AN: Okay, so something's going to happen in this chapter, and it's very likely that your first reaction is going to be "Wait! In cannon…" All I ask is that you just wait until the next chapter before bringing it up, because I give you all my word that I will address it. So, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't spoil it in the reviews. If you do want to ask me about it, please send me a PM instead.

DISCLAIMER: Why is the only real show of power that we get from Harry that moment in third year? Other than that moment, he's pretty much just a quick dude who gets really lucky. After the Patronus thing, we don't see him perform any other really powerful feats of magic, aside from the "brother wand" thing in GOF. I can't answer that question. Do you know why? Because I don't own Harry Potter, that's why!

Previously:

With an evil, twisted grin that looked so out of place on his face, Malfoy aimed his wand at Luna, who he was now standing over.

"I'll kill you all!" He snarled with a ferocious glee.

"LUNA, NO!" Hermione screamed, running as fast as her legs could carry her, wand raised.

"REDUCTO!"

Chapter 12: I Am Become Death

Malfoy's look of shock burned itself into Hermione's brain as she watched his torso explode into bloody chunks. His lower half fell backwards onto the ground, revealing a shaking Ginny, her wand still raised for battle. The redhead's eyes reflected her growing horror as she slowly began to realize what she had done. Hermione moved forward to reassure her, but Luna got there first.

"Ginny…you saved me." The blonde gently took Ginny's hands into her own and planted a sweet kiss on her trembling lips. "Thank you."

The light returned to Ginny's eyes, and she simply nodded. After the battle, the implications of what she had done were going to hit her hard. But for now, she could still fight. Fleur gently but firmly guided the two behind some debris, where they could stay protected while continuing to fire hexes. Hermione returned her attention to the battle at hand.

The Order was definitely outnumbered, but what the Death Eaters had in numbers, they lacked in skill. Remus had been right in his earlier assumption; these recruits were nothing but cannon fodder. Fred and George had cleverly begun to charm anything they thought would be useful with the Piertotum Locomotor charm, causing them to become animated and fight the Death Eaters. After quickly teaching the incantation to Ron and Neville, the two joined in, and soon the less experienced Death Eaters were being overrun by little boulders, sticks, and the occasional statue.

Remus, Bill, and the Order members, meanwhile, were concentrating their efforts on the more experienced and dangerous Death Eaters. Hermione was touched that they had complete faith in the teens' ability to handle the younger Death Eater recruits. Fleur darted around the battlefield with astonishing speed and grace, dodging curses and batting away smaller hexes as if they were flies, and healing or otherwise moving the wounded to a safe place. The Veela was certainly efficient; when Fred was smashed in the arm by a large piece of stone, Fleur was by his side in an instant. She'd cast a numbing charm and had the arm splinted before Fred could even yelp in pain.

Hermione continued to dodge and cast as she kept roaming one eye over the battlefield, looking for Father Dunbar. She sincerely hoped that he wasn't inside of his now-burning little house. As her eyes roamed the small field that served as the priest's front lawn and his garden, she finally spotted a mass of black robes. Harry had just reached them and was checking the body as Ron and Neville stood over him, casting shields and hexes. Harry looked at Hermione with a pained expression.

"Well…shit." Hermione muttered angrily, nodding before turning back to the Death Eaters.

Suddenly, all the fighting stopped abruptly. The Order wasn't sure what to make of the sudden ceasefire, until they got their answer. It was the very one they had hoped not to get.

"Harry Potter." The monster that called himself Lord Voldemort casually strolled forward, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. "The boy-who-lived…come to die."

"Not this time, Riddle." Harry growled, his wand at the ready.

"DO NOT CALL ME BY THAT WRETCHED NAME!" The creature hissed angrily. "I AM LORD VOLDEMORT! MASTER OF THE ELDER WAND! I AM DEATH! BOW TO ME!"

"Never gonna happen, Riddle!" Hermione yelled, clenching her wand in a vice-like grip. "The Order bows to no-one! Least of all a pathetic half-blood pretender like yourself!"

"SILENCE, MUDBLOOD!" Voldemort raged, throwing Hermione backwards with a burst of magic. She slammed hard into a nearby stone wall, feeling at least two ribs break upon impact.

"HERMIONE!" Fleur cried, watching her love fall roughly to her hands and knees. She ran to the brunette as she shakily rose to one knee, her wand never leaving her hand.

"I'm okay, honey." The younger woman reassured her lover as she kept her focus on the disgusting creature. Voldemort threw his head back and laughed.

"That was but a taste of the agony you will feel when I destroy you! But first, come Potter! Let us see how well you fight when you don't have the skirts of greater witches and wizards to hide behind." He hissed, fixing his red eyes on Harry's emerald ones.

"No more hiding, Riddle. We'll end this today." Harry rumbled deep in his throat, stepping forward to fight.

"Wait, Harry, you don't have to do this alone!" Ron pleaded with his best friend. "Please, let us help!"

"ENOUGH!" Voldemort roared, blowing everyone but himself and Harry backwards and erecting a dome over the two with a flick of his wand. "The challenge has been set forth and the conditions accepted! We will fight now, just the two of us!"

Hermione groaned in pain as she slowly stood, leaning heavily on Fleur for support. Riddle was right, much as she hated to admit it. They couldn't fight this fight. It would have to be Harry. It was always meant to be Harry. She would have to hope that her friend's training would be enough. Still, something niggled at the back of her mind. A thought just at the edge of her conscious…

"Reducto!"

"Crucio!"

The fight began with a bang. Literally.

Both the Order and the Death Eaters stood still as they watched the duel, knowing that the outcome would decide this battle more than anything that either party did in the meantime.

Harry's speed and agility usually gave him a deciding edge in duels against lazy pure-bloods, but in this case, Voldemort had clearly also realized the advantages of being quick on one's feet. The battle played out like a strange dance as the two ducked and dodged circles around one another, barely pausing to cast a hex. All the while, Riddle taunted Harry mercilessly, hoping to throw him off.

"Do you want to know how I knew about your little pet priest, Harry?" He gloated. "I plucked it right out of your stupid little mind, just like I figured out that you have my familiar, Nagini. Once I've finished you, I think I'll torture the address of your precious headquarters out of one of your pitiful friends."

Harry didn't answer. Remus had trained him well when it came to Riddle. Rule number one: never let the sadistic fuck get into your head. Rule number two: don't stop moving, or he'll get you. Rule number three: get creative, because it's the only way to beat him.

Harry feigned to the right before rolling to the left instead, giving him a shot at Riddle's back. To everyone's surprise, he cast a strong cheering charm that connected with Riddle, causing him to break out in a full-blown grin. The only word to describe the sight of a happy grin on the face of Lord Voldemort was…creepy.

"…Oh!" Hermione gave a start, realizing why Harry had chosen that spell. "If he's happy, he can't cast the killing or torture curses! You have to have hatred in your heart to perform those spells. Well done, Harry."

Indeed, Riddle found himself unable to cast his two favorite curses at the smaller man. Unfortunately, he hadn't become the "feared Dark Lord" by simply casting killing curses everywhere he went. Despite the handicap, he still sent many nasty hexes and curses at Harry, which thankfully didn't connect with the agile Seeker.

Suddenly, Voldemort seemed to lift off of the ground in a move that reminded everyone of the frantic escape from Private Drive. He charged for Harry with such speed, Hermione was barely able to follow his path.

Harry, however, was able to see him coming, and responded by casting a powerful shield over himself and then pointing his wand to his right.

"Confringo!" He yelled, casting the blasting curse at the ground beside of him. The impact of the blast caused him to be thrown across the dome to his left, getting him out of the way of Voldemort's path. But the split-second decision came at a price, and he found himself struggling to stand and he tried to shake the stunning effects of the blast off.

Voldemort took that time to cast a powerful Finite at himself, ending the cheering charm. He pointed his gnarled, black wand at Harry.

'Wait, that wand doesn't look right…' Again, something tugged at the back of Hermione's mind…

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Expelliarmus!"

The two beams shot towards each other. Harry would win this war for dominance. He'd done it before, and he could do it now. The beams met in the middle of the dome.

And Riddle's ripped right through Harry's and connected with his chest, sending the boy-who-once-lived flying backwards until he came to a stop in front of Hermione and Fleur, his emerald orbs wide open, staring at everything and seeing nothing. The screams of the Order drowned out the screams of the Horcrux as it died.

Time stopped for the Order. What had just happened? What about the prophecy? What about the "brother wand" effect? What now?

"Behold! Your savior! Dead at my hands!" Voldemort laughed evilly as he dropped the dome, strolling across the field like a man out for a leisurely walk around the golf course. The Death Eaters cheered, paying no heed to the shocked and dismayed Order of the Phoenix. They had won! Harry Potter was dead! None could oppose them, now!

"RIDDLE, YOU COCKSUCKING SON OF A FUCKING WHORE! DIFFINDO!" Hermione put every ounce of her magic into the cutting curse, not caring that it would have no effect. Riddle laughed as it flew towards him and raised his wand, lazily casting a shield.

Only to feel the curse smash his shield and slice completely through his torso, cutting the hated monster cleanly in two.

Riddle's eyes widened as the blood seeped through the cut, flowing at a faster and faster rate until it seemed as though a red waterfall was spilling from his beltline. He fell forward, the two halves separating, causing the torso to amazingly fall upright. Riddle stared at his wand, as if to ask it what had just happened, before he gave one last shuddering breath and died, his torso slumping forward the best that it could.

The screams of Voldemort's soul as it was once again forced from his body were joined by the screams of his "loyal" Death Eaters. The Order had just woken up, and even the teens were hungry for blood. No one was casting joke hexes this time. Blasting curses, cutting curses, entrail-expelling curses, and piercing hexes were the order of the day. Many of them begged for mercy. There was none to be had. One by one, the Death Eaters fell, until there were none left.

Hermione limped over to Harry and Riddle's bodies, stepping carefully to avoid jostling her injuries. She looked at the wand in Riddle's still-clenched fist, feeling it calling to her. She carefully bent down and picked it up. Electricity seemed to shoot through her, and she felt more powerful than ever before. She looked around to see that the rest of the Order had gathered with her around Harry's body. Almost all of the Order members and teens were wounded in some way from the battle, but Harry's was the only death. It was still too high a price.

With silent tears flowing freely, Hermione raised her lit wand. The others followed suit.


AN: Sooooooo...yesterday was my birthday! You know what makes a writer so happy on her birthday? Reviews! And favorites! They keep me warm and fed! So, please let me know if you like the story. And if you don't, favorite me so that you can leave mean comments every chapter. See if you can make me cry, haha! :) Just kidding, please don't do that. I'm very sensitive!