Let me tell you about the tale of Harry Potter that dear Joanne will absolutely abhor.
Harry stared in silence before him as he digested the looming task before him. As questions of fear and anxiety clouded his mind, there rose a sharp and clear desire from a small seed buried deep in his heart. The fogginess dispersed as all thought, all feeling poured their focus into this desire until Harry was wholly convinced and obsessed with a singular purpose.
"Professor?" he asked.
"Yes Harry?" Professor Dumbledore asked, his knowing eye curious of the flash of darkness he saw in the brilliant green eyes.
"Instead of destroying a horcrux, could one possibly control it? Or possess it?"
Dumbledore's brow furrowed at the thought, even more concerned as to what drove such a question.
"It would not be advisable, Harry," he spoke lowly. "Lord Voldemort's soul is a particularly powerful one — any attempts to try to control him would end up in him controlling you, like he did with Ginny with the diary."
"Of course professor. I'm just curious with this entire notion of splitting souls. Wouldn't that make you susceptible to someone else's will if hypothetically someone else got a hold of your horcux — or in Voldemort's case, more than one of your horcruxes."
"That's a very curious and dangerous thought Harry. One I would not advise you to investigate any further."
"Harry are you sure about this?" Hermione asked, nervous and wary. "Wouldn't it be better to find the sword of Gryffindor and just destroy it?"
"We could. But please understand Hermione," Harry said. They were in the forest far away enough from the Ministry. In his hand he held the locket. "Voldemort took everything from me. He's terrorised me my entire life and ruined countless others! Sure it would be easy for us to just get rid of him but there is no justice in that. Death is a mercy," Harry sneered as gazed back upon the locket. "I want him to suffer. I want him to lose everything he has worked for. He fears me because I can stop him. But I want him to really fear what I can actually do to him."
A cold shiver went down Ron's spine as he heard the malice in Harry's words drip into the heavy damp fog. But Ron couldn't speak up, he couldn't blame Harry for how he felt. Part of him felt it too. But still — it seemed wrong.
"But isn't it dangerous?" Ron pleaded, clinging on to the last excuse he had to change Harry's mind. "What if he possesses you instead?"
"It's alright Ron," Harry smiled reassuringly at Ron. "Dumbledore told me himself that I just need a stronger will in order to conquer it."
Even with their doubts and apprehensions, Ron and Hermione trusted their friend.
"That was too close!" Ron heaved, as they used another portkey to transport away to another secret, safe spot in the wilderness. In his hand was Hufflepuff's cup.
"But we got it," Harry said. "With the ring and the diary destroyed and this and the locket," he placed his hand upon the locket hanging upon his breast, "We are half way through. Give it here Ron."
"How are you going to possess this one?" Ron asked as he tossed the cup over to Harry. "It's not like it's convenient piece of jewellery you can just hang about your neck. Let's hope the next ones are small, like an owl feather. Or better yet, a chocolate frog — then you can just eat it!"
Harry wasn't paying much attention. Rather he reached into the sleeve of his cloak and pulled out a small vial of shining clear liquid. Hermione was uncomfortable at the sight of it as it was no potion or substance she had ever seen or read about.
"Harry?" she asked. "What is that?"
"Just something I read about when researching horcruxes," he muttered softly as he poured the liquid into the cup. The liquid began to glow brighter before its colour changed into a horrid darkness. Harry look back up at his friends who were growing increasingly apprehensive at the sight of the strange liquid.
"I'll admit," he tried to smile calmly, "it's not safe. If anything goes wrong, I'll need you to kill me."
Harry lifted the cup to his lips and consumed the vile drink to the very last drop.
"Blast!" Harry slammed his fist to the ground, the dust of all that remained of Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem dispersing through the air. "That was the last of the possessable horcruxes. The rest we need to destroy."
"Maybe it's better this way Harry," Hermione said. "You've got two already. And especially after that last one, I'm not sure if you could survive at third."
In reality, Hermione wasn't afraid of Harry's survival. In fact, she was almost sure he would be able to survive any ordeal save Voldemort. After consuming the essence of what seemed to be Voldemort's soul extracted from the cup, Harry had only grown far more powerful than before. But Hermione was afraid of Harry. Harry's eyes had darkened as a result of it. No longer were they brilliant as they were before. Instead they were a greyish green. His countenance was darker. His thirst for vengeance became his all consuming obsession. Hermione feared what would happen to Harry if he consumed a third horcrux.
But in Harry's mind he remembered there were other means of possessing a horcrux — even living ones. Before he dismissed the option as it was far too dangerous and the thought of it terrified him. Now he hungered for more power. He could feel his will growing stronger as he subdued the first two horcruxes. He could sense Voldemort's fear as he felt the bits of his soul being tortured by Harry's will and malice. Voldemort had underestimated Harry as his enemy. Harry wanted Voldemort to suffer the consequence of that error for as long as he lived.
Harry pressed the golden snitch to his lips and whispered, "Someone will die today." The snitch opened and inside was the resurrection stone. Harry smiled at the resourcefulness of his late mentor.
"Why thank you professor," he said as he clench his hand around the stone, tossing the snitch to the floor.
Harry stepped forward, following the thoughts of Voldemort. He could sense his fear. He could smell his dread. He would try to appear to the rest of his followers that Harry was no threat but Harry knew. Harry had mastered the bits of Voldemort's soul inside him. Voldemort knew that Harry now possessed his power as well. Voldemort was terrified of Harry.
Harry calmly stepped to the centre of the gathering in the forest where Death Eaters surrounded him from every side. In front of him was Voldemort. Behind Voldemort was Nagini. She recoiled and hissed, bearing her fangs at Harry. Nagini knew.
"What do you want?" Voldemort hissed in parseltongue.
"Nagini," Harry responded matter of factly.
Nagini lunged in fury at his insolence. Before Voldemort could stop her, Harry held up his wand and whispered a few ugly, horrid words in parseltongue. A dark bolt shot out from his wand and travelled deep inside Nagini through her open jaw. As Nagini's face approached Harry, the snake eyes draining of darkness and the grey-green eyes growing darker, Harry blew a light puff of air. Voldemort's eyes widened in disbelief as her scales began to peal and float away like dust as her body crumbled from her head all the way to her tail. All that was left behind was a floating, wispy orb of darkness which Harry breathed in one deep, meditative breath. His eyes flickered green and black before regaining a darker greyish green colour.
Out of a mad rage and fury, Voldemort lashed out with the killing curse at Harry. With the resurrection stone tucked safely in Harry's hand, the spell simply dissipated before him. All looked upon Harry with astonishment and fear but he paid the Death Eaters no attention. They were merely an incomplete audience. There was a deep satisfaction seeing the horror on Voldemort's face, but Harry wanted more. He could end it here but wouldn't be enough. He needed the entire world to see. He wanted to utterly humiliate Voldemort in front of the world that he had terrorised for so long.
"Tomorrow," Harry said, "this ends at the doors of Hogwarts. I suggest you come if you want to salvage any remaining respect from your followers. If you don't, I will hunt you down."
Voldemort did not show up and all Death Eaters vanished without a trace. When Ron and Hermione asked Harry what could've happened he responded that Voldemort was a coward and had grown to afraid of Harry's power to face him. Ron agreed with Harry's desire to become an auror and the quest to hunt down Voldemort and the rest of the Death Eaters and decided to join him as his partner. Hermione agreed that Voldemort could not be left wandering by himself and had to be stopped once and for all, but she was worried as she saw that Harry's eyes seemed to be less green than they were after he consumed the soul in Hufflepuff's cup.
"Ron," Ginny said to her brother at Ministry.
"What is it Ginny?" Ron asked as she pulled him aside for a moment.
He and Harry were about to formalise their contract to track Voldemort and his Death Eaters to the Auror Office.
"Please look out for Harry," she said. "I know he's been through a lot but ever since he came back from his quest searching for the Horcruxes, he hasn't quite been the same."
"It takes a lot of will to keep the fragments of Voldemort's soul inside him under control. Once Voldemort is gone forever everything will be alright and turn back to normal. You'll see."
"I know," Ginny said, unconvinced, "The thing is I'm not afraid of Voldemort any more."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm scared of Harry and this obsession with vengeance. Just please," she grasped Ron's arm desperately, "make sure he doesn't lose too much of himself on this quest." She in turn tenderly caressed her stomach, giving Ron a knowing look.
"Oh!" Ron's eyes lit up as he understood her meaning. "Does he know yet?"
"Yes, I told him yesterday," she said, grinning sheepishly. "He was happy of course but then went straight back into why he had to find Voldemort to guarantee the safety of our child."
"Well there you go Ginny," Ron said. "He's not different. Sure he's changed from his experiences but aren't we all? We all lost someone important …" he grew somber in remembrance of his brother. "He's just trying to protect you, your child, his friends, all of us. Of course he's a little obsessive because he was just so close before Voldemort slipped through his fingers. Once this is all over, we'll be able to return to our normal lives," he touched her shoulder reassuringly, "You'll see."
Ginny smiled, not entirely convinced, but wanting to believe and hope in her brother and in her husband. Harry and Hermione returned to their respective spouses from their chat with the administrative desks.
"Well, everything checks out," Harry said. "Ready to go Ron?"
"Give me a quick moment will ya?" he said before grabbing Hermione by the waist and planting a big sloppy kiss on her. Hermione, who was initially shocked and tried to push him away at first, gave into the moment and returned the favour.
Harry smiled down at Ginny who lovingly smiled back at him. She missed his brilliant green eyes, but she did still see some flecks that sparkled in them. She decided that she would believe Ron and have her Harry back when all of this was over.
"Be careful Harry," she said. "For my sake."
"If it's for your sake," he said, taking her gently into his arms. "Then I promise. And I'll bring home your idiot brother as extra as well," he joked.
"I heard that," Ron said, breaking from his passionate kiss, leaving Hermione laughing.
Harry give Ginny a tender, sweet kiss before letting go. Ron and Harry left behind their wives as they stepped to one of the entrances of the Floo Network.
As supportive as the two of them were of their respective husbands, neither could help but feel a terrible sense of foreboding.