Chapter 11

The Last Battle

"Come Wormtail, let us leave this Shack. It is time to enter Hogwarts," Voldemort said as he strolled past A.J.'s body, which lay upon the floor. "We shall just leave Harry Potter and his redheaded freak here. They won't be able to stop us with our plans."

"Yes my Lord," Wormtail squeaked, trembling so much that he nearly tripped over A.J.'s body. Wormtail followed Voldemort out of the Shrieking Shack and into the darkness of the night, heading for the Hogwarts castle.

Once Voldemort and Wormtail were out of sight, A.J. pushed herself into a sitting position, getting her head off the cold and dusty floorboards. She slowly started rubbing the back of her head, where she had hit the floor.

'God, how long have I been like this?' she thought. "Harry? Ron?" she called into the darkened shack.

"I'm here," Harry said groggily, struggling to pull himself free from under a table. "Not all too sure where Ron went, we got separated…" Harry's eyes suddenly widened, showing all of his fear. Not ten feet away from him was Ron.

Ron was lying on the floorboards. He was in a spread eagle position, and his face was a ghostly white. Ron's mouth was open as though he was screaming in terror.

A.J. starred at Ron, unable to find her voice. "Gosh…I must have passed out, and Ron must have been standing behind me or something…"

Harry didn't reply, for he didn't know what to say.

"Harry, we've got to get out of here before Voldemort gets to Hogwarts!" A.J. yelled.

"W-what about Ron?"

A.J. grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him out of the Shrieking Shack. "Harry, he's dead, and we've got to get back to the castle before more students are killed!" she screamed as they took off running at top speed towards the Hogwarts Castle.

*~*~*~*~*~*

"Dumbledore!" A.J. cried as she was storming into his office. It had taken a quite a while to figure out the password, but after yelling every single candy name she could possibly think of, A.J. had finally been allowed it.

"A.J.! Whatever is the matter?" Dumbledore asked, surprised to see her.

"Voldemort," she said panting, "is planning to attack the school!"

"Calm down, calm down."

"I AM calm!!" She yelled, but sat into on of the chairs, and started taking deep breathes. "He plans to attack the school.."

Dumbledore looked her into the eyes. "Do you have any idea when he will be attacking?"

A.J. stared into her lap, gulping and looked up to Dumbledore. "Tonight, I'm pretty sure of it."

Dumbledore was just about to respond as a huge explosion rocked the school. A.J. and Dumbledore were both thrown clear across the room, smashing into the wall. As they ducked down, trying to protect their necks and heads, pieces of wall and ceiling started raining down on them.

"What's going on?" A.J. yelled to Dumbledore, desperately trying to be heard over the roar of the school collapsing.

"Voldemort has attacked the school!" Dumbledore yelled back as loud as he could. Still, A.J. had to strain to here him. "He's just showing us how much power he has!!"

Then suddenly, without warning, the floor beneath them gave way, and A.J. and Dumbledore felt themselves falling down into the heart of the castle. They could hear the terrified screams from the students and teachers, and in fact, were screaming themselves.

'Oh god, what's happening?' A.J. thought, unable to believe that Hogwarts was really falling down. She closed her eyes and smashed onto the concrete, where the castle had once stood. A.J. opened her eyes and the site nearly made her pass out.

The entire castle was gone; it was just a pile of rubble and brick lying around. Around her, she could here people screaming in pain and pure terror. She tried standing up, to help everyone, but toppled over. 'Geeze, that fall must have really gotten to me. Wait a second…where's Dumbledore?' She thought, suddenly becoming extremely worried.

Using the few pieces of the Hogwarts Castle, which still were standing, she managed to pull herself up, and the site that met her was astonishing. Voldemort and Dumbledore were standing face-to-face, wands ready. A.J., who didn't want to get involved in the battle, quickly sprinted away to go and help those who were injured, or worse, dead.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Voldemort and Dumbledore stood ajar from each other, their eyes full of hatred and everything else. There was an eerie silence, the clouds overhead, swirling with evil, and either one of the wizards was ready to pull a spell within a moments notice. But instead, they started to circle each other, spitting out harsh words.

"Soooooo, Dumbledore, you finally found the guts to face to me," Voldemort cackled, poking Dumbledore in the stomach with his wand.

"No, I just never had a need to face you again," Dumbledore said, refusing to be pulled into Voldemort's deadly trap.

"You were always the chicken, even your parents said so," Voldemort said grinning broadly. "Face it Albus, you can't hide away from who you really are, BROTHER."

Dumbledore's grip on his wand was so tight that he knuckles had turned white. "I refuse to call you my brother," he said, without flinching a muscle.

Voldemort laughed evilly. "You know I'm your brother, and there is absolutely NOTHING you can do about the fact."

Dumbledore stopped dead in his tracks and stared Voldemort into the eyes. ""Blood is not what makes the brother, love is, something you will never understand."

"Oh, I would be too sure about that one, brother."

"Quit calling me brother!" Dumbledore roared, losing control of his temper for the first time in his life. He pushed his wand into Voldemort's chest. "Have any last words, brother?" he demanded.

*~*~*~*~*~*

"Harry?" A.J. called out, searching for the lost students, who were buried under the rubble. It was quite hard to walk, seeing the fact that she didn't want to step onto any of the students.

"Over here!" Harry called back, waving his arms into the air. He was standing over Parvati Patil's body.

A.J. quickly ran over to Harry, trying to avoid the pieces of debris. "How many dead students have you found?" she asked, her voice filled with sadness.

Harry bit his bottom lip. "You don't want to know."

"Yes, I do."

Harry sighed. "Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you."

A.J. nodded her head quickly.

"Fifty five students so far, but we keep finding more," he replied, brushing a tear off the side of his cheek.

"Oh my God…anybody we know?" A.J. asked, her lower lip trembling.

"Well, most of them were Slytherins because they are almost as high as the Gryffindor Tower. We Gryffindors were all in the Great Hall, so everything kind of fell onto us," Harry said, showing her all of his cuts and scraps.

A.J. nodded and started to pick up the pieces of brick, searching for the rest of the missing students.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Voldemort smiled. "You're learning quickly, brother. Going to kill me, eh?"

Dumbledore didn't say anything, but stared Voldemort in the eyes.

"Well, you can't kill me if I kill you first, now can you?" Voldemort asked, his wand pointed at Dumbledore.

"Avada Kedavra!" Dumbledore and Voldemort roared at the same time. There was a brilliant flash of green light as screams of terror arose around the Hogwarts grounds.

A.J. and many of the other students who weren't wounded went running over to the scene of the crime. The sight that met her eyes was astonishing.

Both Dumbledore and Voldemort lay on the ground, dead. The two greatest wizards in history had finally killed each other.

"A.J., come on, we better go and recover the rest of the bodies," Harry said, tapping her gently on the shoulder.

A.J. spun around to find Harry and Ron standing behind her. "Ron? But…I thought you were dead!" she finally gasped.

Harry looked at A.J. "I thought he was dead, too."

Ron smirked. "Well, I fell out of the place where I was hiding. I thought I was dead for sure, but You-Know-Who was paying more attention to A.J." he said, jerking his thumb towards her. "I had to play possum so that he wouldn't try to kill me, too."

"But why didn't you get up after Voldemort had left?" A.J. asked suspiciously.

Ron shrugged his shoulders. "Guess I wasn't paying too much attention."

A.J. nodded and said, "Well, I guess we better go and start rescuing our friends…"

*~*~*~*~*~*

"Angelina Jadene Solo, you are brought in front of the court today for charges of murder, using Avada Kedavra. Cho Chang has also been brought to the attention of the court for murdering three students in cold blood," Cornelius Fudge said, addressing the courthouse.

It had taken several days to recover all of the bodies, and many of them were badly mangled. The death toll of the students was around sixty but just about everyone who survived had been badly injured. They had been rushed to the nearest wizard hospital for immediate help. Rebuilding the castle had started right away, for there would be school next year.

"Cho Chang, do you have anything to say in defense of yourself?" Fudge asked Cho, waiting for a reply.

Cho glared at him, but said, "I have nothing to say."

"Fine, the punishment for Cho Chang, who turned 17 four months ago, making her of age to go to Azkaban, will have a life sentence in Azkaban for killing three innocent people. If the court has something to say about this, please do so now," Fudge gravely said, but not a soul moved and dared to speak.

The court room was so quite, that even the smallest noise seemed to be ten times louder; from the sound of a person sneezing to a pin dropping on the floor. The floor was bare and cold, just like the rest of the room. It expressed everybody's fears for being in the same room as two murderers.

"Angelina Jadene Solo, who is just of age as of yesterday, has not only killed Draco Malfoy, but she was connected to Lord Voldemort. But, she also warned the school about his plans to attack. Her punishment shall be a lifetime in Azkaban. Guards, take them away!" Fudge roared as two huge guards went lumbering towards A.J. and Cho, getting ready to take them to Azkaban where they would spend the next few years of their lives suffering for their crimes.

*~*~*~*~*~*