XXIII – Confrontation

Harry sent the message to all his allies, from the Weasley family, to Charlie in Romania, to Viktor Krum in Bulgaria, to Fleur Delacour in France. The message was to be ready on Halloween.

They were ready.

They went around during the first couple months of school, subdued but practicing in private, keeping their skills up.

"Huddle up!" Harry called to the common room. Students gathered around him. "Hogwarts is going to be attacked tonight." Whispers started up.

"Quiet!" Hermione yelled. "Listen."

"Thank you, Hermione." Harry turned back to his peers. "We need to remind them that Hogwarts will not fall that easily. That some idiot who thinks he's better than anyone can kill us and take over. We won't let him!"

"No! We won't!" The common room's occupants yelled around him.

"Good. Let's go."

Neville watched as Harry fastened a sword to him and armed himself to the nines for this battle.

OoOoOoOo

Charlie was dressed in his dragon battle gear.

"Onyx! Let's go." He called, the black scaled dragon nuzzled his mate before going to the entrance of the enclosure. It is a great honor for a cause to call for a dragon to come to arms. Charlie put armor over Onyx's sensitive spots and he levitated himself on and they shot off into the sky.

OoOoOoOo

Harry and his friends were covering up their tension with fake laughing and joking, Dumbledore had no idea and left for a meeting with the Minister that night.

He should have known something would happen.

At 7:00 PM, something shook the castle. Harry and his friends stood up as one, followed by the older students.

"Prefects, guard the younger students." Harry barked out. "Everyone else, battle stations."

The professors looked in awe as Harry and his year were leading the charge.

"Potter!" Someone yelled outside the castle as they were getting closer to the door.

Harry nods to the others and Harry, Hermione and Neville all walk out together, the Golden Trio, facing down the decimated Death Eater army – consisting of the Carrow Twins, Lucius and the Lestrange brothers. Although, there weren't that many, they were still very dangerous duellers in their own right.

"Potter, you will die tonight." Voldemort threatened.

"I'd like to see you try." Harry raised his chin, looking more like his mother than in any other moment. Voldemort hissed in anger.

"Go." Voldemort waved the Death Eaters as they started attacking the students at the school.

The students started screaming and spells were flying.

"You traitors!" Rodolphus Lestrange hissed as he saw Severus and Draco fighting on the side of Hogwarts.

"Too bad you didn't figure it out sooner." Severus sneered as he cast spells at the Death Eaters, trying to incapacitate them. Draco was on his six, making sure he wasn't taken out while he was casting the spells.

Harry didn't take his eyes off the thing in front of him. He used the word thing because he didn't look like he should be even alive. He was grey toned in his skin, no nose, no hair, skin flapping around his face and on his exposed hand, clutching a wand.

Voldemort was still strong, but not as strong as he should have been.

Voldemort cast a spell and Harry flew back, his sword clattering to the ground, when Harry lunged back to his feet and started using his Parselmagic to fight back against the Dark Lord. Voldemort staggered back but he was still having some strength due to one Horcrux still existing.

Harry just needed to hang on a little longer. He needed some more firepower.

"Nagini!" Voldemort called, Harry swore, feeling for the sword and realizes he lost it in the battle he was having with Voldemort.

Harry saw the snake swerving through some rubble and he swallowed at how large the snake was. He stumbled backwards and fell over some rubble, a lump in his throat forming at the fear he suddenly felt. Voldemort looked on in pure glee.

Neville picked up the sword and leapt over Harry's prone form and beheaded the giant snake as it leapt to kill Harry. The black magic floated in the air, Voldemort sucking in a breath, some strength leaving him.

"No!" He cried out.

A noise made him turn around.

"What now." Voldemort growled. Voldemort couldn't believe what he saw. A god-forsaken bloody dragon.

"Onyx, now!" Harry cried out. Onyx darted towards the ground, a whirring coming from the sheer force of air moving around the dragon.

Voldemort turned to Harry. His attention was pulled to behind Harry where Aurors started trickling in, having been alerted to the attack on Hogwarts. The Minister was in attendance being guarded and Dumbledore started herding students to the Hospital Wing that were injured.

"It's You-Know-Who!" One cried.

"Protect the students at all costs!" The senior Auror commanded.

Voldemort looked back at Harry in pure rage.

"You little shit! I'm going to destroy you." He moved towards the Potter heir, who moved back and the ground shook as the dragon landed on the ground.

Voldemort brandished his wand at the impressively large dragon and was snatched up by the powerful jaw of the dragon and swallowed whole.

Pure silence.

The black dragon was smug, he started strutting around the courtyard.

Harry just laughed incredulously.

Voldemort was now mortal so he could be killed by a dragon just like anyone else. He wouldn't be coming back ever.

The Carrows froze at the huge dragon that just ate their leader. They immediately surrendered when the Aurors pressed in towards them.

OoOoOoOo

Hermione was edging backwards, away from Lucius, who saw her and recognized her. He was trying to escape the Aurors and not go back to Azkaban.

"Get back here, you little mudblood. You're going to pay!" He seethed as he advanced. She tried to run, but tripped over something and bit back a sob. She was stronger than this.

She heard a body hit the ground.

She turned around and saw Lucius on the ground, looking at Viktor Krum.

"Over my dead body." He spat and bound him and went to check on Hermione. "Are you okay?" He asked as she nodded tearfully.

Hermione followed Viktor's footsteps as they made their way to the courtyard and gave the old Malfoy lord to the Aurors.

Hermione saw the cheering that was going on and she was so relieved to see everyone alive, no deaths. Harry grinning at the dragon and the second eldest Weasley slid off the dragon.

"Charlie." Harry greeted.

"Hey." He smiled effortlessly.

"Celebratory ride." Onyx grunted at him. Harry smiled.

"Onyx is going to take me for a celebratory ride." Harry told him as he levitated himself up and Onyx leapt into the air.

He made loops in the air and Harry screamed in delight as he barrel rolled around in the air.

After a little while, Onyx landed and Harry beamed as he landed on the ground.

"Did you throw up?" Charlie teased.

"Nah. I love the air." Harry beamed happily.

"Good rider redhead."

"Onyx says you're a good rider." Harry parroted.

"Oh, well, that's good. Thank you, Onyx." Charlie told the dragon.

"Deserve sheep."

"He says he deserves sheep."

Charlie laughed.

"We'll see, big guy. Opal already scored some deer for you guys." Charlie patted the arm of the dragon.

Onyx huffed.

"Fine." He said petulantly.

Harry couldn't stop smiling.

The relief that he felt that he did not have Voldemort hanging over his head was all encompassing. He could live his life the way he wanted.

What would he do now that his purpose was filled. He was the Boy-Who-Lived, he defeated or helped arrange the defeat of the Dark Lord. What was he going to do now?

Well, he had time to figure it out.

Draco made his way to Harry.

"Congrats, Potter." He greeted.

"Thank you. Did it happen this way?" He asked, knowing that Draco would know what he was referring to.

"No. Much harder." Draco looked over the school, no real damage done to the school or students. His godfather was alive, Harry was healthy, all the bodies that he kept seeing in his mind in the Great Hall – Lupin, Tonks, Fred – they were all still living.

He did alright.

SO that was the battle.

I never wanted to draw it out very much, wanted it to be very anti-climatic.

Next on Friday is a conclusion ish chapter featuring Dumbledore and then next monday I will post Harry's conclusion :)

Working on Neville's

I was a little distracted watching the documentary series Broken yesterday. Crazy stuff.