Showdown with Voldemort
They found themselves in a graveyard. The moonlight shone down, as bright as day. There were crumbling graves all around them.
Harry kept hold of Ash. She turned her little spotted face up to stare at him wide eyed. "Whats this place, Harry?"
"I don't know. It might be part of the Task. But I doubt it."
Hermione screamed. "It's Wormtail. Sukie, get him!"
Then Harry felt a terrible pain in his scar and collapsed to his knees. He heard a reedy voice: "kill that menagerie of spares, Wormtail, and be swift."
There was a hooded figure emerging from between the graves, but Harry couldn't make him out. His head hurt too much.
Hermione yelled jinxes and the hooded figure deflected them with his wand. But then Sukie swooped down and grabbed the wand from him, snapping it in two.
Hermione yelled another incantation and the hooded figure went rigid and fell to the ground. It was probably the full body-bind. Hermione was always good at that.
The pain in Harry's scar lessened. Harry could feel Ash nuzzling his forehead. "'S OK, Harry."
Sukie's voice: "Take care! There's something really bad here. It's in that bundle of rags."
Hermione gave a cry. She must have seen whatever it was in the bundle. Then with a chill, Harry recognised the voice that had haunted his nightmares for three years. The voice of Voldemort. "Mudblood. Mutant harridan. Lord Voldemort will get you both yet."
"I'll deal with this," said Sukie. Harry saw her slash with her talons and then a mist arose to form the outline of that terrible face, white as a skull with glaring red eyes. Voldemort's ethereal form.
"You cannot kill what does not live. Lord Voldemort will return."
Then, like a nightmare at dawn, Voldemort vanished.
"Is that it then? Is he dead? Seriously? Everyone was scared of that wizard?" Sukie sounded very uncertain.
"I don't think he was alive, Sukie," said Hermione. "So he cannot be killed. But his return can be delayed. And if he is delayed again and again… well then. Perhaps he will never return."
Harry put an arm around Ash as the pain in his scar diminished. Hermione knelt down and shoved her green face close to his. He was struck by just how shiny and synthetic she looked now. But he could see her brown eyes were anxious, even though the green mask was stuck on her face and making her expression hard to read.
"Is your scar hurting, Harry?"
"It's getting better. Sorry I couldn't fight with you."
"I'm not. I'm glad that I could defend you and Ash. I want it to always be this way. Harry, I'm not the girl I was."
She sighed and sat down on the grass. The moonlight shone off her green nose and cheeks. "I'm not the girl I was. And now I realise what's important."
Suddenly, Sukie shrieked. "Oh no you don't!"
Wormtail had been stirring. He had somehow undone the bodybind curse. But now Sukie tore bloody rents in him. "There. That should weaken your magic for the time being."
"Good thinking, Sukie," said Hermione, giving a gasp of relief. "We must turn Wormtail in. We can clear the name of Harry's godfather that way."
"That a fact?" said Sukie. "Well, that's something good isn't it?"
Ash nuzzled Hermione's arm. "What were ya gonna ask Harry, Mummy?"
Hermione leaned her face close to Harry. "Marry me." She whispered.
Harry was startled. It should have been obvious, but now she was so up front…
"Yeah. Marry Mummy," said Ash, skipping around the two of them.
At that moment, realising how much he owed her and how his life was empty without her, Harry knew he could not refuse.
"I – yes, I do," he said weakly.
Hermione's green face split into a grin. "Ash. You're going to have a Daddy now."
"Yayyy!" whinnied Ash, jumping onto Harry's lap.
Sukie came over at that point, dragging a bloody Wormtail. Sort of killed the romantic moment, didn't it?
"If the Cup is a Portkey, it should take us back. Question is, what's going on?"
"Wormtail had help at Hogwarts," said Hermione grimly.
"It must have been Karkaroff. He turned the cup into a Portkey," said Harry. "It was so it would take me to Voldemort. How weird. Why didn't I see it before?"
Ash's ears flattened at the sound of the name. Her mother was brave enough not to flinch at it, but Ash was after all, only a foal. "Sorry Ash," said Harry.
"You're saying there's Death Eaters at Hogwarts?" said Sukie. "Why only one? There might be a dozen. Or more."
Hermione grimaced. "I'm afraid it's not impossible. We will have to be very wary indeed when we get back. But Harry… I want us to get married right away. That can't wait."
Author's Note: Will they get married?
