Thankyou to all of my brilliant supporters, with a shout out to , Jimmy Adams, Jo Daviz, LegendaryWasabi, Optimum Prime and Jack Schriner. I would really struggle to keep this up without the support you guys give me.

So this is almost its next chapter will be the final one for this fic. Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the posting of this fic's first chapter. It's cool seeing gust how this fic grew over a year.

Now have a quick announcement. I will be doing an AMA this Friday on my discord. 11pm British time (5pm American central)

Chapter 27

When they got out it was past midnight, and they used magic to dry off and get dressed. Harry got out the Marauders' map and had a look to see if anyone was leaking around the castle who could catch him out of bed. The last thing they wanted to end their night was to be dragged to an irate Professor McGonagall who would berate them for being out so late. Filch was out and about as usual, but he wasn't the only one moving on the map. Moving away from the Whomping Willow in the secret passage into the school was Bellatrix LeStrange.

Harry showed the map to Hermione, who understood what she was seeing immediately. "They must be here looking for the diadem. I didn't think that they would try until the summer break when there were no students and less staff to catch them and get in their way."

"Apparently Easter break is empty enough, or maybe Voldemort is desperate. If he has checked on his other Horcruxes already he may be panicking." Harry started to walk back and forth while staring at the map for almost a minute before he turned back to Hermione "I want you to go get Dumbledore. I will go after LeStrange, she is heading for the Room of Requirement-"

Hermione cut Harry off before he could finish. " No, I'm going with you."

"You can't s-" Harry tried but she cut him off again.

"I bloody can and I bloody will. I'm not leaving you to fight that monster on your own." Hermione was determined.

"But someone needs to go get Dumbledore!" Honestly Harry would prefer to send Hermione further away from danger, but he knew she wouldn't give up on being a part of this fight. His only hope was that he could give her another job that she would agree to do.

Hermione dashed his hopes with a single word. "Dobby."

The little elf popped into the room and looked at Harry and Hermione excitedly. "What's can Dobby be doing for Mr Harry Potter Boss Man and his Grangy?" In an attempt to get the elf to address him more normally, Harry had told the elf that he couldn't call Harry "master" because Harry was his employer, not his owner. But now Harry was called Boss Man by the sometimes maddening elf.

Hermione took the map from Harry and handed it to Dobby. "Dobby, we need you to go and tell Professor Dumbledore that Bellatrix LeStrange is in the castle. Harry and I are going after her and we would appreciate some back up. Give him that map and tell him it shows the location of everyone in Hogwarts."

Dobby suddenly looked a lot more serious when he realised he was there because they needed help with something serious, rather than a bit of help to seek back to their dorms after a rather late date. "I is doing it right away." And with that the little elf popped away to go rouse the headmaster.

Hermione drew her wand and turned to Harry "let's go."

"One second." Harry pulled out his invisibility cloak and put it on Hermione.

"Harry, I'm not going to hide while you do the fighting."

"I don't expect you to, love, but Voldemort and LeStrange would go straight for the kill if they see you. However, they will want to enjoy it if they catch me. I'm counting on you to use that opportunity to save my skinny ass." Harry explained his plan and was glad that Hermione accepted it. It wasn't enough protection as far as Harry was concerned, but he didn't have the time or knowledge to build Hermione a tank to hide in while she fought LeStrange from a few miles away. To be fair, if he could do this the way he wanted, he would also be in that tank miles away sitting next to her.

They charged out of the bathroom, abandoning all thoughts of sneaking through the castle. If Filch caught them then all the better, he could go get more teachers to punish them and that would just be more people to help deal with LeStrange. Harry ran up the stairs two at a time, wanting to get to the Room of Requirement first. If he did, then he could set up the room to help him fight the possessed Death Eater. He used every secret passage and shortcut he knew, and when he got there there was no door in the wall, proving that the Room was still closed.

Harry quickly started to pace back and forth thinking of the room he wanted. 'I need the room where things are hidden, I need the room to help me fight, I need the room to help keep Hogwarts safe.' The door appeared in the wall, and Harry wasted no time going inside. The room was just as he remembered it, piles upon piles of random assorted items filled the cavernous space.

Harry hid behind one of the piles where he could watch the door and started to wait. He felt Hermione settle next to him before he heard her say. "How long do you think it's going to take her to get here?"

"Not long - a few minutes, tops, the castle is pretty empty at this time so she shouldn't have much trouble sneaking up here."

"Unless Dumbledore catches them first."

"If he can, I hope he does. If we can win this without getting involved in the fight, then all the better. Though I doubt it, the damn prophecy said he had to die at my hand."

"Or you at his, please be careful and don't make me mourn for the loss of my boyfriend tonight." Hermione's worry was easy to hear in what she said before she moved away from him to wait somewhere else.

-ϟϟϟ-

Despite what Harry had said, it took twenty five minutes before the door opened, and it wasn't LeStrange who walked in first or even Dumbledore, it was Snape. LeStrange walked in behind Snape, however, and although both of them had their wands out it was clear that they weren't fighting each other.

"The door was already open. It shouldn't have been." LeStrange's voice was flat, even, and a little raspy. But then her voice shifted until it was disturbingly bubbly and energetic. "Oh maybe there is something for me to play with. Homenum Revelio." Harry suddenly had a line of light pass right through the pile of junk and connect him to LeStrange's wand. "Oh yay, I get to play. Come out come out come ouuut! Hehehe." LeStrange practically sang, the excitement evident in her voice.

Harry, who knew his position was compromised, knew he would lose nothing by answering. "Oh, are you finally ready to play Bella? You and your friends threw that lovely party last year, then you didn't even bother to turn up. Still I had a lot of fun." Harry was lying, of course; he hadn't had fun at all but a LeStrange thinking straight was something he didn't want. "And Snape, finally finished with pretending to have a conscience I see, what's the matter? Being a decent human too difficult for you?"

Snape's response was to cast a blasting curse at the pile of junk Harry was taking cover behind, but he had expected that and already had a shield up protecting him from the shrapnel. Harry flicked his wand about and cast Oppugno silently, an instantly bit of debris started to fly at Snape, also providing some cover for Harry to run and hide behind another pile of hidden junk. A green spell flashed past Harry as he ran, but he ignored it as it struck what looked to be an antique table that was ruined by a potion that had been spilt on it.

Once Harry was safe, he peeked over the pile of hidden trash that was his current cover. LeStrange's face was one of fury whereas Snape's face was covered in little cuts and blood. He apparently hadn't expected a counter attack and had been struck by a few things before getting his shield up. Most of the blood was unfortunately from a forehead cut that still bled a lot despite being rather superficial.

Harry shouted out from where he was. "You're going to have to do better than that. Didn't you hear I killed a Dark Lord last year?" He was really hoping Voldemort's spirit or whatever he was sure was in Bellatrix would rise to the bait, and he wasn't disappointed.

LeStrange's voice went raspy again. "Oh you think you killed me, do you Potter? I am Lord Voldemort, the most powerful wizard to ever live, the finest a pureblood line has to offer. I am immortal, despite whatever temporary setbacks you may have been lucky enough to inflict on me, but I will always rise again."

Harry couldn't help it, he laughed. "Oh Tom, if only you knew how wrong you are. You, the most powerful wizard? You're barely a shadow, a little more than a ghost. If you even qualify as a wizard anymore, you are probably the weakest one alive. Pureblood? Your mother was practically a squib and your father was as muggle as they come. You may be descended from the Slytherin line but you barely even qualify as a half blood." Harry mocked. "And best of all, you think your Horcruxes make you immortal, but they are gone. Let's count them off, shall we? First, your diary: I stabbed it with a basilisk fang. Next, your locket: that one was destroyed by a house elf. I gave him the basilisk fang to do it with. Then was the one you put in the diadem and hid in this very room: again, I stabbed it with, would you guess it, a basilisk fang! I gave one to Dumbledore to deal with the ring, and I cut up the snake in the graveyard before capturing the main soul part and feeding it to a Dementor along with Barty and Wormtail. Oh Tom, the great and powerful wizard of the cup, you are the only piece left. And once I deal with your helper monkey, I will take you down to the chamber of secrets and that will be it, no more Lord Voldemort."

The megalomaniac appeared to not like Harry's answer as s/he started to fire cures after curse towards him. Harry had been expecting this again and had been slowly retreating further into the room as he spoke. As soon as he had more piles of random junk between him and the people who were now focusing on killing him, he started to run even deeper into the room.

-ϟϟϟ-

Hermione was surprised when Snape walked through the door; not that the greasy haired git would help LeStrange or Voldemort, she wouldn't make that mistake again, no what surprised her was that Snape knew that s/he was in the castle. Or did LeStrange and Voldemort seek out Snape? Was that why it took the possessed woman so long to get to the seventh floor? And where was Dumbledore, surely he should have been here by now? She almost threw off the invisibility cloak when LeStrange cast the revealing spell, but noticed in time that for some reason the spell hadn't picked her up under the cloak. She didn't know why she hadn't been detected but she wasn't going to throw away her advantage.

Hermione listened to Harry as he wound up Voldemort. On one hand, she was proud of the accomplishments Harry mentioned, however she could see how it was winding up Voldemort / LeStrange, and while that was obviously the point she couldn't help but be terrified for Harry. When Snape fired a Bombarda at the stack that Harry was hiding under, Hermione was only stopped from cursing Snape herself because she was distracted by Harry's counter-curse sending the newly created shrapnel directly at Snape as he ran and hid behind another pile of junk. The killing curse that missed Harry by only centimetres had her heart pumping so hard that she was surprised that nobody could hear it. Harry taunted Voldemort again and Hermione was hoping that Dumbledore would finally turn up. Spells were flying again but Harry had already retreated deeper into the room.

"We need to check on the diadem, it's possible that the boy is bluffing. They may still be looking for it and he only guessed its location because we are here looking for it." The raspy voice indicated it was Voldemort talking from LeStrange's mouth.

"Yes master, then we can do the ritual you showed me and truly bring about your rebirth." LeStrange's real voice this time was followed by a girly giggle.

Snape didn't say anything, he just drew his wand and started to move towards Harry slowly and cautiously but definitely going after him. LeStrange turned and started to walk into the room somewhere else, probably going to look for the diadem. Hermione was just trying to work out who to follow when the door to the Room of Requirement burst open again, only this time it was a slightly out of breath Dumbledore who came striding into the room. Seeing the man, both Snape and LeStrange started to run, quickly going deeper into the cavernous room, each disappearing behind the massive piles of a thousand years of Hogwarts detritus.

Dumbledore charged after LeStrange, leaving Hermione to do her best to follow Snape. She ran into the maze at the same place Snape had, but she quickly lost him in the twists and turns. It became a large game of cat and mouse, only the stakes were very real and very permanent, also nobody knew who was the cat and who was the mouse. Hermione didn't run, she was worried that she would bump into something and cause a noise that would tell everyone she was here and where she was. Right now, her biggest advantage was that no one knew she was here. She moved through the room as fast as she dared, keeping her eyes and ears open. Unfortunately, Hermione heard plenty but saw little more than the flashes of spell fire lighting up the room from behind the mountains of hidden things, but what she heard was explosions and Unforgivable curses. Hermione was terrified about what she would find.

-ϟϟϟ-

Harry came across Snape first and neither man held back. "Potter, I'm going to kill you for what you did to my godson. Sectumsempra." Harry dove to the side and shot a Bombarda not at Snape but at the ground the man was standing on. Even if Snape shielded, the spell would still damage the floor and lose Snape his footing. If he tried to dive out of the way then he would get hit by the blast and the shrapnel

Unfortunately Snape seems to know that tactic, as he jumped back while shielding and rode the shockwave, landing on even ground completely unhurt. Curses started to flash back and forth between the two. At first Snape underestimated Harry, having no clue about Harry being from the future and already having some real combat experience. Harry, however, remembered his fight with Snape after the man had killed Dumbledore and how Snape had made him look like a first year who could barely point his wand in the right direction. Knowing that it was likely that Harry would have to fight Snape or someone just as skilled, Harry and Hermione had set aside a few hours every week they were in school to practise and five years of training had made a big difference.

Harry dodged and parried spell after spell and sent every jinx, hex, and curse he knew back at the dungeon bat. Snape was able to dodge and parry as well but he didn't look anywhere near as confident now as he did at the start of the fight. Then Harry shot a Sectumsempra curse at Snape, almost enjoying the fury on Snape's face at having his own spell used on him. Snape tried to dodge the spell, knowing full well that while it was possible to block that spell with a shield, it would take a powerful shield and he couldn't risk using so much power and exhausting himself while fighting Harry. However, the bit of clear ground that he tried to step into suddenly wasn't clear, and as Snape shifted his weight he felt his leg slip from under him and he fell.

Harry, who was in a full kill-or-be-killed mindset, hit the man with an Expelliarmus causing his wand to fly away and a Levicorpus, hoisting the man into the air by his leg. Then finally a Sectumsempra, opening up the murderous Death Eater's neck. He knew that once he was out of here he was going to have to face what he had just done, but for now he pushed that part of his mind that was screaming to one side. He still had a Dark Lord to deal with.

Harry started searching for LeStrange, cautiously making his way towards where he had found the Horcrux, thinking that if he was in Voldemort's position he would want to confirm that the Horcrux was gone. Doubly so, given that Voldemort didn't know about the fragment of his soul in Harry's head. As far as Voldemort was concerned, without the diadem he truly was facing his morality. Suddenly, from somewhere in the distance there was shouting and flashes of spell fire. From the sound of the voices, it was Voldemort-LeStrange and Dumbledore. Harry started trying to make his way to them, but the piles of hidden things weren't neatly organised and it wasn't easy for Harry to find his way. If Harry could get there, maybe he could take Voldemort by surprise while he was distracted fighting Dumbledore.

However, he didn't have enough time. There was a flash of green over the piles of junk in front of him paired with a feminine call of "Avada Kedavra!," and then all the flashes and the sound of spells stopped. For a second Harry hoped that Dumbledore had evaded the spell and stunned LeStrange, only for his hopes to be dashed at the sound of LeStrange's distinct laughter. It took five minutes for Harry to find a route in that led to the place LeStrange and Dumbledore had fought, but when he got there LeStrange had already moved on, leaving Dumbledore's body laying there with his brightly coloured robes at odds with the lack of twinkle in the the man's eye.

Harry still wasn't completely sure how he felt about Dumbledore. On one hand, the headmaster had been an obstacle getting in his and Hermione's way and being so convinced that he was right that he saw only what he expected to see. But the man had definitely been on the right side, and there were times Harry even thought the man actually cared, at least a little. One thing Harry was sure of was that Dumbledore didn't deserve to die like this, in a pile of junk. Though if Harry understood the man even half as well as he thought he did, he was sure Dumbledore would be proud of dying while standing between his students and a threat. Harry kneeled down next to the man, and after removing his glasses he pushed his eyes closed. Now it looked more like the man was asleep. "I'm sorry," Harry voiced the last words he would ever say to the old man and stood up. It was time he finished this.

It wasn't difficult to see the way LeStrange had gone, she had kicked things from the piles as she walked past, leaving an easy trail to follow. Harry soon found the possessed woman who was currently raging at the pile of junk Harry had found the diadem in as she vanished item after item. He knew he probably should have just shot her in the back, but instead he couldn't resist saying something. "I already told you I destroyed it. The pieces of all your old junk are currently in the Chamber of Secrets if you really want to see them."

Harry had expected more banter, his memories of Voldemort said that the man liked to gloat and brag. Instead, all that Harry got was LeStrange tuning to face him. One of her eyes was pitch black and shiny like the surface of a pot of ink, the other was grey and insane. Instead of conversation, the word that came out of her mouth was "Crucio." Only the word wasn't spoken by one voice, but two that spoke in perfect union, each voice still coming from the mouth of LeStrange.

Harry leaned to his right and away from the witch and the curse shot over Harry's shoulder, passing through a space that was previously occupied by him. Harry shot a bone breaker back at her but she deflected it. The two started to rapidly trade spells, and they weren't playing around. Bellatrix was firing some of the darkest known spells at Harry, one after the other, and one in three spells was an Unforgivable. Harry couldn't claim the spells he was using were light either, the most innocent spell he used was an overcharged fire spell that he used to try and burn LeStrange to death.

Nothing Harry tried was working, likely due to Voldemort possessing LeStrange. Along with all the disturbing things that went with that, it was still a magical body that was younger than forty. As such, she was more nimble than the last time Harry fought Voldemort, which meant that she was rather effective at dodging any curses Harry used. That's why he had tried the fire, it was much wider than a curse and Harry didn't think she would be able to dodge it.

The problem with fire is that it's bright and you can't see through it. So Harry didn't see the spell that LeStrange shot through the fire until it was right in front of him and he didn't have any opportunity to block or dodge it. The red spell hit Harry right in the chest and he was suddenly in too much pain to do anything but scream.

As suddenly as the pain started it stopped, and as Harry tried to recover he heard the raspy voice of Voldemort cast, "Expelliarmus." And Harry felt his wand shoot out of his hand as he was thrown into one of the room's uncounted piles of hidden things.

LeStrange came strutting up to him, every move exaggerated into a gloat of victory. "Oh this is going to be fun." LeStrange's giggly voice was back. "Crucio."

Harry's world was again nothing but pain; she kept him under the curse and there was nothing he could do but scream. Then she let up only to taunt him. "I'm going to destroy your mind, and then I'm going to get really creative. I wonder how many ickle students I can traumatise for life by mutilating your still-living body and leaving it on display in the Great Hall. Oh I know, I'll make you invisible for a while so that you'll reappear right in the middle of breakfast. That should put them off their food for a while and send all the filthy little mudbloods running back to live in the dirt where they belong."

Just as LeStrange was finishing her demented little speech, Harry saw something behind her and it took everything he had not to smile. Hermione threw off Harry's invisibility cloak and pointed her wand right at the back of Bellatrix's head. She must have sensed the movement behind her and started to turn, only for Hermione to shoot off a piercing hex. It bored a hole straight into the back of LeStrange's head and out the front. Harry suddenly found himself splattered in blood, lumpy bits of grey stuff, and a few small shards of bone. The body of LeStrange fell aside, revealing Hermione riding a broom, her wand still pointing at where LeStrange's head had been as she shouted, "Get away from him, you bitch!"