𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 | 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘗𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳

10 || You-Know-Who

I carefully stepped over the rope separating the restricted section of the library from the other books. I ran my fingers along each spine, examining the titles. Most of them were old and dark, and had to do with evil magic.

I was about to give up when a particularly weathered book cover caught my attention. Rebounds: A Guide To Curses. Perfect.

I grabbed the book off of the shelf, and a lantern off the wall, and sat down on a cushy chair away from the bookcases.

I flipped through the book, looking for the section about killing curses, specifically. I had read up about Harry's claim to fame as a child (per Hermione's request: "We should know about our best friend, shouldn't we?" she had said, and thrust several books into my hands). I knew enough to understand that when Voldemort had tried to use the killing curse on Harry, it had rebounded and hit himself instead, "killing" him. All that remained was Harry's scar.

But the question I was asking was why would Harry's scar, which was given to him by Voldemort, hurt when Voldemort was supposedly dead?

At last, I found the section I was looking for.

If a killing curse rebounds, it should kill the caster: however, it is very rare for this curse to rebound--the only known case of this occurrence has been The Boy Who Lived.

The Dark Lord was killed when the curse hit him instead.

Well, that wasn't helpful. I put the book back on the shelf with a sigh, then thought for a moment. What if Voldemort's soul was still intact? The first page of Rebounds: A Guide to Curses had mentioned specifically that rebounded curses or jinxes were not as strong as originally intended...so did that mean that Voldemort could still be out there?

I found another title: Souls, and sat down to examine it. This book had better descriptions.

When a body is killed, there is an almost universal belief among wizards that your soul lives on, and goes to the afterlife. Evidence of the body and soul being separate is shown with the Dementor's Kiss, in which the soul is taken from the body.

Some believe that powerful Dark Magic is able to preserve the soul from being carried into the next world, but there is no evidence of any being created to support this theory. Horcruxes, they are called, and to go into detail is to describe such an evil that it does not belong on paper-

As long as the Horcruxes still exist, the soul will not depart the living world. There are other ways to preserve a soul: See "Souls: Volume II" for details.

I shuddered. Could Voldemort have found a way to stay here? To try to get revenge on Harry? I put the book back on the shelf and practically ran back up to the common room, threw open the door to Harry, Ron, Seamus, Neville, and Dean's room and quickly hid the cloak underneath Harry's bed.

My hands were shaking as I tucked myself into bed. He couldn't still be here...

...could he?

"I need to talk to you guys," I said, stopping Harry, Ron, and Hermione from going down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Can we do it while we're eating?" Ron moaned, clutching his grumbling stomach.

"No, it needs to be in private," I said, dropping my voice.

"Come on," Hermione said, walking over to the fireplace, where no one was sitting. "What's wrong?"

"I was thinking," I began. "What if...what if You-Know-Who is still out there?"