Harry Potter 06 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

bellowed.
    ‘Cruc—’ yelled Harry for the second time, aiming for the figure ahead illuminated in the dancing firelight, but Snape blocked the spell again; Harry could see him sneering.
    ‘No Unforgivable Curses from you, Potter!’ he shouted over the rushing of the flames, Hagrid’s yells and the wild yelping of the trapped Fang. ‘You haven’t got the nerve or the ability –’
    ‘Incarc—’ Harry roared, but Snape deflected the spell with an almost lazy flick of his arm.
    ‘Fight back!’ Harry screamed at him. ‘Fight back, you cowardly –’
    ‘Coward, did you call me, Potter?’ shouted Snape. ‘Your father would never attack me unless it was four on one, what would you call him, I wonder?’
    ‘Stupe—’
    ‘Blocked again, and again, and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and your mind closed, Potter!’ sneered Snape, deflecting the curse once more. ‘Now come !’ he shouted at the huge Death Eater behind Harry. ‘It is time to be gone, before the Ministry turns up –’
    ‘Impedi—’
    But before he could finish this jinx, excruciating pain hit Harry; he keeled over in the grass, someone was screaming, he would surely die of this agony, Snape was going to torture him to death or madness –
    ‘No!’ roared Snape’s voice and the pain stopped as suddenly as it had started; Harry lay curled on the dark grass, clutching his wand and panting; somewhere above him Snape was shouting, ‘Have you forgotten our orders? Potter belongs to the Dark Lord – we are to leave him! Go! Go!’
    And Harry felt the ground shudder under his face as the brother and sister and the enormous Death Eater obeyed, running towards the gates. Harry uttered an inarticulate yell of rage: in that instant, he cared not whether he lived or died; pushing himself to his feet again, he staggered blindly towards Snape, the man he now hated as much as he hated Voldemort himself –
    ‘Sectum—’
    Snape flicked his wand and the curse was repelled yet again; but Harry was mere feet away now and he could see Snape’s face clearly at last: he was no longer sneering or jeering; the blazing flames showed a face full of rage. Mustering all his powers of concentration, Harry thought, Levi—
    ‘No, Potter!’ screamed Snape. There was a loud BANG and Harry was soaring backwards, hitting the ground hard again, and this time his wand flew out of his hand. He could hear Hagrid yelling and Fang howling as Snape closed in and looked down on him where he lay, wandless and defenceless as Dumbledore had been. Snape’s pale face, illuminated by the flaming cabin, was suffused with hatred just as it had been before he had cursed Dumbledore.
    ‘You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them – I, the Half-Blood Prince! And you’d turn my inventions on me, like your filthy father, would you? I don’t think so … no !’
    Harry had dived for his wand; Snape shot a hex at it and it flew feet away into the darkness and out of sight.
    ‘Kill me, then,’ panted Harry, who felt no fear at all, but only rage and contempt. ‘Kill me like you killed him, you coward –’
    ‘DON’T –’ screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the burning house behind them, ‘– CALL ME COWARD!’
    And he slashed at the air: Harry felt a white-hot, whiplike something hit him across the face and was slammed backwards into the ground. Spots of light burst in front of his eyes and for a moment all the breath seemed to have gone from his body, then he heard a rush of wings above him and something enormous obscured the stars: Buckbeak had flown at Snape, who staggered backwards as the razor-sharp claws slashed at him. As Harry raised himself into a sitting position, his head still swimming from its last contact with the ground, he saw Snape running as hard as he could, the enormous beast flapping behind him and screeching as Harry had never heard him screech –
    Harry struggled to his feet, looking around groggily for his wand, hoping to give chase again, but even as his fingers fumbled in the grass, discarding twigs, he knew it would be too late, and sure enough, by the time he had located his wand he turned only to see the Hippogriff circling the gates: Snape had managed to Disapparate just beyond the school’s boundaries.
    ‘Hagrid,’ muttered Harry, still dazed, looking around. ‘HAGRID?’
    He stumbled towards