After seven years of being under the threat of Lord Voldemort, er You Know Who, it was nearing time for the final battle. There was no escaping it. The fate of the wizarding and Muggle world rested on the shoulders of an 18 year old male.
The Death Eaters were planning to attack Hogwarts in just a few hours. Most of the members of the Order of the Phoenix were in Hogwarts to protect the students. The members of the order did not have enough warning to get the students home and out of harm's way before the attack. They were grateful for the warning that they had though. Unbeknownst to Lord Voldemort, there were two people spying on him.
Professor Snape was one of those men. The previous year, he had to kill the leader of the Order and Headmaster of Hogwarts, Dumbledore, to maintain his cover. With the death of Dumbledore, Voldemort was certain that Severus Snape was faithful to him.
The other man was one that nobody would question as being unfaithful. Lucius Malfoy was Voldemort's right hand man. Lucius had even tried to kill Harry two years ago at the Department of Mysteries. So it came as a major shock to everyone when he arrived at the emergency meeting just after Dumbledore was killed.
This meeting was held at the headquarters, with those members that were able to attend. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were the first ones to arrive, followed closely by Tonks. Mad Eye and Remus Lupin brought the trio, Ginny and the twins. Everyone was still in a state of shock. They were even more shocked when Snape arrived with not only Draco but Lucius.
Once the inevitable pandemonium settled down, Snape was able to explain his role in what had happened that day. After finding the ring and being injured, Dumbledore needed a potion that would keep the poison from spreading from his blackened hand to the rest of his body before he could teach Harry about the horcruxes. The only person he could trust was Snape.
Dumbledore knew it would just be a matter of time before his slow reaction speed would mean his death. While Dumbledore was explaining this to Snape, Snape told the headmaster about the Unbreakable Vow that he had been forced to make with Narcissa. The two then concocted the plan that would help Snape prove that he was loyal to Voldemort. The plan was a success. Draco never had to kill; Snape was able to prove his loyalties by killing Dumbledore, ending Dumbledore's pain.
On the other hand, Lucius had never made Voldemort question his loyalty. Lucius was the one that tricked Ginny into taking the diary into the school her first year. He had joined the other Death Eaters at the Quidditch Cup and when Voldemort was reborn in Harry's fourth year. Harry's fifth year, Lucius had tried to kill him at the Department of Mysteries.
Lucius explained that he had turned spy for the Order when Draco was born. He did not want his son to experience the same horrors he had seen and even participated in. Lucius had also learned that Voldemort lied to his followers and was really a half blood. Malfoys can't stand being lied to. Therefore, he had turned spy. Lucius knew that Snape was a spy and kept his secret. He had even passed messages to Snape to ensure that the Order knew what was going on. During the years that Voldemort was gone, Lucius thought his job was done. Then Voldemort returned in Draco's first year at Hogwarts. Lucius had to make certain that Voldemort was defeated once and for all.
Lucius had found some information regarding the Dark Lord and horcruxes. Lucius figured this would appeal to Voldemort and started to snoop around. Lucius was able to find what were used as the horcruxes.
During the year between Dumbledore's death and the final battle, the relationship between the Order, the Malfoys and Snape was strained to say the least. Nobody was certain that they could trust Snape, Lucius and Draco. Lucius was able to give the location of the remaining horcruxes and the tactical advice on how to destroy them. The relationship wasn't as strained after two of the horcruxes were destroyed but it was still tense.
The beginning of the school year brought little change. Snape and Lucius were still spies, the Order was still fighting Voldemort and all the kids returned to Hogwarts, even Harry. The twins still ran their shop.
Harry started to distance himself from his friends as he thought about the prophecy. He would roam the castle at night under his invisibility cloak since he was no longer able to sleep. During one of his late night wanderings, he found himself drawn to the Chamber of Secrets. Entering it, he found a lab of Salazar Slytherin's. This included all of his research. Once he found that room, Harry would read until the early morning and then return to his dorm.
Three months after returning to the chamber, Lucius and Severus brought the news that the attack was coming the next day.
While the Order met and prepared for the last battle, Severus went back to his lab to prepare the Wound Healing potion for Pomfrey. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco were at the meeting also. Harry had a plan but knew the Order would never let him do it. However, Lucius and Snape would help. But first, he needed to talk with them about it.
"I think we need to help Prof. Snape with the potion" said Harry.
"Good idea. I think he will need all the help he can get" said Remus Lupin.
The four students stood up and left the room. As he was leaving, Harry caught Lucius's eyes and motioned for him to follow.
Lucius stood up. "I believe I need to leave as well. I will return for the battle once the potions have been brewed." He then followed the students out.
"What is it you need, Harry" Lucius asked once they reached the hallway.
"I have an idea that I need your help with. I will explain when we get to the dungeons." stated Harry.
Snape looked up in surprise when the five of them walked into his lab.
"Harry has an idea" Lucius told him before he could open his mouth in protest.
Harry told them about the chamber and what he had found out in Salazar's research. With that knowledge, he was able to come up with a plan to get rid of Voldemort forever. All he had to do was get Voldemort into a particular classroom.
This classroom was unique at Hogwarts. It was originally designed for an instructor to teach students hand to hand combat. Students were not supposed to use magic during this training so the room was enchanted to punish any offenders. The spell would rebound onto the caster. If someone were to cast a Babbling Curse on their opponent, the caster would actually be the one babbling nonsense.
"Let me get this straight. You want to lure Voldemort to this room and have him try to kill you?" asked Draco in shock.
"Yes."
"Willingly?"
"Yes."
"Evanesco" said Snape. Harry glanced up at the potions master as he cleaned out the cauldron and started on another batch of the wound healing potion.
Harry returned his gaze to the others in the room with him. Ron was too stunned to speak and Hermione looked like she was going to pass out from fright. Draco was still staring at him in awe. Lucius was the only one that looked calm.
"Here's what I need you to do" said Harry as he laid out his entire plan.
After agreeing on the plan, the students took the stock of potion to the hospital wing and returned to the headmistress's office. The meeting for the Order was just finishing. It was explained to the four students that there was not enough time to get the students out of the school before the attack. The best they could do was to put all the students in the Great Hall and have members of the order protect them. The sixth and seventh years would have to help as a line of last defense.
Hearing this plan, Draco frowned. Lucius noticed this.
"What is wrong, Draco?" asked his father.
"Well, if we do that don't we run the risk of students getting injured or dying?" he asked.
"Of course, young Mister Malfoy. This is war not a picnic." replied Moody.
"Wouldn't it be better to get the students somewhere that will be safe? Draco responded starting to smile.
"Since you weren't listening, we said we don't have time to get them off the school grounds" snapped McGonagall.
"Actually I did hear you. What about a room that was required to be big enough to hold all the students and keep them safe from intruders?" Draco had a mischievous look in his eyes.
The three students looked and each other, looked at Draco and then all four started to laugh.
The adults just looked on thinking that they had finally cracked from the stress.
"Brilliant, mate. Just brilliant." said Ron Weasley through the laughter.
"Feel like sharing, Draco?" Lucius asked.
"It's simple" Hermione replied. "The four of us open the Room of Requirement. The students enter. They remain there until we send the signal to Neville and Luna."
"And what signal would that be, Miss Granger?" asked Moody.
"We will activate the coins from the DA club. That will mean that it is safe to come out. It's brilliant. The students will be safe and out of the way. We won't have to worry about them being injured or killed. All the members of the Order will be able to fight the Death Eaters and we don't have to worry about guarding the students. The school will do that for us." Hermione was practically bouncing while she explained.
The adults looked stunned for a minute. Finally Remus walked over to Lucius, shook his hand and said "Congratulations."
The attack was going to begin soon. The students were woken up and brought to the hall. Headmistress McGonagall explained the situation to them. Once she was able to quiet them down, the students were taken to the Room of Requirement. Harry opened the room and ushered the students in. Hermione made certain Neville and Luna had their coins. Ron ran back to the dorm to get the Marauder's Map. Draco was deep in conversation with his father.
The alarm sounded. The Death Eaters were close.
Hagrid and other order members had Fluffy at the main gate. They were hoping that the shock of seeing a huge three headed dog as their greeter would startle the Death Eaters long enough to take some of them down. Other members were stationed at various locations within the castle.
Harry, Hermione, Ron and Draco were near the Gryffindor tower by the room where Harry was trying to lure Voldemort. They watched as new names started to appear on the map. The Death Eaters had entered Hogwarts.
"Look! There he is" exclaimed Harry. They watched as the footsteps on the map that were labeled Tom Riddle were making their way to the Great Hall.
"The map says Tom Riddle and not Lord Voldemort. I wonder why." mused Hermione.
"Probably because the map shows who you are and not who you pretend to be" replied Harry.
"Guys, did you ever think that now might not be the time to discuss the philosophical questions regarding the map? Can we save this for later?" Draco asked.
"Company's coming" Ron said, drawing their attention back to the map.
The footsteps were getting closer to the. They were joined with footsteps marked Peter Pettigrew.
"Don't worry, Harry. We expected Wormtail to join him. Ron and I have a plan. We'll take care of him. Ron, let's go." Draco started down the hallway.
"Later, Harry" Ron said as he passed him to join Draco.
Hermione and Harry watched as the two got closer. All of a sudden, they ran another way with Wormtail following them.
"Do you have any idea what they planned?" asked Harry curiously.
"No idea. He's getting closer. He'll hear us soon. Now remember, as soon as you two enter the room, I am going to charm it so no one will be able to enter. We don't want interruptions."
"Yes Hermione, I remember. You just need to stay hidden under the invisibility cloak and stupefy anyone that gets close to us. He's close. I need to get into position." Harry stepped out into the middle of the hallway and took a deep breath.
Voldemort rounded the corner and stopped. There was the person he was looking for just waiting for him. "Potter" he growled.
Harry bolted into the room. Voldemort followed his prey into a classroom. As soon as the door closed, Hermione released the spell to keep everyone out.
"Idiot boy. Do you really think you have a chance at beating me?"
Harry turned to face the person that spoke to him.
Voldemort had a gleam in his eye. It was the gleam of someone that knew he would be victorious.
"Look around you, boy. There are no other ways in or out of the room. The only way you can leave is behind me. But then again, I don't suspect you'll be leaving this room anyway" Voldemort sneered.
Harry looked at him calmly.
"Of course I have a chance. Prophesies would not just send someone to their death. We are so evenly matched that they don't know who will win. I must thank you for that, I suppose."
"Thank me! You really are an idiot" Voldemort raised his wand but before he could speak, Harry cut him off.
"It was a self fulfilling prophecy. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies . and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not . and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives . the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies .' You see, had you not come to kill me that night, you would not have marked me. You would have been unstoppable. But since you tried to kill me, you made me your equal. You gave me the power to kill you. But then again, sometimes doing nothing is the hardest thing to do. You still haven't learned, have you? You know why I fight you? You keep trying to kill me. You keep attacking me. I have only fought you in self defense. I have never gone looking for you. Not even after Sirius died. I was leaving you alone. I was not hunting you down trying to kill you. But that is not in your nature, is it?" Harry looked at Voldemort with pity.
Voldemort was beyond angry at this point. All he could think of was killing the insolent brat in front of him.
"Time for you to join your family, Potter" Voldemort spat out.
Harry raised his wand. "We will see. It is not over yet. The last move has yet to be made."
Voldemort smiled coldly. "Avada Kedavra"
There was a flash of green and Voldemort crumpled to the ground.
"The hardest thing is to do nothing" muttered Harry.
He stood there looking sadly at his fallen enemy for a few minutes. He then held his head up high and walked to the door. He listened carefully to make certain it was safe to leave them room. It would suck if I was killed by one of his followers after killing him, thought Harry. There was no sound so he opened the door cautiously and peeked out.
"Harry!" exclaimed Hermione. She ran over and gave him a hug.
Harry put his head down on Hermione's shoulder. "Hey. How's the battle going?"
"It looks like the order members have corralled all the Death Eaters in the Great Hall. Why don't we go join them?"
"In a few minutes." They stood like that holding each other for a few minutes before walking to the other order members.
When they got there, they noticed that a few of the DE were unconscious. For the most part, the order members looked to be uninjured. A few were drinking the wound healing potion. Draco was sitting in a chair next to his father. Lucius had his hand on his shoulder and they were talking quietly to each other. Ron seemed to be in the worst shape because Molly Weasley was yelling at him regarding something that Harry couldn't tell.
At that moment, Ron noticed Harry and came running over. Draco saw the trio and came over.
"You alright? Is it done? Where is he? Are you hurt?"
Draco smiled. "Let him answer before asking the next question."
Harry couldn't help but laugh. "Yes. Yes. In the room. No. Have we sent the message to the other students that they can leave the room?"
"I sent it right before you entered" answered Draco.
"Good. Now what happens?" Harry looked around curiously.
Lucius supplied the answer this time. "The students are on their way back to the common rooms, the Ministry is sending Aurors to pick up the death eaters. While they do that, they will collect the body of Voldemort. Headmistress McGonagall would like to have a celebratory party tonight."
Hermione looked at Ron and Draco. "How did you take care of Wormtail?"
Draco smirked and said "Father found a spell that would make a person change into an animal against their will for a certain amount of time."
Ron took up the explanation. "If you are an animagus, you automatically turn into that form. Since Peter was a rat, he changed into the rat. Once we did that, we transfigured rocks into cats. He figured he would be safer with us than with the cats, so he ran back to us."
"Is that why he looks so terrified?" asked Harry in amazement.
"That. Plus Snape keeps threatening to change him into a rat permanently to do experiments on," smiled Draco.
Harry and Hermione doubled over with laughter.
During the conversation, ministry officials came and collected the prisoners and Voldemort.
The four heroes wanted someplace quiet to rest until later that night so they went to the Room of Requirement. When they entered, they saw a blazing fireplace, four beds and couches set up around the fire. They were exhausted, so they decided to sleep before the party. When they woke up, it was almost time for the party so they changed and went back to the hall.
The party was in full swing when they arrived. They stopped in the doorway in amazement. Neville and Luna noticed them and came over. Neville danced with Hermione while Luna and Draco danced. Harry ended up standing near Lucius.
"How are you doing, Harry?" he asked in concern.
"I am all right. You know, even with everything he did, I did not want to kill him" Harry responded quietly.
"Then why did you?"
"I was the only one that could." Harry watched everyone dancing for a few minutes then turned to Lucius and said "There is something in the dorms that I need. I will be back in a few minutes."
Hermione noticed that Harry was not in the hall and started asking around. When she asked Lucius, he told her he had to go to the dorms for something. He then got a strange look on his face and commented that it had been an hour or so ago that Harry had left. Hermione went running to the dorms. Lucius went with her, but on the way out, told Snape what was going on. They did not have a good feeling about this.
They got to the dorm and Hermione let them in. As soon as they entered, they noticed a body with his back to them in front of the fireplace. Hermione went over to him but before she could get there, Lucius stopped her. Snape went over and sighed.
"There is nothing we can do"
Hermione buried her head into the folds off Lucius' cloak and sobbed.
Lucius wrapped an arm around her and looked at Snape. Snape held up a basilisk fang.
"He stabbed his scar with this. He left a note."
Dear Everyone,
There was one horcrux left- me. That night when Voldemort gave me this scar, he put a piece of himself in me. We all know that is how I was able to speak parseltongue. That also meant that as long as I lived, he would have a foothold in this world and not been able to truly die. He would have been able to live on unicorn's blood long enough to outlive those that would be able to fight and destroy him. I fought too hard for that to happen. I had to be certain that he was truly gone.
I am sorry that this is how you had to discover this. I could not take the risk of someone talking me out of this. I love you all so much and I would have been tempted to stay with you. This is what I had to do to secure the future for the world, both wizarding and muggle. That means everyone has a second chance.
Remus, marry Tonks already. She loves you and life is too short to ignore love.
Draco, you get a chance to know your father. Not the Death Eater he had to portray but Lucius himself.
Ginny, I know you and Draco like each other. Stop glaring at me in that tone of voice. I didn't say anything that everybody else hasn't thought. Draco, you hurt her and I will come back from the dead to kill you.
Neville, you and Luna make quite a team. Maybe even better that Ron and Hermione. I think the fact that you are dating each other surprised you more than it surprised the rest of us. Take care of her Neville.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, you always treated me like a son. I owe you both everything I have.
Lucius, you have a second chance to be a father to Draco. Be well.
Who would have imagined that we would be the key players in the war to save the world? Some of us started off as mortal enemies. And now look at us. Two former Death Eaters that had the courage to stand up for what they believe and turn on their master. When most kids our age are going to school, the most they have to worry about is fitting in. We had to worry about someone that wanted to kill us just because we were born. We have seen and done more in our short lives than most people do their entire lives. We have created a big family. A dysfunctional one to be certain but a family nonetheless. If nothing else, the holidays will be more than a little amusing. Especially with the twins. Lucius, do not eat anything that they give you. Trust me.
I have to go now. There is something I need to do.
That's the thing about life-
Not everyone gets a happy ending.