Was it supposed to end this way?

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Harry didn't know if what happened with him a while ago was still real. As he stood there on the empty street looking at Pettigrew's dead body he wondered whether he had really gotten a second chance at this. Its voice still rang inside his head. A second chance, to make things right…to live a life that he was supposed to instead of dying like a pig for slaughter.

As he found himself disappearing slowly, a smile came on his face as he thought that maybe this time…this time he would get to live his life with them. If this was all real then he was thankful for it.

(A few hours ago…)

One would say that anything was possible in the world of magic. And why wouldn't it be? It had unicorns, phoenixes and dragons, people casting spells using wands and flying on brooms…The possibilities seemed endless.

Yet when Harry jumped off of Hagrid's arms as Voldemort brought the parade to show everyone that he'd killed the boy, it was a shock for everyone – especially Voldemort.

Suddenly what seemed to be a closing victory for Voldemort, had changed into an unexpected turn of events as he saw his death eaters running away while his trusted follower Bella desperately tried to curse them all for their betrayal. In his shock he missed a shot of the killing curse on Harry who made a run for inside the castle while being covered by those who were fighting alongside him.

Harry still couldn't believe that it had all worked. To think that taking the killing curse from Voldemort would actually kill his horcrux inside Harry and not kill him instead…it was mind boggling. Now with only the snake left Harry's morale and confidence had seen a huge boost as he told Kingsley – who was running beside him – everything about Voldemort's last remaining horcrux – Nagini.

Harry knew Voldemort would be coming for him and that he would be angry…very, very angry. So he needed to get as far away from the crowd as possible so he could lure Voldemort away from them as well. It was important so that the innocent wouldn't become unnecessary targets of the dark wizard.

Looking at the marauders' map Harry found that the stairs section of the castle had no one and so he decided to go there. He could still feel Voldemort inside his head, albeit its feeling had reduced down drastically after the horcrux inside him was gone. It seemed the rest would disappear soon. However, with whatever he could still feel from the dark wizard Harry knew that Voldemort was enraged.

It sort of scared Harry because he knew that he couldn't beat Voldemort in a one-on-one duel. Voldemort was far experienced and skilled than him when it came to spell casting and dueling and while Harry knew that he himself was quite powerful he absolutely lacked the skills to put that power to proper use.

So his only hope was the elder wand that Voldemort had. If Harry's theory was correct than he shouldn't fear getting directly hit by Voldemort's wand. But there were other ways that the dark wizard could use to kill him and after experiencing the cruciatus curse Harry absolutely wanted to avoid that.

As he reached the stairs section of the castle he felt Voldemort not far behind him as he saw the trail of black smoke come and land a few feet away from him from which emerged Voldemort, twirling his wand between his fingers.

Harry grabbed his wand as Voldemort smiled. "I think I know why I couldn't kill you before," he said. "When I hit you with the curse I felt a part of me die as well. Who would've thought that the boy who was prophesized to be my enemy was also harboring a piece of me? However, now it's the end of the road for you, Harry Potter." Harry saw Voldemort slowly raise his wand at him. "I will make sure to kill you properly this time…"

The explosion interrupted Voldemort as it blew up the floor underneath his feet, creating a hole through which the dark wizard fell down on the lower floor as big pieces of rubbles followed behind him, burying the dark wizard on the floor underneath.

Harry stood there wondering what had happened just now as he slowly looked up and saw the one face he had never thought would help him.

On the stairs above him stood Daphne Greengrass with her wand still pointed to where Voldemort stood a moment ago. Appearing a little out of breath and with disheveled hair she had a look of pride and fear on her face.

Harry didn't know what to say as he just stood there looking at her when they both heard the rubbles underneath them move around a little. Voldemort wasn't dead. Of course he wasn't, Harry thought as he wondered where Hermione and Ron were.

"You planning on being an easy target by staying there, Potter?" Daphne said. "Come on."

Harry could only nod as he headed for the stairs she was standing at before the two of them headed for a more secluded place inside the castle. While Harry looked at the map Daphne couldn't help but be marveled at seeing such a thing.

"Is that thing really showing everyone's location inside the castle?" she asked.

"It is," Harry said. "Thanks though, for saving me."

"Don't mention it," she said.

"Why did you though?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Daphne said.

"Well, I just…you know…"

"Didn't expect any help from a Slytherin?" she said. Harry didn't reply. "You Gryffindors are so paranoid about my house that you guys sometimes forget that not everyone in Slytherin wants to be a death eater." She looked at him when she heard him chuckle. "Why are you laughing?" she asked.

"It's just that you are the first person who I've heard say his name without any hesitation," Harry said.

"It's just a name," Daphne said. "Besides, now that we all know how to kill him there's no need to fear him anymore."

"We?"

"Lee Jordan told everyone to look for Voldemort's snake as killing it would bring Voldemort closer to death," she said.

"Who told him?" Harry asked.

"Hermione," she said.

"Of course she did," said Harry.

"Well, at least now everyone is looking for that snake," Daphne said. "Weasely managed to get some of them some basilisk fangs. I wonder where he got those from. Those are very rare."

Harry said nothing. Except than him and a handful others no one else knew about the basilisk that was in the secret chamber. Suddenly a name appeared on the map that was following them. Daphne looked a little closely and was confused.

"Who is Tom M Riddle?" she asked.

"Voldemort," Harry said as he, too noticed that Voldemort was not far behind them. "His real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle."

"But…Riddle is a…"

"A muggle name," he said interrupting her as she looked at him in confusion. "Yeah, a half-blood is puppeteering the majority of the magical pureblood population. Doesn't seem surprising to me though. Most purebloods have thick skulls which prevent them from thinking straight. No offense to you though."

Daphne chuckled. "None taken," she said.

"So where is Astoria?" he asked. "Is she in the dungeons?" he didn't hear her reply so he looked at her and recognized the look on her face and felt bad immediately. "I…I'm…"

"Don't say sorry," she said. "Please don't." Harry only nodded without saying anything.

"When?" he asked carefully wondering if asking something like that was alright.

"A month ago," Daphne said. "The Carrows wanted her to kill a muggleborn first year as a practice for casting the killing curse. She refused. I found her body two days later by the shrieking shack. They acted as if nothing happened," she said in a tone of amuse. Harry looked at her and could see her holding back her tears.

From what he could tell about Daphne over the years, it was that she often kept to herself whenever she wasn't with her friend Tracey Davis. Others often called her the Ice Princess of Slytherin because of how cold she was with everyone else, not to mention how many boys she had turned down who all wanted to ask her out. She was one of the most beautiful girls at Hogwarts and at one point even Harry had thought of her during the start of his sixth year when he first saw her at the welcome feast.

Her pale blond hair along with her fair complexion and grey eyes made her a beauty to be marveled at. If the rumors of Hogwarts were to be believed then she had already started to receive marriage proposals from students from various pureblood families and because arranged marriage was still practiced widely in the pureblood families Harry wasn't surprised to hear something like that. But, like always she had turned those advancements down.

And now that he was looking at her this closely he didn't see an ounce of selfishness or any other quality that he saw in most Slytherin students and while he could be wrong, he knew that she had just saved his life which not many Slytherins would do.

"Is that why you are fighting?" he asked after a minute's pause as they reached an empty classroom on the south side of the castle, away from the crowd as they hid behind the various benches while waiting for Voldemort.

"It's not just me from Slytherin who's fighting Voldemort's death eaters," she said. "There are quite a few more of us. It seems that even with thick skulls some of us managed to see what Voldemort would do to us all if he won." Harry smiled. Daphne smiled as well then they both felt the air inside the classroom become dense.

He was here.

"Who would've thought that I'd be fighting beside you at one point in my life," she said with a smirk.

"I'm not letting you," Harry said. "Thanks for saving my life but he wants me. You should go."

"And leave the chance to get back at him for taking my parents and my sister away from me?" Harry looked at her as he realized what she meant by that and he remembered that time when he and Hermione were on the horcrux hunt while listening to magical radio. They would announce names of those who went missing or were found dead and at once point Harry had heard them mention Matthias and Helena Greengrass. It wasn't until now that he remembered it as he looked at Daphne and could only wonder what she was going through.

"Don't look at me like that," she said. "It makes me feel weak."

"You don't have to throw your life away like this…"

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do with my life, Potter," she said snapping at him. She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself before sighing. "I have nothing left to lose."

The door to the classroom exploded into smithereens as they both looked at Voldemort entering the classroom. He didn't know why but he held Daphne's hand as she looked at him confused. He pressed his lips. "I wish I could say the same," he said. "I wish I had no one to lose and while I know that all those people out there are fighting for their own reasons…none of this would've happened in the first place if I had known about his horcruxes in time. This bloodshed could've been avoided…"

"Harry…I know you are here," Voldemort's voice rang inside the classroom. "Why don't you come out now along with that girl and I will probably let her live."

"What's done is done," Daphne said, holding his hand tighter as she smiled. "You don't need to have any regrets about it. It would've been like this one way or another."

"Daphne!"

Before Harry could stop her she stood up and fired a series of spells towards Voldemort while running to the other side of the classroom. Voldemort simply waved his hand, disintegrating all of her spells as Harry saw her look at his way and wink. She then mouthed 'run' when suddenly she was hit with a piercing curse on her left shoulder.

She fell on the floor with a painful shriek, her shoulder bleeding profusely as Harry could do nothing but watch her lying on the floor, muffling her cries. Seeing her like that, made him remember about Cedric. He could've still lived if Harry was a little more careful…if he was a bit more quick at thinking.

"I thought you were an honorable man, Harry," Voldemort said as Daphne's screams filled the classroom. Harry saw her entire body thrashing around. He knew what it was. Voldemort had cast the cruciatus on her. "Are your really willing to let a girl die so that you can stay safe?"

He had had enough as Harry stood up, firing Snape's spell which he had learnt from his potions' book in sixth year. Voldemort casually deflected the spell away but it did stop his attack on Daphne who had become unconscious. Harry could see a faint rise and fall of her chest which meant that she was still alive. He sighed mentally when he felt a burning pain in his left leg. The blood splattered on his face a moment later as he fell on the ground, his mind confused as to what had happened just now.

It was then that he saw a pool of blood and torn flesh underneath him and part of his left leg a few feet away. His mind had gone numb from the sudden attack but he now knew what had happened.

Voldemort wasn't going to hold back this time.

"I will put you to rest now, Harry," said the dark wizard as he walked up to him while Harry lay there in his own pool of blood. "There's no coming back this time. Avada Kadavra!"

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Thanks for reading…