Chapter 105
Harry stood there by the entrance, covered in his invisibility cloak, shocked to a standstill, for what he was looking at couldn't possibly be real! It had to be out of some sort of nightmare!
It was Quirrell, and he was carefully walking in a circle around a tall mirror that stood in the middle of the room, keeping his back to it all the time. He wasn't wearing his turban, and on the back of his head where there should have been plain skin, was a face! A chalk-white gaunt face with glowing red eyes and slits for nostrils. It seemed to be scanning through the mirror, looking for something.
It wasn't hard to figure out who he was looking at, but believing it was something that took a bit more work. As it turned out, apparently Harry was going to be facing Lord Voldemort tonight. Quickly getting over his shock, he decided that there was no point in letting him know about his presence. Better catch him unaware.
Harry activated his Hydromancy powers and sent his mana towards Quirrell's blood, intending to clot it right at the heart and kill him in a stroke. If he was playing some sort of…some sort of host to Lord Voldemort, then killing him wouldn't weigh too heavily on Harry's conscience.
A heavy tendril of mana extended towards Quirrel, and to Harry's utmost shock, it simply bounced off. It was the same sort of resistance he'd felt when going against the troll while trying to control his blood, except it was multiplied a thousandfold. A window popped up.
Magical wards detected, no magic can be done on the target's body.
Harry couldn't even get his mana near Quirrell's body. He must have used the same magic he'd done to protect the troll to protect himself!
As Harry stood there shellshocked, Quirrell straightened back up and looked around the room, having noticed the flickering of the shadows in the room as Harry parted the fire to enter the chamber.
The two faced man looked straight at him through his cloak and smiled. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter," he said calmly.
The face of the Dark Lord behind his head seemed to be ignoring Quirrell and Harry's conversation, continuing to peer at the mirror.
"You expected me?" Harry said with a small tremble in his voice, mentally going through all his options in his head. Gandiva would be too slow; Quirrell would just snap off a killing curse before he even finished notching an arrow. The elemental magic wouldn't do that much damage, his wand magic was pitifully underdeveloped and he hadn't learned strong enough spells to use Runic Burst successfully on someone like Voldemort.
He momentarily considered his Unicorn Boost speed before dismissing it. Quirrell had hunted down a unicorn in the past, and Harry had seen him run faster than the unicorn itself in the forest. His own speed would be useless against an opponent that fast.
"Of course we expected you Potter. My master predicted that you'd be a thorn in our way right from the moment he saw you. Besides, you probably heard that Dumbledore would be out of the school somewhere and decided to follow me. Dumbledore's petty machinations to try and get you to come down these traps were so pathetic to look at." Quirrell replied, chuckling. "He even told me to pretend to be evil so that you'd have some sort of motive to come after the stone. What an idiot!"
Harry pretended to cower while trying to come up with something. For the first time since getting his powers, he was feeling as if he didn't have anything in his arsenal to stop an opponent.
He desperately observed the man again.
Quirinus Quirrell
Lv-?
HP-?/?
MP-?/?
Race-Wizard
Str-?
Vit-?
Dex-?
Int-?
Wis-?
Luc-?
?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?
Nothing.
Gamer's Mind asserted itself, erasing the tendrils of panic that had started to creep in. Hoping that Quirrell couldn't see his eye movements under the cloak, he looked at the familiar object behind Quirrell that the Dark Lord was observing and immediately realized that it was the last protection keeping the stone from the Quirrell.
He had to try and delay Quirrell so that Hermione could get help.
"So what are you going to do to me?" he asked, injecting a small stutter into his voice.
Quirrell snapped his fingers before going back to observing the mirror. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly all around Harry's torso. His cloak fell off of him.
Harry tried to snap them off with brute force. After struggling for a second and failing, he twisted his bound hands around to touch the ropes and unleashed a hot concentrated fire beam, trying to burn them off.
It was working! The rope was shriveling and burning off strand by strand. He'd soon be free! Harry closed his eyes redoubled his focus and mana flow.
A sibilant voice came from in front of him "Fascinating…Quirinus, the bindings."
As focused as he was, he hadn't noticed Quirrell look up from the mirror and come closer. Voldemort was staring at Harry's fiery hands with a glint in his eyes.
The shriveling ropes glowed golden and reknit themselves, completely ignoring the fire that Harry was throwing at it.
"Don't bother," the parasite hissed, "Your fire will not be burning through these ropes now."
Giving in, Harry hesitantly stopped trying to burn the ropes. Voldemort eagerly looked at Harry.
"These abilities…you have no idea how similar we are Harry."
"You could do this too? When you were like me?" Harry asked, morbid curiosity seeping into his voice.
He looked Harry dead in the eyes, his red orbs eager. "Indeed…join me Harry…this power you have…with me it will only end in greatness. Join me…and we will change the world."
Join him! The man had the nerve to ask him to join him! The man who murdered his parents in cold blood! Harry's tight control over his emotions snapped and his face twisted into a hideous sneer.
"That's all well and good you bastard!" Harry spat at the man, "Only one problem. You killed my family!"
The snakelike lips twisted into a horrible sneer. "And you have no idea what you took from me. I had almost won the war! I had achieved GREATNESS! And you took it all. All those years lost in the forests of Albania…oh how many ways I've thought of hurting you! And even after I show you this kindness, you dare…no…just killing you wouldn't satiate my anger. No. Nothing less than breaking you would…Quirinus!"
Quirrell flipped around and pointed the wand at Harry's head.
"Crucio," he intoned.
The Cruciatus curse hit Harry and for a second he didn't feel anything, with Gamer's Mind trying its best to diffuse and fight the pain. But it quickly realized that something this powerful couldn't be fought. So it redirected its resources to preserving Harry's sanity and memories.
And then the pain hit. And then the screams began.
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