บท 93: Chapter 93: Moon Shot
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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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16 November 1992, Hogwarts
Whatever Riddle had done, it absolutely destabilized the ritual which turned off. There was also some kind of mental attack that came with it. This was all Harry could think of before he realized that he was actually physically pushed into the air, and he crashed into a few broken tables. It didn't take long for him to black out after that.
When Harry woke up, it was easy to notice that he wasn't alone. Yes, his eyes were bleary, and he was very disoriented, but there was a presence that just wasn't there before. There was this shift in atmosphere that Harry just didn't know how to explain. He was still in the Room of Hidden Things, of course, but before he could gather his surrounding, he heard a familiar voice, "You're awake. It's earlier than I expected but it should still be enough for this."
"Riddle," Harry snarled back.
The older boy looked unconcerned and was twirling a wand in his hand, Harry's wand to be specific, "So, Harry, you found out who I was possessing. I have to say that I'm impressed. Sure, you were led around with my trick with Lockhart, and I was sure that I fooled you into dismissing your initial list of suspects from the express, that you were going to keep narrowing down. But you went above and beyond what I expected from you, and for that, you have my respect. Bravo."
Harry shook his head, "You never said that I had to play on your rules."
"Yes, who would have expected Divination of all things to be my downfall? I always hated the uncertainty of it. It's always so easy to fool, to misdirect. Hogwarts is already practically immune to scrying, but you managed to get past that haven't you? You used a connection that's stronger than anything else I could stop. It took some time for me to realize where you were, and I definitely didn't expect you to be in a special room of mine, with another Horcrux close by too."
Harry grinned as he stood back up. Riddle was still pointing his wand at him, but the Potter scion wasn't really concerned about it. His wand was his. Its allegiance was his own, and it would not hurt him, "The thing about Horcruxes is that for them to work, there has to be a connection between them. No one has ever made more than one, but I'm guessing you didn't change the ritual. Soul magic is notoriously finicky, and people made sure that no mention of it exist, so I guessed that for your other self to be a functioning human being, his entire soul had to be connected like a network. I just used one to get another."
"I bet you think you're pretty damn clever," Riddle hissed, "you're not, you caught a lucky break."
"Maybe I did, but you're here, aren't you?" Harry responded.
"Yes," the older boy murmured, "I never expected you to go this far, this quickly. But needs must."
"You also said that you wouldn't cause any more deaths, that you learnt from Myrtle," Harry interjected, "So, tell me, why did Filch's cat die?"
"It was a mistake!" Riddle bellowed out.
"Yes, it was. But didn't you say that Myrtle was also a mistake? So, tell me, what's stopping you from making even more blunders? What if you kill a first year the next time? It's already bad enough what you're doing to Luna."
"Don't involve her with this," the older boy gritted out.
Oh, Harry had found a weakness and like a good Slytherin, he pounced on it, "What an interesting reaction. Luna Lovegood is supposed to mean nothing to you, be just a meat puppet. That is what you alluded to, when you talked about the victim you were possessing. But that's not true, is it? The lonely girl with an innocent heart exposed her soul to you and you couldn't help but admire her."
Riddle twitched and the Potter scion continued, "No, more than that. You started to like her. I have to admit that I can see why you would. That kind of wonder and kindness is just amazing."
The older boy sighed with a resigned expression on his face, "She was unlike anything I have ever seen, a miracle child that suffered yet all that pain forged her into a kind soul. A girl with a broken gift, whose clairvoyance emerged when she saw her own mother die. The way she saw the world was just so different."
"And you couldn't help but be entranced," the young Potter continued, "You couldn't stay away from her and yet you knew that you were hurting her. You need to stop Tom. This isn't a game; you're seriously going to hurt someone."
"There's a winner and a loser," Riddle said, "That makes it a game."
"What about Luna? Will she win, or will she lose?"
The older boy stayed silent at that, and Harry decided to press on, "Why are you even doing this, Tom? What's the purpose of all this? I don't buy that Dumbledore is your end goal. You know that he's politically invincible. He supported every business that came out of Hogwarts, he put people into contact in the ministry, and two whole generations passed where they saw him as this godly being that was their kindly headmaster. Dumbledore isn't going anywhere, and you know it. Your attacks literally have no meaning."
The older boy refused to answer, and Harry decided to go for the killing blow, "You know what I think. I think you don't really care about Luna at all, that you're using her in a vain effort to absorb her life force and live a mockery of life."
"HOW DARE YOU?" Riddle exclaimed with madness in his eyes.
"Then explain why you are going through all of this. Are you seriously letting Luna suffer like this for no reason?"
"I'm doing this for her," the fidgety boy answered, "I am creating something beautiful, something wonderful. I want to forge a new world, one without pain, without loss, without death. Is that such a horrible thing to strive for?"
"It does sound like a good ambition to have. But the question is how does possessing Luna, absorbing her life force, and petrifying muggleborns and squibs, help in any of that?"
Riddle released a harrowing laugh, "It's sad, you know. You don't see it but we're so alike. I used to play games like the one you're doing with me. Pressing the right button to get reactions. You played on my fondness for Luna, something that I barely even realized how much I treasured, just to get me to reveal my plans. Here you are, wandless, weaponless, and yet you're the one in control. Such is the power of words."
Harry snorted, "Yeah, your older self didn't really do the same. It was all threats and torture. It's funny when I compare the two of you, you're like night and day. So, let's just make it even, why don't you just tell me why you're doing all of this, and I could even help you if I like it."
"You're not going to help me," Riddle said while shaking his head, "and I'm not going to reveal my plans to you like some idiotic story villain. My plans are my own, and besides, what's the point of having our little game if we're on the same side? It's just not as fun, is it?"
Harry knew that there was something more to his answer, something Riddle was keeping back but before he could say anything the older boy perked up, "Now, the question is what to do with you. You see, I'm a bit old fashioned like this, but you know too much, you're too dangerous. The game we played was fun, even if it was short, but if I let you leave this place alive, you're going to cause more problems and I just can't allow that to happen. My goal is too important. My dream is too important to risk for the sake of the euphoria of having a worthy opponent. It's a shame really, I was looking forward to having fun with you in our little duel."
The Potter scion's breath hitched, "Come on Riddle, we can talk about this."
"What's there to talk about? You pushed too far, and you raised the stakes. I don't have another choice. If it's any consolation to you, Potter, I am sorry. But you broke the rules of the game. You went too far and forced me to do this. I never thought I'd say this, but you were too good that you evolved from being an entertaining rival to an active threat to my goals. You were proving yourself to be a worthy rival, too worthy, it's why I have to do this. Goodbye, Potter."
Just as Riddle was pointing his wand at Harry, the younger boy activated a magical circle that telekinetically pushed Riddle away. The force didn't really send him flying, but it did go through him. It was so large that Riddle had to drop the only physical thing he had, Harry's wand, which the young Potter summoned to himself.
"You were saying," Harry commented.
Riddle snarled back at him, "Do you really think that I didn't plan ahead at all?" he then wandlessly summoned another wand from the pile of tables on their left, "you're just delaying the inevitable."
Riddle sent in a piercing curse, which Harry countered by summoning a table into a shield and then banishing it towards Riddle. The shards just went through the projection entirely. That was annoying. The older boy sent him a smug grin, "I'm not here. I'm just a projection and you can't hurt me at all."
When the projection went through an entire spell chain without flinching, Harry knew that he had a tough fight on his hand. Of course, Riddle seemed to want to attack Harry using curses that seemed to get darker and darker with each one. The Potter scion dodged a flesh rotting curse and transfigured the entire pile of tables into two giant wooden arms to act as shields against any incoming attack.
They stayed like this for what felt like hours in this stalemate. Harry's defence was malleable enough to defend Harry, while Riddle just kept attacking and ignoring any spell coming his way. Harry snarled and summoned chains of ice using his Cryomancy, and he charmed them into a poltergeist banishing charm. It was a simple spell that Flitwick had told them to use on any object that they didn't want Peeves to touch, and it was simple enough to work.
This time, the chains animated chains actually touched the wraith and sent it flying back. Although the older boy seemed to take things a lot more seriously since with a wave of his wand, he created a shockwave that obliterated Harry's shielding hand and unbalanced him enough for Riddle to get back up.
If the stakes weren't that high, and if Riddle wasn't obviously trying to kill him, he would have burst into laughter at the dumbfounded look on the older boy's face. Who would have thought that it would be a basic charm that solved this issue? Riddle's magical projection must have resembled that of a poltergeist in some way.
Harry grinned and animated another pile of scrap into a hand that he charmed as well and animated it to attack his opponent. For all Riddle kept sending one blasting curse after another the Potter scion just kept adding more scraps after another to stop it. Honestly, Riddle should have fought back better, but it seems he was restricted in some way. Maybe it was the fact that Riddle was relying entirely on magic stolen from Luna, or maybe it was the fact that he was just a projection, and he couldn't really siphon as much magic. Riddle must have been confident that Harry wouldn't have been able to do much without his wand. That was his mistake.
Before the young Potter could revel in his coming victory, his opponent did something unthinkable, something that Harry would describe later as the desperate actions of a mad teenager. Tom Riddle summoned Fiendfyre in the middle of Hogwarts.
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Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
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