Voldemort raised his wand, a wide, sadistic grin planted on his thin, snakelike face.
Harry had thought he would be able to see it using Brave Heart, just like Ron had done using Mecha Eye. But only now he realized that what Ron must have seen couldn't be the future, because he, standing against Voldemort, saw nothing but a blur of uncountable possibilities.
Harry did see Voldemort's hand stretching back and then lashing out a moment before it happened.
And, knowing Voldemort, he could only guess what spell the Dark Wizard would use.
If guess wasn't enough, then the Dark Lord's sadistic smile almost confirmed it for Harry.
"Crucio!" the hiss echoed like the crack of a whip.
Harry didn't even bother with casting a Shield Charm. Forget about the fact that Voldemort had destroyed the combined Charm of many of them; the Cruciatus Curse couldn't even be blocked by the Shielding Charm.
So, faster by a mere fraction of a second, seeing Voldemort's wand pointed at him just before it actually did, Harry lunged to his side, throwing himself behind a tombstone.
The crack of the curse struck the ground where Harry had been standing.
"Hide-and-Seek, Harry?" Voldemort hissed amusingly. "Your friends are putting their lives on the line for you, aren't they? Your poor Professor Lupin died for you, didn't he? Is this how you want to repay them? By disgracing their efforts and sacrifice?! Tch-Tch-Tch… With the Order of Black Phoenix, did Dumbledore mean to create an army of… cowards?"
From somewhere, Bellatrix's hideous, painful laugh echoed, along with Barty Crouch Jr.'s raspy one.
Voldemort laughed along with them.
A voice told Harry not to fall for these obvious tactics of the enemy. He had learned in the Battle Workshops how Dark Wizards could manipulate one by goading them to a duel, especially when they lacked the advantage of numbers. He had also learned to never fall for their attempts to exploit emotional weaknesses.
Yet, despite knowing all that, rage boiled in Harry's heart, the hands of revenge and shame grabbing his shoulders and pulling him up before throwing him out in the open once again.
"… Even tens of you are not worthy to stand against one Professor Dumbledore," Harry hissed back, glaring at the Dark Lord.
That did the trick.
The smile disappeared from Voldemort's face.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
A jet of green light burst from Voldemort's wand at the same moment a jet of red light shot from Harry's.
The two spells collided in midair.
Instantly, Harry's wand began to vibrate as if an electric current were racing through it. His hand was locked so tightly around the handle that even if he had wanted to drop it, he couldn't.
A thin beam of light stretched between the two wands, neither red nor green but a glowing, deep gold.
Staring along that beam in shock, Harry noticed that Voldemort's long white fingers were also clutching a trembling wand.
A strange rhythm seemed to have pervaded the surroundings.
Black, who had been attacking Hermione-werewolf, Ron, and Draco, paused, looking around confused as the Imperius Curse lifted off him by itself. Then, together, they all looked at the scene of Harry and Voldemort's duel, purely stunned, in awe.
On the other side, Bellatrix dragged her feet toward her lord, but paused, her bloody eyes widening at the scene, just like Barty Crouch Jr.'s on the other side.
The magical rhythm woke up a knocked-out Sirius as well. As he sat back up, holding his chest, his gaze also landed on the most colorful, but baffling scene, leaving him with no other thought.
And in the middle of all these shocked gazes were Harry and Voldemort, even more astounded than their audience.
Harry's wand had become so hot that it felt like it would catch fire in the next moment.
Voldemort, gritting his teeth, put his back into the wand and pushed, the entire golden thread moving down the red jet of light toward Harry, making his wand even hotter.
No.
If it kept going on like this…
Then, out of nowhere, Harry heard a song… a sweet call… seeming to come to him from an unfathomable distance.
Harry instinctively realized what it was saying.
Professor Dumbledore was coming! Hope was coming!
And a rush of excitement crawled up Harry's spine, making him do something… crazy.
He concentrated on all his training, experience, and emotions in his mind to force the golden thread toward Voldemort, the phoenix's song still buzzing in his ears.
Slowly, very slowly… the golden thread moved.
Voldemort looked at the sight in pure disbelief.
And then, even as the Dark Lord looked at the golden thread, refusing to believe that the boy was making it happen, the golden thread's end… connected to his wand.
Crack!
Hundreds of golden bolts of lightning came crackling out of the golden thread, becoming a dome of lightning around Harry and Voldemort.
As if this wasn't shocking enough, the golden thread began oozing a strange, silver mist.
In the very next moment, to Harry and Voldemort's utter surprise, figures began gliding out of the golden thread.
Harry looked at the first figure that had come out.
It was him… the man who had left an everlasting impression on Harry in the last six months.
It was Professor Lupin.
"Hold on, Harry," Lupin's ghost said, smiling at him.
An old man came out then, who began cursing Voldemort, asking Harry to defeat the bastard.
Then, another figure came out… having untidy hair.
Harry looked at the ghost of his father, his stomach ceasing to exist.
"Your mother's coming…" James Potter said quietly. "She wants to see you... It will be all right. Hold on."
And she came… first her head, then her body...
A young woman with long hair, the smoky, shadowy form of Lily Potter, blossomed from the end of Voldemort's wand and levitated next to her husband and looked at Harry, smiling.
"When the connection is broken, we will linger for only moments," she said. "But we will give you and your friends enough time… Gather everyone and let Draco take you back to Hogwarts... do you understand, Harry?"
Harry could do nothing but nod, his wand slipping through his fingers.
"Harry…" Lupin said. "Take my body with you."
Harry nodded again.
"Do it now…" James and Lily Potter said together. "Be ready to run… Do it!"
"NOW!" Harry yelled and wrenched away his boiling wand.
The cage of golden lightning disappeared, and the Phoenix's song humming in his ears vanished as well.
The ghosts were still there, though.
Together, they lunged toward Voldemort and blasted right into him, making him stumble back with a gasp.
"DRACO!" Harry yelled once again. "HOGWARTS!!"
And, without hearing more from Harry, all knew that this was it.
If they didn't manage to escape now, then…
… there would be nothing left to escape with.