Chapter 17

A/N: Fallen is still Fallen

The headmaster watched as the enraged Fallen held the wand pointed at Adam. The glittering in his eyes had kept up the act because all he could think of was, "This is going to be worth it".

"Am I going to have to curse the pathetic boy again or will you tell me what I want to know."

Fallen said idly, his eyes resting upon the headmaster. Giving him a long hard stare; he made sure to stay away from the phrase need to know because it was easy to manipulate and knowing the old fool he'd take every advantage he had.

"When I contacted Lily" Fallen shuddered as his human counterpart whimpered at the word, "she was very discreet about her location and who she really was. But as we started planning the capture she became more vulnerable and slowly I started piecing together where she was."

Fallen hissed as the headmaster took a dramatic pause, this was no time for games. He waved his wand and the headmaster paled as Adam started whimpering.

"You have five minutes to tell me the whole story before his mind is gone, so I suggest you cease these games."

Albus nodded obediently and continued, but in his head he was trying to mentally curse the boy, yes boy, who stood before him. It wasn't working. Obviously.

"She was underground most likely in an old dungeon because I would always hear her murmuring about chains and old methods of torture mindlessly. She was also here, in England somewhere because I contacted her easily every time. I swear that's all I know."

Albus let his walls fall just enough for Fallen to know he wasn't lying. Fallen wasn't satisfied but he let Adam go and unparalyzed the boy.

A/N: Fallen is gone, Harry is back

Harry blinked his eyes a few times and watched as the headmaster slowly stood up and his wand was waved, instantly Harry made a defense shield to block out whatever curse was thrown at him.

"I'm not something you want to toy with, headmaster."

Harry whispered, his voice held the broken note of a man defeated beyond understanding. A man so lost and so far gone that even his most innocent fantasy wasn't enough to help his eyes spark.

"Now what, Fallen Angel? Now will you leave us in this mess you've caused out of spite and anger? Will you go and gallantly save a mate whose pain is far gone as well as her sane thought of mind? Or will you just stay here and continue to torture the last hope for the magical world until even mind magic won't heal him?"

Harry glanced up at the words, his shoulders were straight and the power radiating off him was more than fathomable but his words were said in such a manner that the power and posture escaped the headmaster.

"Anything to save me, headmaster. Anything as long as I get her back."

Hermione willed away every ounce of pain from her as she felt the sting of the whip and the raw skin itching beneath the chains. Her thoughts were cluttered and focused on everything but her pain. Even if it meant focusing on death itself.

Anything to save me…Anything-get her back

The broken words flittered through her head and stayed there, like a broken record player. The voice…it was so familiar.

Anything

Anything

Anything

HARRY! It was her Harry, he hadn't forgotten her, he hadn't left her alone in this cell with a madwomen. He was still there. She let a fleeting smile pass on her lips. She felt alive again. It was instant. As if those words were the click to her long lost back bone. She focused her mind again, let the clutter of her mind fade away. She felt her power react to her confidence and it surged through her as a wave of comfort.

"I'm in pain, love; I'm in so much pain. But if you still believe in me then I can keep strong. Just don't stop believing in me."

Harry flapped his wings and his vision blurred as he reappeared inside the Potter mansion. Memories flashed through his head. All of them good and yet all of them unwelcome; he didn't need a reminder of everything Hermione and he had shared.

His mind was cluttered and all he could think of was his mate and how he couldn't sense her. He went to the living room and let his wings grow into his back. It felt as if every worry of the world was on him and not just his shoulders. It felt as if he was the cause of the world's problems.

I'm in pain, love; I'm in so much pain. But if you still believe in me then I can keep strong. Just don't stop believing.

Hermione's voice was in his head, floating there in an almost haunting gesture. But it was there. She was alive. She was fucking ALIVE! His heart warmed and the feeling of being alive returned to him in an instant. He let his eyes close and in his mind the voice repeated over and over and over and over, until all he heard was the flow of her voice.

Voices. That's all Harry heard. Voices. Screaming and yelling, all in pain. But he didn't care. All he cared about was the voice in his head, the one whispering him to be strong, to believe. But the voice was fainter now and Harry fell deeper into the darkness to hear it. He fell deeper into himself to catch the fleeting soft texture of the voice.

"Fallen, you're presence decides to grace us tonight. How sweet."

Harry looked up; his forest green eyes were a jaded color now, covered in the blood of tainted innocence. Voldemort stood in front of him, the creature, for he could not be called a man, was alone. His Death Eaters were not in sight.

"Hello Voldemort. Is there a reason you've decided to interrupt my fun?"

Fallen was showing through, his annoyance apparent. Voldemort gave a rather wicked grin and flicked his wand. Harry waved his hand and a shield appeared, absorbing the Killing Curse. Harry smirked in the general direction of where the curse came from; he couldn't see the creature anymore because a blanket of darkness surrounded them. His mind slipped even more as he felt a nameless feeling call to him. He let it have him, let it consume him, and let it change him.

"Oh, doesn't this give a new take on things?" Harry mumbled to himself, he was in control and he was in the front seat but he had all the power of a full fledged Fallen Angel. A grin that could only be described as primal was etched onto his face. His eyes were that of a cat, with slit pupils mixing within themselves, going from green to black to colors in between.

"Come out little Dark Lord. I know you're out there. Hiding and whimpering in your blanket of nothingness."

Voldemort hissed in displeasure as he was insulted but he couldn't attack. His plan was put to the test now; something was off with the Fallen Angel, something terrible. But he didn't dare do anything yet. He watched as the figure sat down comfortably in a conjured chair. Leisurely relaxing. He was…he was fucking relaxing. Why that good for nothing, little brat. He was mocking him, mocking the greatest dark lord in the history of dark lords! He was mocking the descendant of Salazar Slytherin! No. One. Mocked. Him. EVER.

"NOW!"

Something blasted in front of Harry and he let the dust settle before seeing he was surrounded in a tent of magic. Impenetrable and impossible to escape, even for him. Harry felt something shift inside the tent and he summarized that Voldemort had appeared.

He looked at the beast with dangerous disinterest in his eyes – "What a great pleasure it is. To know that you're going to die by my hand. Isn't it? To know that everything you've worked for in your life will come down to a hand bitten by darkness herself. Your planning, your steps taken precautiously through the years. Oh, I know, I know everything. It was obvious you weren't stupid because stupid people are rash. You aren't. You are well thought out. You are well structured and that's why you're going to die. Every little detail you have is based on something you think I have. I don't have it. I don't have the emotion to care for it anymore." Harry said, his voice was dark and dreary. As if, when the world took a breath it would shy away from his tone and move on to innocence. Voldemort stepped back, he didn't show it, but he was scared. Scared that a boy had figured this much of him.

"What about your mate? What about everything you need to do for her?"

Harry paused in his motions and looked up. Those cat sliteyes changed from human to feline again. The Fallen Angel was fighting a battle he knew he couldn't win.

"My mate…my mate…my Hermione."

The name was whispered in a broken down voice. Voldemort smirked, a weakness. Finally.

"My mate is gone. She's…gone. No thoughts have entered my mind from her; no thoughts have been given to her. No physical connection has been made and every time I try to find her all I do is fall deeper into the darkness that I call myself. Every time… every time I try to find her voice, her smell, her figure in my mind all I hear is her panicked voice and I try to find her. I try so fucking hard and it draws me deeper into this nothingness I call my heart."

Voldemort shuddered, the feeling of death was crawling up on him. Somewhere in his mind a voice whispered: You knew what you were doing, you knew he was broken and done playing games and yet here you stand, Tom Riddle. The Dark Lord who gave into temptation; the dark lord who couldn't handle everything the dark threw at him. Tom Riddle the man, not the dark lord. Not a lord of anything. Just a boy, lost within his imagination; a stubborn, foolish boy about to die.

"Ready. Set. Go."

The wind whispered and flashes of light showered the night sky, creating a light show powerful enough to scare away crows and magical owls. In the end there was one standing and he was the one lost. He was always lost in his own mind. In his own body and in his own heart.

"Here I am, again. In the beginning. Ignored but feared. Given a title not worth keeping. Ha. I laugh at it all. Come darkness, empower me, what have I got to lose?" Harry whispered as his wings unfolded, lifting him up to the night sky. Destroyed was the Dark Lord and in his place was a Dark King. Ruled by the bitten hand; with nothing to lose and nothing to gain but the taste for revenge and vengeance.

I'm in pain, love. In so much pain.

Pain. What a funny feeling.

There ya go, the betad version. Sarah-sama is awesome, i gotta say and in no fault was it hers that its taken this long to post the edited version, skool has been much too hectic for me to even get to this latley. but i have already started on the next chapy and im trying to think of how much more i need to finish this, not too much though.

Hope you're all proud of me, i told you i'd update and i did. Im sorry it took almost, a year?, to do it though. Chapy 16 doesnt really count, it was more of a review chapy and a teaser for this one. I hope you like it though, i worked hard on it.

Gasanechi-I know its rushed, but the thing is when i started this i had the first 7 chapys out and then people actually started reviewing so it started changing and not following anything i thought it should. Im not blaming reviewers, its all my fault for not planning it out. I do plan to rewrite the story in the beggining, grammaticly and plot wise but i need to finish the story first. You didnt offend me, i love reviewers that actually tell me what they think and how my story has flaws and how i can fix them.

Michael- you're review really made my day when i read it, i just had to put that out there. I did sound petty, darn. I know not to write for reviews but sometimes some people just get on my nerves about the things they write and when im having a bad day and i read one, it just makes me explode.

I hope you like this, i know ive said it before, but i really hope you do. I love it, i love how this chappy turned out and i hope you like it to. Im sorry for the extremly slow updating but the story is almost done so it shouldnt take that much more time. Please review, i love hearing feed-back from all of you.

Warmest regards,

TheSlytherinMuggle