He wrenched open the door and walked towards the Great Hall double doors calmly, listening to the great sounds of the incredible conflict still raging in the Hall. The other three hurried to catch up, Ron and Hermione looking scared but determined, and Dean still with an ear-to-ear devil-may-care grin on his face.
They were twenty metres from the broken double doors when they were knocked open roughly by a behemoth. Harry watched it lope out of the Hogwarts main doors pitilessly as he stood still, waiting for others to run away. Sure enough, a procession of troglodytes, several harpies, two centaurs, a few Blood-Sucking Bugbears and many other creatures they could not name exploded out the door in a panic, still running away from curses being let off in the Hall. Harry began walking again. He got to the door of the Great Hall with the others and walked in.
The positions of the corpses of the Hogwarts student body was the same as Harry remembered from the vision, but now there were hundreds of creature corpses and a dozen Death Eater corpses thrown on top of them and all around the floor. Harry could also see Albus Dumbledore's unmoving form hanging upside down over the staff table, and Voldemort standing in front of it with his back to Harry. One Death Eater stirred near them, holding his stump of an arm and groaning quietly. Dean shot him in the face. This attracted the attention of the one other person left alive in the room, the Dark Lord.
"So, Harry." Voldemort called in a malicious hiss. Harry expected him to say something else but he seemed to be lost for words, for the first time Harry had ever seen.
"I read up on history and found out how you did exactly what Windegelt the Worrywart did." Harry supplied. "So I sent some people to kill the most powerful magical creature in the Forbidden Forest to break your spell. As I thought, the creatures instantly killed everyone in the room but you. And now I'm here to fulfil the prophecy; to kill you."
"You lie." Voldemort sensed correctly. "You tell the truth about everything except the prophecy. Your thoughts betray you; I know you know that isn't the real wording."
"Not exactly, no." Harry admitted. "The prophecy basically says that the one with the power to kill you - that is, me - would be born at the end of July, and that one of us would kill each other. And the way I see it, if you do kill me, it makes the whole prophecy a load of pretentious bollocks, so I think I'm destined to kill you, and Trelawney only left some doubt to make it more interesting."
"I disagree. AVADA KEDAVRA!" Voldemort screamed, and some blinding green light bore down on Harry and his friends rapidly. Everyone hurled themselves to the side and the curse missed. Harry cast a Stunner at Voldemort (because it's a quicker spell to articulate than Avada Kedavra) and Dean put a long burst of gunfire at Voldemort, who threw himself off the staff table to the left and ran towards them, ducking down low so he couldn't be hit.
"Split up!" Harry ordered, and everyone scattered in different directions: Hermione went right, Dean went left, Ron went forwards and Harry jumped on top of the left table, standing on a couple of dead Ravenclaws. While getting onto the table Harry yelled, "Avada Kedavra!" with gusto, pointing his wand towards Voldemort with the last syllable. Voldemort rolled underneath the Slytherin house table to avoid the curse and Dean's next volley of bullets. Ron, who was quite close to Voldemort, jumped high in the air when he heard Voldemort saying an incantation, leaping over the curse aimed at his legs, and performed the Reductor curse in midair, smashing the table and bringing down a pile of corpses on top of Voldemort. Voldemort swore loudly and levitated the pile to crawl out of it. Hermione cast the Cruciatus curse from across the room, but Voldemort did some kind of counter-curse which rebounded it entirely onto Hermione, who therefore suffered a full second of it, falling to the ground. At least on the ground Voldemort couldn't see her to curse her, so instead Voldemort rolled out from under the table. Ron shouted, "Petrificus totalus!" but missed him out of haste, and anyway Voldemort managed to perform the counter-curse while still rolling. Harry cast three more 'Avada Kedavras' as Voldemort leapt to his feet but Voldemort was too fast, dodging backwards and to the side and shooting purple flames at Ron at the same time, who dodged them with inhuman speed. Voldemort ran towards Hermione, who was still lying dazed on the floor, to finish her off while she was weakened. Dean leapt onto Harry's table and fired at Voldemort on full- auto, expiring the clip. He still didn't hit Voldemort, because he was ducking and weaving, but both Harry and Dean saw that he managed to rip several holes in Voldemort's robes. Dean swore and reloaded. He didn't even have to dodge a badly-aimed curse by Voldemort, which didn't even interrupt his efficient reloading.
Ron got onto the table, hiding behind a mound of bodies, wand sticking around the corner. Voldemort came into view and pointed his wand at Hermione, but noticed Ron and performed a powerful defensive spell just as Ron shouted, "Stupefy!" The curse rebounded and hit Ron in the face, who toppled backwards off the table, knocked out. Voldemort looked down at Hermione again, but was distracted when Dean squeezed off a few more rounds. Dean jumped off the table and cut a wide berth around Voldemort so he could see Voldemort without getting too close.
Harry leapt onto the table and ducked back just as quickly, avoiding Voldemort's killing curse, and sprung back, shouting, "Avada Kedavra!!" The curse smashed into the floor where Voldemort had been one second before. Harry saw the swish of his cloak as he rolled beneath Harry's table. Right underneath Harry. Dean spied an opening and fired off a load more rounds. Harry heard Voldemort mutter something, and a magical shield appeared between Dean and Voldemort. Harry bellowed, "Avada - "as he jumped off the table towards Hermione, and in midair finished with, "- KEDAVRA!" But again he was cheated, as Voldemort and emerged from the corpse-strewn table on the other side.
Harry hit the floor painfully, glancing at Hermione, who seemed to have retrieved her bearings. He heard Voldemort say with authority, "Accio MP5!" and Dean's cry of annoyance as his weapon was ripped from his grasp. But Voldemort couldn't kill Dean instantly because both hands would be required to catch the weapon, so he couldn't hold his wand out to perform a curse. Harry stood up, livid, just in time to see Dean heroically draw his Desert Eagle even before Voldemort caught the gun and emptied it in Voldemort's direction. Harry heard Voldemort's serpentine snarls as several of the bullets hit him. Harry raised his wand and roared a final, "AVADA KEDAVRA!!!!"
The green light bashed straight into Voldemort, who was distracted by the gunshot wounds sufficiently that he did not dodge the killing curse. He hit the ground like a sack of rotten meat. And then the enchantments which had temporarily given him life, performed almost exactly one year ago, faded away, and so did Voldemort. The cruelty etched on his slack facial features ebbed away, then his skin shrunk and mouldered into dust, leaving nothing but a skeleton inside some dusty robes.
They were twenty metres from the broken double doors when they were knocked open roughly by a behemoth. Harry watched it lope out of the Hogwarts main doors pitilessly as he stood still, waiting for others to run away. Sure enough, a procession of troglodytes, several harpies, two centaurs, a few Blood-Sucking Bugbears and many other creatures they could not name exploded out the door in a panic, still running away from curses being let off in the Hall. Harry began walking again. He got to the door of the Great Hall with the others and walked in.
The positions of the corpses of the Hogwarts student body was the same as Harry remembered from the vision, but now there were hundreds of creature corpses and a dozen Death Eater corpses thrown on top of them and all around the floor. Harry could also see Albus Dumbledore's unmoving form hanging upside down over the staff table, and Voldemort standing in front of it with his back to Harry. One Death Eater stirred near them, holding his stump of an arm and groaning quietly. Dean shot him in the face. This attracted the attention of the one other person left alive in the room, the Dark Lord.
"So, Harry." Voldemort called in a malicious hiss. Harry expected him to say something else but he seemed to be lost for words, for the first time Harry had ever seen.
"I read up on history and found out how you did exactly what Windegelt the Worrywart did." Harry supplied. "So I sent some people to kill the most powerful magical creature in the Forbidden Forest to break your spell. As I thought, the creatures instantly killed everyone in the room but you. And now I'm here to fulfil the prophecy; to kill you."
"You lie." Voldemort sensed correctly. "You tell the truth about everything except the prophecy. Your thoughts betray you; I know you know that isn't the real wording."
"Not exactly, no." Harry admitted. "The prophecy basically says that the one with the power to kill you - that is, me - would be born at the end of July, and that one of us would kill each other. And the way I see it, if you do kill me, it makes the whole prophecy a load of pretentious bollocks, so I think I'm destined to kill you, and Trelawney only left some doubt to make it more interesting."
"I disagree. AVADA KEDAVRA!" Voldemort screamed, and some blinding green light bore down on Harry and his friends rapidly. Everyone hurled themselves to the side and the curse missed. Harry cast a Stunner at Voldemort (because it's a quicker spell to articulate than Avada Kedavra) and Dean put a long burst of gunfire at Voldemort, who threw himself off the staff table to the left and ran towards them, ducking down low so he couldn't be hit.
"Split up!" Harry ordered, and everyone scattered in different directions: Hermione went right, Dean went left, Ron went forwards and Harry jumped on top of the left table, standing on a couple of dead Ravenclaws. While getting onto the table Harry yelled, "Avada Kedavra!" with gusto, pointing his wand towards Voldemort with the last syllable. Voldemort rolled underneath the Slytherin house table to avoid the curse and Dean's next volley of bullets. Ron, who was quite close to Voldemort, jumped high in the air when he heard Voldemort saying an incantation, leaping over the curse aimed at his legs, and performed the Reductor curse in midair, smashing the table and bringing down a pile of corpses on top of Voldemort. Voldemort swore loudly and levitated the pile to crawl out of it. Hermione cast the Cruciatus curse from across the room, but Voldemort did some kind of counter-curse which rebounded it entirely onto Hermione, who therefore suffered a full second of it, falling to the ground. At least on the ground Voldemort couldn't see her to curse her, so instead Voldemort rolled out from under the table. Ron shouted, "Petrificus totalus!" but missed him out of haste, and anyway Voldemort managed to perform the counter-curse while still rolling. Harry cast three more 'Avada Kedavras' as Voldemort leapt to his feet but Voldemort was too fast, dodging backwards and to the side and shooting purple flames at Ron at the same time, who dodged them with inhuman speed. Voldemort ran towards Hermione, who was still lying dazed on the floor, to finish her off while she was weakened. Dean leapt onto Harry's table and fired at Voldemort on full- auto, expiring the clip. He still didn't hit Voldemort, because he was ducking and weaving, but both Harry and Dean saw that he managed to rip several holes in Voldemort's robes. Dean swore and reloaded. He didn't even have to dodge a badly-aimed curse by Voldemort, which didn't even interrupt his efficient reloading.
Ron got onto the table, hiding behind a mound of bodies, wand sticking around the corner. Voldemort came into view and pointed his wand at Hermione, but noticed Ron and performed a powerful defensive spell just as Ron shouted, "Stupefy!" The curse rebounded and hit Ron in the face, who toppled backwards off the table, knocked out. Voldemort looked down at Hermione again, but was distracted when Dean squeezed off a few more rounds. Dean jumped off the table and cut a wide berth around Voldemort so he could see Voldemort without getting too close.
Harry leapt onto the table and ducked back just as quickly, avoiding Voldemort's killing curse, and sprung back, shouting, "Avada Kedavra!!" The curse smashed into the floor where Voldemort had been one second before. Harry saw the swish of his cloak as he rolled beneath Harry's table. Right underneath Harry. Dean spied an opening and fired off a load more rounds. Harry heard Voldemort mutter something, and a magical shield appeared between Dean and Voldemort. Harry bellowed, "Avada - "as he jumped off the table towards Hermione, and in midair finished with, "- KEDAVRA!" But again he was cheated, as Voldemort and emerged from the corpse-strewn table on the other side.
Harry hit the floor painfully, glancing at Hermione, who seemed to have retrieved her bearings. He heard Voldemort say with authority, "Accio MP5!" and Dean's cry of annoyance as his weapon was ripped from his grasp. But Voldemort couldn't kill Dean instantly because both hands would be required to catch the weapon, so he couldn't hold his wand out to perform a curse. Harry stood up, livid, just in time to see Dean heroically draw his Desert Eagle even before Voldemort caught the gun and emptied it in Voldemort's direction. Harry heard Voldemort's serpentine snarls as several of the bullets hit him. Harry raised his wand and roared a final, "AVADA KEDAVRA!!!!"
The green light bashed straight into Voldemort, who was distracted by the gunshot wounds sufficiently that he did not dodge the killing curse. He hit the ground like a sack of rotten meat. And then the enchantments which had temporarily given him life, performed almost exactly one year ago, faded away, and so did Voldemort. The cruelty etched on his slack facial features ebbed away, then his skin shrunk and mouldered into dust, leaving nothing but a skeleton inside some dusty robes.