**Remember that note at chapter 1 about character deaths? Consider this your final warning…

Chapter 25 - Revenge

Harry's scar was still burning, but he could tell that Voldemort had not yet entered the building. He was tiring fast and the bite on his leg ached. It would have to happen soon or the plan wouldn't work.

Death Eaters began opening the doors to the lifts and he heard Bellatrix shriek something about finding the Minister. He ran to the nearest lift to try to stop them, but then noticed among the new arrivals in the lift room was Lucius Malfoy who had somehow ended up dueling Ron. Harry knew Ron wouldn't last long against the elder Malfoy.

He joined in the fight without hesitation, but Lucius only seemed pleased to have more competition.

"Potter! Just the person I wanted to see tonight!"

"I thought your boss wanted to take care of me personally."

Lucius Malfoy was quick and Harry wondered how Draco had held out against him as long as he had the night at Remus' house.

"He wouldn't mind I'm sure if I accidentally hit you instead of your friend."

"How about if you just decide to be a real father and turn around and not cause Draco any more pain?"

"After you, Draco will be the next to go!"

Harry had hoped that aggravating Lucius would cause him to falter, but he only fought back harder and dirtier. There were curses Harry didn't recognize flying at them now and it was all they could do to block and dodge. Harry was trying not to use fatal spells for fear he would miss and hit someone from their side, but Lucius didn't care who he hit. He was firing off killing curses as fast as he could think them and Harry knew that eventually one would find its target.

Harry tried to get as far away from Ron as he could, thinking that it would be harder for Lucius to fire curses in opposite directions. It was, but the older man was still too quick. Harry effectively blocked a hex from Lucius only to look up in time to see the jet of green light fly toward his best friend. Harry could hear himself screaming as if from a distance and knew before it happened that he could do nothing. Ron was just a few seconds too slow and the curse hit him in the chest. Harry, who had begun running at Lucius, stopped, frozen as Ron fell, an expression of shock still on his face. This wasn't real. It couldn't be real. Somewhere in the large room Hermione had seen it happen. He could hear her scream in a voice so high pitched and frantic that he wasn't sure how he knew that it was her.

Lucius turned, smirking at what he had just done. Harry was only a few feet away from the blond man and Lucius was ready to take advantage of his moments of shock. He was not ready for Harry to recover in time to dodge his next killing curse. He dove forward, landing to the left of Lucius' feet. Lucius was turning, making ready to fire one last curse at his prey. But then a quick memory flashed through Harry's mind. The glint of silver in the man's left boot. Harry didn't have time to wonder if it would still be there. He rolled over and grabbed for it. As soon as his hand found the cool metal of the dagger he slashed at Lucius' leg, hoping to throw his concentration long enough to bring him down.

Lucius gave a great shout of pain and his stance faltered giving Harry time to jump to his feet. With only rage driving him, Harry lunged at him, plunging the knife into his chest up to the hilt. Harry let go of it with a little push, letting Lucius fall to the ground. The man was gasping for breath and Harry knew he didn't have much time left. He kicked Lucius' wand away from him and bent low.

"I promised Draco that you would never hurt him again. This is for him and for Ron."

Harry looked up to see Hermione kneeling next to Ron's body. Her eyes were fixed with pure hatred on Lucius. Harry stood then, eyes searching the room for Draco, realizing in horror that he had just killed Draco's father. He barely registered the rest of the battle going on around him. His eyes finally found what they were looking for. Draco was busy dueling one of the Death Eaters on the other side of the room and Harry couldn't tell if he had seen what had happened with Lucius. Of course he'd known that his father would either die or be sent to Azkaban. But he couldn't have known his own lover would do the deed, and Harry was more than a little nervous about his reaction.

Harry was brought back to reality by Hermione screaming "Get the snake!" He turned to see Nagini just entering the room and in search a victim. Harry was sickened to notice that she already had blood dripping out of her mouth and he knew what kind of mess he would find in the Atrium. Lord Voldemort wouldn't be that far behind her. Harry was firing off spells at her, but she disappeared into the chaos and Hermione followed after her.

Harry heard Bellatrix's screeching voice again and turned to see Ginny and Neville dueling her. She seemed to be enjoying herself. She was laughing with every curse she fired. Harry was about to help them when his scar split open. He nearly fell over from the sudden force of the pain. Voldemort had arrived.

When he had gotten his bearings again, Harry ran back into the Atrium where Kingsley and Tonks were already dueling him. Harry was shocked at how many people lay scattered across the floor. He hadn't been in the lift room for that long, but now there were countless bodies littering the Atrium. What was worse was that he recognized many of them. Mad-Eye Moody's lifeless form lay sprawled in an unnatural position. Both eyes stared up in a way that made Harry sick. He ducked behind the fountain to decide what his next move would be, only to notice Nagini's victim, Seamus. He turned away and nearly vomited into the fountain. He'd never seen so much blood before.

"There's Potter!" he heard someone cry.

Harry looked up to see two very familiar faces. Crabbe and Goyle, looking as big and dumb as ever in their Death Eater robes. They were brandishing their wands at him, but Harry was less concerned about them and more concerned about being caught off guard with the morons when Voldemort finally realized he was only just across the room. Harry's quick wand work and seeker reflexes were paying off. Crabbe went down easily and Goyle seemed less confident once his friend wasn't by his side. His face was suddenly frozen in his typical dumb look as he fell backwards in a Body Bind.

With them down, Harry was free to turn his attention back to Voldemort. Instead of Tonks and Kingsley though, he was shocked to find Remus standing by Kingsley. Harry searched the room frantically for Tonks and found her lying just a few feet from the fountain. Without thinking he ran to her, falling down at her side. Her face was bloody and the side of her head bore a huge cut where she had landed on the floor and rubble.

"Tonks! Don't be..." but Harry couldn't even finish the sentence. The thought of one more friend gone was too much for him.

She was breathing though. Just barely. Harry opened the neck of her robes a little to help, but didn't know what else to do for her. He couldn't see anything still bleeding and he wasn't as good with healing charms anyway.

He stood again, ready to go after Voldemort himself, but just as he was leaving the spot where Tonks lay his wand flew suddenly out of his hands and behind him. He whipped around to see Dolohov standing just behind him, holding his wand and grinning.

"I've got his wand, my Lord! Harry Potter is defenseless!"

Harry turned back to Voldemort who seemed suddenly bored with Kingsley and Remus. His glowing red eyes were fixed on Harry. And then he disappeared. They all looked around desperately for him and Harry remembered another time when Voldemort had done this in the very same room. Surely he knew better than to try to possess Harry again though. So what was his game?

In Voldemort's absence Remus concentrated on Dolohov, trying to get Harry's wand back. Kingsley ran to his side and they had him disarmed and stupefied in moments. Kingsley was holding Harry's wand, ready to toss it back to him when his scar seared with white hot pain. Harry clutched his forehead as Voldemort reappeared before him. Without a moment for anyone else to process what was going on, he fired a Killing Curse at Kingsley. The wizard dropped, both his wand and Harry's clattering on the floor.

"No!" yelled Harry.

He could hear Voldemort laughing at him and knew he wouldn't have time to reach his wand. He ran, mentally preparing himself for the worst, but the killing curse never came. Instead, he was surprised to hear hissed parseltongue.

"Finish him, my pet."

Harry's head jerked up at that. He hadn't noticed that Nagini had reentered the Atrium, but she was racing toward him, her owner looking on with a twisted smile. Knowing that she was faster, Harry still dove for his wand. He knew she would catch him. He would feel her fangs sink into him and Lord Voldemort would watch him die. He grabbed his wand from next to Kingsley's body and twisted around, pointing his wand up where he knew the snake would be. She was inches from him now, her head reared up to strike, and he squeezed his wand preparing to yell out the Killing Curse. But he never got the chance.

"Avada Kedavra!"

He watched as the snake fell with the thud to the floor and his mind registered the familiar voice that had uttered such harsh words. Hermione stood several feet away, still holding her wand outward, staring at the scaly carcass. She looked unlike herself. Her eyes were wide and blazing, her hair sticking out like a mad woman, and he was having a hard time believing that it was Hermione who had actually used an Unforgivable Curse.

Nagini was dead.

The last Horcrux was destroyed.

Voldemort was mortal once again.

And he was angry.

"No! You stupid girl!"

The monster rounded on her so that she barely had time to change direction of her wand. But Harry was once again in control of his own wand and cast a shield around her. He wasn't sure what had happened to Remus, but he didn't have time to look around for him.

"Voldemort!"

"We'll finish this after I dispose of your little friend, Potter!"

"No. We'll finish this now, Tom!" Harry hissed in parseltongue.

Voldemort ignored Hermione, who had ducked behind the fountain, and turned back to face Harry.

"The snake was a poor choice for Horcrux."

Harry continued in Parseltongue, knowing the conversation would be private. Voldemort's eyes widened in shock at Harry's revelation and Harry knew he had to keep talking. The more enraged the man got, the more chance for mistake. But Harry had now ensured that Voldemort wouldn't try to kill him. He would hex him and try to get him to talk, but he couldn't kill Harry until he knew how far his secret had spread.

"How?"

"Dumbledore knew you even better than you thought. You didn't really think that you could beat him, did you?"

"Dumbledore is dead!" he shrieked.

"But he had six years to give me your secrets. You should have done it right the first time, Tom."

Voldemort's slit nostrils seemed to flare in anger and he lunged at Harry, who dodged him again. When Voldemort faced him a smile began to form as he composed himself once more.

"So you know. But Nagini was not the only one."

"Oh I know." Voldemort's smile faltered briefly. "But your younger self watched me destroy the diary. You know that's gone. As for the others..." Harry shrugged. "Was it worth so much? To live forever?" Harry's right hand held tight to his wand while his left slowly reached into his shirt to pull out the locket that he had been wearing for nearly a year.

It was working. Voldemort was flustered and scared-looking. Harry had only seen him that way once, when their wands connected the night Voldemort regained his body.

"How many do you have?"

"Several."

"Ah, but was it enough?"

Harry shrugged, unconcerned. "I guess we'll find out."

"There's no possible way you could have retrieved them all."

"There's no way I should have survived your killing curse either, but here I am."

Voldemort let out a tremendous yell of anger and they continued battling. Harry was glad for all the hours of dueling practice that his friends had put him through. He wasn't really Voldemort's equal like the prophecy had said. For Voldemort had knowledge and power beyond anything Harry had ever even wanted. But Harry had determination and the memory of all those who had died because of this man, and that was enough.

There were bodies everywhere. One had to carefully maneuver around them, which proved difficult whilst diving and blocking curses. Harry narrowly dodged a jet of red, but in the process tripped over a dead auror. Somewhere before hitting the ground Harry's wand slipped from his fingers. Time seemed to slow down as he scrambled to grab it again. Out of the corner of his eye he saw an evil grin spread across his enemy's face and a wand raising. He could hear Hermione and he thought Remus call his name, but all his mind could process was the fact that he had lost hold of his wand for the second time that evening and it was imperative that he get it back. Then he heard something that caught him completely off guard.

"Potter!"

It was Snape. Where he came from Harry did not know, but there he stood, ten feet away, wand pointed out.

"Don't Severus. He's mine."

And just as Voldemort sent another jet of light at Harry, he saw a shield pop out in front of him and absorb the spell. It gave Harry time to grab his wand again and he turned to watch Voldemort slowly turn to his servant.

"Severus..." It was almost a hiss, although he was not speaking parseltongue. It was low and calm, but there were waves of anger radiating off him. His most trusted servant was protecting the enemy.

"Finish it, Potter." He didn't even look at Harry when he said it. His eyes were fixed on his one-time master, glittering with hate.

"I would have given you power."

"But you could never give back what you already took."

There were mere seconds to act. Voldemort raised his wand, the Killing Curse ready on his lips, but Snape didn't even try to defend himself, instead keeping the Shield Charm over Harry. But Harry didn't waste time and raised his own wand to Voldemort without hesitation. For Mum and Dad. For Sirius. For Dumbledore. For Ron.

"Avada Kedavra."