Chapter 20: Face to Face

"Expelliarmus," he heard as soon as he arrived.  His wand and the portkey flew out of his hand.  Voldemort, tall and thin, his face as white as a skull, with thin lips and a flat, snakelike, nose, stood in front of him, staring at Harry with his red eyes, his thin lips twisted into a smirk. 

"Harry," he said, "so good to see you again.  Glad you could make it.  You left abruptly last time.  We still have unfinished business."  Voldemort was alive, but he had little humanity left.

Harry looked to his wand.  It was about ten feet away.  The portkey, the small unicorn, also expelled from his hand by the Expelliarmus spell, was lying by the wand. 

"Uh -- uh," said Voldemort, pointing his wand at Harry.  "I'll let you have it back in a minute.  We never finished our duel, but first, let's talk."

Looking to his left, Harry saw Colin, a dozen yards away.  Bellatrix held her.  At least, she didn't appear to be in pain.  Apparently, Bellatrix had removed the Cruciatus Curse. 

"Colin," he said, "Are you all right?"

"I'm sorry, Harry.  Please forgive me -- Kreacher --"

"I know," said Harry, "It wasn't your fault." 

They were in the same cemetery where Harry had fought Voldemort before, where Cedrick Diggory had died.  Cedrick's spirit and that of others had saved him then.  He didn't see how he could escape this time. 

He was stronger now than then, when he'd only known the Expelliarmus spell, but Voldemort was stronger, too; and, looking around, he saw many others, Snape, Lucius and Draco Malfoy, Greyback, and the big blond Death Eater who had been at Hogwarts the night Dumbledore had died, along with Bellatrix, who still held Colin. There were others, too, the shadowy forms of other Death Eaters.  Voldemort wanted all his minions to see him vanquish Harry Potter.

"Let me go," he heard Colin say.

"Let her go," said Harry.  "You don't need her any longer.  You have me.  That's what you wanted." 

Voldemort tossed his head, saying, "Let the boy go.  Perhaps Harry would like to kiss his lover goodbye". 

"It surprises me, Harry, that the great Harry Potter would become a lover of little boys."

"Colin's a girl," said Harry.  "She might have been born a boy, but she's a girl.  It doesn't matter, though.  I would love her, anyway.  But you know nothing of love.  You've never felt it."

"A useless emotion," said Voldemort.

"It stopped you before.  My mother's love almost killed you."

"Well, this one won't have a chance to sacrifice himself for you -- Colin had almost reached Harry's outstretched arms --  Avada Kedavra," Voldemort said.  A green flame shot from his wand, striking Colin just as Harry reached out for her.  She collapsed into his arms.

With the speaking of the spell, an intense pain shot through Harry's scar, but it was mild compared that he felt in his heart. He held Colin's lifeless body.  Dead -- hit by the awful curse -- she was growing cold.  He hadn't been able to say, Goodbye, or to kiss her one last time.  He felt tears stream down his face.

"Tears, Harry?  Tears for that?  It was nothing, neither a boy or a girl.  Why would you cry for it?"

"She was worth more than all of you," said Harry.

"How about it, Draco," Voldemort asked, "Was he better than you?"

"He was a mudblood," said Draco Malfoy, as if that one word summed up Colin, saying everything that was needed to say about her..  "I was happy to neuter him.  I'm glad he's dead.  All mudbloods should be killed or neutered."

"And, Snape -- you knew him?"

"Yes," said Snape.  "He was nothing."

"You see, Harry," said Voldemort.  "He was nothing.-- is nothing now -- just food for worms."

"Then kill me and be done with it."  Harry had lost everyone he loved.  All he had to live for now was revenge -- and hate.  Given the chance, he would use the Avada Kedavra Curse on everyone present. 

But before he died, he wanted to know, "How did you know I wasn't home?"

"Ah, Harry," said Voldemort, "did you think I would only have one spy in the Weasley house?  Bill was only a feint, meant to keep you off guard.  I didn't want you in Azkaban.  I wanted you here with me, now."

Ron, Harry said to himself.  It must have been Ron.  Only he and Hermione knew he was coming, and Voldemort had said, "in the Weasley house."  Hermione wasn't a member of the Weasley household.  Was Ron still under an Imperious Curse, or had he been corrupted by Voldemort as Bill had been? 

It wouldn't matter, Harry wouldn't be alive much longer.  He saw no way to escape.  Even if he had his wand, he couldn't defeat them all, not even using an Unforgivable Curse.

"Get on with it," said Harry.  "What are you waiting for?"

"Nothing, Harry.  I just wanted to savor my victory over you for a moment.  You have, Harry, I must admit, been a royal pain in the Arse.  But I have just the medicine to ease that pain.  Are you ready to witness the fulfillment of the prophecy, Harry, that we would battle and one of us would kill the other?  That's why I would let no one else kill you.  To fulfill the prophecy, I have to kill you myself."

"Should we not keep Potter alive?" said Snape.  "He'd proved useful before.  His blood restored your life."

"I no longer need him," said Voldemort.  "I meant to kill him that day."

"But --" said Snape.

"Quiet!" said Voldemort.  "I'll have no one question my decisions.  Perhaps you would like to join Potter."

"No, my lord," said Snape, bowing his head.

Harry looked at Snape.  He only wished he'd had a chance to kill him -- to revenge Dumbledore.

"Then, do it," said Harry, holding out his arms, palms up, baring his chest."

"Don't you want your wand?"

Harry shook his head.  In two weeks -- after taking the potion, he might have been strong enough to fight Voldemort, but he wasn't now.  He knew he stood no chance.

Voldemort waved his wand, floating Harry's wand to him.  "Take it, Potter," said Voldemort.  "Let no one say I didn't give you a chance.  I'll kill you with your wand in your hand."

"Impedi --" Harry said, as soon as he had his wand, but Voldemort easily blocked it.

"Is that the best you can do?  Most of these," Voldemort said, sweeping his hand around, indicating the watching Death Eaters, "could do better.  Is this the Great Harry Potter, who defeated the Dark Lord?"

"Avada Kedavra," said Harry, using that unforgivable -- but unblockable -- curse.  Green flame shot from his wand, but once again pain shot through his scar, causing Harry to jerk his hand.  He doubled over in pain, retching as he did. The flame missed Voldemort, striking a nearby Death Eater, killing him, instead.

"You had your chance, Potter," said Voldemort, apparently concerned that Harry had attempted an Unforgivable Curse,  "Enough of this.  Avada Kedavra."

A green flame shot from his wand toward Harry's chest.  It never reached him, striking, instead, a golden aurora which surrounded Harry, rebounding back onto Voldemort, killing him.  It was Colin -- her spirit.  Harry could feel her -- could feel her love surrounding him.  Once again, love had saved him; but once again, he'd lost someone he loved.  "Go," he heard Colin's spirit whisper.  "Get the portkey and go -- but take me with you, Harry.  Don't leave my body here -- not in this place."

The other Death Eaters were stunned.  Their master had lost once again to Harry Potter.  Grabbing Colin's body, Harry looked around for Snape, intending to kill him, but didn't see him.  In the confusion, he had disappeared.  Before the rest could react, Harry picked up the portkey; it whisked Colin and him home.

Voldemort was dead -- but only this incarnation.  He still had horcruxes and willing servants, one of which would furnish a body for his spirit to get him to one of the horcruxes.  He would be back soon, only needing the death of another wizard to furnish him with a corporal existence.  But he would be weakened for a while; and it used up one of his remaining horcruxes.

Harry carried Colin's body into the house, laying it on the bed. 

Nothing, they had called her, nothing but a mudblood.  But it had been that mudblood -- that nothing -- who had defeated Lord Voldemort.   This girl, this sweet, loving, girl -- not a warrior -- not Harry -- had killed Voldemort.  Leaning over, Harry kissed her.  Her lips were cold.  The spirit that had been her -- that had saved him -- was gone.

Next, he went into the kitchen where Kreacher still stood, obligated by Harry's command to wait.  He didn't give Kreacher the opportunity to ask what had happened, "Avada Kedavra," he said.  Green flame shot from his wand striking Kreacher, killing him.  Again, an intense pain shot through his scar, causing him to retch, but he was becoming used to it.

It was the first time Harry had ever killed a defenseless creature.  It was murder; but Harry no longer cared.  Colin's love that had protected him, had faded, leaving only hate -- the desire for revenge.  Before he was through, Harry planned to commit much more murder.  He'd only just begun.  At least, now, he should have some time.  It would take Voldemort time to find another body; it would take time for him to reorganize.  In two weeks, Harry would take the potion.  Let Volemort fight him on even terms.

He dressed Colin in her wedding gown, and putting on his invisibility cloak, apparated with her to the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmead.  From the outside, the house didn't appear to have an entrance, but Harry had learned of one from Sirius.  From the Shrieking Shack, a secret passageway ran to a hole beneath the Whomping Willow.

With the cloak draped over them, he carried Colin through the passageway and out the exit onto the grounds of Hogwarts, unobserved by either the willow or anyone at Hogwarts.  He'd come to bury Colin, not to talk to anyone.

In the graveyard, as close to Dumbledore's grave as he could, but not next to it, since where Dumbledore was buried was reserved for headmasters, he used magic to construct a marble mausoleum.  He couldn't bear to bury Colin in the ground.  He placed her, still wearing her wedding dress -- she'd only been a bride for a week -- in a coffin, placing a spell on her body, so it would never decompose.  She would always remain as she was.

Closing the door to the mausoleum, he placed a spell on it.  No one, but he, would be able to open it.  An inscription on the side said, "Colin Creevey Potter.  No man ever had a more loving wife."

He left, speaking to no one, not even to Hagrid.  Let them wonder about the mausoleum, how it had come to be there -- how Colin had died.  He'd return it two weeks for the potion.  In the meantime, he had plans to make -- revenge to plot.

Chapter 21: A Date With the Potion