Harry didn't understand how this could be. This was all an illusion, after all, a construct to help him navigate the Dark Lord's mind. There were no bodies here at all, only minds. Harry could only suppose that perhaps he was catching a glimpse of his own soul here, some indication that, underneath all the deception, he was still Harry James Potter.
The strangest thing about the reflected-Harry, however, was that, unlike the Harry of six years before, he had no lightning-shaped scar. His forehead was perfectly smooth – well, if one discounted a couple of spots. The snake, however, remained firmly coiled around his shoulders, though in the mirror it seemed to glow with an eerie black light. It reminded Harry of the aura that had briefly appeared around their fireplace when Aunt Cassie had activated the wards.
'The wards,' Harry whispered, immediately returning his focus to the task at hand. He tore his gaze away from the mirror with difficulty and began to walk down the corridor.
Just as in the real Hogwarts, the staircases shifted from place to place and doors seemed to appear and disappear at random. Only his single-minded determination to find the wards kept him from getting lost. He rose higher and higher, until, in what ought to have been the Charms classroom, he found what he was looking for.
The intensive study of warding had been a critical part of Harry's and Draco's home education, and Harry knew enough to appreciate the simple elegance of Voldemort's approach. There was nothing fancy about his wards: they were mostly Wilberforce Webs and Goethe Grids laid out in a Suleiman Square. A fifth-year could probably have taken down any one of them individually.
Their ingenuity was to be found in the way Riddle had set them up to interact with each other. Every part of the system was linked inextricably to every other part, and in such a way as to create a rippling effect. If one ward fell, the release of power would only strengthen the next, which would feed back into yet another, which, when it reached a certain level, would trigger the original ward to reactivate, even stronger than before.
These weren't the nasty sort of wards that would detain an intruder and slowly kill him over a period of several years, but Harry doubted that even Dumbledore would be able to bring them down. There were no holes in the system, and the ends were tied up in Riddle himself.
Harry was grateful that the wards were so simple – they required virtually no effort to maintain, and Voldemort clearly felt no need to pay them any mind once he had erected them. Otherwise, Harry highly doubted that he would have been able to find them so easily. He knew, however, that Voldemort's attention would shift very rapidly the moment Harry interfered. He had to act quickly and decisively, and hope that the others were in a position to seize the moment.
There was no way to untangle the wards or create a gap without alerting Voldemort. The wards were bound as tightly as the Gordian knot. That meant, of course, that Harry had to find a way to cut through them.
Harry reached out with his mind and grabbed hold of the wards. He summoned all his magic as though he were going to cast a very difficult curse, and then released it directly into the wards. The effect was instantaneous. The wards overloaded and the castle went pitch-black. Harry only had time to grin with satisfaction before the castle vanished and he found himself standing on the edge of a tall cliff, staring directly in the blazing red eyes of Lord Voldemort.
In their tunnel beneath Riddle Manor, Sirius, Abraxas and Remus felt the wards drop immediately.
'The ladies must have done it,' Abraxas observed proudly.
Remus nodded. 'Best move quick before Voldemort brings them back up.'
The three wizards turned on their heels and Apparated up into Riddle Manor. Sirius immediately set off running through the halls and looking for Narcissa. Abraxas and Remus followed close behind, their wands at the ready.
There were no Death Eaters left in the building, all of them having gone outside to hold off the onslaught of witches, and the rooms were all quite barren. The three wizards searched empty floor after empty floor until finally they heard voices at the end of the corridor. They crept closer under a Disillusionment Charm and saw Lucius pointing his wand at Narcissa, who was kneeling on the floor. Behind them, Quirrell seemed to be in some kind of trance.
'Remain perfectly still, Narcissa,' Lucius said coldly. 'The Dark Lord will no doubt wish to resume his interrogation presently.'
'What happened?' the blonde witch asked. 'He was talking normally until just a moment ago.'
'I do not know,' Lucius responded. 'He is likely reinforcing the wards. Perhaps the attackers have weakened them.'
Sirius lifted his Disillusionment Charm and came into view. Abraxas and Remus followed suit.
'You don't know how right you are, Lucius,' Sirius growled.
'Sirius!' Narcissa cried out with relief, but Lucius hit her with the Cruciatus Curse. As she screamed in pain, Sirius raised his own wand.
'Stupefy!' he shouted, sending a burst of red light at the Death Eater, who barely managed to leap out of the way before it could hit him. Sirius followed it up with an attempt to curse the entranced Dark Lord, but his spell only bounced off onto the walls. Voldemort, it seemed, was invulnerable.
Lucius fired off a Bone-Breaking Curse at his attacker. Sirius dodged it, but Abraxas was right behind him, and the old wizard was not so agile. He fell to the ground, his proud features contorted in pain. Lucius smirked.
'You have no idea how much satisfaction that gives me, Father,' he spat. Abraxas was in too much pain to give any more response than an angry glare.
'Get out of here, Dad,' Sirius told him sternly. The old wizard activated his emergency Portkey and vanished. A moment later, Lucius hit Sirius's upper arm with a Cutting Curse.
'It looks like I've drawn first blood, Black,' he taunted, and Sirius fired off a Blasting Curse in return. Whilst the two wizards were locked in combat, trading curses back and forth, Remus managed to slip over to Narcissa and hand her an emergency Portkey. She had just enough time before she vanished to hear Lucius roar ferociously as he aimed his wand at Remus:
'Crucio!'
.....
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