Chapter XVI – Relief

Malfoy asking for protection surprised everyone.

Dumbledore asked, "What did he order you to do?"

Before Malfoy could answer, Harry asked, "What did he look like?

Draco looked to Harry and said, "You won't believe this; but he appeared to be a handsome, tall red-headed man. I know that sounds crazy, he shouldn't look that way, but I swear it was him."

Harry looked at Dumbledore and nodded, he said, "That's right, he's still possessing O'Conner's body. Now we believe you; so what did he order you to do?"

Draco continued, "He sent me to Gringotts, to my Aunt Bellatrix's vault to check on a gold cup. He also wanted me to bring him five-hundred thousand Galleons."

Harry said, "He'll be disappointed about the scorches on the cup and the condition of the curse he put on it. It's a good thing you didn't return to tell him about it; he'd kill you."

Draco looked at Harry and asked, "How do you know the condition of the cup?"

Harry, instead of answering Malfoy, turned to Dumbledore and said, "He must be desperate for money to recruit followers, first a frontal attack on Gringotts and now he wants five-hundred thousand Galleons. But more important, if he wants the cup checked, he knows what we're doing; Ginny and I better get back to our search."

Dumbledore said, "Harry, Ginny, before you go, let Draco finish his story. Draco, what else did he order you to do?"

Draco said, "He wanted me to check on another item here at Hogwarts. He said it was in a hidden room, but didn't tell me what the thing is, or where the room is. He said he would tell me,'if I was still alive to return to Hogwarts'; that helped me decide to come to you for protection.

Will you help me hide and protect me?"

Dumbledore answered, "Yes, I will."

Draco said, "I won't be able to stay here or go to classes; if he knows I'm here, he'll find someone in Slytherin to kill me."

Ginny said, "Sirius will hide him at Grimmauld Place; I'm sure he will once we tell him Malfoy's story. And maybe our tutors can teach him too; we can ask them."

Harry went to the fireplace, knelt down, threw in flue powder and called out "Grimmauld Place."

He stuck his head in the green flames and yelled, "Sirius, Remus, is anyone there?"

Sirius' voice replied, "Harry, what do you want?"

Harry said, "We're in Dumbledore's office, we need to talk about a new development; now if you can come here."

Sirius asked, "Do you want Remus too; he's up stairs, I can get him."

Harry told him to bring Remus and backed out of the fireplace; two minutes later, Sirius and Remus arrived. As soon as Sirius saw Draco, he asked, "What's he doing here?"

Between Draco, Harry, and Dumbledore, they relayed Malfoy's story and how they knew it was true. Then Ginny made the suggestion that Malfoy stay at Grimmauld Place. Sirius talked it over with Remus and they agreed to let Draco stay with restrictions. He couldn't leave the house for any reason, and he would attend some type of classes. If Harry and Ginny's tutors wouldn't teach him, Remus would.

Draco agreed to the conditions and Sirius, Remus, and Draco flued to Grimmauld Place while Harry and Ginny went back to the Room of Requirement.

In the room they picked up at the spot where they left off yesterday. Two hours later, Ginny felt the Horcrux on the side of the aisle she was checking; Harry came over and he immediately felt it too. They didn't have to dig for it; after a few minutes, they found it sitting on the bust of a warlock's statue.

Harry levitated it to the largest open area away from anything that could catch fire; then they produced lightning to destroy the Horcrux.

Ginny said, "That the last one; now we have to go after him."

Harry said, "Let's take the diadem to Dumbledore; we need to talk with him about how we get to Voldemort. We either have to find a way to get him to come out in public, or we have to find out where he's hiding and go to him."

Dumbledore agreed with Harry's assessment, but had no ideas of how to do either. He said, "I suggest we have a meeting of the full Order of the Phoenix to get ideas and after selecting one or two of the best ideas, we get a group to work out plans based on those ideas."

Ginny said, "I think we pick the best idea for each possibility; one idea on how to find his hiding place, and one idea of getting him to come out. Then the order works on both; whichever works first, we take the opportunity."

Dumbledore and Harry agreed; but with most people having plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, Dumbledore to wait a few days and sent out messages calling a meeting at Grimmauld Place for eight on Boxing Day night.

It was half three at Malfoy Manor when Voldemort decided Draco wasn't coming back. This time he didn't hold back his anger; he killed every elf in the house and burned Malfoy Manor to the ground, including the guest cottages, the barns, and the other out buildings.

He would leave the boy who defied him nothing; no clothes, no food, no place to find shelter, and no elves to help him recover from the loss. One thing would be a problem; the boy knew now how to could remove money from the Malfoy and Lestrange vaults. Voldemort thought, if I can't get the Malfoy money, I won't let that traitorous boy have it.

He wondered if he could convince his contacts at the ministry to freeze the Malfoy and Lestrange accounts. The ministry knew they were Death Eaters, perhaps one of his contacts could suggest those accounts should be confiscate as reparations for their crimes.

There was one thing Voldemort missed.

Harry and Ginny went to the Burrow for Christmas Eve and stayed the night there with the Weasley family. Hermione spent the time with her parents and came to the Burrow late on Christmas day.

On Boxing day, Harry and Ginny went to Potter Manor with gifts for all the house elves; ate dinner there, then teleported to Grimmauld Place at seven. They exchanged presents with Sirius and Remus who didn't want to leave Malfoy alone, so they never made it to the Burrow on Christmas.

Malfoy said, "I guess I shouldn't expect a Christmas present."

Harry, who still didn't trust Malfoy or like him, said, "About that, actually I do have a sort of present for you. I have good news and bad news; what do you want to hear first?"

Ginny, who also disliked Malfoy after years of insults from him, interrupted, "Actually it's just a little good news; but really bad news. Does that make a difference in what you want to hear first?"

Malfoy sneered at them and said, "I don't like you two either, so just tell me already."

Harry said, "The day you told us you wanted protection, I sent Dobby to Malfoy Manor to get your clothes and other personal items for you. I know that stuff was already brought here; but there's more.

While Dobby and your personal elf, Milty were packing you trunk, they heard Voldemort good news is Dobby convinced your elves that, because you didn't return, Voldemort was going to destroy the manor. They were able to remove many valuables first. Your mother's jewelry, some works of art, and the gold your father kept at the house for emergencies has been moved to Potter Manor and put in storage. You can have it as soon as you have a place to store it.

The bad news is, when you didn't return with the money, Voldemort destroyed Malfoy Manor and everything the elves couldn't save. Also, three of your elves who were still trying to save more items were killed. The others are at Hogwarts, they wanted to be somewhere they could do work until you decide what you want to do.

If you feel you want Milty to come here to serve you, I will arrange that."

First Malfoy looked angry, then his expression changed. He said, "I never treated Dobby well when he was at our house; I'm surprise he would endanger himself to save Malfoy valuables."

Ginny replied, "Your family never learned the value in treating any house elves with kindness. They obeyed you because they had to; they were bound to your family. But if you treated them kindly, they would have done so much more for you and been much better helpers."

Malfoy looked embarrassed, but was too proud to acknowledge Ginny's statement. After a minute he said, "I suppose I can trust you with my things for now; leave everything at your house until things settle."

By then, other members of the order began to arrive; every one of them questioned why Malfoy was there. Harry, Ginny, Sirius, and Remus were kept busy telling Malfoy's story. Finally, Dumbledore arrived and called everyone into the large formal dining room to start the meeting.

He surprised everyone when he called Draco into the meeting over several objections. After quieting everyone down, Dumbledore said, "The purpose of this meeting can be directly affected by what happened to Mr. Malfoy. I want all of you to hear his story first hand before we discuss the main topic of this meeting.

Draco, start with receiving the letter and tell us your feelings at the time."

Draco barely got started. When he told of the letter's arrival and how he decided to go to Malfoy Manor to meet with Voldemort; several people yelled out.

Hestia Jones said, "How can we trust Malfoy? He went to meet with 'He Who Must Not Be Named' like a good little Death Eater instead of going directly to you Dumbledore with that letter. Only after he thought his life was in danger did he ask for help."

Draco said, "It may be hard for you people who were in other houses to understand; but I was placed in Slytherin because of my personality. A Slytherin always does what is best for himself, part of that is keeping all options open as long as possible.

I didn't know what the Dark Lord wanted; perhaps it was something easy, like letting him live at Malfoy Manor. Since I would be at school anyway, telling him yes would make him think I was loyal and keep me safe for the next six months.

If I didn't meet him, he would consider me disloyal, and he has people in Slytherin House that would kill me if ordered. That's why I'm living here now; if I returned to Hogwarts, I wouldn't live out the week.

At the meeting, he did give me what seemed a simple task, he asked me to go to Gringotts and do two things, check on a golden cup in my Aunt Bellatrix's vault, and bring him back five-hundred thousand Galleons."

At the mention of the cup, several of the people that knew about the Horcruxes stood up, turned, and looked at Harry; he shook his head slightly and said, "Go on Draco, what about the cup?"

Draco continued, "He taught me a spell to put on the cup and said an image of him would appear; but it didn't, and the cup looked scorched and damaged. That was when I decided not to return to him. He made the cup sound very important to him, and if I told him no image appeared and the cup was damaged, I felt there was a good chance he would torture, if not kill me."

Mad-eye Moody interrupted with, "And I suppose you weren't thinking about the five-hundred thousand Galleons. Not giving them to him means you get to keep them."

Draco turned to Moody and said, "Yes, I thought of the gold. My father and others gave him millions of Galleons to pay his followers and to bribe ministry officials; and they're all dead. Why should I give him the rest of my inheritance and make myself impoverished; assuming he still doesn't kill me.

Once I decided not to return to Malfoy Manor, I only had one option; to survive, I had to ask Dumbledore for protection."

Dumbledore asked, "Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Malfoy, or for me."

Nobody raised a question, so Dumbledore said, "Mr. Malfoy, you can leave now."

As soon as Malfoy was out of the room, Dumbledore placed an Imperturbable charm on the room and said, "Now for the purpose of this meeting, Mr. Potter and Miss Weasley have informed me they are ready to face Voldemort and kill him once and for all."

There was a lot of murmuring and Mrs. Weasley gasped, saying, "No, not my Ginny."

Dumbledore called for silence, then continued, "First, we need to find him. We need to make him come out into the open to fight; or we need to find out where he is hiding and go after him. Does anyone have any ideas of how to do either of those two things?"

Ginny said, "He's desperate for money to entice new followers, first he tried to rob Gringotts, then he tried to get Malfoy to bring him money. If we can trick him into thinking there's a way he can get a large amount of money, he may come out after it."

Harry added, "At Gringotts his attack failed because he didn't have enough men, and the Goblin guard killed most of those with him. We only saw six Death Eaters leave with him; if he had more men, he would have brought them. He's almost alone.

It will be hard to design a trap that will look like there's enough money to tempt him, but also look like security is lax enough that he can get it almost on his own."

Sirius asked, "If bringing him out into the open is going to be so hard, what about going after him where he's staying? Anyone have any ideas about that?"

Remus said, "Well, we can eliminate many places. Since he thinks of himself as a lord, he probably doesn't cook for himself, and the type of people he recruits aren't cooks either. That means he's not out in some isolated place; he'll have to be someplace with servants."

Hermione added, "And since he despises Muggles, he won't be in a Muggle house, or even a Muggle area. So we look for magical houses large enough to have servants."

Harry said, "House elf servants, he wouldn't trust his life to human servants; he's hurt too many of what he considers the lower class. One of them would probably poison him if they got the chance. Even if he put them under an Imperious curse, he'd be afraid one of them might eventually break free of it; he couldn't feel safe with any servant but a house elf."

Dumbledore said, "Our reasoning could be wrong, but it's a place to start; we should compile a list of magical families that have house elves. If we search all of them and don't find him, we'll have to rethink our strategy."

Ginny asked, "How do we make such a list; there could be dozens of families that have elves that none of us know about. Besides, using the Imperious curse, he could be in a house and make the owners deny it. We can't force our way into and search every magical house in which we believe there's a house elf."

Dumbledore said, "Miss Weasley is correct, searching every house where we think there's an elf is not practical. Any other ideas?"

Harry asked, "Can we use Malfoy? I mean, maybe we can get Malfoy to draw Voldemort out."

Sirius said, "You mean, since Voldemort wants to kill Draco, we use him as bait?"

Dumbledore said, "Absolutely not, we will not endanger Mr. Malfoy's life."

Harry said, "That's not what I meant. Draco knows he's stuck here until Voldemort is killed; it's not hard to tell he's not happy about that. Perhaps he would be willing to help us knowing if we succeed, he'll be free to live a normal life."

Dumbledore asked, "If you don't want to use him as bait; what do you mean?"

Harry thought for a minute before saying, "Suppose Draco sends an owl to the house of every former Death eater; a few dozen owls maybe. From what we just discussed, they're possible places we think Voldemort might be. Draco's message will say he was detained by the Goblins for questioning after coming out of the Lestrange vault and was just released.

He can say it wasn't his fault he couldn't meet Voldemort at Malfoy manor and he is loyal to Voldemort. He has the five-hundred thousand galleons and asks Voldemort to let him know where he wants to meet to get the money."

Dumbledore said, "That still puts Mr. Malfoy in danger."

Harry said, "The only danger to Draco is losing a few strands of his hair."

Ginny said, "Harry, I don't like what you're thinking."

Harry looked at her and said, "We've both known for a long time that it has to be me; all I'm saying is I'll look like Draco when I face Voldemort."

Sirius said, "You can't go alone, it's too dangerous."

Harry said, "I have to be alone, at least at first, if he sees anyone else, he'll know it's a trap and leave; we'll lose our chance to get him. We can arrange a signal once he's there, you others can come once I have him trapped. But I'll have to put up anti-Apparation and anti-Portkey wards to keep him from escaping; you'll have to figure another way to get in."

Bill Weasley said, "The basic plan might work, but I see two problems. The biggest is he may not be staying at any of the former Death Eater's houses so he won't get the message. The second is, in order to get into the Lestrange vault, the Goblins had to do a blood test to learn if Draco was the legitimate heir; they would have no reason to stop and question him later."

Harry said, "What other idea do we have for now? If he's not in any of the houses where we send owls, we think of more places and send more owls; maybe we'll get lucky. As for why he was delayed, if the Goblins wouldn't stop him, we'll have to think of another reason he was held up."

Ron said, "Bill."

Bill asked, "What do you want Ron?"

Ron said, "I don't want anything; I mean we say you stopped him. Voldemort knows our family is working with Dumbledore and the order. In the message, we have Draco say you work at Gringotts, and when you learned he was in the Lestrange vault, you stunned him and turned him over to the order to find out what he wanted in the vault.

He can say the order questioned him and he convinced us he was only after money so he could leave the country because Harry threatened to kill him like he killed Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy. Once we were convinced and let him go, he contacted Voldemort as soon as he could because he's loyal to Voldemort."

Harry said, "That could sound believable to Voldemort; he probably would think Dumbledore might question the reason Draco wanted money, but if there was a good reason, he wouldn't detain a student for long."

Dumbledore said, "So we agree. We do compile a list of possible houses, especially former Death Eater houses, where he might stay, and when ready, send owls in Mr. Malfoy's name asking Voldemort to meet. If he responds, Harry goes using Polyjuice potion to look like Mr. Malfoy.

I would like Sirius, Remus, and all the Weasleys to stay for a few minutes; everyone else can go, but I want a list of possible houses from everyone by tomorrow night at seven when I meet again with Mr. Potter, Miss Weasley, and Mr. Malfoy to finalize the plan."

When the others were gone, Dumbledore said, "Harry, tell everyone the good news."

Harry said, "Ginny and I destroyed the last Horcrux; that's why this planning to go after him was started. He's vulnerable now and it's time to end this."

Sirius said, "Remus and I figured that was the case; but I still don't like the idea that you go alone to face him."

Harry said, "I don't plan on going alone; Ginny will be with me under my invisibility cloak. It will be hard for him to detect her; but we just can't have a bunch of people nearby, if there were too many of you, he be bound to detect someone."

Ginny said, "Between Harry and me, we'll be okay. We figure while Harry keeps Voldemort talking, I can erect the anti-Apparation and anti-Portkey wards; it will only take me thirty seconds. Once the wards are up to keep him from escaping, Dobby can bring the rest of you in two at a time in case we do need help."

Sirius said, "That's only a little better, I still don't like it."

Dumbledore said, "It's not ideal, but it does have to be Harry that faces Voldemort and this is the best solution for the reasonable future; and we don't want to delay too long and give him a chance to recruit new followers.

So until tomorrow's meeting, everyone come up with possible places to send the owls."

Harry said, "Ginny and I will talk to Draco about the best wording for the message; it will have to sound like he wrote it."

Ginny added, "It takes a month to brew Polyjuice, so I hope someone has a few doses stored away; we can't wait a month."

Mad-eye nodded and said, "I always keep some handy; I'll bring a few doses here tomorrow.

Harry said, "Good, then we'll get Draco's hair and see if he can suggest any places Voldemort might hide that we might not think of."

Harry and Ginny went up to Draco's room and knocked on his door; when Draco opened it he looked surprised and said, "What, do they want me back down stairs? I didn't think you two would be messengers."

Harry said, "We came to talk to you about ending this war so you could leave this place in safety."

Draco looked suspicious and said, "And I suppose you want me to do something to earn my freedom?"

Ginny replied, "We do want your help, but even if you refuse, you'll still be free to go once we kill Voldemort and it's safe for you. It will just be easier if you help and probably happen sooner; unless you like it here and want to stay longer?"

Draco hesitated, then said, "As I said earlier, I always want to know all my options so I can do what's best for me. What do you want me to do?"

Harry said, "All we want is for you to write a letter and give us a few of your hairs."

Draco said, "Go on, tell me the entire deal."

They explained their plan to draw Voldemort out. Draco had several questions, but the only one that mattered was, "So I won't have to be there to face him and I won't be in any danger?"

Harry answered, "No to both, you'll stay here; I'll use the Polyjuice potion to look like you and do everything else."

Ginny added, "Whatever happens to us, once Voldemort is dead, you'll be able to go wherever you like; most of his followers are already dead and won't bother you."

Draco asked, "When do you want to write this letter?"

Harry said, "We can start now if you're not busy; we think it will take some time to get it just right and if we take too long, Voldemort won't buy the story."

Ginny added, "We will only get one chance to do this and if it fails, it could be years before we find another way to kill him. We want to get on with our lives and not take years to end the war; and we're sure you don't either."

Draco said, "No, I want to live my life too. Let's get started."

The went to the library and took two hours to make a rough draft of the letter. They then agreed to meet at eight tomorrow morning to revise it; Harry and Ginny left for home.

It took two hours that night, and two more hours the next day to finish a version they were happy with; one that would make Draco's story of being detained by the order seem reasonable, but not so suspicious to make Voldemort want to kill Draco on sight.

Harry also took time to learn Draco's mannerisms and speech pattern. He wasn't sure if Voldemort knew Draco well enough to make it necessary; but he didn't want to take the chance that Voldemort would recognize immediately that he wasn't really Draco.

My Master

I inspected the object you asked me to check using to spell you taught me; it responded as you said it would and is safe. I also acquired the requested Galleons; but as I was leaving my aunt's vault, the Weasley that works at Gringotts stunned me.

I woke in an old house to see Dumbledore, Sirius Black, the werewolf Lupin, and several other people I didn't recognize. I was questioned by Dumbledore as to why I was at Gringotts and why I wanted so much money. I told him since my parents' death I was afraid for my life and needed the money to leave the country.

After days of questioning by him and others, Dumbledore decided I was telling the truth and just released me a few hours ago. He advised me not to leave the country, but instead to stay at Hogwarts where he could protect me. To make him think I accepted his protection, I told him I would stay at Malfoy Manor for the rest of the holiday break and return to the castle after the break.

However, I found Malfoy Manor destroyed so I had to return to Hogwarts that day. I await your instructions of where to meet so I can turn over the Galleons you want.

Draco Malfoy

They showed the letter to Dumbledore who approved it; then they made twenty-five copies and owled one to each of the nineteen houses on the list members of the order had come up with and six others Draco suggested. Now there was nothing to do but wait.

Dumbledore took Draco to Hogwarts and set him in a private room where the owl from Voldemort could deliver the reply, but no other students would see Draco so he could remain safe.

Three days passed, then an owl arrived. Not wanting to take the chance that Voldemort knew it was a ruse and cursed or poisoned the letter to kill the person opening it, Draco took it to Dumbledore to open. It read,

Draco

I am disappointed in your tardiness, but because you accomplished the tasks I assigned, I am willing to forgive you this time. Be at the Shrieking Shack New Year's Eve at midnight. Being as clever as you are, I am sure you can find a way out of the castle. Do not disappoint me again.

Dumbledore asked, "Does Mr. Potter have your hair for the Polyjuice Potion?"

Draco answered yes, so Dumbledore returned Draco to Grimmauld Place to be safe until the meeting took place and hopefully Harry killed Voldemort.

At half eleven on New Year's Eve, Harry and Ginny teleported to the Shrieking Shack. They extended their magical senses to search for traps and to be sure Voldemort wasn't there already watching them. Nothing showed up; so Ginny did a few charms on herself to hide her magical signature in case Voldemort, suspecting a trap, searched for other people.

As midnight approached, she put Harry's invisibility cloak on, Harry took a second dose of the Polyjuice, and they waited.

Five after, ten after, when it was quarter after midnight, they began to think Voldemort wasn't coming; then they heard an Apparation pop sound upstairs. Harry went down the stairs followed by Ginny under the cloak.

When Harry spotted Voldemort, he said, "Master, I was worried that you weren't coming."

Harry's words were the signal for Ginny to raise the anti-Apparation and anti-Portkey wards. Harry felt her magic and was worried the Voldemort would sense it too; to distract him, Harry said, "Master, I have the Galleons shrunken down in two trunks. Where do you wish me to take them?"

Voldemort finally spoke, "You will take them nowhere; you cannot lie to me Draco, I can always sense when someone is lying. You are a fool like your mother and father were if you think I believed your letter.

At first, I thought the old man was using you to set a trap for me, or perhaps you were willingly helping him; but I searched the area around the house before coming in and found nobody. If you are not setting a trap for me, what sort of Slytherin scheme do you have planned that you think will fool me? Do you think I will let you use me for your own purposes?"

Harry answered, "I have already fooled you; but I don't plan to use you, I plan to kill you."

Voldemort fired the Avada Kedavra so quickly, if Harry hadn't expected it and already began moving, the killing curse would have hit him. Ginny's bludgeoning curse, coming from apparently nowhere, surprised Voldemort and shattered the shield he erected after seeing his curse miss Harry.

The body of O'Connor that Voldemort was possessing seemed to have good reflexes. Harry's severing curse just grazed Voldemort's left arm as he spun quickly out of the way.

Harry and Ginny's rapid and continuous stream of bludgeoning and cutting curses didn't allow Voldemort to fire back since he was busy reestablishing his destroyed shields and dodging the curses he couldn't shield against. Finally, Voldemort twisted to Apparate away; but Ginny's anti-Apparation ward held.

As soon as he realized he couldn't Apparate, he pulled on a silver talisman hanging from a leather thong around his neck. When the Portkey also failed to work, he began firing killing curses at Harry who he could see, and randomly around the room hoping to hit whoever the invisible person was.

While the barrage of killing curses kept Harry and Ginny dodging, Voldemort worked his way toward the door of the house. He blasted the door open, but before he could pass through, a series of stunners, severing curses, and bludgeoning curses came from the outside; Dobby brought at least a few of the members of the order to help.

Voldemort decided there were only two people in the house with him, but many more than two outside. He decided fighting against the two was the better plan, so he moved away from the spell fire coming in through the door and faced Harry again.

Following their plan, that the prophecy said only Harry could kill Voldemort; the members of the order remained outside just to prevent Voldemort from escaping. Inside, Harry and Ginny continued their coordinated attack.

They were beginning to tire; but they knew Voldemort was in worse shape because his rate of fire was slowing, and the power of his curses was not as strong as at the start of the fight.

Mentally working out a plan, Ginny fired three curses in a row, deliberately missing to Voldemort's left; as they thought, Voldemort dodged to his right where Harry's severing curse cut off Voldemort's wand arm.

Voldemort screamed, but wandlessly summoned his wand to his left hand and fired a curse back at Harry. As that curse was leaving his wand, Ginny hit him with a bludgeoning curse that threw Voldemort against the wall.

He managed to hold on to his wand and shot an Incendio curse at Ginny which hit her shield and bounced off into the wall setting the old dried wallpaper on fire. The flaming paper peeled off the wall falling on the divan and rug, which also flamed up.

Voldemort got to his feet and shot another killing curse at Harry; he dodged and fired back another severing curse hitting Voldemort's leg. In that thirty seconds between when the Incendio started the fire, and when Voldemort fell to the floor again, the flames had spread to everything in the room.

The flames were getting too hot to stand, and the smoke was so thick, none of them could see the others. Harry and Ginny could have teleported out; but they weren't sure if Voldemort was down permanently and were afraid he might still escape if they left without making sure.

Harry mentally heard Ginny say she was next to the entrance to the tunnel leading to the Whomping Willow. He followed her mental signals trying to search for some sign of Voldemort, dead or alive, until he reached the opening to the tunnel.

Then they got the sign that Voldemort was still alive. Unable to stand up on his damaged leg, and unable to see through the smoke, Voldemort started firing curses randomly about the room.

As Ginny slid down into the tunnel, just before dropping in to join her, Harry fired one last curse. Pointing his wand through the smoke to where Voldemorts spells seemed to be coming from, he yelled, "Expulso" and dropped into the tunnel.

Harry's explosion curse hit the wall next to Voldemort; the flaming wall crumbled burying Voldemort in the rubble. In seconds, the rest of the Shreiking Shack followed, caving in upon itself.

Outside, the members of the order panicked, nobody had come out of the house. Thinking Harry and Ginny were still in the flaming rubble, they all started the Aguamenti charm pouring water on the fire. It was useless, the dried timbers of the old house burned too quickly.

In the tunnel, below the burning building, Harry and Ginny knew Voldemort couldn't have survived the collapse of the building. With their task finished, they now teleported out to the path in front of the house.

Bill was the first to see them and began to yell, "They're safe, they're here."

In seconds, everyone gathered around them; Harry said, "It's over, he was trapped when the house collapsed; he couldn't possibly survive."

Everyone was cheering and it took several minutes before someone said, "Let's head back to headquarters and let everyone else know."

Ginny said, "Someone should tell Madam Bones and the rest of the ministry."

Harry added, "And the Daily Prophet, people should know this new year will much better than the past few."

Celebrations continued for a week before people settled down into their routines. Harry and Ginny were convinced by their tutors to prep for their NEWTs. The first week of June, Ginny managed to take her NEWTs along with Harry before she went into labor. Their outstanding NEWT's scores arrived the same day they brought James Sirius Potter home.