HARRY POTTER Book 4: Chapter 34 (Copy)
Chapter 34
PRIORI INCANTATEM
Wormtail walks toward Harry. Harry tries to stand. His leg shakes. He struggles to stay up. Wormtail pulls the cloth from Harry’s mouth. Then, with a quick movement, he cuts the ropes. For a moment, Harry wants to run. But he cannot. His leg is weak.
The Death Eaters move closer. They close the circle around him and Voldemort. There is no way out. Wormtail goes to Cedric’s body. He picks up Harry’s wand and brings it back. He pushes it into Harry’s hand. Harry grips it tightly. Wormtail steps back into the circle.
Voldemort looks at Harry. “You know how to duel, Harry Potter?” he says softly. Harry remembers the dueling club at Hogwarts two years before. He learned one spell. Expelliarmus. But that will not help him now. There are too many enemies here. He is alone.
“We bow to each other,” Voldemort says. “Show respect.” Voldemort bends a little. “Dumbledore would like you to show some manners. Bow to death, Harry.” The Death Eaters laugh. Harry does not move. Harry is not going to let Voldemort play with him, like a cat plays with a mouse, before killing him. “I said, bow,” Voldemort says. He lifts his wand.
Harry feels a strong force push him forward. His body bends against his will. The Death Eaters laugh louder. “Very good,” Voldemort says. The force stops. “Now you face me like a man.” Harry stands straight again. “And now,” Voldemort says, “we duel.” Voldemort raises his wand. Before Harry can do anything to defend himself… “Crucio!” Pain explodes inside Harry. It burns through his whole body. He screams. He cannot think. He cannot see.
Then the pain stops. Harry falls to the ground. He shakes. He tries to stand. The Death Eaters push him back toward Voldemort. “A short break,” Voldemort says. “That hurt, didn’t it? Would you like me to do that to you again?” Harry says nothing. “I asked you a question,” Voldemort says. “Answer me. Imperio!” Suddenly, Harry feels light. His mind becomes empty. Everything is calm. ‘Just say no…’ a voice whispers in his head. ‘Say no…’
But another, stronger voice speaks inside him. ‘I will not.’ ‘Say no…’ ‘I will not…’ “I WON’T!” Harry shouts. His voice is loud in the graveyard. The feeling breaks. The spell breaks. Pain comes back. He knows where he is again. “You won’t?” Voldemort says quietly.
The Death Eaters are silent now. “You must learn obedience,” Voldemort says. He raises his wand again. But this time, Harry moves. He throws himself to the side. He rolls behind the gravestone of Voldemort’s father. The spell hits the stone and cracks it.
“You cannot hide,” Voldemort says in a soft, cold voice. His voice comes closer. Harry stays low. He knows he will die. There is no help. But Harry knows only one thing: he will not die hiding. He will not beg. He will not kneel at Voldemort’s feet, or kiss his robes. He stands up. He holds his wand tightly. He jumps out from behind the stone. Voldemort is ready. “Expelliarmus!” Harry shouts. “Avada Kedavra!” Voldemort cries. Red light and green light shoot from their wands.
They meet in the air. The two spells connect. A golden light forms between them. Harry’s wand shakes with powerful energy. He cannot let go, even if he wanted to. Voldemort’s wand shakes too. The golden light grows stronger.
Suddenly, Harry feels himself lift into the air. Voldemort rises too. They float above the ground. They move away from the graves. They come down onto a place with no gravestones. The Death Eaters shout. More lines of light shoot up and spread around them. They form a bright, golden cage, a cage of light. The Death Eaters move outside it. Their voices sound far away now. “Do nothing!” Voldemort shouts to the Death Eaters. Harry looks into Voldemort’s eyes. Voldemort looks surprised, unsure. “Do nothing until I command you!”
The light vibrates. A strange and beautiful sound fills the air. A sound that is not from this earth. It is like music. Harry knows this sound. It is the phoenix song. The song fills him with hope. It feels like a friend is near, speaking to him. Don’t break the connection. Harry understands. He must hold on.
The golden line between the wands moves. Small beads of light travel along it. They move toward Harry. His wand becomes hot. It shakes hard. He tries to push the light back. He focuses all of his mind. He hears the phoenix song.
Slowly… slowly… First the beads stop moving. Then the beads of light begin to move the other way. Now they go toward Voldemort. Voldemort looks afraid. With all of his strength, Harry forces the bead of light towards Voldemort’s wand. Finally, the bead of light connects to his wand.
There is a scream. There are screams of pain coming from Voldemort’s wand. Something comes out of Voldemort’s wand. A thick cloud of dark smoke comes out. It is in the shape of a hand. Wormtail’s hand. Then another shape comes out. It is a person. Cedric.
He looks real, but not alive. “Hold on, Harry,” Cedric says. His voice is soft and far away. An echo. More shapes appear. An old man. The same old man Harry saw in his dream. A woman. Bertha Jorkins. They step out of the wand one by one.
They speak to Harry. “Don’t let go!” says the shape of Bertha. “You fight him, boy!” yells the old man. They walk around inside the golden cage, watching the duel. Then another figure appears. A man. Harry knows him.
His father. “Your mother is coming,” he says. “She wants to see you.” And then she comes. His mother. She stands close to him. “When the connection breaks,” she says softly, “we can help you for a short time.”
“You must run,” she says. “Go to the cup. The Portkey” Harry nods. “Take my body,” Cedric says. “Take me back.” “I will,” Harry says. “Now,” his father says. “NOW!” Harry shouts.
He pulls his wand up. The golden light breaks. The cage disappears. But the figures stay. They move toward Voldemort. They block his view. Harry runs. He runs as fast as he can. Spells fly past him. He jumps behind stones. He hears them hit and break. He runs to Cedric.
He does not feel the pain in his leg anymore. “Stun him!” Voldemort shouts. Harry dives to the ground. He hides behind a statue of an angel. Cedric’s body is close now. Harry holds his wand tightly. He moves from behind the statue: “Impedimenta!” he shouts. There is a yell of pain from one of the Death Eaters.
He grabs Cedric’s arm. Cedric is heavy. The cup is far away. Voldemort raises his wand. “Move away from him! I will kill him! He is mine!” he screams. Harry has no time. The Cup is too far away. “Accio!” he shouts. The cup flies through the air. Harry catches it.
At the same moment, Voldemort screams. Harry feels a strong pull in his belly button. The Portkey is working. The world spins. Wind and color rush around him. Harry holds Cedric tightly. They are leaving. They are going back.
