The process of putting himself together was perhaps the hardest thing Harry had ever done. He couldn't keep track of how long it took, but he could tell when his ears had healed when he realized he was screaming. One by one, his senses returned to him, and he found himself looking up, with blurred vision, at the gold-tinted ceiling.
He focused on just breathing through the agony, until eventually it receded to a dull ache, and Harry could only gasp in relief, shivering in the aftershocks of the pain. It was only then that he realized he didn't have a scrap of clothing on him. Not his suit, not his glasses, despite the fact that they were made entirely of vibranium alloy. They must have been blown off in the explosion. He didn't even have his invisibility cloak.
Not even his wand.
Shit. They were more durable than they looked, but Harry doubted the hallows could have withstood that level of explosive power. He reached his hand out in vain, summoning the treasured artifacts to him, but he felt no response. Unless he recovered the time stone, they were gone. Unfortunately, there was one, tiny obstacle in the way of Harry getting the stone. Harry wondered if this still was somehow part of Strange's plan, or if they had fucked it up. Perhaps it had been fucked the moment that Thanos had taken the time stone, but Harry wouldn't put it past Strange try to pull off something insane like that.
Harry took a deep breath and calmed himself. It wasn't completely hopeless. He could still use Mjolnir as a magical focus, and even go wandless in a pinch. But his real motivator was what lay within the palace he'd been thrown back into. Thor had, back while they'd still been fighting Hydra, given him a book on Asgardian runic magic, one that had been heavily annotated by Loki. Harry knew that there were quite a few curiosities within these walls.
He pulled himself to his feet, the ache in his muscles relenting as they stretched. Distantly, he heard explosions in the distance, which was oddly comforting. His friends were still fighting, which meant that Thanos hadn't won yet. But Harry still needed to be quick, he wasn't sure how long Thor, Wanda, and Shuri could hold out by themselves. He reached his hand out and summoned a pair of glasses. Several pairs accumulated at his feet, and he found one that matched him reasonably well. He repeated the process with a set of armor. Then, with a fragment of an Asgardian spear and the modified 'point-me' spell he had once, so long ago, used to find Tony Stark, Harry trekked down to the armory. The sturdy doors had been blasted apart. He knew this was where the Tesseract had been kept. He just had to hope that Thanos had overlooked the other objects within.
He grinned in satisfaction at what he saw. Though he was growing weary, it was with renewed purpose that he claimed two of the artifacts for himself.
It was time to get to work.
-----
The explosion rocked the city to its core, rending a massive gouge that cut the realm in two. Though her connection with Harry, Wanda could tell that he had survived, and that he was in pain, and that he refused to give up.
Neither would she.
She wanted to go to him, the find some way to ease him of his pain and to not leave his side, she knew it was a bad idea. She needed to focus on the battle, to give him time. As the aftershocks died down, all background noise was swallowed by the roar of fire that spread from the site of Harry and Thanos' battle and along the chasm it had created. She knew that Thanos hadn't been killed… but perhaps it wasn't too much to hope that he had been slowed down. At the very least, they might have some time to prepare before he found them again.
"Did… Harry win?" Shuri asked as she touched down beside her and Thor.
"No." Wanda answered "He'll need time to recover, we need to hold Thanos off until he can." She looked down at the amulet that contained the mind stone. She knew it was likely that it had failed on a previous iteration of the battle, and that he would be more prepared for her now than he had been on those first loops, but they were out of other options. Even if she failed, hopefully the fight would buy them time for… for whatever madness Harry had planned. "I'll have to try with the mind stone, we don't have other options."
"I'll try to keep him from using the gauntlet." Shuri seconded.
"And I will cut his damn arm off." Thor said bluntly.
With the simple, brutal plan established, the three fanned out. It was Shuri that first spotted him through her reconnaissance drones. Thanos had emerged from the blaze, parting the fire with the space stone. To Wanda's disappointment, despite everything that they had thrown at him, Thanos didn't look so much as scratched. All that could be said about their efforts was that he looked tired.
Shuri was the first to reach him, touching down directly in front of him with enough force to indent the stone and send cracks lancing outward. Thanos reeled back, seemingly not expecting her sudden appearance. Nevertheless, he acted quickly, and before Shuri could attack, the reality stone flared red. Whatever he had intended ran headlong into the runic protections that had been imbued into her armor. The sigils engraved along its surface flashed blindingly white and then shorted out in a shower of sparks. The protections had done their job, however, and shielded her from whatever effect Thanos had in mind. He was wide open. Shuri activated another set of runes contained within her gauntlets, and a series of symbols formed in the air, encircling her wrists. She twisted her hands, and the magic flared like a flashbulb and locking her hands to his gauntlet. The magic that wound from between them was only faintly visible, but it was powerful. "Got him!" She shouted.
Wanda skidded out of cover and unlatched the amulet, sending her mind out to the titan. She immediately understood why the original plan had failed. Thanos was strong, with a greater force of will than anyone she had encountered, except perhaps Harry. Unlike Harry, however, there was no compassion to be felt within him, only cold brutality, and it hurt. His own psyche rammed against hers, nearly shattering her hold on him… nearly. "I can't hold him!" She cried out. Thor leapt at Thanos, axe extended overhead and threatening to sever Thanos' arm.
It wouldn't be that easy.
With a roar, Thanos bucked under Wanda's control, and though she clawed at him to keep him subdued, she couldn't stop him from swinging his arm- the arm that Shuri had bound. Shuri was carried by the motion, and perfectly intercepted Thor's axe. The weapon clashed horribly with the vibranium of her suit, digging deep into it. Terrified for her friend, Wanda's focus slipped and Thanos broke free. Thor looked down at Shuri in horror as her suit sparked and convulsed. Runes were powerful, but they did not work well with nanotech. The runes needed to be stable and unbroken. So, while Tony's armor could shift and mold itself to the users needs, Shuri's armor, while more powerful, wasn't as flexible. Shuri fell to the ground, and to Wanda and Thor's great relief, began to peel herself out of the suit, seemingly unharmed.
And though he now had them at his mercy, Thanos didn't press his advantage. Instead, he smirked "You've done… very well, but surely you can see that your struggle is pointless. Whether you believe it or not, I don't want to kill unnecessarily." Wanda had seen into his mind. She didn't believe it, not for a second. She realized something else, too. Thanos thought that Harry was dead. He thought that this had been their desperate last stand, not a delaying action. She wasn't the best tactician of the Avengers, but she knew that this gave them an advantage, though how to use it she didn't know how.
Thor provided the answer. While Thanos had gloated, he'd been summoning Mjolnir. When the hammer crashed into the back of Thanos' head, shattering his helmet, that was their cue to get the hell out of there. Wanda, desperate for any advantage, tapped into the mind stone. Her power came from the stone, so it made sense that she could infuse herself with its power. Channeling an infinity stone through oneself, however, was overwhelming. Wanda doubted she could handle it for more than an instant. With all her focus, she unleashed the power, detonating a brilliant explosion of light and color between them and Thanos. She closed the amulet, cutting herself off from the mind stone's power, and sprint away, not even bothering to see how Thanos had countered her. Shuri's drones swooped down, homing in on Thanos and self-destructing. She could see his response as beams of purple energy lanced overhead.
Wanda kept running, ducking into one of the tunnels Harry had made before the battle. Finding Thor and Shuri's mental presences, she linked back up with them. Shuri had been forced to ditch the suit, leaving her with only a few pieces of technology- a small blaster at her hip and a multi-purpose wristband. "Well, that could have gone worse." Shuri remarked.
"And it could have gone a lot better." Thor responded. "I don't know what else to do." Wanda was struck, suddenly, by the grief welling up from him. In the heat of battle, Thor hadn't had time to mourn, or even process what had happened to his home and his people. Now it was hitting him with full force "He killed them. He killed them all. And we're powerless."
"Not all of them." Shuri rushed to assure them. "I picked up some ships headed away from Asgard. They must be refuges."
Wanda recalled what she'd seen from Ebony Maw's mind. Thanos didn't wipe out races, he mercifully killed half of their people, leaving the rest traumatized and stricken. "That's what he does." Wanda said, her voice ringing hollowly against the enclosing walls "He killed half of them. That's what he's going to do to everyone if he gets this." She lifted the amulet that enclosed the mind stone.
Thor nodded, a new resolve taking hold. "Right. We can't let that happen. I need to-" Suddenly, water crashed in on them. In an instant, the ceiling had turned from stone to water, and they were effectively at the bottom of a lake. Thor broke the surface first, spinning his hammer beneath him as a form of propulsion, and Wanda surfaced seconds later.
Thanos was waiting for them. Wanda found herself jerked up into the air, gripped on all sides by the space stone's power. "Enough." Thanos ground. "If you won't give me what I want, I will take it." The amulet whipped forward and would have been lost if Wanda hadn't resisted with all her might, holding onto the amulet with her telekinesis and making Thanos fight for every inch.
And then, abruptly, the pull stopped. Wanda blinked, and was horrified by what had drawn Thanos' attention. He was being attacked by walking corpses. Inferi. Her mind supplied, remembering what Harry had taught her of his magic. Harry was using inferi. She knew how much he hated the thought of using such magic, which spoke of how desperate he was.
The deceased citizens of Asgard had risen again and were now closing in on the man who had killed them. No matter how broken their bodies were, they walked, stumbled, even crawled towards their target. Wanda had never seen Thanos so taken aback, so off balance. He didn't seem to know what to do about this newest onslaught. He blasted them with the power stone almost blindly, reactively, but injuries, even brutal ones only slowed the inferi. It was clear that if given a moment to think, Thanos would find many ways of dealing with the onslaught, but Harry was determined to deprive him of that time. Wanda took the opportunity Harry had given her and broke free of the space stone's grip. She fled, linking back up with Shuri and Thor- who looked unfathomably horrified. "What- what's happening?" He uttered.
"Harry." Wanda said "These are… desperate measures." Yet Harry himself had yet to make an appearance. Reaching out to his mind, she could see that he was planning something far bigger, something that would take all of his focus. The inferi were a desperate gamble to buy them time. Without them, the battle would have been lost already. Whatever his plan was, she could tell that he felt even worse about it than he did the inferi. It wasn't a comforting thought.
Thanos' moment of confusion was shorter than any of them would have hoped, and it wasn't long before he discovered the inferi's weakness. Once he saw that they were vulnerable to fire, he lit up the landscape. Thor shielded his two companions, spinning his hammer to part the flame, but all around them, the world was consumed by purple flame. At the center of it all stood Thanos. And then, seeming to materialize from the fire itself, there was Harry.
-----
Harry couldn't help the dread pooling in his stomach. If Thanos had done this in New York… millions of people would have died. He'd only just managed to save the unconscious bodies of his friends, lovers, and allies by forcing the inferno to part around the site of their opening battle with Thanos. He could only hope Strange had found a way to keep the battle on Earth more contained.
Nevertheless, it was an uncomfortable fact that the massive destruction that Thanos was wreaking played right into Harry's hands. The most powerful artifact in Odin's arsenal, aside from the Tesseract itself, was undeniably the Eternal Flame. Harry had it cupped in his hand and could feel its power burn through him. The fire that surrounded him sang along with his magic, and he knew that it would obey him.
It was interesting, how different magical focuses lent themselves to different forms of magic. Mjolnir had been eager to create electricity, not so much anything else. In addition to its obvious affinity to fire, the Eternal Flame had a penchant for reanimating corpses. Harry was deeply uncomfortable with this, and he hoped that Thor would be able to forgive him for defiling his people. He was running out of options, and his hope that Thanos would resort to fire to destroy the inferi had been validated.
"How are you still alive?" Thanos snarled.
"I have a habit of surviving when I shouldn't." Harry said flatly. He was too exhausted for anything else. Thanos sent a beam of energy at him, but Harry simply took a step backwards. The flames enveloped him and when he stepped out again, he was a safe distance away. Then he held up his fist, and the fires around them leapt to his command, coalescing in the air, taking form as he infused them with magic, stoking them hotter.
It was fiendfyre. Harry had never used it before, and even with the Eternal Flame, it took all of his willpower to keep it under control. It could easily slip free and kill him, kill everyone, but he needed that raw destructive power, as dangerous as it was. The inferno took form without input from Harry, but he had to admit that a dragon was fitting. It gave a screeching, reverberating roar, and swooped down, trailing fire along the ground where it passed and landing in front of Thanos.
Fiendfyre was close to alive, and Harry could feel its hunger to burn and consume everything in its path, but especially anything living, and anything magic. It was convenient that Thanos had by far the largest concentration of power. On this, Harry and his unstable creation's goals aligned. The dragon roared again, sending flames spewing from its mouth. Thanos blocked it by raising a stone wall in its path, but the enchanted flames burned through like it was paper. He stepped through a portal just moments before the flames would have converged on him, and he reappeared with the power stone alight.
Harry couldn't help but smirk as Thanos unloaded on the dragon, sending a beam of energy so powerful that it was nearly blinding. Of course, fiendfyre took the energy Thanos had served up for it and consumed it, growing larger and burning brighter. The dragon lifted off the ground with a might push from its wings, sending fire roaring outwards in all directions. Silently, he urged Wanda to keep away. There was no way he could guarantee their safety if they got close.
The dragon lunged towards Thanos, who summoned a tsunami of water to counter it. It was vaporized in seconds, and when the dragon broke through the wall of water, it had Thanos in its sights. It screamed shrilly, sending another stream of fire at Thanos, who, holding his gauntlet up defensively, tried to shield himself with the space stone. The shield groaned as the flames buffeted it, slowing eating away at its integrity. When it finally broke, it sent Thanos flying back, which, despite leaving him prone, also saved him from being immediately consumed. He surged back to his feet, and Harry would have gasped if he had the breath to.
The time stone had been deactivated. Where its magic had wound around Thanos's wrist were deep scorch marks etched into the armor. Hope surged anew; this was it. If he let the fire free now, it would surely kill Thanos and end this fight. But he knew as well that he wouldn't be able to control it once he had loosed its leash, not in his current state. The fire would kill him, it would kill Nat, Shuri, their unborn children, Skye and Wanda, and everyone else who had fought with them today. The fire would consume Asgard down to its core, leaving behind nothing, not even ashes.
So he didn't, he couldn't. He would condemn himself in an instant, but to kill the people he loved? Never. Instead, Harry kept the inferno under his control, and as the fiery doom that approached him, Thanos looked back down at his gauntlet, and he realized. The fire consumed magic, attacking it directly or throwing things in its path would only fuel it. The only way to defeat it was to remove the fuel. When Thanos held out the gauntlet and activated the power and reality stones, that is exactly what he did. Fire streamed towards him, now sucked in as if it were caught by a whirlpool, funneled down into the burning gem of the power stone. The dragon reared up, writhed, and then dissolved.
Harry stumbled back, the massive weight of reigning in the fiendfyre lifted just as despair crushed him back down. Thanos opened a portal in front of him and stepped through. He had already reactivated the time stone, quashing any hope that Harry had left. This time there was no gloating, no comments, Thanos clearly viewed Harry as a big enough threat to be dealt with immediately. He leveled his gauntlet at him and unleashed all the power he'd just absorbed.
Harry hadn't been prepared the onslaught last time, but now, he had one last trick up his sleeve. He had no illusions about winning, but he was going to make Thanos fight for it until the bitter end. Harry summoned to his hand the other artifact he'd retrieved- the Casket of Ancient Winters. It had once belonged to the Frost Giants, at least by Loki's account, and had been taken by Asgard as spoils of war. Now, it was nearly all that was left of Asgard. With a primal scream, Harry unleashed everything the casket had to offer. Fire and ice clashed, and the force of it tore Asgard apart. Harry fell back, watching the other half of the realm, backlit in flames, drift away from him. He was exhausted now. He had used everything he had, and it hadn't been enough. When Thanos again appeared in front of him, he could barely react. He was just so tired.
"Harry!" Shuri shouted. She pelted Thanos with blaster fire, and he was forced to turn with this final three adversaries. In quick order, Shuri was turned to stone and Thor was blasted away, causing Mjolnir to tumble to the ground nearby. Wanda grabbed her amulet, readying one last gambit, but Thanos was quicker, and dropped her with the soul stone.
Oh, god no. The reality of what was about to happen hit him- how many people would die, how many he might lose. With tears in his eyes Harry got to his feet, shaking with the effort it took him. He summoned Mjolnir to his hand, and was bolstered by its power. Thanos looked at him and grinned cruelly "Hasn't this farce gone on for long enough? You are alone, you have nothing."
But that wasn't true. Harry had everything. He had everything he'd ever wanted and dreamed of, and he had everything to lose. He held out his hand, they were worth sacrificing everything, even his soul "Avada Kedavra." The sickly green spell streaked through the air. Harry had aimed it at the gauntlet, knowing that destroying it would ruin Thanos' plan. Then, perhaps a meter away from its target, the spell halted. It hung in the air, vibrating in place, trapped between two relentless forces. The killing curse was, fundamentally, soul magic- it killed by separating the soul from the body and while it was pushed forward by Harry's magic and will, pushing back was Thanos, and the soul stone.
One final time, Harry and Thanos clashed, and each of them poured everything into it. Neither could spare attention on anything else, as any slip in concentration could mean instant destruction. The curse, under immense pressure from the struggle, flattened out into an orb that grew brighter the more they poured into it. The first to break was neither of them, but rather it the magic itself. A thin beam erupted out of the orb, streaking upwards, leading a spindly trail up to the heavens. Even that outpouring of magic wasn't enough, and another beam burst down and to the side, carving its way explosively into the ground. Then a third beam sailed over Thanos' shoulder, nearling killing him. The three beams and the orb of magic at the center cast the battlefield in a flickering, haunting glow. But despite the danger of the spell backfiring on them both, neither could afford to relent or hesitate.
A fourth beam lanced outward, and it was heading towards Wanda. Harry's heart leapt in panic as he realized she was going to die. That was enough to doom him, as Thanos pressed the advantage his lapse in focus presented. All four beams collapsed back into the orb and together they bore down on Harry.
The last thing he heard was Wanda's scream.
-----
Wanda had never regretted not seeking training from Strange more. While she had some knowledge astral projection, enough to be aware of her surroundings, she couldn't return to her body. She had tried to, of course, with increasing desperation as Harry and Thanos' struggle escalated, but it was only with the sheer panic at seeing Harry spell backfire that she managed it.
She was too late. Harry slumped over, dead.
Dead. Dead. Dead. No. No. No.
She sobbed, and something inside her broke. As tears ran down her cheeks, her magic weaved around her, knitting her a cloak and a horned crown. She pointed at Thanos, the monster who had taken the man she loved from her. "You." She said, her voice broken by grief, and by hatred.
"I've had enough of this." Thanos said with callous disinterest. Wanda would make him regret it. Tapping into the mind stone, she let its power overwhelm her. She no longer cared what it did to her, if she went mad, if she died, all she wanted was to make him pay.
Her magic ripped through the ground, weaving through it like snakes. She tore through Thanos' shields, and felt a bloodthirsty thrill as she heard him scream. He managed to portal himself away, but Wanda had extended her presence across the city and could see that he'd taken refuge in a partially demolished mansion nearby. One of his legs was maimed. It was only a start.
"I will rip you apart." She snarled as she stepped out from the shadows. "Piece by piece!" The darkness bent to her will, and she wielded it like a weapon and a shield. He attacked with everything the power stone had to offer, but the darkness merely enveloped what he threw at her, reducing it to nothing. Then she used the shadows as a lash, carving cruel gashes through his armor and into his skin. Thanos grunted in pain, stumbling back. "You think that hurts?" She shouted "You have no idea what pain feels like! You have no idea what it feels like to lose someone you love!"
Thanos, even when exhausted and beaten, didn't yield. "Oh, I do." Enraged, she tore his other leg apart, splattering the room with gore. If only she had more presence of mind, if she hadn't been driven mad by grief and the influence of the mind stone, she might have thought to restrain his gauntlet. She had thought that he was using the power stone for another pointless attack, and by the time she realized that he was turning to ash before her eyes, it was over.
Loop #5
She was too late. Harry slumped over, dead.
Dead. Dead. Dead. No. No. No.
"I can bring him back." Thanos said.
Wanda was poleaxed by the offer "W-what?"
The time stone glowed green, and the magic that wound around his wrist melted away. "Harry Potter does not need to die today, little one." He said, and Wanda bristled at his tone. Then, around Harry, time reversed. His body lifted off the ground as dust resettled from its impact with the ground, his body rose until he was standing, only a moment after the curse had struck him.
"I can save him. But you know what I want in return."
For a moment sheer rage warred with her grief, and that with her sense of duty. She hated this monster, she wanted him dead for what he had done, but more than that she wanted Harry back and safe and loved next to her. But how could she do that, knowing it would doom the universe?
But then, with sudden clarity she remembered what the mind stone had shown her, the day that she and Harry had recovered it from Zola. It had given her a vision of a different world, a different Wanda. She too had been faced with a choice, to sacrifice the man she loved for the greater good. She had chosen the greater good, but she'd lost. She'd lost everything, and it hadn't even mattered.
"I killed the man I loved, and it meant nothing." The words had haunted her, echoed in her nightmares. She had wondered what could have driven Wanda so low, driven her so mad. Now she understood.
If she fought him, could she even hope to win? No, she'd probably lose, and not only would half the universe die, but Harry would too. She couldn't save the universe, but at least she could save Harry.
"Okay."
-----
Harry came to, shocked as he realized he was still in Asgard and… not dead. How? He'd just been struck by the killing curse, how had he survived again? He blinked, trying to make sense of his situation. Wanda was on her knees, head bowed, and Thanos… had the mind stone, he had completed the Infinity Gauntlet.
Oh.
"What did you do?" He rasped.
"I'm sorry, Harry. I had to." Wanda said.
"No you didn't. You should have let me die." He shook his head.
"So should have you." Wanda said, and damn her.
Thanos chuckled, reveling in his victory. "You're both correct. You fought well, very well, but you lack conviction." Harry scoffed, it was an insult, but he was in no position to stop his monologue. Thanos turned his eyes to him, which gleamed with triumph "You were willing to sacrifice yourself, Harry Potter, but you would never pay for your victory with the lives of others. That is your weakness, and that is why you will always lose. Just like Stephen Strange." He looked back to Wanda "Just like your friend. Just like my daughter."
Crack! The sound rang out like a lightning bolt, along with a flash as brilliant as one. Thanos turned to face this new threat, and was caught flatfooted by the beam of energy that struck him, carving a cauterized hole into his chest. He staggered back, leaning against a slab of stone to stay upright.
Their savior was woman clad in red and blue, wreathed in golden energy that seemed to radiate from her. "Sorry it took me so long." She said lightly, with an upbeat enthusiasm that felt foreign to Harry. The Avengers were famously jokey during fights, but any sense of levity had long since left this battle, so seeing it return was jarring. "I was half a universe away, so it took me a few minutes. Thanks for holding him down for me, though." She was cocky, like a high school jock, and she really didn't understand just how hard 'holding him down' had been. But he'd take help from the cockiest bastard in the universe if it meant stopping Thanos. If she could beat him, he'd feed her ego all day.
She strode up to Thanos with far less urgency than Harry felt. He wanted to shout at her to finish him now, but it was already too late.
Snap.
The woman's face went blank with shock. "Enjoy your victory, Carol Danvers." Thanos sneered, and then he was gone.
Carol fell to her knees.
They'd lost.
-----
He'd won.
After all these years of struggle, of all the enemies he'd faced, he'd finally won. Harry Potter was dead. Dumbledore was dead. The Ministry, Hogwarts, all of wizarding Britain. It was his. The battle that had finished it all had concluded that very morning. The resistance, what was left of it had scattered and would have to go even deeper underground to survive. He should have been ecstatic. It should have been everything he'd hoped for.
There was just one problem, one that he was going to address now.
"Where are they!" He demanded.
Potter's two closest friends hadn't gone without a fight. Even after most of the castle's defenders had been killed, fled, or surrendered, they fought on suicidally. But he had ordered his Death Eaters to bring them in alive, so their death wishes wouldn't be honored quite yet. After all, the two teenagers were the only ones who could give him the answers he needed.
"I can't possibly know what you're talking about." Hermione Granger snorted.
"Crucio." The mudblood writhed and screamed. Ron Weasley glared up at him with hatred, but he didn't give in. Finally, seeing that an insane person couldn't give him answers, Voldemort relented, and spat. "My locket. The diadem. The cup! Where are they!"
"Oh, right." Weasley said with bitter satisfaction "The horcruxes, let me think." He mimed tapping his chin, testing Voldemort's patience. "Harry got the diary with a basilisk fang. And Dumbledore took care of the ring."
"Oh yes." Granger said, her voice raw and breathless "And I remember that you took out the locket."
Weasley nodded, continuing the infuriating routine "And you destroyed the cup."
"Yes, and I'm pretty sure one of your lackeys-" She nodded to Voldemort "-accidentally destroyed the diadem with fiendfyre. And Neville killed your snake so-"
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" He roared, and the girl fell over dead.
Weasley went rabid, furious tears streaming down his face as he taunted him "We've already sent the word out, you know. Anyone can kill you now. All it'll take is one lucky enemy, one power hungry follower, one accident and you're-"
He killed him too.
Voldemort fled the room, enraged, but also… deeply unsettled. In his haste, he nearly collided with Lucius Malfoy "I'm sorry, My Lord." He bowed deeply "I hope that your questioning was fruitful."
And suddenly, Voldemort was struck with paranoia. Did he know? Unease morphed into fully fledged terror. How could he possibly trust this treacherous man with his life? Without thought, Voldemort struck Lucius down, and fled further into the ruined halls of Hogwarts. It wasn't safe here, he realized. There could be enemies still hiding in the shadows, or traps not yet sprung, or so-called allies just waiting for the opportunity to seize power for themselves. But where was safe? Truly safe? Without his horcruxes, he could never be safe. He was hyperventilating now, and he killed another of his followers who had probably come to see what the disturbance was.
Or to do him in.
Voldemort apparated away and found himself in the cave where he had placed the locket horcrux, and once, even longer ago, revelled in his growing power over the other children of the orphanage. He had always felt comfortable and powerful here, one of his inner sanctums. But even here wasn't safe, not if Granger and Weasley had told others about it. For a moment, Lord Voldemort hung at the precipice of a full blown panic attack. The specter of death hung over him, and it terrified him. But frantically, his mind latched onto an idea. There was only one solution, only one possible solution. He needed to get his horcruxes back.