Cliché
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. No money is being made off this fanfic.
Prologue: Near the Beginning…
Harry Potter swallowed deeply. All around him sounds of yelling and spells ricocheting off shields could be heard.
The end was near. He knew it. It was dangerous just lying there and staring at the ground but he couldn't take his mind off the darkened patch. This was the exact place where his best friend, Ron Weasley, had perished in a battle to the death with Draco Malfoy.
Draco, having had begged for mercy after being whipped near death, had taken Ron's kind deed around and murdered him as soon as Ron's back was turned. Harry had watched it from afar, frozen in time as he watched Ron fell to the ground, unable to do anything as he was locked in a fight with Bellatrix Lestrange.
Now, nearly a year later, there was no trace of the dishonorable deed except for the dark patch where Ron had avoided the killing curse from Draco earlier on in their duel. Having been forced to flee, Harry had no idea what Draco and Bellatrix had done to Ron's lifeless body until today.
Harry had been horror-struck when he watched Ron walk at the front of Voldemort's Inferi army. Being forced to burn his friend, he was surprised to find that he didn't shed a single tear. Death had become a common thing to accept.
He wasn't sure how many people he knew from his time at Hogwarts were alive anymore. Things had seemed to fall apart when Dumbledore was murdered before his eyes.
The Ministry had fallen easily, yet it was Hogwarts which had taken a long time to truly fall. The Dark Arts were now a renowned subject taught at Hogwarts while Harry Potter had been promoted from his status of 'Undesirable No. 1' to an 'International Terrorist'. Even the other governments now hunted for him. There was truly no place to hide.
Harry averted his eyes, ignoring the shouts and yells as he got back on his feet. Voldemort stood a few feet apart, smiling wildly as he dueled five people at once. He hadn't noticed Harry in the midst of the commotion. Nobody had. Nobody had known Harry was going to Apparate directly in the middle of the fight for Hogsmeade. Nobody knew that Harry had come to end this once and for all.
Harry looked around. Aberforth Dumbledore and his small army had put up a brave fight. But it wasn't meant to last. Once Hogsmeade went down, there would truly be no more place safe in Britain. The rebellion would be effectively squashed.
Harry took in a deep breath and removed the Invisibility Cloak that he had pulled over himself to catch his breath.
Rushing with an agility honed from spending the last few years in battle, he was standing before Voldemort without further ado. It was only Voldemort's own reflexes that saved him from Harry's first onslaught of spells.
"POTTER!" Voldemort screamed, smiling maliciously. "Come to watch the last of your people die? How many would you hide behind this time?"
Harry ignored the jibe, concentrating on the duel as he bombarded Voldemort with an assortment of Bludgeoning and blasting spells. Voldemort himself was forced to focus as he dodged and deflected his way through, closing the gap between Harry and himself.
Voldemort was surprised when Harry himself closed the gap further, unlike the previous times he had opted to go on the defensive. Nearly a few inches apart and blasting spells off each others shields, the two were firing in frenzy.
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry ducked as the green jet of light raced over his head. He had no time to even look over to see if it hit someone.
"Reducto!" He countered, blowing a massive hole in the ground in front of Voldemort. Voldemort apparated behind Harry to avoid the blast and the duel continued again.
There was no more need for words as they traded spells back and forth. It was nearly ten minutes of heavy spell casting later that Voldemort spoke again.
"The last of your true friends were taken from you a while ago." Voldemort said, smiling as he heard Harry growl. "Why did you wait till now to finally show yourself again? Gotten tired of hiding?"
"I was searching." Harry said. "And I finally came to a decision. I had failed."
"Failed?" Voldemort repeated, smirking. "Giving up after all?"
"I had failed the people I loved." Harry stated, softly. "Due to my incompetence…they are all gone. They don't deserve a 'hero' like me. Hell, Britain deserves better. So, I decided once and for all. The next time I saw you…it was the end."
His words seemed like a catalyst as Harry sprang forward, grasping Voldemort's neck. In a split second, he could feel his own scar burst open, blood seeping down from the wound as both young and old wizards were forced to their knees.
"W-What are you doing?" Voldemort snarled.
"Something I was afraid to do long ago." Harry snapped. Golden tendrils burst from the contact as the entire Hogsmeade was bathed in a sharp light.
"I may not be able to defeat you…" Harry whispered. "But I'm going to take you with me if I can."
Voldemort screamed as the pressure increased drastically. A vein throbbed on Harry's forehead as he focused on disturbing his magical core as he had learned from the book. It was a last resort used only in very drastic cases. It exchanged a bit of your life force for a sharp forced blast of magic.
Harry however pushed it even further. Concentrating all of his life-force, he felt a crushing pressure on his chest. Within seconds, he could feel his body just melting. Yet it didn't hurt. A floating sensation seemed to protect him from the pain.
The light vanished a moment later and Harry and Voldemort with it, leaving only a small crater as a sign of Harry's deed.