"Well, well, well. What, pray tell, do we have here?"

"Master, we have brought you the boy! Just as you ordered."

"So you have, so you have. . . Bring him to me, I wish to have a word with him." The masked Death Eater hauled Harry forward by his bound wrists, when they were a few feet from the Dark Lord the Death Eater yank the chain downward and melded it to the floor with a muttered spell, leaving Harry scant room to manoeuvre. He defiantly raised his bruised and bloody face to Voldemort, a silent snarl breaking over his pale face. "This truly is a sad sight, is it not my friends? The almighty Chosen-Boy-Who-Lived brought low, broken and beaten, before the very foe he supposedly vanquished. How utterly . . . tragic."

Cackles of misplaced, and in some places, unhinged mirth rippled through the gathered Death Eaters.

Voldemort stood in front of Harry, head tilted to one side, he gave a sorrowful tsk "Such a shame, really. You could have been great." He reached out to brush long bony fingertips across Harry's cheek. Harry wrenched his head as far away from Voldemort as he could with a not so silent snarl this time.

"Don't touch me, you sick bastard!"

"Manners, manners Harry." He pulled out his wand, levelling it at Harry's head. "Someone could take offence." A flick of his wand sent Harry the rest of the way onto the ground, writhing in mind bending pain. A scream tore through his throat, ending only when Voldemort lifted his wand. Harry rolled back onto his knees, trying to convey every ounce of his hatred for the monster before him with only his eyes as he struggled to control his ragged breathing.

"Dare I hope that your temperament has improved, Harry?"

Harry sucked back one deep breath, "Go fuck yourself, snake face."

Voldemort's almost whimsical expression imploded on itself, leaving seething wrath in its place. "Cruico!"

Harry found himself on his back, drawing in desperate lungfuls of air the next time he was capable of coherent thought. He rolled back onto his knees, slightly slower than he had last time.

"Yeah, should have realised you'd rather have one of this lot get you off. My mista – "

Another round of agony that seemed to have a little bit more force behind it, in Harry's humble opinion. He clumsily rolled to his knees again, spitting blood onto the ground from the tongue he had viscously bitten.

"Never could take a joke, could you Tom?"

Voldemort slowly ceased all movement, quietly flowing into a complete stand still. The Death Eaters mirrored his actions much less subtly. Harry noted many jewel bright eyes darting from their presumably enraged master to the sole exit.

They needn't have worried. After an expanse of time that should have carried a warning for people with heart conditions and pregnant women, Voldemort simply flowed back into motion and graced Harry with a smile that would have had any Death Eater in tears.

"You have grown arrogant indeed, Harry, to use that name in my presence." He took a step closer to Harry, head cocked ever so slightly to one side, "Or perhaps . . . you simply seek courage in emulating your hero? The Great, invincible, Dumbledore!"

The Death Eaters were roaring with relieved laughter now, hoping their Lord would soon tire of the boy and dispose of him. It would be much safer for them if he would simply gloat over Potter's corpse.

To everyone's bewilderment Harry chuckled along with them, smiling serenely to his own private joke. "No one is invincible, Tom."

"No one but I," Voldemort scoffed, flicking his wand at Harry, and the room filled with the resounding crack, as the bones in his hands were crushed simultaneously. Harry let one agonized yelp escape before clamping his jaw shut and panting through his teeth. He watched through hooded eyes as Voldemort turned and began pacing a wide circle around Harry, almost brushing the outermost of the ring of assembled Death Eaters "I have achieved a level of perfection previously unheard of!"

"No, I've heard of it." Harry suppressed a smirk as Voldemorts' eyes widened. "The muggles have a name for it actually." A rustle of disquiet engulfed the Death Eaters at his words, and Harry schooled his features in bored indifference.

Voldemort seemed torn between disbelief and apocalyptic rage, "Is that so?" he asked each word with an extreme precision.

"Yeah, they call it 'raging insanity'."

Harry barely registered Voldemort raising his wand before pain took him again. Voldemort had resumed his pacing when Harry was able to roll back onto his knees again. In hind sight, that probably wasn't the wisest thing he'd ever done; Harry mused to himself. Then again . . . his goal here was to get himself killed. So, what did that make him?

"Such defiance!" Voldemort called out; with a grand flourish "Even as you kneel before your death you hold your head high! It is very nearly a pity that you must die; Lord Voldemort values bravery."

Bat shit insane, Harry decided as he braced himself for this final instalment of his plan, it made him bat shit insane. Hermione would go spare if she knew what he planned; Ron would kick his arse from here to Gringotts. Ginny would . . .

"But alas! It was never meant to be – "

"Yeah, yeah I know," Harry threw in, forcing his shoulders to loosen, "I foolishly choose the rest of the world over you, so now you've got to kill me to save your ego. We've had this talk before."

"You dare - ?"

"Yes, Tom, I dare. We've done this one too." Harry leaned forward slightly, hoping Voldemort was as close to the edge as Harry thought he was. "Yes, I'm an insolent child, spawned from mudbloods and blood traitors. Ordinarily I'd take offence to that comment, but from you I'll let it slide," Voldemorts' serpentine features clouded with confusion, and Harry felt his heart speed up. Close, he thought, so close. "Because it takes one to know one. Right, Tom?"

The Death Eaters seem to be holding their collective breath as Voldemort's fingers convulsed around his wand. I think I broke him, Harry suppressed a nervous laugh before barrelling on full tilt.

"Didn't you tell me yourself how similar we are? Both orphans, both half bloods." The Death Eaters roared their outrage at his claims, and still Voldemort did not move. Right, Harry thought, I suppose the gloves are off now.

"There's always been a strange likeness between us, hasn't there? Orphaned half bloods, both abandoned and abused, just looking for a place to belong." Not so much as a twitch from Voldemort, even the Death Eaters were silent now, listening, waiting for the other foot to drop. "Just looking for someplace where we weren't freaks or insane. Just breaks your heart, doesn't it?" Come on Tommy, Harry goaded silently, when Voldemort persisted to remain immobile, why the hell won't you shut me up?

Harry sucked in a deep breath through teeth he hadn't realised he'd been clenching. Hermione always chided him for that; said it would ruin his teeth. Doesn't make much of a difference now, Harry thought bitterly as he loosened his jaw anyway.

Harry dropped his head into his aching hands, relishing the clarity the pain brought him, "God, we were alone, and scared for so long, weren't we?"

Voldemort blinked for the first time in minutes, and seemed to be returning to the land of functioning beings, but Harry wasn't done yet.

"But that's the difference between you and me, isn't it?"

"Difference?" Voldemort breathed out on a whisper, oblivious to the Death Eaters who were watching their masters every move.

"The difference," Harry lowered his hands to meet Voldemorts gaze "is that I'm not afraid anymore, but you'll always be a coward."

That did it.

Voldemort lost all semblance of sanity, "I am Lord Voldemort! Wizards and creatures alike fear the very sound of my name! I fear nothing." Spittle flew from his lipless mouth as he screeched at the broken boy who had so haunted him for the past sixteen years.

Harry tilted his head back, exposing his throat just a fraction of an inch. "Go on then," He said evenly, hoping that his voice didn't betray his racing heart "kill me, if you aren't scared."

It was childish, and pathetic. A play ground taunt with the lives of so many innocents resting on its shoulders. It worked.

Voldemort let lose one outraged snarl, raising his wand, and bringing it down on the second that carried the killing curse with it. "AVADA KEDVRA!"

Harry closed his eyes with a quite sigh, letting his shoulders slump and his arrogant bravado drain away barely a moment before it hit him square in the chest.