I am really sorry it's been so long, but my muse and I argued over this chapter for the longest time since it is so heavily canon compliant.
The canon sections are in italics, as they have been in previous chapters.
This is the 'last' chapter in the war, and after this are the healing chapters so to speak, the ones to wrap up everything into a nice little package. After all that, it'll just be editing through the story. I am extremely thankful for all of the reviews and favourites and follows I've gotten on this story.
Since I last updated I started an angsty Harmony story and a time travel Remione story.
ALSO HAPPY BIRTHDAY GINNY! (Today, August 11th is her birthday).
Please leave a review and let me know what you think ;)
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Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, and only the story line and any OC's are mine.
Draco watched as Ginny sprinted towards the vast doors at the front of the Great Hall. He began to quickly follow her, Theo was right beside him. Draco stopped short beside Blaise who was trying to sit up against Daphne's protests.
Draco hurriedly knelt by his best mate's side and said, "oi, mate, what's wrong?"
"Macnair," Blaise snarled, once more attempting to get up again. Theo anxiously looked between his brothers and the outside, Blaise seemed to notice this and said, "go on Theo, go find Red." Theo grimaced, but nodded curtly after a moment and took off to find his witch.
"Leave him to me," Draco said softly once Blaise met his gaze again, Draco grasped onto Blaise's shoulder, squeezing it lightly.
"Fuck that, give me a Pepper Up or something and let's take the bastard down together," Blaise grunted out, sitting up fully, back hunched and his breathing was slow, back shifting up and down as he inhaled and exhaled.
"Babe…" Daphne murmured, tenderly stroking his cheek.
"I am not going to sit here," Blaise said fiercely, looking between Draco and Daphne. Draco debated internally the consequences of giving Blaise what he wanted, and after a few quick moments, Draco reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a couple vials. A hasty inspection to discern which one he needed, and he found the one he was looking for, he took the small orange vial and handed it to Blaise.
"Drink up, darling, I feel like the final act is about to begin," Draco said, slipping the other vial back into his pocket, and then groaning as he stood up-there was a lightly persisting pain in his left leg-the muscles felt weary and stretched out.
Draco glanced at Blaise once more before following the mass exodus of wix that were heading towards the courtyard, all filing out once they reached it.
Draco forcibly pushed past grimy, sweaty bodies, catching a glimpse of the other side of the courtyard-as he made his way to the front in search of Ginny-and he swallowed thickly. Draco suspected that Theo had probably found her already. Shoving his way through the crowd was definitely a task, everyone was pushing to see what was going on, but no one wanted to go too far. Closely packed together, figuring there was safety in numbers.
Draco spotted a bright head of ginger hair and then a much taller wizard next to it-to his left-and he attempted to make his way over to them.
When Draco finally emerged from the crowd, he saw that he was now at the front, right beside Theo, whose left hand was grasping Ginny's right tightly.
"Harry…" Ginny mumbled, and Draco saw tears in her eyes.
Draco properly faced forwards for the first time and saw what everyone else was seeing. Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, was now laying limp in Hagrid's bruised and battered arms. The half-giant was clutching Harry tightly, vast body shaking with silent sobs, fat tears were caught in his beard from earlier, but none fell now; he merely shook with grief, body heaving as his pain manifested itself physically.
We're doomed.
The Death Eaters came to a halt; Harry heard them spreading out in a line facing the open front doors of the school. He could see, even
though his closed lids, the reddish glow that meant light streamed upon him from the entrance hall. He waited. Any moment, the people for whom he had tried to die would see him, lying apparently dead, in Hagrid's arms.
"NO!"
The scream was the more terrible because he had never expected or dreamed that Professor McGonagall could make such a sound. He heard
another women laughing nearby, and knew that Bellatrix gloried in McGonagall's squinted again for a single second and saw the open doorway filling with people, as the survivors of the battle came out onto the front steps to face their vanquishers and see the truth of Harry's death for themselves. He saw Voldemort standing a little in front of him, stroking Nagini's head with a single white finger. He closed his eyes again.
"No!"
"No!"
"Harry! HARRY!"
Ron's and Hermione's voices were worse than McGonagall's; Harry wanted nothing more than to call back, yet he made himself lie silent, and their cries acted like a trigger; the crowd of survivors took up the cause,screaming and yelling abuse at the Death Eaters, until -
"SILENCE!" cried Voldemort, and there was a bang and a flash of bright light,and silence was forced upon them all. "It is over! Set him down,
Hagrid, at my feet, where he belongs!"
Harry felt himself lowered onto the grass.
"You see? said Voldemort, and Harry felt him striding backward and forward right beside the place where he lay. "Harry Potter is dead! Do you understand now, deluded ones? He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!"
He can't be dead, he can't be, Ginny thought to herself. She had just seen him, alive, a little worse for wear, but alive. He looked so small in Hagrid's arms, so frail. Ginny felt her sadness, her sorrow, burrow deep inside her, replaced with violent, pulsing, palpable rage that bubbled up inside her to a boil. She wasn't going to give up, she wasn't going to go down without a fight.
"He beat you!" yelled Ron, and the charm broke, and the defenders of Hogwarts were shouting and screaming again until a second, more powerful bang extinguished their voices once more.
"He was killed while trying to sneak out of the castle grounds," said Voldemort,and there was a relish in his voice for the lie.
Ginny growled lowly, she didn't care what Voldemort said, Harry wasn't one to run away, knowing him he probably walked into the forest thinking he could save everyone.
"killed while trying to save himself - "
But Voldemort broke off: Harry heard a scuffle and a shout, then another bang, a flash of light, and grunt of pain; he opened his eyes an infinitesimal amount. Someone had broken free of the crowd and charged at Voldemort: Harry saw the figure hit the ground. Disarmed, Voldemort throwing the challenger's wand aside and laughing.
Ginny tiptoed, trying to get a better look at who it was-several wix had moved to look as well, blocking her view. When Ginny saw who it was, her veins were filled with frigid ice water.
"And who is this?" he said in his soft snake's hiss. "Who has volunteered to demonstrate what happens to those who continue to fight when the battle is lost?"
Bellatrix gave a delighted laugh.
"It is Neville Longbottom, my Lord! The boy who has been giving the Carrows so much trouble! The son of the Aurors, remember?"
Shit, Neville, Ginny thought worriedly, squeezing Theo's hand tighter, peeking at him through her peripherals and she saw that his jaw was clenched and his mouth was drawn into a thin line.
"Ah, yes, I remember," said Voldemort, looking down at Neville, who was struggling back to his feet, unarmed and unprotected, standing in the
no-man's-land between the survivors and the Death Eaters. "But you are a pureblood,aren't you, my brave boy? Voldemort asked Neville, who stood facing him, his empty hands curled in fists.
"So what if I am?" said Neville loudly.
"You show spirit and bravery, and you come of noble stock. You will make a very valuable Death Eater. We need your kind, Neville Longbottom."
"I'll join you when hell freezes over," said Neville. "Dumbledore's Army!" he shouted, and there was an answering cheer from the crowd, whom Voldemort's Silencing Charms seemed unable to hold.
Ginny shrugged after Theo shot her a droll look when she cheered in response to Neville's cry. He's probably thinking we should draw as little attention as we can, Ginny mused.
"Very well," said Voldemort, and Harry heard more danger in the silkiness of his voice than in the most powerful curse. "If that is your choice, Longbottom, we revert to the original plan. On your head," he said quietly, "be it."
"No," Ginny whispered softly in horror, eyes widening, instinctively taking a step forward. Theo's eyes widened and he tugged her back in line with him, pulling her into his side at the same time and wrapping an arm protectively around her shoulders.
Still watching through his lashes, Harry saw Voldemort wave his wand. Seconds Later, out of one of the castle's shattered windows, something that looked like a misshapen bird flew through the half light and landed in Voldemort's hand. He shook the mildewed object by its pointed end and it dangled, empty and ragged: the Sorting Hat.
"There will be no more Sorting at Hogwarts School," said Voldemort. "There will be no more Houses. The emblem, shield and colors of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice everyone. Won't they, Neville Longbottom?"
He pointed his wand at Neville, who grew rigid and still, then forced the hat onto Neville's head, so that it slipped down below his eyes. There were movements from the watching crowd in front of the castle, and as one, the Death Eaters raised their wands,holding the fighters of Hogwarts at bay.
"Neville here is now going to demonstrate what happens to anyone foolish enough to continue to oppose me," said Voldemort, and with a flick of his wand, he caused the Sorting Hat to burst into flames.
"NO!" A broken cry ripped from her lips, joining many others as they could only watch as the flames licked at the air and smothered the hat, thin whips lashing out at Neville himself.
Screams split the dawn, and Neville was aflame, rooted to the spot, unable to move, and Harry could not bear it: He must act -
And then many things happened at the same moment.
They heard uproar from the distant boundary of the school as what sounded like hundreds of people came swarming over the out-of-sight walls and pelted toward the castle, uttering loud war cries. At the same time, Grawp came lumbering around the side of the castle and yelled, "HAGGER!" His cry was answered by roars from Voldemort's giants: They ran at Grawp like bull elephants making the earth quake. Then came hooves and the twangs of bows, and arrows were suddenly falling amongst the Death Eaters, who broke ranks, shouting their surprise. Harry pulled the Invisibility Cloak from inside his robes, swung it over himself, and sprang to his feet, as Neville moved too.
Hope sprung into her system, making her magic thrum and vibrate right down to her core. There was hope. Ginny turned back to look at Harry but she didn't see him in Hagrid's arms anymore. He had simply vanished. The half-giant was standing there, flabbergasted, arms still held in their previous position when a body had been occupying them.
In one swift, fluid motion, Neville broke free of the Body-Bind Curse upon him; the flaming hat fell off him and he drew from its depths something silver, with a glittering, rubied handle -
The slash of the silver blade could not be heard over the roar of the oncoming crowd or the sounds of the clashing giants or of the stampeding centaurs, and yet, it seemed to draw every eye. With a single stroke Neville sliced off the great snake's head,which spun high into the air, gleaming in the light flooding from the entrance hall, and Voldemort's mouth was open in a scream of fury that nobody could hear, and the snake's body thudded to the ground at his feet-
Hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, Harry cast a Shield Charm between Neville and Voldemort before the latter could raise his wand. Then, over the screams and the roars and the thunderous stamps of the battling giants, Hagrid's yell came loudest of all.
"HARRY!" Hagrid shouted. "HARRY - WHERE'S HARRY?"
Ginny was frantically searching here and there, but instead all she saw was that battle had broken out amongst the wizards again, spells were being hurled this way and the next. She was mainly on the defensive as she tried to find Harry. He must be alive, she thought suddenly, and she shoved the sliver of hope that he was to the back of her mind; she had bigger fish to fry.
Ginny started to push her way through the crowd, firing spells, jinxes, curses, anything she could at any Death Eaters she saw.
Chaos reigned. The charging centaurs were scattering the Death Eaters, everyone was feeling the giants' stamping feet, and nearer and nearer thundered the reinforcements that had come from who knew where; Harry saw great winged creatures soaring the heads of Voldemort's giants, thestrals and Buckbeak the hippogriff scratching at their eyes while Grawp punched and pummeled them and now the wizards, defenders of Hogwarts and Death Eaters alike were being forced back into the castle. Harry was shooting jinxes and curses at any Death Eater he could see, and they crumpled, not knowing what or who had hit them, and their bodies were trampled by the retreating crowd.
Still hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, Harry was buffered into the entrance hall: He was searching for Voldemort and saw him across the room, firing spells from his wand as he backed into the Great Hall, still screaming instructions to his followers as he sent curses flying left and right; Harry cast more Shield Charms, at Voldemort's would-be victims. Seamus Finnigan and Hannah Abbott, darted past him into the Great Hall, where they joined the fight already flourishing inside it.
And now there were more, even more people storming up the front steps, and Harry saw Charlie Weasley overtaking Horace Slughorn, who was still wearing his emerald pajamas. They seemed to have returned at the head of what looked like the families and friends of every Hogwarts student who had remained to fight, along with the shopkeepers and homeowners of Hogsmeade.
Pansy was standing feet away from her Father and from Goyle Senior, she raised her wand and moments later Padma and Parvati Patil joined her side. Ginny heard Pansy yell, "fuck you!" in her Father's direction as she passed by the dark haired girl.
The centaurs Ban, Ronan, and Magorian burst into the hall with a great clatter of hooves, as behind Harry the door that led to the kitchens was blasted off its hinges.
The house-elves of Hogwarts swarmed into the entrance hall, screaming and waving carving knives and cleavers, and at their head, the locket of Regulus Black bouncing on his chest, was Kreacher, his bullfrog's voice audible even
above this din: "Fight! Fight! Fight for my Master, defender of the house-elves! Fight the Dark Lord, in the name of brave Regulus! Fight!"
Ginny ducked quickly as she heard and then saw Sirius flying on a broom through all the chaos and madness, laughing gaily as he fired spell after spell at every Death Eater in his line of sight.
Ginny felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth, and she shot a spell at a Death Eater who had just thrown one at Kingsley-who was back to back with Remus as they fought together-the bright blue spell clipped Kingsley in his non-dominant arm and he stumbled forward in pain. Remus quickly covered for him, dispatching any of the Death Eaters in reach whilst Kingsley got a hold of himself.
The House Elves were hacking and stabbing at the ankles and shins of Death Eaters,
their tiny faces alive with malice, and everywhere Harry looked Death Eaters
were folding under sheer weight of numbers, overcome by spells, dragging arrows from wounds, stabbed in the leg by elves, or else simply attempting to escape, but swallowed by the oncoming horde.
But it was not over yet: Harry sped between duelers, past struggling prisoners, and into the Great Hall.
Voldemort was in the center of the battle, and he was striking and smiting all within reach. Harry could not get a clear shot, but fought his way nearer, still invisible, and the Great Hall became more and more crowded as everyone who could walk forced their way inside.
Harry saw Yaxley slammed to the floor by George and Lee Jordan, saw Dolohov fall with a scream as Draco's nasty spell tore him right now the middle, a vengeful expression on his face, saw Walden Macnair thrown across the room by Hagrid and land on his side, only to have Blaise advance upon him and kill him slowly, covering his body in cuts and slashes; Harry swore he heard Blaise say, "I don't even feel bad about killing scum like you," as he smiled jovially down at the remnants of the wizard.
He saw Ron and Neville bringing down Fenrir Greyback, Aberforth Stunning Rookwood, Arthur and Percy flooring Thicknesse.
Voldemort was now dueling McGonagall, Slughorn, and Moody all at once, and there was cold hatred in his face as they wove and ducked around him, unable to finish him—
Bellatrix was still fighting too, fifty yards away from Voldemort, and like her master she duelled three at once: Hermione, Ginny, and Luna, all battling their hardest, but Bellatrix was equal to them, since all three girls looked tired and weary from all the fighting and Harry's attention was diverted as a Killing Curse shot so close to Luna that she missed death by an inch—
He changed course, running at Bellatrix rather than Voldemort, but before
he had gone a few steps he was knocked sideways.
Ginny had come upon Hermione and Luna and she joined them in their assault against the witch that had wronged them all in some way.
When she heard, "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" Mrs. Weasley threw off her cloak as she ran, freeing her arms. Bellatrix spun on the spot, roaring with laughter at the sight of her new challenger.
Ginny noticed that Narcissa had followed closely behind Molly, looking frustrated as she doesn't have a wand anymore.
Lucius ran towards his wife, appearing out of the blue, and handed her a wand. Narcissa raised an eyebrow-silently questioning its origins, but her husband merely shrugged. Narcissa rolled the wand around in her hand for a moment, and then clasped it tightly before she fired a spell at a Death Eater who was backing her and duelling Hannah. His back sharply curved inwards before he sank to the ground, and Narcissa grinned broadly. Turning towards her sister with a dark smile.
Ginny stood on the fair witch's side just as she joined Molly in the fight. She saw Theo out of the corner of her eye running towards Draco and Blaise. Please be safe, Ginny pleaded as she turned her attention back to the deranged witch in front of them.
The fighting had ceased for a moment and Bellatrix was regarding them all as if they were toys she was dying to play with.
"She's mine," Ginny announced.
"Ginny-" Molly began to protest, expression filled with rage.
"SHE'S MINE," Ginny roared, and in any other situation, she would be in terrible trouble with her Mother, and from the way Molly's eyes narrowed, she knew that when this was all over, she most likely would be. Ginny stepped forward, Molly and Narcissa by her side, and with a swipe of her wand she began to duel. Harry watched with terror and elation as Ginny Weasley's wand slashed and twisted, and Bellatrix Lestrange's smile faltered and became a snarl. Jets of light flew from both wands, the floor around the witches' feet became hot and cracked; both women were fighting to kill.
Bellatrix laughed, it was an exhilarated, wild noise that erupted from her lips. Harry saw Ginny grit her teeth and clench her jaw, and then he knew what was going to happen moments before it did.
Ginny's curse soared beneath Bellatrix's outstretched arm and hit her squarely
in the chest, directly over her heart.
Bellatrix's gloating smile froze, her eyes began to bulge: For the tiniest space of time she knew what had happened, and then she toppled, and the watching crowd roared, and Voldemort screamed.
Harry felt as though he turned in slow motion; he saw McGonagall, Moody, and Slughorn blasted backward, flailing and writhing through the air, as Voldemort's fury at the fall of his last, best lieutenant exploded with the force of a bomb. Voldemort raised his wand and directed it at Ginny Weasley.
"Protego!" roared Harry, and the Shield Charm expanded in the middle of the Hall, and Voldemort stared around for the source as Harry pulled off the Invisibility Cloak at last.
The yell of shock, the cheers, the screams on every side of "Harry!" "HE'S ALIVE!" were stifled at once. The crowd was afraid, and silence fell abruptly and completely as Voldemort and Harry looked at each other, and began, at the same moment, to circle each other.
Ginny felt her breath catch in her throat, those blood red eyes had been turned towards her with so much hatred and fury. Her eyes darted about until she finally found Theo, who looked white as a sheet and his chest was rising and falling rapidly. She found that she didn't even have it in her to muster up a small smile. So instead she turned back to Harry.
"I don't want anyone else to try to help." Harry said loudly, and in the total silence his voice carried like a trumpet call. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me."
Voldemort hissed.
"Potter doesn't mean that," he said, his red eyes wide. "That isn't how he works, is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter?"
"Nobody," said Harry simply. "There are no more Horcruxes. It's just you and me. Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good..."
"One of us?" jeered Voldemort, and his whole body was taunt and his red eyes stared, a snake that was about to strike. "You think it will be you, do you, the boy who has survived by accident, and because Dumbledore was pulling the strings?"
"Accident, was it, when my mother died to save me?" asked Harry. They were still moving sideways, both of them, in that perfect circle, maintaining the same distance from each other, and for Harry no face existed but Voldemort's.
"Accident, when I decided to fight in that graveyard? Accident, that I didn't defend myself tonight, and still survived, and returned to fight again?"
"Accidents!" screamed Voldemort, but still he did not strike, and the watching crowd was frozen as if Petrified, and of the hundreds in the Hall, nobody seemed to breathe but they two. "Accident and chance and the fact that you crouched and snivelled behind the skirts of greater men and women, and permitted me to kill them for you!"
"You won't be killing anyone else tonight," said Harry as they circled, and stared into each other's eyes, green into red. "You won't be able to kill any of them ever again. Don't you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people—"
"But you did not!"
"—I meant to, and that's what it did. I've done what my mother did. They're protected from you. Haven't you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can't torture them. You can't touch them. You don't learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?"
"You dare—"
"Yes, I dare," said Harry. "I know things you don't know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things that you don't. Want to hear some, before you make another big mistake?" Voldemort did not speak, but prowled in a circle, and Harry knew that he kept him temporarily mesmerized and at bay, held back by the faintest possi-
bility that Harry might indeed know a final secret...
"Is it love again?" said Voldemort, his snake's face jeering. "Dumbledore's favorite solution, love, which he claimed conquered death, though love did not stop him falling from the tower and breaking like an old waxwork? Love, which did not prevent me stamping out your Mudblood mother like a cockroach, Potter—and nobody seems to love you enough to run forward this time and take my curse. So what will stop you from dying now when I strike?"
"Just one thing," said Harry, and still they circled each other, wrapped in each other, held apart by nothing but the last secret.
"If it is not love that will save you this time," said Voldemort, "you must believe that you have magic that I do not, or else a weapon more powerful than
mine?"
"I believe both," said Harry, and he saw shock flit across the snakelike face, though it was instantly dispelled; Voldemort began to laugh, and the sound was more frightening than his screams; humorless and insane, it echoed around the silent Hall.
"You think you know more magic than I do?" he said. "Than I, than Lord Voldemort, who has performed magic that Dumbledore himself never dreamed of?"
"Oh, he dreamed of it," said Harry, "but he knew more than you, knew enough not to do what you've done."
"You mean he was weak!" screamed Voldemort. "Too weak to dare, too weak to take what might have been his, what will be mine!"
"No, he was cleverer than you," said Harry, "a better wizard, a better man."
"I brought about the death of Albus Dumbledore!"
"You thought you did," said Harry, "but you were wrong."
For the first time, the watching crowd stirred as the hundreds of people around the walls drew breath as one.
"Dumbledore is dead!" Voldemort hurled the words at Harry as though they would cause him unendurable pain. "His body decays in the marble tomb in the grounds of this castle. I have seen it, Potter, and he will not return!"
"Yes, Dumbledore's dead," said Harry calmly, "but you didn't have him killed. He chose his own manner of dying, chose it months before he died, arranged the whole thing with the man you thought was your servant."
"What childish dream is this?" said Voldemort, but still he did not strike, and his red eyes did not waver from Harry's.
"Severus Snape wasn't yours," said Harry. "Snape was Dumbledore's from the moment you started hunting down my mother. And you never realized it, because of the thing you can't understand. You never saw Snape cast a Patronus, did you, Riddle?"
Voldemort did not answer. They continued to circle each other, like wolves about to tear each other apart.
"Snape's Patronus was a doe," said Harry,"the same as my mother's, because he loved her for nearly all of his life, from the time when they were children. You should have realized," he said as he saw Voldemort's nostrils flare, "he asked you to spare her life, didn't he?"
"He desired her, that was all," sneered Voldemort, "but when she had gone, he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him—"
"Of course he told you that," said Harry, "but he was Dumbledore's spy from the moment you threatened her, and he's been working against you ever since! Dumbledore was already dying when Snape finished him!"
"It matters not!" shrieked Voldemort, who had followed every word with rapt attention, but now let out a cackle of mad laughter. "It matters not with him, because it had never been won from him!"
"But then, Potter, Dumbledore as good as gave me the wand!" Voldemort's voice shook with malicious pleasure. "I stole the wand from its last master's tomb! I removed it against its last master's wishes! It's power is mine!"
"You still don't get it, Riddle, do you? Possessing the wand isn't enough! Holding it, using it, doesn't make it really yours. Didn't you listen to Ollivander? The wand chooses the wizard...The Elder Wand recognized a new master before Dumbledore died, someone who never even laid a hand on it.
The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never realizing exactly what he had done, or that the world's most dangerous wand had given him its allegiance…"
Voldemort's chest rose and fell rapidly, and Harry could feel the curse coming, feel it building inside the wand pointed at his face.
"The true master of the Elder Wand was Draco Malfoy."
Blank shock showed in Voldemort's face for a moment, but then it was gone.
"But what does it matter?" he said softly. "Even if you are right, Potter, it makes no difference to you and me. You no longer have the phoenix wand: We duel on skill alone...and after I have killed you, I can attend to Draco Malfoy..."
"But you're too late," said Harry. "You've missed your chance. I got there first. I overpowered Draco weeks ago. I took this wand from him."
Harry heard a soft snort reach his ears and he smiled, it had to be Draco.
Harry twitched the hawthorn wand, and he felt the eyes of everyone in the Hall upon it.
"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" whispered Harry. "Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does . . . I am the true master of the Elder Wand."
A red-gold glow burst suddenly across the enchanted sky above them as an edge of dazzling sun appeared over the sill of the nearest window. The light hit both of their faces at the same time, so that Voldemort's was suddenly a flaming blur. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he too yelled his best hope
to the heavens, pointing Draco's wand:
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
The bang was like a cannon blast, and the golden flames that erupted between them, at the dead center of the circle they had been treading, marked the point where the spells collided. Harry saw Voldemort's green jet meet his own spell, saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling like the head of Nagini, spinning through the air toward the master it would not kill, who had come to take full possession of it at last. And Harry, with the unerring skill of a Seeker, caught the wand in his free hand as Voldemort fell backward, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward. Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and
Harry stood with two wands in his hands, staring down at his enemy's shell.
Did, did Harry just win? Ginny asked herself, shock coursing through her veins.