THE MATCH

It was Apparation Exam session. Ministry and the Order were on the track of dark activities. Even Muggles were busy with mysterious lost persons, stange events and dark deaths. Dementor kisses had happened to plenty of Muggles, so Ministry had to place some young witches and wizards in the Muggle world to be responsible for putting these sick people in insane asylums.

The life was very dark. Mine, on the other hand, was even darker. There was no sunlight there. Cold blue light was surrounding me. That day, the famous Neville Longbottom was having his Apparation Exam. Committee-placed rookies were in key places, to make sure that nobody got hurt. I was among them, appointed to guard the Department of Mysteries since Mr. Bode’s death. AND THEY TOLD ME TO PATROL THERE AND LOOK AFTER A CHILD, IF HE COULD MANAGE TO COME OF COURSE!

I was getting nearer and nearer to the locked door in my animagus form (ant) when it happened. Someone apperated in the middle of the room! Neville Longbottom!? With his COMPLETE organs!? Neville obviously didn't think so, because he was checking his body. Feet, two legs, body, arms … Was he missing something? The boy grabed his head suddenly, then breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t need a second look to understand where he was.

“Isn’t t-there a-anyone?” he whispered, shaking.

Nearly stepping on me, he tried to open the locked door. I climbed on his foot then we returned to the middle of the room. After turning, he tried another one. It was the room where the timeturners were kept. Shelves took his attention and he stepped in to the room. Still shaking, he checked around quickly. He took one of them, nearly breaking the whole shelf. Neville was talking himself weakly.

“Grandma's gonna kill me. No. It’s not my fault. I wanted a new wand after dad’s. What did she do? She gave HERS to me and bought herself A NEW one. I am worse with it. “

The poor kid was practically hypnotized: “Going half-an-hour back would be enough. Then I could correct my mistake. Professor Tofty reminded me about the Brain Room. When I go back, I won’t look at him and I’ll concentrate on thinking about the pole. Was that North or South? Anyway. I’ll ask Fred and George again. I don’t want Grandma to think I’m messing up again.”

I let things take their natural course. The Ministry won’t let me touch timeturners. He wore the chain and … Clumsy kid was so nervous that his hand slipped and it switched too much to the opposite side!

I was as nervous as Neville while a flood of images passed. When we arrived to an unknown time perriod, I climbed on the boy’s head to see clearly. Dark clouds were surrounding air. We were in the old telephone cabin. There was a big crater filled with fresh lava.

Neville took a sudden deep breath. This made me look one side of the crater. There was a snake-faced man holding a long wand with his long, ghost-white hand. His eyes were as red as lava. He was V… V… well, he was You-Know-Who. There was no need to see the scar to identify the boy on the other side. From now on, I will report you the match as the storyteller.

The Dark Lord was looking directly to Harry’s eyes while talking. Anger could be read in his eyes clearly.

“It wasn’t a good idea to open a crater to finish Nagini, was it? I'm used to it. Pettigrew does this all the time,” he said. “This time he finished himself,” he added with wicked joy in his voice. “It’s too easy to throw you in it. But I won’t do that. I give you a last chance to defend yourself.”

Harry’s lips were bleeding. There was a deep cut starting from his left cheek, trailing down his neck and ending at his shoulder.

“Why not? It wasn’t a problem to raise a wand to a baby.” He spit out blood to the crater, then added, “What about murdering a young woman?”

Voldemort gave a sharp look to the scar. His voice was calm: “It was a mistake, I admit. But it can be corrected. Give me back my soul, boy.”

“Wha….”

“You heard me.” His noise holes were getting wider, but his voice stayed calm. “It’s likely some part of my abilities passed on you. You know I studied how to prevent death. It makes my soul…”

“ChangelingHypothesis!” Harry whispered.

“I've missed too much time. I've waited so many years to be myself again,” he growled. “TODAY!” he yelled. “LORD VOLDEMORT WILL RETURN COMPLETELY!”

Voldemort raised his wand, a blue light came from it and connected to Harry’s scar. Harry raised his right hand slowly. It seemed his pain increased with the effort. A bright white ray was casted and the blue light disappeared. Harry’s scar was bleeding.

“Not bad for a rookie. Now…”

“EXPELLIARMUS! “

The voice had come from Neville. Voldemort hadn’t a chance to understand what’s happening in a minute. An ambulance arrived, its door opened quickly. A flood of wands spread around. A huge man got out of the ambulance and pointed Voldemort.

“There he is. There isn’t enough human in him to die.”

“I have no time for that,” said the Dark Lord angrily.

He grabbed the wand and opened his mouth. Then something strange happened: The wand turned into a fake snake. Two red-headed boys got out of the ambulance. They were wearing doctor shirts. One of them turned to his twin.

“You hear him? “

“Another empty body.”

“It would be the hardest one.”

“We need some help,” said Hagrid then roared, “GRAWP!!!”

A huge face raised between trees. Shocked, Voldemort called for his wand, caught it and pointed every single body. Looking at Harry’s blood-covered face, “It’s not over,” he hissed. Then he turned to Neville. “You will pay for this!” he said and disappeared.

All I remember after that is that Neville grabbed the timeturner, I fell down, a big shoe‘s shadow fell on me, and then there was darkness. I’m still at St. Mungo’s. All my bones are healed. There is only one thing remaining: a wide footmark on my face. They've tried everthing, but it won't come off. I haven’t seen Neville since the journey. When I get out of here, I’ll want an explanation. And then, I’ll give him a strong bash as gift.

FUZZYINK