Harry's thoughts were racing as he stared at the tip of Voldemort's wand, which was pointed straight at his chest. A memory of a Defense class from his fourth year at Hogwarts came to his mind unbidden. Barty Crouch, Jr., disguised as Alastor Moody, had trained him to throw off the Imperius curse at will. Once Voldemort allowed Harry to leave, he would be able to throw off the curse and return to Hogwarts with no trouble. Harry suppressed a smile as he raised seemingly fearful eyes toward Voldemort's. "I guess I shall have to choose the Imperius," he said slowly.
"I thought you might be wise enough to choose that," Voldemort said silkily. He raised his wand and intoned the spell, directing it toward Harry.
Instantly, Harry felt his mind cloud. Voldemort's voice echoed inside of Harry's head, giving him instructions. Return to Hogwarts. Protect any students that might be working for me from Dumbledore's scrutiny. Do what you must to prevent Dumbledore from discovering my existence. The commands continued in a long, steady stream. Fuzzily, Harry wondered whether he'd be able to throw of the curse if it included so many commands. Telling Crouch, Jr., that he was not going to jump on a desk was a far cry different than overcoming a complicated set of instructions. Finally, Voldemort ran out of instructions for Harry and finalized the whole curse by instructing Harry to obey his every request.
Unsure about what to do now that Voldemort was finished with the spell, Harry stood woodenly, watching the dark lord's every movement. This seemed to be the correct choice because Voldemort casually walked to the bar and poured himself a glass of firewhiskey, ignoring Harry completely. Taking a sip from his glass, Voldemort sighed and sat down.
The dark lord indulged in a well-satisfied smile and looked at Harry. "Tell me, Mr. Ashworth. What is the secret that you were attempting to hid from me?"
Harry cursed to himself through the fog that was the Imperius curse. He couldn't lie while the curse was in place, but would Voldemort know if he broke the curse before leaving? The answer was probably yes . Even if Voldemort could not actively monitor the curse, the dark lord would probably be acute enough to realize that Harry had thrown the curse and was lying.
"Can you hear me, Harry?" Voldemort said as he leaned forward, staring into Harry's eyes carefully.
Time was running out. Harry realized that he was going to have to overwhelm the Imperius curse and escape from Voldemort as quickly as he could. The element of surprise would help him-a little. If he could get off a spell likely to cause a maximum of damage and distraction, he would stand a chance. As he mulled his options, he realized that he was limited only by how much risk he was willing to take. Feeling awfully desperate, Harry chose his spell.
"Mr. Ashworth!" Voldemort said, a slight note of confusion in his voice betraying his concern for whether his Imperius curse had been successful. "Answer me, now. From now on, you will obey all commands promptly." Voldemort smiled, reckoning that he had discovered the problem and solution to Harry's lack of response.
Harry looked into Voldemort's eyes and snapped the curse from his mind as he had been trained. It seemed that Voldemort detected this action immediately, for his red-tinged eyes widened in shock as Harry abruptly drew his wand and with a broad sweep and loud incantation summoned a wave of fiendfyre, shooting it in the dark lord's direction. Wasting no time, Harry pointed his wand at the wall behind the fireplace and yelled, " Reducto! " as Voldemort hissed in fury while trying to neutralize Harry's magic.
The wall exploded outward into the night and Harry ran through the hole in the wall, scraping his arms and face on the rubble. He spun around and summoned another wave of fiendfyre, directing it with great difficulty toward the hole through which he had escaped. He ran a few yards to escape any anti-apparition wards Voldemort may have erected and then apparated to a random forest. Harry began running through the underbrush until he heard the distinctive pop of Voldemort apparating to where Harry himself had landed.
Harry froze, attempting to not make any noise. He considered apparating instantly, but opted to bide his time to see whether Voldemort might move on in his search. Unfortunately, Voldemort saw through this ploy, simple as it was. Wantonly, the dark lord waved his wand and set fire to the forest. The instant light blinded Harry and exposed him to Voldemort's view. Harry instantly apparated, but not before a nasty cutting jinx from the dark lord sliced the side of his torso. He landed in the middle of a Muggle street in London, dashed a few feet and apparated again to a spot very close by, repeating this step a few times before apparating back to another random forest.
Anticipating that the mixed trail he had left in London would buy him a little bit of time, Harry pointed his wand down at a shallow angle. Immediately, a jet of fire shot from the wand and Harry spun where he stood, lighting everything within a ten-foot radius on fire. He then apparated about a hundred yards away to observe his handiwork. Very soon, Voldemort arrived, apparating directly into the flames. The dark lord screamed, though Harry suspected it was more a result of his fury than any pain the flames might be causing. To distract Voldemort, Harry summoned yet another wave of fiendfyre, wincing at the amount of magical energy it took him to direct it toward Voldemort. This will have to be the last fiendfyre for the night, Harry concluded.
While Voldemort attempted to use a flame freezing charm on the miniature forest fire and negate the fiendfyre simultaneously all while shooting random curses that he hoped might find Harry, Harry cast a charm causing a number of firecrackers to appear above Voldemort. Instantly, the firecrackers began to explode, reassemble, and explode again causing loud explosions and blinding flashes of light. Using the staccato explosions to mask the sound of his movements and magic, Harry quickly began to apparate back and forth and around the forest leaving a very complicated and convoluted trail for Voldemort to follow. He finished up with his last apparition taking him to where he had started. Happily Voldemort was still dealing with the fiendfyre. It had taken hold on some of the surrounding shrubbery and was resisting the dark lord's attempts to extinguish it.
Harry then ran through the forest and scrounged in his pocket for a random object. Finding a knut, Harry drew it from his pocket and transformed it into a portkey with a quick tap of his wand. Instantly, it transported Harry to the street that functioned as the entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Realizing that he could now have both Ministry employees and Voldemort on his tail, Harry instantly apparated to Diagon Alley. Hoping that the alley had enough apparition traffic to mask his own, Harry then apparated to the sea-side and landed near the edge of a rather tall cliff from which he hoped to make his final move.
Harry spotted a rather large boulder that was set into the dirt near the edge of the cliff. He walked over and stood squarely over the center of the large rock. Regretting that he didn't know any flying charms and did not have the ability to transfigure rocks into flying brooms, Harry hoped that Muggle physics might work in his favor. Gripping his wand with both hands and putting his back to the ocean, Harry cast a charm to prevent the rock from moving and then a banishing charm at a slight angle. The banishing charm on the boulder transformed into a repelling charm on Harry, causing him to be catapulted out toward the ocean.
When Harry judged that he had been thrown quite far enough over the water and was too near to hitting the waves, he apparated to the Hogwarts boundary and sprinted onto the grounds. Try and find that apparition point, snake-face, Harry smirked as he tiredly walked toward the castle, vaguely wondering if Voldemort had ever even found the portkey trail.