Chapter 45

So, what is the plan here?" Gwen asked as she and Peter stopped outside of the local hospital, ducking behind a hospital sign and watching as various people walked in and out as if there was nothing wrong at all. To be fair, there's probably nothing as far as they know, but Gwen and Peter knew better. Their best friend was currently in there, and who knows what was happening.

"This...this is the plan," Peter said, pulling out a small grey ball that was slightly bigger than a tennis ball.

"Are you..." Gwen gaped at him. "But that's a prototype! We've not even finished working on it."

"What better time to do a test run then?" Peter questioned as he dragged her over to a nearby bench and they both sat down. "Pull out your phone, look busy or at least like a normal teenager."

"I'll have you know that I'm more normal than you," Gwen huffed, pulling out her phone as Peter did the same. "So, we send it in and then what?"

"Depends on what's going on in there," Peter answered honestly. "Give me a second, I'm linking my phone up to it." A couple of seconds later, the grey ball started shaking before it transformed right in front of them into a robot spider. "Go on, make Uncle Pete proud," Peter said just as the spider jumped off of his hand and crawled under the bench before crawling away, out of sight. "Direct feed is up," Peter said, showing Gwen his phone which was showing a live feed from the camera on the spider-bot.

"Try and follow Harry's tracker, we'll find him eventually, I hope," Gwen told Peter. "Well, at least we will, providing nobody steps on the robot."

"Spider-bot," Peter absently corrected her.

"It's been a long time, Harry," Professor Dumbledore said, pulling out a sweet of some kind and popping it in his mouth before pulling out another one. "Would you like one, Harry?" He offered.

"Where am I?" Harry asked impatiently.

"Why, you're in Hogwarts, of course," Fake Dumbledore answered easily.

"No, no I'm not," Harry glared at him from under his mask, thankfully his mask made it easy enough for anyone to understand when he was angry, if not then the tone of his voice certainly gave it away. "Hagrid attacks me, the basilisk is still alive and about fifty over things that shouldn't be happening are happening and you want to try and convince me that this is Hogwarts? Where am I!?"

"I don't really know what to tell you, Harry," Fake Dumbledore let out a disappointed sigh. "If it looks like Hogwarts, smells like Hogwarts and feels like Hogwarts then it probably is Hogwarts."

"It doesn't feel like Hogwarts, not to me," Harry said before firing off a web line at Dumbledore who flicked his wand, turning the webs into dust.

"Harry," Another disappointed sigh. "It's a shame that you don't believe me, me who has done so much for you. If you do not believe me then perhaps you might believe your peers, your friends."

"What are you-"

"He's a cheat!" A voice called, the lights in the hall dimmed and Harry was suddenly surrounded by voices as well as students.

Standing in the Great Hall, he found himself in a sea of bodies, found himself being stared at by members of all four Hogwarts houses. The benches of the halls were filled with students, all of them glaring and sneering at him. Many, many students, all the way from the young age of eleven to young adults, all glared and sneered at him with hate. Acting like they knew him, acting like they had any right to judge him, just like last time. A blue light flared from the middle of the room and standing right behind fake Dumbledore was the 'Goblet of Fire'. An ancient and very powerful magical artefact. It was a giant goblet made of wood and usually kept in a jewelled casket, flames of various colours poured out of the top.

Harry recognised it well, it was the magical artefact that was tricked by one of Voldemort's most loyal servants, forcing Harry into a tournament that he wanted no part of, causing him many restless nights before finally, the tournament ended with him being pulled into a graveyard so he could see a friend die and witness the rebirth of the monster that had killed his parents and tried to kill him multiple times, eventually, he succeeded.

A spin and a jump found Harry landing exactly where he had been standing and once more facing Dumbledore and the goblet, apparently, he wasn't allowed to leave just yet. Not while the students weren't done insulting him at least.

"A cheat!"

"A liar!

"The boy-who-lies!"

"He's not even of age!"

"Parslemouth!"

"Freak!"

"Cheat!"

"Freak!"

"Freak!"

"Freak!"

"Cheat!"

"Freak!"

"Freak!"

"Liar!"

"Freak!"

"Freak!"

"I get it!" Harry snapped before the goblet's fire erupted and a small piece of burnt parchment flew out of it and landed in the waiting hands of Dumbledore who had caught it without even looking.

"Tell me, young Harry, how truly desperate are you for answers?" Dumbledore asked curiously. "After all, you may never know what you might find." With a gentle flick of his wrist, the parchment flew into the air and started spinning rapidly, spinning fast enough that it started to generate pulling winds that pulled Harry towards it.

"Stop this!" Harry shot a web at the floor, trying to keep himself in place and not be sent to the piece of parchment that felt more like a black hole than anything else.

"Now, now, let's not make a fuss," Fake Dumbledore had the audacity to chortle. "It's far better to not resist, young Harry. I know that a polite, well-mannered and kind boy, such as yourself-"

"Fuck you!"

"-Will not want to make things difficult. It's better to take your punishment, Harry," He said, flicking his wand and sending a cutting curse that cut through Harry's web with ease, causing Harry to get pulled towards the paper. He felt himself get squeezed into what felt like a small tube, not unlike when he had been side-apparated for the first time, coincidentally, he landed exactly the same as he did the first time, on his face.

"I swear...if I get up and see a dragon in front of me-" He mumbled, cursing under his breath as he got up and saw a dragon right in front of him, hissing and snarling at him. "-Goddamn it!"

"For a hospital, these air vents are surprisingly dirty," Peter commented as he guided the spider-bot through an air vent, sending it closer and closer to Harry's signal.

"Sort out the Harry situation first, then we'll work purifying hospital air vents," Gwen told him impatiently. "And hopefully we can get it done and get back before someone notices that something is up and all of our parents swoop down on our collective asses." She said, sending a shiver down Peter who did not want his aunt and uncle to be upset with him. However, she would argue that she had it worse as she was the only one of the three who had a policeman for a dad, though Mr Osborn could also be pretty scary if she was being honest.

"We should be around the basement," Peter said. "Wait, oh crap!"

"What is it?"

"Take a look," Peter gulped and Gwen took a look at the screen before she gulped as well.

Barely visible through the vent grills was a grey, square-shaped room with a group of ten people or so, on one end of the room was a table littered with various relics that Gwen was going to assume was magical. On the other end of the room, a small portion of the room was separated by a wall made of what appeared to be a golden light that went from the floor to the ceiling, on the other side of the light wall was Harry and the Ancient One, both were seemingly unconscious as they floated still in the air, not moving at all.

"W.T.F?!" Peter hissed worriedly as he and Gwen took a closer look. "What the hell's going on?"

"Maybe they're going to give them a scrub down and let them go," Gwen said hopefully, earning an odd look from Peter. "What?!" She asked defensively. "I'm hopeful!" She added, staring at the people in the room. All of them were dressed in what appeared to be brown robes with the exception of one who was standing in between them and Harry. A black man dressed in dark green robes with a buzz cut. Gold round earrings hung from his ears and lightly touched his shoulders and he completed this look with a silver chest plate that seemed to thrum with power.

"Tibet," One of the brown robed men. "What are we going to do with them? I know Kaecilius would be happy if we deliver his old master to him."

"The Ancient One is a threat to both of our groups," Another brown-robed man agreed. "Though, do we trust him not to cock things up?"

"We're the ones who caught her," Tibet spoke up finally, his voice deep and booming. "Kaecilius and I have both left her services, but I was the first. I don't know what his reasons are but until I decide otherwise, he is not our ally. As for her fate, I have a few ideas."

"And what of this one?" A woman asked, gesturing to Harry. "The Spider? What are we to do with him?"

"Are we to end him?" One man questioned.

"NO!" Tibet exploded, turning and thrusting his hand out, sending all of his followers flying onto their backs. "NOBODY IS TO TOUCH THE SPIDER! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!" He roared, shaking the very foundations of the room.

"A...as you command!" One man quickly stuttered out.

"Nobody is to harm him," Tibet repeated, softly but quite firmly before turning his back and turning his attention once more to his two captives. "He is essential to our goals and must be kept alive," He said in a lecturing tone. "Give him another minute or so and then we'll end the spell on him, he should hopefully be beaten enough by then." He winced suddenly. "He's quite strong...shows much resistance."

"Are you okay?" One man asked hesitantly.

"I'm fine!" Tibet hissed, shaking slightly. "The Spider is strong,"

"Spell, what spell?" Peter whispered to Gwen.

"There's a book," Gwen realised. "There see, on the table! Maybe that'll help!"

"We can't risk it," Peter shook his head. "If we get to the book then there's no guarantee that it's the right one, I can't exactly have the spider-bot quietly turn pages until we find it."

"So what do we do?"

"We need to find a way to get them out of...whatever they're in." Peter decided.

"Let's think about it logically, maybe whatever they're in has some sort of weak point or...or we could wait."

"Wait? What do you mean?"

"Peter, the creepy magic guy said he's going to end the spell in a minute or so," Gwen hummed thoughtfully. "Let's let him end it, and then we can try and wake Harry up, let him take it from there."

"How'll we do that?" Peter couldn't help but ask. "How do we even know that Harry can take another minute under whatever this spell is?"

"We'll just have to hope. Did you manage to get any of the offensive features working?" She asked.

"No, just got it to be able to send a finite amount of webs," Peter said, shaking his head.

"Hmm, I think we can make it work," Gwen frowned, trying to think up a plan. "At least, I hope we can."

"Yeah...you better stay down!" Harry huffed, staring down at the dragon in front of him. He had coated its entire mouth with more than enough webs to make Aragog jealous and had knocked out a tooth or two. The dragon, the stubborn thing that it was, refused to take his advice and leapt at him with intent to squash. Harry's spider legs popped out his back and stabbed the dragon in four different parts of its jaw, it squealed and cried but didn't get to do much more than that before it found itself tossed into a wall. "Tibet!" He yelled. "You can't hide from me. I will hunt you down!"

"Careful, Harry," Dumbledore appeared before him. "Keep talking like that and one might start suspecting that you're going dark."

"You'll see dark in a sec," Harry leapt at him and threw a punch straight at his nose, Dumbledore's face shifted as soon as Harry made contact, turning into a large mass of black smoke. Harry shook his head to clear the smoke and suddenly found himself standing in a graveyard, one that he was intimately familiar with. "No, no, not here!"

"Are you ready, Harry?" A voice asked silkily.

"It had to be you," Harry groaned, he wasn't the least bit surprised when he turned around and saw Voldemort standing there with his death eaters standing behind him. "It had to be you."

"Long time no see, Harry Potter," Voldemort said amusedly. "And how are dear old Mum and Dad? Doing well?" He asked mockingly, earning laughs from his followers.

"Piss off," Harry grunted, looking around the graveyard, it was exactly how he remembered it, right down to the cauldron that Voldemort had climbed out of and even the gravestone that he had tied Harry to. If that wasn't bad enough then he could see Cedric's dead body a short distance away. "How the hell do I get out of here?"

"Through death, of course," Voldemort replied with a smirk. "After all, that's how you always escaped me? Your mother died, protecting you, as did your father. Then poor pathetic Professor Quirrell burned into ashes so that you could get away, and eventually, you yourself died to get away from me. But you can't, Harry, you can never truly escape. I will always live rent-free in that poor little head of yours."

"You-" Harry trailed off, taking one more glance around the graveyard. "-I suppose that once I'm done with you, it'll be the death chamber next."

"Are you not listening, Potter?" Voldemort rolled his eyes. "You will never escape me, not in this life or the next fifty after. I will hunt you down to the very end of time! And once I'm done with you, you're new parents are next!"

"What do you say?" Harry asked darkly. The ground shook, thunder rumbled above, and several gravestones were ripped out of their places, tossed into the air with ease, landing right behind the death eaters. They moved back, staring fearfully between Harry and Voldemort, the latter of whom narrowed his eyes at Harry. "What the hell did you just say, you little shit?" Harry growled, the ground between them cracked and started spreading, revealing a black abyss below.

"Stop it!" Voldemort yelled angrily.

"What are you-" Harry along with Voldemort and his followers fell straight down, slipping through the crack, falling into the black. Harry didn't know about the others but he himself ended up sitting in a rather uncomfortable chair.

In front of him was a firm-looking brown desk with several stacks of paper, multiple pictures of cats and one picture of the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. The stonewall room surrounding Harry was covered in bright pink and decorated from head to toe with plates with moving cat pictures.

"Now, Mr Potter," An overly sweet voice cut in, standing before him was none other than Dolores Umbridge herself, looking every bit as unpleasant as Harry remembered her being. "Now, you are going to write 'I will not tell lies'." She ordered, holding up a blood quill. Harry stared at her for several long moments. "I will not repeat myself," She said, her voice piercingly unpleasant. "Write the lines, Mr Potter." She ordered.

"Anyone who has ever met you will understand why I am about to do this," Harry said softly.

"What are you-arrrkhh!" She fell to the floor, blood pouring out of her as Harry's spider-leg extracted itself from her neck.

"Tibet!" Harry said, getting up and looking around the room. "You don't want to let me out?" The rest of his spider legs popped out. "Then I'm going to get out myself." Rushing to the nearest wall, he slammed both of his hands through the stone along the spider legs, white light glowed from the cracks as Harry started pushing the wall apart. "I realised something, this spell of yours, forcing me to relive my worst moments...it's powered by me! You...Tibet...you're nothing but a little leach! You could have used your own magic but you're using mine! It's powerful, isn't it? It took me a while to realise that myself. I could cast the patronus charm at the age of thirteen, I knew I was decently strong, but I realised that I'm stronger than you!" The wall finally gave way, revealing a swirling ball of light, the light constantly changed colours, going from black to red to green to blue and every other colour one could possibly think of. Warmth radiated from it, a feeling unlike any other, how could he describe it? It was a warm blanket on a chilly night, a cold drink on a hot day, the assurance that one day, everything would be okay. It was his, and he knew it.

"NO!" A deep voice cried, echoing off the walls.

"I can hear you!" Harry sang gleefully. "That you? Huh? That you Tibet? Come out, come out, Tibet! Come out, come out and play!" He called.

"Enough of this!" The voice growled and suddenly the room shifted again.

"Huh, took you long enough," Harry snorted as he looked around and found himself in the last room he had ever seen in his world, the death chamber.

The room was barely lit and rectangular, and the centre of it was sunken, forming a great stone pit that was around twenty feet down. He was standing on the topmost tier of what seemed to be stone benches running all around the room and descending in steep steps like an amphitheatre. A raised stone dais stood in the centre of the lowered floor, and upon this dais was the stone archway from Harry's nightmares. More ancient, cracked, and crumbling than you could imagine. It could only be standing up with magic, there was no other explanation for why something like this had not fallen straight to the floor. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered black veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched.

"Long time no see, Harry,"

"Get bent!" Harry snapped, turning around to find Voldemort staring at him.

"Such manners," Voldemort tutted disapprovingly. "What are they teaching in school these days?"

"Mostly stranger danger," Harry shrugged before he started walking down the room.

"Where are you going?!" Voldemort demanded.

"To the bloody death veil, aren't I?" Harry said without looking back. "You see, I get it now. Tibet's a little cunt who is trying to get me through my worst memories, but it's my magic powering the whole thing."

"Harry," Dumbledore appeared in front of him. "Let's not do anything rash, after all, we both know what happened the last time you did something without thinking things through, don't we?"

"I died, blah-blah," Harry said impatiently, walking past him.

"As did your friends!" Voldemort hissed, now in front of Harry, causing the young wizard to stop since they were no longer the only ones in the room. The room was surrounded by death eaters and they were not alone, his old friends were there as well. Ginny, Luna, Neville, Hermione and Ron were there, each being held hostage by faceless Death Eaters.

"Harry! Harry help me! Please!" Neville begged.

"Don't worry, Harry will save us, he always does!" Ginny said shakily.

"I don't know..." Luna said doubtfully. "...I fear the pilfiering pilfa pilfiey puffs have infected his head."

"Nice alliteration," Harry huffed, forcing himself to continue moving forward.

"Harry...we need your help!" Hermione cried, her hair fuzzier than usual, tears dripping down her face. "What are you doing? Don't go to the veil!"

"Harry!" Ron roared. "Help us!"

"Take one more step and I'll kill them all!" Voldemort said once more in front of Harry.

"Listen to him, Harry!" Dumbledore pleaded, standing next to Voldemort. "If you go to that veil, you'll die, just as your friend would as soon as you leave. They probably did once before, do you truly want to put them through that again? Do you truly wish them such suffering?"

"Here's the thing, I know that you don't want me to get to my magic, Tibet," Harry said, heading forward still. "And you're going to put it in the one place I don't want to go. My magic's calling to me now, for the first time in ages, we were close enough to touch and now I know exactly where it is." He said, stepping past the two of them. "And for the record, I was only going to hurt you a little bit before, but now, you showed me my friends. You showed me parts of myself I never wanted to experience again, and now, I'm really going to hurt you." He said, taking a deep breath and stepping right into the veil.

For what was hopefully the last time today, Harry had changed locations. Darkness enveloped him, for a brief moment he was unable to see or hear anything, at least until a bright light slapped him in the face. A glowing light, exactly the same as before with its constantly changing colours, stood a short distance away. It was the size of a small horse, and it seemed to pulse excitedly, Harry could feel it calling to him.

"Hello, old friend," Harry moved forward, ready to reunite with it when a golden dome appeared over it. The ball screeched loudly, horrified. "You're getting really desperate now," Harry grunted before slamming his fist into the barrier, shaking it. "I'm here now," He slammed his other fist into it. "And I'm not leaving until I get it!"

"What's going on?!" One brown-robed man demanded.

"Shut it!" Tibet snapped, on his knees, shaking severely and sweating even worse than that. A look of intense concentration and pain let everyone know that the man was not doing well at all. "The...Spider...he's fighting back...I...can barely hold him!" His chest plate hissed and screeched loudly, sounding like a dying animal.

"What should we do?!" The man asked.

"Do nothing!" Hissed Tibet, looking a step away from unconsciousness. "I need...to...concentrate! I need all of my focus here!"

"Should we do something to him?" One woman asked nervously. "Like hurt him a bit?"

"Don't...interfere!" Tibet gasped, hand clutching his chest. "I...I need total concentration. Shut up all of you! Not a single one of you...aaargh...not a single one of you should speak! I need total concentration!"

"Well," Peter said from his spot on the bench outside. "It seems we need to break the main guy's concentration."

"Looks like it," Gwen agreed. "You want to do the honours?" She asked him.

"With pleasure!" Peter grinned. The spider-bot attached a web to the vent grill before pulling back until it was slowly able to open the vent grill, once that was done, it climbed up to the ceiling and crawled forward for a short while before it dropped down and landed on the ground in front of Tibet.

"Huh?" Tibet looked down at the little robotic spider that had landed in front of him.

"This is for our friend, asshole!" Gwen cheered just as the spider-bot shot a web that hit Tibet in a rather sensitive part that was just a bit below the belt, causing him to let out a cry as he fell forward and landed on his face.

"Tibet!" One of his men cried.

"That robot spider!" Another gasped. "It did something to him!"

"Get it!" A third shouted.

"Touch it and you'll regret it." They all looked up and froze, Spiderman was perched on the side of the wall, staring at them while the Ancient One stood underneath him, the golden barrier was nowhere in sight. "It took ages to make it," Spiderman added.

"You alright?" The Ancient One asked, sounding quite tired.

"Don't worry about me, Baldilocks," He replied, gently rubbing her head whilst Tibet managed to force himself up to his knees. "It's him you need to worry about."