Chapter 15:

Battle with Grindelwald

Grindelwald left the room that Voldemort was using to wait for Albus Dumbledore and retired to his upper chamber. He thought back to his first encounter with Voldemort. The man had merely appeared out of thin air directly into Grindelwald's sleeping chamber, which should have been impossible since the entire castle was bound with the most powerful Anti-Apparation wards that Grindelwald could create. Grindelwad allowed his consciousness to drift back to that fateful night.

Grindelwald responded to the ward alarm that the castle had been invaded, and jumped up from his bed and snaked his hand out toward his wand to find that his wand was missing from his bedside table and the intruder was already within his own chambers. "How did you get here, and who are you?" demanded Grindelwald.

The mysterious hooded intruder chuckled and twirled Grindelwald's wand in his off hand. He stood there for a moment before finally speaking, "I am here to offer you Dumbledore's head on a platter."

Grindelwald eyed the stranger with trepidation, "Who are you that can offer such a prize? Dumbledore is one of the most powerful foes that I have ever faced."

Voldemort removed the hood from his head, and revealed his face. Grindelwald recoiled at the sight of the pale face with its red eyes and reptilian like snout. Then, he sucked in a breath of surprise and rephrased his question, "What are you?"

Voldemort continued to chuckle at Grindelwald's discomfiture. "I am from the future."

Grindelwald snorted in disbelief, "Do you expect me to believe that? You would have to be exceptionally powerful to cast a time travel spell."

Voldemort smiled evilly, "You have no conception of power, Grindelwald. I am the reigning Dark Lord of my time, and I seek to kill Albus Dumbledore."

"Why?" asked Grindelwald.

Voldemort replied, "There is a wizard in my time of unrivalled power. To reign supreme, I must defeat him, and the only way to do so is to destroy him while he is still a child. To do that, I must destroy that Muggle-loving fool that protected him when he was a child."

Grindelwald eyed Voldemort with intrigue apparent in his expression, "So, Dumbledore prevented you from harming this wizard while he was still a child, and now that he is grown, he is too much for you. Now, you have come back in time to destroy Dumbledore. What makes you think that you can defeat Dumbledore? You know that he is the Heir of Merlin."

Voldemort cackled, "I have already defeated him in my time, and he is not nearly as powerful in this time as he is in mine. Unfortunately, by the time that I defeated Dumbledore so that I could get to the young one, he was ready for me."

Grindelwald cackled, "Since, it is obvious by this story that I will be defeated, then I will be most glad to accept your aid. Let us defeat out foes together."

Voldemort flipped Grindelwald's wand back to him. Grindelwald caught it and then smiled cruelly. "Now, victory will be mine. I will order an attack, now." Grindelwald swept from the room, and left Voldemort alone.

Grindelwald's consciousness came back to the present, where he began musing to himself. "Once this battle is over, I must determine someway to deal with this Lord Voldemort. I must find his young self and destroy him before he can take over my position."

Grindelwald was broken from his musings by a voice that rang out challengingly, "You won't have to worry about Voldemort, Grindelwald. We will be ending your reign of terror right here and now."

Grindelwald looked up to find Albus Dumbledore and Hilda Hufflepuff standing in the chamber with him. He smiled, "I see that you have found your way past Voldemort."

Hilda smiled, "Since you had help from the future, we got help of our own. The wizard Voldemort fears came back to aid us. He is dueling Voldemort at this very moment."

Albus continued, "We will be dealing with you."

Grindelwald laughed, "We will see." Then, he drew his wand from the folds of his robe, and gave it a swish. Several suits of armor sprang into action, and a side door flew open and several security trolls marched into the room.

Albus and Hilda exchanged glances, and then went back to back to begin dealing with Grindelwald's minions. Albus conjured several statues which Hilda animated to defend them from the trolls, while they whittled the suits of armor down with hex after hex. During the exchange between the two forces, Grindelwald consistently spoke to them. "The two of you are no match for my power, alone. You have come without your two friends. Now, that I have the two of you, I will destroy you. Then, I will deal with the other two Heirs. You have been led astray by Potter. I can not be defeated by two of the supposed Heirs. I am the master."

Even though it was taking all of his concentration to counter the suits of armor and the trolls, Albus managed to reply, "We are champions of the light, Grindelwald. You will never defeat us."

Grindelwald burst into a shrill mocking laugh, "How do you figure that, Albus? I stand here without even exerting myself, while it is all you can do to stay alive against my minions."

Albus smiled to himself, "Simple, we are armed with the knowledge that we will win. Harry has already told us that we will be victorious this day."

Grindelwald laughed but not as mockingly. It was obvious that he was afraid that they were right. He continued speaking anyway, "That doesn't matter. Voldemort and this Harry coming back in time and interfering has upset the natural order of things. The future is not set, and the two of you can lose."

Hilda sighed and muttered under her breath to Albus, "What if he's right, Albus? What if we can't win?"

Albus shook his head as he doggedly continued to fight the seemingly endless stream of suits of armor, "Don't give up, Hilda. I love you, and we will get through this together."

Hilda smiled and began to fight with a renewed vigor. After another short period of battling Grindelwald's minions, in which Grindelwald began to throw curses into the melee, the room shook as an explosion rocked the castle. The shaking broke Grindelwald's concentration for a moment as he spun around to look out the window to find out what caused the disturbance. It was immediately obvious that part of the wall below the room where they were located had been blasted away. The lapse in concentration caused the suits of armor to stop moving. Albus and Hilda quickly took advantage of the lull in the attack to completely immobilize the trolls. Then, they turned their wands on Grindelwald. Both of them uttered Stunning Spells, "Stupefy." The two jets of red light arced towards Grindelwald.

However, the battle was not to be ended this easily. Grindelwald was not called the Dark Lord for no reason. He dove sideways and spun around to face his combatants while he was falling towards the floor. A whipping stab of his wand and the words, "Explodra." sent an Explosion Hex sailing towards Dumbledore. Albus was caught flat-footed, and it appeared as if he would be unable to dodge or block the curse in time.

Dumbledore's luck held, or didn't hold, depending on how you look at the situation. Hilda screamed, "NO!!" Then, she jumped in front of the hex, blocking it with her body. She was hurled through the air, and she slammed into the opposite wall with a sickening crunch.

Albus looked at her stricken with fear for her life, and started to go towards her. This was not to be for Grindelwald had rolled to his feet and reanimated the suits of armor which quickly renewed the attack on Albus. A great deal of conflicting emotions were racing through Albus' mind as he robotically fought the suits of armor. Finally, his inability to get to Hilda built up pressure within his soul until it broke the dam. Albus screamed out his rage and pain, "I will destroy you, Grindelwald." A mountainous ocean of energy began pouring off of Albus in waves of pure white light. The light decimated the remaining suits of armor, and sent Grindelwald scrambling for cover.

Once Grindelwald was able to look at Dumbledore again, he was shocked by the sight that met his eyes. Albus was standing in the center of the chamber bathed in a shimmering brilliance of light. It completely surrounded his body, and he literally seemed to radiate strength. Albus turned a steely-eyed gaze on Grindelwald and snarled, "You will pay for what you have done."

Elsewhere in the castle, Harry had just finished dealing with Voldemort, and headed out after Albus and Hilda. He sensed the sudden upsurge in energy, and swore beneath his breath, "Grindelwald must have really pissed Albus off for him to be giving off this kind of power." Harry quickened his pace as he headed for where he was sensing Albus's power coming from.

Back in the upper chamber, Grindelwald had stood up and assumed a dueling stance. Albus advanced on him, and the two of them began to trade curses back and forth. Albus finally hit Grindelwald with a Disarming Charm. Then, he stood over Grindelwald as he crumpled to the ground. Albus smiled maliciously, "Now, it is time for you to meet your end, Grindelwald." Grindelwald looked up into Albus' eyes one last time in defiance as Albus cast the Killing Curse, "Avada Kedavra." The jet of green light hit Grindelwald and he slumped sideways, lifeless. Albus didn't even wait to see if the spell hit. He was already rushing across the room to Hilda. He slid to the ground beside her, and gently pulled her into his lap. "Hilda, speak to me."

Hilda weakly opened her eyes, "Albus, I'm glad that you are okay."

Albus silently began to cry, and asked, "Why did you do that, my love?"

Hilda smiled, "I had to. You are the greatest hope for wizard kind. You have to protect Harry in the future. It is your destiny. This was mine." Hilda reached a hand up to Albus' face and gently stoked her hand down his cheek. "I have always loved you, Albus. I want you to remember me."

Albus shook his head, "I could never forget you, Hilda. You are my Soul Mate."

Hilda smiled one last time, and then her hand fell to her side as she lost consciousness and died. Albus hugged her body to him and wept.

Harry raced into the room just as Hilda died. He sighed, "I guess I'm too late."

Albus looked up at him and nodded, "To save Hilda, you are. The battle is over, though. Grindelwald is defeated."

Harry nodded and walked over to stand beside Dumbledore. He placed a hand on Dumbledore's shoulder, "You once let me break several of your possessions in your office after my godfather was killed during the war with Voldemort. If you feel that you need to take some of you anger out, I can think of no better way to repay you for everything that you will do for me than to stand here and listen."

Dumbledore smiled through his tears, "You are a good man, Harry. Your grandfather would be very proud of you."

Harry nodded, "I know. It is because of you. I would have never turned out to be the man that I am without you. I hope you know that."

"I'm sure that my future self does. I would tell you that I will never forget you, but I know that you are going to cast a Memory Charm on me." said Dumbledore.

Harry nodded, "I have no choice. I can't risk your knowledge of the future affecting your decisions. We can not afford to change anything. The consequences would be very grave."

"I know, Harry. It's just hard to know that I have lost my beloved Hilda, and that I will not be able to remember the hope for the future that you have given me."

Harry patted Dumbledore on the back, "You have your dark road to walk, just as I had to walk mine. The two of us became much better wizards for those dark roads. The pain of loss can be a better teacher than anything else. The only consolation that I can offer over Hilda's death is that she died protecting you. That will save a lot of lives in the future. The only memorial that I can offer you is, She died well. That is something that few people can say." Harry wiped an unshed tear from the corner of his eye.

Dumbledore looked down at Hilda's body and sighed, "It is time for you to go isn't it?"

Harry nodded, "Yes, it is. I can sense Nicholas and Grandfather approaching. I don't want to have to perform a Memory Charm on them again, so I need to leave before they get here."

"I will miss you, Harry."

Harry chuckled, "Not forever. I will turn up before you know it. Obliviate." Then, Harry slipped into the ethos to slide forward through time to return to the present that he had left.

Nicholas and William rushed into the room a moment later to find Dumbledore holding Hilda and weeping quietly. Nicholas gasped, "What happened?"

Dumbledore looked up at the two other Heirs, "She jumped in front of an Explosion Hex to save me."

William slumped to the ground, "Is she gone?"

Dumbledore nodded, "Yes, she is."

Nicholas had walked over to Grindelwald. He bent down beside him and checked for a pulse. He found nothing. He looked over and caught William's eye. He nodded. William sighed from his place on the ground next to Dumbledore, "It's over, then. The war is finally over."

Dumbledore continued to shake as he wept over his beloved. Nicholas walked up behind him and placed his hands on his shoulders, "Albus, I don't know what to tell you. I just really don't know what to say."

Dumbledore replied in a broken voice, "Say that she died well. That is all I ask."

Nicholas and William exchanged glances and then they both said, "We would never dream of saying any differently, Albus. Hilda most certainly died well."

A/N: Some of you are going to be freaked out by the next chapter. Don't worry about how things are, though. Just trust that everything will work out. Thanks to all my readers.

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