Minerva McGonagall was not having a very good night. Due to the strange way that the seniority among the Hogwarts' staff worked, because Snape, the headmaster, had fled and Alecto Carrow, the deputy, was unconscious, the next most senior staff member was actually Professor Binns. The castle did understand that it was under attack and it was contributing to the defence, but it was reluctant to follow her increasingly frantic commands. She had actually been forced by the tide of battle into the history classroom earlier and she had just enough situational awareness to notice the ghost in question continuing to lecture to a classroom full of Death Eaters and Hogwartsians alike.

"Voldemort's one hour reprieve is almost up," Kingsley Shacklebolt said beside her.

She turned to him. He was looking worse for wear. Bandages covered his torso and his left arm was hanging uselessly at his side. Apart from herself, he was the last senior member of the Order of the Phoenix left.

Her gaze swept past him to the still bodies of Remus and the young Miss Tonks. Along with the dozens of other casualties, both students and colleagues alike, that they had suffered during the night, they were just extra griefs that she had locked away.

"Professor!" Hermione Granger was running up to her now, Ronald Weasley in tow. "We can't find Harry."

Minerva winced internally, but didn't let anything show on her face.

"He was doing something in the castle, following Dumbledore's plan. Might he be following it even now?"

Weasley and Granger shared an uncomfortable look with each other.

"I don't… think so," said Granger.

"It wouldn't make sense for him to be doing so, alone. We have to kill the snake," Weasley added.

Granger grabbed his arm.

"Ron!" she hissed.

He opened his mouth to argue with her, but another voice spoke up.

"Harry? I saw him a few minutes ago."

"Neville!" Granger cried. "When? Where?!"

"Outside," Longbottom replied. "He said he had to go and do something, something about Dumbledore's plan."

"If it is the snake," Shacklebolt said. "Then he's a fool if he's gone off alone."

"No," Granger said, tears beginning to run down her cheeks. "He must have… He must have…" but she couldn't bring herself to say it.

Weasley swore loudly, but Minerva didn't have it in her to chastise him. If Potter had given up, then Dumbledore's plan must have failed. She closed her eyes and mourned for a moment for the child she had failed the most. A thousand thoughts sprung into her mind. A thousand things she could have done better for Harry. At the forefront of all these ideas was that she should never have let him stay with those awful Muggles, that night after Halloween, all those years ago.

"If Potter has given up, then Dumbledore's plan has failed," Shacklebolt said. "I don't think that Voldemort will keep his word. He'll kill everyone in the castle, just because we had the temerity to defy him." He paused. "Minerva?"

"Hmm?"

"We should leave."

"No!"

"We can't leave Hogwarts!"

A wave of denials erupted around them. More and more people ere coming over to join in the conversation. Minerva half listened, a numbness clouding her thoughts.

"You're right, Kingsley," she said, bringing the various conversations to a stop, while a grim determination filled her. "George Weasley!" she called out.

A moment later, the surviving Weasley twin, another grief she was ignoring, wandered over dumbly.

"Mr. Weasley, we need a way out of the castle," Minerva said calmly.

George stared at her blankly for a moment.

"There's a passage that leads to Honeydukes," he said eventually. "That's probably the safest bet."

"Hogsmeade should be relatively undefended," Shacklebolt said.

"But I'm not going," George said darkly.

"Yes, you are, Mr. Weasley," Minerva said. "For your mother's sake," she added quietly.

That brought him up short and he looked over to where his mother was still clutching at Fred's hand. George closed his eyes and nodded.

"Instead, I will stay," Minerva said to everyone present.

"Professor, no!"

More voices rose up in protest, but she kept her eyes focussed on Shacklebolt.

"You'll have a better chance of escaping, if I can keep their attention here. Besides," she added, "I won't let it be said that we gave up Hogwarts without a fight."

In truth, she recognised that she was being cowardly. That by giving up, by fighting a hopeless battle, was only leaving the harder fights in the future to others, but Minerva didn't have the spirit in her to resist anymore. She had failed the students, Harry most of all, but she would not shirk from her final duty to the school.

"You must lead them now, Kingsley. Try to get out of the country. Try to save as many as you can."

A myriad of emotions flashed across his usually stern face, but eventually, as she knew he would, he nodded.

"No!" cried Longbottom. "I won't leave you alone, Professor."

Pride bloomed inside of her and she smiled sadly at him.

"Neville Longbottom," she cupped his cheeks in her hands. "You sweet fool. You really are the best Gryffindor of all of us. But you must go. Consider it my final instruction to you. There will be greater need for your bravery in what is to come."

For a moment, he looked terrified, as if he just realised that without his Head of House, he had truly left his childhood behind, but the Gryffindor inside him, that she had nurtured and watched grow for the last seven years, responded and he nodded solemnly.

"What's the point?" Granger asked, tears continuing to fall down her face. "Without Harry, what can we possibly hope to…"

And then both she and Weasley collapsed to the floor.

There was a moment of surprise. Half of those around them spun around, reaching for wands, thinking that they were under attack again and the other half rushed to help the two of them. But they had already recovered and were rising to their feet.

"Quickly," Granger said to everyone around them. "We've got to get to Harry as quickly as possible."

Minerva blinked.

"What just happened?" she asked.

"It'll take too long to explain," Granger replied. "Was I crying?" she then said to no one in particular, touching a finger to the tears on her face.

"Miss Granger," Shacklebolt said seriously. "Considering the circumstances, the decision to retreat is the best one. I admire your devotion to your friend, but if Harry's decided to sac…"

"Oh, shush," she said to the older wizard. The teacher in Minerva almost scolded her. "Harry's alive and he needs our help."

This set off a wave of muttering around from the growing crowd.

"He is?" Ginny Weasley pushed her way to the front of the pack.

"Yes, but he's surrounded by Death Eaters, so he needs our help," she said. "Now!" She added, when people continued to look at her sceptically.

"A moment ago, you didn't even know where he was," Shacklebolt argued. "Now you want us to lead a full frontal assault on Voldemort?"

"It'll take too long to… Gahh! Fine! Harry just sent me and Ron a secret message. It turns out that Dumbledore's plan was more complicated than we thought. Now, if we meet up with Harry, he, Ron and I can deal with Voldemort, but we'll still need help to deal with the army of Death Eaters."

Shacklebolt still wore a look of disbelief, but then Ron walked up to him and tapped his wand against Shacklebolt's injured arm. Shacklebolt jumped and then stretched his arm experimentally, before fixing Ron with an astonished look.

"It was the Muscle Atrophying Curse," Ron said. "It's a favourite of Dolohov's."

"I'll go with you," Ginny Weasley said, with fire in her eyes.

"Me too!" Longbottom shouted.

More of the student's voices cried out in support, but the adults were still reserved.

"This is part of my brother's plan?" Aberforth asked Granger.

She made eye contact with him for a moment.

"Yes."

Aberforth sighed deeply.

"Even when he's dead in the ground, others will continue to suffer for his plans."

"He held that regret for all of his life," Ron said quietly.

Aberforth looked ready to argue, but something in the earnestness of the young redhead's pronouncement gave him pause.

"Well… maybe so. At least I can help to atone for my brother's mistakes."

"I'm not going on some suicide mission!" someone cried out from the crowd.

"Coward!" someone shouted in response.

Minerva watched as the Great Hall devolved into a dozen separate arguments. Molly had grabbed both Ron and Ginny by the arm, but they were both trying to pull away from her. Kingsley was talking quickly with Arthur and Hestia, emphasising the recklessness of a full-frontal attack. The other professors were trying to talk the remaining students down, but most of them had already lost their stomach for battle long ago. It was all too much for Granger.

"That's enough!" she shouted, not even needing magic to amplify her voice. "I'm going, if you're not coming with me, fine, just don't get in my way."

Without hesitation, she turned and marched towards the door.

Ron wrenched his arm out of Molly's grip and hurried to catch up with her, Ginny following a moment later.

"Minerva," Shacklebolt said beside her. She turned to face him and it was only because she knew him as well as she did that she saw the sadness on his face. "Good luck."

He turned away and called everyone else to go with him and, with a few guilty looks, most everyone went with him.

"Let's go, Minny," Aberforth said.

She pursed her lips at his familiarity, but hurried with him to catch up with Granger and the two Weasleys. They were joined by Longbottom again.

"Mister…"

But Longbottom interrupted her.

"I believe in Harry, professor."

She wasn't sure if she shared his belief, but then again, that boy had consistently surprised her in the past. She hesitated, but eventually sighed and nodded at him.

"Hurry up!" Granger said from ahead of them.

So they did.

"You have a plan to defeat him?" Minerva asked her.

"Yes. Oh, right. Can you summon the Sorting Hat for us?"

"What?"

"Don't worry, Hermione," Ron said. "I'm on it." Then he started waving his wand and muttering under his breath and then the Hat just faded into view in front of them.

"What in the world…?" Minerva said in amazement.

"Help will always be given at Hogwarts," Granger said, plucking the Hat out of the air. "To those who deserve it."

Then she plonked the Hat onto Longbottom's head.

A silver shape appeared before them and Minerva gave a start before it resolved into the shape of a stag.

"He's found me," it said with Potter's voice. "I'm just outside the Forest, not far from Hagrid's."

Granger and Mister Weasley broke into a run, Longbottom and Miss Weasley speeding up to match them. Minerva cursed the ravages of old age and, by the grumbling coming from beside her, Aberforth shared her sentiment.

Soon, the six of them were on their way towards the Forbidden Forest. It was obvious that something had happened when Potter's two friends had collapsed, but whether it was a secret message sent to them by Potter, like they said, or something else, it was clear that something had changed about them.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

This time, there were no surprises, no intervention from Dumbledore, no brother wand interference. Voldemort watched as the green bolt leapt across the clearing and struck the boy of prophecy.

And then…

When his consciousness returned, Voldemort found himself crouched low to the ground, Bellatrix pawing at him. There must have been some backlash to the Killing Curse, he thought to himself, some side effect of the strange connection that bound the two of them together. He struggled to lift his head, his eyelids felt very heavy.

"Enough, Bella. The boy… is he dead?"

"My Lord… he's gone!"

"What!?"

Harry stepped as lightly as he could as he sneaked away. He had spent ages, while in the game, practising how to get the cloak around him as quickly as possible, from halfway through a fall to the ground. All his practice had paid off, and he had disappeared from sight almost the instant that he woke up, back in reality.

"Find him!" Voldemort screeched and dozens of wands shot up in response.

"Homenum revelio," cried out a chorus of voices, but, of course, the One True Cloak did not fail Harry. A blast of fire erupted from Voldemort's wand, scorching the ground where Harry had been just a few seconds before, but Harry had already escaped the ring of Death Eaters and, after a quick, silent and invisible spell to break Hagrid's bonds, he was making his way towards the castle. He just hoped that Hagrid would take the opportunity to escape into the forest.

"Catch him by hand if you have to!" Voldemort commanded. The Death Eaters began moving. "Head back towards the castle!" he continued.

It was difficult moving through the forest without disturbing the flora in such a way that would reveal himself, but that was something he had practised too.

It took several careful minutes for him to reach the edge of the forest and the open grounds of Hogwarts, where Harry could really pick up speed. He dashed forward, but he only made it a few dozen yards before Voldemort found him.

Harry had to admit, using a huge swarm of transfigured insects to find an invisible foe was rather clever. At first, Harry wanted to ignore the bugs, thinking that Voldemort was only trying to reveal him by searching for Harry's silhouette in the bugs, but when they started biting and nipping at him, Harry was forced to blast them off his body with a blast of magical wind. He then had to follow up with a shield against the violent curse that Voldemort had sent at him the moment that he had revealed himself by using magic.

Voldemort stood just in front of the tree line, his Death Eaters lined up behind him.

"How?" Voldemort demanded through gritted teeth.

Harry looked around, calm despite himself. The pre-dawn light was illuminating everything with a dim light. Ron and Hermione couldn't be seen, but he trusted that they were sticking to the plan and were on their way. He took off the cloak and stuffed it in his pocket.

The Death Eaters were pointing their wands towards him as one. Not all of them still had masks and from the expressions that he could see, there was uncertainty there. Whether it was doubt regarding Harry or doubt regarding Voldemort, he couldn't tell.

A silver light came out of Harry's wand and flew towards the castle. He hoped that Ron and Hermione could get to him soon, because despite everything, he knew that he couldn't take on Voldemort and all his followers by himself.

"What's the matter, Tom?" he called out brazenly, trying to buy some time. "Did you try and fail to kill me again? What's that make this? Six failed attempts? At some point, most people would give it up as a bad job, you know? I wasn't even trying to survive this time."

"I will kill everyone dear to you," Voldemort said, his voice low and dangerous. "Before this day is over, the flagstones of Hogwarts will be drenched in the blood of those you love. And if you refuse to die, then I will destroy you in every other way until, even if you live, you have no capacity to threaten me in the slightest."

"Well," Harry said calmly, his wand held loosely at his side. "You can try."

He felt the intent of Voldemort's curse before he could see it. It wasn't an Unforgivable, presumably because Harry had shown a pretty consistent immunity to at least two of them, but it was powerful and malicious. Before the curse had even left the Elder Wand that Voldemort was wielding, Harry had a strong, specialised shield forming around him.

The curse struck Harry's shield and then, to the surprise of everyone watching, it reversed its course and flew backwards towards Voldemort.

Voldemort dodged the rebounding spell easily, but paused in his assault.

"How? Why?"

"Yeah, I'm not going to lie," Harry said. "I'm as lost as you are."

"How is it that the wand responds to you?"

Harry shrugged.

"I don't know, this never came up during… Well, I'm not going to tell you."

"Enough!" Voldemort spat. "Bellatrix, your wand."

Lestrange didn't hesitate for a second before kneeling beside her master and offering up her wand. Voldemort slipped the Elder Wand back into his robes and swung his borrowed wand at Harry.

It was time to see if all the training and practise that he had done in the game was going to be applicable in real life.

They heard the fight before they saw it, a series of dull thuds, sets of staccato bangs, the roar like that of some fierce animal and some high pitched dings, like a hammer being struck against an anvil.

Ron and Hermione increased their speed again, everyone behind them struggling to keep up, and they emerged at the crest of the hill overlooking the Hogwarts' grounds.

Harry was fighting Voldemort one on one, the Death Eaters had tried to encircle them, but Harry was moving too quickly for them, too quickly for it to be natural. Ron and Hermione recognised the magic. They had discovered it during their third repeat of the game. It allowed the wielder to move quickly, but it was expensive in terms of magic and it only lasted a few moments, meaning that it didn't really offer much in the way of utility in combat.

Voldemort wasn't an easy opponent to escape from though, and he took to the air to fly after Harry, raining spells down upon him the whole time. It was clearly difficult for Harry to both defend himself and maintain the movement magic and Ron and Hermione watched as one of Voldemort's curses slipped past Harry's guard, shattered his shield and knocked him to the ground.

Ron acted on instinct and thrust out his wand with a wordless cry. A bolt of lightning shot from its tip and zig-zagged its way towards Voldemort. Lightning was both difficult to produce and easy to defend against, but it was one of the fastest, long-range attacks there was and the moment it took Voldemort to redirect it to the ground, was the moment that Harry needed to find his feet and recast his shield.

"You help Harry," said Hermione. "I'll help the others with the Death Eaters."

Ron nodded and shot off, using the same magic that Harry had to speed towards him. Hermione looked towards the Death Eaters, who were only just reacting to the arrival of her, Ron and the others. There were at least fifty of them and she spied Nagini floating in her magical bubble at the back of the crowd.

"We need to deal with his army," Hermione said calmly, waving her wand in a complicated pattern at the same time. "And kill the snake when we get a chance."

"Oh, nothing too difficult then," Ginny said, eyeing the approaching Death Eaters, who were still out of spell range.

Hermione looked at her and smiled.

"It's good to see you again, Ginny. It's been… I mean, it feels like it's been years."

Ginny gave her a strange look at that, but didn't comment further.

"I hope you have some trick up your sleeve, girl," Aberforth said, his breath coming out laboured from his running.

"Not as such, no," Hermione replied, but as she continued to wave her wand, tiny motes of light appeared around her. A few at first and then dozens more.

"Miss Granger!" McGonagall said in alarm, but Hermione ignored her and flicked her wand forward. The motes of light, now glowing like tiny stars, shot forward, screaming like boiling kettles as they went. Dozens of shields appeared among the Death Eaters, but instead of being absorbed into them, the stars exploded with tremendous force when they made contact. The ground shook and the sound was deafening. When the smoke cleared, many of the Death Eaters had been knocked down, either dead or unconscious. The rest had kept their feet, but certainly seemed shaken.

"Merlin's pants, Hermione!" Ginny said. "What the hell was that?!"

Hermione ignored her.

"Ooh, I think I see Bellatrix Lestrange without a wand," she said and then she began strolling towards the remaining Death Eaters.

"Is that really Hermione?" asked Neville.

"Whoever it is, she's going to get herself killed if she doesn't take this seriously," Aberforth said.

"Hermione, wait for me! Ginny cried.

"Ow!" Longbottom said, by Minerva's side. Then he removed the Sorting Hat from his head and withdrew a sparkling, silver sword from within it. "Did you have to drop it on my head?" he asked the Hat, but it gave no response and Longbottom stuffed it into the pockets of his robes.

"Is that…"

"Nevermind that now," Aberforth said. "I'm not going to be shown up by some teenagers." Then he began marching to catch up with the two young witches.

Neville shared a look with Professor McGonagall.

"Shall we?" he asked, his wand in one hand and the Sword of Gryffindor in the other.

"Come one, then," she replied, shaking her head at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Working together, Harry and Ron could just about hold their ground against Voldemort, but they were both becoming frustrated. With all the time that they had spent in the game, even though they had been expecting it, the transition out of turn-based combat and into as-fast-as-possible combat was difficult.

On top of that, they had forgotten just how tired they had been. In the game they had been able to approach every encounter essentially whenever they had wanted to. They had almost never entered into a battle without being properly rested. Now that they had returned to reality and to their real bodies, they were struggling. In reality, they hadn't had a chance to rest since before the Gringotts break-in, almost twenty-four hours ago and they had been fighting and running that whole time.

They felt the explosions when Hermione struck at the Death Eaters, but they didn't pay it any mind. They both trusted in Hermione's ability, not to mention that Aberforth was there, too.

Voldemort had summoned a gigantic basilisk made of fire and Harry and Ron both reacted immediately. Harry created a chain of golden light, which wrapped itself around the basilisk's body, and Ron made an ethereal silver sword, which plunged itself into the fire.

The snake exploded into flames, which Harry and Ron sent towards Voldemort with a combined wind spell. The flames passed over Voldemort, although they didn't harm him, and, his fury visible even at a distance, he sent a pair of Killing Curses at the two friends.

They both dodged easily. There had been lengthy debates between Harry, Ron and Hermione while in the game, about whether Harry's mother's blood sacrifice protection was still in effect. They mostly agreed that it had continued to function while it was carried in Voldemort's blood, but they were less sure as to whether it would still be there once Voldemort 'killed' Harry again. So, even though there was a non-trivial chance that Harry was currently indestructible, it wasn't worth the risk to check.

Harry and Ron responded to the Killing Curses with a pair of bright, white bolts, which were so powerful they left their bones rattling. Voldemort was forced to summon the same silver shield that he had used against Dumbledore, all those years ago, and the two spells exploded into light when they reached it. All three of them had to blink the spots out of their eyes after that, but soon enough, they had rejoined in battle.

Hermione looked down at the cooling body of Bellatrix Lestrange. It felt… disappointing and anticlimactic to finally kill her for real. She hadn't even been able to fight back without her wand. Another spell splashed against Hermione's shield and she returned her attention to the battle around her. The five of them were outnumbered, but Aberforth was a force to behold when he really got going, something they had discovered during the game and that Hermione was grateful to discover was true outside of the game too.

Trusting her allies to defend her, she moved towards Nagini and began to subvert the protections around her. She couldn't bring them down entirely, Voldemort's spell work was too good and too powerful for that, but she was quickly able to take control of the levitation charm and she pulled the snake towards her and straightened out its body.

"Hey, Neville, come here," she said, while the snake spat and snapped at her, but its own protections prevented it from reaching her.

"Yes, Hermione?" Neville said, jogging over to her.

"Swing away," she said, gesturing at the snake in the bubble.

Neville gave her a sceptical look, but then put his wand away and lifted the sword above his head in a two-handed grip. When he swung it down, it passed through the magic around Nagini without even a ripple, cutting off the snake's head in a clean stroke.

"Huh," said Neville. "I was expecting more resistance."

"It's the sword of Gryffindor," Hermione said. "But nevermind that now, can you go and give Aberforth and the others a hand? I need to go and help the boys."

"Who?"

"Aberforth? The old guy? Dumbledore's brother?"

"Oh, him. I just thought he was the barman at the Hog's Head."

"He is," said Hermione.

"He's pretty good at fighting for a barman," Neville said, watching as Aberforth blasted two Death Eaters away with a single spell.

"Did you miss the part where I said he was Dumbledore's brother?"

Neville seemed to accept that, and he went over to give his support. Hermione cast a quick semi-necromantic spell, which left a bad taste in her mouth, to check that Voldemort's soul fragment had been destroyed and then rushed over to join the battle against the now mortal Dark Lord.

When Hermione joined them, they could really push their advantage. They had spent a long time training in the game, studying every scrap of knowledge that Voldemort knew from the Hogwarts library, and even breaking into Death Eater houses to study what they couldn't find at Hogwarts. They practised magic and fighting during every repeat and repeat and repeat of the game. While none of them were Voldemort's equal on their own, when they were together they were almost unstoppable.

Still, even when outnumbered and outmatched, Voldemort did not give up. He was a cunning and powerful fighter and the three friends were forced to their very limits to wear him down.

It took the most unexpected event possible for the battle to truly turn in their favour.

Voldemort had just cast a wide-ranging mass disspell, in order to negate a trio of attacks they had sent at him. It protected him from being damaged, but it had the side effect of removing his own shield. That was when a volley of arrows hit him in the back.

He spun quickly, banishing the follow-up volley back against the centaurs who had shot them and healing the injury to his back, but it was distraction enough for Harry to maneuver his magic past Voldemort's attention and to summon the Elder Wand from inside his cloak.

When he caught the wand, Harry knew that it was over. The wand sung to him of battles and dueling and victory. Power coursed through him and the wand was filled with a longing to unleash it. A wand in each hand, he advanced on Voldemort, who was watching him warily. Ron and Hermione a step behind him.

For a moment, the battlefield was motionless. Dark Lord and Young Hero stared at each other. Something passed between them, but for the first time, Harry didn't know what it was. The part of him that had always felt connected to Voldemort had gone. No longer did he give off the terrible aura of a destined enemy, now he was just a man. Now he was mortal. Now he was just Tom Riddle once again.

The moment ended and the Dark Lord began his final attack. He began to rise into the air, the last of the magic within him bubbling up and saturating the air around them. Their hair began to rise and the distant sounds of battle grew muffled by the oppressive force surrounding them. Hermione and Ron shouted as they launched powerful spells towards him and Harry swept the conquered Blackthorn Wand through the air, cutting off whatever spell Riddle was casting. The Elder Wand he jabbed towards Riddle's heart, a pure, white beam piercing Riddle's body at the same moment that Ron's and Hermione's spells struck true.

The magic in the air dissipated into nothingness and Riddle fell to the ground dead.

A.N.

The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

I've actually been working on an original fantasy story recently, but have hit a bit of a creative block there, so thought I'd come and finish up this story quickly.

I apologise to those of you who may have wanted to follow our heroes through their multiple repeats of the game, but as I said before, this is the limit of my patience. I am determined to leave no story unfinished, but I'm still enough of a cheat to skip past some of the story in order to finish more quickly.

Just the last chapter to wrap everything up.

Again, thanks for reading and for the reviews!