Chapter 6: The Final Level
A/N: Disclaimer blah…blah I don't own anything except maybe the plot and some of the cooler character actions if, and only if, my reviewers cannot do them e.g. hack into the programming code of a DVD. Well I hope you're all looking forward to a really exciting finale, and I must confess I am as well, not too good seeing as I have to write it,
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'Voldemort,' Sirius exclaimed as he saw the screen, 'Arabella that's Voldemort.'
'I know…' she whispered back.
'Who's that again?' Wes asked in a quiet voice.
'Evil…murderer…any of the above,' Sirius was too stunned to reply properly.
'Oh…crap.' Wes uttered the expletive as the network card on the second machine began to beep rapidly; 'he's hacking into the machines!'
Sir Wesley Weston That evil guy is the one who put LOTN in, he's corrupting the files…
–=Netsurfer77=– Hey! He's eating into my mainfr–
* beth * Oh crap…I'm ou–
[Lunar Bard] Wes you better discon–
{Voltora} My firewall's breaking his code down…isolating it as we speak…
^Bandy^ Hurry Volt–
(Serene) This is not go–
{Voltora} Code is 458495886, put it through your debugger, quick…
+Giesbrecht+ It's done…
Sir Wesley Weston Isolated and debugged, now lets kick some.
* * *
'Harry Potter and Stephen Wilkins, sorry, Lord of the Net; welcome to my lair.' Voldemort spoke to them both with a sneer in his voice, 'enjoy the trip?'
'Drop dead,' Stephen spat at him.
'Too late,' Harry muttered, 'I've killed him two or three times already…'
* * *
'Professor Mysis are they where I think they are?' Dumbledore asked his Muggle Studies teacher.
'If you're thinking Voldemort's lair, then I agree wholeheartedly,' she replied as Dumbledore turned to regard Hedwig's package carefully.
'Keep watching the screen, I'm going to Sirius,' and with that he had disapparated from the room.
* * *
'That evil bas –' Sirius began before Arabella cut him off.
'There is no need for that language Sirius,' then Dumbledore apparated in beside her, 'BLOODY HELL!'
'Arabella,' Sirius replied, 'I'm shocked…how are you Dumbledore.'
'Fine, ready to help Harry?' he then produced a familiar black box. Behind Sirius he saw Wes turn and stare from his code filled windows, 'Sir Wesley Weston I presume?'
'Yep…um how dig you get here?'
'Apparation dear boy, but for now we're going in there…' and he pointed to the screen where Voldemort still spoke to Harry and Stephen. 'Tell your friends if you please.'
Sir Wesley Weston Hey guys, watch your screens, I've got more people loading up…
{Voltora} WHAT?!
+ Giesbrecht + Explain how please.
Sir Wesley Weston We've figure out how Harry and Stephen were loaded…
+ Giesbrecht + Bring it on…
{Voltora} Let's kick some
* * *
'So you see it was quite simple to get you here, a summoning charm attached to one of those Muggle computer boxes and voila, you're here at my mercy. I must admit though I expected the dinosaur to finish you off…most disappointing, but now it's personal at least.' And he whipped out his wand firing off a Stunning Jinx the second he had finished talking. Harry watched as it shot towards Stephen, he had no chance to move the boy but looked onwards in awe as the jinx moved instead, curving up into the ceiling above Stephen's head.
'Welcome to my world…' the boy said with a small smirk.
* * *
{Voltora} Yeehaa! He's on our territory now…
+ Giesbrecht + Nice code work, now it's my turn.
Sir Wesley Weston Pump it.
As he typed the words Wes also shouted them to Sirius, Arabella and Dumbledore, as they grabbed the box Sirius turned to the boy, 'See you on the flip side Wes–'
'Hey, you finally got my name right!' but the trio of wizards had gone.
* * *
Harry reacted with as much speed as he could muster using the Reductor Jinx on the ceiling in front of himself and Stephen to blast it down and create a makeshift shield. 'Get down you lucky fool!' and he grabbed Stephen, 'the only reason they could do that was because they knew it was coming, you won't get another chance with him.'
'Hey Har-ry! I'd advise you to keep your heads down,' and this time the Stunner whipped over their heads without deviating and blew apart some of the shield.
'See what I mean, now we have to play by his rules.'
'Not necessarily, look at that.' Stephen pointed to a patch of rock above Voldemort where the pixels were changing colour from brown to white hot. As it suddenly began to melt down around the Dark Wizard forming a natural cage Harry noticed some black writing appear on the wall behind the molten barriers:
Giesy woz 'ere.
* * *
Sir Wesley Weston Now that's taking the mick!
{Voltora} I'm getting a new upload message…
+ Giesbrecht + Same here, I think Harry's friends are joining the party.
* * *
Harry was still laughing with Stephen when two startling things happened at once:
With a shrill laugh Voldemort spread his hand and his cage shattered, 'I can play here too.'
'So can we…' the new voice belonged to Albus Dumbledore. Harry poked his head over the rock and saw Sirius, Mrs. Figg and the headmaster facing down Voldemort…then the scene exploded into colours and loud bangs.
* * *
'Holy cow!' Wes shouted out loud as the main computer screen almost blew itself out as all its pixels approached their limit.
Sir Wesley Weston Did you see that?
{Voltora} I felt that…
+ Giesbrecht + Hey…check out the scar icon.
Wes turned back to the main screen and saw that the scar icon was full, all eight pieces had been put together…
* * *
'Duck!' Harry shouted at Stephen as another red-hot spell blazed its way past them, 'I've got to go and help them,' he added after looking over the rock, he could vaguely make out three shadowy forms dodging around spells in the smoke that was forming.
'Too late!' Stephen shouted, and Harry saw he was pointing at a white mouse moving across the screen towards his scar icon, then a massive explosion shook the cavern flinging Harry and Stephen to the opposite wall where the two other wizards and witch landed shortly later.
'NO!' Voldemort screamed as he followed the mouse arrow, 'you will never defeat me,' and with a wave of his hand he conjured up a Dark Mark icon beside him. 'You've won this battle Potter, but the war is far from over.'
'Think again,' Stephen muttered as the mouse button hovered over the scar icon, Harry watched as the boy closed his eyes and began to mouth silently…
* * *
Debug program complete, restoring users…
Sir Wesley Weston What the hell does that mean?
–=Netsurfer77=– Woohoo! Back on track my friends!
(Serene) The Queen of JP has returned…
{Voltora} The virus has been cleared
[Lunar Bard] What's going on?
+ Giesbrecht + The scar's complete.
^Bandy^ Hey, that evil guy's got his own icon!
* beth * Wait, I've got another incoming message:
Uploading new user…
~Lord of the Net~ Are you guys ready to save the world…?
Sir Wesley Weston I'm not even gonna ask how you did that Steve…
~Lord of the Net~ Good, I can't tell you. I need everyone to run code 95894850, NOW!
Sir Wesley Weston Running…
–=Netsurfer77=– Where's this code from LOTN?
(Serene) This should be fun!
* beth * PCU processing now…
{Voltora} What's a Fireball program?
~Lord of the Net~ Just what I need Voltora…
^Bandy^ Done.
+ Giesbrecht + Are these specifications correct?
[Lunar Bard] God LOTN, you need to send me this program.
* * *
Stephen's eyes snapped open, his friends had all uploaded and run the Fireball program, smiling slightly he tracked his eyes onto Voldemort who was feet away from his Dark Mark icon. 'Hey,' he shouted, 'try this magic on for size.' And with this he raised his right hand and clicked his fingers…
'How impressive you stupid Muggle boy,' Voldemort had stopped inches from the icon, 'but nothing will stop me…now?' he trailed off as Stephen's hand caught fire.
'Regular or extra crispy?' the boy said, then flung his hand forward disgorging a small fireball that shot towards the stationary Dark Wizard. As Voldemort watched the ball smashed into his icon and burnt it away, only a few black pixels remained. 'NOW!!!' Stephen shouted…
* * *
'NOW!!!' Wes saw the small speech form into words on the main screen as a simultaneous message popped up on the chat room.
~Lord of the Net~ Purge files…
And as all the online users dumped their files, Wes clicked on the scar.
* * *
Harry saw the scar button push into itself, heard Voldemort's scream of anguish, then felt a familiar tug behind his navel, looking around he saw Sirius, Steve, Dumbledore and Arabella extend as the Portkey effect took place again.
* * *
Wes fell over backwards as the main screen ejected a person at high speed, he landed with a thump as Harry untangled his robes, hearing four more thumps throughout the room. Lifting his cape he saw Dumbledore dusting off his coat while the rest of the group were collapsed on the floor. 'Oi,' a loud voice interrupted his thoughts, 'get off me!' and Harry stood to reveal a red-faced Wes massaging his stomach where Harry had hit him. Rising up he joined Stephen at the second computer where the other seven online were still waiting for news.
–=Netsurfer77=– Wow!
(Serene) Did you see that?
Sir Wesley Weston I felt that!
~Lord of the Net~ Me too…
* beth * Hey, check out the screen feed.
{Voltora} I can't read that writing.
^Bandy^ Too small.
+ Giesbrecht + Check it out you guys…
[Lunar Bard] I know what that is…
Stephen left the second screen and moved over to the first, on it were words:
PROGRAM ENDED: ONE KILOBYTE OF FILE REMAINING. RUN, ABORT OR DELETE?
He looked round and saw the wizards and witch gathered behind him, the cursor on the screen was flashing patiently… 'Delete.' Harry said the word quietly and without any emotion in his voice. Stephen entered the keyword and turned round again, his finger over the 'return' key, he looked to Dumbledore and was given a small, slow nod. Facing the screen again he pressed down on the key…
DELETING PROGRAM FROM MEMORY
The computer beeped and an image appeared on screen, it was Voldemort and Stephen jerked away from the screen. The Dark Wizard was trapped inside and Harry noticed him thumping on the screen in vain as the images around him began to fade away, then shrink, eventually only Voldemort's face remained and with it he glared a look of hate at the two boys. Then with a small pop he faded to a white dot then cleared from the screen.
PROGRAM DELETED
Wes turned away and typed a last message into the webchat:
~SWW and LOTN~ Program ended…thanks to all…signing off…catch you later.
Clicking disconnect on the forum he shut down the computer, together with his friends he'd brought back Stephen and Harry from a virtual world, and defeated some previously unknown evil. 'So what now?' he asked, his voice seeming very loud in the silence that had engulfed the room.
'Now?' Dumbledore replied, 'now we can all go back to our normal lives, forever.' With this he disapparated from the room, leaving Sirius with Harry as Arabella moved to the door.
'Well, I guess I'll see you at Hogwarts soon,' Sirius told his godson, 'normal life for me is still a fugitive from the law.'
'But He's gone.' Harry replied morosely.
'Yeah,' Sirius said, Stephen could have sworn there was some doubt in his voice, 'but as long as Pettigrew is out there and free I still can't be proven innocent, even with Dumbledore's testimony.'
'But–'
'No buts,' he cut in evenly, 'I'll see you soon.' And with that Sirius strolled from the room before Harry could object.
'See you around Harry,' Arabella said and then took her leave from the room, leaving the three boys alone with the humming of the PCs.
'Well…' Harry said to Stephen, 'thanks…I guess I'll go now…thanks for letting me use you computer.'
'Um…yeah…anytime.' Stephen replied equally uneasily.
'Thanks for your help as well…' Harry said to Wes.
'Wes,' he finished for him, 'it was…fun.'
'Say,' Stephen said as Harry shifted towards the door, 'you wanna get a drink or something, I'm…er, not really ready to go back on the net.'
'Me too,' said Wes, 'I think a drink would go down well.'
'Sure,' said Harry, and before he could stop it a smile appeared on his face, 'I could use a break…' with this Stephen switched off the computer screens and the three boys left the humming room, trouping down to the kitchen. With a pop! Hedwig reappeared in the room, hooting indignantly at the lack of reception she flew out the window and headed for the Dursleys's house. As the window squeaked shut a beep sounded in the room, and with the screen flickering the main PC hummed to life again, after a few seconds a blinking message appeared on the screen:
BACK UP PROGRAM NOW IN OPERATION: RUN, ABORT OR DELETE?
R-U-N
All by itself the keyboard's 'enter' key pulled itself down.
RESTORE MEMORY OR CREATE NEW?
R-E-S-T-O-R-E
Again the 'enter' key was pulled down, and the screen went from black to a mottled brown. In his cave Voldemort laughed as he conjured the Dark Mark icon again, then paused seemingly looking out into the room. An enjoyable game Harry Potter, but as I said, this is far from over… dismissing thoughts of revenge and future plans, he touched the icon and disappeared from the room and the cave became a black screen again.
BACK UP PROGRAM COMPLETE: RUN, ABORT OR DELETE?
D-E-L-E-T-E
PURGING OF FILES BEGINNING………COMPLETE. ALL BACK UP FILES NOW DELETED
With a small hum the computer shut down, and the attic room returned to its normal state once more…
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A/N: And so it ends…but as Voldemort said, it's far from over. Will Lord of the Net and Co return? Only I have the answer and so far it's: I don't know. Thanks to all my featured reviewers for continuing to love the story and I hope the ending was satisfactory, please review as always. Yoda.