Chapter Fifty: The Final Battle

Hermione cried in relief as she wrapped Harry and Ginny in a hug. The two came through the front door amid the squad of fifty fighters Black dedicated to the defense of Hogwarts, only to find the school had freed itself.

After the initial rushed and frenzied greetings between the friends, Ginny and Ron shared a long, heart-broken hug, which soon expanded as more Weasleys arrived. The twins came in, as did Bill, and every one sought to include Ron in the family grieving he had been forced to miss. Hermione got wrapped up into it just because she was considered family. Charlie was noticeably absent.

The halls of the school were chaotic at first, and it actually fell to the newly arrived liberation force to restore order. Eventually, with the help of the staff, they gathered all the students into the Great Hall, save for the Slyherins who were essentially under house arrest. When they were finally gathered and quieted enough to listen, Lieutenant DeVere stood before the staff table to make an announcement.

It took Jerrick White shouting for everyone to sit down and shut up before they could actually hear what DeVere had to say.

"First off," the Australian officer said, "the Australian and American Ministries have officially offered sanctuary to any United Kingdom citizen whether magical or mundane who needs to go. Acting Minister Weasley and acting DMLE Director Sirius Black have both requested that any students fourth year and below take advantage of this sanctuary. We have a list of the recovered victims of Azkaban who have already taken shelter, and what country they have gone to. I'll be honest, we want the children out of the way because we have a war to fight, and the enemy has shown no hesitation to use children."

After the meeting, DeVere posted the lists. Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron watched as students gathered with unnerving silence around the lists. Some cried out with relief when they found that familiar members were waiting for them in safety, while others stumbled away with shocked, broken expressions.

"Hermione, why don't you go look?" Ron asked gently.

"I'm afraid," she finally admitted.

"Don't be," Harry said. "The Grangers have been living at the Shadow Ministry headquarters since right after the coup. We picked them up right after Mrs. Weasley's cremation. Your mom and dad are both really good cooks, and both of them helped with the families we rescued. They eventually decided to go to Australia and asked me to let you know they love you."

Hermione wilted in relief and shined a brilliant smile at them. "Thank you."

"You're family," Ginny said with a shrug.

That same evening, after the rest of the student body went to bed, grim-faced staff members and Shadow Ministry officials marched the Slytherin students into the Great Hall and questioned each one under veritserum. Almost three-fifths of the house, including all of the sixth and seventh years, the majority of the fifth year and half the fourth year, was summarily expelled from the school. They were not offered sanctuary in the allied countries, but were instead made to gather their belongings and leave.

In their place, coming in at first a trickle and then a stream, came the residents of Hogsmeade. The harried civilians came either for safety, to leave the country, or to fight. No one remained in the village, though, since they knew it would destroyed regardless of how the residents felt about Voldemort. The castle was easily large enough to house the whole village twice over.

Slowly, the stage was being set for the final battle and everyone knew it. Voldemort did not attack immediately, though. So every day the defenders of Hogwarts trained, practiced their spells and tried to plan for the defense of the castle. The wards were in tatters and would take more power to repair than anyone of those in residence could afford to divert.

Arthur Weasley came by on their third day of liberation, walking quietly among the crowded halls. He smiled, shook hands and on the surface seemed much like a politician. However, where he left, people stood straighter. Smiles were brighter and more hopeful. To the shock of all those who knew him, Arthur Weasley was growing into the leader everyone needed him to be.

Still Voldemort did not come.

More observers arrived, this time from the ICW at large. They met for hours with Arthur and Sirius at Hogwarts. They heard testimony from muggleborns freed from Azkaban. They saw the faces of the rescued children before they were shipped to Australia. The next day, a new team of observers relieved DeVere, White and the first teams.

"Give your son a hug and kiss from us," Ginny said to the Australian lieutenant right before she left.

DeVere let military custom fall to the wayside as she hugged Ginny closely. "And you do the same with yours," she said intensely, before she joined the rest of the original Australian observers in an international portkey. Now that the ICW was actively helping him, Voldemort's efforts to stop international travel was meeting with limited success.

In the place of the original teams came over a hundred ICW Enforcers, international hitwizards whose primary job was to enforce the Statutes of Secrecy even against the wishes of the local governments. In the absence of any international military, the Enforcers also took on odd jobs like overthrowing regional Dark Lords if there was sufficient will within the Confederation to do so. All it took to get that support was the documentation of how witches and wizards were treated in Azkaban solely because of the circumstances of their birth. It reminded too many of the long-lived wizards of Grindelwald's actions with the Nazis.

On the sixth day after liberation, Harry and Ginny started taking their turns in a rotating schedule to keep watch from the battlements of the castle. It was a bitterly cold day, but dry as well. The snuggled up together, using their own warmth and warming charms on a blanket to ward off the chill.

Neville joined them halfway through their watch, slightly out of breath from the walk up the stairs. The pudgy little boy from Harry's first year had changed as he got older. Now Neville was as tall as Ron, and a great deal of the baby fat was melting into surprisingly strong features. Moreover, there was a sad knowledge in his eyes and aura that made him seem much older than he was. Harry and Ginny knew that he and Hannah Abbot were close friends. Her death at the beginning of the year was hard. Susan's was even more difficult.

"Anything?" Neville asked.

"Not yet," Harry said. "Just some birds flying up from the forest."

Neville nodded. "Director Black asked to see the two of you in the Great Hall. Go on down, I'll take watch."

"Thanks, Neville."

As always, it amazed them how radically the hall had changed in the past few days. What was once a school cafeteria and gathering room was now an assembly area for an army. Arthur and Sirius had transfigured ordinary clothes into blue robes similar to the ICW Enforcer robes, both to give a unified appearance and to hopefully reduce incidents of friendly fire. The number of robes in the room was astounding.

Sirius saw them enter and went to join them. "Hello, you two. Come with me."

He led them through the hall until they reached a table in a far corner occupied by Arthur, Minerva McGonagall, Jameson Patil, and a leather-faced, rugged old wizard from Brazil named Jorge Richter. He had swarthy skin, blonde hair and bright blue eyes, giving him a mixture of ethnic features that was somehow entirely appropriate for his name.

He watched the two approaching kids with narrowed eyes. "These are the bonded pair?" He spoke in a lyrical accent, much like a Spanish wizard Ginny met once when she was eight.

"Harry and Ginny Potter.'

"Potter. The one spoken of in your prophecy?"

"That's correct," Arthur said.

The old wizard walked to them, then knelt down before them studying their mismatched eyes. "Si," he said. "They are like Nicholas and Paranelle. You can taste the magic flowing off them."

"You noticed that, did you?" Sirius said with a grin.

"Harry, Ginny, Jorge here is the Assistant Director of the Brazilian Department of Mysteries and one of the few friends of the Flamels. He is also the commander of the ICW observation team here. He is the foremost expert on Horcruxes in the world, save for Voldemort himself. We have advised him of what happened."

The man looked from Harry to Ginny. "Nicholas, he asked me a favor. He does not fight—does not think it would be fair. But that doesn't mean he does not care. So he calls me and asks if I can help. So I did some reading. There may be a way to save your son," he said. "But it will be hard. Perhaps harder than you can do. But it is the only way."

"We'll do anything," Harry said.

"Anything," Ginny agreed.

"Then let us be quick, for we have little time."

Outside, Neville shivered and cast another warming charm when he spotted a massive flock of birds shoot up from the shelter of the forest. Just moments later, he saw an acromantula scamper to the edge of the forest. Along the battlements of the castle, other students also noticed the car-sized spider and spread the word. A minute later, more spiders appeared, at first by the pairs, then by the dozens, until the entire width of the forest was lined by the monsters.

That's when the students felt the first thump shiver through the castle walls. The thumps continued, increasing in number, while in the distance trees groaned. The spider surged forward by a dozen feet but then stopped, as if making room for the true monsters that came next.

Four giants emerged from the trees, fifty feet of pure muscle and rage. In their midst came smaller green trolls, who like the giants wielded ugly clubs made of whole trees. By this time, the battlements became crowded with all the people trying to see what they were up against.

The lines moved forward again to make room for another line of hideous monsters of all description, from chimeras to leithefolds. Only then did the army of Voldemort appear, three hundred witches and wizards strong.

Battle was about to begin.

~~Bonds of Blood~~

~~Bonds of Blood~~

Severus Snape entered the wards of Malfoy Manor without difficulty this time. Though now low-ranked, his acceptance back into the fold gave him the access he needed. He found the house all but empty. The guards on duty consisted of children, all former students of Snape.

"Professor Snape?" Pansy Parkinson asked when she saw him enter. Of all his snakes, Pansy was the most virulently pro-Voldemort. Her devotion to Draco had more to do with his father's favored status than any true affection. She would have offered herself to the Dark Lord himself, had he not sacrificed his own sex for immortality.

He whipped out his wand and killed the fifteen-year-old girl with a barely uttered killing curse, and then quickly transfigured her into a vase which he placed against the nearest wall.

He encountered only a few more students, killing them all, until he reached the throne room.

Nagini was there, the snake lounged indolently over the back of the throne. And standing beside the throne, grinning madly, stood Fenrir Greyback.

"He knew you would betray him," Greyback said. His sharp teeth caused him to spit his words. "Did you think you could fool the Dark Lord, you worm?"

Snape knew better than to waste his breath. He ran forward, while Fenrir howled and threw a killing curse after killing curse. Snape transfigured the floor into a wall and then reached into the pockets of his robe to remove a ball the size of his fist. He threw the ball over the werewolf's head and then blasted it with a well-aimed curse.

A cloud of silver mist expanded rapidly out from the ball. Fenrir howled in rage and nearly ran up the side of the nearest wall in his rush to escape the vaporized silver. "You'll pay for that," he snarled as he came around the side of Snape's hastily transfigured barrier. The desperate potions professor ducked around the other side, narrowly dodging a vicious entrails-expelling curse. He backed away from the wall while casting a bombarda maxima curse. Fenrir was actually in the process of leaping over the wall when it exploded like a muggle bomb. The man howled in pain as the shrapnel blasted up between his legs, ripping flesh and throwing him up and over. He landed with a thud, clutching his profusely bleeding groin in agony.

"Who is the worm now, you disgusting animal," Snape snarled. He used a cutting curse to separate Greyback's head from his body before he turned to face the snake. Nagini stared at Snape for a moment, its tongue flicking the air, before it struck with inhuman speed.

Snape had only a moment to react before the snake sank its fangs deep into his arm, pumping in the venom. Snape had only a moment before the world started to go black, and used it to pronounce a severing curse the animal's head.

The body fell to the floor, writhing. Summoning up his power, Snape shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" not at the snake, but the fragment of soul within it.

The snake exploded violently, throwing Snape across the floor. Only his hastily raised shield kept him from vaporizing. He did not get up immediately, but stayed where he was while he brought out the vial of phoenix tears. He poured the whole vial on the snake bite, and watched in relieve as Fawkes' tears pushed the venom out and then closed the wound.

"Bless you, Albus," he muttered to himself. A moment later, after catching his breath, he climbed to his feet. A crater a meter deep and three meters wide filled the spot that used to be Nagini's body.

He turned to seek out his last goal, but stopped to find a wand pointed at his face.

Narcissa Malfoy stood staring at him coldly, while in her left arm she cradled the sleeping form of James Potter. "He knew you were a traitor. You would have to be to let my Draco die."

"What if I told you he was still alive?"

Her wand arm dropped. "Alive?"

Snape brought both his arms up in opposite directions, catching her wrist in the shearing action. She screamed in agony as her wrist snapped loudly. The noise woke James, but still he did not cry. Narcissa backed away, holding her broken wrist to her chest. "Back away, or I'll kill the child!"

Severus summoned the baby, and with only one arm Narcissa could do nothing to stop him. She cried out in rage as James Orion Potter, a baby bearing the names of Snape's most hated enemies, came to rest gently in his arms.

"You bastard!" Narcissa screamed. "You bloody, rotting bastard! I hate you! I curse you! I curse the day you were born! Damn your black soul to torment!"

"Yes, I am damned," Snape said. "And so are you. Do you know why he is going to lose, Narcissa? Because he keeps underestimating his enemies, and over estimating his servants. It would never have dawned on him that I could ever beat the dreaded Fenrir Greyback, and he would never have believed I could do this. Good bye, dear Narcissa. Be at peace with your family. Avada Kedavra."

She made no effort to dodge the curse, but then again Snape knew she wouldn't. He closed his eyes and swayed in exhaustion. It was almost done.

~~Bonds of Blood~~

~~Bonds of Blood~~

"That's a lot of monsters," Arthur Weasley said in a moment of studied understatement.

"Good thing we have our own then, isn't it?" Sirius said.

Arthur looked at him oddly. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't' you remember Harry's performance in the first task of the TriWizard Tournament? It turns out that parseltongue is not limited to snakes, but to most of the larger reptiles, especially magical ones. Have you seen Charlie lately?"

Behind Arthur, Jorge Richtor nodded. "I understand the young Weasley's transport requests now. I approved them on faith, but this makes more sense."

Arthur looked down at the line of monsters as the light began to dawn. "You mean…?"

The air trembled before a new series of roars. Every person on or around the castle looked up as a pair of majestic wings cast the tower in shadow, followed by a second, third and fourth pair of wings. Four massive Hungarian Horntails circled the castle like huge carrion birds around carcass. On the ground, the acromantulas scurried about in concern while the giants and trolls stared stupidly. The dark wizards of Voldemort's army, though, looked bothered.

"Do you know why Voldemort is going to lose?" Richter said.

"Why is that?" Sirius asked.

"He is going to lose because he never understood the difference between provocateur and authority," the Germanic Brazilian wizard said. "He was very good at destroying the government, but he was totally unprepared to win. He does not know how to govern, only to destroy. And now that he is the government, he has no choice but to field all his assets. In so doing, he brings himself into the light of day where all can see that he is not unstoppable. That is why this Voldemort of yours is going to lose this day, even if he survives."

The four dragons swept low over the acromantulas and bathed the car-sized spiders in flame. The giants grunted and swung their clubs to no avail. After a second pass, the dragons landed and began to devour the cooked and charred spiders. The giants raised their clubs and charged.

The dragons responded as any apex predator would when something interfered with feeding. The school watched in shock as, one after the other, the dragons attacked the giants with fire, teeth and claws.

Once giant got in a luck blow with a tree-sized club and broke the dragon's skull before it could latch on, but the giant next to him unleashed a hair-raising scream as the next dragon snatched its head forward with snake-like speed and bit out its throat.

The battle held everyone enthralled as dragon tails whipped at trolls while the mighty beasts snapped at the throats of giants who were desperately trying to pull them off, One giant tripped and fell, crushing a chimera in its struggle with the smaller but more vicious dragon. With a huge heave it finally caught the dragon's snapping jaws in its hands and started pulling apart.

The dragon's roars turned to cries of pain before it brought its spiked tail around and slammed it into the giant's eyes. The giant roared and let go, giving the dragon time to lift off and pump a huge bellow of fire right into the giant's face. The fire did not kill the giant, but blinded him enough for the dragon to use its hind claw to rip open its belly. Giant entrails spilled onto the field, filling all of the grounds with terrible stench.

Nearby, one of the dragons finished off a giant but limped away with an obviously shattered hind leg. It took to the air and flew southeast, hoping to return to its reservation. The last dragon was airborne to escape a huge swing from a club. It whipped its tail around and caught the giant in the face. The giant caught the tail though and yanked hard. The dragon tumbled to the ground, injuring its wing. It turned and pumped fire at the giant until it broke free. It then turned like a feline, bunching its muscles until it jumped forward and latched its teeth around the flaming neck.

A crunch reverberated through the valley and the giant fell.

The two injured dragons turned to the last giant, billowing fire at him until he turned and ran. Voldemort's wizards had no choice but to start volleying spells at the beasts, since every monster Voldermort gathered was dead.

The dragon that could fly finally retreated, flying after the first. The one with the broken wing finally turned away from the irritating wall of magic and bound back to the school, moving to the grounds Charlie Weasley used to hold the dragons until they were needed. Though only Harry and Charlie would ever know, the injured dragon was the same mother Harry spoke to the previous year in the tournament.

Suddenly the field fell silent. The dark wizards stared about the carnage of the monstrous battle with shocked expressions, stunned that so much of their army had been destroyed by just four dragons. The school stood majestically across the field, its pennants flying proudly from the battlements. The defenders had formed up along the main courtyard, hugging whatever cover was available. The commander the "Ministry" forces, Augustus Rookwood, considered his options. The tactical situation completely flipped from what it was supposed to be. But he also knew what happened to cowards. The Dark Lord was attending to other tasks, so this battle was Rookwood's responsibility and his alone. If he ran before at least trying, he would die screaming in unbelievable agony.

So, he did the only thing he could think.

"Attack!" he screamed.