Mortal Peril - 12

They were going to permanently incapacitate him and leave him in that box.

"Excellent," Voldemort said, his crimson eyes flashing. "The potion is very quick-acting. Would you like to hear what's going to happen to you?"

"Go to hell," Harry snarled, feeling bile rise in his throat.

Voldemort's grin widened. "In order to go to hell, one must actually die – a fate which is not going to happen to either of us. After Severus administers the potion, your limbs will grow stiff and heavy. It will feel as if giant weights have been attached to them. You'll try to fight the exhaustion, of course, but you'll be powerless to do so. Your internal organs will shut down one by one until finally your heart rate will begin to slow. You should fall unconscious at just about the time the first wave of my attack begins on Hogwarts."

Harry swallowed, clenching his teeth. "You appear extremely confident in your Death Eaters. Funny that, since they haven't been at all that successful against the Order in the past," he said.

Voldemort's grin faded. "Give him the potion, Severus."

"Yes, my Lord," Snape said, filling a phial with the thick black liquid.

*~*~*

Hermione climbed down the moving staircase from Professor McGonagall's office, her head spinning with all the information her former headmaster had given her. She found Ron and Ginny waiting at the bottom. Both were pacing like caged animals.

From the looks on their faces and the fact they were here alone, Hermione knew they hadn't found Harry. It was just what she'd feared. Ginny looked as if she was about to cry, and Ron wrung his hands nervously.

"He's gone, isn't he?" Hermione stated, choking on the words. Oh, Harry!

"He's not anywhere on the Map, Hermione," Ginny said, her eyes filling. "Neither is Pansy. We found Draco and Dudley locked in a classroom. They said Pansy left them in there." Her lower lip began to tremble, and Ron wrapped his arm around her protectively.

"Pansy is missing, too?" Hermione asked, her curiosity overriding her panic.

"She's not on the Map," Ron replied, his eyes pleading with her for an answer.

Hermione wished she had one.

"He wouldn't have taken her with him," she said, chewing on her lip.

"What did Professor Dumbledore's portrait say?" Ginny asked, sniffling and obviously making a tremendous effort to pull herself back together.

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed. "My suspicions were correct. The act of murder always splits the soul, but it doesn't always create a Horcrux. Usually the murderer's soul is fractured within his own body. Professor Dumbledore said it changes a person, and perhaps that's the reason it appears to get easier for someone to murder again after the first time.

"He said creating a Horcrux is different. There needs to be intent, and the object must be held in your hand at the time of the murder."

"So how did Harry become one then? Was Voldemort actually holding him?" Ginny asked, aghast.

Hermione shook her head. "I suspect simply having his hand on him would have sufficed, and I can imagine Voldemort doing something like that just to torture Harry's mother," Hermione said, shuddering. She didn't like to think how awful it must have been for Lily Potter to see this madman laying his hand on the child she would die to protect.

"The way to create a Horcrux is to focus your intensity on the hatred, and the act of murder splits the soul. In contrast, I think an act of love should shield an object and hold it together," Hermione said, her excitement bubbling in her chest. "I think it can work."