smiling at the mere thought, he landed in front of the infamous Fortress. To a mere mortal the Fortress’ walls might have appeared bare, but to his eyes they were aglow in a darkish red colour. Necromantic wards! Like every undead being, Sandro harboured an unnatural affinity to this darkest kind of magic and was almost completely immune to it. The Fortress’ walls might have been impassable for anyone alive, but for him it was as easy as walking through an open door. Smiling eerily, the shade floated over the wall.

- - - - -

Harry pressed himself flatly against the pillar, hoping that the small patch of shadow created by it would be enough to mask his presence to the crowd ten feet under him. He was standing in a large hall like room, or to be more precise on one of the room’s four rectangular balconies. They were approximately ten feet broad and connected with each other, creating a second level of the hall, allowing anyone standing on them a perfect view of the central part of the ground level. The room itself was square, with each side being roughly forty feet long, and had a domed ceiling, which was supported by a system of pillars located next to the room’s walls with a big circular stairway connect the room’s two levels. Each of the pillars speared through the balconies on its way to the stone it had been built to stabilize, turning the upper level into a bizarre maze of light shadow, due to the torches placed on them. The floor of the room was completely bare, except for a great amount of chairs which had been pushed away towards the walls to make room for the gruesome show taking currently place.

A circle of eight Death Eaters were standing in a circle around the curled up body of another young man who was lying on the floor. Every now and then someone would kick, punch or hex the helpless victim and, judging by his appearance the torture, had been going on for quiet a while.

Harry had entered the room after having sneaked through the Fortress for at least half an hour without meeting a single soul, through the door only seven feet away from him, on the same balcony he was standing on. He could not see any other possible entrances to the room, but figured that there was another door on the ground level. Fortunately Harry had been extremely careful and silent when entering the room and therefore had been able to evade getting noticed by the Death Eaters. At least until now.

Harry gritted his teeth as the man downstairs let out another piercing scream. He wanted to help him, but he knew that it was more than a bit risky seeking a fight when being so obviously outnumbered and that he would risk alarming all of the Death Eaters in the Fortress and maybe even Voldemort himself should he do so. Just as Harry had been close to decided to back away and to search for another way, something caught his eye that changed everything. There was another man in the room which he had not noticed until now, a man standing in the shadows a few feet away of the crowed of torturers. Even though it was hard to recognize him in the dim light, Harry knew immediately who it was: Severus Snape.

White hot rage flooded his system banishing all thoughts of flight. Before he could give his decision a second thought, he had already left the security of the small dark spot next to the pillar and was already running towards the stairways, whipping out his wand in the process. Harry heard the Death Eaters shouting in surprise just as he was starting his descent on the stairs and Harry knew that it would not take long for the first Unforgivable Curses to be launched in his direction.

However, Harry had no intention to let the Death Eaters fire their hideous spells. Knowing that sometime attacking was the best way of defending oneself, Harry opted for a more aggressive role in the encounter. Harry used the Blinking Charm to teleport himself down the stairs, both to surprise his enemies and to dodge any curses currently being fired and opened fire himself. His first curse slammed into the still huddled together Death Eaters like a Bludger, painting the room crimson for a moment and flinging them through the air like discarded toys. Fortunately they had been moving towards him, so that his attack had not damaged the helpless victim. Harry felt a satisfied grin slipping on his face and wicked glee bubbled to the surface of his mind, mixing with the anger and fear to form an exhilaration cocktail. He was surprised, but pleased at how effective the Starfire Charm had been as a battle opener and he made a mental note to keep this effectiveness in mind for eventual future battles.

Harry never stopped firing while making his way deeper into the room, making sure to always keep on moving to avoid becoming an easy target. He knew his Shield Charms could deflect most ordinary spells, but he would rather save as much as possible of his energy for the big showdown against Voldemort. His first strike had caused thick cloud of grey smoke, which had quickly taken over most of the room, blanketing the combatants under a semi-transparent veil. Using his ability to feel other person’s minds, however, Harry was able to figure out the general direction of each of his opponents quite clearly. He used this advantage to direct Stunners through the fog, hoping to catch the Death Eaters of guard, so that they would be unable to block or to sidestep the spell. The almost blinded Death Eaters, who were only slowly adapting the situation, responded in same manner but with much less accuracy. Their aim was sloppy at best and while Harry did not have a hard time dancing around their curses, his shots were almost always hitting their intended target.

However his advantage did not last for a long time. Harry had just launched another one of his powerful stunners at an unsuspecting Death Eaters and had heard the satisfying dull thud of a body hitting the ground, as the hairs on the back of his neck started to prickle alarmingly. Acting completely on instinct, he rolled sideward just in time to dodge no less than three Avada Kedavras which would have hit him square in the back a second later. Wheeling around to find out who had been attacking him, Harry spotted four Death Eaters a few feet away, who had taken cover between the various pillars, spreading themselves over the room to force him to divert his fire between them. Obviously the area of effect of his first spell had impressed them. He also discovered that the smoke which had been masking him was gone, probably banished by one of his foes. Snape was nowhere to be seen, but Harry could feel that at least two other persons were in the room, standing somewhere behind him, where the protecting smoke was surely slowly disappearing as well. This did not look particularly good. A crossfire with six opponents, who had an unhealthy love for Unforgivables, was not a situation Harry was looking forward to experience. His Shield Charms were all but useless against Death Eaters and even with his ability to teleport it would be a rough fight. Maybe he would be able to overpower one or two of the Death Eaters by blinking behind them and catching them off guard, but sooner or later the others would realize what he was planning and would start to fight defensively, forcing Harry to change tactics because the Blinking Charm would drain too much of his energy when used for a long time. Therefore he needed another strategy, he still needed to fight Riddle after all.

Thinking quickly, Harry did indeed come up with an idea. Just as the four Death Eaters were about to launch their second volley of curses, Harry raised his wand as well, squeezed his eyes shut and bellowed a single incantation.
“Solaris!”

Even through his closed eyelids the following explosion of light nearly blinded him. He could hear the surprised screams of the Death Eaters as their vision was getting eradicated and threw himself onto the ground to avoid any blind shots his enemies were probably going to launch. Harry carefully cracked his eyes open and was pleased to find the Death Eaters fumbling around blindly, most of them clutching their injured eyes. However, that did not stop his enemies from firing their curses. Several of them were shooting stunners and Cutting Curses blindly into the room, hoping to hit their attacker by chance and apparently not caring if they hit one of their allies in the process. Knowing that his advantage would be temporary at best, Harry jumped into action, Blinking behind the closest Death Eater and sending him to sleep with a well placed Stunner.

Before the now prone body had hit the ground Harry had already teleported to the next one, repeating the same process there, having to block one of his blinded opponent’s Cutting Charms before being able to send him down to the ground. He managed to down two other Death Eaters before getting rudely interrupted by an Avada Kedavra narrowly missing his head. Turning around Harry discovered that the last remaining Death Eater had apparently regained his eyesight and was more than eager to revenge his fallen comrades. Harry sidestepped another deadly jet green of light and retailed in kind with a supercharged stunner, which slammed right through his foes hastily created shield and caused him to join the other Death Eaters in their blessed unconsciousness. Only Harry remained standing in the large hall, surrounded by his enemy’s lifeless bodies. The adrenaline, which had been set free in his body during the struggle, was still pumping through his veins and, combined with the constantly rising amount of serotonin set free thanks to his victory, created an absolutely exhilarating feeling.

Harry felt powerful, omnipotent even, as he quickly recalled the battle, knowing that he had been completely superior despite being outnumbered during the skirmish. He took a wicked glee in the fact that he had easily bested Voldemort’s goons, happy about finally being able to defend himself without an outsider’s help. For these few precious moments, Harry understood why Voldemort enjoyed killing and torturing so much; not because he because he enjoy to see other people suffer – though he surely regarded this as the icing on the cake, the bloody sadist – it was about the absolute power he wielded during these times. He could decide who lived and who died, who suffered and who did not, who was rewarded and who was punished. It was playing god and it felt great.

The sudden presence of another person in the room yanked Harry out of his thoughts. Someone was standing behind him and he knew without doubt who it was.
“Don’t try it Snape”, he growled, before turning around slowly to face his former Potions teacher, ready to dodge an attack all the time during the process. “Where did you slip off to? I missed your during the fight.”
“I am not foolish enough to engage an unknown enemy without a plan”, answered Snape, the familiar sneer in its place. He was wearing his Death Eater robes, minus the mask, and Harry thought that he was finally showing his true colours. “I slipped out of the room and waited until the noise died down, but had I known that it was you barging in, I could have stayed here. I thought someone really dangerous was coming here. What is this, one of your trademark suicide missions, Potter?”

Harry could feel Snape trying to probe his mind – probably trying to find out if he had come alone or had brought reinforcements – but his mental assault sizzled harmlessly against his Occlumency Shields.
“I have learned quite a bit since we met for the last time Snape and this time no assassin is restraining me”, said Harry, feeling an evil grin slipping on his face. He was surprised how strongly the sight of his former teacher affected him. Already he had a hard time restraining himself from cursing Snape into a piece of jelly on the floor. While the chance of finally getting revenge for the endless hours of tormenting the potion master had put him through and for his betrayal which ended in Dumbledore’s death was indeed tempting, Harry hoped that he could wheedle out some information out of the hot-tempered Death Eater.
“It is not very polite to peek into other person’s head, you know?” he asked the greasy, haired man and was pleased to see the slight look of shook on Snape’s face. Apparently his former teacher had not expected getting bested by his pupil.
“Well it seems that you have indeed learned a thing or two, over the last few months”, hissed the potion master, after having recovered from his shock. “I had not considered it possible that a man with your incredible lack of self-control would ever be able to master the art that is Occlumency, but apparently I have been wrong. Well, it does not matter anyway; the Dark Lord will blast through your pitiful defence. Prepare yourself for your death Potter, I will beat you and deliver you personally to my master, Crucio!”

Harry was prepared for Snape’s attack and easily sidestepped the Unforgivable and blocked the Stunner Snape had launched directly afterwards with faked difficulty. He did not know how many tricks Snape had up the sleeve, and opted for keeping the full extend of his own powers hidden for as long as possible, hoping that his enemy would underestimate him and therefore be making a grave mistake. The rage which had been ignited as he had laid eyes on his former teacher was flaring with new intensity as Snape started attacking him, causing the memories of Dumbledore’s last moments to resurface in his mind.

“You will have to try harder, Sniffelus”, said Harry, while blocking yet another of Snape’s curses, a Levicorpus this time. He could feel Snape’s attempts to probe his mind, but managed to block them continually. Without this advantage the former teacher still was a formidable foe, but Harry was confident that he would be able to beat him. Still, a part of him wanted to find out why Snape had chosen Voldemort’s side over Dumbledore’s in the most important situation, not to forgive him for anything he had done, but to find out what turned men into traitors.

“You know what I am wondering about, Snape?” asked Harry and continued without even bothering to wait for an answer. “Why a coward like you chose to kill Dumbledore, even though it meant giving up your position as a double agent? I mean, it was not that bad a situation to be in, you could simply sit back and wait which side would be victorious, being too valuable for both of them to risk getting killed. Smart, but cowardly, but you have been a coward for all your life and old habits die hard, don’t they?”

Harry’s taunts seemed to indeed have an effect on the normally so emotionally guarded potion master, for his face twisted into an even uglier than normal sneer and his face had taken the colour of sour milk.
“Don’t call me a coward, Potter!” snarled Snape, shooting a Cutting Curse at Harry as if to emphasize his point. Harry noticed that his aim was sloppy; apparently he was really getting under his skin. Snape continued speaking just as his curse sizzled harmlessly against Harry’s shield. “You want to know why I chose the Dark Lord over Dumbledore? Fine, I am going to tell you! The Dark Lord promised me what Dumbledore could not or did not want to offer: immortality! I had thought for a while that the old fool knew the secret just as my master did and that he was too noble or too stupid to seize it, but I guess we will never know now, will we? When I saw him lying their weakened on the tower, I knew what I had to do. I was tired of getting pushed around, tired of serving two masters at once, I finally wanted my reward. I knew that Dumbledore was not going to give it to me anytime soon, so I decided to try my luck with the Dark Lord. And was there a better way to get his gratitude than by removing his biggest enemy from the picture? Well, only delivering you to him, I guess, so prepare to… ARGH!

Snape never finished his sentence, for in precisely this moment Harry’s fury finally erupted. His Starfire Charm slammed right into the potion master’s left leg and ripped it off, together with a large part of his hip. The impact threw him to the ground and caused him to drop his wand, which rolled away to vanish somewhere in the darkness. An agonized scream ripped itself from the Death Eater’s mouth, but to Harry it sounded like the sweet tune of revenge. He knew that had not been not an immediately deadly shot, and had picked this way of attack on purpose, wanting to let Snape suffer a bit before he died, which was only a few minutes away now.
“Tell me where Voldemort is!” commanded Harry, pointing his wand at Snape’s face, “And I might kill you right here instead of letting you bleed to death!”
“Go to hell, Potter!” spat Snape, his face distorted in pain.
“Oh, I will, save me a seat next to the fire, will you?” answered Harry, before walking slowly away, just remembering the man the Death Eaters had been torturing what felt like a lifetime ago. For a moment he thought he heard a Snape call out for him, but he ignored the feeling, thinking that the traitor deserved a death alone.

A few steps later he was standing over the prone form of the tortured man, who was still lying curled into a ball on the floor, unconsciousness thanks to the rough treatment the Death Eaters had put him through. Harry whipped out his wand and cast a quick Ennervate, knowing that the man would be much more motivated to tell him something about the Fortress than Snape had been.
“Please stop!” whimpered the man, whose face was nearly completely covered with bruises, cuts and wounds, rendering it a featureless mass of red flesh.
“It’s okay, I am not here to hurt you”, said Harry, just as his gaze settled on the captive’s silver-blond hair. “I don’t believe this … Malfoy, is that you?”

This statement, combined with the sound of his voice caused the man to snap out of his distress state. In this moment Harry realized that it was indeed Draco Malfoy lying there beaten to a pulp on the floor.
“What on earth are you doing here?” asked Draco, his eyes wide and bewilderment evident in his voice.
“Just passing by.” replied Harry, not wanting to explain his plans. “If you help me, then I will let you find your way out of there.”
“And if not?”
“Then, you will join your former colleagues.”

Draco took a long look over the other Death Eater’s prone form and a quick glance at the puddle of blood which had formed about Snape’s body, before nodding.
“Alright, what do you want?” he asked.

- - - - -

Harry crept silently up the huge spiral staircase, making sure to remain in the shadows as much as possible, and mulled over the new information had had gotten form Draco. The Slytherin had told him that Voldemort had not been pleased about his inability to kill Dumbledore and while Harry had suspected the very same thing himself, he had been surprised about how brutal Draco’s punishment had been. Only the fact that Snape had made an Unbreakable Vow had prevented him from sure death. His demise would have led to Snape’s death as well, for he would have failed at protecting him as best as he could, but that had not protected him from the torture Voldemort had let him be put through at all. Snape had protected him as best as he could by keeping the Dark Lord from killing him and therefore the vow had not been broken. Of course, Draco had been less than happy about his former teacher’s lack of further support and Harry had the distinct impression that the Slytherin was not too upset about Snape’s death as well.

Anyway saving Draco had been one of Harry more clever ideas of the evening, for he had been able to supply him with valuable information. According to his schoolboy nemesis, Voldemort had ordered an attack on Hogwarts to be executed this evening, both to finally break any resistance the still free wizarding population and because of some unnamed master plan he had apparently been hatching for quite a time now. Harry had been chilled to the bone by this new piece of information, fearing that Ginny, Ron and Hermione would fall victim to the attack while he was unable to protect them. His instinct had screamed at him to head back to the school and help at defending it, but he had known that he would never be on time and that this chance of ending the war would be lost if he chose to retreat right now. Draco had claimed that only roughly twenty Death Eaters were left in the Fortress minus the ones he had already removed from the picture. Voldemort apparently wanted to take the school quickly and therefore had decided to pool that much manpower into the task. However, something here at the Fortress seemed to be demanding his utmost attention, for he was not commanding the attack himself. Maybe he was not considering the school that hard an obstacle now that Dumbledore was dead and buried and was confident in his Death Eaters commanders to win the fight without his help.

Harry was pretty sure that Voldemort wanted the school razed to get enough fuel to power the mind controlling spell of the Fortress with enough energy to take over Britain and while this meant that the Death Eaters would have to take as many prisoners as possible, Harry did not like it one bit. Sure, it heightened the chances of survival of the Hogwarts population severely because no halfway sane Death Eater would risk using an Avada Kedavra if he knew that his master’s wrath would follow suit, but getting taken prisoner by the Death Eaters was not field trip either. A shudder ran down Harry’s spine as he imagined what they would do to Ron, Hermione or Ginny, should they be able to lay their filthy hands on them and the fire of fury raging in his guts rose to new heights. Whatever would happen tonight, Voldemort would not be around to celebrate any victories if Harry had any say in the matter.

Draco had described him the way to the central tower of the Fortress, which housed Voldemort’s private quarters as well as the so-called “Feeding Chamber”, quite accurately and so Harry was currently climbing the flight of stairs which was supposed to lead to the first level of the tower, housing his nemesis’ private rooms. So far he had only encounter three Death Eaters, which had all been alone bored and completely unaware of his presence until they had found themselves face to face with a Cutting Curse aimed at their throat. Harry was fighting his way to Voldemort with unknown brutality, his white-hot rage frozen to cold determination to wipe the scum which had been bringing terror to Britain over the last twenty year’s from the earth. He had stopped seeing the Death Eaters as humans; to him they were only enemies, beasts in remotely humanlike forms, only existing to bring sorrow, death and despair to the innocents. No longer he felt bad after killing in battle, like he had when he had slain the Death Eater in the Riddle Mansion, but rather relieved and even slightly happy that one killer less was roaming this world. A small voice in Harry’s head was severely worried about this development, but it was completely ignored for his mind was way too preoccupied with fighting to give it much heed.

Five minutes and a pair of slashed Death Eater throat’s later, Harry was standing in front of a large double door, crafted out of the blackest ebony he had ever seen. The door was featureless except for the golden doorknobs in form of a twisted face. That had to be the entrance to Voldemort’s lair. Harry could not feel the presence of any other person nearby, but he knew that this did not have to mean that no one was near, the door could be enchanted to misguide his senses, masking whoever was waiting in there from detection, after all. Taking a deep breath and readying himself for any bad surprise which could be lurking behind the door, Harry extended his hand and opened it.

He was not even able to set a single foot inside before it happened. All he saw was a brief flash of green before something hard and smooth slammed into him and knocked him to the floor. Suddenly, Harry found himself face to face with a pair of deadly looking fangs, directly aiming at his face. In the last minute Harry could twist his head to the right and was rewarded with the satisfying sound of his attacker crashing against the hard stone of the floor. In this moment, Harry realized what was attacking him: Naigini, Voldemort’s massive pet snake and also the last remaining Horcrux. However the danger he was in was by no means reduced by this realization. The snake was still sitting on him, pressing him to the ground with its surprisingly great weight and it was only a matter of time before it recovered from its slightly dazed state to finish him off. Harry had no intention of letting this happen.

However freeing himself was rendered highly difficult by the fact that his wand arm was flattened to the ground by the snake’s massive weight. He need to get this bloody reptile of his body and he needed to do so fast. Harry started to twist his wrist of his wand hand, wanting to point it at Naigini instead of pointing useless at the floor with all his might, but the snake’s leathery and scaly hide did not shift an inch. Harry knew that his time was rapidly running out and panic started to rise in him, muffling every coherent though. Either the snake would simply kill him right here or would keep him trapped here until Voldemort came. In each way Harry would find himself in the afterlife sooner than later. Just as the still slightly dazed snake lifted her head again, positioning itself for another strike, an idea hit Harry. Instead of trying to wriggle free, he simply employed the Blinking Charm to teleport out of his precarious situation and into safety. He reappeared outside the double door and immediately launched a powerful Cutting Curse at the hideous snake which hit the surprised reptile straight in the face, causing its head to explode in a shower of gore.

Harry was standing panting in the door still trying to recover from the way too close escape he had just had. He shuddered at the thought what would have happened if he had remembered the charm only a few seconds later. He silently cursed himself for letting his fear overwhelm his conscious mind and made mental note to keep calm no matter what was going to happen to him this evening. Of course the currently more rational part of his mind knew that this was a promise he could not keep, but the vast majority of his brain did not give a damn about that at the moment.

Harry looked up again and was more than a bit surprise to find the snake’s corpse aflame with white blue fire. He knew that this was could not have been caused by the Cutting Curse, so he assumed that it was connected to the fact that Naigini had been a Horcrux’s vessel. Apparently the part of Voldemort’s soul which had been resting in her was gone and its absence caused the now dead body to go up in flames. Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that Riddle’s immortality was now gone forever. He had wondered about how to destroy the Horcrux in the snake for ages now, and was both surprised and relieved about the fact that simply killing it seemed to have done the trick.

Harry took a long look round the room he had been fighting the snake. It was a circular and elegantly furnished room with a large ornate fireplace as the only light source. A round table and a few comfortable looking chairs, crafted out of the same black wood most of the furniture in the Fortress were made of, and a bookshelf were the only pieces of furniture, but all of them looked very expensive and old. The room was lacking the menacing aura which shrouded the rest of them building and for a moment Harry found himself reminded of the Gryffindor common room. However, this impression only lasted for a few heartbeats, because Voldemort chose exactly this moment to burst into the room.

For a moment both men were simply staring each other in shock. Voldemort recovered first.
“Well, who do we have here? Young Harry Potter, what a pleasant surprise!” he said, his monstrous face twisted into a thoroughly evil smile. “And I had feared that I would have to comb the whole country for you!”
“Hello Tom”, said Harry, forcing himself to remain calm and reinforcing his Occlumency Shields. “I had a little problem getting in here, sorry for making a mess.”
Voldemort’s red eyes focused on the prone form of his pet snake and his monstrous face twisted in rage, much to Harry’s pleasure. An angry enemy made mistakes, which certainly could come in handy, especially when fighting a foe as formidable as the self-proclaimed Dark Lord.
“You have killed Naigini”, gritted his nemesis out through his teeth. “I will revenge her by taking the time to kill you as painfully as possible, Potter. That is, after you have told me about the little prophecy regarding the two of us.”
“What makes you believe that I am going to do that?” asked Harry as nonchalantly as he could. Voldemorts thoroughly evil presence chilled his blood like it had all the times before. Apparently there were some things you never got used to.

“It is not that you have a choice Potter and putting on a brave façade is not going to safe you”, answered Voldemort, his red eyes narrowed menacingly. “I will simply rip the secrets from your mind and you can’t do anything to prevent it! Legilimens!”
Harry, however, was ready.

He allowed Voldemort entrance to the mundane memories and thoughts he had collected and slowly but surely forced him out of his mind, while his enemy was busy sifting through a sea of entirely useless information. It was incredibly hard, much more difficult than denying Snape entrance, but thanks to his enormous willpower, Harry managed to complete his task. He was panting by the time he had completely regained control of his mind, but his exhaustion was nothing compared to the look of utter disbelieve and shock on his archenemies face.

“This is impossible!” Voldemort managed to gasp out after a few heartbeats. “No one has been able to force me out of his mind before!”
“Well, Tom, I have learned a few things over the past months”, answered Harry through wheezing breaths. “I have grown powerful and I am here to destroy you, just like I destroyed the precious immortality you have been creating for such a long time. We both know how this night is going to end: with pain and suffering. So why don’t we finally get started?”

“You certainly have changed a lot Potter”, replied Voldemort his voice quiet and deadly. “How many of my men have you slain to get to me?”
“A few, but I can’t see how this is important at this moment.”
“Oh it, certainly is”, continued the Dark Lord, his face twisted into an ugly sneer. “You have tasted the ultimate power tonight, the power over life and death, and I can see in your eyes that you like to be in charge of a situation. You are becoming more like me any day and it won’t be long until you realize that love is nothing compared to what power can offer.”
“I will never be like you!” spat Harry, disgusted at the mere thought of ever being even remotely similar to the dark wizard he had been fighting for so long. “I am here to kill you and I will, so get ready or I am going to slay you were you stand!”
“Promises, promises Potter”, answered Voldemort, the grin gone from his face to reveal an ever more dangerous look. “You will be serving me before the night is over. The Fortress is not nearly fully charged, but this is about to change after I have fed the population of Hogwarts to it, isn’t? Currently there is enough energy to break a single person’s will and you are going to have the honour of being this beautiful building’s first victim.”

“No bloody way!” shouted Harry was just about to send a Starfire Charm at his enemy, as Voldemort spoke a single word of power. The worst pain Harry had ever felt rose in his head and he fell to the ground clutching his temples. As his vision slowly faded to black he heard Voldemort telling him that he would wait for him on the top of the tower. Then, he lost consciousness.

- - - - -

Harry gingerly stood up from the ground. His whole body was sour and he had a raging headache, but otherwise he felt completely normal. He was still in the circular chamber where he had encountered Voldemort, but he could sense that at least an hour had passed. What on earth had happened? He could remember Voldemort walking away, claiming to wait for him on the tower’s top, but… oh, Voldemort had used the Fortress’ power against him, wanting to turn him into a mindless puppet! But that had not worked, had it?

After all he felt perfectly normal and could feel no alien presence in his head, apart from this bloody headache, of course. Was it possible that he was under Voldemort’s control without even knowing it? Could it be that he would only have to follow his enemy’s orders and was completely himself otherwise? That would be even worse than death, for he would be a prisoner in his very own body.

Harry furrowed his brows in concentration as he tried to remember anything about the past hour. For a moment nothing happened, but then images started to bubble up his mind. It was a confusing mixture of real memories, false memories, and visions, some perfectly clear, others so blurry and fogged that he could only image what they were. He could see Sirius falling through the veil, but he could also see himself entering it and bringing him back. He could see himself standing on a graveyard, waving his wand at two graves lying to his feet. Two figures were rising from the earth, mere skeletons at first, but at a flick of his hand, flesh started to grow on them until they had regained their natural form. Harry found himself face to face with his parent’s resurrected forms.

The image faded as quickly as it had formed and Harry saw another familiar scene. Once again he was standing in a field of corpses, the field of his defeated foes. He could see another group of Death Eaters storming towards him, launching volley after volley of Killing Curses, but even though they hit him, Harry was completely unharmed by any of the green beams. He only raised his left hand and watched his enemies getting incinerated by a giant beam of fire which struck them from the sky.

Harry shook his head to clear it and found himself back in the chamber in which had woken up. He knew that he had only seen a small part of what had been in his head in the passed hour, but he got the general idea behind it. Apparently the Fortress was controlling its victims by promising them unimaginable power if they followed its master obediently and lured them into surrendering to its powers by showing them what they would have been able to do with it. Necraal had obviously assumed that each human was hungering for power and had therefore designed the Fortress this way. Still this did not explain why Harry was still as he had been before.

Harry did not know how effective the Fortress was, but he was pretty sure that it was indeed working. After all, people had been joining Voldemort for nothing more than the promise of a small part of his power. Harry knew that his nemesis could be pretty convincing, but he doubted that he could be as efficient as a building designed with the very purpose to control and dominate people. So that still left him with the question while he still was himself. Suddenly another image rose in his mind.

Harry found himself standing in the Hogwarts’ hospital wing, standing directly in front of the bed still holding Ginny’s prone form. He raised one of his hands and her eyes fluttered open, the chains which had been holding her unconscious shattered with a single blow. She rose in a sitting position and locked her eyes with his, a small smile appearing on her face.
“Harry”, she said, her voice like an angel’s. “This is not real; the Fortress is trying to trick you. See behind the lies and destroy the evil that is Voldemort for me, for us. Save us all and come back in one piece. I will be waiting for you.”

As Harry’s vision cleared, everything suddenly made sense. The Fortress had shown him the scene there he had awakened Ginny, because of his great desire to see her again. But something or someone had changed the scene, causing Ginny to warn him from the danger he was in and thereby saving him from losing himself. Harry did not know what it had been, but he honestly did not care at the moment. All that counted was that he was himself and had a dark wizard to kill. Taking a deep breath, he crossed the room and started climbing up the stairs.

- - - - -

Five minutes later, Harry was standing on the flat platform topping the central tower of the Fortress. The wind was whipping around him, howling and causing the already freezing temperature to drop even lower. The platform was square – one side roughly twenty feet long – and bare except for four monoliths standing at the towers edges, giving it the look of a monstrous hand reaching into the nightly sky. Voldemort was nowhere to be seen.

Harry furrowed his brows in concentration and took another step out of the trap door leading up onto the platform, using all of his sense to discover his worst enemy’s whereabouts. His awareness saved his life. Just as he finished the step, he realized that Voldemort was standing directly behind him, having Disillusioned himself to meld with the nightly sky. Harry threw himself to the ground just as Voldemort shouted “Crucio” and the Unforgivable barely missed his head. Before Voldemort could fire another curse, Harry had already whirled around and fired a Cutting Curse at the other wizard, forcing him to erect a shield to avoid getting hit. Then, Harry teleported himself to the other end of the platform, opting for a greater distance to his enemy. Disillusioning himself to annihilated Voldemort’s advantage, Harry called out to his nemesis.

“How did you know that I was not controlled by the Fortress?” shouted Harry, while firing a volley of Starfire Charms in the general direction where he could feel Voldemort’s aura. The explosions caused by the charms rocked the tower, but Harry was sure that he had seen Voldemort erecting a shield, just before his first charm had hit, which probably meant that he was not dead, for Harry had not taken the necessary time to create a truly powerful spell. Of course it also meant that it was nearly impossible to see his opponent in the smoke his last curse of action had created, especially because he was Disillusioned. Once again it was his ability to feel other person’s minds that saved Harry. He suddenly realized that Voldemort was much closer than he had thought, only eight feet away, and immediately teleported away back to the trapdoor. Two rapid heartbeats later, he saw Voldemort firing a Killing Curse at the very same spot where he had been standing mere moments ago; apparently his nemesis had not yet realized that Harry had teleported away, thanks to the Disillusionment Charm on him.

“You can’t hide forever Potter!” shouted Voldemort, as he realized that Harry had once again slipped through his fingers. “Sooner or later to fancy teleporting trick will run out and then you will be mine! I suspected that you would be too headstrong to be controlled by the Fortress and therefore designed this little trap and luck will not be enough to escape my wrath!”
Harry ignored Voldemort’s mindless taunts, knowing that he was walking a very thin line. One mistake and he was as dead as one could be, well at least he would be after Voldemort would have grown tired of torturing him. He needed an idea to overpower his enemy or this fight would be going on for hours. Suddenly it hit him.

Voldemort was standing directly next to one of the pillars, at least Harry thought so - it was not easy to tell with the bloody charms on both of them. Grinning, Harry launched a Reductor Curse at the monolith, and was pleased to find it getting blasted into a thousand splinters and to hear Voldemort’s scream of pain as some of them buried themselves in the surprised wizard’s flesh. Voldemort’s answer was a swift Avada Kedavra aimed at the place where he had seen the spell erupt, but Harry had already teleported himself away to the other end of the platform which was more than a bit demolished by his Starfire Charms.

“I have enough of playing hide and seek Potter!” shouted Voldemort and muttered an incantation under his breath which rendered both him and Harry visible again. “No more Disillusionment Charms in this fight!”
“Fine with me!” shouted Harry back a launched a series of weak, but fast Slashing Hexes at Voldemort, while at the same time collecting his power for a more powerful spell. He felt exposed with the Disillusionment Charm gone and the fear mingled with the anger in his system to create an emotional cocktail which caused him to tremble with excitement.

While Voldemort was busy blocking his Slashing Hexes, Harry teleported as close to him as he dared and fired a Starfire Charm with as much energy as he had been able to channel in the short time. Voldemort was hit straight in the chest, with his shield still in place and vanished in a white hot explosion, which would have engulfed Harry as well, had he not Blinked away directly after launching the curse. He hit the ground close to platforms other demolished edge, panting hard both at the strain of Blinking so often in the last minutes and at having channelled such a powerful curse. Looking at the cloud of dust and dirt billowing where Voldemort and a large part of the platform had been, Harry realized that it was finally over. Allowing himself to finally relax, Harry sank down on the floor, burying his face in his hands. For a few precious moments he was enjoying the peace which had settled about this menacing building, but then something changed.

“Oh god, no!” said Harry as he felt the familiar presence of his nemesis’ aura. Before he had any chance to react, a Bludgeoning Curse had hit him straight in the chest and carried him over the edge of the tower.

“Blast it!” shouted Harry, as he started his enormously deep descent. He cursed himself for underestimating Voldemort and for being so careless. Well, no harm done. Having already fallen fifteen feet, Harry started teleporting himself upwards, annihilating the fall and managing to get back to the platform, completely exhausted and drenched in sweat at the strain this rapid teleporting had put on his body and with a few broken rips thanks to Voldemort’s last curse.

Once again, he found himself face to face with Voldmort. His enemy looked horrible; most of his skin was burned sometimes as deep as to the bone. Chunks of stone had imbedded themselves in his limbs, opening deep and extremely painful looking wounds. Harry was astonished that his nemesis was still alive and able to walk, but apparently Voldemort was tougher than he had given him credit for.

“You are so dead, Potter”, hissed Voldemort before jumping into action. He fired two Cutting Curses at Harry one at his face and one at his torso. Harry was able to dodge the first one, so that instead of slicing open his face it only left a small gash on his left cheek. The other one however, embedded itself directly over Harry’s right hip, opening a two inch slash in his flesh. Excruciating pain flooded his consciousness, eradicating all thoughts of resistance. Harry fell to the ground, his wand dropping to the stone next to him, rolling out of reach. He could see Voldemort’s sneering face over him and knew that he would have to use his last trick if he wanted to slay his enemy, the spell describe on the very last page of . Smiling a weak smile, Harry uttered a single word of power under his breath.

A gigantic wave of energy erupted from Harry’s body, spreading rapidly. Within a second it touched Voldemort, burning away his flesh, leaving only a charred skeleton behind. Quickly the energy had formed a sphere around the entire platform, which sizzled menacing with pent up power. Harry breathed out a sigh of relief as he realized that it was finally and really over this time.

This spell was called Sunburst Technique and it was a suicide move. Energy erupted from the caster, destroying any other living thing it touched and creating a big sphere around him. Unfortunately this sphere had the slight drawback of collapsing after a minute, causing a gigantic explosion, which killed the caster and destroyed everything within a three hundred feet radius. Being too weak to blink away and unable to Apparate due to the Fortress’ wards, Harry waited for the sphere to collapse, his face twisting into a relieved smile at the knowledge that the nightmare was finally over.