Birthday Surprises Chapter 74

Usual disclaimer:  Not mine, don't sue.  Please.  Wish it were mine though.  Ah, if only…  Lolly, xxx.

I know. I know.  I'm sorry – this is getting a bit repetitive, ain't it?   Ok, seeing as how you all love me enough to review (I have over 2000 reviews!  Woo hoo!  And seeing as how I know you all hate cliffies (sorry, I couldn't resist), I have decided to post 2 chapters, effectively nullifying the cliffie.  Did I mention that I'm in a good mood?  No idea why – rather scary, really…

*******************************************************************************************

Voldemort snickered as he came across a piece of parchment posted on the notice board - it was for that ridiculous club that the eldest Potter brat had set up - Dumbledore's Army, he had called it.  He tore the notice from the wall, grinning as he saw directions to the room.  These idiots were obviously exceedingly careless, he thought with a feral grin.  Had he been a little less arrogant, he may have decided that it was a little too careless to be entirely accidental.  As it was, he followed the instructions and came to a small, nondescript door.  Raising a hand, he knocked politely.

***

The knock seemed to reverberate around the room.  Inside, Harry pulled on his invisibility cloak, and murmured something under his breath.  Ginny gulped and nodded resolutely.  Anyone that hadn't known her as well as Harry did would have missed the tremor as she lifted her hand to the door, but he caught it and felt his resolve stiffen.  He was going to kill Voldemort if it was the last thing he did.  He blocked off his mind as Ginny opened the door, and Voldemort strolled in. 

"Virginia Weasley.  My, my, you have grown into quite the young lady."  He said, his eyes travelling up and down her body.  Harry felt his eyes narrow and his anger go through boiling point.  He was ready to strangle Voldemort there and then. 

"Tom.  God, you look rough.  Not been sleeping well?"  Ginny retorted.

"How dare you, you little bitch.  I am Lord Voldemort.  Your Tom Riddle doesn't exist."

"Really?  Hmm - I could have sworn that your mother named you Tom Marvollo Riddle."  Ginny hissed angrily.

"What you believe is unimportant.  Accio invisibility cloak."  The cloak flew towards him, and Harry raised his wand, ready to strike when Voldemort saw him.  The only thing was that he was still invisible.  Ginny's eyebrows had all but disappeared into her hair, but Voldemort didn't seem to notice, and seemed satisfied that they were alone.  

"So, what brings you here, Tom?"

"Voldemort!  My name is Voldemort!"

"We've been through this already."  Ginny replied sounding bored, as she lifted a hand to examine her nails. 

"Just hand the little brats over and I might consider letting you live."  Once again, Voldemort's eyes raked over Ginny's body, and she barely repressed a shudder.

"And why, Tom, would I want to do that?"

"Because you, unlike Lily Potter, are not stupid.  I know that.  You forget - I know you as well as you know yourself.  Every secret.  'The sorting hat nearly put me into Slytherin, Tom, what would Harry think?'"  Ginny gritted her teeth, feeling a surge of hatred for this...thing that threatened her everything.

"You underestimate me Tom, and more importantly, you underestimate Harry."

"Oh, you think I will fall for that sacrifice spell twice?  Not so, my dear."

"Who said anything about a sacrifice spell?"  Ginny asked innocently.  "Besides, if you knew me at all, you would know that my family is the most important thing to me."

"Oh I do, my dear Virginia, I do.  Which is why you will live to see your children die, and then their uncles, grandparents.  But before that, you will tell me where Potter is hiding.  He is no longer in Hogsmeade - I know it."

"Why do you think I'd know anything?"

"Because you, little whore, have the boy wrapped around your little finger.  Or rather, your link to his children has.  Do you seriously think he would consider you otherwise?"  Voldemort laughed cruelly as Ginny tried to block his words out, telling herself that Harry wouldn't do that - Harry wasn't that cruel.  Meanwhile, the triplets began to cry and Voldemort's eyes lit up.

"Go and see your precious children, Virginia.  If, indeed, they are yours."

"What?"  Ginny spluttered.

"You heard.  Do you have any proof - other than Potter's word - that you're their mother?"  Ginny paused for a second.

"He doesn't know about the spell."  Harry murmured in her ear.  Ginny shivered.

"I believe Harry.  Besides, it really is none of your business.  I would like you to leave now, Tom."

"Oh, but Virginia, I haven't gotten what I came for yet - you should know that I never leave until I get my way."

"In that case, he'll never be leaving here, will he?"  Harry muttered dryly.

"You'll be waiting a long time, in that case, Tom."  Ginny stepped closer towards her children, placing her body between the cot and Voldemort.

"Very well, if that's how you want to play the game."  Voldemort smirked.  "Crucio!"  The curse headed straight for Ginny - this hadn't been part of the job description, she thought wildly, closing her eyes and waiting for the curse to impact.  Instead, the curse hit her lump of Rose Quartz, making the necklace glow hot and a deep crack to appear through the middle.  Falling as though the curse had hit her, Ginny snatched the Portkey that had been conveniently placed within reach.  She promptly disappeared.

"So much for the fabled Gryffindor bravery."  Voldemort smirked, striding over to where the triplets were now wailing.  Unnoticed behind him, Harry reappeared, silently sealing the room completely.  Every ward placed on the room both by himself and others kicked in, with the exception of the alarm system - it was useless trying to gain the upper hand when you practically hand your enemy the chance to draw his wand by setting off an alarm.  Voldemort picked up Leah in one large, spidery hand, and Harry grimaced. 

"Such a pity - your mother and father have abandoned you.  Such a pretty little thing.  A little too much like your father though."  Voldemort paused for a moment before smirking.  "Potter's daughter - you will be spared."  He said, smirking.  "Your father would like that, I'm sure, his only daughter becoming the daughter of his worst enemy.  As for your brothers, they are too much of a threat.  They must be disposed of."  He lifted his wand, shouting the forbidden curse - "Avada Kedavra."  Suddenly, all three babies gurgled and their heads…fell off?  "DOLLS!"  Voldemort screeched in fury. 

"Indeed.  You didn't seriously think I'd fall for this plan, did you?"  Harry said, from behind Voldemort.  The dark wizard spun around, momentarily speechless with rage.

"Perhaps not, but you forget, there are hundreds of innocent children out there  - and some not so innocent - whom you feel duty-bound to protect."

"Perhaps."  Harry smiled.  "But I very much doubt that much harm can come to them at this point."

"And why would that be?"

"Well, no one, living or dead can enter or leave this room unless I let down the wards."

"Fool - you believe that your wards are strong enough to stop Lord Voldemort?"

"Actually, yes, I do." 

"Then I shall have to prove you wrong - and a few of your charming, innocent friends will pay for your blunder."

"Idle threats, Tom.  Give it your best shot."  Voldemort smirked dangerously, murmuring a spell beneath his breath.  Suddenly he was gone, and an ugly black mist hung heavily in the air. 

"Intriguing, really, but not going to work."   The mist spread around the door, trying to penetrate.  It was reflected into the opposite wall, where it fell to the floor with a crash as it morphed back into the recognisable form of Voldemort - an extremely pissed off Voldemort. 

"Not being one to say I told you so, but I did."  Harry said.  Voldemort raised his wand angrily and screamed the cruciatus curse at the top of his breath.  Harry braced himself as his body crystallised and shattered, re-emerging a short distance away.  Harry doubted that Voldemort had ever been so shocked in his entire life. 

"Impossible.  There are no elementals.  They died out."

"Apparently not."  Harry grinned.  Voldemort went purple with rage, his scarlet eyes narrowed as he weighed up the situation.

"Join me.  Together we could rule the world.  No one would be able to defeat us."

"And just how long do you think we would survive each other?"  Harry smirked. 

"I am a symbol of your weakness, I have damaged your pride too much and you...well, you killed my parents, tried to kill me numerous times, tried to kill my two sons, tried to take my daughter as your own, tried to kill my girlfriend, tried to poison her against me.  Not forgetting the fact that my Godfather is dead because of you, and Cedric - need I go on?"

"We could put all of that behind us - start again.  Your children could be great - you and Virginia could be great."  Voldemort obviously thought that the smile on Harry's face was a sign of his acquiescence.  Harry, however, still held to the knowledge that he and Voldemort could not work together - it was one or the other.  More importantly, he would rather die than join Voldemort. 

"Close, but no cigar, Tommie boy."  Harry said.

"You WILL serve me!"  Voldemort screeched, immediately noticing his slip-up.

"Serve you?  I think not."

"You WILL serve me!  Or I will kill everyone you hold dear!  Starting with those worthless little runts of yours!"  Voldemort had unwittingly said the one thing that was guaranteed to get Harry to see red.  Without a second thought, Harry conjured a wicked looking sword made from gold and encrusted with quartz and garnet and held it to Voldemort's throat.

"A sword cannot kill me, you fool.  I am on the brink of immortality."

"It's a good job that this is no mere sword then, isn't it?"  Voldemort glanced around the room, suddenly noticing something that Harry had missed.   Harry's emerald eyes widened as Dobby flew into Voldemort's hands.

"Your wards have a weakness, Potter.  This disgusting creature managed to get through - get that sword away from me or I'll kill him."  Harry grudgingly took the sword away, looking at Dobby's quivering form.

"Why did you come, Dobby?"  He asked softly.

"Dobby is wanting to help, Master Harry."  Dobby whimpered.  Harry sighed quietly. 

"And how long have you been here?" 

"Since Miss Wheezy brought the children down."

"Before the wards went up?"  Harry asked.

"Yes, Master Harry.  No living or dead being can breach Master Harry Potter Sir's wards."    Voldemort growled at the small pitiful creature that he still grasped.  Potter's house-elf.  At the moment, his only weapon.  He hated feeling weak.

"Put him down, Tom.  Or it is I who will drive this sword through your chest."

"Ah, ah, ah.  Temper, temper, Potter.  You are a fool - you wear your heart on your sleeve and are proud to be so utterly transparent.  Elementals have weaknesses, Potter, and unluckily for you, I know exactly how to exploit those weaknesses."  Harry thought quickly - his weakness as an earth elemental was water. Smirking widely, Voldemort flooded the room with water.  'Just perfect', Harry thought sarcastically, building a delicate crystal cage.  Voldemort and Dobby had cast bubblehead charms on themselves, but Harry knew that prolonged exposure to so much water would weaken his magic.  The cage, while it kept the water out, had one minor disadvantage: sooner or later, he'd run out of air.  Meanwhile, however, he had a chance to rest and plan his next move.  Voldemort had the same chance, but Harry hoped that he was too arrogant to take it.  Harry quickly looked at his options - he was in a crystal cage, which was surrounded by water.  Both his enemy and his friend were in the water, ruling out doing anything that would prove harmful.  Thinking quickly, he ran through every type of elemental magic that he could think of. 

"Harry?"  Harry spun around, hearing the headmaster's voice.

"Grandad."  Harry replied.  "Perfect timing, as per usual."

In the Great Hall, everyone hushed and turned their attention to the crystal screen.

"How are you doing, Harry?"

"I'm in a god-damned cage.  Surrounded by water.  How do you think I'm doing?"  Harry growled.  "I hate cages."  He muttered.

"Why are you in a cage?  Where's Voldemort?" 

"Look."  Harry said, pointing out the water. 

"Oh!  Of course!"  Hermione said.  Harry smirked.

"I might have guessed that you'd know all about Earth elementals." 

"Not all about them - not too much is known about them."

"Which is why I have an advantage, just as soon as I get out of this damn cage."

"Boil the water."  Hermione said logically.

"Can't.  It seems that Dobby was so eager to help that he followed the DA into the Room and stayed here.  He's in the water too."

"Can't you send him away?"  One Ravenclaw asked.

"Not unless I lower my wards, which is too risky.  Right, I have to go.  Herm, if you have any ideas, the link will still be there."

"Right."  Hermione said resolutely.   Everyone began muttering again as Harry disappeared.  Ron was staring at the crystal in dismay.

"And I still don't know what he's done with my sister!"  He said almost hysterically.

"And Remus and I don't know what he's done with our Godchildren - your nephews and niece.  Or had you forgotten that?"  Hermione hissed angrily.

"All four of them are perfectly safe - and no, Ron, I won't tell you what I did with them - not yet."  Harry replied testily, through the link.  "Now can you please shut up?"

"Sorry Harry."  Ron muttered sheepishly.

Harry surveyed his situation once again.  He could venture into the water for a short time without too much of a detrimental effect on his magic, but if Voldemort managed to keep him in the water for longer than a few minutes, he would start to weaken.  As he surveyed, he came up with a plan - but it would mean that he would only have a limited time to carry out his plan, and it wasn't without it's risks.   Deciding that it was a good enough plan, Harry pressed his hands flat against the crystal, concentrating hard.  He heard the dull murmurs of conversation from within the Great Hall and felt his energy return ten-fold.  Adrenaline, he supposed, and he was grateful for it.  He winked slightly at Dobby, hoping that the little elf would trust him.  Slowly, he concentrated on the water around him, energy pulsing through his hands and into the crystal.  The crystal cage, he discovered, was actually a blessing - not only did it act as an insulator, but it also magnified and concentrated his powers.   In a flash, every drop of water in the room had frozen solid.  Several cracks were appearing in it.  Harry kept applying his magic, hoping that the ice would react in the way that he thought it would - sure enough, the ice shattered moments later, leaving one perfect block of ice surrounding Voldemort.  The small shards of ice disappeared as if they had never been there in the first place, and Harry stepped out of the cage.

"Damn that feels good."  He muttered.  Now that he was out of the crystal, the link with the Great Hall was cut - now he would focus on Lord Voldemort.

Dobby, sensing the fact that his 'master' was in a very bad mood, wisely went to stand in a corner, just in case he was needed.  Harry watched as Voldemort worked to free himself from his ice prison - it wouldn't be long now until he broke free, and until then, Harry was preparing himself.   He would have to end this quickly - long duels did not bode well for anyone - at least, not after everything he had dealt with in Hogsmeade.

There was an almighty crash as Voldemort reduced the block of ice to rubble, and came to stand in front of Harry, a self-satisfied smirk crossing his face. 

"Is that all?  This is what the Great Harry Potter has to offer - a few magic tricks and a fairly weak freezing spell?"

"Actually no, but I'm not in the practice of telling my opponents what I'm going to do."  Harry replied, making it sound as if it were a petty duel in Defence or something. 

"Really? And here I was thinking that you were stupid - maybe you're just not...sane."

"Oh, but Tommie boy, I never promised to be sane."  Harry replied with a manic grin that made him look more than a little insane.  Voldemort's smirk faltered, both because of the name and because of Harry's admission - dueling insane people was not his favourite pass-time, mainly because insane people tended to be very hard to predict.

"What's wrong, Tommie boy?  Having second thoughts?"  Harry grinned, goading Voldemort.  He decided that his sanity had gone on holiday - it was rather fun being insane.

The duel began - a furious clashing of curses, swords and words.  Had anyone been watching, they would have been astounded by the spectacle.  Harry and Voldemort were both completely focused - both were more than well aware of what hung on this duel - both knew that one, or possibly both, of them would not be walking away from this.   Voldemort knew that if he lost, he wouldn't achieve the world domination that he had dreamed of since he was a child.  Harry knew that if he lost, he wouldn't see his children grow up - he would leave another generation of Potter's with less than a whole family.  Both wanted this win more than anything.

Harry was tiring - both he and Voldemort knew it.  While Voldemort's plan to keep him in Hogsmeade hadn't quite worked, it had used up some of his energy, leaving him more vulnerable than he would have been under normal circumstances.

"It would be such a pity to kill you, Harry - are you sure you won't reconsider my offer?"

"Never."  Harry spat, breathing hard.  "And never assume that you've won - not until I'm dead."  He said.

"Very well.  Avada Kedavra."  Harry, much to Voldemort and Dobby's shock, didn't even bother to move out of the path of the curse.  The green light plunged into his chest making his green eyes glow eerily.  Voldemort decided that he had just made a very, very big mistake.

"Hmm - why thank you.  You know, the last time you cast that curse on me, you passed some powers on to me and forged a link between us - did you really think that you could kill me that way?"  Voldemort said nothing, just staring in shock and growing anger - why wouldn't this stupid little kid die already?  He always seemed to have one trick or another up his sleeve, and Voldemort was beginning to wonder if his arch-nemesis was actually immortal - now that was a truly disturbing thought, Voldemort decided.

Harry felt renewed energy coursing through his veins - he knew that he would regret it afterwards, but for now, he welcomed it.  He needed it; he needed to be strong and not tired if he was to beat Voldemort once and for all.  He slowly began to wind his magic around the other wizard - subtly so that he wouldn't notice, but strong enough that by the time he was finished, Voldemort would have no chance of escape. He wound some of Voldemort's own energy with the threads of his own power, weaving an intricate web that only he could see. 

Voldemort could feel himself growing weaker, though he didn't know why.  The Potter brat was concentrating on something, but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.  On sudden inspiration, he whipped his wand towards the house-elf. 

'Pick up his sword.'  He instructed maliciously, the house-elf thoroughly ensnared by the Imperius Curse.

'Stab him with it - cause him pain!'    The little elf struggled to hold the sword, but managed to swing it wildly - Voldemort watched as the sword sunk into the back of his enemy, spilling his blood onto the floor.  Unfortunately, Potter didn't seem to notice, as he continued whatever he was doing.  Within a matter of moments, Voldemort was brought to his knees.

Contrary to what Voldemort believed, Harry had felt the sword slicing through his back, and the immense pain that came with it.  However, he also knew that this was his one chance to finish this, and pain was nothing new to him.  He worked through it, ignoring the gaping wound on his back as the web approached completion.  As soon as he was finished, Voldemort fell to his knees, scarlet eyes wide with something akin to terror.  It seemed that he was very much afraid of dying.  The web of power appeared around him, making his wide eyes grow wider.  Fear was something Voldemort was unaccustomed to.  Harry knew exactly what he had to do - he had been planning it for months on end now.  He slowly shrunk the web around Voldemort, slowly extracting his life force.  Voldemort closed his eyes, and Harry was grateful that he didn't scream.  He closed his eyes and continued to kill the monster that had cursed his life and killed his parents.   With one last tug, Voldemort slumped dead - the web caught his life force and shrunk around it.  Harry murmured a spell to purify it before sinking it into the ground - it would help protect Hogwarts forever.  With one last glance at the shrivelled body of Voldemort, he fell to the ground.

**********************************************************************************************************************************************

Oooh!  What's happened to Harry?  You're just gonna have to wait and see – you don't seriously think it'd end there?  I'm mean, but not that mean.

Toodles,

Lolly

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx