Many thanks to lubabpaul for the beta-ing!
THE BOOMING THUNDER
When Voldemort looked at me, I knew three serious things. I also knew he didn't have a nose, but it seemed a pointless thing to point out.
One: I wasn't in a condition to fight for real from the start, he was the peak of military application of magic and I was tired.
Two: it was possible that Dumbledore wouldn't appear.
Three: Dumbledore said in the Deathly Hallows that Potter's wand absorbed power from Voldemort, I remembered the 'golden flames' stuff. And that wand was on the floor, forgotten.
I raised my empty right arm and summoned the holly and phoenix feather wand. Voldemort tilted is head, curious. I was curious too: I needed to buy time while I subtly directed a healing spell to my shoulder, so I started bullshitting my way through.
"I really don't want us to try and kill each other right now." I started. Voldemort showed me a lipless smile, he knew he would splatter me on the walls, and that I was aware of it.
"I'd ask Mr. Potter to introduce us but he looks a bit out of it, and I already know you." he liked that, his being famous, his magic stirred, like a snake under the sun.
"I bet you performed magic even before Hogwarts. And no, Dumbledore and I don't really talk, he is just my employer. I used to levitate stuff, set a paper on fire. Little things you know? But they were mine. They were proof I deserved to be alive."
He had been irked at first, but now he was looking at me with a new interest in his eyes. I wasn't pouring any kind of magic in my words, but I was hypnotizing him, nonetheless.
"I learned how to read at three, and I understood the idea of war at six. I knew that being... more than them, in a world like theirs, would mean becoming a military experiment. Muggles are good at weaponizing."
I was about to lose him there, that part wasn't like him or about magic enough. "I always found tiresome the other children, they started to gang up on me, because I would always be reading, or looking at the rain outside the orphanage. When they started slipping and getting hurt, they left me alone. And I was able to breathe easier."
I got him again there, the more I showed myself as a mirror, the more he would be willing to listen. From there the need for bullshit.
"Then Hogwarts came, I wasn't alone, I wasn't so special after all. But there was magic. And my wand chose me, McGonagall conjured for me a warm coat." He did his shopping alone, in his eyes I had been weak, and as such, I wasn't so interesting. "I arrived at Hogwarts and the Hat offered me Slytherin." that was bullshit, but he didn't need to know that. "I wished to learn everything, and to live for more than three hundred years, like Flamel." I got him back with it. "But my ambition was only for magic. The other people didn't really matter they didn't before, they didn't then. So, I became a Ravenclaw. And my classmates had all been a disappointment." I had him, he had been a muggleborn orphan in Slytherin, racism then was probably worse. "Flitwick took me under his wing when I proved myself to be, even among my peers, more." That was exactly him with Slughorn.
"While I was learning about magic of every kind, losing myself among the shelves of the library or walking in the Forest at night, I also learned that there were things I was forbidden to learn." I laughed, echoing desperation I never felt, just to buy myself some more time.
"Imagine that, a government that doesn't wish his people to be able to hide their thoughts. A government that told me what I could learn." I shook my head; I didn't have to feign my disgust there.
"And the attitude of everyone. Treating learning magic as a chore, expecting to be spoon-fed everything, and never asking themselves why or how." I saw his red, slit eyes gleam. "And obviously I learned about you." he smiled again, he liked having his ego stroked, even Bellatrix noticed it, she kept glancing between us, trying to understand what was happening.
"And about death eaters that claimed the mark they took so proudly was the result of an imperio, and our gracious government took their money and called them victims. While their loyal brothers and sisters in arms suffered a fate worse than death at the tender mercy of dementors." he was focused here, trying to see where I was going, while Bellatrix started breathing faster. If she was excited for my calling her loyal or terrified at the memory of Azkaban I couldn't tell. I was glad to have Potter under silencing charm, I had built up a moment and any interruption would break it.
"I've grown to be as extraordinary as I promised myself to be, I spent every single moment in which I was awake studying magic. Understanding fire and lightning, stone, and water. The first September of my last year, at the platform the 9 and 3/4, I overheard a dragon handler saying something obscure about visiting the school. When Dumbledore showed us the Goblet of Fire, I sneered at the blatant Panem et Circenses Fudge threw at us to hide his own incompetence. But I also read that the spoil of every beast classified XXXX or above belonged to its killer. So, I knew I could at once prove to myself once again that I deserved magic, and I could gain the rare opportunity to win over a whole dragon. Along the way I also won a riddle contest against a sphinx before killing it too and learning even more." the part on 'proving oneself worthy' was himself freeing the basilisk into the school.
"I met paper pushers and people who called themselves wizards and witches, who only cared about getting a well-paid job in the ministry." I snorted, and Voldemort lips twitched upward, in what I dare say was sympathy.
"So, they could gain gold to buy things that would end up being the true owners instead. So that they could rise above on the social ladder only to spit on those that stood below." I spat on the floor, almost snarling. I didn't even have to pretend; all that shit was true.
"I even thought about changing it, you know? Leading the revolution that France had in 1789. Then I noticed that the one to promote the rights of muggleborns had been Dumbledore. They threw every possible honor at him. Chief Warlock, role at the ICW, Headmaster. Everything so he could stay part of their system. And now, half a century later, we don't have open blood discrimination, unless you're in Slytherin, obviously. And there isn't a single muggleborn as a Head of Department, and they are paid less and have to work double as hard." I was losing him, Dumbledore was a no-no topic, but I was almost there, I had healed my shoulder, and was now trying to 'explain' to the holly and phoenix feather wand that I needed her only for a little while.
"And I noticed Lord Voldemort's work. I read once again about how he came storming out of nowhere and tried to change our world in a swift, clean cut. So that werewolves could have real jobs, without being shunned for something out of their control, so that there could be a place for giants, so that students at Hogwarts and wizards and witches everywhere could once again live in the wonder of magic. So that if someone wished to mutilate oneself in a stupid ritual, he could do it. Until it didn't hurt others, what right do anyone but me to choose what to do with my magic?" I was bluffing there, but I was also making him believe that his propaganda was still strong, so he was interested.
"And I read about how Dumbledore was now so deeply part of their corrupt and broken system that he started his own private militia to contrast you, because even if he was part of the system he so happily served, he recognized that it was necessary to move outside the law." I snorted once again, all the Dumbledore-bashing fanfictions I read were being slapped on Voldemort's face and he was happy to stay still and listen. I was also happy that Potter's wand warmed in my hand, giving me his allegiance, if only this once.
"I read old Prophets articles, and old detentions records. It took a while, but I put together that you were recruiting among old families, that explained to their young what they should be fighting for. I put together how Dumbledore manipulated his own students, in order to groom them into the new, young heroes his group of vigilantes needed. How he took among the Hogwarts walls a single werewolf child, when there were dozens, only to then send him among the others as his emissary, in the same way he used Hagrid, who he saved from being thrown out of Hogwarts, to talk to the giants. How he put James Potter as a Head boy ignoring the bullying and overbearing pranks he carried out. I put together old hearsay, learning how he didn't expel Sirius Black when he almost tricked a student into visiting a werewolf under the full moon. He was his pureblood from a Slytherin family on a leash." I sighed; my headache was starting to become bearable.
"I put together how you and he played your war over the head of sloths, that kept their head down waiting for a clear shepherd to hold their leash." I shook my head.
"It was there that I confirmed that I didn't care about the cesspit that is Magical Britain. And that I had been right all since I went in Ravenclaws. They don't deserve my efforts; they don't deserve a single spared thought of mine." I concluded. I couldn't be sure, but I had stalled him for at least fifteen minutes.
"So please, tell me why. Why do you care? Your magic powerful, your mind sharp, and you clearly have already carved your path to immortality. Why do they deserve your efforts?"
I had built my speech with this conclusion in mind, I had to know if he was a revolutionary described as 'evil' by the victors, or if was just a very powerful psycho.
The horcruxes didn't do him any favours. While a soul is not something that could be quantified, and it could, in theory, be cut endless times, shredding a piece of yourself to put it into something else had heavy consequences. Listening to him, and knowing what to look for, it was clear that every time he took away a part of himself, he unraveled around the edges of the tear. Only the most important parts of him stayed solid. But the details of himself he lost with every cut were important too, after all each of us is nothing but the sum of our details. So, his mind was frayed, and I didn't think he could notice it.
He tilted his head, silencing Bellatrix with a single raised finger (she was obviously outraged that I would dare question her lord).
"A Hogwarts professor at eighteen. Even if you look much older." He replied then, his voice had a hissing quality to it that I would have found disturbing before my ritual. Knowing parseltongue however, made it sound almost friendly. I choose to bullshit him some more, because clearly, I wasn't going to give to an immortal the key to time manipulation.
"There are butterflies that once that they leave their cocoon only last from dawn to dusk." I smiled at him "Some of us burn fast, but much more brightly for it." I kept my voice calm, my mind blank, and my face serene. That confused him, I could see it in the minute creasing of his scaly forehead. He couldn't even imagine the idea of not fearing death. I didn't want to die, there was so much more to do, but I recognized that it was a distinct possibility. Perhaps in death I could use my soul-voice in one last great marvel and turn my body into a lich.
I saw him study my expression, trying to find an answer to a puzzle he didn't really understand. "You accepted to teach them. Why are they worthy of your efforts?"
That gave me pause for a moment, until I remembered how my job interview went. I snorted, before answering. "Filius asked me a favour. And I used this chance to try and teach them three things. I attempted to make my students see the wonder of it, to relish in the marvel of understanding. I attempted to make them think before acting, not trusting the appearances. I attempted to show them that with magic, the only thing beyond their grasp is the one they can't imagine." I shrugged, then added "And I could work on stuff with Filius and Minerva both." I jerked my head toward Harry Potter. "You tell me how it went." I added sadly. It had been a letdown discovering that he came here anyway. But I was a teacher, telling him what to do at every turn would go against the spirit of my contract. And I didn't want Dumbledore to find out about me knowing the future.
Lord Voldemort, who was proving himself to be a pleasant conversationalist, nodded thoughtfully: "Yes, I've been reported your... quirks." he smiled.
"I can relate with your disappointment." he then said, looking briefly at Bellatrix, that whimpered, being reminded of her failure.
After a second of silence, he spoke again: "You asked me why I do what I do." he paused. "You have a good dream. But I want more." and I could feel his magic stirring once again, he was done talking, and he clearly thought I have been honored more than enough by his answers. I agreed with him, mostly. I didn't expect to be able to talk him still for so long.
Maybe dark lords don't have many occasions to discuss philosophy. I reasoned. I was starting to run out of bullshit to spit.
"However, I'm told you took away six of mine, and... slapped Bella with a limb you tore away from a corpse?" he asked. He was actually amused by that, I could tell. Bella escaped through the floo.
"And nobody takes something from me going unpunished."
Then we started.
I hadn't dared enchant anything because he would have noticed and tried to kill me on the spot, so I had to work in the old fashioned way. I had no doubt he was one of the few that could tear through my compress-ward-release routine, so I didn't even attempt it. What I was sure I couldn't make work was the prior incantation between the two brother wands, I was not the true wielder of the holly and phoenix feather one. My magic simply wouldn't synch properly with it and everything would go to shit. I flicked my left wrist, returning my wand to its holster before starting to make the golden flames thing work. I couldn't really use two wands at the same time, not at this level. While it was possible to cast simple spells holding two wands, things like shield with the left and cut with the right, at the level Voldemort and I were battling, I would needed to be able to 'sing' two songs at the same time. Only that I had one single throat, in the same way, I only had one mind to dedicate to magic.
I tried once again to call for Fawkes. It didn't work, if it were because of my falling out with the headmaster or because the firebird was busy, I couldn't tell.
It was the time for Fire. I lunged forward, letting the Fiendfyre devour its path through the floor until he was about to reach Voldemort. With a slash of its wand, he turned it into a giant snake made of black, scorching ash that lunged at me. Ok all this effort on my part and the holly wand repaid me with that pathetic attempt?
I flicked out my wand, summoning the water from the fountain in a titanic wave that swept away the ash and everything in front of me. I put the holly wand away in my holster with the second and half that move bought me. It wasn't right for me, period. I could use it, but it would be a pain.
Voldemort froze the water before shattering it with a blasting curse that was also meant to shred me with the dangerous shards, followed by a killing curse.
A shard turned into a silvery shield that intercepted the green light becoming a lump of metal on the ground. The other pieces of ice started flying around in a twister like fashion before the lightning started coursing through patterns made of microscopic ice crystals. I was the eye of the storm.
Voldemort didn't bat an eye at my display. He started raining killing curses on me before slashing his wand unleashing a cutting curse that would have bisected me at the pelvis if I hadn't rolled under it.
Jumping up I collected the rubble around turning it into a knight of stone.
Voldemort scoffed before throwing at it a ball of fire so hot it burned blue. I took the heat and used it to transmute the two meters high golem into iron, before turning the excess heat into kinetic energy that I used to push forward the golem that I animated before adding to it a Dagaz rune in the middle of his back.
In the three seconds I spent preparing my knight, Voldemort turned the floor under my feet into quicksand and sent at me four killing curses.
Taking advantage of the quicksand, I willed myself to be swallowed. A second later I exploded from the floor less than three meters from Voldemort, clutching in my bloodied right hand a stone club. Thank god for the featherlight charm.
My golem held his ground for twelve whole seconds before being flung away under the weight of Voldemort's displeasure. I swung my club pressing my advantage, while conjuring three goshawks that should have dived for his eyes but that exploded in a blaze of fire. I didn't even see him cast that.
But I was happy of my progress: we were walking toward the centre of the room, that meant away from Potter. I threw forward a blinding flash followed by a thunderclap silencing and bending the light around me in a haze of illusions.
Voldemort pushed his ward upward sharply, rising himself on a stone pillar that turned into a tree under my will that attempted to grab him. He flew on the other side of the room with what felt like a form of self-transfiguration.
The tree fell, and my golem made his way to my side while we stood still for a few seconds. I let the ice storm die down, before unleashing Minerva's spear from the knot in my hair and putting it in the hands of my knight. Touching his right arm with the tip of my wand, I carved into it an Ansuz. I hoped that Odin's rune, in conjunction with a spear, would give my golem an edge.
I felt blood flowing down the left side of my face. I stopped the bleeding with a touch from my wand.
I stared at my adversary. He was unruffled, even if I managed to tear his clothes in more than one point. All of that happened in less than five minutes.
"I lost many of my death eaters tonight." he spoke.
Oh, is this the recruiting office? I thought.
"There could be a place among mine with someone that clearly has wizard blood in his veins." he offered.
Yep recruitment.
I did manage to impress him. It was an extraordinary offer.
"We could rediscover the magic of old, rise a new Avalon from the seas. I could teach you the path of ancient druids."
Oh, he knows my buttons, I'll give him that.
I tilted my head. Pretending to be considering his offer. "You are a great wizard, no doubt. And we could probably find a way to rise islands from the depth of the ocean in less than 6months if we were to work together."
I rolled my shoulders, getting ready for the next round. "But there are three things that can't be hidden for long: the sun, the moon, and the truth." I went on. "And there are three of the latter at play here: the truth that you used pureblood racism to rally behind you the dominant class and used the muggleborns as a scapegoat. The truth that I do not bow. And the truth that you are a half-blood bastard who will always be more than any ten random purebloods put together. You shouldn't fall for your own lies."
He snarled at me before opening the dances with a lightning bolt. I would have tried to redirect it, but it was black, and I wanted to get away from that thing.
Dodging it, I rolled behind the fallen tree, before banishing it at him and rising once again my ice storm.
My iron golem lunged forward, using the opening I gave him with the tree I flung on Voldemort.
The Dark Lord redirected the tree to block the road of my iron golem and snapped a killing curse at me. The iron knight ran through the wood, spear held tight, and the green light unravelled the illusion that looked like me.
I snapped at him another lightning, before raising the rubble to shield myself from the hail of killing curses.
I regrouped with my golem and pulled on him another enchantment.
For five more minutes, Voldemort and I clashed. I was rapidly reaching the end of my tricks. He never fell again for an illusion of mine.
And that was the problem. He was a genius, he learned something from everything I did. After his first failed attempt at attacking me from my blind side, he stopped trying to exploit what obviously was not a weakness in my defence.
But in all of this, my iron golem kept getting better, because every time I was near it, I would enchant it some more. Which meant that he was fast, strong, silent, would shimmer out of view from time to time, but more than that: it was getting smarter. It was something I had been working on with Minerva and Babbling.
Unseen, the statue of the house-elf left his position at the lifts to creep his way toward Voldemort.
It was blasted away.
Then the Dark Lord came at me with Fiendfyre: under his control, it coalesced in the form of a giant basilisk and attacked. While someone that perfected his Gubraithian Fire can smother any kind of a rampaging hell, taming Fiendfyre under the control of his master was another kettle of fish.
So, I slammed it against the wall with an effort that left my nose bleeding, but it had been only to buy myself time: from a pocket, I took out a clay pot. That was the end result of my work with Filius: it didn't look impressive, barely thirty centimetres high.
When the fire basilisk lunged at me once more, I simply opened the urn. The cursed fire entered it like a noodle slurped by Naruto. It's an ugly metaphor, but I didn't want to go on the Italian guy-spaghetti crusade. I had been laughing against his death eaters; here, however, I didn't have any room for errors. I had to be calm and collected the whole time. It was exhausting, even if still thrilling.
It was then that Dumbledore hopped out of the floo with half of the ministry.
I couldn't resist. "You took your sweet time." I told them, before the headmaster started his drivel.
I was almost sad to put a stop to our battle. But I was really at the end of my rope, the last trick with Prometheus' Due had been something I was ready for, in the next exchange I would have died.
I turned my head to look at Voldemort, who was irked at the complete failure of his attempt on the prophecy. He glanced at me. He wanted to keep fighting me, I could read it in his eyes.
"Go home, Lord Voldemort." I told him. "There is always time for war."
He vanished in a strange form of apparition that I would study in another moment.
I could only keep standing, if I sat down, I would have fell asleep. "I need a pepper up." I grumbled. The enchantments on my iron golem where still strong, I had him hold me up. I was feeling like I was forgetting something.
Until Fudge came stumbling after Dumbledore, ordering me to explain what happened. I noticed the headmaster walking with at a brisk pace toward the end of the room. Whatever it was, he could handle it. I remembered I had, in fact, a pepper up in one of my pockets.
I ignored the minister and drank my potion. It would need a minute to kick in.
I kept standing silent until Madam Bones herself reached me, asking for my statement.
I looked at her with my lone eye, if she was irked by my attitude, she didn't show it.
"Finally, someone half capable of doing her job. Questions at the end of my statement." I started. She didn't like that.
"Two years ago, Sirius Black recognized Peter Pettigrew in his Animagus disguise in a Daily Prophet article." I told her. She blinked a couple of times. She kept her emotions under control like the professional she was.
Fudge screamed murder. I stunned him, ignored the wands pointed at me by the other aurors and went on.
"Seeing the real traitor of the Potters, he sneaked out of Azkaban to go and save his godson. When the truth was reported to minister Fudge in June, he ignored all the claims and swept it under the rug. Pettigrew escaped once his cover had been blown over, finding the wraith of Lord Voldemort. He then freed Bartimaeus Crouch Jr. from his father. Under Lord Voldemort's orders, " and boy, didn't I like seeing them all flinch at the name, " Crouch Jr. impersonated Mr. Moody and entered Mr. Potter in the Triwizard under a fourth school. He then went on making sure he would win. A ritual was performed on the night of the 24th of June, and Lord Voldemort gained a body once again."
I kept my best teaching voice during all of this, and it managed to keep Madam Bones from making any question or comment. Or it was because she understood that it would be the fastest way to get the truth of the events of that night, I couldn't tell.
"Our minister started taking even more bribes by Lucius Malfoy, who has always been a very votary death eater. It followed a campaign of slander, and the pathetic attempt of placing Hogwarts under our paranoid minister's thumb. You see, he believed Dumbledore wanted to become minister. The ministry put Umbridge in the castle, where she had my students use a blood quill because they dared think with their own heads. That woman had plans to use veritaserum and then the cruciatus curse on children."
At this one Madam Bones forehead creased. She couldn't just trust my word, but the picture I was painting with my words was far from reassuring. I noticed Dumbledore making his way toward us, probably believing his crooked beak would be welcome. I still owed him an apology.
"I'm sure you know Madam Umbridge didn't even pay a fine and kept her job as Senior Undersecretary. This afternoon I returned to my office from a stroll to find a slip of paper written by one of my students. It informed me that seven of Hogwarts' children were going to the ministry tonight, to save a hostage."
I tilted my head toward the still prone form of Fudge. "Since the Headmaster wasn't in his rightful place because of that idiot. The wards didn't warn us about our students' field trip."
I took a deep breath there, not to build up momentum but because my golem's magic unravelled, leaving me to hold myself up propped up on the white marble spear.
"I reached them in the Hall of prophecies surrounded by fourteen death eaters. I removed six of them and lost my stone sword. I'd like it returned to me as soon as possible by the way. I had ordered the students to reach the fireplaces and to floo away, but they had been cornered in the Veil Room by the remaining 8 death eaters." I rolled my shoulders.
"Two of my students were holding an original ward that falls under the protection of the Family Magics Act. So, I scuffled with the remaining death eaters until a group of vigilantes broke in and made a mess of the situation. Among them Mr. Moody, Auror Tonks, Auror Kingsley, Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black, who is under a time dilation charm of my design and who needs the cares of a professional healer, one with a specialization in cursed knives would be perfect. And before you arrest them for vigilantism, I remind you of the attitude and general incompetence of the ministry."
There had been some outraged shouts there, but only from people in passing. The ones that stood there listening from the beginning wisely kept quiet.
I glanced at them with my lone eye, before turning my attention once again on Madam Bones.
"I lost sight of one of my students. I threw the other children in a safe place after checking their vitals." I looked at Dumbledore there, slowly blinking. I knew he recognized it as a wink.
"I reached the atrium to find my wayward student being ganged up by Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange." I cracked my neck, it was a bit stiff, before going on.
"I animated your fountain to keep the student safe, then bought you..." I took out my pocket watch from the folds of my red, battered, dragonhide armor and checked the time.
"40minutes to bring here your slow asses, during which Lord Voldemort tried to tear me to shreds. Questions?"
I don't know if it had been my tone or my posture, but at least two of the aurors around raised their hands as if they were in class. There had been lots of questions. When they asked to speak with my students I refused.
"I need their statements." explained Madam Bones. I couldn't bring myself to care.
"You need to declare the truth about Sirius Black. You need to deal with the fallout of Fudge's administration. You need to clean your department from moles. You need to properly ward your home, because being half-competent in a corrupted ministry makes you a target. And you need to keep the rotten hands of the ministry away from my students, or I will cut them off. Their rule-breaking and general stupidity will be addressed by their professors, and their families." I answered, mostly with a calm tone and a blank face. But I was getting tired of the squabbling, and still had six students in my necklace.
I walked to the nearest fireplace, using the white spear as a staff, "I expect my stone sword to be sent to my office tomorrow, or I'll come to take it back." I threw over my shoulder, and floo'ed to my office.
I walked slowly to the infirmary, helped Poppy organize the beds, before opening my trunk going down to collect the students.
They were awake and staring at me with wide eyes.
I rolled my eye: "Yes I know you heard everything from here, we'll talk about how to properly turn pre-battle banter in a weapon after Poppy gives you the ok."
In a flash of horror, I summoned the stone box that held the horcrux. I didn't really need to deal with a student with that shit among his hands.
"And I'll be telling of your idiocy to Minerva, just wait and see, her tongue lashing will hit you like a ton of bricks."
And just like that, I gave them back their everyday life. I noticed Granger gushing at me. I knew Emma Watson would be a knockout, but I really didn't want to deal with a student's crush. Even less when it was on me. Then all the fanfiction M rated in which she had been the MC flashed behind my eyes and I knew I was too tired to think straight.