ADVENTUS | Wizarding World

Chapter 31 : Fawkes To Save The Day

Hayley tried taking deep inhales to slow her erratic breathing, on the other hand Harry seemed quite numb, as though he had reached the day's quota for shocks.

"...I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!" Voldemort talked on.

"You're not," he said, his quiet voice full of hatred. May not be the best idea to vex the greatest Dark Wizard of all time, but Harry chose his way. Hayley still desperately looked around to find her wand.

"Not what?" snapped Riddle.

"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," said Harry, breathing fast.

"Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days -"

The smile had gone from Voldemort's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look.

"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" he hissed.

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted.

Was Dumbledore coming back? Or was Harry simply bluffing?

Suddenly Music started to come out of nowhere. Hayley had never heard the tune before but it was quite ethereal. It all seemed like a Drama, a setting, a villain and now music. The music reached a new pitch which vibrated through the entire Chamber.

A huge bird of crimson colour and a golden plumage, a Phoenix, appeared behind a pillar singing the song. And it was carrying the... Sorting Hat?

Xan was correct, Dumbledore has gone completely bonkers.

"That's a phoenix," said Voldemort, staring shrewdly back at it.

"Fawkes?" Harry breathed, the bird's golden claws squeezed his shoulder gently,

"And that -" said Riddle, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped,

"that's the old school Sorting Hat -"

Patched, frayed, and dirty, the hat lay motionless at Harry's feet.

Voldemort began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark chamber rang with it, the sound echoing against the walls.

"This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now?" Voldemort taunted,

Hayley looked longingly at her wand which was at least twenty feet away from her, she needs to free herself but how?

"To business, Harry," said Voldemort, still smiling broadly.

"Twice - in your past, in my future - we have met. And twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk," he added softly,

"the longer you stay alive."

Harry seemed to be weighing his options before he opened his mouth,

"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me," said Harry.

"I don't know myself But I know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me. My common Muggle-born mother," he added, shaking with suppressed rage.

"She stopped you killing me. And I've seen the real you, I saw you last year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your power got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul -"