Chapter 36: The final battle [1998, Summer]
"You shouldn't be here, Tonks! Think of your child!" Minerva scolded.
She hurried back to the castle once she understood everything, leaving her emotions for later. Severus had gone off to keep up with his act of belonging with the dark side.
"But, Remus!" Tonks protested. She had appeared in Hogwarts despite the fact that she was pregnant and should not be doing any fighting.
"We'll keep him safe. Augusta, could you bring her back to Grimmauld Place and make sure she doesn't go running off again?" Minerva addressed the both of them sternly.
"I'll escort Tonks, but I'd prefer to come back and join in the fight afterwards..."
"No, I'd prefer if you did not. You have Frank, Alice and Neville to think about. I'll make sure Neville is safe – he did a wonderful job blowing up the bridge with Seamus just."
Augusta started to argue, but Minerva would hear none of it. She did not think that she could stand another loss of her oldest friends after Emmeline was killed by Death Eaters somewhere near the Muggle Prime Minister's residence earlier that year.
xxxxx
Minerva took down a Death Eater as she made her way to where the battle was the fiercest. As she saw the scene of pandemonium unfolding in front of her, she berated herself for allowing her students to fight. But this was not the time to be soft. She steadied her wand and ran to back Remus up. But before she could make any progress, she heard a commotion at the gates. There were screams of fear but cheers of delight at the same time; the latter apparently from the Death Eaters.
The dark lord had arrived.
All activity came to a halt as Gellert Grindelwald made his grand entrance; elegant and regal. The crowd fell silent as they were slowly mesmerised, parting for him to enter the school grounds. He was like a sleek, majestic panther, slowly advancing on his prey without giving any notion that he was about to entrap it. And soon, he found her.
"Minerva McGonagall. How many years has it been?"
The crowd watched in awe, as he smiled and extended his hand to her. She froze, either spellbound or in fear – she could not distinguish. But she nearly took his hand, for he seemed so kind and gentle indeed, much like Albus. It was only when she looked up and saw that familiar, mad glint in his eye, when she snapped out of her trance.
"Be careful!" she shouted at everyone on her side. "Grindelwald has the ability to bewitch and we'll all fall under his spell if we're not careful!"
She injected power into her words and it seemed to take effect. Moments later, people were picking up their wands and beginning to fight again.
"You!" Grindelwald snarled, dropping his mask of kindness and regality, brandishing his wand. "All these years, you stood in our way. I offered you a chance to be with us, to create a new order, but you rejected my kindness. Albus and I could have achieved great things together... he would have come back to me... if it were not for YOU!" he roared as he threw a flurry of hexes at her.
Everyone watched in horror, too slow to come to her aid as she struggled to deflect all the spells, transfiguring anything she could in her way to shield herself. But she was completely overwhelmed. Aberforth, Elphias and Alastor tried to reach her, but they were not in time. She closed her eyes, focusing all her power into her shield charm, expecting it to break any moment, awaiting the final blow.
"Keep your hands off her!" She heard someone growl and saw a figure leap in front of her to duel against Grindelwald. It was Tom! She could not believe that this was the sort of circumstances which they would be reunited under, but she was ecstatic to see him.
Tom fought fiercely, on par with Grindelwald and overpowering him at times, and she could tell that everyone was surprised to see such a powerful wizard amongst them, one whom they had never seen before.
But before she could catch her breath after her intense ordeal, someone else was throwing curses at her and she suffered a hit on her ribs, the exact spot where Grindelwald had hit her at the Death Chamber. Her lips upturned in bitter irony as she fell to the ground. The person must have hated her so very much indeed to have taken advantage of her moment of weakness. The feeling was all too familiar when she looked up and saw Bellatrix Lestrange with her wand pointing at her, as it were in Godric's Hollow. She heard a howl of despair as she saw Tom blast Bellatrix away with a curse.
She tried to get back to her feet but blood was seeping out from her ribcage so quickly; she realised for the first time that she was not going to make it.
"Minerva!"
Amidst the chaos, she saw that Albus was back with them again. He blasted off a group of Death Eaters who were sneaking up behind Remus and Harry and rushed towards her. He gathered her in his arms and carried her to a nearby spot behind a large bush, away from the heat of the various ongoing battles.
"How did this happen?" he stared in horror at her injury and attempted to stop the bleeding with a few spells. He must have missed the highlights of her battles where Grindelwald and Bellatrix were treating her like a punch bag. His hands trembled, losing their normal dexterity, and she could tell that he was in the midst of shattering. He had kept his promise of returning to her safely, only to find out that she was leaving him first.
"Albus... I'm glad... to see you again," she wheezed as her eyes fluttered shut. She was losing her breath and her mind was swimming. When she opened her eyes again, she saw both Albus and Tom staring at her with frightened looks and tears glistening.
"Mother?" Tom called in a whisper, clasping her hands tightly.
"My dear boy, I'm so sorry for everything," she managed. "You have suffered all these years... because of my incompetence," her eyes closed again and her mind spun.
"Make amends, Thomas, you have much left in you to do good for society," she said as she forced her eyes open one last time and took a long look at her son.
"Minerva..." Albus whispered, trembling as he cradled her head.
"Albus... I am thankful for a lifetime with you," she gave him a final smile – the warm smile which she kept specially for him – and her eyes closed for eternity as he kissed her.
His heart plunged as the body in his embrace went limp, and the lips beneath his turned cold. There was no marriage; never an official recognition of their relationship, but Albus Dumbledore knew, that without this woman who had just faded away in his arms, his life would have ended back when he was eighteen years old. It took her a lifetime to win his heart, but when she finally did, it was hers to keep forever.
"No, my love, it is I who have much to thank for," he whispered as he held her tight. He closed his eyes to steady himself. He could not allow himself to fall into despair; this was not the time. And really, after he thought about it calmly, there was no need to. When he was ready, he opened his eyes again, and his mind was now clear.
He turned to his son beside him who looked completely broken. Aberforth and Elphias were running towards them; they had briefly relieved Tom from his fighting with Grindelwald earlier on but sensing that something was wrong, they handed over the reins to Kingsley and Severus who had finally made his loyalties clear.
"With the curses we have both suffered, your mother and I would not have had long to live after this battle," Albus spoke quickly, but clearly, to Tom.
Aberforth and Elphias were initially worried that that Albus would go berserk and start burning Hogwarts down after they saw that Minerva had left them. But from the way he spoke, they were now worried that he had become deluded instead.
"'Your mother and I'? What in Merlin's name, Albus!" Elphias shouted in fury. Why was he behaving in such an impossible manner at the height of the battle? But Tom's reaction told them that Albus was not making up stories from a bout of delusion.
"Listen to me, Aberforth, Elphias. I'm perfectly sane and I want the both of you to bear witness to what I have to say. Tom... Thomas, is our son. I married Minerva right after she graduated and we kept it a secret because I didn't want to endanger her. Her marriage with Elphinstone Urquat later on was just a ruse to keep our secret safe," he said firmly.
Aberforth and Elphias stared at him, speechless.
He turned to his son again. "Your mother and I could not have lived, but you have a chance to regain yourself fully. The horcruxes are destroyed, and the Elder Wand is now with you. You will find it in yourself to defeat him once and for all, and to do as your mother last instructed. I too, have to finish up what I came here for," he said.
He knew that Tom understood the situation well when the broken look on his face changed into a determined one. Tom nodded, and gave him a sudden hug. He hugged his son back with one arm, the other still holding onto Minerva, and looked on as his son hurried away to finish Grindelwald off.
Aberforth and Elphias continued to gape at him.
"There's one last thing," he said. "Frank, Alice, James and Lily have been unconscious for too long and it's high time we revive them. This is something which I have never told Minerva before, but Tom knows. There is no such thing as cheating death. The best one can ever do is to make a proportionate sacrifice. What this means is that for a person who has consumed the life-and-death potion and has been hit by the Killing Curse to live, another must die. The people who must be sacrificed are those who were the most heavily involved in the making of the event. The castors of the spell, the mastermind of the attack, the creator of the potion, any one of these to make up an equal number of lives."
"Albus!" Aberforth gasped, flabbergasted. Albus knew that he understood. His brother was never, ever dimwitted. Far from it, he was one of the brightest chaps he had ever known, and could have done a lot more had he not chosen to spend the rest of his life in the company of goats, in memory of their sister.
"During the tragic events at Godric's Hollow, Bartemius Crouch Jr was the one who attacked Frank and Alice. Bellatrix Lestrange, James and Lily. They are both dead now – I saw Molly finishing off Bellatrix just now. Grindelwald is the mastermind, and Tom will defeat him. This leaves me, the creator of the potion."
"My dear old fellow! Have you lost all your lemon drops? What have you been saying from just now?" Elphias cried in fear, as he reached for his best friend whom he had known for almost all his life.
"Don't be sorry for me. I'm gratified to see my son defeat the most dangerous dark wizard of all time and to think that I can finally be with my wife properly, after death. To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure," he patted their shoulders.
"Albus Dumbledore!" Grindelwald shrieked, as Tom blasted him towards Albus. He was heavily injured and drawing his last breaths.
Albus turned to face him squarely, holding Minerva tight.
"I never knew... what you saw in that ladycat," Gellert panted. "She could never have matched your intellect or your magical prowess, Albus... you would have been much better off with me," Gellert sounded heartbroken as he called Albus' name for the last time.
"But she possessed tremendous inner strength and goodness, that which you would never have equaled. I could not have asked for a better partner than my Minerva," Albus stood firm and looked him in the eye harshly, none of his old feelings left.
"You won't get away with this, you know that, don't you? If I'm going down, you're coming with me," Gellert snarled, seeing that Albus was truly, finally lost to him forever. He raised his wand.
"Go on then," Albus said as he lifted his own wand, still clasping Minerva to him with his other arm. "I can only blame myself for having been foolish enough to have ever believed in you." Tom pointed his wand dangerously at Grindelwald.
Explosions erupted from all three wands at the same time, and when the smoke cleared, the curtains of an era had fallen, for the two legendary wizards, Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald, had both become history.