Worlds Collide Harm(fully)(lessly)

Chapter 22

"You have been taught how to duel. Harry Potter?" said Voldemort softly, his red eyes glinting through the darkness. "We bow to each other. Harry," said Voldemort, bending a little, but keeping his snakelike face upturned to Harry. "Come, the niceties must be observed. . . . Dumbledore would like you to show manners. . . . Bow to death, Harry. . . . "

Bow to death. The wording ran over Nico's body as his blood dripped into his mother's hands. She was wrapping the wound in something, trying to stop the blood, but all he could feel was the pain and fear.

"Very good," said Voldemort softly. "And now you face me, like a man. . . straight-backed and proud, the way your father died. . . .And now - we duel. "

Nico knew Harry couldn't win in a duel against Voldemort, even if the latter hadn't used his body in years. He peeked around the gravestone and followed all of Harry's movements, did everything he could to help him without Voldemort or Maria noticing.

Mama...what have you become?

Voldemort raised his wand. Harry flung himself to the side, almost too slow, but a jut from a shadow got him behind a headstone in time. Nico immediately felt the impact using his powers had on his failing body, felt the blood soak his mother's hands.

"We are not playing hide-and-seek, Harry," said Voldemort's soft, cold voice, drawing nearer, as the Death Eaters laughed. "You cannot hide from me. Does this mean you are tired of our duel? Does this mean that you would prefer me to finish it now, Harry? Come out, Harry. . . come out and play, then. . . it will be quick. . . it might even be painless. . . I would not know. . . I have never died. . . . "

Before Voldemort could stick his snakelike face around the headstone. Harry stood up, gripped his wand tightly in his hand, thrust it out in front of him, and threw himself around the headstone, facing Voldemort.

Voldemort was ready. As Harry shouted, "Expelliarmus!" Voldemort cried, "Avada Kedavra!"

A jet of green light issued from Voldemort's wand just as a jet of red light blasted from Harry's - they met in midair. Nico closed his eyes against the bright light and focused his energy on Harry, tried to give him everything he had.

Persephone, Hecate, father, please let this work, Nico prayed. Transfer my energy to his.

"Do nothing!" Voldemort shrieked to the Death Eaters. "Do nothing unless I command you!"

Nico could feel the sweat dripping from his face almost as heavily as the blood now. He could feel death in a way he hadn't before, not in Tartarus nor in that jar, in a way so sensitive and intimate he'd never be able to explain it. A bittersweet feeling, a cycle being completed.

"NOW!" Harry yelled.

Nico broke out of the acceptance he held and looked up as he felt Maria flinch beside him. Harry was running across the graveyard, knocking Death Eaters aside, zigzagging away from curses between headstones. Nico used the shadows to propel him forward, to keep him moving faster, faster...

Harry reached Cedric's body, flung himself down beside it, and screamed "Accio!" with his wand pointed toward the cup. In seconds it was in his hand, and both he and the dead Hufflepuff were nowhere to be found.

Nico didn't believe his eyes for a minute or two, only watched in stunned silence as Voldemort screamed into the night. His vision was almost gone and his breaths were almost too painful to draw, but Harry had gotten out alive and had gotten out without seeing his face, at that. Nico wanted to smile but couldn't find the energy.

"Leave," Maria commanded. "I will deal with him and be in contact with you shortly. Go, save your life before he loses something else tonight."

Nico didn't need to be told twice. He looked down at the bracelet Dominic had gotten him and clicked the button, hoping beyond hope that it worked. That Anubis would be able to shadow travel him out. A minute went by of only Voldemort's yelling and anger, no Anubis, his mother moving away from his side. Another moment without her by his side, the cold settling in, and then he finally saw Anubis appear from a shadow a few yards away.