Thanks to buttamellow from WizardTales (dot) net, TheGreyLady from perfectimagination(dot)co(dot)uk for the beta of this chapter.


CHAPTER TWO

Harry flew his Firebolt to the edges of the Malfoy wards. There was a small wood cluster that offered the perfect cover for a stealth passageway. He landed, shrinking the broom and putting it in the knapsack on his back. Then he conjured a snake and asked her to help find the entrance that should be hidden nearby.

It was easier than he expected, and the protections were quite sloppy.

'The Death Eaters walk around in a hurry and don't want anything hindering their ways,' Harry thought.

He started through the tunnel, all the while casting charms and curses to prevent surprises from behind. He wanted to capture as many Death Eaters as possible but didn't want anything to prevent Voldemort's destruction. He prepared to keep new Death Eaters from entering the place while attracting the ones inside to a place where the Order and the Ministry could round them up.

When Harry found the first "room" in the caves he saw the marks indicating the Apparition and Portkey points. It should be the first place of gathering, and Voldemort's meeting room should be just ahead.

Harry started to place a variety of things the Weasley twins had handed down to him. Everything there would need to be toned down to be acceptable in the market, but they were just perfect for the Death Eaters. Harry wished he could wait around and take some pictures of the results, but he would to let the Aurors have this pleasure after all. He was needed some place else.

He continued ahead to find a double door with an impressive lock. Like so many things done by Voldemort, the doors were more of a show than an actual stopper to enter the room. Carefully, Harry found a hole in the cave wall to hide himself, using a Disillusionment Charm and his invisibility cloak. Casting a Silencing spell and a very discreet Notice-Me-Not, Harry sat down to prepare the next items he would need.

First he pulled out an Extendable Ear and very carefully guided it to the space between the cave wall and the door. He could hear some distant whispers but nothing clear. He was getting a bit exasperated when a voice came closer.

"I'll go back to the mansion, my Lord, and prepare everything for the gathering. I'll have a house-elf bring a meal for you."

"Make them prepare a smaller table. It will be just the five of us for dinner tonight," came the answer.

Harry became very still while the Death Eater exited the room and started to walk quickly down the tunnel, to the opposite side from where Harry came.

'Five of them here. Voldemort and four from his Inner Circle.' Harry thought. 'Let's seal the passage to the house. The house-elves will be able to bring the food here, but I would prefer that no other Death Eaters appear at my back. I will have enough to deal with as it is.'

Harry stood up carefully and followed the same path as the man until he saw a door well concealed in the cave wall. Using the Extendable Ears again, Harry could hear a distant voice shouting orders and hurried footsteps going up inside the house above his head. He didn't recognized the voice, but since he was planning for that particular Death Eater to not come back down, Harry didn't worry much about who he might be.

Taking a few more toys from his knapsack, Harry booby trapped the door, making the possibility of coming back through it very slim. He walked back to the entrance of the meeting room silently and once more crouched by the wall to finish his preparations for the attack.

Picking up the parchment, Harry opened it and re-read it carefully, just to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything. Making sure the Silencing spell was still working, Harry stood up and found the place where the Extendable Ears had passed through earlier. He carefully inserted the tip of his wand through the hole, closed his eyes and start chanting in Parseltongue.

He had tried some of it before; just to be sure no light would come out of his wand. But Harry had never done the entire incantation. He could only hope that all the calculations were indeed correct and the mishmash of curses and spells were well interwoven.

It seemed like hours to him, but not even five minutes had passed since he had started the spell. Harry finished it and again crouched against the wall, taking deep breaths to calm himself.

'No shouting. No one running out of the room scared witless. It worked. Or didn't.' He thought between breaths. 'Well, I'll find out soon enough.' And he was back to the preparations.

Harry took some other WWW product he had brought out of his knapsack and proceeded to finish booby trapping the big doors before the "throne room" itself. Not that Harry thought of the place like that, but he would bet that Tommy-Boy would. And his Followers of Death would be too scared to not do the same.

'Ninnies! All of them!' Harry thought. 'How can these guys think of themselves as superior when they choose to bow and crawl for a sick psychopath who thinks that a snake-face is a suitable appearance?'

While he was installing the surprises he had brought, Harry heard a house-elf popping inside the room bringing the food. Harry wondered what the right moment to attack would be and decided to sit and wait for Voldemort and his Suckers to, at least, reach dessert time.

'Fighting with a full stomach isn't a good idea. You get slow and a bit complacent. Your body isn't "in the mood" for too much exercise. A good talk with some snakes was really an eye opener.'

Harry made himself comfortable in his corner and reattached the Extendable Ear so he could follow the movements inside the room. The right moment would come. While he waited, he let his mind wander.

He was never one to immerse himself in deep thoughts. He would mull over the unfairness of his life, all the things that went wrong, and about the guilt he felt after some of his actions. He might have passed moody moments wondering about the possibilities of his connection with Voldemort or what he could do to make things better for everyone.

But he never just sat and got tangled with philosophical considerations about life in general. Why was he chosen to deal with this moment in time? Why did people cower away and let an evil rise and terrorize their own world? Why did people wait in shadows for a hero, a knight in shining armour to save them? Why did they let history repeat itself? Why should he feel responsible for any of it? Why did he felt like he MUST fulfill this prophecy and face Voldemort once more to guarantee his demise? Why was he so ready to sacrifice any kind of future life to see this done?

It was like having someone inside yourself pushing and propelling you to do something that you didn't even understand. Even with all his planning and with everything he brought to this fight, Harry couldn't fathom why he believed that this was the right moment to kill Voldemort or even how he really believed that he would succeed.

Noting the noise in the room diminishing, an indication of the end of the meal, Harry rolled the Extendable Ear and stuffed it in one pocket of his trousers. He wasn't using a robe or even a jacket. A simple black t-shirt with dark jeans was his battle gear. Beneath the t-shirt he had a dragon vest, a purchase he made thanks to some advice from Charlie Weasley. His boots were also from dragon hide -- this a hint from Bill. Harry didn't need anything holding him back. He needed mobility and speed.

'I'll need a lot of luck here to make this happen,' he thought, while taking deep breaths to prepare himself.

He used a hairpin to pick the lock of the door, one more skill he had learned from the twins. No magic to call attention to himself and such a Muggle thing that the Death Idiots wouldn't even think of the possibility.

Harry opened the door with extreme care and was able to slip inside the "throne room", still under his invisibility cloak and the Disillusionment and Silencing Charms.

The table with Voldemort and his Ass-kissers were on the other side of the room, near a big rock throne-like chair. The five seated were in a very relaxed mood, and it was obvious that they had been drinking -- a lot.

Harry walked inside with the utmost care, sliding by the rock wall. He needed to get closer to the bunch before launching his attack. Harry planned to disable at least three of them plus Nagini before he had to worry about Voldemort.

There was no way in hell that he could take out four Inner Circle Death Eaters plus Voldemort just by himself. The booby traps at the door and the other places in the caves, and some surprises he still had with him were his "backup army." He was confident that if he had only Voldemort and another Death Eater to fight, he could get in position to finish this here and now.

Harry was able to walk to the throne-like chair and squeeze behind it, a mere three meters from his targets. Breathing deeply while trying to keep silent and covered by his invisibility cloak, Harry positioned himself to have a better view of the group.

Voldemort was at the head of the table, the one furthest away from Harry's position.

With their backs to the rock wall, Harry saw Bellatrix Lestrange situated at Voldemort's right side, completely immersed in the talk. Harry wasn't sure how he would deal with the bitch that had killed Sirius and tortured Neville's parents. He'd really tried to not listen to whatever she was doing during the last two years, but it was inevitable when the Order discussed the latest Death Eaters attacks.

Harry thought that he needed to take all the others first, because Bellatrix and Voldemort would be the toughest ones for him to deal with.

At her side, Lucius Malfoy seemed more interested in his drink than in the talk around the table.

Harry knew that he was one of the few who Voldemort was able to free from Azkaban. There was no way to make a really big break again, and Voldemort was too pissed off at the bunch that had been captured at the Ministry at the end of Harry's fifth year to make a big effort to free them all.

No, the dark figure just sprang the ones he needed the most. Malfoy had too much money and knew too much to be left to rot at the Wizarding prison. Not that he came out well, though. His eyes had that lost look that Harry had gotten used to seeing in Sirius's face. Lucius seemed to be lost inside his mind and cut off from contact with the world around him frequently. From the looks of it, Azkaban prison had not been a nice vacation time for old Lucius.

The worry now, for Harry, would be how much crazier the wizard had become. He didn't need another Bellatrix to deal with. Malfoy was bad enough with his head intact. There was no way to know what a completely deranged Lucius would be capable of.

Harry decided then and there to use the Egyptian mind entrapment curse that Bill had uncovered for him. Not a nice curse, much like having your own private Dementor inside your head, but Harry wasn't going to risk anything going wrong and losing his chance here.

He then turned his attention to the two wizards situated with their backs to him. The one closer to Voldemort was too caught up in the conversation with the Dark Lord and Bellatrix for Harry to be able to see any part of his face. But the man was thin and not very tall.

Running all the Inner Circle names he knew through his head and comparing them with the figure, Harry reached the conclusion that the guy should be Nott Sr., a Death Eater that hadn't made a lot of difference at the Department of Mysteries battle but would be important enough for Voldemort to rescue. After all, he was on the list of the prisoners that had escaped from Azkaban.

The fourth Death Eater had his face half turned in Harry's direction, but he seemed so down in his cups that Harry didn't worry about being seen. The man seemed to have drunk half of the Three Broomsticks cellar by the looks of it. He was swaying in his chair, making a conscious effort to bring the glass from the table to his mouth.

Harry recognized him almost immediately. After Snape had escaped Hogwarts on the night he killed Dumbledore, Mad-Eye Moody had checked his quarters, looking for information. He found some photos from Snape's school years, and this man was in a lot of them. Avery was the name Moody gave. Another scumbag that had wormed his way out of Azkaban after Voldemort's first fall thanks to the old excuse of the Imperius Curse.

No doubt there. He would be the first to fall. But Harry didn't want to show his hand too soon, without a chance to do more damage before he had to start defending himself. He sat for a moment, trying to think of a way to drop the Death Eater and not be discovered immediately.

The talk at the table continued with the indication of more alcohol being consumed. The way Avery was fighting to keep situated straight finally gave Harry the idea of what to do.

Aiming carefully, Harry used a moment of distraction in the talk over the table to fire a powerful but silent Stupefy toward the drunken wizard. The man fell over the table without a sound escaping his mouth. The others looked at him with disdain and went back to talking, or, in Malfoy's case, to staring into his glass.

Harry smiled to himself, happy to pull this off. Now he would have to bind the man whenever he got the chance. He did have a WWW creation that did just that – The Enemy Embrace – but he needed to get a bit closer to use it. For now, it was enough to have dropped one of the Death Eaters. His next goals would be Nott and Malfoy.

Right now Harry was more than happy with the idea that the Lestrange men were too crazy to be out of Azkaban. Those two plus Dolohov were the most important Inner Circle Death Eaters sent to Azkaban after the debacle in the Department of Mysteries. But a renewed acquaintance with the Dementors just threw both Lestranges out to the deep end and they lost their minds completely.

Voldemort was really angry about it, as Harry could testify thanks to a powerful vision following the second Azkaban break. But now was not the time for remembrances, but to plot and act in order to finish this soon. He really needed to take advantage of the surprise element here and work fast.

Harry repositioned himself to get in line with Nott and Nagini. If he could pour enough power in one destructive spell, he might be able to take the two of them at the same time. That would leave the worst three to deal with, but Harry wasn't in the position to take out both Malfoy and Bellatrix, so he better eliminate whatever and whoever he could.

Taking careful aim, Harry pointed his wand toward the table and chose an Egyptian curse he had learnt from Bill's curse-breaking: Iacio Telum Multi. This was a powerful spell that threw little metal spears toward an intended target. The beauty in it was that they weren't thrown everywhere, but cast to go only toward the ones at which he aimed. It was a very difficult curse to escape from. You need a physical shield to stop all the spears or the correct counter-curse.

Malfoy was still immersed in his own glass. Voldemort and Bellatrix seemed completely lost in each other eyes.

'This image is so disgusting that I may be scarred for life,' Harry thought.

Nott was nursing his drink. Nagini was the only one to perceive something wrong. She opened her mouth and her tongue slipped in and out, trying to identify the danger in the room.

But it was too late. The first little metal spears crushed against Nott's skull, opening a hole in his head and making the man crash against the table, blood pouring freely. The other spears kept flying until they reached Nagini's head. The force of the impact threw the big snake against the wall, literally impaling the beast. The shear number of spears that caught the snake was enough to sever her head.

This drew the attention from the other three dark wizards and witch at the table. Voldemort watched his pet snake be decapitated and screamed in rage. Bellatrix jumped from her chair when the perforated Nott's head reached the table. Malfoy finally took his eyes from his glass but stayed sitting, staring blankly at the two men now dropped over on the table.

"Find him! Find whoever dared to enter my throne room and attack Nagini!" Voldemort screamed, still focused on his pet.

'Nice to know his priorities,' Harry thought and crouched deeper, trying to stay as hidden as possible.

Bellatrix tried to move around the table to start searching the room, but Harry was quicker and rolled an innocent looking small purple ball toward them. The small ball bumped against one of the table's leg and exploded on impact. Since it happened closer to Malfoy, he was the first to be thrown away from the table and against the wall at his back. Harry was able to hear the sickening sound of a skull crashing against the rock.

"One more down. Let's hope I have the time to bind all of them before they can be revived," Harry murmured to himself while starting to move to get in a better position to reach the table.

Voldemort lost his footing, falling near his snake. Bellatrix was also thrown against the wall, but was able to protect herself with her wand arm. It got bruised and hurt, but she was still able to use it.

Still Disillusioned and under his invisibility cloak, Harry ran toward the table and threw the Weasleys Wizard Wheezes Enemy Embrace against Avery, the first dark wizard he'd Stunned. What looked like a small yellow spider touched the man's left shoulder and started to grow on impact. Each of the spider legs started to lengthen and wrap itself around the man. In a few seconds the wizard was enveloped in a cocoon of a yellow silk rope.

After a quick glance to make sure the WWW had reached its target, Harry threw a second Enemy Embrace over Malfoy, knowing that he didn't need to worry about Nott, and after seeing it land on the man's chest and start to encircle him, the young man jumped to find protection under the table.

While Voldemort and Bellatrix were screaming about the first explosion and the now-bound fellow Death Eaters, Harry took off his invisibility cloak and put it in the knapsack hanging on his back. Using the small chaos around him to take a few deep breaths and reinforce his mental defenses, Harry closed his eyes, bringing all his focus to the moment.

Harry rolled under the table, stopping at the point where he could look at Bellatrix's feet and again cast a soundless hex.

"Incendio."

The witch's robes caught fire and the flames climbed quickly over the fabric. Bellatrix screamed even more loudly, using her hands to try to dose the fire. She was still a bit dizzy from the impact with the wall and her wand arm was hurting enough that she didn't think of using a spell to end the flames.

"ENOUGH!" Voldemort shouted and turned his wand to the table. "REDUCTO!"

Harry had only seconds to roll in another direction to avoid a direct impact from Voldemort's powerful curse. He did put enough force in his movement to clear away from the table, a good move as Voldemort's curse caused the table explode into millions of tiny pieces..

Harry felt some of them reach his back but didn't stop his roll. The young man was finally close to the rock throne where he once more found protection.

The explosion of the table also caught the two wizards doubled over it. Nott was already dead, but his body was maimed even more and now small pieces and bits of him were splashed around the room.

Avery would die of loss of blood without immediate help, since one wooden piece of the table flew directly to his neck and punctured his jugular vein, letting the blood flow freely.

Malfoy had passed out after his contact with the rock wall and might have awakened, but now he had several small bits of wood all over his chest along with being bound by the yellow silk ropes. Small and maybe not life threatening wounds, but surely painful and debilitating enough to guarantee that he wasn't involved in the fight.

Not paying attention to the state of the already fallen Death Eaters, Voldemort turned to Bellatrix and shouted an Aguamenti charm to douse the flames eating away at her robes and body. The next charm was soundless, or cast in a really low voice, because Harry didn't hear anything, but he imagined that it was some kind of healing charm, since Bellatrix's legs were severely burned, and the woman should be in quite a bit of pain. Voldemort wouldn't want that, since she could be of help in this battle.

Harry made himself as small as possible to hide behind the rock chair and tried to control his breathing. Now it was just him against the mad and evil witch and the psycho dark lord.

Some noise could be heard from outside the room but it didn't signify that more Death Eaters or even some help for Harry was on its way. From the muted screams and crashing sounds he could hear, he could tell that the Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes he had scattered around the caves were doing their job wonderfully.

"Who are you?" Voldemort shouted to the room. "What do you think you will gain with this cowardly attack? Can't you face me directly?" he asked again with disdain in his voice.

"I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF, WIMP!" Belltrix yelled angrily, clearly in pain.

"Don't get worked up, Bella. This… worm made a stealth attack but won't be able to take both of us now that we are ready to pay attention to him."

Harry heard Voldemort start to walk around the room, probably trying to find the attacker while he talked to Bellatrix. By the sounds she was making while walking around, the healing charm had not been very good. She was groaning and stumbling.

Harry kept quiet, almost motionless, behind the rock chair. He was putting a lot of effort in his Occlumency.

He had never really mastered the thing, but developed enough control to cut out any attempts to read his mind during a fight or even a direct approach, like the ones Snape used during Harry's first lessons.

But Voldemort was another thing entirely. At a distance, Harry was able to block common visions and even some dreams. He never was able to block the uncontrollable emotions from the dark wizard. And Harry didn't have the faintest idea how things would work with both of them so close. While Voldemort was distracted, his Occlumency worked just fine. But if the psycho decided to test Harry's resistance or even tried another possession, Harry didn't know if he could resist or survive.

So, he decided, it was better to attack first before either of them could figure out what was happening.

The young man rolled away from the rock chair at the moment that Bellatrix approached it from the other side. She leveled her wand and shouted out her favorite curse.

"CRUCIO!"

Harry wasn't there anymore and was really happy to avoid the blasted thing. He turned his wand toward the woman and sent the Egyptian curse he had thought about using against Malfoy.

"Incarcerous Mens Mentis Terror." Again, it was cast soundlessly. This spell was supposed to imprison the mind into itself, using a fear from the person. Usually the human mind helped and applied the worst fear to the spell.

Bellatrix screamed and started to fling her arms and hands around, as if trying to bat away something.

Harry didn't wait to try to guess her worst fear. He stood up and ran to the other side of the room, trying to find a good position to face Voldemort.

The Dark Lord turned way having heard Bellatrix's screams and was even more enraged. He walked toward the witch and tried some finite spells but found that none worked. He let out a frustrated scream and turned his back to the out-of-control witch.

"THAT'S IT!" he screamed to the room. "If you're an honorable wizard you will show yourself now and we will duel!"

'Since when are YOU an honorable wizard?' Harry thought. But while he was walking around, looking for the best position, his shadow was visible against the wall and Voldemort was able to pinpoint his location.

"YES! Ostendo!" He screamed and cast the spell against the place where Harry should be, according to his shadow.

Since Harry hadn't stop moving, the revelation spell got him on his shoulder but was enough to indicate his position.

"Crucio!" Voldemort shouted against the half visible person.

Harry jumped back, getting out of the way of the spell. Then he decided that the stealth play had to end and he ended the Disillusionment charm and turned toward Voldemort.

"POTTER! How did you find this place? How did you get in?" It was almost funny to see the surprise and disbelief in Voldemort face. Almost. Harry didn't think he could find anything really funny about the dark wizard.

"Well, Tom, you didn't hide as well as you thought you did." The patronizing tone plus the use of his birth name were feeding the older man's anger.

"Stop using that name! I'm Lord Voldemort! The most powerful and feared wizard of all times!"

'Let's go again with the megalomaniac trip…' Harry thought with disdain.

"Face it, Tom, Lord Voldemort isn't such a cool anagram after all. And 'flight of death' just means that you're running because you're scared of it. You fear the unknown or did you hear too many Christian tales so you're really scared to end up in hell?" Harry asked, tipping his head to one side with an interested tone in his voice.

"Stop it! You know nothing! I don't fear anything!"

"You used to fear Dumbledore. So much, in fact, that you needed somebody else to kill him."

"I DON'T FEAR ANYONE! Dumbledore is dead! The old fool can't interfere anymore! He won't be popping up here and saving you today, Potter!" Voldemort seemed close to completely losing control.

"Yeah, Dumbledore won't be popping in here today, but I won't need it this time. That's it. This will be the last time. The last time we meet. The last time we duel. The last time you interfere with my life, Tom. Today… now, we end it. One way or the other."

"You think it would be that easy, Potter?"

"Easy? Nothing in my life has been easy. Why would this be? But I did come prepared to see this through to its end. Whatever end it is."

"It will be YOUR end, fool!"

"One thing I can promise you, Tom: I don't care how it ends for me, but YOU. WILL. NOT. WALK. AWAY. ALIVE." The intensity in Harry's words made Voldemort take a step backwards. His green eyes were shining with so much light that was almost painful to look at them.

For perhaps the first time since the graveyard, Voldemort took the time to look at Harry, really look at him and pay attention to the changes. In front of the dark wizard stood a young man with confidence and purpose. The young and scared boy that watched the Dark Lord be brought back to life three years ago had disappeared--or, at least, was very well hidden.

Harry leveled his wand at Voldemort's chest and launched a series of spells silently.

Voldemort was thrown off his feet, falling on his butt, and had to roll to escape this attack. But he recovered quickly and responded fiercely.

The two wizards battled around the room, endlessly moving or casting spells against each other. For the most part, the spells flew around silently, but from time to time one of them would shout out his intention.

"Incarcerous!"

"Flamas Infinitas!"

"You're a truly Dumbledore's man, Potter! You too think that there are things worse than death? You don't want to kill me?" Voldemort taunted Harry, with a smirk in his snake-face.

"Maybe I'm 'Dumbledore's man' in a lot of ways, Tom," Harry answered without stopping circulating the room. "And I do believe that there are a lot of things worse than death. But don't doubt that I DO seek your death. I'm here to destroy you, Tom. And I will." There it was again: the certainty and intensity that disturbed Voldemort.

"For someone that seeks my death, you are not doing a very good job," Voldemort said, using taunting as one more weapon.

"We are not in the right place or moment for that yet, Tom. Don't rush things. What's coming will come, no need to rush."

The calm tone and the intensity in Harry's voice were disturbing Voldemort immensely. The Dark Lord tried to corner Harry with a quicker and more powerful barrage of spells and was able to put the young man between himself and the still screaming Bellatrix.

With a quick change in his aim, Voldemort cast a powerful Imperius Curse on the witch.

"Use the Cruciatus on the boy, Bella!" Voldemort ordered.

Harry was able to half turn toward the witch before being hit with the curse. It was almost as powerful and painful as the ones cast by Voldemort. Harry thrashed around and tried to control his screams. He didn't want to give Voldemort the pleasure of seeing his pain.

But it didn't last long because the mind curse he had used on Bellatrix overpowered the Imperius, and she was once again too lost in her own nightmares to pay attention to her surroundings.

Voldemort used the opportunity to approach Harry and while he was on the floor, getting his breath back, the Dark Lord grasped his face and lock eyes with the younger wizard.

Now was the moment that Harry prepared for and feared.

"Legilimens!" And Voldemort entered Harry's mind forcefully.

Harry was surprise that Voldemort's attack wasn't as bad as Snape's. For all the power and intent the Dark Lord had put behind this spell, Harry didn't feel the immediate pain or invasion he had become used to during his training with the hurtful Potions Master.

'Voldemort hates me for what I stand for. As much as he hated Dumbledore. Snape hates me for what I am, for what he sees in front of him. It seems that a direct hate is more powerful than the image of hate.' Harry let the thought occupy his mind and felt the surprise and the lack of understanding from Voldemort.

But it wasn't the moment to get lost in philosophical wonderings of the nature of hate. Harry had a plan and he needed to put it in motion before Voldemort became aware of it.

He then opened up his mind to Voldemort. Harry didn't fight against the intrusion. He let the older man advance through his memories until he was in the darkest and deepest point in his mind.

Harry could feel the glee of the Dark Lord's mind when he encountered that place. The wizard believed he had found the "real" Harry. The thing that would help him turn Harry toward the Dark Arts.

What Voldemort didn't understand was that he had found the place in Harry's mind where the younger man kept all his memories of Voldemort himself. This hidden place was the container Harry had created during his Occlumency training to put everything related to Voldemort.

When the Dark Lord reached this dark spot, he was immediately confronted with himself. Harry almost laughed at the surprised and angered response from Voldemort's mind. But when the older wizard tried to back away, Harry used all his power and training to trap him inside his mind and in that dark place.

Immediately both of them were engulfed in pain, anger, fear and hate, rolling in a never-ending circle between the dark spot in Harry's mind and Voldemort's own mind.

The Dark Lord started to push magic through the connection in a desperate attempt to cut the connection.

Harry felt it like a blow but responded with his own magic, tightening his grip even more on the other man's mind.

If Bellatrix would have been able to fight against the curse holding her and started to pay attention to her surroundings, she would have seen Harry sitting on the floor, Voldemort kneeled by him, staring in each other's eyes. Their bodies trembled with the effort of their mind battle and small groans escaped their tightened lips. But nothing more gave away the titanic battle they were engaged in.

Inside Harry's mind, the magic was running wild. It was like a fight where the contenders pushed against each other, attempting to dislodge the other from his standing point. Right now, this battle was one of fierce power, even if it was magical mind power.

But Harry knew he would tire soon. He might be an equal to Voldemort in power – as the prophecy stated – but he didn't have the same experience to wield it. So it was time to end this. End the battle and all the suffering. It was time to end Lord Voldemort's second reign of terror.

Harry pushed his magic with all the force he could master to send the spell inside Voldemort's mind.

'Deletrius Veneficus.'

Voldemort was too astounded to react.

'What was that!'

'I erased your magic, Tom,' came the calm answer in Harry's mind.

'You can't do that! NOBODY CAN DO THAT!' Voldemort challenged in despair.

'Normally, you would be right. But with our magical connection and with you inside my mind right now, I think this will work.'

The connection between the two wizards' minds was ended and Voldemort was physically thrown away from Harry, landing on his back on the floor some distance away.

He started to scream while his body thrashed and shrunk. It was like magic was truly being bled away from him. All the rituals, all the magic the dark wizard had used through the years to enhance his powers and to deceive death were dripping away. This continued for a few moments more until only a mummy-like body was in the place of the once feared Lord Voldemort.

Harry pushed himself to stand up, feeling his legs trembling and making quite an effort to walk toward the destroyed dark wizard.

When he reached his side, Harry took off his knapsack that had survived the fight firmly attached to his back and opened it to pull out Gryffindor's sword.

With a mighty stroke, Harry embedded the sword in Voldemort's chest, chanting in Parseltongue at the same time.

Completely expended, Harry feel on the floor, letting the sword remain stuck in Voldemort's body. He contemplated the results of his actions, looking around the room.

Nott and Avery were dead.

Malfoy was still out cold and bound in yellow silk ropes.

Bellatrix was crouching by the side of the rock chair, embracing herself and moaning, rocking side to side, overwhelmed by the fears inside her own mind.

Voldemort's body was a mockery of his statements of power.

'That's it,' Harry thought. 'It ended. It's over.'

And he passed out without paying the slightest attention to all the commotion that could be heard from outside the room.


TBC…