Selena Black

Chapter 32: Priori incantatem.

Chapter 32: Priori Incantatem.

Chelbell2016:

Selena's POV:

Wormtail approached Harry, and I so I scrambled to find my feet, to support my own weight before the ropes were untied. Wormtail raised his new silver hand, pulled out the wad of material gagging me and then, with one swipe, cut through the bonds tying Harry to the gravestone.

There was a split second, perhaps, when I might have considered running for it, but my injured leg shook under me as I stood on the overgrown grave, as the Death Eaters closed ranks, forming a tighter circle around us and Voldemort, so that the gaps where the missing Death Eaters should have stood were filled. Wormtail walked out of the circle to the place where Cedric's body lay and returned with Harry's wand and mine, which he thrust roughly into Harry's hand without looking at him. Then Wormtail resumed his place in the circle of watching Death Eaters.

"You have been taught how to duel. Harry Potter?" said Voldemort softly, his red eyes glinting through the darkness.

At these words I remembered, as though from a former life, the dueling club at Hogwarts he had attended briefly two years ago. ... All we had learned there was the Disarming Spell, "Expelliarmus". . . and what use would it be to deprive Voldemort of his wand, even if we could, when we was surrounded by Death Eaters, outnumbered by at least thirty to one? We had never learned anything that could possibly fit us for this. We knew he was facing the thing against which Moody had always warned . . . the unblockable Avada Kedavra curse - and Voldemort was right - Harry's mother was not here to die for us this time. ... we was quite unprotected. . . .

"We bow to each other. Harry, Selena" said Voldemort, bending a little, but keeping his snakelike face upturned to Harry. "Come, the niceties must be observed. . . . Dumbledore would like you to show manners especially you Selena. . . . Bow to death, you two. ..."

The Death Eaters were laughing again. Voldemorts lipless mouth was smiling. Harry and I did not bow. We was not going to let Voldemort play with us before killing us ... we was not going to give him that satisfaction. . . .

"I said, bow," Voldemort said, raising his wand - and I felt my spine curve as though a huge, invisible hand were bending me ruthlessly forward, and the Death Eaters laughed harder than ever.

"Very good," said Voldemort softly, and as he raised his wand the pressure bearing down upon Harry and I lifted too. "And now you face me, like a man . . . straight-backed and proud, the way your father died. . . .

"And now - we duel."

Voldemort raised his wand, and before Harry or I could do anything to defend ourselves, before we could even move, we had been hit again by the Cruciatus Curse. The pain was so intense, so all-consuming, that I no longer knew where I was. . . . White-hot knives were piercing every inch of my skin, my hand was surely going to burst with pain, I was screaming more loudly than I'd ever screamed in my life -And then it stopped. Harry and rolled over and scrambled to our feet;

I was shaking as uncontrollably as Wormtail had done when his hand had been cut off; I staggered sideways into the wall of watching Death Eaters, and they pushed my away, back toward Voldemort.

"A little break," said Voldemort, the slit-like nostrils dilating with excitement, "a little pause . . . That hurt, didn't it. you two? You don't want me to do that again, do you?"

Harry ans I didn't answer. We was going to die like Cedric, those pitiless red eyes were telling him so ... we was going to die, and there was nothing he could do about it... but I wasn't going to play along. I wasn't going to obey Voldemort... I wasn't going to beg. . . .