Happy Halloween.

"I hope you two know what you're doing." Kingsley muttered as he stood his ground. He looked over to his companion who stood there with a stoic look on his face. "Are you ready for your first debut Headmaster Snape?"

Snape coughed and pushed the fear that was crawling up his throat. He took a very long deep breath and nodded his head. There were people counting on him now. The children that were hiding in the castle. The future of Magical Britain.

"Fucking Albus." He cursed. "If I had known just how much this position entails, I would have told him to shove it."

Kingsley snickered. "Look at it this way. He chose you out of everyone else to handle this. He didn't choose Minerva or any other professor. He chose you because he had faith in your abilities to lead and protect the children."

"I think he must have been senile then." Snape dryly added. "But I guess anything beats being surrounded by werewolves."

The last remaining Auror laughed. "This is nothing. Did I ever tell you about the time where I was accidentally transported to a deserted island that was filled with nothing but the undead?"

"It can't be that bad if you're still here standing." The former potions professor pointed out and then turned his attention back to the gathering of werewolves. "That, on the other hand, might be a little bit more difficult to deal with."

"Do you have a plan?" Kingsley whispered, his wand pointed at the enemy. At this point, half of him was wishing that he never listened to Harry's asinine plan. "Please tell me you have a plan."

"Of course I have one." Snape snapped. "I assume that whatever happens here won't be reflected afterwards?"

The Auror remained silent, unsure of how to answer that question. On one hand, this man was a former servant of the dark lord and it could all be a long con but on the other hand, he wasn't going to die here like this. Against all odds, he gritted his teeth and mumbled. "Do what you need."

"Excellent." Snape said, smiling as his wand was already going through the motions of casting. "Fenrir!"

The leader of the werewolves pushed his way to the front, sneering at his prey. "What does a dead man want with me?"

"Do you remember Remus Lupin?"

"Should I? I don't keep track of all my kills." Fenrir roared out in laughter. "Just like I won't remember the names of you two."

Snape shook his head. "You really should because you never know when friends of your victims might come after you with a vengeance." Without any warning, he dropped a vial onto the floor and grabbed Kingsley as they ran for cover.

Before Kingsley could fully understand what happened, screams echoed through the area, making him look onward with surprise as the werewolves were on the floor, trying to claw off their own skin. All of them were rolling around on the ground, almost if something was burning them from the inside out.

"What did you do?"

"That was silver melted down into a powdery form. I laced the powder with a very addictive substance to make it more toxic to werewolves." Snape explained. "Since neither of us can match up against a single werewolf, let alone a whole pack, I needed to get them to come towards us. Potter's idea was to use one of us as bait and then just throw this silver powder at them. We deduced that if they inhale even the slightest bit into their body, it would be fatal to them. Or so we hoped."

"And if that didn't work?" Kingsley asked, still looking at the enemy wrangling in pain. "What was your plan B?"

"Then we burn them." Snape answered and then threw a bottle that looked like Fiendfyre towards the werewolves. "The world is better without them anyway. We have enough darkness in this world as it is."

The two men looked on as their enemies went up in flames, hopefully scorching the last remains of the evil werewolves... forever.

"What are you going to do now Voldemort?" Harry taunted as he weaved through the trees, dodging and repelling spells. "I think those were the screams of your minions. Give it up, you won't win."

"It doesn't matter you fool." Voldemort hissed. "I will get more minions once I rid this world of you."

"Exploda!" Harry yelled. "Exploda Maxima!"

Voldemort saw the beam coming and summoned a nearby boulder to take the hit. "Child's play. I expected more from you."

Harry then stopped running and shook his head. "You really need to get off your high horse because if you don't, you're going to get burned." He quickly pocked his wand and slammed his hand to the ground.

What came next took Voldemort by surprise as the path that he was running on suddenly changed into concrete spikes, impaling him through his feet. He roared out in pain as he fell to the ground but not before throwing several dark curses that caught Harry off guard.

Harry blacked out for a few seconds before realizing what actually hit him. He clutched the side of his ribs as he struggled to get back on his feet. He waved his warm and conjured several shields to put some distance between Voldemort and himself.

"Foolish boy." Voldemort retorted, already standing up and glaring at Harry. "Do you even have what it takes to lead this world? Do you even know what to do with all that power that I granted you?"

"I never asked for this." Harry replied, coughing up some blood. He closed his eyes as he took several deep breathes. "I was just an ordinary boy who wanted an ordinary life. I didn't ask for any of this! You could have left me alone and I would have been more than happy to have looked the other way."

"You are a wizard Harry Potter. Have you no pride in that?" Voldemort broke through the shields through sheer force, the pain in his foot long forgotten. "Where was that magic that you had several days ago Harry Potter?! That was the boy that I want to kill."

Harry gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain. "If you wanted to kill me yourself, then what was the purpose of that Veil? Is it all for show and tell?"

Voldemort laughed. "That Veil is what will mark the end of Hogwarts. Why should I waste my magic destroying that pathetic excuse for a castle when this thing will do it for me? With one touch, I can have it devour anything in its path. Ancient magic or not."

"That's what I needed to know." Harry smirked and then chucked his wand straight at Voldemort.

Voldemort watched in amusement as the wand harmlessly sailed past his head. "Have you finally decided to surrender Potter? I must say, I expected more from the boy who lived..."

"From one dead person to another... exploda!"

Voldemort's eyes widened as he hastily conjured up his own shield and waited for the explosion... but it never came from in front of him. When the explosion occurred, he spun his body around so fast that he finally registered where he was and what Potter was planning all along.

"You FOOL!" Voldemort screamed, jumping to the ground. He dug his fingers into the ground, trying to find whatever holding he could.

Harry laughed in response as he kept his eyes closed, the sounds of whooshing wind rushing through the courtyard. For the past twenty minutes, he played a game of cat and mouse, luring the world's most dangerous person to this exact spot. In front of the Veil.

From what he learned from Hermione, this artifact was known to most people, even Voldemort as a barrier... a gate and what was behind any gate? A path to somewhere. For all he knew, it could have been an empty window and he would have died in a very sad way. It would have been very un-heroic of him but what the hell. If he was going to die, he always said he was going to go out with a bang.

"What have you done Potter?!"

"I'm ending this war!" Harry shouted back, opening his eyes to see Voldemort trying to stop the Veil from sucking him in. "There's no point in trying anything. This place was especially warded for the two of us. No apparation, no teleporting, no escaping."

Inch by inch, Voldemort felt his grip slipping and all he could think about was the annoying obstacle that started all of this. He screamed once more and summoned every ounce of magic he had. He pointed towards Harry and screamed, "Accio Harry Potter!"

This time it was Harry to be surprised. He found himself moving towards Voldemort and threw out rapid fire cutting curses. Voldemort took the hit without hesitation as his hand grabbed onto Harry's ankle for dear life.

"Let go of me you crazy lunatic!"

"We're bonded you and I! Wherever you go, I follow. Alas that is our fate Harry Potter!" Voldemort crackled. "I might not have won this war but I will die knowing that I took you with me!"

Harry frantic started kicking the deranged man, hoping that one of those kicks would cause Voldemort to lose his grip. He was seriously starting to reconsider this plan because in just a few minutes, he was going to get sucked into the Veil and from where he was sitting, it looked like nothing but death!

He could feel the dark magic radiating off Voldemort, fully knowing that his intent was to drag him down as well. He wandlessly threw out anything that he could think off at the man but nothing worked. His grip remained strong on his ankle.

"This is going to suck." Harry muttered to himself. There were plenty of ways to remedy this solution but he was not particularly fond of any of them. He sighed. "The things I do for my country..."

After the fourth explosion Hermione ran out of Hogwarts, her heart beating faster and faster. She couldn't explain to her parents why she needed to run out here. Something was calling out to her to go where Harry was. Her eyes quickly scanned the area, looking for signs of where her boyfriend's battle was taking place. She heard some more explosions towards the school courtyard and ran towards the noise.

"Harry!" Hermione yelled into the area, her eyes searching through the dust. "HARRY!"

"Miss Granger!" A voice yelled. "You cannot go in there!"

A firm hand gripped her by the shoulders, preventing her from taking another step forward. "Let go of me before I remove your hand myself." She growled. "Whoever you are, I'm giving you to a count of three."

"I will stun you if you don't calm down."

"Headmaster?" Hermione hesitantly asked, finally able to make out the figure. "Is that you?"

"Of course it is." Snape snorted. "Who else would be dumb enough to be out here?"

"You have to let me go. I have to find Harry! I think he's hurt out there!"

"No. You cannot." Snape answered, shooting down her request. "It's much too dangerous out there and Potter wouldn't want you in harm's way. You need to turn back around and go back into the castle. I will come find you when this is all over."

"You can't stop me!" Hermione twisted her body sideways and ducked under Snape's arm, narrowly missing his second attempt but before she could take it three feet, she found herself unable to move her body.

Snape let out a long sigh as he walked in front of his wayward student. "I swore to him that no harm would come your way Miss Granger and I intend to keep my oath. Albus might have been lenient in the past but I certainly will not risk one of my brightest students like this."

He smirked when he saw the pure rage coming from Hermione's eyes and decided not to press his luck any longer. "I know that you're mad but you have to understand. This wasn't personal at all." He paused for a second before adding, "You want to kill me don't you?"

The murderous intent from her eyes was all the answer that he needed.

Snape narrowed his eyes. "I would rather face your wrath any day. You don't scare me. I've been living as a spy for Dumbledore for nearly two decades. I've endured torture unlike anything you have ever experience. There is nothing that you can do to me that I would be scared of."

Her eyes soften but there was still anger in her eyes.

"Just... trust me on this Miss Granger. I assure you that Potter will be fine and that he'll be back on his feet annoying me before you know it now I'm going to release this spell and I trust that you won't do anything stupid. Do I have your word?"

Hermione did the best she could to communicate with her eyes and that must have worked because Snape released her a few seconds afterwards. She coughed as she took several deep breaths of air. "Can you go check on him then?"

"I would have done so without you asking." Snape answered, already walking to the courtyard. "Go back into the castle. I will find you afterwards."

"You better..." Hermione whispered as she watched the retreating back of her headmaster. "Please be alright Harry..."

See you next chapter.