Magic Never Dies (Harmione)

Chapter 22

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Sorry it's been so long! GOF x3 for me...(Thank you JazzyGeorgie, for the IMAX experience. WOW.) Love so much of it, but am I alone in thinking Mike Newell screwed David Yates in a big way with his take on Dumbledore??? That is so not going to work into OotP or especially HBP... Loved Snape's prolonged wand-skewering of Barty even after Dumbledore had left the room... Daniel says Alan Rickman KNOWS about his character's direction straight from JKR. Could that be a hint? Could I please be a fly on the wall of her writing room for 5 minutes???? Or a bubble in the prefect's bath tub? Preferably one of the ones that...but I digress!

Well then! Thanks SO much to all who read and reviewed. Here's a refresher on where we left off... (Thanks to Vickles for the last para correction here in 21, and JazzyG for the read through of 22.)

From Chapter 21:

He landed heavily on his back with Hermione sprawled across him. The cup bounced and rolled toward the edge of the stairs. Harry stretched out his working arm over his head, fingers grasping once more - bloody desperate thing! He felt the handle, his fingers scrambled for purchase as his legs twined around Hermione. He had it!

Until Ron tripped over them as well.

The force of his impact against Hermione's back threw both Harry and Hermione halfway over the edge of the landing and onto the stairs. Once again Harry withdrew his hand from the cup, this time to grab at the railing in the hope of arresting their fall. Their combined weight and momentum drove all three in their heap backwards down the steps. They slid, thumping from step to step until Ron managed to wedge his feet against the next landing. The silence of stillness was bliss until Harry heard the metallic tink-ting-tink of the cup still falling. It stopped abruptly with a muted thwink.

Harry groaned and craned his neck, but all he could see was Hermione's hair.

"I'm sorry," she whispered brokenly. "I'm sorry, Harry, I'm so sorry."

"Bloody hell," said Ron.

Harry stroked back her hair and lifted his head over Ron's knee to find the cup had been stopped by... Voldemort's foot. And he had the least humorous laugh Harry'd ever heard.

Bloody hell indeed.

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Chapter 22

It wasn't the moment he had dreaded for so long. Nope. Harry couldn't even get that right.

He grabbed his scar and hung on for dear life. The pain seemed stronger than the last time he had physically been in Voldemort's presence and he struggled to control its invasive grasp on his ability to reason.

Here he was.... And there stood the... the thing that had killed his parents and so many others in its pathetic quest for immortality; whose shadow had dimmed the very few happy moments of Harry's life so far.

This was supposed to be his moment to finally wrest control of his destiny from the monster who had stolen it, to put all that he had learned and all that was in his heart to the test and see once and for all whether it was enough. He'd had it all in his hands, and he'd let it slip away.