Bonds of Affection

Under the Invisibility cloak that was too small to hide the three of them comfortably, struggling to remain concealed, the three of them followed the aging man, whose form was beginning to look even more shabby, even greyer than usual.



Harry watched him with remorse, feeling guilty for forcing someone who was so painfully and wretchedly scared, to walk to his own death. Ron saw the expression on Harry\'s face and squeezed his hand firmly to reassure him. Harry glanced at his friend with surprise. Ron was not callous, but it seemed that standing witness to Voldemort\'s darkness had changed him, and enabled him to accept death as necessary evil, rather than something to be avoided at all costs.



Pettigrew walked slowly, as if every step hurt; but he continued walking nonetheless, leading the way through the dark hallways, and then, down spiraling stairways, through multiple sets of massive doors that opened before him on their own, and then locked behind him almost instantly. They could have never found their way there on their own, Harry thought.



Pettigrew stopped by the final set of doors and waited for them to catch up.



“You know, we can\'t go in like this,” Harry said quietly. “The cloak is too small for the three of us. We can barely walk – and don\'t have any freedom to maneuver.”



Hermione looked at him with an expression that was near loathing. “It\'s just fine. We were fine outside.”



Harry shook his head. “Outside, nobody was looking for us. Nobody noticed the ripple effect of the cloak stretching too much, or beginning to slide. But inside – it\'s a smaller space... and the faintest shimmer can give us away. Only two of us can be under the Cloak at a time. Come on, Hermione, you know this as well as I do.”



She was still shaking her head in denial, but Ron stopped her. “Harry is right,” he told her. “It\'s like wizard\'s chess. Someone has to be sacrificed if we want to make it across the board. I\'ll...”



“Thanks, Ron,” Harry said, and before either of them could protest, stepped from underneath the Cloak, coming next to Pettigrew. Out of the three of them, Harry thought, he was the only one Voldemort had any interest in, and the only one who stood a chance of not being struck instantly by Voldemort\'s Killing Curse.



“Bring me to him,” Harry demanded.



Pettigrew cast him a doubtful glance, but placed his soiled, aging hand on Harry\'s shoulder, and tapped the wall next to the massive set of doors. The doors slid open, revealing Voldemort\'s inner sanctuary.



Not seeing Hermione or Ron, but confident that they were following him, Harry allowed Pettigrew to guide him inside the Hall. Voldemort sat on a chair resembling a throne.



Only three of the Death Eaters were with him – Harry saw Bellatrix, Yaxley, and Dolohov. At once, their wands pointed at Harry, whose own wand remained out of view, tucked under his belt under his shirt.



Under different circumstances, the astonishment on their faces might have been amusing; and if Voldemort\'s face could have registered surprise, the expression it held now was rather close to it. The yellow, reptilian eyes fixed on Harry, and he asked:



“What is the meaning of this?”



Inspiration struck, and Harry stepped forward with confidence, kneeling before Voldemort.



“I am yours, Master,” Harry said calmly. “My former Master is dead. As you were his Master, the slave-bond has been transferred to you.”



The Death Eaters acted fast, casting spells on Harry that restrained his arms behind him, and his ankles together, while he was still kneeling. Completely immobilized, he made no attempt to escape or struggle, but just continued staring ahead without expression.



Voldemort\'s eyes scrutinized him carefully. His hand reached to Harry\'s face, fingernails running across his cheek, leaving scratches on his skin. Harry did not flinch or waver, and held himself absolutely still. Voldemort gazed at him coldly. “How did you escape?” he demanded.



“I don\'t remember, Master,” Harry improvised. “I only remember being drawn here. When I came here, I sensed that my former Master had died, and then, I was drawn to find you.”



Voldemort dismissed Pettigrew with a curt nod; and the man left promptly.



Still kneeling, Harry glanced around the room circumspectly, looking for Nagini, but not seeing her.



Voldemort\'s eyes were focused on Harry, and then, Harry felt the Dark Lord\'s presence coil around his mind, seeking out information, probing, exploring, forcing its way in. Desperately, Harry summoned all of his Occlumency training, hoping to withstand the probing.



Control your emotions, he heard Severus\' voice in his mind. Calm yourself. As much as possible, Harry did - and then, the torrents of anxiety, anger, and fear dissipated, leaving only a calm, untroubled nothingness in their stead.



In an instant, Harry gathered and released everything he did not want known to Voldemort away – Severus loving him, Severus making promises, Severus being alive, Harry\'s friends following him, finding him, healing him... all of those memories took flight and disappeared out of his awareness altogether. Instead, Harry summoned other memories – the memory of him weeping on the floor of the Manor, the memory of Severus whipping him with the Scorpion, the memory of Severus casting his wand into the fire at Lucius\' demand. When Voldemort probed Harry\'s mind around the events of his escape, on an impulse, Harry generated a vague, faded, as if half-forgotten image of Bellatrix, casting spells to release Harry out of his entombment. Voldemort pulled out of his mind – and an instant later, cast the Killing Curse.



Bellatrix collapsed on the floor without a sound.



“She betrayed me,” Voldemort said gravely, his cold gaze fixed on Yaxley and Dolohov. “See that you avoid making the same mistake.”



The two of them nodded hastily.



Harry continued kneeling before the Dark Lord, feeling a slight tremor of dread, but willing it away. Bellatrix... he could not even cast the Cruciatus curse on her the day killed his godfather. And now... now he had caused her death. He felt a knot in his stomach, but willed it away again. He was guessing he did not have much time left. Once again, his eyes scanned the room, looking for Nagini.



And then, he saw the enormous serpent moving slowly through the shadows, moving towards something that only she could see. Harry nearly gasped out loud realizing that Nagini could sense his friends, even under the Cloak.



Without reaching for his wand, Harry focused on it, and then, on the serpent. Without uttering a sound, he thought just one word, directed at Nagini:



Imperio.



The massive serpentine form slithered across the floor, changed directions, and lunged without a warning.



Rushing past Harry, barely touching him, it struck out at Voldemort, the enormous jaws snapping at his throat. Voldemort struggled furiously, attempting to throw it off. Still kneeling and immobilized, Harry kept all of his mental focus on Nagini.



Yaxley and Dolohov jumped, and rushed to Voldemort, attempting to pull Nagini off him - but to no avail. Her jaws were latched onto his throat. Dolohov and Yaxley attempted to pry her jaws open, but were rewarded by bites to their hands that sent them to the floor in agony, that did not last long.



A second later, Nagini\'s jaws were at Voldemort\'s throat again. Harry saw dark blood flowing, and he heard the sound of bones cracking. He winced, but maintained his focus, struggling against the wave of nausea that was threatening to overtake him.



And then, just as Harry had hoped, Voldemort acted on instinct and impulse, guided by fear of death, rather than logic or reason – and uttered the Killing Curse against Nagini, destroying his own Horcrux. Nagini\'s lifeless form lay on the ground, unmoving. Voldemort did not move either. His gaze became stiller than ever, and his breathing became shorter and more labored, as dark blood flowed from the wound in his throat.



Harry focused on his wand again, and uttered a Relashio, releasing himself from the bodybinding spell.



Rising to his feet, he spun around, and saw Ron, his wand pointing at Voldemort, uttering a Legilimency spell. Hermione was looking to him expectantly.



His eyes focused, Ron said quietly: “Hermione – these are the curses that Voldemort had used on Marvolo Gaunt\'s ring. We\'ll need them to save Dumbledore. Memorize them: “Acerbo. Vermeno. Veneno. Inficio. Exuro.”



She was repeating them, over and over again, as Harry stood next to them, with his wand drawn, ready to strike out at Voldemort if he ever regained consciousness. He never had, and finally life fled his eyes altogether.



“I think it\'s over,” Hermione said quietly.



“It is,” they heard a voice behind them. “And just a few minutes earlier, I took the liberty of lifting the lockdown from the Castle. You shouldn\'t have any trouble getting out.”



They turned around and saw a single human form standing at the doorway. He was not flesh, but not spirit either – something in between; as if someone who no longer belonged to this world, but had not quite entered the next, either.



They barely recognized him – Peter Pettigrew looked young again; in fact, he looked just like he had on the old, faded photograph of the original members of the Order. His face was fresh and clean, he had a full head of hair again, and his smile was as kind and tranquil.



“Well then,” Peter said with a smile that looked only slightly sad. “Time for me to go. You should know that all of my influence ... all of the shadows, all of the fog that clouded the judgment of the destined triads – all of that is gone as well. Nothing is left behind this time.”



“I\'m ... sorry I killed you,” Ron said with hesitation.



“Please don\'t be,” Peter answered. “It\'s the best thing that anyone has ever done for me.”



“Are you forgiven then?” Ron asked with just a small note of urgency in his voice.



“Not quite yet,” Peter said, but his voice was untroubled. “I\'ve done some rather terrible things – they can\'t be erased in one day. But the other two are waiting for me – and that\'s all that matters now. Nothing is as powerful as the bond of the three. It can defeat the Dark Lord, it can wipe out transgressions ... it can do amazing things. You\'ll see more of that in your future, I am sure.”



Giving them one parting nod, Peter walked away, and disappeared in the shadows.



“Well,” Hermione said. “We should be on our way, too.. Harry, there are still Death Eaters all around the Castle, so get under the Cloak, please... ”



“In a moment,” Harry told her.



He walked over to Voldemort\'s lifeless body and searched it, recovering Severus\' wand. Before they left the room, Harry cast a Fiendfyre spell. The flames burst forth, took shapes of horrifying creatures, and descended on the bodies of Voldemort and Nagini, consuming them, and wiping them out.



“Now, we can go,” Harry said.



Their hands joined together, the three of them made their way out.





To Be Continued...