"I'm strong enough for this," Johnny gasped, standing to his feet.

"Really?" Voldemort hissed, sarcasm dripping through his voice. "I thought you would be useful to our cause, Johnathan, but I see now, you're not. Avada Kedavra!"

Harry watched in horror as the green light hit his best friend square in the chest, his ocean blue eyes fading into a dull grey. What would he tell Hermione? Harry wasn't good at consoling grieving people.

"Wormtail, give Harry his wand," Voldemort said once again, his patience deteriorating.

Wormtail approached Harry, who scrambled to find his feet, to support his own weight. There was a split second, perhaps, when Harry might have considered running for it, but his injured leg shook under him as he stood on the overgrown grave, as the Death Eaters closed ranks, forming a tighter circle around him and Voldemort, so that the gaps where the missing Death Eaters should have stood were filled. Wormtail walked to the place where Johnny's body lay and returned with Harry's wand, which he thrust roughly into Harry's hand without looking at him. Then Wormtail resumed his place in the circle of watching Death Eaters.

"You have been taught how to duel, Harry Potter?" said Voldemort softly, his red eyes glinting through the darkness.

At these words Harry remembered, as though from a former life, the dueling club at Hogwarts he had attended briefly two years ago... All he had learned there was the Disarming Spell, "Expelliarmus"... and what use would it be to deprive Voldemort of his wand, even if he could, when he was surrounded by Death Eaters, outnumbered by at least thirty to one?

"We bow to each other, Harry," said Voldemort, bending a little, but keeping his snakelike face upturned to Harry. "Come, the niceties must be observed... Dumbledore would like you to show manners.... Bow to death, Harry..."

The Death Eaters were laughing again. Voldemort's lipless mouth was smiling. Harry did not bow. He was not going to let Voldemort play with him before killing him...he was not going to give him that satisfaction....

"I said, bow," Voldemort said, raising his wand - and Harry felt his spine curve as though a huge, invisible hand were bending him ruthlessly forward, and the Death Eaters laughed harder than ever.

"Very good," said Voldemort softly, and as he raised his wand the pressure bearing down upon Harry lifted too. "And now you face me, like a man... straight-backed and proud, the way your father died... And now - we duel."

Voldemort raised his wand, and before Harry could do anything to defend himself, before he could even move, he had been hit again by the Cruciatus Curse. The pain was so intense, so all-consuming, that he no longer knew where he was... White-hot knives were piercing every inch of his skin, his head was surely going to burst with pain, he was screaming more loudly than he'd ever screamed in his life -

And then it stopped. Harry rolled over and scrambled to his feet; he was shaking as uncontrollably as Wormtail had done when his hand had been cut off; he staggered sideways into the wall of watching Death Eaters, and they pushed him away, back toward Voldemort.

"A little break," said Voldemort, the slit-like nostrils dilating with excitement, "a little pause... That hurt, didn't it. Harry? You don't want me to do that again, do you?"

Harry didn't answer. He was going to die like Johnny, those pitiless red eyes were telling him so... he was going to die, and there was nothing he could do about it... but he wasn't going to play along. He wasn't going to obey Voldemort... he wasn't going to beg....

"I asked you whether you want me to do that again," said Voldemort softly. "Answer me! Imperio!"

And Harry felt, for the third time in his life, the sensation that his mind had been wiped of all thought... Ah, it was bliss, not to think, it was as though he were floating, dreaming... just answer no... say no... just answer no....

I will not, said a stronger voice, in the back of his head, I won't answer....

Just answer no....

I won't do it, I won't say it....

Just answer no....

"I WON'T!"

And these words burst from Harry's mouth; they echoed through the graveyard, and the dream state was lifted as suddenly as though cold water had been thrown over him - back rushed the aches that the Cruciatus Curse had left all over his body - back rushed the realization of where he was, and what he was facing....

"You won't?" said Voldemort quietly, and the Death Eaters were not laughing now. "You won't say no? Harry, obedience is a virtue I need to teach you before you die... Perhaps another little dose of pain?"

"You know," came a voice from behind them, causing the Death Eaters to gasp. "You must really get better at your Killing Curse, Tom, that's the second person who's lived."

Harry spun around to see a very pale and weak Johnny leaning on the gravestone for support.

Though Voldemort looked calm and collected, Johnny could see the fear in his eyes as he stared at him. "You might have killed Mozart, Tom, but I'll gain a new inner wolf, what do you think I should name him? Beethoven? Schubert?"

Voldemort raised his wand, but Johnny was ready; with the reflexes born of his Quidditch training, he flung himself and Harry sideways onto the ground; they rolled behind the marble headstone of Voldemort's father, and they heard it crack as the curse missed them.

"How the bloody hell are you alive?" Harry whisper/yelled.

"Like I said," Johnny muttered with a smirk. "He only killed Mozart, to kill me he'd have to hit me twice."

"We are not playing hide-and-seek, boys," said Voldemort's soft, cold voice, drawing nearer, as the Death Eaters laughed. "You cannot hide from me. Does this mean you are tired? Does this mean that you would prefer me to finish it now? I'll even make sure your dead properly this time, Johnathan."

"Ready?" Harry asked Johnny.

"I'm with you, Harry, until the end of the line," Johnny said, placing his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Stay here, and I'll face him."

"What!? No!" Harry said in shock.

"Stay, and give me your wand," Johnny growled.

"Where's yours?" Harry asked.

"At the Castle."

Before Voldemort could stick his snakelike face around the headstone. Johnny stood up... he gripped Harry's wand tightly in his hand, thrust it out in front of him, and threw himself around the headstone, facing Voldemort.

Voldemort was ready. As Johnny shouted, "Expelliarmus!" Voldemort cried, "Avada Kedavra!"

A jet of green light issued from Voldemort's wand just as a jet of red light blasted from Harry's - they met in midair - and suddenly Harry's wand was vibrating as though an electric charge were surging through it; Johnny's hand seized up around it; he couldn't have released it if he'd wanted to - and a narrow beam of light connected the two wands, neither red nor green, but bright, deep gold. Johnny, following the beam with his astonished gaze, saw that Voldemort's long white fingers too were gripping a wand that was shaking and vibrating.

And then - nothing could have prepared them for this - Johnny felt his feet lift from the ground. He and Voldemort were both being raised into the air, the wands still connected by that thread of shimmering golden light. They glided away from the tombstone of Voldemort's father and then came to rest on a patch of ground that was clear and free of graves... Harry was crouched behind Voldemort's fathers grave... The Death Eaters were shouting; they were asking Voldemort for instructions; they were closing in, reforming the circle around Johnny and Voldemort, the snake slithering at their heels, some of them drawing their wands -

The golden thread connecting Johnny and Voldemort splintered; though the wands remained connected, a thousand more beams arced high over Johnny and Voldemort, crisscrossing all around them, until they were enclosed in a golden, dome-shaped web, a cage of light, beyond which the Death Eaters circled like jackals, their cries strangely muffled now...

"Do nothing!" Voldemort shrieked to the Death Eaters, and Johnny saw his red eyes wide with astonishment at what was happening, saw him fighting to break the thread of light still connecting his wand with Harry's; Johnny held onto Harry's wand more tightly, with both hands, and the golden thread remained unbroken. "Do nothing unless I command you!" Voldemort shouted to the Death Eaters.

And then an unearthly and beautiful sound filled the air... It was coming from every thread of the light-spun web vibrating around Johnny and Voldemort. It was a sound Johnny recognised, though he had heard it only once before in his life: phoenix song.

It was the sound of hope to Johnny... the most beautiful and welcome thing he had ever heard in his life... He felt as though the song were inside him instead of just around him... It was the sound he connected with Dumbledore, and it was almost as though a friend were speaking in his ear...

Don't break the connection.

I know.

Johnny told the music, but no sooner had he thought it, than the thing became much harder to do. Harry's wand began to vibrate more powerfully than ever... and now the beam between Johnny and Voldemort changed too... it was as though large beads of light were sliding up and down the thread connecting the wands - Johnny felt his wand give a shudder under his hand as the light beads began to slide slowly and steadily his way... The direction of the beams movement was now toward him, from Voldemort, and he felt his wand shudder angrily....

As the closest bead of light moved nearer to Harry's wand tip, the wood beneath Johnny's fingers grew so hot he feared it would burst into flame. The closer that bead moved, the harder Harry's wand vibrated; Johnny was sure the wand would not survive contact with it; it felt as though it was about to shatter under his fingers -

Johnny concentrated every last particle of his mind upon forcing the bead back toward Voldemort, his ears full of phoenix song, his eyes furious red, fixed... and slowly, very slowly, the beads quivered to a halt, and then, just as slowly, they began to move the other way... and it was Voldemort's wand that was vibrating extra-hard now... Voldemort who looked astonished, and almost fearful...

One of the beads of light was quivering, inches from the tip of Voldemort's wand. Johnny didn't understand why he was doing it, didn't know what it might achieve... but he now concentrated as he had never done in his life on forcing that bead of light right back into Voldemort's wand... and slowly... very slowly... it moved along the golden thread... it trembled for a moment... and then it connected....

At once, Voldemort's wand began to emit echoing screams of pain... then - Voldemort's red eyes widened with shock - a dense, smoky hand flew out of the tip of it and vanished... the ghost of the hand he had made Wormtail... more screams of pain from the wand... and then something else emerged from its tip... the dense shadow of a second head, quickly followed by arms and torso... an old man was now pushing himself out of the end of the wand just as the hand had done... and his ghost, or his shadow, or whatever it was, fell, and surveyed Johnny and Voldemort, and the golden web, and the connected wands, with mild surprise, leaning on his walking stick...

"He was a real wizard, then?" the old man said, his eyes on Voldemort. "Killed me, that one did... You fight him, boy..."

But already, yet another head was emerging... and this head, gray as a smoky statue, was a woman's...

Johnny, both arms shaking now as he fought to keep Harry's wand still, saw her drop to the ground and straighten up like the others, staring....

The shadow of Bertha Jorkins surveyed the battle before her with wide eyes.

"Don't let go, now!" she cried, and her voice echoed like the old man's as though from very far away. "Don't let him get you, Johnny - don't let go!"

She and the other shadowy figure began to pace around the inner walls of the golden web, while the Death Eaters flitted around the outside of it... and Voldemort's dead victims whispered as they circled the duelers, whispered words of encouragement to Johnny, and hissed words Johnny couldn't hear to Voldemort.

And now another head was emerging from the tip of Voldemort's wand... and Johnny knew when he saw it who it would be... he knew, as though he had expected it from the moment when the old man appeared had appeared from the wand... the smoky shadow of a tall man with untidy hair fell to the ground as Bertha had done, straightened up, and looked at him... and Johnny, his arms shaking madly now, looked back into the ghostly face of his uncle.

"Hey bud, your aunt's coming..." he 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, fell to the ground, and straightened like her husband. She walked close to Johnny, looking down at him, and she spoke in the same distant, echoing voice as the others, but quietly, so that Voldemort, his face now livid with fear as his victims prowled around him, could not hear...

"When the connection is broken, we will linger for only moments... but we will give you time... you must get to Harry and the Portkey, it will return you to Hogwarts... do you understand, Johnny?"

"Yes," Johnny gasped, a tear rolling down his cheek as he kept fighting now to keep a hold on his wand, which was slipping and sliding beneath his fingers.

"James and I want to thank you for looking after Harry," Lily whispered. "We're so proud to call you are nephew."

"Do it now," whispered his uncle's voice, "be ready to run... do it now..."

"NOW!" Johnny yelled; he didn't think he could have held on for another moment anyway - Johnny pulled Harry's wand upward with an almighty wrench, and the golden thread broke; the cage of light vanished, the phoenix song died - but the shadowy figures of Voldemort's victims did not disappear - they were closing in upon Voldemort, shielding Johnny from his gaze -

And Johnny ran as he had never run in his life, knocking two stunned Jakob and Lucius aside as he passed; he zigzagged behind headstones, feeling their curses following him, hearing them hit the headstones - he was dodging curses and graves, pelting toward Harry.

"Stun him!" he heard Voldemort scream.

"Stand aside! I will kill him! He is mine!" shrieked Voldemort. Johnny's hand had closed on Harry's wrist; one tombstone stood between them and Voldemort.

Voldemort's red eyes flamed in the darkness. Johnny saw his mouth curl into a smile, saw him raise his wand.

"Accio!" Harry yelled, taking his wand back from Johnny, pointing his wand at the Triwizard Cup.

"Sectumsempra!!" All the two boys saw was a flash as they zoomed back.

The two boys landed on the grass of the Quidditch stadium, right in front of the maze's entrance, with a hard thud. The cheers erupted upon their arrival, the crowd thinking that Harry had won... 

"Johnny, we're here..." Harry smiled widely, shaking Johnny's shoulder.

"Johnny!" Harry yelled, tears rolling freely down his cheeks as he looked down and saw his friend's eyes were now shut. "Johnny! Please! No, no, no!" 

Then, a pair of hands had seized Harry's shoulder. Looking up, he saw Dumbledore and Gellert, but Gellert's gaze was focused completely on Johnny. 

"Harry... what happened...?" Dumbledore asked.

"He's back," Harry cried, "Voldemort's back! We have to do something! Johnny saved me!" 

The crowd had gone into a state of shock as they realised that Johnny wasn't moving. Hermione's sobs filled the silent air. Hermione was pushing her way past every single person in her way.

"No... no... no!" Hermione sobbed as Gellert moved from his grandson to comfort Hermione. She cried into Gellert's chest, the older man even letting out his own tears.

"JOHNNY!" Hermione screamed into Gellert's chest, her eyes resting on Johnny's motionless body. She stepped away from Gellert and crouched beside Johnny. "Johnny, p-please, y-you promised w-we'll be together forever!"

"Minerva! Alastor! Ludo! Severus!" Dumbledore called, his voice shaking as he kneeled down next to Johnny's body. "Keep the crowd back! Please!" 

Moody, Bagman, Snape and McGonagall did as they were told, despite their own concern, and formed a semi-circle around Dumbledore, Gellert, Hermione, Harry, and Johnny, blocking them from the view of the crowd. The Weasley's, Dani and Pansy now finding their way down to the grass, gasping at the sight. 

"Johnny! NO!" Pansy cried, seeing a peak of her best friend through the gaps of the teachers. The girl went to rush forward but Dani pulled her back into a tight hug.

"I can't... I couldn't..." Harry started, his own voice crack cut him off. 

Gellert leaned his head down on Johnny's chest, searching for a heartbeat, and he found one, but it was very feint.

"Help me, Albus... please?" Gellert said, holding himself together.

"W-what is it?" Hermione asked, a slight twang of hope in her voice as Johnny's blood soaked her hands from where she was clutching Johnny's white, blood-stained shirt.

"There's a faint heartbeat, Vulnera Sanentur," Gellert informed them, running his wand over Johnny's cuts. Dumbledore and Harry followed Gellert's actions, and together it sounded like a tribal chant, or an old spell from the Salem Witch Trials.

"Again, Albus, Harry," Gellert called. 

"Come on, baby," Hermione muttered, her hand clutching Johnny's.

"Vulnera Sanentur." 

With the final chant of the spell, Johnny's wounds began to knit themselves. Yet, his eyes hadn't opened. 

"Why isn't he waking up?!" Hermione asked urgently.

Gellert shook his head and leaned his head back down on the boy's chest. This time, there was no heartbeat whatsoever... 

"No, Johnny!" Gellert cried, pointing his wand back at his grandson's chest. "Impulsa!" 

Johnny's body jolted. Still... the boy didn't respond. 

Snape, McGonagall, Bagman and Moody were casting spells to keep the crowd at a distance.

Watching in what felt like slow motion, Harry and Hermione heard Gellert repeat the spell, and another jolt of electricity went through Johnny's chest. 

"Impulsa!" 

Nothing. 

"Impulsa!" 

Again, nothing.

One last time, Gellert croaked out, "Impulsa!" before collapsing on his grandson's chest, a painful cry erupting from his throat.

"Happy anniversary, my Queen," a croaky voice broke everyone out of their sobs. Johnny was laying in the grass, pale and bloody, smiling weakly at Hermione who burst into happy sobs as she kissed her now very much alive boyfriend.

"I fucking hate you!" Hermione exclaimed, her eyes full of anger, amusement, worry and love.

"I fucking love you too," Johnny grinned weakly.

A/n: the last idea where Johnny "dies" was taken from 'The Boy Who Loved" by -we-are-infinite-. If you haven't seen her book please go check it out. It's amazing!