Chapter 38 – The final fight
Lily sat in front of the fire with a bottle of whiskey in her hand; their family had sacrificed a normal family life to be the saviours of the wizarding world and it would come down to on final fight between her sons and Grindelwald who challenged them to an honour duel; invoking ancient magic to protect him from arrest or murder by anyone other than Harry or Tom. Today was the day; her boys turned seventeen today and she felt sick. James came downstairs and comforted her while the boys were outside with their friends
"They'll be okay, you saw how close they got in the last fight" James said lifting her to her feet
"They did" she smiled
"This time they won't relent until it's done" he led her up stairs to the shower "And you need to be presentable when we head to the island" James said
"I can't believe that they're going to walk into an arena to fight like gladiators" Lily's smiled disappeared again
"Come let's get clean" James said wiping her tear away
Harry was sitting across from Daphne and watching her, she looked very nervous. Her hair was loose today and she had on a light blue summer dress. She had given him a very relaxing week, letting him know how much she loved him and going over every detail of their wedding as a distraction but today she was out of distractions, not that he needed it.
He watched her mind working out what to say next; trying to be strong for him and that just made him know that she was the right girl for him
"Nothing" he said out loud and she was broken out of her thoughts
"Excuse me?" she asked
"Nothing, there's nothing you have to say to make me feel better" he smiled
"You're going into a battle Harry" she said sadly
"And I'll have Tom by my side and we'll win" he smiled and pulled her into his lap
"Then we can spend our days like this?" she asked taking his face in her hands
"Definitely" he said kissing her. They stayed this way for a while until Tom called his name
"Time to go?" she asked
"Yeah, I'll be okay" he said pulling her to her feet
"Let's go then" she said allowing herself to be pulled along
She helped him put on his armour and kissed him in between the different pieces, they went downstairs and found both sets of parents waiting for them along with their friends and comrades in arms.
"I think you should say something" Daphne whispered to him
"Go down and join them then" he said and waited for Tom to join him atop the stairs
"Hi everyone" he smiled "I was advised by Daphne that I should say a few words" he continued
"Dumbledore would have been very proud of how far we have gotten against an age old foe and now he has no further supporters. Today this ends and Grindelwald will not be a problem we pass down to our children, Tom and I have been through a lot to get to the stage and we thank all of you for being behind us in this fight." He said and looked to Tom who shook his head as if to say he had no other words
"Let's get going then" Harry said and went to the apparition point
When they arrived at the stipulated venue they found a huge field with stands erected for viewing, Aurors were warding the stands for the safety of those brave enough to attend this fight. Tom and Harry said their "See you later" to everyone and walked into the middle of the field
Grindelwald stood there waiting for his opponents
"Ready?" he asked them when they were close to him
"We are" Tom answered for the both of them
"Remember this fight is between the three of us and will only end when I'm dead or both of you are dead" he smiled
"We remember" Tom answered again
"Now let's begin" he said and raised boulders from the ground and spoke a spell and they were transfigured into shields which protected him from the spells Harry and Tom were casting. Tom created two whips and was trying to find a weak point in the shields but to no avail while Harry summoned lightning and started firing bolts at the ground causing Grindelwald to lose footing. When Tom advanced on the shields they changed into two panthers that immediately started attacking him
Harry occupied Grindelwald so he was on the defence permanently but as soon as he was far enough from Tom; Grindelwald summoned snakes who he set on Harry, they moved too quickly for Harry to hit them with a curse so he switched to blades and started taking them out. Grindelwald took the opportunity to cast fiendfyre but Harry threw a knife charged with lightning at him which he narrowly avoided.
They continued their battle while Tom fought two panthers, they kept circling him not giving him the chance to attack but rather only defend himself. One pounced and he drew his sword and parried the blow; he decided to run the flame up his blade and continued striking defensive blows until he saw an opening and drove the blade down the throat of on of the panthers. He took the opportunity to look for Harry; he couldn't see him.
Harry was pushing Grindelwald backward with the speed of his casting and trying to keep him dodging or shielding until Tom could re-join him. He spun and threw three knives which all hit Grindelwald in the chest and then followed it up with a lightning bolt which hit the three knives and then a blasting curse which sent him flying. Harry stood and watched as the older man stood and removed the knives as if it didn't bother him at all and the wound healed itself
"Don't look so shocked" he grinned at Harry "Some of us are willing to go further than others to achieve our goals" he said dropping the knives of the on the ground
"How?" Harry asked hoping to stall him, he would definitely need Tom's help to take this man down
"A hundred days is a long time to achieve what no one else is willing to do" he laughed
"So you heal quickly, I'll just have to be quicker then" he smiled hoping his false bravado shined through
"Ahh bravery, it'll get you killed" Grindelwald said and went on the offense. Harry was barely managing to avoid the spells and blows from his opponent, he spun and twisted away but Grindelwald was constantly one move ahead
Tom killed the second panther and ran to where he head spells hitting the earth. He found Harry dodging a very quick Grindelwald; Tom cast three blasting curses to distract Grindelwald and Harry drove his knives into the older man's chest at the distraction. Tom ran over to his brother as he pushed Grindelwald off the knives, Tom was about to speak when Grindelwald started laughing
"Those knives aren't going to do the trick" Tom watched in horror as the wounds closed once more
"Harry?" Tom asked standing next to his brother
"I'm going to have to ask you to do what we discussed about" Harry said pained by the request
"How are we going to reverse it?" Tom asked worriedly
"I'll find a way" Harry smiled
"Get me an opening and I'll drain the bastard" Tom nodded
"No matter what I need you to take a shot Tom" Harry said
"No matter what?"
"No matter what" Harry confirmed and dropped his knives back into their holsters and dropped them onto the ground
"Are you two ready to continue?" Grindelwald smirked "Defenders of the light" he laughed and Tom started lobbing fire balls at the older man
Harry gathered lightning until he felt ready to explode and then he took over from Tom; firing electrically charged knives and curses at Grindelwald who realised he couldn't block the curses with shields, so their dance continued. Harry would advance and fire three or four spells and then have to dodge a spell in the gap between his; so he went faster. His spells were almost touching one another the way he fired them so quickly; he stepped closer to Grindelwald and soon they were only steps from one another but Harry pushed his advantage of speed over the foe. He was within grabbing range when Grindelwald created a pure energy blast knocking them backward, Tom immediately went on the offense creating lava and surrounding Grindelwald with it to give Harry a chance to catch his breath
Daphne and Lily sat holding one another watching Tom and Harry fight the man who wanted to rule the world. They were fighting like true warriors but Grindelwald seemed to remember everything from the last fight and was taking care not to make the same mistakes he did last time. James watched feeling proud that his sons were taking the fight to that crazed bastard; he turned to one side and saw the same pride in Sirius who had helped train the boys. His eyes were drawn back to the battlefield when he heard a scream and saw that Harry now sported a broken arm
"Hurts doesn't it" Grindelwald grinned "Now you know some of the pain you bestowed on Lucius" he laughed
"He was weak though" Tom said from behind Grindelwald and the older mans eyes widened, how had he missed the second opponent. Tom placed his hands on his opponent and drained his power, he could feel the darkness wash over him. Grindelwald went down onto one knee but Tom didn't stop. Harry stepped forward and placed his hands on the older man's head and discharged all his remaining lightning causing Grindelwald's head to explode.
"Fawkes, Misty" he called and the two majestic birds appeared
"It's time to burn up the body" he spoke and both birds rested on Grindelwald and started flaming when the flames cleared two small birds remained
"Tom?" Harry asked
"Do it quickly Harry" Tom said sounding in terrible pain "I can't hold the darkness very long"
"Let's do this then" he smiled and got to work drawing a rune circle with many smaller runes in it. Tom stepped into the circle and Harry picked up the two Phoenixes and poured his magic into them causing them to age quickly
"Where did you learn that?" Tom said shocked
"When I wake up I'll tell you all about it" Harry smiled
"Aren't you just going to perform the exorcism?" Tom asked
"I am, but Grindelwald had so much more darkness than Lucius and I'm going to struggle to remove it and then I'm going to cause the phoenixes to burn again" Harry said tears rolling down his cheeks
"What's wrong?" Tom said stepping out of the circle
"Get back in there, it's just that it's Fawkes's last burn" Harry smiled sadly at the bird
"I get it, don't take too long to wake up this time" Tom smiled and hugged his brother
"Lay down" Harry instructed and started casting the spell on Tom and his brother started screaming much louder than he did last time and went paler than before and Harry's nose started bleeding and then the spell for removing the darkness from Tom was done and he started getting colour again but the difficult part for Harry came next. He cast the darkness into Fawkes who sang a painful note and started flaming in black flames; Misty flew around him and started her own flame encasing Fawkes and then Harry Potter fell down beside his brother. They had done it, Grindelwald was defeated.
AN – A wrap up chapter to follow, but I hope you enjoyed the last fight!