Jinx Not-So-Malfoy and the Triwizard Tournament

Chapter 29

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! YAY! 

This is dedicated to my dearest twinneh, Batman/Suesen/Sue, because it's her birthday too! (We're not actually twins we're just born on the same day [she's actually two years older than I] so we call each other twinneh.}

Wormtail approached Harry, who scrambled to find his feet, to support his own weight before the ropes were untied. Wormtail raised his new silver hand, pulled out the wad of material gagging Harry, and then, with one swipe, cut through the bonds tying Harry to the gravestone. 

Harry's leg shook under him as he stood on the overgrown grave, as the Death Eaters closed ranks, forming a tighter circle around him and Voldemort, so that the gaps where the missing Death Eaters should have stood were filled. I had trouble seeing what exactly was happening. Then one Death Eater moved his head and I had a clear view. Wormtail walked out of the circle to the place where Cedric's body lay and returned with Harry's wand, which he thrust roughly into Harry's hand without looking at him. Then Wormtail resumed his place in the circle of watching Death Eaters. 

I glanced over at the trophy. It had rolled a few feet away from my hiding spot. I was tempted to just run and grab it and give it to Harry. However, the second I touched it I would be transported back to Hogwarts. I needed to get it to Harry without being seen before both of us were killed. 

Yippee.

I tuned back into what was going on in the circle. 

"You have been taught how to duel. Harry Potter?" said Voldemort softly, his red eyes glinting through the darkness. 

At these words I remembered, as though from a former life, the dueling club at Hogwarts I had attended briefly two years ago.... All I had learned there was the Disarming Spell, "Expelliarmus"... and what use would it be Harry if he could deprive Voldemort of his wand when he was surrounded by Death Eaters, outnumbered by at least thirty to one? We had never learned anything that could possibly fit him for this. He knew he was facing the thing against which Moody had always warned... the unblockable Avada Kedavra curse and Harry's mother isn't here for him this time.

But I was. 

Was I brave enough to do something like that?

"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...." 

The Death Eaters were laughing again. Voldemort's lipless mouth was smiling. Harry did not bow.

I could just run out right now and end it all. I could save everyone and give Harry his protection. 

I could save the world.

Was I ready to die?

"I said, bow," Voldemort said, raising his wand - and Harry bent ruthlessly forward, and the Death Eaters laughed harder than ever. 

"Very good," said Voldemort softly, and as he raised his wand the pressure bearing down upon Harry lifted too. "And now you face me, like a man... straight-backed and proud, the way your father died.... 

"And now - we duel." 

If I died here, what would happen? How would my friends react? How would my family react?

My father is here. What would he do? Would he be upset? Would her cry? Or would he just walk away?

What about Fred? He would break. He wouldn't be able to go on. That's how I would feel if I had lost him.