Spur of the Moment

Chapter 8

The time passed. Food came and went. Deep and dark secrets surfaced.

"I tried to tell Cedric to get back to the cup, but he wouldn't listen to me. Then, I fell to my knees in pain when Pettigrew came with Voldemort and Cedric stayed by my side. Voldemort ordered Cedric to be killed and Pettigrew did. I watched the curse hit him. I watched Cedric die," Harry said.

There wasn't much emotion in his voice, but Snape--or as he had become over the past few hours, Severus--could hear the pain in the words. Harry was once again retelling a story of one of his adventures in school. They had already made it through his first, second, third, and most of his fourth year. Severus wanted to tell Harry he didn't have to continue, but wondered if it would just be easier for him to finish. Had Harry really ever told anyone what had happened that night in the graveyard?

"Pettigrew tied me to a tombstone, and started the potion and ritual to bring Voldemort back. He cut my arm," Harry said and pulled back the sleeve on his left arm to show a long scar on his forearm," and took my blood. When Pettigrew dropped Voldemort into the potion, all I was thinking was 'please let it drown, please let it drown'. I knew it wouldn't, but I was desperate. And so, Voldemort returned. He went on to talk about what happened on Halloween and then we duelled. Well, we duelled after he tortured me a bit."

"Cruciatus?" Severus interrupted.

Harry nodded. "Anyways, I had run away at first because I was like, I can't do this. I'm fourteen, I'll never survive, but then he kept taunting and saying he wanted to see the life leave me. I decided that, if I was going to die, I was going to die the same way my parents had: fighting. So, we duelled. Our wands connected. All these victims of Voldemort appeared, including Cedric and my parents. My parents told me to hang on and then told me to break the connection to get back to the cup. Cedric told me to bring his body back. I grabbed Cedric's body, summoned the cup, and we were back at Hogwarts."

"Your wands connected?" Severus questioned quietly.

"Yeah, our wands are brothers. They both have a phoenix feather and those two feathers are from Fawkes. Since they're brothers, they can't destroy each other. Instead, they connect: Priori Incantatum. Anyways, I won the tournament, but I didn't keep the money. I didn't want it. I gave it to the twins so they could start their joke shop," Harry told him.

"That was very generous," Severus said.

"That's what Ivory said," Harry said with a smile. "For a long time, I blamed myself for Cedric's death. Occasionally, I still do. I wonder if he'd still be alive if we'd never agreed to take the cup together. I know it wasn't really my fault now, but you always wonder."

"Yes. The 'what ifs' of life can be somewhat distracting." Severus nodded.

Harry gave a small laugh. "I don't think 'distracting' is quite the right word. So, what exactly was your home life like when you were a child? I remember seeing a couple memories briefly last year in Occlumency."

Severus breathed deeply. They had not yet discussed childhoods. "My childhood was not a pleasant one. My father, Tobias, did not know my mother had been a witch until a few years after they were married. When Eileen, my mother, told him she was a witch, he did not take it well. I don't think my parents meant to have a child or, if they did, my father hoped that child would not be magical. However, they had me and when I displayed magical talent at just a few months old, my father was horrified. As I'm sure you remember from those memories you saw, my father took his anger out on my mother. At least, that is the way it went until he decided I was old enough to handle his anger as well. I was around five the first time he hit me. I had been running down the stairs and tripped. I would've been badly hurt had my magic not saved me by causing a large pillow to appear at the bottom of the stairs. My father was not pleased and he hit me."