Prologue: Of Deaths and Hope

Harry Potter shook his head, tears slowly tracking down his face as he looked into the lifeless blue eyes of his Headmaster and trusted friend, Albus Dumbledore. Wiping under his eyes furiously, he turned away from the body and moved from the hospital wing, not stopping as Professor McGonagall called after him.

He strode angrily through the castle, paying no attention as the air hummed with the crackling magic that signified the black-haired youth was closer to loosing control than he let on. Harry allowed his thoughts to take control, reasoning it out through his mind. Voldemort had killed every adult that had ever mentored him, any adult whom he had really loved. Voldemort had killed his parents, his godfather, the last of his father's friends (Remus Lupin, the last marauder), and now he had taken his headmaster (with whom he had repaired his relationship throughout his sixth and seventh years), the only one Harry felt had actually known what was going on.

He stormed into the Gryffindor common room, not even bothering to tell the Fat Lady the password, just swinging his hand in annoyance. The Fat Lady had harrumphed and scowled, but obviously noticed his mood and obligingly slipped open. He noticed the subdued attitude in the room, and he slipped into an open chair by the fire, near his four best friends: Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, and Neville Longbottom. His throat constricted as the remembered the instances that had brought them all together. He had met Ron on his first train ride up to Hogwarts, the Wizarding School, and the two had instantly become brilliant friends. They had added Hermione to their group in their first year, after saving her from a mountain troll. Ginny and Neville had both been known by the trio for years, before becoming an official part at the end of Harry's fifth year, when they had all gone to the Ministry of Magic to save Harry's godfather, Sirius Black. Unfortunately, Harry had been tricked, and only wound up getting his godfather killed—which he still saw as his fault. Harry's throat grew considerably tighter as he recalled what had happened to the sixth member of their group. Luna Lovegood, the quiet, dreamy Ravenclaw, had died at the end of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville's sixth year, Ginny and Luna's fifth. Voldemort had attacked Hogsmeade, the wizarding village near Hogwarts, and the majority of the fifth, sixth, and seventh years had fought in the battle. Many had fallen, and unfortunately, Luna was one of the many. Remus Lupin, working as an operative for the Order of the Phoenix (a group that had been run by Professor Dumbledore to fight against Voldemort), had fallen, as had several other Order Members.

"Harry, mate, you okay?" Ron finally asked, looking faintly worried. Harry sighed, running his hand over his face in an exhausted motion. He briefly considered lying to them, telling him that he was fine as he had told them countless other times. People had heard of Dumbledore's death, undoubtedly. They all knew that he cared, and they wouldn't believe him if he told them that he was fine—not that they ever did.

"He's dead," Harry murmured. He noticed that Hermione reached out for Ron's hand, even though she knew the news already, and scooted closer to him on the couch. Neville barely moved, but Ginny came to perch on the edge of the armchair, rubbing his shoulder.

"We've heard that much, Harry," she said softly. "What exactly happened? Can you tell us?" Harry looked up, his emerald green eyes meeting her dark brown eyes. He saw the compassion in them, and he felt her sorrow for him, all that he had lost.

"Voldemort attacked Diagon Alley. The Order was brought, and Dumbledore had to go help. He dueled Voldemort. He lost," Harry said, his shoulders shaking slightly. Ginny hugged him, holding him tightly. Harry was shuddering slightly in her arms, until he slowly stopped.

"So, what now?" Neville asked.

"I kill him." Harry's words were harsh and final, and Ginny glanced at him worriedly, as did Hermione. Ron simply nodded, as if it was what he had been expecting for a while now.

"Of course you do," he said. "But not yet. You need your rest, and you need to practice. Now that Dumbledore's dead, it'll be a matter of time before he attacks the school. Go get some sleep, now." Harry shook his head, sinking further down in the leather armchair he was in.

"Harry, Ron's right. You need rest; you didn't sleep last night. You look exhausted," Hermione said. Harry sighed heavily, rushing his rounded glasses up his nose and briefly shaking his head.

"Fine. I'll see you lot tomorrow," he said, before making his way up the stairs and falling into an exhausted sleep.

It had been less than two weeks since Dumbledore's death, but Harry had been stepping up, telling Professor McGonagall what needed to be done. The practical aspects of teaching had been thrown out, and Harry was teaching intense Defense Against the Dark Arts. Everyone in the school, minus a few certain Slytherins, had bowed to Harry's leadership. He had his own thoughts of how he was going to defeat Voldemort.

"What are you going to do?" Ginny asked seriously one night as the five teens were sitting in the Room of Requirement, sipping cups of tea.

"I'm not sure," he replied honestly. "I have ideas. The prophecy speaks of a power that Voldemort doesn't have. Surely he's capable of wandless magic, and I know that he has many powers, but I don't think that he knows love. I mean, I have to use this power to pretty much destroy him. I know that he couldn't touch me because my mother loved me and sacrificed herself for me. So . . . I think it's love. So, I have to be able to tap into the love others feel for me."

"Do you have a plan on how to do this?" Hermione asked. Harry looked thoughtful for a moment, before nodding.

"I actually do, Hermione. I think that there is a way to store the love that all of my friends have for me in a small, inanimate object, and take it with me into battle. Then I could release the love in a steady flow, and it should be able to take Voldemort out," Harry said. Hermione nodded thoughtfully.

"You'd need quite a few people to love you for that to work," Ginny teased. Harry smirked at her.

"You mean you don't love me enough to kill Voldemort?" Harry asked, sounding wounded. Harry noticed that Hermione and Ron shared a grin and knowing glance, and suddenly felt slightly uncomfortable. He reached up and scratched his neck uneasily.

"I think that I can get most of the Gryffindors, maybe even a couple of the other houses, the staff—except Snape of course--, and maybe getting a few of the Weasleys up here. Your mum and dad would help, yeah?" he asked Ron and Ginny.

"Of course, Harry. Mum's thought of you as one of her own since she met you. You could probably get Bill, Charlie, Fred, and George up here," Ron said with a grin. "You've been a member of the family for a while now."

"What are you going to enchant?" Hermione queried. Harry shrugged, thinking hard about needing something to enchant, and he heard a soft pop. Harry looked next to him and noticed a gold chain with a heart locket on it.

"Looks kind of girly, mate," Ron said when he saw it. Harry opened it and noticed that it was empty, but had plenty of empty space to store love.

"Hearts do generally symbolize love, Ron," Ginny snapped.

"Do you mind if I go ahead and get some love from you guys?" Harry asked. The four shook their heads as Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at Ron's head. He thought carefully, and as if using a Pensieve, took the emotion from his head. A bright glowing white was at the end of his wand, and he in turn put it in the heart necklace. He then continued to extract love from all of those left.

"You'll be able to do it, Harry," Ginny said. "We believe in you." Harry looked up at her, smiling softly as he clutched the locket in his hands, before running off to give McGonagall hope.

The battle raged fiercely around Harry; it was hard to believe that earlier that day, the students had been celebrating the end of exams. His forehead was prickling uneasily and Harry knew in a short period of time that he would sight Voldemort. He quickly saw two Death Eaters heading toward him and he quickly stunned and bound both of them, before turning to scan the group of people fighting around him. Ginny and Hermione were fighting against a large group of Death Eaters, and were incapacitating many of those they were up against. Neville was dueling with Bellatrix Lestrange, and Ron was dueling with the two Malfoys. Ron had finally managed to stun Draco, and started on Lucius when Harry felt the cold slowly sweep over him.

The Dementors, most of which had already been destroyed by a spell created by Hermione in the battle that took place the year before. Unfortunately, about ten of their number had survived and were now attacking once more. Harry shouted the now familiar curse to destroy the Dementors, "Madefacio felicitate1!" Harry smiled with satisfaction as he saw the Dementor grab its head and go up in a puff of smoke. He continued making his way through the surviving Dementors and helped fend off a couple of Death Eaters. Still there was no sign of Voldemort appearing on the school grounds. Harry was surprised by this; he had killed their headmaster and Harry was still unhappy about the fact, yet he was doing nothing to attack Harry yet.

Harry turned just in time to see Charlie Weasley get hit with a cutting curse on his leg and fall in the battle. Harry didn't even think before stunning the Death Eater and binding him tightly. He was much happier when he saw the silver arm protruding from under his cloak and realized that he had captured Wormtail. He allowed himself a slight grin before kneeling next to Charlie and managing to heal his leg quickly.

"Sorry, Charlie, wish I could do better right now but there isn't any time," Harry said with a grin at the dragon-tamer. "Want to Portkey up to the Hospital Wing?" he asked. Charlie shook his head.

"Nah, I spent to much time up there as a student," he said with a smirk. Harry nodded at him as they both split up. Finally, Harry felt the sharp pain in his scar that he had been waiting for. Voldemort had finally arrived. The Death Eaters all had noticed as well, and Harry turned to search for the wizard who had made Harry's life a living hell. It didn't take Harry long to find him. Why would it? There was a huge snake slithering by him and all of the Death Eaters were moving together to protect him.

Harry Disapparated with a small pop and arrived behind the lines of Death Eaters and quickly conjured a sword, killing the large snake with one quick thrust. This did, unfortunately, alert Voldemort to Harry's presence and he turned around quickly, a look of glee on his face.

"Oh, Harry, you came to me!" Voldemort said. "No mother, no meddling Headmaster, no one to protect you from me this time!" He laughed his high-pitched maniac laugh and started throwing curses at Harry. Harry ducked and rolled, conjured shields, and hit him with his own curses. The battle between the two was lasting for a while and Harry noticed that the majority of the Death Eaters were incapacitated, and most of the Hogwarts staff and students and the Order of the Phoenix members were watching Harry and Voldemort duel, while they occasionally stunned a Death Eater waking up, or took care of something else.

"Harry, just end it already!" Ginny yelled at him. Harry nodded imperceptibly and ripped the locket from around his neck. He held it up and spoke a soft incantation, "Cum amore perdo te! Cum amore neco te!2" Harry noticed that the pendant slowly started to glow a bright white, glowing stronger with every second. Harry looked down and was slightly surprised to see a bright light flowing from his skin, giving the light in the necklace more light. The light eventually burst forth and encompassed Voldemort. His body was slowly burned, and all that was left in a few minutes was a pile of smoldering ash, empty robes, and a wand.

The war, finally, was over.

Spell translations:

I saturate with happiness.

With love I destroy you. With love I kill you.

A/N: I hope you enjoy. I do have this slight problem of starting stories right as the new book is about to come out, but I'll try to work really fast on this one! Let me know what you think! Stephanie