Surprising turn - a turn for the better? Or into madness ... (Draco Ff)

Chapter 62 ~ "Who are you going to use for your shield today, Potter?"

Victoria's Pov.

The crowd was frightened and there was complete silence as Voldemort and the chosen one looked at each other and at the same moment started walking in circles around each other.
"I don't want any help from anyone," Potter spoke loudly, and in the utter silence everyone in the Entrance Hall found his voice unbearably loud.
It echoed through the hallways and bounced off the walls.
"It has to be like that.  I have to do it myself."
Voldemort hissed and goosebumps spread all over my body.
"Potter doesn't mean it," he said, his red eyes wide.
"It's not his style, is it?  Who are you going to use for your shield today, Potter?"
"No one!" the young wizard snapped emphatically, cocking his head.
"There are no more Horcruxes.  Just the two of us.
Neither can live while the other survives and one of us is about to disappear for good...”
Potter's voice continued to echo through the large room.
Beside me, Draco looked nervous.
He kneaded his fingers and tapped the floor with the tip of his foot.
"One of us?" the dark lord sneered, his whole body tense and red eyes staring like a snake about to strike.
"You think it will be you, don't you, the boy who survived by accident and because Dumbledore was in charge?" he laughed coldly, bowing his head.
"So it was a coincidence when my mother died to save me?" the chosen one asked, turning to his counterpart.
They both still moved sideways in a perfect circle, always keeping the same distance from each other.
"Coincidence when I decided to fight in that graveyard?  Coincidence that I didn't defend myself tonight and still survived and came back to fight again?” Potter listed, clutching Draco's former wand.
"Coincidences!" Voldemort yelled, but still didn't hit out.
The crowd around was frozen, petrified, and of the hundreds in the hall, none seemed to breathe except the two, who were still moving in circles, walking around each other.
I closed my eyes in agony for a moment.
This was the only and last chance to finally kill the dark lord and the chosen one wanted to do it alone.
Raised the tension unnecessarily.
I alternately tugged on my fingertips and unconsciously chewed on my bottom lip.
"Chance and luck and the fact that you ducked howling behind the backs of great men and women and let me kill them instead of you!" Voldemort spoke delightedly, his long, white, bony fingers tightening around him  Handle of the Elder Wand.
"You're not going to kill anyone else tonight," Potter snapped as they continued to walk in circles, staring into each other's eyes.
“You won't be able to kill any of them ever again.
Don't you get it?
I was willing to die to stop you from harming these people-"
"But you didn't die!" the dark lord interrupted before the chosen one continued.
“- I wanted it and that was crucial.
I did what my mother did.
They are protected from you.
Didn't you realize that none of the spells you put on her have any binding power?
You can't torture her.
You can't hurt them.
You don't learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you"
"You dare?!" the dark lord cried out in anger.
"Yes, I dare." said Harry Potter
"I know things you don't know, Tom Riddle.
I know a lot of important things that you don't know.
Want to hear some before you make another big mistake?”
Voldemort said nothing, just walked in circles, watching.
"Is it love again?" he asked with a sneer on his snake face.
"Dumbledore's favorite recipe, love, which he claimed would conquer death, even though love didn't keep it from falling off the tower and shattering like an old waxwork?
Love that didn't stop me from crushing your mudblood mother like a roach, Potter.
And this time no one seems to love you enough to run and take my curse.
So what's going to keep you from dying this time when I hit?"
"Just one!" said Potter triumphantly.
They still walked in circles, bound together, kept apart only by the last secret.
"If it isn't love that will save you this time, then do you think you have magical powers I don't have, or a weapon more powerful than mine?" Voldemort said, seeming aware of his power  to be aware.
"Both, I think," Potter uttered, and I saw a startled expression cross the snakelike face, only to dissipate in a moment.
Voldemort began to laugh, and it sounded scarier than his screams.
Pure madness filled his pool, the hall with its echo.
"You think you know more magic than me?
When I, as Lord Voldemort, performed the spells that even Dumbledore could not have dreamed of?"
"Oh, he could," Potter said calmly.
"But he knew more than you did, he knew enough not to do what you did."
"You mean he was weak!" Voldemort yelled.
"Too weak.
Too weak to dare.
Too weak to take what might have been his, which will now be mine!"
"No, he was smarter than you.
A better wizard, a better man!” said the young wizard confidently.
"I brought about the death of Albus Dumbledore!" the dark lord purred with pride in his voice.
"You thought so, but you were wrong!"
The crowd me and Draco were standing in stirred for the first time as the hundreds lining the walls drew breaths in unison.
"DUMBLEDORE IS DEAD!" Voldemort threw the words at the chosen one as if they were causing him excruciating pain.
"His corpse, rotting in the marble tomb in this castle grounds.
I've seen her, Potter, and he won't be coming back!"
"Yes, Dumbledore is dead, but you didn't have him killed.
He chose himself how he wanted to die, did so months before he died, prepared everything together with the man you thought was your servant.” Potter delivered his words with such a calm that one could not have guessed  you would find yourself in a life and death struggle.
"What childish pipe dream is that?" Voldemort spoke, but still didn't lash out.
His red eyes were fixed on his counterpart's.
"Severus Snape wasn't your man!" the chosen one said with emphasis in his voice.
"Snape was Dumbledore's man.
He's been his man from the day you started chasing my mother.
And you never have, because of the one thing you can't understand.
You never saw Snape produce a Patronus, did you, Riddle?"
Voldemort didn't answer.
They kept circling each other like wolves about to tear themselves to pieces.
"Snape's Patronus was a doe!" said Potter, "just like my mother's because he's loved her almost all his life, ever since they were children.
You should have realized that,” he paused, watching Voldemort's nostrils flare.
"- he asked you to spare her life, right?"
"He desired her, nothing more." Voldemort sneered.
"but when she was dead he saw that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthy of him-"
"Of course he said that to you," the young wizard replied.
"but he was Dumbledore's spy from the moment you threatened her.
He had been working against you ever since!
Dumbledore was almost dead when Snape gave him the last push!"
.  .  .