Login
MuggleNet Fan Fiction
Harry Potter stories written by fans!

Summer of Several Attempts by allieb

[ - ]   Printer Chapter or Story Table of Contents

- Text Size +

Harry’s feet landed onto soft earth, but with his hands bound he couldn’t keep his balance and once again fell to the ground. Malfoy kicked him hard in the ribs and said, “Get up Potter. Face your death like a man.”

Harry rolled over and pushed to his knees. He tried to get a grasp of his surroundings, but it didn’t help. They were outside, but the surrounding hills didn’t seem familiar. Malfoy roughly pulled Harry to his feet and dragged him across the lawn to a house. They entered it and Harry had a vague feeling that he had been here before.

They entered the house through the kitchen and saw Wormtail standing by the counter waiting for them. He was flexing his new silvery hand in a nervous way. “Lucius,” he said, “he’s expecting you and the boy. Go right in.”

“Thanks Worm,” Malfoy answered contemptuously.

Malfoy pulled a bit harder on Harry’s rope and pulled him into the living room. Harry glanced back at Wormtail and saw him looking back with an odd look. Harry turned away disgusted, and wondered why he had spared his life. It seemed like the right idea at the time, but if he would have let Lupin and Sirius kill him when they had the chance, none of this would have happened.

Harry stumbled into the living room and realized he had visited this room several time in his dreams. This was where Voldemort had killed an old man and tortured several of his Death Eaters. Malfoy led him toward fireplace and pushed him into a chair. Harry looked to see Voldemort sitting across from him. His scar throbbed painfully again.

“Good evening, Harry Potter. You once again have proved to be a nuisance. Crucio,!” Voldemort hissed.

Harry writhed in agony. It seemed to go on and on. Harry’s whole body seemed to be tearing itself apart. A small voice in the back of his brain said ‘think of the lake.’ In the midst of the pain, Harry brought up the lake shield that he used to prevent mind attacks. The shield seemed to be helping. Harry could still feel the pain, but it seemed like it was far away. The rest of his brain was free.

Harry used this time to try and figure out a way out of his predicament. There was no way that anyone was going to be able to find him. His wand was back on the Hogwarts Express, so he wouldn’t be able to do any kind of spell. All of sudden the tension released and the pain was gone. Harry slumped into the chair, exhausted. His whole body ached.

Voldemort spoke to him again, “You need to die Potter. You have made that difficult. No person has ever been so troublesome, not even your parents. It took me four attempts on them, but they finally did die. There are so many ways to kill a person Harry. I have decided to experiment on you. Since you are so good at eluding death, my Death Eaters and I are going to experiment on you until we figure out what works.”

Harry moved to pull his body closer to himself. He wasn’t just going to be killed; he was going to be tortured first. He was completely helpless. No mother to die for him, no wand to defend himself, no Portkey to take him back to Hogwarts, and no hope.

Voldemort hit him with another round of pain. Harry retreated into his brain and brought up the lake picture. The pain faded into the distance, still there, but manageable. Harry began to despair. His life began to flash before his eyes. He saw his aunt and uncle humiliating him and Dudley chasing him. He saw the Dementors, and Sirius falling through the veil.

‘Wait,’ a voice said in the back of his mind, ‘Hope’. Harry thought he heard the sound of Phoenix song and other images started entering his mind. He, Ron and Hermione were walking through the Hogwarts grounds to go see Hagrid. He was flying on broom playing Quidditch with the Gryffindor team. The pain lessened and then suddenly went away completely.

Harry opened his eyes thinking that the spell had been lifted. But to his great surprise Voldemort was still concentrating on Harry with all his might. He looked at Voldemort and said, “Stop.” He made the spell go away.

Voldemort looked at Harry frightened. He yelled “Crucio,” again and the spell had no affect at all. Harry could block it. Harry used the moment of distraction to make a run for it.

“Lucius, Stop him!” Voldemort cried panicked. Malfoy grabbed Harry and threw him to the ground. The larger man then kicked him several times in the ribs and Harry yelped out as he felt one of the bones break. Malfoy bodily hauled him up and threw him back into the chair. Malfoy shot more ropes out of his wand and tied Harry securely to the chair.

Even the pain in his side didn’t stop the hope from building in Harry’s chest. They might still kill him, but at least he could block the curse. They wouldn’t be able to torture him into insanity like they did to Neville’s parents.

“Apparently he can block the Cruciatus Cruse just like his father. More torture will be useless. Kill him,” Voldemort ordered to Malfoy.

Malfoy looked at Voldemort in horror and started simpering the way that his son did when he didn’t want to do something in class. “I’m not use the killing curse on him. What if it backfires again?”

“It won’t. That was a fluke because his mother died to save him. It was her protection that caused the spell to misfire. I have gotten around that protection,” Voldemort answered. “Kill him now, Malfoy.”

Malfoy didn’t look convinced, but took aim at Harry and yelled, “Avada Kedavra.” Harry saw the green light flashing toward him again and shrunk into himself. The spell missed, instead hitting the top of the chair Harry was sitting in.

Voldemort looked furious, “I said kill him, Malfoy. Kill him now.”

Malfoy took aim again and yelled, “Avada Kedavra.” This time the spell went wide.

Crucio,” Voldemort yelled and Malfoy writhed in agony. He lifted the spell quickly and said to him, “Kill the boy.”

“I’m trying,” Malfoy said, “something is going wrong. Why don’t you have Wormtail try?”

Voldemort clapped his hands. “Wormtail,” he called, “I need you Wormtail.”

Pettigrew came into the room and looked fearfully at Voldemort. “Yes master?”

“Come here and kill the Potter boy, Worm.”

“Me?” Pettigrew asked talking to the floor. “Sir, that is an honor that should be reserved only to you, and your most faithful servants. I will not take the honor away from Lucius.”

“No, Peter,” Voldemort said with a touch of humanity in his voice, “this is a perfect job for you.”

Pettigrew walked into the room and stood next to Malfoy. Peter took aim and said, “Avada Kedavra.”

The green light flashed toward Harry and hit him squarely in the chest. Harry couldn’t breathe and he felt like he was drowning, but it only lasted a second and then it was over. Harry slumped against his ropes, weak, but still very much alive.

“Wormtail,” Voldemort roared. “You cannot even kill a boy tied to a chair. You are the most pathetic excuse for a Wizard that ever lived. Crucio.”

Wormtail then fell to the ground in pain, moaning and screaming. Harry was vividly reminded of the night of Voldemort’s return.

Lucius Malfoy seemed heartened that the spell didn’t bounce and took aim again and yelled, “Avada Kedavra.”

The green light streaked toward Harry, and somewhere in his head he heard his mother screaming and just as the spell hit him, an electric pulse shot through Harry. It was painful and Harry screamed due to the pain of it, but the spell didn’t connect. The green light came streaking back toward Malfoy. Malfoy yelped fearfully and ducked out of quickly out the way, as the spell missed him by inches.

Harry was now very drained. Although, the last spell didn’t really hit, it had taken a lot out of him. Harry leaned forward heavily on the ropes that held him to the chair. He was barely conscious. He tried to think, tried to figure out what he needed to do to stay alive. But he couldn’t, he was so tired, all he wanted to do was pass out. But he couldn’t, he knew that there was no hope, but he wanted to face death awake and alert.

“I’m open to suggestions,” Voldemort stated flatly to the other two men.

“We could slit his throat. We have knives in the kitchen,” Wormtail suggested standing up.

“Yes, Wormtail. Go and get one,” Voldemort answered. Pettigrew quickly left the room, and returned a minute later with a butcher knife.

Wormtail handed the knife to Malfoy. “You have the honor to serve the master.”

Malfoy took the large knife over to Harry and then stopped. He looked at Harry puzzled, like he didn’t know what to do. It only lasted a moment, and then he grabbed Harry by the head, and screamed very loudly.

Malfoy dropped the knife and held his hands in the air as if they were burning. After a moment there was the acrid smell of burning skin. Malfoy raced out of the room and there was a sound of running water. Malfoy had put his hands in the sink to cool the burns.

Harry slumped even further into his chair.

Voldemort yelled in frustration, “Why won’t you just die, boy! Crucio!”

The spell hit and the pain started again, but Harry weakly found the block and after a few seconds he was able to turn the spell off.

Voldemort hollered in rage and said Crucio again, but this time to Wormtail. Wormtail immediately collapsed into fits on the floor. That seemed to pacify Voldemort somewhat; just to hurt somebody seemed to be all he wanted.

Malfoy walked back into the room his arms freely bleeding where he had touched Harry. It extended all the way up his right arm.

“What about a sword?” Malfoy asked. “We could run him through with a sword and never touch him.”

“Perfect,” Voldemort agreed. “There is an old sword upstairs in my father’s bedroom. Run and fetch it Worm.”

Wormtail left the room while Harry slumped even further onto the ropes holding him to the chair. His eyes started to do funny things. He started seeing lights dancing the corners of his vision.

Wormtail returned a few minutes later with an ancient looking sword. Wormtail bowed to Voldemort and handed the sword over to him.

Voldemort immediately handed back the sword to Wormtail. “You are my servant Peter. This is your job. Run the Potter boy through Worm.”

Wormtail looked at Harry, and then back to Voldemort, and then back to Harry and then back to Voldemort. Finally, seeming to reach some kind of decision, he held the sword up to Harry. He set the blade of the sword on Harry’s shoulder where there was just a bit of bare skin peaking out from under his large T-Shirt. An electric pulse again shot through Harry again. Harry heard his mother’s scream so clearly now that he thought even Voldemort heard it.

The shock ran through the blade down into Peter’s hands and body. The electric pulse had pushed the blade away and Peter holding on to the other end, fell to the floor with a large thud. He stayed there whimpering for a minute, before Malfoy ordered him at wand point to get up.

“Let’s throw him into the gorge,” Malfoy yelled still holding his burnt hands in the air. “It’s five-hundred foot drop to the bottom of the canyon. Let’s see Potter get out of that one.”

“Yes, that’s perfect. There is no way his mother can protect him from that. We’ll make it a ceremonial killing,” Voldemort commanded. “All of the Death Eater will come and together we will throw him over the side. We will usher out the only thing standing in my way to full power. Tie him up to something so we can transport him.”

Wormtail untied Harry again, careful not to touch his bare skin, and pulled him to his feet. Harry staggered and fell immediately to the floor. Wormtail tried to heave him up, but his hands started to burn. He ran off and Malfoy using the ropes, dragged Harry out of the room and out into the grounds. Voldemort followed behind. They walked for about ten minutes in a very beautiful countryside, Malfoy dragging Harry along behind him. They reached the gorge that Malfoy had talked about. Wormtail joined them and Voldemort touched the dark mark on Wormtail’s arm.

Within two minutes, the place where they stood was filled with Death Eaters. They formed a ring around Harry, Malfoy and Voldemort.

“My dear friends,” Voldemort addressed them. “You are here to witness a great event, the last moments of life for the orphan hero, Harry Potter.” As he spoke, Wormtail tied his feet together and then tied his hands to his feet, never touching Harry’s skin. Wormtail then bound Harry’s hands and feet to a long stick.

“Malfoy here was good enough to bring me the one thing standing in my way, Harry Potter. Once this irritating child is out of the way, we will move forward with our most ambitious plans. Potter is the last hurdle. You will witness here tonight his final moments. We will be ushering Mr. Potter off the side of the gorge. Crabbe, Goyle, would like the honor of showing Harry Potter to his death?”

The both murmured yes very quietly and moved out of the circle. They picked up Harry’s body first and then reeled as they were burned with an electric charge.

Voldemort laughed a cold hideous laugh, “Use the branch, Harry’s mother is still trying to protect him. Do not touch him.”

Crabbe and Goyle picked up Harry using the tree branch and walked to the edge of the gorge.

Voldemort said coldly, “Good bye, Harry Potter. Your future awaits you.” He nodded to them and they threw him over the side.

Harry’s body hit the side of the gorge ripping painfully into his skin. He bounced off and watched the ground approaching. This was it. There was no one to save him now, no parents to die for him, no Fawkes to fly to the rescue, no Ron and Hermione to help, no Dumbledore. In a way, he was finally free. Free to die and join his parents and Sirius.

His thoughts raced between his parents and Sirius. He thought that they wouldn’t be happy that he died but it would be nice to be with people who cared about him. He then thought about Aunt Petunia and realized that she did care about him, at least in some fashion. She wouldn’t want him to die anyway. Then Ron and Hermione came to mind. They definitely cared about him. The Grangers and the Weasleys and the professors at Hogwarts all cared about him too. Even Marie and Jim from the pub in Builth Wells cared about him.

Harry began to hum a song that Marie and Jim had taught him in the pub back in Builth Wells. It was about a bird flying through the sky, it seemed somehow appropriate. He remembered their pub, he immersed himself in the memory, until it was like he was there again, listening to the music, smelling the fish frying, the musky scent of Jim’s pipe.

He looked at the ground fast approaching and he wanted to be thinking of that wonderful place when he died. He focused all of his energy, all of his mind on the pub in Builth Wells, and wished that he could see it one more time. He heard a large CRACK and his vision went momentarily wonky. Harry felt squished, and then felt himself hit the ground. But instead of a sickening crunch on a hard rocky canyon, he fell gently on to a wooden floor.

Harry opened his eyes and looked around. He was lying on the floor of Marie and Jim’s pub. He was in Builth Wells. Surprised yells and screams followed him. He was still bound to the tree branch and he ached all over, his ribs were definitely broken, but he was alive. He was alive! Harry tried to sit up, but his head swam. He felt hands grab him and try to help him.

“Harry Potter, land’s sake, how did you get here?” Marie asked concerned.

Jim chimed in next, “Good Lord, boy, what happened to you? Someone call an ambulance.”

Harry couldn’t answer, his head swam and his body ached. He looked at them it hit him that he was in Builth Wells. He hadn’t hit bottom of the canyon, he was in actually in Jim and Marie’s pub. Jim and Marie were here, he was safe. He was going to be okay, and with that realization Harry passed out.