I screwed up again. I am going to contradict myself in this chapter, I
mention stuff about 'the last war.' In the last chapter, I said the war was
not ending, but starting. Please ignore that little mix up. Thank you.
And please, don't say anything about the stupid speeches Harry keeps giving. Its completely out of character, he is not a good talker, but I felt like writing sappy and stupid speeches. They're fun, even if they are clichéd, damn it! p.s. this is where it becomes pg thirteen for violence, though not really. Just a reminder. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After watching the first group (that went in with one hundred)return with only seventy people, Harry began to get nervous. That is, until the group leader announced that they had taken out at lest eighty Death Eaters, and they only had a few hundred in the building.
The bad news in that was that they now knew that they were being attacked, and they could call in all their reinforcements who were not in the building. They were expected to have at least a thousand supporters, if not actual Death Eaters, by the end of the battle. Hopefully, the people who had just been 'brainwashed', so to say, would realize that the were on the wrong side and retreat, knowing that Voldemort was going to be brought down.
Almost three hours later, they were ready for Harry to go in. by this time, they had lost almost four hundred people, and had brought down about the same number of Death Eaters. They needed to bring up the numbers.
Harry stood at the apparition point, his palms sweating, gripping his broom tightly, already half wearing his invisibility cloak, his gun and sword strapped to his belt.
"Harry!" Lupin came running over to him, bloody from trying to help injured people. "Are you ready? Because you're going now!"
Harry nodded, and disappeared under his cloak. He quickly apparated, and as soon as he was in the room, took flight.
Harry found himself at the back of a large crowd. Green lights were flashing everywhere, hitting, blending with, or destroying red or blue flashes. Lupin must have realized they needed bigger groups, because they started coming in groups of at least two hundred. Soon, after they came in the larger groups, almost all of the Death Eaters were killed. There were bodies littered everywhere.
Harry watched Voldemort the entire time. He was killing at least ten people at a time, sending huge shockwaves of magic around him. The only person sending more magic out at one time was Dumbledore, who was sending balls of light at Death Eaters, temporarily blinding them, and then letting the less experienced fighters kill them. Harry pried himself away from Dumbledore and started looking for Voldemort again.
What Harry didn't notice, though, was that there were only about ten Death Eaters left among the bodies. They had formed a small circle, facing outward, trying to hold off the masses.
"I am not going to kill you." Dumbledore's voice rang out, as he stepped in front of the group. He put them all in full body binds, took their wands, and snapped them in half. "Harry!" He called. "I cannot help you anymore! Voldemort is not in here any more!" He sighed and lowered his voice to almost a whisper. "But neither are you."
* * * * *
Harry followed Voldemort into a large room. He recognized it as the entrance room to the Department of Mysteries.
"I know you are there, Potter." Voldemort said calmly. "You cannot hide from me."
Harry knew he was lying. He was facing Harry, but looking to the other side of the room, his eyes flickering around, trying to spot him.
Harry stayed in the air. Voldemort suddenly spun around and threw a knife at exactly where Harry was flying. Even with Harry's Quiddich reflexes, he could only move partly out of the way. The knife hit him in the left shoulder and sank deeply in. the cloak fell off partially, exposing Harry's head and torso.
With Voldemort's eyes on him, he wrapped his right hand around the knife and pulled it out. Still at least ten feet in the air, he slowly let it drop. " I am stronger than you, Voldemort. Did you think I would've come here if I wasn't ready?" Harry yelled, foolishly letting his feelings and the pain take over for a moment. He didn' even know what he was saying, he just let the words pour out. "I've learned from my mistakes. And yours. You remember that wonderful prophecy? Well, it wouldn't have come true if you'd bothered to hear the entire thing. It only came true because you decided to come and destroy me. I've learned from that. Don't do things before you're ready."
Voldemort smiled, making Harry's face turn red with anger. "Today, Tom Riddle, is the day your second war ends. And there will be no third."
He unsheathed his sword the sword of Gryffindor, and as he was soaring down slowly, watching Voldemort's every move as he did it, anticipating his every thought.
"There will be a third war," Voldemort said quietly, obviously desperately trying to stall Harry. "just wait until you get outside."
It almost worked. Harry was about to pull his broom up and ask what that was about, but remembered the first rule of battle: kill first, ask questions later.
He swung the sword, and cut off his head. Voldemort's body fell to the ground, and his head rolled across the room and hit the wall. Harry fell off his broom, with no hands to hold himself on, and threw up.
He was completely terrified. He had just killed someone.
He collapsed on his back, wincing at the pain in his left shoulder. He didn't notice that the body, head, and blood of Tom Riddle had disappeared and been replaced by water. He did notice it when it flowed around him, the cool, comforting feeling making him feel almost happy. The next thing he knew, he was in a very different place than the Department of Mysteries.
* * * * *
Dumbledore opened the door. Voldemort's body lay there, his head on the other side of the room.
He closed his eyes and sighed. Harry was gone.
"Harry was right." He said to the crowd waiting when he returned to the field. "We can never win. It is too late."
A few people gasped. Lupin, who was sitting down, put his head in his hands. Tonks hair turned black, and Molly Weasley started sobbing. Her husband and two eldest sons held her, crying silently as well. Harry had been family to them.
* * * * *
Professor Dumbledore called Ron, Hermione, and Cho to his office. When they arrived, he looked at them silently.
Finally, he spoke. "Harry was successful. But he has disappeared. We cannot locate him. We think he may be truly gone as well. All we found was his rucksack with his cloak in it, and his broom. We have been searching for him for the last week. That is why we are so late returning. I am sorry. Very sorry."
Tears fell from Hermione's eyes, and Ron screwed up his face, trying not to cry. Cho, on the other hand, couldn't even start to cry. She just sat there.
"No. It's not right. It can't be." She couldn't believe it. He'd told her he'd come back. He'd promised.
Cho spent the next week wandering around the castle, looking for signs of Harry, or sitting under the tree by the water, just waiting for him. He never came. Finally, it was time to get over her sadness and study for exams. Cho pushed Harry as far back in her mind as she could, and focused.
A small monument had been made, and was going to be placed under that very tree by the lake. But Dumbledore wouldn't allow them to put it up.
"Just wait a little longer."
* * * * *
Harry woke up from what felt like a long sleep. He looked at his digital watch. June 28, eleven o'clock a.m.
That was impossible. He couldn't have been asleep for four weeks! He looked around him, and noticed he was in a large circular room, draped with beautiful green fabric, exactly the colour of Harry's eyes. He was lying on a huge bed with a magnificent green duvet. He sat up immediately. As soon as he did, the entire room melted away and he found himself sitting on the hard floor, back in the Department of Mysteries.
He took his wand out and conjured up some food, which he ate greedily.
He noticed his rucksack and broom were gone, but the sword of Gryffindor was still sitting beside him. He stood up and sheathed the sword. As he did it, he realized his wound was almost completely healed.
"Maybe I really have been gone for four weeks, and I got medical attention while I was gone. . ." He didn't know where he was going with that thought, so he decided to drop the thought and go home.
All he knew was that he had been in another dimension for a month. He knew this because Voldemort had told him. While his head rolled across the room, a voice came from his parted lips. But it was not his own.
It was a sweet voice, and it told Harry that he would rest until he was ready to emerge into his own world. Evil had been destroyed, and the destroyer was rewarded with rest. And rest he did.
Harry thought about this as he flew towards the castle. (a/n don't forget, animagus!) Finally, after hours of flying, Harry could see the castle. The night sky was lit up by the light pouring from the windows of the castle, and night time melted away.
He was almost home.
* * * * *
The final feast was prepared. The entire room was draped in black, just like it had been for Cedric. If possible, the mood was even more gloomy than it had been for Cedric, mostly because Harry was a hero.
Dumbledore stood up. "I have here the list of every single man or woman who died because of Voldemort. Whether in battle, or just by Voldemort and his supporters, every one of these people needs our attention."
He proceeded to read of a list very quickly. "Nancy Abbott, Charles Adder, Mercy Albright, Sirius Black. . ."
There was a murmur at his name. Only a few students in the room knew what had happened to him, but none of them spoke.
Dumbledore continued. "Lucius Malfoy, Adolph Macarthur. . ."
He read through the rest of the two thousand names. It took almost two hours, but not a student moved.
Finally, he finished. "These are not the people we mourn for." He said, causing a few heads to turn to glance at their neighbours questioningly. "Each and every one of these people got into this themselves, may it be through the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort himself, or the great battle. There are only two we mourn for, one we have already done."
Another murmur. "Harry Potter did not ask to be pulled into the Second War. Nor did he be asked to be pulled into the first. It was determined for him at birth. He joined no one, but he was still hunted."
He paused. "He is gone, so that we may continue. But he is not gone in our hearts, or our memories. To Harry Potter."
The whole school, except for a select group of Slytherins, raised their glasses.
But there was one other who did not. Cho Chang did not rise, did not raise her glass, did not mutter Harry's name quietly. She was listening,
A song; the most beautiful thing she had ever heard. It was very faint, but getting louder. Soon, other student were looking around, trying to find where it was coming from. It became so loud that every student was looking around.
Suddenly, the huge wooden doors to the Great Hall opened, and a great orange bird flew in, no longer singing. It circled around the room, swooping low over the Gryffindor table, and over Cho's head. She didn't flinch. It landed in front of the teachers table.
Dumbledore leaned forward, looking sternly at the Phoenix. Just then, he smiled. "Welcome back, Harry."
Slowly, the Phoenix changed into a boy with messy black hair, glasses, brilliant green eyes, and a scar shaped like a lightening bolt on his forehead.
"Thank you, sir, it's good to be home."
Before anyone got over the shock, Harry unsheathed the sword and placed it on the table in front of Dumbledore.
The entire Gryffindor table exploded with cheering. Harry was swept up in a crowd of people cheering, hugging him, and trying to lift him above them.
Cho sat at the Ravenclaw table, crying. Padma Patil, beside her, gave her a poke and a puzzled look, but turned away before Cho could respond.
"He promised he'd come back." She whispered.
She and many other Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and even a few Slytherins, joined the crowd of Gryffindors in the centre of the room.
Finally, Harry found her. He just hugged her. He didn't let go. "I promised I'd come back."
Cho smiled. "Now you'll never be able to break a promise without breaking my heart."
Harry laughed, and kissed her, before they got pulled apart. "I love you, Cho!" He called through the crowd. Before Cho could answer, he was gone.
She just stood there, grinning.
Finally, the crowd thinned out, and Harry was able to return to the Gryffindor table, where he gave Hermione and Ron hugs.
As in his first year, Harry watched as Dumbledore clapped his hands, and the black melted away, to be replaced with red and gold. "I don't care who has the most points. A Gryffindor just saved th world. That's good enough for me. Now lets eat."
Cho sat with the Gryffindors that night, and stayed beside Harry the whole time.
Harry spent he night laughing with his friends. He'd never been so happy in his life. He never had to think about his scar hurting, or occlumency lessons, or anything. Most importantly, no more Voldemort.
The next morning, they boarded the train. Harry told Cho, Ron, and Hermione what had happened after he left, and when he was done, they talked about how Cho was allowed to do magic now, and their summers would be much better.
They said their goodbyes to Ron and Hermione on the platform, and met Uncle Vernon outside. He must have noticed how confident they both looked, because he didn't say anything other than "Let's go."
Uncle Vernon turned the radio on in the car, and Harry and Cho talked until a certain broadcast came on.
"The leader of the terrorist group 'the Death Eaters,' a man who called himself Lord Voldemort, has been killed, along with all of his supporters."
Harry and Cho spent the rest of the ride home laughing.
The End
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's it. Sorry if you think it's too short, but I will be making a sequel about the next year. I've only just started writing it, and it needs a lot of work, so it will be much slower than the last. I also have the story I wrote before this one, and my Tamora Pierce fic. So, keep reading, and thaks for the wonderful reviews!
By the way, I know this was the cheesiest chapter ever, but please! I wrote this down before bed every night, so I was really tires, and I'm not a very good writer. Please bear with me.
Thanks, and I love you all!
My friend Dennis, his mom was a dwarf, and his dad was a midget. He's the guy who poses for all the trophies.
Heehee! I love it!
-unolimbo, I'm sorry it's over!
And please, don't say anything about the stupid speeches Harry keeps giving. Its completely out of character, he is not a good talker, but I felt like writing sappy and stupid speeches. They're fun, even if they are clichéd, damn it! p.s. this is where it becomes pg thirteen for violence, though not really. Just a reminder. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After watching the first group (that went in with one hundred)return with only seventy people, Harry began to get nervous. That is, until the group leader announced that they had taken out at lest eighty Death Eaters, and they only had a few hundred in the building.
The bad news in that was that they now knew that they were being attacked, and they could call in all their reinforcements who were not in the building. They were expected to have at least a thousand supporters, if not actual Death Eaters, by the end of the battle. Hopefully, the people who had just been 'brainwashed', so to say, would realize that the were on the wrong side and retreat, knowing that Voldemort was going to be brought down.
Almost three hours later, they were ready for Harry to go in. by this time, they had lost almost four hundred people, and had brought down about the same number of Death Eaters. They needed to bring up the numbers.
Harry stood at the apparition point, his palms sweating, gripping his broom tightly, already half wearing his invisibility cloak, his gun and sword strapped to his belt.
"Harry!" Lupin came running over to him, bloody from trying to help injured people. "Are you ready? Because you're going now!"
Harry nodded, and disappeared under his cloak. He quickly apparated, and as soon as he was in the room, took flight.
Harry found himself at the back of a large crowd. Green lights were flashing everywhere, hitting, blending with, or destroying red or blue flashes. Lupin must have realized they needed bigger groups, because they started coming in groups of at least two hundred. Soon, after they came in the larger groups, almost all of the Death Eaters were killed. There were bodies littered everywhere.
Harry watched Voldemort the entire time. He was killing at least ten people at a time, sending huge shockwaves of magic around him. The only person sending more magic out at one time was Dumbledore, who was sending balls of light at Death Eaters, temporarily blinding them, and then letting the less experienced fighters kill them. Harry pried himself away from Dumbledore and started looking for Voldemort again.
What Harry didn't notice, though, was that there were only about ten Death Eaters left among the bodies. They had formed a small circle, facing outward, trying to hold off the masses.
"I am not going to kill you." Dumbledore's voice rang out, as he stepped in front of the group. He put them all in full body binds, took their wands, and snapped them in half. "Harry!" He called. "I cannot help you anymore! Voldemort is not in here any more!" He sighed and lowered his voice to almost a whisper. "But neither are you."
* * * * *
Harry followed Voldemort into a large room. He recognized it as the entrance room to the Department of Mysteries.
"I know you are there, Potter." Voldemort said calmly. "You cannot hide from me."
Harry knew he was lying. He was facing Harry, but looking to the other side of the room, his eyes flickering around, trying to spot him.
Harry stayed in the air. Voldemort suddenly spun around and threw a knife at exactly where Harry was flying. Even with Harry's Quiddich reflexes, he could only move partly out of the way. The knife hit him in the left shoulder and sank deeply in. the cloak fell off partially, exposing Harry's head and torso.
With Voldemort's eyes on him, he wrapped his right hand around the knife and pulled it out. Still at least ten feet in the air, he slowly let it drop. " I am stronger than you, Voldemort. Did you think I would've come here if I wasn't ready?" Harry yelled, foolishly letting his feelings and the pain take over for a moment. He didn' even know what he was saying, he just let the words pour out. "I've learned from my mistakes. And yours. You remember that wonderful prophecy? Well, it wouldn't have come true if you'd bothered to hear the entire thing. It only came true because you decided to come and destroy me. I've learned from that. Don't do things before you're ready."
Voldemort smiled, making Harry's face turn red with anger. "Today, Tom Riddle, is the day your second war ends. And there will be no third."
He unsheathed his sword the sword of Gryffindor, and as he was soaring down slowly, watching Voldemort's every move as he did it, anticipating his every thought.
"There will be a third war," Voldemort said quietly, obviously desperately trying to stall Harry. "just wait until you get outside."
It almost worked. Harry was about to pull his broom up and ask what that was about, but remembered the first rule of battle: kill first, ask questions later.
He swung the sword, and cut off his head. Voldemort's body fell to the ground, and his head rolled across the room and hit the wall. Harry fell off his broom, with no hands to hold himself on, and threw up.
He was completely terrified. He had just killed someone.
He collapsed on his back, wincing at the pain in his left shoulder. He didn't notice that the body, head, and blood of Tom Riddle had disappeared and been replaced by water. He did notice it when it flowed around him, the cool, comforting feeling making him feel almost happy. The next thing he knew, he was in a very different place than the Department of Mysteries.
* * * * *
Dumbledore opened the door. Voldemort's body lay there, his head on the other side of the room.
He closed his eyes and sighed. Harry was gone.
"Harry was right." He said to the crowd waiting when he returned to the field. "We can never win. It is too late."
A few people gasped. Lupin, who was sitting down, put his head in his hands. Tonks hair turned black, and Molly Weasley started sobbing. Her husband and two eldest sons held her, crying silently as well. Harry had been family to them.
* * * * *
Professor Dumbledore called Ron, Hermione, and Cho to his office. When they arrived, he looked at them silently.
Finally, he spoke. "Harry was successful. But he has disappeared. We cannot locate him. We think he may be truly gone as well. All we found was his rucksack with his cloak in it, and his broom. We have been searching for him for the last week. That is why we are so late returning. I am sorry. Very sorry."
Tears fell from Hermione's eyes, and Ron screwed up his face, trying not to cry. Cho, on the other hand, couldn't even start to cry. She just sat there.
"No. It's not right. It can't be." She couldn't believe it. He'd told her he'd come back. He'd promised.
Cho spent the next week wandering around the castle, looking for signs of Harry, or sitting under the tree by the water, just waiting for him. He never came. Finally, it was time to get over her sadness and study for exams. Cho pushed Harry as far back in her mind as she could, and focused.
A small monument had been made, and was going to be placed under that very tree by the lake. But Dumbledore wouldn't allow them to put it up.
"Just wait a little longer."
* * * * *
Harry woke up from what felt like a long sleep. He looked at his digital watch. June 28, eleven o'clock a.m.
That was impossible. He couldn't have been asleep for four weeks! He looked around him, and noticed he was in a large circular room, draped with beautiful green fabric, exactly the colour of Harry's eyes. He was lying on a huge bed with a magnificent green duvet. He sat up immediately. As soon as he did, the entire room melted away and he found himself sitting on the hard floor, back in the Department of Mysteries.
He took his wand out and conjured up some food, which he ate greedily.
He noticed his rucksack and broom were gone, but the sword of Gryffindor was still sitting beside him. He stood up and sheathed the sword. As he did it, he realized his wound was almost completely healed.
"Maybe I really have been gone for four weeks, and I got medical attention while I was gone. . ." He didn't know where he was going with that thought, so he decided to drop the thought and go home.
All he knew was that he had been in another dimension for a month. He knew this because Voldemort had told him. While his head rolled across the room, a voice came from his parted lips. But it was not his own.
It was a sweet voice, and it told Harry that he would rest until he was ready to emerge into his own world. Evil had been destroyed, and the destroyer was rewarded with rest. And rest he did.
Harry thought about this as he flew towards the castle. (a/n don't forget, animagus!) Finally, after hours of flying, Harry could see the castle. The night sky was lit up by the light pouring from the windows of the castle, and night time melted away.
He was almost home.
* * * * *
The final feast was prepared. The entire room was draped in black, just like it had been for Cedric. If possible, the mood was even more gloomy than it had been for Cedric, mostly because Harry was a hero.
Dumbledore stood up. "I have here the list of every single man or woman who died because of Voldemort. Whether in battle, or just by Voldemort and his supporters, every one of these people needs our attention."
He proceeded to read of a list very quickly. "Nancy Abbott, Charles Adder, Mercy Albright, Sirius Black. . ."
There was a murmur at his name. Only a few students in the room knew what had happened to him, but none of them spoke.
Dumbledore continued. "Lucius Malfoy, Adolph Macarthur. . ."
He read through the rest of the two thousand names. It took almost two hours, but not a student moved.
Finally, he finished. "These are not the people we mourn for." He said, causing a few heads to turn to glance at their neighbours questioningly. "Each and every one of these people got into this themselves, may it be through the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort himself, or the great battle. There are only two we mourn for, one we have already done."
Another murmur. "Harry Potter did not ask to be pulled into the Second War. Nor did he be asked to be pulled into the first. It was determined for him at birth. He joined no one, but he was still hunted."
He paused. "He is gone, so that we may continue. But he is not gone in our hearts, or our memories. To Harry Potter."
The whole school, except for a select group of Slytherins, raised their glasses.
But there was one other who did not. Cho Chang did not rise, did not raise her glass, did not mutter Harry's name quietly. She was listening,
A song; the most beautiful thing she had ever heard. It was very faint, but getting louder. Soon, other student were looking around, trying to find where it was coming from. It became so loud that every student was looking around.
Suddenly, the huge wooden doors to the Great Hall opened, and a great orange bird flew in, no longer singing. It circled around the room, swooping low over the Gryffindor table, and over Cho's head. She didn't flinch. It landed in front of the teachers table.
Dumbledore leaned forward, looking sternly at the Phoenix. Just then, he smiled. "Welcome back, Harry."
Slowly, the Phoenix changed into a boy with messy black hair, glasses, brilliant green eyes, and a scar shaped like a lightening bolt on his forehead.
"Thank you, sir, it's good to be home."
Before anyone got over the shock, Harry unsheathed the sword and placed it on the table in front of Dumbledore.
The entire Gryffindor table exploded with cheering. Harry was swept up in a crowd of people cheering, hugging him, and trying to lift him above them.
Cho sat at the Ravenclaw table, crying. Padma Patil, beside her, gave her a poke and a puzzled look, but turned away before Cho could respond.
"He promised he'd come back." She whispered.
She and many other Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and even a few Slytherins, joined the crowd of Gryffindors in the centre of the room.
Finally, Harry found her. He just hugged her. He didn't let go. "I promised I'd come back."
Cho smiled. "Now you'll never be able to break a promise without breaking my heart."
Harry laughed, and kissed her, before they got pulled apart. "I love you, Cho!" He called through the crowd. Before Cho could answer, he was gone.
She just stood there, grinning.
Finally, the crowd thinned out, and Harry was able to return to the Gryffindor table, where he gave Hermione and Ron hugs.
As in his first year, Harry watched as Dumbledore clapped his hands, and the black melted away, to be replaced with red and gold. "I don't care who has the most points. A Gryffindor just saved th world. That's good enough for me. Now lets eat."
Cho sat with the Gryffindors that night, and stayed beside Harry the whole time.
Harry spent he night laughing with his friends. He'd never been so happy in his life. He never had to think about his scar hurting, or occlumency lessons, or anything. Most importantly, no more Voldemort.
The next morning, they boarded the train. Harry told Cho, Ron, and Hermione what had happened after he left, and when he was done, they talked about how Cho was allowed to do magic now, and their summers would be much better.
They said their goodbyes to Ron and Hermione on the platform, and met Uncle Vernon outside. He must have noticed how confident they both looked, because he didn't say anything other than "Let's go."
Uncle Vernon turned the radio on in the car, and Harry and Cho talked until a certain broadcast came on.
"The leader of the terrorist group 'the Death Eaters,' a man who called himself Lord Voldemort, has been killed, along with all of his supporters."
Harry and Cho spent the rest of the ride home laughing.
The End
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's it. Sorry if you think it's too short, but I will be making a sequel about the next year. I've only just started writing it, and it needs a lot of work, so it will be much slower than the last. I also have the story I wrote before this one, and my Tamora Pierce fic. So, keep reading, and thaks for the wonderful reviews!
By the way, I know this was the cheesiest chapter ever, but please! I wrote this down before bed every night, so I was really tires, and I'm not a very good writer. Please bear with me.
Thanks, and I love you all!
My friend Dennis, his mom was a dwarf, and his dad was a midget. He's the guy who poses for all the trophies.
Heehee! I love it!
-unolimbo, I'm sorry it's over!