Legolas paced anxiously as Harry readied himself to return to Minas Morgul.

"Don't worry so much. I'll be back before you know it."

"Yes, stop pestering him. He's done this before," Gimli said. However, the dwarf stooped down to whisper directly into Eclipse's ear. "But you should do everything in your power to get back soon. He won't admit it but he frets."

There was nothing more to do. Harry said a final farewell towards the small group and disappeared into the shadows. He reappeared silently in the heart of the city of Minas Morgul.

All was quiet below.

A faint breeze caught on a ragged piece of fabric, which fluttered over to reveal glassy eyes. Bodies bloated under the summer sun, and flies buzzed with bloated contentment. From his aerial view, Harry could track the movement of battle by the bodies left in its wake. The macabre directions led him back to the heart of the city, into the tower and down the stained steps to the vats below.

Little liquid remained. A steady drip fell from one of the broken open pipes, in a slow, rhythmic beat. The pools had been destroyed, and all the water had drained into the ground or left small puddles. Harry gave the area a quick scan and continued towards the back of the room. There, two corridors branched off in opposite directions.

Harry hesitated, unsure of which route to take. He ended up choosing the left path. He couldn't point for any particular reason, but it felt different. Darker. As he flew down the corridor, the air seemed to get colder and the air seemed to grow heavy with an unseen weight. The feeling - it almost felt like... like something long forgotten. Like a baby blanket or an old teddy bear that had rotted over with mildew. Familiar and yet repulsive.

The temperature continued to drop and Harry suppressed the urge to shiver. He arrived at another fork; this time there were steps that led both up and downwards. On a hunch, Harry lowered his Occlumency barriers slightly.

The air immediately solidified, pressing against him with physical force. Whispers caressed his ears. Harry couldn't make out what they promised. All he had to do was lower his Occlumency barriers a little more, and he would be able to understand.

Harry firmly strengthened his Occlumency shields. The whispers cut off in mid-sentence and the air grew lighter again. So. He would head down the stairs then; that was where the siren's call had come from. As he carefully flew down the staircase, Harry saw the first body in a while. It was a man, dressed in Gondor's colors. He stared blankly ahead, in mid-stride. Most unnerving was the face; the man did not appear startled or frightened; he looked as if he had died with no warning.

At the bottom of the stairwell were two more men, both frozen in similar states as the first.

Harry had a bad feeling, that grew like weeds in the pit of his stomach. He continued flying silently down a long tunnel.

Too soon, the tunnel began sloping upwards. A faint light appeared ahead, bathing the corridor in a pale and murky light. Harry saw more bodies, but these appeared to have died fighting. Their shields were up and their sword arms raised to strike a blow that would never land. One body lay slumped by the wall, his sword discarded on the cold stone floor.

The man groaned.

Harry quickly turned and descended to land next to the man. Blood had crusted on his face, where it fell in irregular lines from his forehead. He appeared to have hit the wall violently. The man squinted at Harry, and he must have recognized the phoenix for he slowly said, "You came. The others?"

"They are on their way," Harry said. "But I can help you - hold still."

Harry thought of the others who had fallen, those for whom it was too late to save. A tear slowly trickled down his feathered cheek and landed gently on the injured man. The tear quickly sank into the skin and began its work. Already the man's face began to hold more pallor.

"You should turn back now, while you still can," the man warned. "I brought my best men with me, yet we weren't enough."

"What is it? What lies ahead? " Harry asked urgently, but it was too late. The man's breathing had evened out and his eyes had drifted shut. The healing had begun its work but not finished it. Harry wasn't sure if it was safe to move him yet; he would come back to Apparate with him on the way out, but in the meantime, he had to find out what caused all of this.

Harry cautiously flew into the cavernous hall before him. It had high vaulted ceilings, from which the barest cracks of light shown through. Shadows danced across the walls, twisting into inhuman shapes that seemed to have a life of their own. The oppressive feeling was familiar as it was repulsive. It solidified the growing certainty in the back of Harry's mind: he had felt this evil before.

He could hear the whispers now, even with his Occlumency shields slammed shut. The voices buzzed in his ears like angry bees. There was a movement against the far wall. Then a voice… a voice that Harry knew better than his own.

"Harry Potter. We meet at last," came a serpentine hiss.

Harry reared back as if struck. He almost shadow jumped away from surprise but sheer instinct made him act as he always had: to stand his ground against Voldemort. He glanced wildly around the cavern, but only the middle of the room was light in a ghostly light from the rafters above.

"Riddle." He replied, thankful that the phoenix mind speech couldn't betray his nerves. "I killed you."

"Oh yes. Him." said the low voice. Harry thought he saw a shadow flicker to his left, yet nothing moved when he turned his head to stare directly at the shadowed pillars.

"You did kill Voldemort, foolish boy. But after all those Horcruxes, how could you never notice the one watching? I slept with you, ate with you… But the great Harry Potter never noticed that he carried the thing he most detested."

Harry stilled outwardly. Inside, his mind raced. Voldemort...Voldemort had placed a Horcrux inside him? Harry had painstakingly destroyed all seven, including Voldemort himself. Had there been a secret, eighth Horcrux?

"If you were with me, how did you become free? You couldn't escape when I was a baby." Harry asked, trying to goad him. Voldemort's biggest weakness had always been his pride.

The light in the middle of the room disappeared entirely, as it was engulfed by a much larger shadow. In the darkness, Harry could hear something heavy moving in a low whisper across the ground.

The voice boomed in sharp contrast to the silence.

"There were many opportunities, you stupid boy. Every time you've nearly died... but then where would I go? Would I feast on a host like Quirrell? Or better yet, maybe I could possess a unicorn."

If shadows could sniff, this one sniffed contemptuously at the thought of Harry's old defense teacher.

"Better to remain, watching and waiting for my chance. My patience paid off. When we arrived here, I sensed a great power ." The shadow moved and a frail light once more attempted to penetrate the deep darkness of the underground room. Harry looked around, still trying to determine the source of the voice. He had thought it had come from his left, yet now the shadows to his right danced in unnatural forms.

A glint disappeared as quickly as it had appeared; Harry wouldn't have noticed if he wasn't staring so intently. It had reflected the golden glow of light in the brief instance, but Harry couldn't guess what it might have been.

"You were unconscious and nearly dead, so it was quick work to leave – and what power I discovered. This world has had few great wizards, but this was the work of a master wizard. A power that could rival the philosopher's stone. It has given me the gift I have long sought: a body."

Harry was glad he could rely on Tom to be long-winded no matter which universe he was in.

"This power you gained hardly seems great," Harry taunted. "Your followers can travel through the shadows - well so can I. You haven't done anything I can't do."

A hissing laugh followed his query.

"Ignorant child. As you have gained some of my powers, I have gained yours. The shadows share their secrets with me the same as the serpent's tongue unveiled itself for you. My servants were created from none other than your powers. Imagine what your friends will say when they discover the beasts are yours!"

The last came out in a discordant hiss, that reminded Harry of chalk screeching across a blackboard. Harry felt his heart stop as he thought of all of those who risked their lives fighting against something he had inadvertently created.

The shadows finally coalesced into a being that emerged into the light. Harry noticed the body first; it was thicker than an old tree. Scales rippled under the faint light, a jet black that disappeared under Harry's gaze as soon as they were covered in shadow once more. Harry's eyes tracked the sinuous body up and up, and then common sense screamed at him and he closed his eyes before meeting the deadly golden gaze that waited above.

A basilisk.

"Your animagus… it could have gone two ways, you know. Not that you would know, of course – you always relied on that mudblood to think for you." With a sibilant hiss, the basilisk rose to its full height, completely dwarfing Harry.

"On the same night, you were bitten and cured by two very powerful beings. Even then, you fool, even then – your blood could cure the most toxic of wounds or cause them. Channeling that into an animal form only expanded this ability. Yet while you transformed into a bird," another drawn hiss of disdain," I have embraced the king of serpents."

The shadows seemed to lengthen as the basilisk drew itself into its full and impressive height. More scales rippled under the light as it coiled its body tighter and tighter.

"Now, Harry Potter, prepare to die."

The giant snake lunged forward at a speed unimaginable for animals of flesh and blood. But Harry was just as fast, and already melted into the shadows to reappear above off to the side.

"You always did talk too much, Tom," he said.

The snake snapped at him, quick as lightning, but Harry had already disappeared again. He reappeared to hover over the basilisk's head. Harry dropped down like he had seen Fawkes do in his first fight against this monster, but had to veer away at the last minute as Tom sensed his movement. The basilisk reared and lunged again in a fluid motion, nearly clipping Harry.

Harry appeared behind Tom and managed to briefly rake his claws against the basilisk's scales, but they skittered off the tough hide. The basilisk swung his tail and Harry was propelled back against the floor. He quickly disappeared and appeared above the snake again.

This time he had a different plan.

Harry thought of the injured man he had left in the hallway, and of the many orcs-turned-humans still healing in Minas Tirith. He summoned up tears and flew directly over the basilisk. As expected, Tom moved his head to track Harry's flight and looked up as Harry's tears began to fall.

The basilisk roared in pain and rage as the tears landed. For a second, Harry thought that his plan had worked and he risked a quick look below. Yet Voldemort had not reverted into whatever true form he may have. Instead, the once golden eyes were pockmarked and frothy, as if Harry had cried tears of molten fire instead of tears of healing.

" You will regret that, Harry Potter! " The snake bellowed. Even without sight, the basilisk still had its hearing; the snake lunged upwards towards Harry. Harry thought he was high enough above the basilisk, but he miscalculated: the body disappeared in a split second into the shadows and reappeared to crash into Harry.

Harry couldn't react in time and was flung through the air. He could feel the ache of his recent magical exhaustion; it had returned during the fight and was getting worse as he continued. Before he could hit the wall, Harry shadow jumped again, even higher than his last position. He didn't have a better idea than before. Harry concentrated and tried to cry again…but nothing happened.

Voldemort, of course, noticed his lagging energy.

"How pathetic. You are weak, and you will die here!"

The snake lunged once more and as Harry flashed into the shadows once more, but this time Riddle followed him through the darkness and they both tumbled to the floor on the far side of the hall, with Harry held tight in the basilisk's coils.

Harry wiggled in its grasp, but the coils only tightened, crushing a wing in the process. He cried out with pain.

"At long last," came the laughing voice. The pressure tightened and Harry started seeing black dots swim across his vision. "Though this was not the world I intended to conquer, its inhabitants will do quite nicely. The first to be transformed will be your precious friends." Harry lashed out, increasing his efforts to escape. He couldn't fail!

The snake's body shook with laughter, jostling Harry and sending more shooting pain up his broken wing.

"Don't think I didn't know about the wizard, dwarf, and elf. They could even be my trusted generals, once the shadows have consumed their mind ."

In the growing blackness obscuring his vision, Harry began to see red. He let out a wild wave of wandless magic that blasted him across the room. Harry struggled to stand before the basilisk returned. Voldemort was right though; he was drained and quickly running out of energy to fight.

What could he do? He had done all he could as a phoenix, but Harry could see little reason to transform back into a human. Even if there was a sword conveniently laying nearby, he was too tired to swing it.

There was no way he could win. Yet dying here meant leaving Middle Earth open to a monster worse than Sauron. And besides… Legolas' face swam into view. He had his own reasons to keep living now.

As the basilisk rocketed forward again, mouth open to crush the broken bird, Harry tried to visualize what it would feel like with venomous teeth and a hide resistant to almost any punctures. He closed his eyes and thought back to that night in the Chamber of Secrets, as a twelve-year-old boy prepared to die to save his school. This time, he was prepared to live - through whatever means necessary.

The basilisk's jaw clamped down around the bird, expecting to meet fragile bones and feathers; yet it could not swallow. The basilisk had sunk its fangs into the tail of another tough hide. The blinded head rose and scented the air, but could not scent the phoenix. Instead, the musky odor of a basilisk was all that remained.

Harry lunged, going straight for Riddle's monstrous head. Fangs sank down over eyes and then pierced into a soft brain. Poison, the natural defense of a basilisk, seeped out. Tom screamed and thrashed in convulsive shudders. Harry's venom coursed through Tom's body and the basilisk thudded to the floor.

It made no sound upon impact; instead, the body seemed to collapse inward, until all that was left was a pool of shadows. The shadows twisted and writhed, then disappeared silently into a small object. It looked like an oversized golden ring, but Harry knew what it was. A Horcrux.

He had to destroy it before it could sow any more discord. But as Harry tried to slither forward, he swayed. Harry felt woozy. Just like his poison could affect Tom, so too could he feel Tom's bite coursing through his body. It would be so easy to go to sleep…

The basilisk thudded to the floor, as still and lifeless as a corpse.