Bellatrix Lestrange screamed and pulled at her hair; with a howl of pain Draco cradled his mother’s lifeless body on the floor. Harry pushed the large blond man guarding him aside as hard as he could, and ran. He called for his wand silently with as much concentration as he could muster, and was rewarded when it flew into his hand. Raising his wand, he aimed it at Voldemort and cried “Impedi - ”
Before he could finish, Harry saw twin streams of red light aimed at his chest by the two remaining Death Eaters in the room; somehow he managed to throw himself to the floor and avoid being knocked unconscious. He scrambled behind the sofa, breathing hard, wondering wildly what to do next as memories from his fourth year and the terrible duel in the graveyard flashed through his mind.
“Potter is mine! I want him unharmed!” the Dark Lord shouted to his followers. Suddenly the sofa flew across the room, and Harry was unprotected. Standing quickly with his wand held before him, Harry felt the panic of hopelessness threaten to overwhelm him. He could not defeat Voldemort, not without destroying his Horcruxes first, and even then he didn’t feel ready.
Glancing at Snape, Harry was suddenly struck by the older man’s words earlier that night: “Shut your mouth and close your mind.” He forced any thoughts of Horcruxes from his head, so that Voldemort could not gleam any hint of Harry’s grim task. He thought he saw Snape nod almost imperceptibly.
“Harry Potter, bleeding-heart,” jeered Voldemort as he moved toward Harry. Behind him Bellatrix was sobbing over her sister’s dead body. Draco stood, shaking with fury and grief. He looked at Snape, who shook his head as if signaling him to wait. The Death Eaters did not seem to notice their interaction but closed in around Harry and Voldemort, just as they had in the graveyard.
“Even the death of someone like Narcissa Malfoy moves him to heroics,” continued Voldemort. “How pathetic. She deserved to die!”
“No, she didn’t!” Harry shouted. “She was unarmed, and begging for her life. You’re pathetic!” Without stopping to think about it he aimed a curse at Voldemort as quickly as he could, muttering the spell quietly under his breath. He was rewarded when the Dark Lord failed to block it fast enough and staggered backwards several feet. Harry saw Snape raise his eyebrows; Draco was still watching Snape intensely; the Death Eaters did nothing but move closer.
Voldemort laughed shrilly as he caught his balance. “Excellent progress, Harry! You almost finished me with that one!” He raised his wand and sent a stream of red light at Harry. Harry barely blocked it, then sent his own back in retaliation, still trying desperately to keep his mind clear while saying the spells under his breath.
“We could do this all night, Harry!” said Voldemort, advancing on Harry once more. “You can’t win. Our wands won’t fight each other, surely you remember.” Harry certainly remembered what had happened in the graveyard: casting simultaneous spells, their wands had connected, and Harry had witnessed the rare Priori Incantatem effect as Voldemort’s wand had regurgitated its last spells. He had seen his parents come out of the Dark Lord’s wand that night; he did not care to see what came out of Voldemort’s wand now, if he had the strength to force it again.
Thinking cost Harry time; before he could even try to block it, he felt the strange empty feeling of the Imperius Curse descend on his thoughts. His mind drifted off, floating blissfully away, and he watched the scene continue as if he were detached from his own body.
“Ever killed anyone, Harry?” whispered Voldemort. “You might enjoy it.” The Dark Lord circled around Harry, like a snake coiling its victim. He raised his hand and touched Harry’s cheek, almost caressing it. Harry struggled to move, but felt the curse holding him in place, like a blanket smothering his will.
“I’d like your help, Harry. Kill Draco.” Voldemort stepped back and motioned Harry forward with his wand. Harry heard a voice inside his head, commanding him to move forward and kill Malfoy. You don’t want to move, said a second voice in the back of his mind. Fight it. Harry did not want to kill anyone, and struggled with all his might; but his right foot slowly moved forward, and he felt Voldemort increase the pressure on his mind. “Come, Harry,” said the Dark Lord, his voice enticing. “He’s your enemy, he tried to kill Dumbledore! Kill him!” Harry felt an unbearable weight in his mind and watched in horror as his arm was compelled to raise itself. He saw Draco’s eyes widen in fear. . .
Suddenly Harry’s mind cleared as he was reminded of something else from his fourth year, something he had learned in class, when he had been forced to throw off the Imperius Curse again and again in Defense Against the Dark Arts. The imposter Mad-Eye Moody had said it was in his eyes. Harry had his mother’s eyes, and he knew in his heart that she would never kill, not even under the influence of an Unforgivable Curse. Fight it, said the second voice in his head again. For her. You don’t really want to kill Draco.
Looking into Draco’s eyes again, Harry saw terror, and grief; Draco too had now lost his mother to Voldemort’s dark magic. Harry knew that despite any enmity he felt toward the Slytherin boy, he did not want to kill him; he couldn’t bear the thought of killing anyone. He knew what it would do to his soul, and the thought of ripping his soul apart, of becoming like Voldemort, was too much to bear. Marshalling all of his strength, Harry threw off the Imperius Curse. With a loud cry he aimed a Stunning Spell at the nearest Death Eater and sprinted for cover, narrowly avoiding a jet of green light as Voldemort screamed in fury.
Several things happened at once: Snape called his wand from where it had fallen on the floor, and motioned toward the unconscious Death Eater. That wand flew into Draco’s hand, and together they raised their wands against the two other Death Eaters in the room, knocking them unconscious. Bellatrix Lestrange did not move, but continued to sob over her sister’s body as curses flew around her; Wormtail ran and hid behind the rickety chair, aiming a curse over his shoulder at Harry. Harry ducked and threw his own curse at the small man, blowing the chair into small pieces.
Voldemort gave another inarticulate cry of rage, and sent a second jet of green light toward Harry. Snape used his wand to hurl the coffee table in front of the curse; the table exploded, sending bits of burning wood flying about the room. At the same time Harry deflected another hex from Wormtail, who scrambled about the room trying to find cover. Forgetting about casting curses under his breath, Harry cried “Impedimenta!” as Wormtail moved toward the bookcase he had first appeared behind, trying to escape. Wormtail blocked the spell and raised his wand toward Harry, but Draco cried “Stupefy!” and the rat-like man was slammed into the bookcase, unconscious. Harry nodded at Draco, and together they turned toward Voldemort; the Dark Lord was advancing on them both.
Draco cried “Serpensorstia!” and a long black snake shot from his wand toward the Dark Lord. But with an evil grin, Voldemort simply whispered something in Parseltongue and the snake turned back on Draco, hissing dangerously.
Malfoy backed toward the edge of the room as Harry moved toward the snake. Before he could say anything, Snape pointed his wand and cried “Finite Incantatem!” The snake disappeared and to Harry’s shock Snape sent a jet of purple light toward the Dark Lord. Voldemort blocked the spell with a shield charm, and Snape was sent flying off his feet when it was reflected back toward him. As Voldemort turned on Snape, now injured on the ground, both Harry and Draco raised their wands to cast spells at the Dark Lord; from the floor, Snape cast a silent spell of his own. Unable to parry all three curses sent toward him, Voldemort was hit in the chest and lifted high in the air. He flew through the window with a great clattering of breaking glass and landed in the yard outside.
“Draco, run!” Snape shouted, just as he had shouted when they had escaped Hogwarts earlier that night. He stood up gingerly, and Harry saw a horrible bloody gash across his chest. He also saw the potions master draw the small glass bottle from his robes and quickly swallow its contents. “You too, Potter “ get out of here!”
Draco looked around wildly, at his mother, dead on the floor; at his aunt, hunched over Narcissa’s body and gaping at Snape in shock; and finally at Harry. Harry stared back, stunned and gasping for breath. “No,” he panted. “You have to come with us, he’ll kill you now - ”
“I can take care of myself, Potter!” Snape yelled, his eyes livid. “Now get out!” He waved his wand and sent both Harry and Draco flying through the ruins of the front door. They landed hard on the ground, and scrambled up. Voldemort was untangling himself from the jumble of bushes and glass he had fallen into. With an incoherent shriek of fury, he aimed a jet of green light at them. Harry shoved Draco out of the way, and barely dodged the curse; together they ran behind the house.
They stopped and stared at each other again, wide-eyed. Harry wanted to go back in; but deep down he knew that he could not save Snape and still hope to survive to destroy Voldemort’s Horcruxes. He also felt a strange protective sympathy for Draco Malfoy: Snape had intended to hide him, and Harry knew the Order could carry out those wishes. Harry was forced to make a horrible choice: he had to survive and continue Dumbledore’s quest for the Horcruxes, so that he could fulfill the prophecy and face Voldemort once and for all. He would also deliver Draco to the Order so that they could protect him. He could only hope that Snape would survive on his own.
“Let’s go,” he said roughly to Draco, getting ready to Apparate back to the castle. To his surprise Draco looked just as reluctant as Harry felt to leave Snape behind; he started to protest.
“We can’t just leave him, he’s a dead if we do - ”
“We’re dead if we don’t,” snapped Harry, feeling slightly sick about it. Grabbing Malfoy’s arm, Harry made a quick turn, and for the second time that night he Apparated without a license in order to get back to Hogwarts safely.