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Chapter Text

Harry froze. He had just watched Sirius die. He had just watched the spell hit his chest. He watched as Sirius was thrown backwards through the veil. He had watched the light leave his eyes. He watched as Sirius Black died laughing, laughing as though this was the greatest bit of fun he’d had in forever. Harry watched as the only man who had honestly cared for him left this world.
He had quickly turned around and locked eyes with Bellatrix Lestrange, the maniac who killed his godfather, her own cousin. He hated her for it; he wanted to punish her, to make her scream. He wanted to make her regret what she had done, taking away his godfather. Leaving him orphaned again.
Bellatrix fled, sprinting down the hallway away from the death chamber, away from the scene of her crime. Harry sprinted after her, wand clutched tightly in his hand, with only one goal in mind. Punish her.
Harry turned a corner to see Bellatrix running towards the floo. She shouldn’t be allowed to run away from this; she shouldn’t be allowed to see the sun rise the next day for what she had just done.
“CRUCIO!” Harry screamed, the red bolt of light shooting out at supersonic speeds to stop her. The light connected, and Bellatrix screamed in pain, collapsing to the floor, writhing in agony. Instantly, Harry stopped the spell. Hearing her cry and hearing her pain shocked him out of his rage, and he stared at his wand and his hand. What did he do…
“She killed him, Harry. She knew what she was doing. She killed Sirius Black and laughed about it.” He heard whispering through his head. He looked back up, locking eyes with Bellatrix Lestrange as she started standing up, grinning like a maniac.
“Poor little Potter, orphaned again. Nobody to care for you. Nobody in this world can give you a home again.” She taunted. “And even knowing that, weak baby Potter can’t even cast a curse right.”
“You know the spell, Harry… use it. Just one simple word, and she can feel your pain; she can feel how you felt, seeing your godfather fall through the veil. Of her, sending her cousin to his death.”
Harry knew he shouldn’t. His anger was gone; he knew it wouldn’t be cast correctly. Bellatrix, seeing his paralysis, knowing he wouldn’t do anything, turned around, skipping towards the floo, singing a song of four simple words.
“I killed Sirius Black.” Hearing those words, Harry snapped again. His hand clenched around the wand, his knuckles turning white, as he slowly brought his wand up to her.
“One… simple… curse”
With a zigzag of his wand, Harry let loose the only spell he thought Bellatrix deserved, the one spell he knew would give him his revenge.
“AVADA KEDAVRA!” Harry screamed and watched as, from his wand, a burst of green light erupted, shooting out at a snail's pace towards Bellatrix. A wailing, tortured song let loose from his wand, a sad melody that pained his very soul, something he knew he could never recover from.
Around him, that precise moment was when he picked up on many things around him. Voldemort, Dumbledore, and the Minister had all arrived within the past second or two, every single one of them staring at him in disbelief. The press behind the minister had cameras snapping, pictures of the Boy-Who-Lived killing someone, letting out an unforgivable. Bellatrix Lestrange turned around, her face lighting up green, eyes widened as the curse struck her right below the neck, sending her tumbling to the ground, her momentum carrying her backwards. Another scream joined the cacophony of music and pain he heard from his wand, Bellatrix’s soul joining the others screaming his damnation and letting him know about the damage to his soul.
Then he felt it. He wasn’t hit by any curse or hex, but his stomach rolled over and his scar burned with the intensity it did last summer when Voldemort laid his hand on it. Scratching underneath his skin, like it wasn’t his anymore. Liquid trickling down the side of his head, and a more intense feeling in his scar, a gripping sensation, and a tugging sensation. He dropped to his knees and screamed.
He tasted blood. He had bitten his tongue. It wasn’t pleasant. He didn’t even feel it, he only tasted the blood and agony he knew he should be in. The agony that would be replacing the anger that allowed him to cast the curse.
The curse that Harry couldn’t find it in his heart to regret. The action that could never be undone sat perfectly fine in his mind, a life for a life; Sirius Black was gone, but so was his murderer.
Turning around, Harry faced Voldemort, turning to Tom Riddle, laughing as his Holly wand was raised once more, and once more calling out the two fateful words that changed his life, and his soul, for good.

Chapter Text

Voldemort looked shocked as the same green spell that was launched toward his most faithful servant was sent towards him, the same two words being called out to attempt to end him as Harry stood still, the pained song that only he could hear pounding in his head, the sad cry of a phoenix mourning the completeness of his soul. Voldemort blocked it with a piece of rubble that exploded in front of him.

“The Boy Who Lived, Golden Boy of the Light, thinks that it can be that simple? A single curse, to kill the greatest wizard who ever lived?” Voldemort said, in a low, scathing, voice. “I’m surprised you were able to do it once, but you’ll regret it. You don’t have it in you to really kill, to take a life and mean it. Let me show you how it’s done”

Quickly, without words, Harry watched as the green light that changed his life twice now was sailing towards his face. He stood there, watching the hypnotic light dance towards him. He could hear it now. The sad chorus of those he lost. His mother, his father, and now Sirius all sang for him as the light shone in his face.

It was interrupted by a pulling on his waist, as he was roughly tossed on the floor by a spell and the killing curse flew overhead, blowing up a pillar behind him. Multiple spells flew above him in rapid succession as he was pulled once more, this time backwards along the floor, now sitting beside Dumbledore as the old headmaster was trying his best to stand toe to toe with Voldemort.

Harry stood, brandishing his wand before him, and at the same time Dumbledore threw a baby blue spell racing towards Voldemort, Harry threw his own spell. Not the killing curse this time, instead he sent the blasting curse confringo, followed by an expelliarmus.

Voldemort laughed. “I knew you didn’t really have it in you Potter!” Harry gasped in shock as his scar erupted in pain, falling to his knees as his wand fell from his grip in desperation as he clutched it with both hands.

“You killed Bellatrix. You killed a human being. What would your parents say? Their son, a murderer. What will Dumbledore say to you after this? Taking a life, cutting it short, no chances at redemption. Always suspicious and now you’ve proved him why.” Harry heard Voldemort whisper directly into his mind.

A green light was met by a fiery explosion in front of him as Fawkes intercepted the curse meant for him, imploding into his cycle of rebirth. “Harry! Focus!” Dumbledore shouted from beside him. “Eject him from your mind! There’s only so much I can do! Focus on your connections! Your friends, Ron, Hermione! Harry, focus!”

Harry grabbed his wand from the floor, trying to ignore the pain, and once more cast the curse he couldn’t escape from. The bright green light and the chorus of pain and loss erupted from his wand once more. Tearing through the space between Harry and Voldemort. Dumbledore served as a distraction from the fate Voldemort inflicted upon so many, as the curse caught Voldemort in the side, killing him again, sending his body to the floor unceremoniously. Harry remembered the press, whose cameras were still capturing every moment of the fight, as reporters now tried to ask questions from everyone involved. Dumbledore looked down at Harry, crouching to be at eye level.

“Harry, I’m sorry for the events of this evening and what you had to do to not just others, but to yourself as well. Take this portkey, it’ll go straight to my office. We don’t need the press making you out to be a dark wizard right now, we can figure this out later. Madam Pomfrey should be there already… have her check you out and then go to bed. We’ll deal with the events of today when we’re well rested, knowing that we have a time before Voldemort resurfaces again."