A/N: I think there's going to just be one more chapter after this, but we'll see how it plays out.
Ch 25: Final Battle
Quatre felt bad for Madam Pomfrey.
The poor woman was dashing all around the Great Hall, trying to tend to at least twenty people at once. And the number of people was growing every time Trowa or himself went back outside to check for more.
There were a lot of people who were too far gone, that didn't stand a chance. But Quatre didn't understand how medical magic worked and had been surprised to find that people he had written off as dead were on their way to recovery.
And, of course, there were the actual dead.
You couldn't have a battle without it. He felt bad so bad for the nurse, who clearly had known majority of the people that were being brought it. He could feel her distress in his chest, even as she kept pushing herself forward to take care of those who could survive.
Every now and again she would grab Quatre (who was far more approachable than Trowa) and get him to act as assistant for a moment. She was panicked and frenzied and clearly had never been in a situation like this before.
Quatre felt very bad for the poor woman.
The Sandrock pilot gave a small frown as the building around them started shaking. He glanced over at Trowa who had also stilled and glanced toward the front doors.
Looked like Wufei and Zechs had company.
"You don't know?"
Hilde gave a shake of her head, "Nope, not a clue. If they did make it back, it was after we left. We have no idea if it worked."
Une swore quietly. There was no way for her to contact the boys, so she just had to hope that they had been successful. They had pulled off the impossible before, so why start doubting them now?
Because it involved magic, a civilian, and things that defied all logic.
"Are all of you safe?"
"We're just fine, Commander. Miss Relena and Dorothy are playing a game called… exploding snap? It seems to be a card game of some sort."
"They're playing cards at a time like this?"
"Honestly, Commander, I think Relena needs the distraction. She is very worried."
"Well, she has a lot of people she cares about in this battle."
"We all do."
"Damn," Zechs said quietly, with feeling. How had they managed to produce so many Mobile Suits? And where were all these giants coming from?
It was a lot harder to take them out with just himself in Wufei. But given the battle that was going on below, it was probably for the better. They would be crushing people on accident if all the Gundams had been moving.
"Zechs, this isn't working."
Zechs pursed his lips since he was highly aware of that. He cast a quick glance around, thinking.
"Let's push them back toward the forest. Give ourselves some moving room."
"The others are in the forest. Are we sure that's wise?"
"They came from out of there, and I doubt Voldermort would be stupid enough to have something as large as them come through the area of the woods that he was in."
"Understood."
Zechs wondered what kind of world he was living in that a Gundam pilot was following his lead.
Harry Potter was about to do something horrifically stupid.
He was going to walk into the clearing that held Voldermort by himself.
He had his wand at his side and hoped that he knew the man well enough to know that he would want to boast about how doomed Harry was before he attacked. Harry needed the man to do that for him. Because if he attacked outright, there wouldn't be time to take out his followers.
And that would leave Harry horrifically outnumbered and out skilled.
"Almost time," Voldermort's voice echoed back to him and Harry took a breath before stepping out of the woods.
"Almost time for what?"
Voldermort spun around, his face going from a snarl to what Harry supposed was a smile. But usually a smile actually held happiness, which this facial expression was sorely lacking.
"Harry Potter. Have you come to surrender?"
"Not likely," Harry allowed himself a faint smirk. He had to play this right. He was calm, cool, and confident. And he most certainly wasn't about to toss his stomach.
"Then you have come to die," Voldermort raised his wand.
Harry raised his own, glancing at the followers who also drew their wands, but Voldermort waved them back. This was going to be a one-on-one fight.
Good, Harry did know the Dark Lord as well as he thought he did.
"This is goodbye, Potter. It will bring me great pleasure to show your body to your precious Order."
"This is goodbye alright."
A deafening bang filled the air.
"Should we help them?" Quatre asked Trowa, looking away from the body below him.
Trowa paused, shifting the person who was in his arms to look at the blond pilot, "We'll finish up here first."
Quatre nodded ever so slightly before moving to another downed person. The number to fighters left was alarmingly small and Quatre feared that they would be overthrown. Heero, Duo, Sally, Noin, and Harry had yet to return, making Quatre wonder if they had run into a second wave of fighters or if they had been attacked by any of the number of things that Harry had warned them about being in the woods.
There was a pained cry from behind him and Quatre turned to see Hermione drop to her knees, her left hand gripping a slash on her right arm. Without a thought, Quatre grabbed his gun and fired on her attacker, who fell to the ground in surprise and pain.
With a quick flick of her wand, Hermione had the man tied in the same magic ropes that had once held Dorothy and she turned grateful eyes to him. She was badly injured and obviously more than a little worried about her friends who were somewhere on the battlefield, but Quatre grabbed her good arm and steered her into the castle.
She protested but he shook his head, "You want to help? Get yourself healed before you get yourself killed."
The bushy haired Gryffindor snapped her mouth shut at that and nodded, allowing Quatre to take her to Madam Pomfrey.
"Miss Relena?"
"Yes Dorothy?"
"What are you going to do when we get home?"
"Well, first I'm going to take the longest bubble bath of my life," Dorothy smiled and laughed a little, bringing a smile out of Relena, "And then I'm going to come back to reality and start cleaning up the mess I made by being gone for so long."
"Have you ever considered doing something else for a living, Vice Foreign Minister Darlian?"
"Of course not. There are certain things that need to be done and I will be the one to do them."
"That's right, Miss Relena… because it is up to everyone to stand up and fight for themselves. To sit back and wait for people to save them, it is weak. And it will get them nothing but pain and suffering."
Relena looked at Dorothy, confused, but then she noticed the children around them looking ashamed. Relena and Dorothy had been let in on what Harry had told the Preventers. It was his destiny to fight Voldermort and to win. This world, much like her own, had relied on children to win the battle for them.
Relena nodded a bit, "You are also right, Dorothy. We all have to do our part to protect the world we live in. If we don't, then we allow the bad guys to win."
"I think that was the last of them," Wufei commented over Tallgeese's speakers.
"I think you're right," Zechs agreed, allowing himself to relax for just a moment, "I wonder where they're coming from."
"We'll investigate later. For now we should ensure that we're here to protect the civilians should they continue to need it."
"Actually, it looks like the battle has stopped."
"What?"
Wufei turned Nataku to see that, indeed, the battle below had stopped. It looked as though the last of the fighters had taken cover in the castle and the Death Eaters were trying to break down the doors.
"Should we assist?"
Zechs debated for a moment, "You were right, we should stay here. If more come, we won't have the time to get back to the Suits. We'll have to hope that 04, 03 and whoever else is in there can hold their own."
The front doors of the castle shook, which Quatre wasn't even sure how that was possible. The things were huge and should have weighed more than the Death Eater's combined, but they were rattling like they were made of glass.
"That's not going to hold," Trowa commented quietly from next to him.
Quatre nodded his agreement, looking behind him at the Great Hall. They were lacking in fighters. If the Death Eaters got in, they would probably be overrun. Unless they could heal enough people to get them back into the battle.
"We're used to losing battles," Trowa offered, looking at Quatre.
"Yes," Quatre agreed, unable to keep himself from smiling at the reminder of the Eve Wars. Duo had said the same thing when things had looked hopeless. And then Heero had shown up and saved them, "But I don't think we're getting much in the way of backup this time."
"Maybe not," Trowa agreed, "But I have a few bullets left and I know you do too. At least we stand a fighting chance."
"Yes… but once those bullets run out, I don't have any spares."
"Nor do I."
"…Aim true, Trowa. We can't afford to waste anything."
There was a scream of pain and the thud of a body hitting the ground.
Voldermort's smile slipped a bit as he turned away from Harry to see Bellatrix on the ground, gripping her shoulder as blood gushed from it. The snake man spun back around to look at Harry.
"What did you do?!" He hissed, eyes narrowed in anger.
Harry allowed himself an actual smile, "You don't know? And here I thought you were all knowing."
Another bang and another shriek as one by one his followers dropped to the ground in agony. Voldermort let out an inhuman noise and thrust his wand at Harry.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
"STUPEFY!"
The spells connected as they had back in Harry's fourth year, sister cores having a mind of their own and refusing to harm the other. Harry had been afraid of this. Afraid that he actually wouldn't be able to cause harm to Voldermort so long has he fired a spell from that wand.
Well, now there was a thought.
Harry broke the hold the wands had to each other and rolled to the side, pointing his wand at the nearest Death Eater, "Expelliarmus!"
The wand flew to him and he moved it into his right hand, leaving his own wand in his left as he cast another stunner at Voldermort to stop another killing curse from hitting him.
He really hoped this worked.
"…Should we… just shoot the guy?"
"Potter said it was his battle."
"But we could just shoot the guy."
Heero looked at Duo who offered him a small shrug. It if was Wufei, he wouldn't try to step in because honorable fights and all that, but this kid didn't actually want to kill the guy and Duo wasn't sure that he wanted to force the kid to taking a life.
"Duo might have a point," Noin offered from Heero's other side.
The 01 pilot pursed his lips. He had said that he would never kill again but… well… better it weigh on his conscience than on the kid's.
He lifted his gun, pausing a moment to line up the shot. He let out a slow breath, steeled his nerves, and took the shot.
Harry was more than a little surprised when Voldermort let out a cry of pain and blood started to flow rapidly from his shoulder. They had shot Voldermort?
Jerking himself out of his shock he took his chance and swung up the second wand, the words very regretfully leaving his mouth.
"Advada Kedavara."
Voldermort had enough time to yell, "No!" before the spell hit him. There was a reality shattering silence as Voldermort's body fell before there was a world numbing 'thud' of it hitting the ground.
A soul wrenching scream filled the air as Bellatrix saw her master fall. She lifted her wand in her uninjured arm and swung it to Harry.
"CRUCIO!"
Harry didn't see or hear any of it and it actually took him a moment to realize that he was yelling in pain from the curse. Another fire from a gun and it stopped, leaving the numb boy to fall to his hands and knees.
He had done it. He had killed Voldermort.
He was going to be sick.
He didn't remember puking, but the taste in his mouth assured him that he had. A light hand on his back and a soothing voice continued to assure him that he had lost his lunch. He glanced to the side to see Sally, who was asking him questions that he couldn't understand.
What was she saying?
He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Just breathe.
"He's in shock," Sally offered, looking up at the other three.
Heero and Duo had made quick work of restraining the remaining Death Eaters before making their way over to Harry, who hadn't moved since he had fired the killing curse.
The first kill was the hardest.
"We need to get back," Heero said after a moment, looking at the others.
"Go," Noin said to the pilots, "Sally and I will get him back."
"Oh, and Heero?" Sally said before the two could wander off too far, "Might want to take the body with you. It should be enough to give the others an edge."
The battle for Hogwarts raged on, unaware that there was no reason to continue the fight. Enough of the Order had been healed to meet the Death Eaters head on as they broke through the doors into the castle.
Quatre had long since run out of bullets and had taken to a bit of hand to hand. He had lost Trowa in the fight, but knew the acrobat was also out of bullets. They were slowly being pushed back into the Great Hall, and there was nothing they could do to stop them. Without their guns or having magic themselves, they couldn't really force the Death Eaters into much of anything.
Quatre would catch a glimpse of a redhead every now and again, but never long enough to know which of the Weasley boys it was. He felt like he hadn't seen an ally in hours, but knew that they were somewhere in the mess of spells, even if he couldn't see them.
They were getting dangerously close to where the injured and dead were when Duo's sharp whistle cut through the air.
"HEY DEATH MUNCHERS!"
Yes, most certainly Duo.
There was a pause as everyone turned their attention to the yell and the braided pilot grinned with a slight edge to it, "We got you a present."
Quatre was confused as to what Duo could have possibly brought, at least until Heero ascended the stairs and dropped the body of Voldermort before them.
There was a stunned silence, which the Order used to take the Death Eaters by surprise and apprehend them. Quatre looked at Heero, worried. Had he…?
Heero caught his look and gave a gentle shake of his head. It hadn't been them.
Oh poor Harry.