Disclaimer: Being neither British nor Japanese, it should therefore come as no surprise that I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto, nor anything from their respective franchises.
Harry ducked under the third Cruciatus Curse in a row, hoping that it either wouldn't make it through the barrier or at least miss anyone he cared about. Hoping was all he could manage at the moment though - he certainly didn't have time to look and see. Pretty much his entire focus was currently devoted to not losing this duel in the next second or so, and that'd probably stay the case until he either won or lost. What little thought he could muster in between frantically dodging and casting was busy trying to figure out how to pull out a win.
Reducto. Defodio. Question one: What assets or advantages did he have? Well for starters, he was young and fit, probably having exercised more in the last month than Voldemort had in his entire life. Thanks in part to his training with Iruka-sensei his speed, strength, agility, and stamina were all beyond what even a professional athlete could normally reach. He'd been trained in physical combat as well as magical, allowing him to mix thrown kunai and shuriken in with his spells and all but guaranteeing a victory if he could somehow get in close. Those spells he knew and was using, he'd drilled and practiced until he could cast them as easily as breathing. According to Professor Flitwick, he had more magical power than a lot of adult wizards. The wand Voldemort was using wasn't producing the Brother Wand Effect, which meant he'd gotten a different wand that might not be as good a match for him as his original. Also, unbeknownst to Voldemort, Harry had faced him in an extended fight less than a day ago and so had some idea of how he duelled.
Perforo. Question two: What factors were against him? First and foremost, Voldemort had decades of duelling experience that Harry lacked, along with an extensive repertoire of Dark and exotic magic that he was currently trying to demonstrate on the teen. Despite being older he was very spry, with his inhuman body probably more than making up for any physical losses due to age. Obviously nobody would say that the Dark Lord was lacking in raw power, so that was probably a wash as well. He'd also taken a terrain advantage by restricting Harry's movements with the barrier, limiting Harry's ability to dodge and maneuver.
Percusso. Lacero. Stupefy. Question three: What did the situation look like currently? They'd been duelling for a little over a minute so far, but it had been very different from Voldemort's duel with Professor Dumbledore. That duel, for all of the power and skill it demonstrated, was almost an exhibition match, with both combatants seeming to politely take turns at times as they traded magics beyond the ability of most wizards. This fight, by contrast, was fast and brutal; Harry had kept up as constant a stream of attacks as he could manage, keeping enough pressure on Voldemort to deny him the opportunity to use some of his bigger, fancier spells that Harry would have little hope of countering. He'd dodged rather than shielding or blocking when he could manage it, leaving his wand free to counterattack. Voldemort was using a more standard duelling style, standing in one place and moving only when necessary, while throwing a wide variety of what Harry could only presume were horrifically Dark curses at every opportunity. Those curses included a substantial portion of Cruciatus Curses, but Harry had yet to see the characteristic poisonous green of the Killing Curse. As a net result, Harry was burning through his physical endurance much faster but keeping more magic in reserve. Overall the two of them were locked in a deadly stalemate, at least for now...
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Right after that huge blasting spell had tossed them all over the courtyard, Neville's first priority had been finding and rejoining his friends. Being suddenly overrun with Death Eaters had put paid to that - trying to run across an active battlefield was just asking for a curse in the back. As a terrifying consolation prize, however, he'd found himself duelling Bellatrix Lestrange one-on-one while her husband and their fellow masked minions kept his friends busy. He actually had a chance to get some payback for his parents, assuming he could somehow beat one of the most feared Dark witches in generations.
Now Neville was no slouch himself, being second only to Harry among S.E.N. in terms of duelling ability and equal to him in raw power. The problem was that Lestrange could match him on power and had plenty of practice in making best use of it in one-on-one combat, while Neville had found that he worked best as part of a group, acting as the big hammer or the sturdy shield while his friends handled the frantic high-speed side of things. He was only even still standing at the moment because she was very obviously toying with him.
"What's the matter, little Longbottom?" she taunted as they continued to trade spells, "don't you want to go join your mommy and daddy? After the Dark Lord crushes your little friends, I'll make sure you get a bed right next to theirs! Your whole Blood-Traitor family together as an example of what happens to those who refuse our rightful Lord! Don't worry," her voice took on a more childish, sing-song quality, "Bella will take good care of you!" The mad bitch threw her head back and cackled at her own 'wit' as an enraged Neville's Bludgeoning Hex splashed harmlessly against her shield. Spotting his chance, Neville cast a very particular spell.
To most wizards and under most circumstances, the Shield-Shattering Spell was considered a promising concept executed so poorly that it became practically useless. Any duellist with even a modicum of skill and training would recognize it instantly and be able to avoid or counter it with ease. If said duellist was to underestimate her opponent however, or if she were simply too unhinged to keep her attention on the fight, then the spell could do as its name implied and create a brief window of opportunity...
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"You cannot hope to win, Potter!" Lord Voldemort hissed. It took Him a moment to gather enough breath to keep talking without audibly panting - a show of weakness He would not permit. "You can't escape, either - only I can remove this barrier and it would even persist were I to somehow fall. There is only one outcome possible: You will die and I will rule forever!"
Why wouldn't the Brat-Who-Just-Wouldn't-Bloody-Die just give up already? This was threatening to become a problem: The longer the boy continued to survive despite His efforts, the less effective destroying him would be in demonstrating His inevitability.
The night had not begun well, with Lord Voldemort being forced to urgently marshal His forces because He simply couldn't take the chance that Dumbledore might manage to bring in reinforcements from Umino's homeland. He should be the one acting, not reacting! His head still ached, and the fact that the pain had begun as an intense burning in a specific location on His forehead suggested that the Potter brat was somehow involved in that as well. Dumbledore must have discovered some way to use the tenuous connection He'd discovered previously to strike at Lord Voldemort. Presumably it was some foolish attempt to slay or incapacitate Him from afar, rendered pointless though His power and preparations.
Assailing Hogwarts was a trial all its own. He'd had to pour a substantial amount of His power into breaching the wards enough to let His forces through the front gates, and then been too busy directing and watching over the battle to properly rest. Useful tools though they were, His servants were largely too stupid and too cowardly to be trusted to handle things in His absence while He was indisposed; their actions and inactions during His years away proved that beyond question.
Things had seemed to be looking up when He spotted the group slinking through the courtyard like the vermin they were. At first He'd thought them just a simple target of opportunity, to be swiftly eradicated before moving on to other matters, but then He'd noticed the gaggle of gingers. Taking them for the Weasley family, He'd looked closer and predictably seen Potter nearby. Lord Voldemort had grinned; His little experiment with Seals might be of some use!
Lord Voldemort had descended upon the Light fools like a thunderbolt. He'd been a tad surprised and mildly disappointed at the fact that they'd managed to shield enough of His spell to survive, but no matter; His most faithful were not far away, and would undoubtedly recognize their Lord's work and soon come to deal with the Mudbloods and Blood-Traitors. He'd sent out the four anchors and cast the somewhat taxing spell required to ignite the barrier to make sure Potter received no more miraculous escapes or timely rescues.
After that bit of smooth sailing, however, the frustration had returned. The insolent whelp had proven to be exceptionally talented as a duellist, rivaling Lord Voldemort's own skills at that age. Further, rather than stand and fight like a proper wizard he insisted upon flitting about hither, thither, and yon, making for an irritatingly elusive target. Now, Lord Voldemort was beginning to feel His accumulated exertions from that night, and had been forced to ration His use of His better magics. Still, He would prevail soon enough, and make sure that anyone who recalled this duel would take the lesson that even Potter's extraordinary abilities had been for naught in the face of Lord Voldemort's power.
The Shield-Shattering Spell (also known in duelling circles as the Shieldbreaker) is a curious piece of magic, regarded by many as little more than a curiosity, the duellist's equivalent of a Fool's Mate in chess. Against an unprotected target, its effects are a slight pinch-and-twist. Even with an excessive amount of power devoted to the casting, it is unlikely to even bruise the target's skin. Upon striking a magical shield however, it functions not unlike a specialized counterspell, attempting to forcibly disrupt and dissipate the shield's energies.
To the target, it feels as if their shield has been struck by a spell cast with several times the power actually used in the Shieldbreaker. The degree of this force-multiplier increases both with the caster's skill with the spell and with their focus on the intent behind the casting. That latter factor has caused some scholars to debate whether the Shieldbreaker might not be a distant cousin to certain Dark curses known for the difficulty or impossibility of shielding against them, though Arithmantic analysis has thus far failed to demonstrate any but the most rudimentary commonalities. Regardless, a student first learning the Shield-Shattering Spell might only be able to cause it to strike with twice or thrice the force of something like a Stunning Hex, whereas a master duellist or an individual of exceptional focus could multiply their power more than tenfold.
Beyond simply making it far easier to breach a shield, the spell's effects also linger for as much as a second or two after striking, making it difficult or even impossible to raise a new shield. The strength of this inhibition fades rapidly, but it can still provide a brief window of opportunity.
With such a substantial effect and energy-efficiency, one would thus expect Shieldbreakers to be a standard tool of magical combat, but this is not the case. First and foremost is the fact that any competent duellist will be capable of attacking in ways which limit the utility of shields, from the Dark curses used by some which can ignore shields entirely to the wide variety of indirect modes of offense which simply attack where the shield isn't. Shields are also far from the only means of defending oneself, from cover to counterspells to simply dodging.
The greatest weakness of the Shieldbreaker, however, is its above-mentioned lack of effect upon unshielded targets. Its characteristic blue bolt trailing a spiral of indigo sparks is instantly recognizable to a trained duellist, and such an individual will often reflexively either shift their shield so that the spell misses it or briefly drop it entirely. Truly fearsome duellists are able to recast their shield so quickly after dropping it that the energies don't have time to dissipate, making the recast almost effortless.
Given all of this, there are only three major circumstances in which the Shield-Shattering Spell is of any real use: First, if the defender is simply bunkering down behind a shield without the skill, knowledge, or wherewithal to deal with a Shieldbreaker, the spell provides a more efficient and less taxing method of breaching their defenses. Second, it can be used to compel the target's actions, forcing them to briefly drop or move their shield and creating a momentary opening. Finally, a moment of distraction or inattention could leave the target unable to react in time.
A prime example of this spell's utility is of course the now-famous duel between Neville Longbottom and Bellatrix Lestrange during the Battle of Hogwarts. Lestrange, easily Tom Riddle's (the Dark Lord claiming the name of Voldemort) most feared lieutenant, was toying with the sixteen-year-old Longbottom. She held up a shield against his attacks, a sign of contempt in many duelling circles, and became distracted in mad laughter (her mind, unstable since her youth, was profoundly disturbed after fourteen years of imprisonment and heavy Dementor exposure).
Her attention being thus occupied presented the third form of opportunity described above. This author had, when training Mr. Longbottom, taught him the Shield-Shattering Spell and prompted him to practice combining it with a quick offensive spell of his choice. Ever a diligent student, he proceeded to master both the Shieldbreaker and the combination to a level rarely seen outside veteran Aurors or duelling masters. Having spent his first two years at Hogwarts casting through an ill-matched wand had cultivated in the young wizard an extraordinary degree of focus, as he had previously needed to pour far more power and intent into his spells to get them to work in spite of this mismatch. The reader will recall that both skill with the Shield-Shattering Spell and focus on its intent can magnify its effects, and Neville Longbottom was and is by no means a weak wizard...
-From "Uses for Useless Spells" by Filius Flitwick, 2001 revision.
Harry winced as a slightly-less-than-adequate dodge let a yellowish curse sear a line of pain across his right hip. Both he and Voldemort were hurting and tiring, and it showed. In Harry's case his dodges were getting slower and sloppier, and every desperate gulp of air was a fresh agony to his cracked ribs. With Voldemort it wasn't as obvious at a glance, but to somebody that'd been fighting him the entire time the change in his spell selection was telling: At the start of their duel, the Dark Lord had been throwing lots of Cruciatus Curses and other exotic Dark magic presumably designed to maim and kill in various horrifying and painful ways. While Harry's near-constant barrage of offensive spellfire had kept him from using any of his truly spectacular tricks, it was still pretty clear that he'd been showboating as much as he could manage.
As the fight had worn on, though, that had been slowly changing. The Unforgiveables had become fewer and farther between, and he'd gradually stepped down from the complex and power-hungry Dark curses he favored to increasingly simple and efficient (though no less lethal) spells. Harry could even recognize more than half of what was being cast at him! He'd begun physically dodging more often as well, conserving his magic a bit at the cost of his much more limited physical stamina. Of course, the switch to more pragmatic spells only further increased how dangerous an opponent Voldemort was - if he'd started the duel fighting like this, Harry wouldn't have lasted long.
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Voldemort's most feared attack dog died with a look of shock and bewilderment on her face, realizing her shield had been broken at around the same time Neville's wordlessly snap-cast Piercing Hex punched a neat finger-width hole through her heart.
"Bella!" screamed Rodolphus Lestrange, who'd been duelling Ginny and Luna. He turned to curse Neville only to lose his wand to a Disarming Charm from Luna. Enraged, he drew a wicked-looking dagger from his robes and charged his wife's vanquisher. Out of the corner of his eye, Neville noticed Luna putting a restraining hand on Ginny's shoulder.
While the last Lestrange may have been armed, he didn't seem to have much more knowledge of knife-fighting than "pointy end goes in the other guy" - he simply charged head-on into a lunging thrust so telegraphed even Trelawney would have seen it coming. At the last moment, Neville stepped forward with his left foot, using his left palm to push Lestrange's forearm to the side. He pressed the back of his right wrist, bent like a waiter carrying a tray, against the back of his attacker's arm just above the elbow, keeping that arm momentarily out of play. Finally, the teen dropped his parents' last surviving torturer with a chakra-empowered left cross, wincing a bit as he heard and felt the older wizard's jaw shatter under the force of the blow.
Taking a moment to catch his breath after the physically and emotionally draining fight, Neville turned to the girls, worried what they'd think of his brutality. He needn't have worried; while Luna looked a bit distressed (she was always the most gentle and empathetic of his friends), Ginny just looked on in grim approval. Both girls gave him a reassuring nod, which he returned before the three of them moved to support their friends and families.
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Harry and Voldemort were both battered, bleeding, bruised, and burned in numerous places. Voldemort's left eye was swollen shut thanks to a well-placed Bludgeoning Hex that he hadn't properly shielded, while Harry was fairly certain that the cracked ribs had broken completely and punctured at least one of his lungs - breathing was getting harder and he could taste blood. Neither of the two wizards was steady on their feet, and their casting had slowed to barely half the speed they'd displayed at first. Regardless of their respective states, one thing was clear to Harry.
He was losing.
Having Voldemort underestimate him at first had definitely bought him a lot of time, but once he started fighting truly seriously the Dark Lord's superior experience had begun to tell. It was also clear that his inhuman body was inhumanly durable; that Bludgeoning Hex should have fractured his skull with the amount of power Harry had put into it, and several of the cuts he'd inflicted earlier in the fight had already stopped bleeding. Even with as hard as he was able to push himself, even having already taken a soldier pill, Harry knew he was probably only one or two more hits away from passing out completely. He wracked his increasingly foggy brain for any ideas that could let him actually win this, somehow, but nothing he could come up with raised his odds of survival above "successfully biting through one of Hagrid's rock cakes".
A thought bubbled up, one of the many lessons on tactics and strategy that Iruka-sensei had tried to impart over the years: When in doubt, review your objectives. Upon realizing that his absolute top priority here was protecting everyone from Voldemort, the solution became obvious.
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Iruka dodged yet another Dark curse before responding with a hex of his own while throwing a kunai into the back of the wizard currently duelling Xeno Lovegood. The battle in the courtyard remained a chaotic melee with both forces intermingled at random. Despite their best efforts, the defending fighters had been unable to consolidate beyond forming several small pockets.
This was partly due to the multiple waves of reinforcements both sides had received since the Death Eaters' arrival. He didn't know whether they'd been called in, heard the fighting and come to investigate, or even just somehow stumbled across the fracas while wandering about. It was most likely a combination, he thought. Judging by the number of masked figures he'd seen, the chuunin figured that all or nearly all of the Death Eaters were now entangled in this fight. The reinforcements waiting for Iruka's group at the endpoint of the "stitch" were present as well, but so were several people he'd last seen holding the line near the Hospital Wing.
All the chaos had made it particularly easy for Iruka to make good use of his shinobi skills: His mobility allowed him to flit around making hit-and-fade attacks, trying to avoid getting tied down in pitched duels when possible, their lack of noise and light made his kunai hard to notice for people accustomed to watching for incoming spells, and he'd used Substitutions several times to cause friendly-fire incidents for the other side. Unfortunately, it also meant he could only occasionally afford even a quick glance to check up on Harry. That duel had been going on for a while, and neither combatant was looking good, but he had to trust his student to pull through while the rest of them did their part.
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Hurling a frantic string of hexes to put his opponent on the defensive for a moment, Harry channeled what little chakra he had left into his legs and charged, drawing a kunai in his off-hand as he went. Voldemort recognized the threat immediately, and retook the initiative and the offensive in the magical side of their fight, prompting Harry to throw up his best shield and hope it would hold long enough.
Unsurprisingly, it didn't.
Feeling and seeing his shield collapse under Voldemort's onslaught, the teen put everything he had left into a lunge that came out as an odd mix of a thrust with his kunai and a body-check. A cutting curse of some sort opened him up from his left shoulder to his right hip, but he desperately clung to consciousness as he plowed into his nemesis, plunging the kunai between his ribs as Harry's momentum drove Riddle back into contact with his own barrier. The Dark Lord gave a faint, gurgling scream as he was instantly engulfed in flames that also spread to the boy still in contact with him. Remembering the old primary school lesson of "stop, drop, and roll", Harry did his best to put himself out. The first two steps were quite easy, all things considered, but he mustered enough strength to roll a bit, and having been only indirectly ignited that was enough to snuff the flames as Voldemort's corpse continued to burn nearby.
Satisfied that he'd done his part to protect his friends and family, and happy that at least he wouldn't die burning, Harry finally surrendered to unconsciousness with a smile.
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On the battlefield, screams are generally to be expected, so a single scream during a crowded firefight wouldn't be all that noticeable. When it came from about where you knew your student was trapped in a duel to the death, however, it tended to draw your attention. When he was finally able to disengage from the group of Dark wizards he'd been fighting, Iruka took cover in the shadows behind a grotesque on the roof bordering the courtyard and looked towards the part of the battlefield enclosed by a barrier.
Both Riddle and Harry were down. The former was unmoving despite being on fire, so Iruka assumed he was probably dead. Hopefully. The kunai handle protruding from the Dark Lord's torso added a bit more weight to that theory. Unfortunately, Harry was also not moving, and the dark pool slowly spreading under him was not a good sign.
The teen needed medical attention, and soon, or he wasn't going to make it. For that to happen, they'd need to be able to reach him, which would require bringing the barrier down somehow, which they couldn't even make a start on attempting while there were still people right there trying to kill them, meaning Harry's life currently depended upon ending this battle NOW. Losing would end it quickly, but would also leave them unable to help Harry. Given the fact that Voldemort had returned from apparent death once before, pointing out that he'd fallen here wasn't likely to convince many of their enemies to surrender. More than a few probably wouldn't care even if they did believe the Dark Lord was dead, either because they were under the Imperius and didn't have a say in their actions or because Voldemort had always been a means to an end for them and their side was still arguably winning.
Iruka desperately tried to think of something, anything he could do that would quickly end the battle in their favor or save Harry by other means, but then he heard something. It was faint, but growing louder, and he thought it might possibly be the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard:
It was the sound of a thousand chirping birds.
A/N: I just couldn't resist that cliffhanger.
So, just in case the chapter didn't make it sufficiently clear (and if it didn't and you've got any ideas on how to change that, please tell me!), here's my rationale for how Harry vs. Voldemort and Neville vs. Bellatrix went:
Harry and Voldie both went in at less than 100%, Harry because he'd been running and fighting for hours, and Voldie because he's been spending magic breaching the wards, flying around, and casting an overpowered blasting spell followed by lighting up the barrier. Voldemort started out underestimating Harry and therefore fighting inefficiently, which tired him further until he finally acknowledged that he had to stick to efficiency and pragmatism over showboating and sadism. Both of them started in about the same place physically and magically, but Voldemort's greater experience and knowledge and his use of the Dark Arts to twist and enhance his body gave him an edge that Harry could only overcome by putting self-preservation second to victory.
Bellatrix was much fresher than her boss, having had more opportunity to rest at times, and she was a bad match against Neville: She was more of a speed type, while he was a slower power-type. In the end, though, hubris plus insanity equals distraction equals death.
Neither Harry nor Neville were on par with their opponents fighting at full strength. They may be heroes, but they're still just 16 years old and going up against people that were fighting and killing for years before the boys were born.
I also went back and re-did the bit that's now from Voldemort's perspective - it was originally much shorter and from Harry's perspective - because that let me explain a bit more.
Fic Recommendation: "Geniuses of Hard Work" by froznfox72 - Gai trades Neji and Tenten for Naruto and Hinata, building a team of overlooked and undervalued genin to take the world by storm.
Posted 5 April 2020
