black | sirius black

Battle Of Hogwarts

"Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good."

"You think it will be you, do you, the boy who has survived by accident, and because Dumbledore was pulling the strings?"

"Accident, was it, when my mother died to save me?" They were still moving sideways, both of them, in that perfect circle, maintaining the same distance from each other, and for Harry, no face existed but Voldemort's. "Accident, when I decided to fight in that graveyard? Accident, that I didn't defend myself tonight, and still survived, and returned to fight again?"

"Accidents! Accident and chance and the fact that you crouched and sniveled behind the skirts of greater men and women, and permitted me to kill them for you!"

"You won't be killing anyone else tonight, Tom. You won't be able to kill any of them ever again. Don't you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people— "

"But you did not!"

"—I meant to, and that's exactly what it did. I've done what my mother did. They're protected from you. Haven't you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can't torture them. You can't touch them. You don't learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?"

"You dare—"

"Yes, I dare," Harry scoffed. "I know things you don't know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things that you don't. Want to hear some, before you make another big mistake?"

Hermione, Ron, and Ginny, who had been petrified, were now awake and staring at Harry in awe. Fred and George stood nearby, expressions a mix of surprise and admiration.

The gravity of Harry's revelation about his sacrifice and the protection he had unknowingly bestowed upon others began to sink in.

Hermione was the first to break the silence, her voice filled with a mix of pride and disbelief. "You mean to say that he willingly faced death to protect us?"

"Mental is what he is." Ron was still in awe at the fact that his best friend was still alive and fighting.

But, Ginny didn't say a word, her brown eyes narrowing on Voldemort, fearing for Harry's safety even though no one dared to go up to them.

Voldemort did not speak, but prowled in a circle, and Harry knew that he kept him temporarily mesmerized and at bay, held back by the faintest possibility that Harry might indeed know a final secret.

"Is it love again?" Voldemort said, his snake's face jeering. "Dumbledore's favorite solution, love, which he claimed conquered death, though love did not stop him from falling from the tower and breaking like an old waxwork? Love, which did not prevent me stamping out your Mudblood mother like a cockroach, Potter— and nobody seems to love you enough to run forward this time and take my curse. So what will stop you from dying now when I strike?"

"Just one thing," Harry, and still they circled each other, wrapped in each other, held apart by nothing but the last secret.

"If it is not love that will save you this time, you must believe that you have magic that I do not, or else a weapon more powerful than mine?"

"I believe both."

"That's it, Harry! Show him the strength that's been inside you all along!" Sirius muttered under his breath, feeling extremely proud of his godson.

Jayce and Sirius exchanged another glance, this time with a shared sense of certainty.

Harry, their godson, had come a long way from the boy who first entered Hogwarts. He was now a symbol of resilience, a testament to the power of the human spirit.