Chapter 312: The Owl and the Serpent
If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.
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4 January 1995, Durmstrang
Even through his blurring vision, Neville saw Hermione Granger's face looking at the Dark Lord with a neutral expression on her face, "Hello, Tom Riddle…"
Hermione Granger knew that she was in trouble. She had traced back the portkey that Neville had taken and followed it by apparating there. It was a technique that the Unspeakables had taught her, a way to essentially backtrack the nearest Portkey use, using a backdoor in the system, and follow to the destination.
She knew that there was something afoot during the task. It was all far easier than it should have been and considering that they hadn't seen any of the other teams, it was abnormal. Even in a rigged game, the organisers would have wanted there to be a challenge, something akin to a close race… And the organisers did have control over the task, even if no one liked to admit it. Considering what Harry did in the previous tasks, it was only logical that they try to make every event go according to plan…
Still, she expected Neville to be kidnapped or worse… She expected many things, really. What she never expected was to see the familiar face of Tom Riddle staring down at her…
She had nightmares of this day, to see his face once more. This was the man who had ruined her life, who had manipulated her whilst doing some very horrible things while possessing her… This was the person who had caused her to be trapped in his infernal diary, which was why she ended up in the Department of Mysteries and after that, at the mercy of Lily Evans…
The moment she recognized him, she attacked him. It was out of pure instinct, to hurt the man who had destroyed her chance at a normal life… Tom had shielded against the attack, and looked back at her, "Oh, how unexpected… Of all the people who would track me down, I did not expect you…"
She wanted to tear his face, to burn his body to ash… She wanted to see him scream and writhe in agony… Instead, she composed herself. She needed to be rational about this, even if his face aggravated her to no end.
It all started and ended with the man in front of her and she forced herself to calm down and replied to his previous comment, "Hello, Tom Riddle…"
However, that was when she met the man's eyes, and everything changed. Those red cruel eyes did not belong to Tom Riddle. He was a charming young man, who lured people with his darkness until they became consumed by it… The man in front of her was a monster wearing Tom Riddle's face… There truly was a difference between him and Voldemort…
The man's smug smile melted, and Hermione felt a thrill at this small victory, "Tom Riddle is dead. I am all that remains, Lord Voldemort."
She nodded at that, "I see…"
The muggleborn looked around her and analysed her situation. She was in front of one of the most dangerous men in the world, a man who had terrorized Britain for the better part of a decade…
Her main objective was to save Neville. She recognized the snake bite mark on his leg, probably from the large snake that she saw hiding in the corner of the cave, probably ready to take her by surprise… Assuming that Neville was bit when he landed, she had a few minutes, ten at most, to take him to a healer to stabilize him…
Now, how to extract Neville… Apparition was too risky given the high risk of aggravating his condition, but what about the portkey… If she hijacked it, she could change the destination a bit to the stands. That should be enough help…
Alright, that was the objective and time frame analysed, now the obstacles…
There was the snake, obviously… But a bit of transfiguration could neutralize it until it came…
The main threat was Voldemort… Which was sort of obvious… She didn't need to defeat him, just distract him enough for Neville to escape…
She couldn't beat him in a straight fight, she would need to cheat. His advantage was very obvious… He was more powerful and far more knowledgeable than her… Her advantage was the fact that his body was new, and he still needed to acclimate to it. He looked different than the pictures in old newspapers… His body was slimmer, his fingers longer… He was also arrogant, which he had a right to be, but it was still something that she could use.
Hermione needed to element of surprise on her side, and she did so by casting a lightning piercer at him, which the dark lord batted away like it was nothing. Still, she used the distraction to transfigure the wall on her left where the snake was ready to strike, blocking it from taking her by surprise…
Still, she barely had time to dodge a blasting curse which blew up half of the cavern behind her. That level of raw power was worrying, to say the least… So, no shielding, then…
She followed through with a small combination of attacks, trying to sneakily alter her surroundings, yet he countered them with an expression of amused boredom, "You're good for your age, I'll admit to that, but you still have a long way to go…"
With a casual ease, he cast a blasting curse at the ceiling, getting the stalactites to fall towards her. She countered by releasing a pulsing shield charm which telekinetically sent them away. She quickly transfigured them into glass and banished them towards the Dark Lord.
The red-eyed man just waved his wand, and all of the glass shattered. Then he sent a gust of wind that threw the thousands of small pieces of ice back to her. She conjured another shield to stop the assault. She did manage to do so, but a small piece did break through, which cut her in the cheek…
She saw her enemy conjure a bolt of lightning of his own and conjured two lightning rods. One, she banished towards Voldemort, and the other was in front of her. Just as she expected, the dark lord dodged the rod and released the bolt. Her lightning rod absorbed the bolt of lightning and immediately sent it back towards the other rod, with Voldemort being in the way…
Hermione had expected this would have been the perfect time to get Neville and run. She would have done exactly this if it wasn't for the fact that Voldemort just waved his wand and literally caught the lightning with it… The thing slowly turned into an orb of light, which transformed into a beam of energy that she was barely able to dodge…
A cavern almost as large as the one previously was created by the explosion. She would have expected the damn mountain to fall apart at the impact, which sent her flying into the ground…
She could barely see anything from the cloud of dust from the explosion, and so, she didn't notice until it was too late that the Dark Lord had conjured some kind of ropes of Darkness and bound her to it…
He raised an eyebrow at her, "You're definitely an impressive young witch, Ms. Granger… You have such a unique fighting style… It seems almost familiar, a hybrid of two distinct styles, I believe. One of them was one I adopted in my younger years, one that I outgrew, and the other belonged to a woman that I have personally fought three times… That trick with the lightning rod was one of hers… It worked on me once, and I have adapted to it… It was what gave you away. One does not forget the tactics that actually landed a strong hit on my person… Lily Evans and Tom Riddle… Both dead people… I wonder how you learned their styles…"
Hermione used a wandless telekinetic pulse – one of the few spells she knew how to cast without a wand – and tried to cast something at him, only for her hand to freeze mid-cast…
The Dark Lord looked amused more than anything, "Now, now… That was a very sneaky trick, my dear… It's something Lily Evans would have done, and you, Hermione Granger, are no Lily Evans…"
She activated a small rune on her hand, which stopped petrifying magic and conjured a fireball at the man, which literally faded away with a wave of his wand… A surprisingly warm smile appeared on the red-eyed man's face, "This wand is a suitable replacement… It fits me far better than Amycus' own."
Hermione finally noticed the wand that the man was holding, "This is Neville's wand…"
"Ironic, isn't it, that my enemy's wand suits me better than that of my servants… Still, it is a good omen. Wands tend to change allegiance if their owners are defeated… This is proof of my victory…"
Hermione cast a wandless light spell, weakening her shadow bonds enough to break through them. She rolled as a sickly yellow curse hurled towards her previous location and sent a wind cutter at him.
Voldemort dispelled it with another wave of his wand and Hermione kept sending spell after spell… Unexpectantly, the dark lord chose not to attack back and instead took the assault head-on, literally dispelling every curse and spell before they hit him…
In the middle of the assault, she had pretended to have missed a spell, which was a disguised animation one… It should have conjured spikes from behind him, but he dispelled it as well without even looking back. He snorted at the effort, "Another stolen move?"
He shook his head with a disappointed expression on his face, "Is this it? Is this what you're capable of, copying other people's tactics…"
Voldemort didn't give her a chance the answer. He just waved his wand, and a giant fist formed from the ground and punched her. Ropes of darkness appeared from behind her and pulled her back to the ground. She could hear more than a few bones breaking and she was barely able to breathe through the pain.
The man walked towards her, slowly, "All that potential, and not a single drop of originality behind it… You're exactly what I fought to stop and what I will have to change when I get back to Britain… You're exactly what Dumbledore wanted the magical world to become, and it sickens me… Where is the innovation? Where are the experiments? Where is the individuality in your magic?"
Hermione snarled and conjured the biggest flames she could from her wand… A giant maelstrom of fire and ashes leapt out of it, swallowing everything in front of it… She was spent with that single spell…
Unfortunately, Voldemort reacted the way an insane man would, by conjuring Fiendfyre of all things. There was a logic to it, of course, to have stronger flames swallow her own… It was an intimidation tactic, a way for him to see the hopelessness in her eyes.
It worked. She did feel hopeless…
Hermione knew that she was outmatched from the start, but she could barely even make him move, let alone distract him from Neville…
Voldemort was enjoying this… Seeing the scared look in her eyes as hope slowly faded away into fear. She had to admit that the man's control over Fiendfyre was unlike anything she had ever read… It was like he had mastered this spell to a degree that the world had not seen before…
The fire turned into a giant snake which started to leap towards her…
Right as it did so, the dark lord was pushed to the side by an invisible force. Hermione looked at its possible source and saw a semi-conscious Neville Longbottom raising his arm towards his parent's murderer.
However, it was enough for the Fiendfyre to get slightly out of control…
This was exactly it, the distraction that they needed. Hermione ran towards the blue gem and grabbed it. It took less than a second for her to make her modification. Now she only needed to get to Neville.
She noticed the dark lord gaining control over the summoned flames once more and decided to take a gamble. During the entire confrontation, she had noticed that he hadn't tried to free his serpent. It would have been an easy way to take her by surprise, which meant that he also wanted to protect it. She didn't know if it was his familiar or anything like it, but that didn't matter. What mattered was leverage…
Hermione sent a blasting curse towards the place where she banished the snake, breaking the wall. The serpent was taken by surprise by it and Hermione was able to capitalize by summoning the stone behind it. It dragged the serpent with it towards the Fiendfyre.
She didn't really look if she was able to kill the thing. She didn't really care about it. What mattered was Voldemort being distracted. She limped towards the fallen form of Neville and activated the Portkey back to the stands…
The moment she did so, she heard Voldemort's inhuman cries of rage but that didn't matter. As the familiar form of the stands met her eyes, she yelled out, "Healers! Neville! Poison!" She saw the look of alarm and confusion from the people around her before the world faded to black and she passed out from the pain and exertion.
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AN: I wrote this with two hours of sleep and I plan to reread it later. For some reason, lack of sleep tends to help me write, even if I sometimes miss some obvious stuff. Anyway, I tried to make the fight scene engaging, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions...
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.