The Lightsaber
By: Tellemicus Sundance
#25: Grand Magic Finale, Part 2
Ministry Pavilion, Hogwarts Grounds
April 9, 1996
Tonks could honestly say that she'd never before seen such an incredible display of magic as what she was presently witnessing. Indeed, the magic was so potent in the air that it was almost a physical presence. Such a display of raw power was something that was only spoken of occurring during titanic clashes of ancient Wizards and Witches many long centuries in the distant past. She knew without a fraction of a doubt that what she was seeing now was something that was on par with the greatest of legends. She knew that she was witnessing history unfolding right before her very eyes. This battle whose importance would probably someday rival that of Morgan le Fay and Merlin's final climatic duel over the fate of England a millennium earlier. And she was here to see it happen firsthand.
She wasn't sure how she had come to this conclusion, especially since she knew that no normal Witch or Wizard could possibly fight toe to toe with Harry anymore. And yet, that was exactly what had happened. Granted, those fifty masked, cream robed 'Specters' outnumbered him greatly and were fighting against him using weapons that they shouldn't have had access to. But the fact was that they were keeping up with him. This disturbed and scared Tonks in multiple ways. But it was the implication of how they could do that was really getting to her. Along with the lightsabers as evidence, was it possible that Fudge had created a small task force of Sorcerers who answered to his every whim? It seemed like a ludicrous thought, but then…what if…?
But then things had gotten really out of hand when an army of Death Eaters, led by the Dark Lord himself, had arrived and attacked the exhausted and greatly depleted Aurors. While this had been happening, Tonks could hear a great deal of talking and yelling, fear and rage, erupting from the pavilion behind her. Fudge's reaction to Voldemort's appearance was one that she was sorely disappointed in missing. As was the obvious and inevitable revelations he must've been going through as he realized that so much of what he had personally done and set into motion to secure his grip on power would now soon come racing back to bitch-slap him in the face. The tide of the battle had been very much in flux since Voldemort was obviously more interested in reaching the young Potter than dealing damage to the Aurors, their one saving grace in that melee. As such, the fight was continuously wavering from one side to the next. At least until Dumbledore had made his gallant appearance on the battlefield, knocking the Death Eater lines into chaos and rejuvenating the Aurors' fighting spirits that had taken such bad beatings during the course of the war.
If it hadn't already been confusing, the sudden wall of Hogwarts students lining up to defend the perimeter of the school grounds just added to it. Led by Hermione Granger and a few others, the students had put up shields and created walls and barriers in an obvious attempt to keep the many combatants out and away from the castle. And as if that wasn't enough, Harry's friends had then run out and joined him on the battlefield, facing off and even defeating multiple Specters with little apparent difficulty, especially the Weasley boy thanks to his own lightsaber and being fresh to the fight.
During all of that, Tonks had simply stood at the foot of the pavilion, on apparent guard detail to protect the various Department Heads and the Minister therein. Her first instincts had been screaming at her to rush into the battle and help her young Sorcerer friend, but her duty and self-preservation had won out on that fight. Then, as the fight became more and more chaotic, she had simply found herself sitting back and watching with increasing levels of awe. To her, it was like she was watching a wartime documentary playing out in real-time, horrifying and humbling at the same time.
But for as distracted as she was by what was happening, the sight of four black-cloaked and silver-masked Death Eaters making their way out of the melee and towards the pavilion was easily enough shake her out of her stupefied state. Placing herself as the first and likely only line of defense for the various Ministry officials above and behind her, she yanked out her wand and adopted an aggressive casting stance. The four oncoming Death Eaters saw her easily but they didn't seem concerned as they continued their fast approach.
As they were nearing the outer range of casting, Tonks cast a silent telekinesis spell, levitating a large rock she ripped out of the ground and hurled it at the four figures. The rock was predictably blown to dust by one of the Death Eaters, but it had served its purpose by giving Tonks a split second to start moving, bouncing from side to side as she started lobbing other spells towards them. The Death Eaters continued running towards her, having a hard time pinpointing her. She skipped away from an Avada Kedavra, spun around an Entrails-Expelling Curse, and ducked under a dark Cutting Curse, all in the matter of a few seconds. As she was rising out of her crouch, Tonks's whipped her wand up and cast a dense sand and dust cloud to go billowing up towards her encircling attackers, attacking their eyes and further trying to hide her movements.
Sadly, one of the Death Eaters was of a slightly-higher caliber of skill than most of the rabble that made up their ranks. This cloaked man waved his wand, using a strong wind to rapidly dispel the dust cloud back towards her. As Tonks was forced to cancel her own spell, two of the other Death Eaters spotted her through the mess. One sent another Killing Curse, forcing her to dodge…right into the Expelliarmus that his companion had launched a split second later. The spell had such a potent power packed into it that Tonks was actually bodily lifted off the ground and send careening backwards as her wand was yanked from her grasp. She landed heavily upon the ground on her back, the impact knocking the wind from her lungs and jarring her shoulders badly.
Even with all her training to ignore pain and her Metamorphmagus abilities helping to ease the pain and recover more rapidly than a normal person, Tonks moved at the leisurely pace of molasses as she rolled onto her stomach, fighting to get her breath back. Groaning as she pushed herself off the ground, she heard the crunch of grass as the four attackers moved up towards her, wands arrogantly not aimed at her as they believed her disarmed and now powerless against them.
Discreetly sliding her hand on the other side of her body into her pants pocket, she felt for what she knew was still there. Grasping it, she looked up at the Death Eaters with a face of angry defeat and resigned acceptance.
"Well, well, well," one of the Death Eaters said, his voice somewhat familiar to her though not immediately recognizable. "If it isn't the half-blood, shapeshifting bastard of House Black! Not so tough now, out here in the real world and against the true power of the mighty Death Eaters, are you, Tonks?"
"I think I did a hellva better job than you," she retorted, glaring at the speaker as her grip on her hidden weapon tightened. "You could only ever take me down by ganging up on little old me. What's that say about you four, oh high and mighty Death Eaters?"
Seeing their postures stiffen in anger was all the opening Tonks needed. It was only a split second distraction as they stewed on her insult, but it was more than enough. Yanking out her lightsaber, she rose from her kneel as she ignited her saber, sweeping it upwards in an arc across all four of them. In the next split second, their positions had been dramatically reversed with Tonks now standing proudly over the four bodies that were each now dissected into numerous dismembered pieces.
Looking down at them, she spat upon their corpses in disgust. "Death Eater scum."
"That lightsaber!" a loud voice several paces behind her suddenly said. Turning around, Tonks found herself staring at the Head Unspeakable, who must've come down to aid her in the defense of the Ministers. Though she couldn't see his face, she could tell by his rigid body posture and the glowing wandtip he was pointing at her that he was surprised and angry. "Where did you get it?!"
"Who cares?!" she demanded, twirling her weapon lightly in one hand as she moved off to the side to collect her dropped wand.
The Unspeakable paused only for a moment to consider her statement. "By decree of the Minister of Magic, Article 1996-788A, Paragraph 3-D, the construction and use of the weapon called a 'lightsaber' is prohibited from public use unless specially authorized by the Minister of Magic himself. Only exemptions of pertaining to the law being a member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Special Subdivision codenamed 'Specters'."
Tonks frowned deeply at the Unspeakable's words. Though she had no idea what he was talking or if the 'law' that he was quoting even existed, she could still divine the meaning behind this quite quickly. As realization dawned upon her, she couldn't help hefting up her still ignited lightsaber into a semi-defensible stance.
Seeing her shifting body posture, the Unspeakable finished by saying, "Minister Fudge has only approved of the creation and use of 55 such weapons, most of which belong to the Specters. Alas, you are not a member of the Specters and have not, to the best of my knowledge, been approved to carry or construct one yourself. So, I ask again: where did you get it?!"
"I made it!" Tonks snapped angrily.
"The only other individual with the knowledge to construct such a weapon is the original creator," the Unspeakable said, softly yet somehow sounding incredibly judgmental. Pointing his wand at Tonks in an accusing manner, he snapped, "This means that you're in league with that little Sorcerer out there!"
"Says the man who likely created the means of giving Fudge his very own Sorcerer army!" Tonks yelled back, glaring full on at the man.
"TRAITOR!" the Unspeakable roared, launching a spell Tonks in the process.
Raising her lightsaber, Tonks swept the blade around and deflected the spell easily, her frown and glare deepening at the new label she'd just been given. But rather than retort against a man who was clearly deeply in Fudge's pockets, she rushed forward to fight the man. The Unspeakable began casting spells at an impressive rate, enough so that any normal opponent would've been quickly overwhelmed. But Tonks had the advantage of having a lightsaber in one hand, a wand in the other, a far fitter and better trained body, and the necessary combat experience. Against all that, the Unspeakable, who was little more than a glorified magical scientist and accountant, despite his remarkable repertoire of spells available, was simply no match.
As she neared him at an alarmingly fast pace, the Unspeakable seemed to realize the mismatch he'd gotten himself into and started turning to flee. But before he could get very far, Tonks had reached the man. She swept her lightsaber vertically down his side, amputating his outstretched arm as he pointed it back to cast one final spell at her. The man tripped and went down with a cry of agony. As he fumbled about on the ground for his dismembered arm and specifically his wand, Tonks knocked him out with a Stupefy spell.
"Traitor!" a distant voice yelled from the side. Turning to face the shouter, her gaze located the person as being Minister Fudge himself, standing in the farthest corner of the pavilion from the fighting taking place just ahead of him. Yet, this same position was also what had allowed him the perfect view to have seen the clash between his secret right hand man and one of his Aurors wielding a weapon she was not approved of or should even know how to use safely.
'There is a three-way battle for the future of Magical Britain taking place right in front of him, one side led by the Dark Lord he has so vehemently declared no longer lives, one side led by the legendary Albus Dumbledore, one side just a bunch of Hogwarts students trying defend their school, while one little but talented boy is caught in the midst of all that chaos alone, and all he focuses on is the fact that a no-name Auror is using a weapon he thinks is his to control?' Tonks couldn't help thinking as she glared up at the Minister. How anyone could've seen this man as suitable Minister of Magic material, much less voted for him, was beyond her.
Before any more random thoughts went through her mind or attacks could be leveled against her, a bright green glow lit up the sky over the battlefield. Tonks turned to face the unnatural light just in time to see the pulse that ripped through the area, scattering the hundreds of battling Wizards like leaves in the wind. She could only watch in half-understood horror as a portal opened and from it emerged of a towering demon. Once the Demon had emerged, the green portal seemed to collapse and implode on itself, once again sealing off Earth Realm from the Demon Realm.
Like the rest of the combatants on the field, she could only stare up at the monstrosity that had been summoned forth. Demonic summoning was, without a doubt, one of the most terrible magics to have ever been created, used by only the truly strongest and foulest of Dark Wizards. Thankfully, the usage of Demons had fallen out favor since the imposition of the Statute of Secrecy. Although the most recent of Demonic Summoning had been in the early days of World War II, when the battle for Magical Europe against Grindelwald had begun.
Whether under Voldemort's command or simply by its own whim, the Demon raised one of its massive arms and swept it down towards the nearest group of Wizards. Sadly for those Wizards, under the protective spells of Hogwarts, they were unable to Apparate to safety. She couldn't tell from this distance how many died, but she could see a great many of them getting knocked flying high and far into the air with multiple trails of blood, disembodied organs and limbs flying in several directions. At this act of aggression, all of the gathered magicals, whether Auror, Death Eater, or Specter, immediately turned and tried to flee. Most ran towards Hogwarts and the perceived safety it offered, other raced for the Forbidden Forest and the comparatively safer dangers it held, and others still just ran whichever stuck their fancy as long as it took them as far away from the Demon as possible. Unfortunately for all parties, they didn't get too far quickly enough.
The Demon reared back with its mouth opening, a bright glow of flames at the back of its throat the only warning before it lunged downwards again. A massive column of flame erupted from its mouth and blasted down into the heart of the former enemies, killing dozens immediately in the scorching conflagration. Despite her horror, Tonks saw that demonfire was quite a bit different from most other flames she'd ever seen before. It seemed to only burn flesh, killing people mercilessly but leaving the grass directly beneath them completely unharmed, if only a bit hot to the touch.
Finishing its blast, the Demon pulled back to survey its handiwork. That was when a literal bolt of lightning suddenly shot upwards from in front of it and struck its throat. The lightning bolt must've been incredibly powerful because it knocked the Demon reeling in pain, grasping at its throat even as its eyes shot down to find the source of the attack. Tonks found the source of the attack at the same instant the Demon did. It was Harry! But while she gave a slight cheer of encouragement, the Demon let out a challenging roar that bellowed across the landscape like thunder. In response, Harry crouched slightly before thrusting his arm upwards and sent another bolt of lightning up at the Demon's face. Prepared this time, the Demon snapped one arm up with an incredible burst of speed that seemed out of place in something so huge and blocked the attack. As it's arm started convulsing violently from the electrical attack, it swung its other arm downwards towards Harry before he had a chance to recuperate. It struck the ground around boy, digging up the dirt and leaving deep gouges behind as it arced upwards again. The swing sent the unprepared Sorcerer flying up over and past Hogwarts, towards the Black Lake and Hogsmeade beyond.
"Harry!" Tonks yelled, fear and horror pain in her voice as she watched his small figure vanish behind the castle.
The Demon threw back at its head and let loose what could only have been a roar of triumph, clearly relishing it victory over the first opponent it'd met that could actually somewhat bother it. But, as its victory cry was fading into the distance, Tonks turned her gazed upon the monster as something dark and angry rose to the surface inside her. In her mounting rage, she never noticed that her eyes and hair had gained a distinctive red that was so bright it was practically glowing. Without any thought, she immediately raced forward to join the battle.
Hogwarts Grounds
When asked later, Dudley could never state with any amount of certainty what had driven him to the decision he made. It was a side-effect of the two potions he'd drank. While they bestowed upon him enormous strength and incredible reflexes for a short time, they also tampered with his mind and personality in a manner that wasn't too unlike alcohol. Where a carefree and happy man might become moody and introverted, he gained a certain level of disregard for his own safety and a heightened degree of arrogance. A mindset that was somewhat accurately based on the perceived notion that with the immense power he had gained, he was as close to invincible and immortal as a person could get. This made him cocky and more jovial than he had ever been before, most especially since the Dementor attack last summer.
Perhaps it was because of this that he made the choice he did? Or perhaps it was because he could see the writing on the wall even more clearly than the Wizards could? Or maybe it was because he could see a large number of relatively innocent people, namely school students who were most assuredly not involved, were most likely going to become victims of several men's insanity and it went against his moral code to allow that to happen? Whatever the case may be, Dudley had made his choice before he even had suitable time to contemplate it and what its ramifications could be.
That was why he, unlike the dozens of remaining Wizards, was rushing forward to take the battle to the Demon, rather than running for his life and letting it rampage as it desired.
Stopping at a relatively close distance, Dudley raised his rifle and opened full-auto fire on the Demon, letting out a loud war cry in the process. Unlike the few spells that a couple of the braver Wizards had initially tried to cast against it, the magical-plasma bullets peppered the boney flesh of the Demon like a concentrated swarm of wasps. The Demon let out a pained shriek of surprise, recoiling away from the unrelenting barrage. "You like that?! HUH?! YOU LIKE THAT, YA UGLY OVERGROWN TURKEY?! HUH?!"
That was when a deafening multitude of cracks and pops filled the air around and behind him. Suddenly filling the space around him was what must've been thousands upon thousands of brown cloaked Wizards. Even the Demon was momentarily surprised by the abrupt appearance of some many new enemies, stepping back a couple titanic steps as it gazed down on them.
At first Dudley would've just ignored them and continued attacking the Demon, but the one on his left reached out and grabbed his shoulder in a strong grip. Whirling around, Dudley quickly threw off the arm and hefted up his rifle towards the man's chin, "Hey, hey! No touchy-feely!"
"Wha's go'ng on 'ere?!" the man demanded in broken, barely legible English, not intimidated by the strange weapon that was in his face. "ICW pic' up big amo'nts magick 'ere!"
The Demon let out a loud roar then, finally regaining its equilibrium. Its roar quickly got the attentions of the floundering crowd of new arrivals, who seemed more interested in interrogating the nearest local Wizards they could get ahold of then trying to notice and deal with the obvious problem. Seeing the telltale buildup of fire at the back of its open mouth, Dudley turned and leapt as far away as his enhanced leg muscles could take him, leaving a startled wizard staring up perplexedly at the monster.
Fortunately, some of the new arrivals clearly knew how dangerous the fires could be and quickly teleported away, though not all of them. As the Demon breathed out its fires into the center of the new enemies, other Wizards tried futilely throwing up shields and barriers. But that hasty defenses were quickly overpowered and destroyed. After a few moments, the Demon ceased its attack and stared down into the decimated remains of the newest army to stand before it. It howled in victory once again. At least until those annoying stings started pelted its face again.
As the Demon focused down on him, Dudley rapidly grabbed one of his grenades, pulled the pin, and hurled it at the Demon. With his enhanced strength, the grenade actually struck and bounced off the Demon's beak before it exploded in a burst of electrical energies. The Demon recoiled again while shrieking, clutching at its face with one hand. Dudley let out a laugh as he resumed his firing, aiming for its knee joints to disable its mobility.
Shaking off the electrical effects, the Demon roared as it started lunging down towards Dudley. Dudley continued firing upon it fearlessly, until the ammo clip ran dry and the shots ceased. But before the Demon had a chance to take advantage of that, a large dark blur shot past Dudley's side. The blur raced up to and gave a mighty leap up into the Demon's face, revealing itself to be a transformed Lycan. The lone wolf was biting, clawing, and scraping savagely at the Demon's face, trying to penetrate its thick armor and gouge out its eyes.
"Who the fuck is that?!" Dudley asked loudly, already in the process of switching ammo clips.
"That is Alpha Hendrick," a familiar voice replied as a bolt bowcaster blast shot forward from behind Dudley and struck the Demon in its heel, doing more damage than any one of Dudley's numerous shots. Glancing up and behind him, Dudley recognized Magorian the Centaur easily.
"What are you two still doing here?!" Dudley demanded hotly as he and the Centaur were forced to dodge a tail strike from the now furious Demon as it started flailing about. Ignoring yet another near-death experience he'd almost had, Dudley pulled and threw another grenade, hitting the Demon in the throat this time. Up on its face, Hendrick had scrambled up off its face to avoid its grasping hands and started tormenting it in the soft flesh behind its boney crowns. "You're supposed to be going to you-know-where!"
"No, I never agreed to go anywhere!" Magorian answered, much more calmly than Dudley might've thought he'd be. "I agreed that my people needed to escape to survive, but I never said I would follow. Besides, this abomination must be exterminated with all due haste!"
"Fine then!" Dudley barked back, taking a jump far to the side to dodge one of the Demon's stomping feet.
As he was raising his rifle again, he spotted a strange high-speed scything blade of ice shooting through the air. It sliced along the Demon's exposed torso, just under its ribcage, gouging out a rather surprising gash that began spilling flaming-orange blood. The ice projectile quickly melted after it was exposed to the blood, but the damage was done. Turning to where he'd glimpsed the ice coming from, it took Dudley a moment to recognize the angry young woman. Mostly because her hair was a furious red color, which was a stark contrast to its usual jovial neon-pink that she preferred. Nearing Dudley's position, she noticed his glance and called out, "This is a Demon of Fire. So, ice and electrical attacks will work best!"
"Not water?" he called back, firing once again.
"Are you kidding?!" Tonks demanded, even as she was busy conjuring many more ice blades to attack with.
Black Lake
Resurfacing from the cold water he'd landed in, Harry quickly drew his wand and transfigured a considerable volume of the water nearby into a large wooden raft, nearly six meters in diameter. Pulling himself atop the raft, he fought against the shivers as the cold winds instantly attacked his drenched form. With fumbling fingers, he quickly cast a few drying and heating spells upon himself and soon felt his body temperature begin rising again. Satisfied, he holstered his wand and returned his attention to the castle he'd been thrown over. In the distance, he could sense a large portion of the Wizards fleeing in all directions, most notably into Hogwarts. But he could also sense that there was a small handful of familiar presences who were fighting against the Demon.
"Tonks, Dudley, Hendrick, Magorian," Harry muttered, very concerned. "What are you doing?! You're going to get yourselves killed!"
"You should worry about yourself first, Harry Potter," a dark voice said from above Harry.
"That's the difference between us, Tom," Harry countered, not even flinching as he looked up at Voldemort's smoky floating form. "I care about those around me first and foremost. You care only about yourself."
"Save me the speech, boy!" Voldemort snapped with annoyance raging through his aura, if not his face. "I've heard the lecture about the virtues of kindness, compassion, and love many times before."
"You have obviously not learned from those lectures then if people are still giving them to you," Harry said replied, watching as the self-styled Dark Lord floated down and landed upon the opposite end of the iceberg. Then his glare deepened as he said, "You have no idea of what you've brought down on this world, do you? Summoning a Demon?! What were you thinking?! Were you thinking?!"
"As I had said earlier, boy," Voldemort said, his eyes narrowing into tiny slits as he glared hatefully at the boy who spoke to him as though he were a first-year novice. "Demons can bypass all of a Sorcerer's special magical defenses."
"Yes," Harry agreed, nodding. "But I also remember you saying that you'd rather not fight me now because you're too much of a coward."
"You misunderstand why I summoned that Demon," Voldemort said, smiling grotesquely at his young enemy. "This way, the Ministry's Aurors will be devastated even further and if, by some miracle, you manage to defeat me once again, you will most likely die while trying to take it down. And, even if you strike me down again, I will return again one day. I have done more and come closer to true immortality than anyone else prior. No matter what happens from here on, I win."
"We both know I won't let it get that far," Harry said, igniting his lightsaber in preparation while pulling out his wand again in the other hand.
"It doesn't matter," Voldemort said, sneering knowingly. "You no longer have a place in the Wizarding World anymore. Whether by my hand or the Ministry, your life is over!"
And just like that, the battle between the two prophesized idols began. Iron chains head towards Voldemort, but the Dark Lord twists his wrist turning the chains into large snakes that are sent back at Harry. Harry twirls around, his lightsaber slashing the snakes to pieces. He concentrates deeply on his magic as he reaches out one hand to the side, the lake begins to churn and seemingly boil. Suddenly a giant stone hand rises out of the depths and high into the air. It gets above Voldemort and slams down with incredible force, shattering the raft they were standing upon.
However, with just another few fancy waves of his wand, Harry froze the water around the portion of the broken raft, extending the size to new platform to a more comfortable one for a fight. Once done, Harry looks around, trying to find Voldemort. Water rises out of the lake and heads at the Sorcerer's unprotected back. The water turns into a sharp blade of ice intent on impaling Harry. But Harry had sensed the harmful intent and he spins around, thrusting his wand forward. A powerful Protego forms a dome around him and he watches as the ice blade shatters into thousands of shards.
"There is no good or evil, only power," Voldemort said, his voice echoing from seemingly everywhere. "You have power, Potter. Why don't you join me instead and we can rule this world!"
"I don't want to rule the world. I want to protect it," replies Harry.
Laughter fills the air. It briefly overrules even the clamor and explosions of the titanic battle taking place a short distance away. "Protect this world? Even if you defeat me, do you think the world will accept you? Look at the power you wield! The world will never accept you!" Harry spins around using his lightsaber to deflect several spells back into the air. Voldemort is forced out of the air and back onto the iceberg to avoid being struck by his own spells. "Avada Kedavra!" The spell is reflected back at Voldemort much to the dark lord's annoyance. Sidestepping the Killing Curse, he spat out, "Wizard. Sorcerer. Savior. Traitor. Hero. Villain. You are all things, Harry Potter, and yet you are nothing. You belong neither to the Wizarding World, nor the Muggles. You will forever – stand – alone."
"It doesn't matter if the world turns their back on me. I know who I am, I don't need anyone else's recognition!" Harry sprints forward at incredible speeds.
The blue beam passes through empty space as Voldemort vanishes. He looks up into the air to see Voldemort wave his wand rapidly. Dozens upon dozens of spells begin to rain down upon Harry. Channeling his magic into his body and relying on his awareness, he begins to parry and deflect the spells away. A warning of danger coming from behind makes Harry twirl around in time to decapitate Nagini. In the process, three spells strike Harry. Two spells slice open his back and left arm, forcing him to drop his lightsaber out of sheer reflex, and the third spell hits him in the chest before exploding. Blood, clothing, and metal are blown from him as he hits the ice and goes sliding nearly off the edge. At the last second, he was able to reorient and stop himself.
Voldemort landed in the center of the iceberg with a slight sneer of contempt and excitement. If he were honest with himself, Voldemort would admit to be very impressed with how well Harry has been fighting. Certainly, no other mere teenager could've hoped to have even stood against him for even half the time that Harry has been fighting. And not to mention that he was already very exhausted from the extended battle he'd been fighting earlier. His stamina was most definitely very impressive. If he had fought against the boy when he was fresh… But just the same, it was obvious that he was now and truly upon his last vestiges of energy.
Now it was time to break the boy's spirit before he finally killed him. "So, that is the extent of your powers."
Harry coughed up blood as he rolled over. Looking down, he sees that his chest armor had been blown away, perhaps the only thing that protected his life from the power of those spells. With some regret, he reaches down and pulls away the last few pieces that were still fastened in place before standing up. Only his Centaur-iron pauldron was still in place over his shoulder, having easily resisted the magical attacks. Blood quickly began to soak through his thin shirt. "Sacrificing your own familiar to get a blow in." A taunting smile appears on the boy's face. "You really are a coward."
"Ahh, but it's not about who the coward is, boy," Voldemort said, sneering widely. "Good and bad, cowardice and courage, righteousness and deceit? On the battlefield, all that truly matters is the last one standing." Raising his wand above his head, the tip began glowing a blinding green as the power buildup began rising at astronomical levels. "This will be the end of this!"
Hogwarts Castle
By this point the Demon was raging mad. It realized that it was at the disadvantage on the open field, arrayed against this small number of highly-dangerous opponents. It was time to change the rule of engagement and shift the battle to a field it's choosing! So, it turned and made series of jumping lunges towards the nearby castle. As it approached the boundary, a protective dome of transparent magic sprung to life around the castle. Unlike the more passive barriers that covered the school grounds, these barriers were meant to fend off entire armies.
However, even though they were meant to do that, they had always been poorly maintained in the past, and outright neglected in recent decades. Coupled with the fact that the Demon was far stronger than any single army, the barriers were shattered like glass when the Demon slammed into them. Perhaps the one saving grace for those barriers was the fact that their destruction had caused the Demon to stumble and collapse to the ground, just barely missing crushing the West Wing and the Entrance Hall. But that same impact also sent Hendrick flying from his perch, smashing into one of the windows of the third floor.
It ignored the small bodies of fleeing students and Wizards as it pulled itself back to its feet and climbed atop the castle, perching itself over the interior courtyard. If it could've, the Demon would've smirked down at its surprisingly fearsome opponents. They may be strong, wielding magic it has never known of before, and using the aid of creatures it knows they hated as much as itself, but they surely couldn't reach it from way down there! They were still mere mortals after all.
Then, to its surprise, the smallest of its opponents sudden crouched deeply as he neared the castle. The ground surrounding him seemed to sink and crater as he launched himself upwards in a titanic jump that no mere human should've been capable of! The boy actually leapt so high up that he drew level with the Demon's face, pointing that strange weapon he carried practically pointblank into its face before launching another series of those irritating stings into its face. Roaring in aggravation as it recoiled, the Demon tried to swap the damn pest aside, focusing upon the boy to the exclusion of all else. This proved to be a mistake as it suddenly felt a terrible burning stab of pain in its side. As it was reaching for its new wound, the Centaur withdrew a pike with a brilliantly shining blade of blue light from its side as it retreated from the Demon's reach.
As this was happening, those pesky ice blades began slicing along the Demon's back. Roaring again, it swung its tail about, hitting the castle and sending chunks of mortar, stone, tiles, and glass flying. The debris caught the red-haired woman and returning Werewolf by surprise, forcing them to duck behind shelter and give the Demon a moment of reprieve. Focusing on the two in front of it, the Demon swung its arm at the large tower nearby, shattering portions of it and sending yet more debris into the air. Some of the debris caught the Centaur bodily in the side and caused it to lose its haphazard footing on the tiled roof. That pesky boy, on other hand, managed to dodge and landed within the now exposed hole of the tower and hurled yet another of those painful little pebbles at its face.
Furious beyond all reason, the Demon reared back, flames gathering within its throat. As it was doing this, it lashed out again against the tower, striking it powerfully just above where the boy was standing. This caused a chain reaction that sent a large chunk of the damaged tower collapsing downwards, fittingly right towards the boy. The boy could do nothing but stare up in mounting fear, yelling as he watched his death rapidly approach. But the Demon had turned away by then and expelled its mighty breath attack down towards where the other combatants were cowering.
As such, it failed to see a sudden dark robed blur shoot up to, grab, and drag the screaming Dursley boy to safety as the tower collapsed, smashing down into the lower portions of the castle below. Landing haphazardly upon an exposed ceiling rafter, Dudley took a moment to balance and recollect himself, feeling the effects of the two potions he'd taken now starting to wear off. Looking over to where his savior had landed not too far away on a similarly exposed rafter, Dudley could just make out a bit of red hair sticking out from under the hood of the cloak. It must be that Ron guy again.
"Where the hell'va you been?!" he yelled angrily. He knew that Ron was another Sorcerer. He could've been a big help earlier, before the damn Demon decided to use the castle as a jungle-gym!
But Ron didn't deign to reply to the angry Dursley. He had been busy and preoccupied down below. But he was here now and it was time to end this fight before anyone else got hurt! Gathering his magic to bolster his body, Ron ignited his lightsaber and leapt forward to meet the Demon head on. The Demon must've sensed his approach as it turned to face him. Seeing another of those glowing blades in his hand, it wisely reeled back, causing Ron to miss his initial swing. Then it lunged forward, slamming into his body with its powerful beak. The blow sent Ron flying backwards, but he didn't crash into the castle. Instead, he managed to nearly-instantly reorient himself, flip over, land upon the castle, and launch himself forward once again.
As he did, his free arm swung forward and a large chunk of debris flew forward to strike the Demon in its wounded side. Despite its best attempts, the pain still caused the Demon to shriek and cradle its injury. This allowed Ron to slam into its face, his saber slashing decisively across its eyes, blinding it. The Demon threw its head back, roaring in pain and fury. But Ron also used this same action to jump lightly into the air, once again gathering his magic to enhance his muscles tremendously. Descending back towards the Demon, he swung his empowered fist down, striking the Demon upon its enlarged forehead and bone-crowns. The force of the blow was so immense and unexpected that the Demon was knocked from its perch and sent careening down into the castle courtyard below. Landing upon the nearby edge, Ron looked down at the blinded Demon as he hefted up his lightsaber, wondering what its next move would be.
The answer came in the form of a gathering flames within its mouth. The Demon lifted its wings and leapt high into the air, pumping its wing to gain ever greater altitude. Seeing what it was likely planning, Ron leapt down into the courtyard below. There, he crouched down and began drawing in, summoning as much raw magic from the world as he was able to draw upon. He pulled it in, filling his body up with so much power that his physical form actually started glowing a brilliant blue color not unlike his lightsaber blade.
Raising his gaze skywards, Ron watched as the Demon finally unleashed its flames down blindly upon the earth below it. Unlike earlier, the demonfire coalesced into a titanic fireball nearly as large as the castle that it was racing down towards. With a mighty leap that left behind a crater nearly as large the courtyard itself, Ron launched himself upwards to meet the fireball head on. He shot upwards with all the speed and power of a rocket, his body little more than blinding beacon of pure magical energies, his lightsaber forming the point of the missile he had become. Reaching the fireball, he disappeared within its flames. With his lightsaber repelling the flames away from his body and the magical backlash of his tremendous speed rippling outwards, the fireball had rapidly dissipated and disintegrated by the time he shot out of the other end. His speed was so tremendous that when he reached the Demon, he ended up blasting a blazing hole straight through its chest cavity.
Twisting in midair, Ron gazed down to see what effect his brutal attack had on the monster. The effect of the wound was immediate and fatal for the Demon. Its wings disintegrated into gouts of flame as fires burst outwards from the wounds, like steam escaping a kettle. Glowing cracks rapidly spread across its armor as yet more flames poured forth from its chest wound. Seeing the danger that he was in, being the closest to it, he quickly drew his wand and cast a powerful Protego shield around himself. It wasn't a moment too soon.
Multiple brilliant bursts of fire burst out of those cracks as the fires fought to escape their containment and the Demon's body erupted into a conflagration as blinding as the sun itself. High in orbit above, multiple satellites across the hemisphere were able to detect the explosion. Unable to properly decipher the strange energy signals, they registered it as a nuclear explosion being the closest approximate. The explosion following this flare-up was positively deafening, echoing across the lands for hundreds of miles in all directions. It was so powerful that it beat down on all individuals present at the scene as an almost-physical force trying to press against them from its source.
But once that explosion of noise faded off into the distance, an almost eerie silence fell over the battlefield. None of the survivors moved or could look away as they watched something that had never been done before. To kill a Demon was thought to have been utterly impossible. Nowhere in any recorded history, legend, or myth was it ever even hinted at there being such a possibility. For as long as Wizards have always known, the only way to stop a Demon's rampage was to reopen the portals between worlds and send it back through. Thus, the absolute awe that all of the watchers felt slowly starting to replace the indescribable terror from minutes ago was almost enough to render a few dumbfounded from relief. It was a nearly religious moment for others.
Needless to say, long before Ron returned back to the ground, he had earned himself a new title and forever secured his place in the history books from henceforth. He would now always be remembered as Ron Weasley, the Demonslayer.
"Very impressive," said a haughty voice behind Tonks. Spinning around, the red-haired Auror found herself face to face with her dearly beloved aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange. Rather than look at her filthy mudblood niece, the crazy witch was gazing up at the descending form of the young swordsman. "I didn't think it was possible to kill a Demon. Now that is a true Pureblood!"
"What's it say about your leader that he'd bring one of those here on a field where all of his followers are without warning them?" Tonks asked, glaring and keeping her attention completely on her deranged aunt, ready for anything.
Bellatrix just let out a shrill laugh. "You think those no-name weaklings were all he had?!" Then her expression hardened as she snapped her wand up, a Dark spell springing forth immediately. If not for the reflexive Protego Charm that Tonks had conjured, she'd have been horrendously cursed without any warning. Though annoyed at Tonks' fast reflexes, Bellatrix didn't let it show on her stony face. "You know nothing!"
Tonks just smirked, knowing that she'd managed to irk her aunt. But before she could retort, Bellatrix suddenly jerked backwards with a loud gasp. Her free hand shot up to a burning agony that had flared up in her Dark Mark, which she quickly exposed and was staring at with wide eyes. "My lord! Please, not now! GAHHH!" She fell to her knees, crying out in pain as the agony shot through the rest of her body. Tonks could only stare incomprehension to what was happening. Unknown to her, all across the battlefield and Great Britain in general, several thousand branded Death Eaters were mirroring Bellatrix's actions.
That was when a bright flash of green light coming from the lake attracted the attentions of the survivors.
(Author's Note) Sorry about the long wait. The previous chapter really wore me out and I've been busy in Real Life lately. Trying to find a house to buy is EXTREMELY difficult, especially in the area I'm living in. So, don't be surprised if the next chapter takes just as long, if not longer, as this one came out.
To be honest, this chapter isn't quite how I wanted it because I wanted to show a lot more of what was happening on the sidelines since events on the side are and can be just as important. But just the same, I decided that I didn't want this chapter hanging over my head any longer.
So, next chapter will most likely feature the conclusion of the Harry vs. Voldemort and the end of the war in general. But just because the war is over doesn't mean the troubles are done. The ICW army is here now (having sensed the tremendous power fluctuations from the 50 Sorcerers and the demon portal being opened) and they are out for blood because of the terrible losses they've taken. But that's for later.