Chapter 349: The Last Enemy

Listening to Sirius, Harry was very surprised.

He had no idea that his father had dueled Gryffindor in the illusion. Although he had lost, this was remarkable.

The opponent was the mighty Gryffindor. No wizard had the qualifications to challenge him, which in itself was an acknowledgement of his father's strength.

He walked a few steps forward, toward the black stone platform, and felt his legs tremble.

Beside him, the Magorian centaur looked at him expressionlessly, a trace of impatience on his face.

The old man retreated completely into the shadows without a sound.

Harry took a deep breath and was ready for the challenge.

Instead of looking back at everyone's encouraging eyes, he clenched his fists and kept telling himself quietly not to be afraid, no matter what he saw in the illusion, he couldn't back down.

Maybe he could make it to a duel with Gryffindor like his father did, or face countless Acromantulas and Dementors like Ron. None of this was a problem. But if he had to be tested for a magical theory like Hermione's, that wasn't what he was good at.

Harry was lost in various fantasies and conjectures, and when he came back to his senses, he found that he had entered the illusion.

It was still late at night, and the stars in the night sky hadn't changed much.

A gust of cold wind blew and Harry couldn't help but shiver.

He took off his robe and found himself standing in a dark street.

It wasn't Hogwarts or Privet Drive. He was sure he had never been to this place before, but it had an indescribable sense of familiarity.

"Lumos!" Harry pulled out his wand and looked around carefully.

He was standing in a small alley, with large, ramshackle houses on either side of the narrow alley, all dark and unlit, without even a sound.

Not far away was a small square, which was the center of the small village.

Harry walked forward, the cold wind of the night covering his cheeks, past more houses, all dark and inhabited.

Closer and closer to the square, Harry saw a giant statue of a wizard in the center, holding his wand in front of him with his left hand and a silver sword in his right hand, which was very similar to the image of Gryffindor described by Ivan and Hermione. Perhaps, this was him.

Just as he looked at the statue, there was a sudden sound of scuffling and a hoarse, exhaustive scream from a woman in a house in front of him.

Harry looked up quickly and saw that the door of the house was open, and a dim candlelight in a second floor room stood out in the darkness.

His heart was pounding so hard that it almost leapt into his throat.

No doubt the test he would face was in this house. He didn't know what awaited him, and the darkness around him oppressed him to the extreme.

"Is anyone here?" Harry ran to the door and shouted. "Who's there?"

No one answered him. The downstairs living room was a mess. He had clearly just experienced a fierce duel. Someone entered the room from outside.

Harry took a few steps inside and suddenly stopped in front of the fireplace. He couldn't believe it. He looked at the picture on it. It was his parents. His mother was holding a baby in her arms, and her face was filled with a happy smile.

Harry finally knew where he was. It was his home.

"This is Godric's Hollow; this is my home, where I was born!" Harry's heart was almost paralyzed, and he couldn't believe what was happening in front of him.

He even forgot that this was an illusion created by Gryffindor. He had only one idea in his head. to go home, back to the place that used to be his home.

If there hadn't been a Voldemort, he would have grown up here and spent every vacation.

He would invite his friends over to play, and maybe even having a younger brother or sister. His mother would make him a birthday cake instead of him celebrating alone.

Harry wiped away the tears that suddenly sprang to his eyes. When he looked at the old picture of his parents earlier, he had imagined this sort of thing more than once. Just as he was about to look closely around, there was a scream and a plea from a woman upstairs. It was the voice he heard when he first met the Dementors - it was his mother's scream!

Harry finally understood that this was the night Voldemort broke into his house, and that the unfortunate events that would affect his life were about to occur.

Without hesitation, he ran to the second floor.

Harry knew he had to hurry. He wanted to see his parents, and if he was fast enough, he could even save them from Voldemort.

He exerted all his strength and held the wand in his hand. Harry climbed the stairs, and then saw a man in a black hood standing at the top of the stairs smiling coldly, laughing cruelly.

At his feet, a man and a woman were lying.

Inside the corner of the room was a small cradle, in which a child was crying weakly.

"No!" cried Harry. He knew that the two people on the floor were his parents. They were dead. They were killed by Voldemort.

In a minute, it was his turn.

"Expelliarmus!" shouted Harry, running anyway.

Voldemort let Harry's spell pass slightly. He waved his wand quickly, and a blue-green light struck Harry as he lunged at him.

Harry fell. He didn't know the magic Voldemort had cast on him. It looked like a petrification curse. He couldn't control his body, but his mind was exceptionally clear.

He saw his father in the pool of blood, and his eyes became hollow, devoid of all will.

His father's right hand came forward, as if he wanted to hold his mother's hand before she died, but he fell to the ground.

Harry wanted to scream, but he couldn't make a sound.

He could only see Voldemort approach his crib step by step, his cold voice, and then a dark green flash of light.

Voldemort shrieked a flurry of screams. His curse was bounced back to strike him down. He escaped out the window in black smoke.

Harry cried so hard he felt a deep pain from the scar on his forehead, and the world in front of him quickly shattered.

He knew he was about to walk out of here and back to reality. He tried to look at his parents and hoped to see them again one last time.

"You failed, brave as you are, you cannot defeat yourself, remember, the last enemy to be destroyed is death!" A charismatic male voice sounded from the void. Harry's last impression was that he did not understand the meaning of the phrase.

Harry was still immersed in the great pain of his parents' death and his hatred for Voldemort.

By the time he regained consciousness, he had returned to the Centaur Temple. He was kneeling on the black platform, weeping silently.