Harry was not expecting a visitor, so when something bit him, he nearly blew up the room he was sitting in. He glared down at the small snake that was attached to his ankle. Sssineesss released Harry and started climbing up his leg.

{I really which that you would find some other way of getting my attention.}

{I tried talking to you, but you weren't paying any attention. Your fault.}

Harry sighed. {What do you need? We're almost ready.}

{I'm supposed to tell you that Remus and Severus are ready for you and that you will have a distraction to send people through at 5 o'clock. What does o'clock mean?}

Harry was already running down the hall, shoving his way through the crowded area to the battle room, but he went ahead and answered

{It's a human thing. It helps us explain when we mean.}

{Ah.}

Harry walked in and prepared to tell the heads of the wizarding community that they were going to risk their lives an hour earlier than they wanted to on the word of a rather annoying snake.

Remus and Severus were armed to the eyeteeth. Remus had truly loaded the pouch with everything he could imagine their needing or being able to use so they had a great deal to chose from. They didn't have their personal wands, but Remus had been able to get his hands on some neutral wands which would work well enough if they were careful. They each had enchanted weapons and were festooned with permanent charms and potions. The children too were armed, though neither Severus nor Remus had any intention of having them get anywhere near the fighting. They both had strict instructions to find a hiding place and stay there until Remus, Severus, or Harry came to get them.

Now they were waiting for Severus to start the spell. Severus waited, letting his internal clock developed over many years of tending time-sensitive potions. At precisely five of five o'clock, Severus beckoned to George, placed his hand on his back, and cast the counter spell through him.

The spell seemed to echo on the air and suddenly Remus felt like a great weight had been lifted off his back. He still had to move carefully due to his injuries, but he went and released the animals so that Severus could drive them out the main door to cause havoc. Remus briefly felt a bit of guilt about using the animals that way, but if they remained where they were, they would definitely be killed. The animals stormed out, followed by the humans that had refused to help Remus before were next, scattering before the depth of Severus' glare. Then, with a deep breath, Severus led their little band out into the keep.

Voldemort's head jerked in the middle of a rambling harangue of his mother to Wormtail. Peter cringed, as when Voldemort was interrupted, his temper tended to be explosive and directed at whomever was closest. Peter was right and he soon had the pleasure of experiencing Crucio while Voldemort shrieked with anger. When the Crucio ended, Peter's pain did not stop because his mark was burning as Voldemort summoned his followers.

The death eaters' ran, obedient to the call that burned in their arms. They ran as fast as possible, heedless to their surroundings, which was a deadly mistake for some of them. Pansy Parkinson met a grisly end as she ran past an enraged mountain troll. The fact that Draco killed the troll a moment later did not save her and Draco did not mourn her passing.

So with mildly reduced numbers, the death eaters assembled in Voldemort's throne room. Voldemort was shrieking that someone had either broken the spell or let an intruder in. The idea that one of the prisoners had managed to break the spell never occurred to him, so confident in his superiority over his menagerie. However, Voldemort had been acting weirder and weirder as the amount of power he was tapping seduced him and tore what remained of his mind apart.

So after a brief crucio, what remained of the death eaters escaped out of the room and down various routes toward the basement, hoping that their master would be over his fit by the time they recaptured the feeling menagerie. This put them again in the path of the fleeing animals and people and many battles were already engaged when the disused portal in the basement responded to the command of a parslemouth and allowed troops of witches and wizards to pour through.

The old keep shuddered under the currents of magic pouring through it. One of the reasons that the original founders of Hogwarts had sought Salazaar's assistance in building the school had been his knowledge of magic foundations, wards, and supports. Hogwarts had survived generations of uncontrolled underage magic due to Salazaar's work and Salazaar's retreat was no less protected. But the sheer amount of magic floating through the air and destroying support walls were taxing the structure.

Remus and Severus moved down the hall's stalking death eaters and disarming traps. They had found Neville while wandering through the castle and they had sent the children with Neville to go through the portal again. Severus was still grumbling about that, but Remus knew that the fact that he had allowed it meant that he did trust Neville to get the children to safety.

Neither of them were at full power, but Severus had deep personal knowledge of the death eaters they were facing. The fact that the death eaters had access to the sink stone and were therefore more powerful than they normally were didn't change the holes in their guard and the two of them were ruthlessly manipulating that. Others were not so successful and Remus' heart ached as he came across the bodies of others who had fought the death eaters and lost. Severus too was troubled, but he didn't allow it to show, focused entirely on destroying as many of the death eaters as they could. When they reached the end of the hallway, they discovered a staircase. Without words they both turned and headed up, toward Voldemort.

Harry hugged the wall, counting silently. When he reached seven, he dashed across the gap of the doorway, feeling the spell singe the back of his robe. An explosion a moment later told him that while the death eater had missed, he had not. He continued down the hall, ignoring the draft that told him that the death eater had not missed by very much. Harry had been criticized by many of the adults surrounding him ever since his performance during the Tri-wizarding competition as being too reckless, too unconventional. Harry smirked whenever someone said that. He had not been raised in the wizarding world by the choice of the wizarding world. So he had no reason to know what was conventional. So they truly had no right to complain about that. The reckless part might have been true, but having been under a sentence of death since he was a baby, dying now or later truly didn't matter to Harry. The only thing that kept him trying to be alive was the possibility of his own life if he won. Not even the sadness or scolding of his friends could hold a candle to this desire and Harry could almost taste his freedom with every drop of death eater blood he spilled.

The troops from the wizarding world had scattered upon entering the keep by force and design. The fewer that were in one particular spot, the less likely that the death eaters would cast a wide-ranging dark spell. Also, they had no idea where their goal, Voldemort, was and therefore every possibility needed to be covered. So everyone but the few who remained by the gate to give a means of escape and to hold the anti-apparition shields. The only point that Albus had argued during the preparations for this final battle had been his assignment to this group, but he had been argued down as one of the few wizards capable of putting up any resistance to Voldemort's escape. The wizarding world could not tolerate the losses that this battle would entail and not deal with Voldemort permanently.

So Albus had been sitting out of direct line of fire, focusing on the shields and resting after repealing an attempt to leave that felt familiar. Albus was staring into the distance, trying to understand what had gone wrong and why Percy had felt drawn to Voldemort and therefore was the first to see Neville run into the room with more grace and speed than he had ever seen from Neville before. Close behind Neville, two smaller people ran. A moment later, Albus could see why they were running as a gigantic spider came through behind them. Albus was about to take care of it, but suddenly Neville whirled around and threw something. A harsh word and an odd twist of Neville's wand and suddenly the spider was entangled in a huge vine that was slowly contracting. Within a few moments, the spider collapsed to the floor and a moment later, there was a harsh crunching sound and the spider was dead.

Albus watched, bemused as Neville walked unconcerned up to the still twitching vine and touched it gently. The vine seemed to shudder, then shrink back down to a seed. Neville was truly a gifted herb master and when it truly mattered, had the courage of his house. As soon as the situation was under control, Neville and the children walked through the portal and Albus smiled to know that they were safe. He may have failed Percy who had so much promise, but he hadn't failed Neville, who was a diamond in the rough.

Salazaar's retreat was not built to be invaded easily and like Hogwarts, various parts of it moved to confuse and thwart the intent of the invaders. In this case, the death eaters were able to get to the lower levels of the keep a great deal easier than the troops were able to rise to the higher levels. The third time that Harry reached the same intersection, his scream of anger could be heard quite a distance away. Harry slammed his fist into the wall several times and the spot had blood on it before very long. He was about to slump against the wall when a voice cut through.

{Why are you hurting yourself?}

{I'm frustrated Sssineesss. No matter how hard I try, I can't get to Voldemort}

{You want to get there?}

{Yes. He needs to be killed}

{I agree, but you need to do it?}

{I'm the one that's supposed to. I can't be me until I have done it.}

{You might die}

{No worse so than if I let him live}

{ok. Walk down the hall and I'll tell you how to get there}

They walked a short time and within moments Harry was before a door. He could tell from the sheer amount of power in the room that this was where Voldemort was and he wiped at his forehead absently as a trickle of blood came from his scar. He put Sssineesss down and with a deep sigh, opened the door and slipped in the room, ready to face his destiny.

Remus and Severus had not had the same problems as the others, but they were not invaders. They had been brought to the keep by the will of the master of the keep and therefore were not invaders, so they could get where they wanted to when they wanted to. They had gone on a rampage near the gate, giving Neville a chance to escape with the children, then they had gone hunting for the power sink. Much to their annoyance, their finding spell indicated that it was on the entire opposite side of the keep than they were on, so they were forced to retrace their steps and fight their way through to get there. Occasionally some of the troops would join them, but they were sent off to deal with other problems so by the time they reached the power sink, Remus and Severus were once more on their own.

The power sink was in the center of the room, and even though they had seen it before when they were bound to it, both Remus and Severus paused a moment, stunned by the sheer size of it. Remus finally spoke up.

"Where did he find this thing? I've never seen one this large before."

"I don't know. He never told us about it. Believe me, if I'd known that it existed, I'd have broken it a long time ago."

"Maybe it was a part of the keep… according to legend, Salazaar was the one to set up the dampers in Hogwarts. Maybe he knew how to make them?"

"Maybe. A truly lost art. But we can't stay here and contemplate it any longer. Let's get to work."

The fight with Voldemort was a strange one. It was as if he was a fly buzzing around the head of a tiger. Harry did as much damage as he could, even going so far as to cast spells he wasn't supposed to know, but nothing had any effect on the man. The spells either fizzled or bounced, stronger than the best shield spell that Harry had ever practiced on. But strangely enough, these failed spells were some of the most damage that Harry got. Voldemort was reacting sluggishly, as if he was drunk. He was slow enough that Harry could duck the spell or shield against it.

Harry was getting extremely frustrated and was pumping his entire strength into the spells, but it wasn't working. He even tried to get closer to him, trying a physical attack. But the air surrounding Voldemort was like soup, getting even thicker as Harry got closer and eventually Harry could make no further progress. Voldemort didn't even blink at the action, his eyes wandering and his head bobbing. When Voldemort started giggling, Harry growled and started battering even more furiously. All of the theories everyone else had suggested had failed, all the specialized spells had failed, there was nothing left but brute force with the harshest spells available. So Harry reached deep within him and cast the most forbidden spell he knew. The room echoed with Avada Kedavra.

They cast spell after spell, trying to either sever Voldemort's tie to the stone or drain the stone. Nothing worked, and occasionally the failed spells made them jump to avoid the backlash. Finally, they had exhausted their entire repertoire. Remus was the first one to speak.

"I'm going to have to destroy it, Severus."

"No!"

"I know it's a crime but…"

"That's not it, you idiot. Don't you how dangerous that is? Shattering a sink stone let's all of the energy out at once. Even a small one will overload a wizard's abilities and burn them into a husk. And if you manage to survive, you might never be able to do magic ever again!"

"And if Voldemort survives this, I'll be just as dead."

"Why you? Why not me?"

"I might survive. You will not. Please give us that much of a chance."

Severus was shaking his head furiously, but Remus merely hugged him. They stayed that way for a long moment, then Remus turned with resolution. Severus watched Remus wlk toward the stone then Severus moved to the door, guarding it, but watching his love. Remus sat and focused his entire being on the stone.

Subiungo. To return to whence it came. In this case, Remus' magic was coming back to Remus, along with all the other energy trapped in the stone. It was a ridiculously simple spell, but it required that the caster and the thing being returned to to be close. Its results were spectacular. The stone flashed dully, absorbing the spell. Then light exploded outward till the stone exploded as well. The energy was splashing around the room, the Remus saw a spot of the energy starting to pull toward him. Remus maintained shield spells, but all they did was slow the speed of the fragments and energy that slammed into him.

The initial burst of energy burned into Remus and he felt like screaming, but he rode it out. The pain was no worse than that of his transformation. Remus took a deep breath, then reconsidered. The pain was as bad as his worst transformation, but he could still stand it.

Carefully thinking, he set the new energy to work to leave more space for the rest of the energy that would be following his energy. His wounds rapidly receded until they were merely scars, then the scare disappeared. His old scars were next, then Remus could feel his bones, which contained many approximately healed breaks, straightening. Then he started doing all kinds of spells, trying desperately to burn the energy off, but after the initial slow trickle the energy started flooding into him at a rate that he could no longer handle. He started screaming his pain out and tears of energy starting falling down his face.

Severus couldn't stand it any longer. He had flinched when the sink stone broke and every one of the fragments that hit Remus felt like it hit him. Energy started arcing into Remus, and the scream was heart-rending. Then Remus seemed to get a hold on the energy. Severus was glad to see Remus' wounds disappear, but he was worried that there was still so much energy floating in the air. Sure enough, Remus started bleeding energy back into the air in the form of various spells. That was fine as a temporary measure, but soon Remus would loose the mental focus necessary to make the energy obey him. Holding back was for the birds. Even if splitting the focus of the spell meant that some of the energy escaped back to Voldemort, that was just going to have to deal with it. This was no way to loose Remus.

Severus ran forward. The closer he got, the more the energy burned into him until he was crawling forward. He slumped next to where Remus was writhing on the floor and wrapped his arms around the flailing body.

Harry had been pressing forward so hard that when the barrier suddenly vanished, he actually fell flat on the floor. But the battle reflexes that his prior experiences with Voldemort had give him had him up off the floor in a heart beat, wand in hand and ready to use. Voldemort was recovering quickly too, but a fall was easier than the intoxication and within seconds, Voldemort was nothing more than a bloody smear on the floor. Harry stood, slumped over the smear, legs weak and harms dangling. Then he straightened. It was time to put this life behind him and start being himself. Tonight was not just the death of Voldemort. Tonight was the death of Harry Potter, boy who lived.

Power was still arcing into Remus and Severus. When a pair of aurors entered the room to clear it, they were forced back by the sheer amount of energy still present in the room. While the younger member of the pair went running for Albus Dumbledore, the elder stood and guarded the room. But he found himself drawn almost impossibly to the scene. There was energy definitely still flowing into the pair. But the auror could have sworn there was energy flowing between them too.