Heart; It was an unpleasant, agitating sensation.

"Have you got anything for me?" Harry asked, but she seemed distracted by his lit wandtip.

"Have you got anything for me?" he repeated.

Then she closed her eyes and several things happened at once: Harry's scar prickled

Painfully; the Horcrux twitched so that the front of his sweater actually moved; the dark,

fetid room dissolved momentarily. He felt a leap of joy and spoke in a high, cold voice:

Hold him!

Harry swayed where he stood: The dark, foul-smelling room seemed to close around him

Again; he did not know what had just happened.

"Have you got anything for me?" he asked for a third time, much louder.

"Over here," she whispered, pointing to the corner. Harry raised his wand and saw the

Outline of a cluttered dressing table beneath the curtained window.

This time she did not lead him. Harry edged between her and the unmade bed, his wand

Raised. He did not want to look away from her.

"What is it?" he asked as he reached the dressing table, which was heaped high with what

Looked and smelled like dirty laundry.

"There," she said, pointing at the shapeless mass.

And in the instant that he looked away, his eyes taking the tangled mess for a sword hilt,

a ruby, she moved weirdly: He saw it out of the corner of his eye; panic made him turn

And horror paralyzed him as he saw the old body collapsing and the great snake pouring

From the place where her neck had been.

The snake struck as he raised his wand: The force of the bite to his forearm sent the wand

Spinning up toward the ceiling; its light swung dizzyingly around the room and was

Extinguished; Then a powerful blow from the tail to his midriff knocked the breath out of

him: He fell backward onto the dressing table, into the mound of filthy clothing --

He rolled sideways, narrowly avoiding the snake's tail, which thrashed down upon the

Table where he had been a second earlier. Fragments of the glass surface rained upon him

as he hit the floor. From below he heard Hermione call, "Harry?"

He could not get enough breath into his lungs to call back: Then a heavy smooth mass

Smashed him to the floor and he felt it slide over him, powerful, muscular --

"No!" he gasped, pinned to the floor.

"Yes," whispered the voice. "Yesss... hold you ... hold you ..."

"Accio ... Accio Wand ..."

But nothing happened and he needed his hands to try to force the snake from him as it

Coiled itself around his torso, squeezing the air from him, pressing the Horcrux hard into

His chest, a circle of ice that throbbed with life, inches from his own frantic heart, and his

Brain was flooding with cold, white light, all thought obliterated, his own breath drowned,

Distant footsteps, everything going...

A metal heart was banging outside his chest, and now he was flying, flying with triumph

In his heart, without need of broomstick or thestral...

He was abruptly awake in the sour-smelling darkness; Nagini had released him. He

scrambled up and saw the snake outlined against the landing light: It struck, and

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 798