A/N - Hello again. Here's the next chapter of Lightning, Part 2. This chapter was a hard one to do. I redid a lot of it several times and I'm still not sure if I pulled it off. Hopefully it works and you'll like it.
One word of warning: Someone dies a gruesome death in this chapter. If you're squeamish proceed with some caution.
Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.
"Normal speech"
"Telepathy"
42) THE X-MEN VERSUS VOLDEMORT
Even though Voldemort wasn't at the front of his people the X-Men were still able to glimpse him enough that they got good idea of what he looked like.
"That's Voldemort?" said Iceman, "wow! Talk about ugly."
"He looks even worse than when he was just a face on the back of someone's head" said Lightning, "and I wouldn't have thought that was possible."
"What happened to his face?" asked Marvel Girl.
"Good question" said Beast, "he seems to be both nasally challenged and completely lacking in the hair department."
Lightning stared at Voldemort as he moved among his Death Eaters. This was it. He'd known he'd face Voldemort again ever since they met in first year. He'd been preparing for this moment since Professor Xavier invited him to join the X-Men. It was finally here.
He wasn't afraid. Ever since joining the X-Men he'd faced some powerful foes and survived. Objectively, Voldemort was just one more. He wasn't even the most powerful enemy his team had faced. No, Voldemort didn't intimidate him as he once had. He was a bit nervous but that was only natural. Many people get nervous before a long anticipated event happens. Lightning was no different, but he wasn't afraid. No, he felt a bit like he had on his first mission in September of '93 when he, Cyclops, Angel, and Iceman had rescued Beast from El Conquistador. He felt confident. He could do this.
It helped that his team was with him. As Cyclops had said, they wouldn't let him face Voldemort alone. That played a critical role today in how he chose to fight Voldemort. He would fight him as Lightning the X-Man, not as Harry Potter the Boy-Who-Lived. Voldemort had killed his parents but Lightning realized that if he wanted to beat Voldemort he couldn't let his emotions get in the way. He could rage and scream at Voldemort after the fight was over if he wanted to. For now he had to be committed to the task at hand.
"Are you ready for this?" Angel asked him.
"As I'll ever be" said Lightning.
"We're with you all the way" said Iceman.
"Indeed we are pup" said Mage.
"We'll deal with him just like every other super villain we've faced" said Cyclops, "as a team. Let's do this."
The crowd of Death Eaters began charging the defenders who quickly engaged them. In the melee that followed Voldemort was lost to sight.
"Voldemort is our objective" said Cyclops to the team, "since he's after Lightning he's after all of us."
"We need to find him first" said Marvel Girl.
"Leave that to Lightning and me" said Angel.
"Be careful" said Cyclops, "contact us as soon as you spot him."
Angel and Lightning nodded and both took off climbing high enough above the battle that they couldn't easily be hit with curses but not so high that they couldn't see the details of what was going on.
"Lightning" said Angel as they flew, "are you okay?"
"Yeah" said Lightning, "never thought I'd be hunting Voldemort rather than the other way around."
"Wonders never cease" said Angel, "do you see him anywhere?" Lightning looked around the battlefield. Everything was in such a mess that it was hard to pick out individual people.
"There he is" said Lightning suddenly. He pointed toward the back of the Death Eater crowd where he and Angel could both see the bald head and noseless face of the Dark Lord.
"He's still not fighting" said Angel, "I bet if the battle goes against him he'll just leave."
"Probably" said Lightning who sent off a message to Marvel Girl that they'd spotted Voldemort and where he was.
"We're on our way" Cyclops said to them having been connected to them by Marvel Girl.
"We could bring him to you" said Angel.
"If we do that" said Lightning, "can't I just electrocute him and have done with it?"
"If you can catch him" said Cyclops, "but be careful." Lightning and Angel looked at each other.
"Let's get him" said Angel. Lightning nodded. They stayed high above the battle while they got into position behind Voldemort. He was concentrating hard on the battle and didn't spot them. Needless to say when Angel and Lightning swooped down on him and picked him up by his arms he was taken completely by surprise.
"What the – ?!" said a shocked Voldemort as he was flown up high into the air.
"Hello Voldemort" said Angel, "are you enjoying the view?"
"What?" demanded Voldemort, "put me down at once!"
"Nuh-uh" said Lightning, "not gonna happen."
"We and some friends of ours want to talk to you" said Angel as they flew toward where the other X-Men were.
Lightning had no illusions about how dangerous Voldemort was. As soon as he and Angel had grabbed him Lightning had used his telekinesis to hold him still so he couldn't move or wave his wand which Lightning made sure was pointed away from them. He took a second to appreciate the irony that he was one of the predators this time while Voldemort was the prey.
'I wonder how he'll react if he learns that I'm Harry Potter?' Lightning thought. While the thought amused him a bit he was more frustrated by the fact that he couldn't electrocute Voldemort right now because Angel would get zapped too.
Naturally their highjacking of Voldemort didn't go unnoticed on the battlefield.
"They've got our lord!" yelled one of the Death Eaters who was the rare wizard who happened to look up. Almost as one most of the rest of the Death Eaters turned to look for themselves. Marvel Girl had anticipated this, however, and had contacted Thor, Dumbledore, and Moody as soon as Lightning and Angel had seized Voldemort. The Avengers quickly stepped up their attacks on the Death Eaters while the aurors and the Hogwarts professors did the same thing. The Death Eaters were not able to come to Voldemort's aid as they were too busy defending themselves.
The two flying X-Men were approaching their teammates. As they descended toward the ground Lightning looked over at Angel.
"Hey Angel" said Lightning, "if you let go of him I can deal with him now."
"Okay" said Angel, "give me a second." As they hit the ground Angel let go and moved away. Lightning gathered up his electricity and prepared to send it into Voldemort but before he could do that the Dark Lord unleashed a wave of anger fueled magic that pushed Lightning violently back and made him let go of his foe. Lightning jumped away from Voldemort and ran to rejoin his team while the latter had to take a moment to regain his balance. As soon as he was steady on his feet again the Dark Lord turned to see all of the X-Men facing him.
"Hello Voldemort" said Cyclops.
"The X-Men" said Voldemort looking at the seven of them and speaking in a sarcastic manner, "I'm honored that you feel the need to kidnap me."
"I'd hardly call it kidnapping" said Mage, "we're still at Hogwarts." Voldemort looked over at Mage.
"You're a wizard?" he asked in surprise as he saw the wand in Mage's hand, "I thought you X-Men were all mutants."
"All except me" said Mage, "it's a long story. Don't ask."
"Oh I won't" said Voldemort, "why are you even here? What is this fight to you?"
"Headmaster Dumbledore is a friend of our mentor's" answered Cyclops, "he asked us to come help so we did."
"And you think you can defeat me?" said Voldemort, "oh sure, you took me by surprise a few minutes ago but that won't happen again. All of your powers put together are no match for mine!"
"The old song and dance" quipped Angel, "how many times has Magneto said that?"
"I stopped counting after 300" said Lightning.
"By the way Voldemort" said Iceman drawing the Dark Lord's attention to him, "I see you don't exactly have a nose. How do you smell?"
"Nose or no nose" said Mage unable to resist, "I'm sure he smells terrible."
"Avada Kedavra!" yelled Voldemort pointing his wand at Mage. A jet of green light shot out at Mage and was stopped by the telekinetic field both Lightning and Marvel Girl threw up and bounced back at Voldemort who had to duck out of the way.
"Impossible!" yelled Voldemort, "no magic can block the Killing Curse."
"You'll find that a lot of things you think are impossible are not" said Cyclops who opened up his visor and sent his optic blasts at Voldemort who raised his strongest shield against the blasts. He was just barely able to stop the optic blasts but that left him open to Iceman who sent blasts of ice his way. Voldemort quickly melted the ice and stepped out of the way just in time to avoid a reducto that Mage sent at him.
Lightning now threw out his hands and shot two strong lightning bolts at Voldemort who blocked them with a shield before sending curses back at him. Lightning blocked some of them and avoided others. Then, just to confuse Voldemort, he fired a wandless expelliarmus at the Dark Lord who actually looked surprised even as he shielded against it.
"You have magic?" demanded Voldemort.
"Yes" said Lightning, "I'm a mutant and a wizard."
"How can that be?"
"If you really want to know" said Lightning, "you'll have to ask Professor X."
"You don't have a wand!" yelled Voldemort.
"Don't need one" said Lightning as the two of them continued to trade blows.
'He's definitely powerful' Lightning thought to himself, 'but he's nowhere near the level of Juggernaut or Magneto.'
Lightning now tried to disarm Voldemort with his telekinesis but Voldemort had also used the sticking charm on his wand. His sticking charm was a lot more powerful than any of his Death Eaters' and Lightning had to really exert his power to try to get the wand away from Voldemort. Before either of them knew what was happening they were engaged in a sort of tug of war over Voldemort's wand. That stopped suddenly when the Dark Lord produced a second wand in his other hand and cancelled the charm on his first wand. It shot at Lightning extremely quickly and the young mutant had to duck to get out of its way.
Voldemort took that moment to shoot another killing curse at Lightning while he was distracted but another telekinetic shield was quickly raised and deflected the curse. Lightning turned and saw Marvel Girl standing near him.
"Thanks for the save" said Lightning.
"What else are teammates for?" she replied.
Now back on his guard Lightning summoned Voldemort's first wand. As soon as he caught it he snapped it and tossed away the pieces. While he did that Marvel Girl summoned Voldemort's second wand which didn't have a sticking charm on it and snapped that one too.
"How dare you!" yelled Voldemort, "I'll kill you both for that!"
"Yeah, yeah" said Lightning, "tell us all about it." He sent out two more lightning bolts at Voldemort who avoided both blasts before reaching into his robe and pulling out a third wand.
"Did you really think it would be that easy?" sneered Voldemort who raised the new wand. He began firing spells at an astounding speed. Lightning threw up his shield again and blocked them but it was taking more effort than he expected so Marvel Girl added her strength to his shield.
"He's stronger than he first seemed" said Lightning to his teammate. They both raised the shield to top strength and that helped a lot but the spells were coming at them so fast that they weren't bouncing back as far as before. The two X-Men held the shield but were unable to make any other attacks. It looked like a stalemate as none of the combatants were giving an inch.
The standoff was broken when Beast intervened. Seeing the situation for what it was he leaped high into the air, did a mid-air somersault over Voldemort and punched him in the face from above with both fists, knocking the Dark Lord to the ground and stopping his attack.
Lightning capitalized on what Beast did. With a quick nod of thanks to his teammate Lightning struck Voldemort with his telekinesis before the evil wizard could recover. He lifted him up into the air about ten feet.
"What are you doing?" yelled Voldemort as he spit out blood dripping down into his mouth from the place where his nose should have been, "let go of me!" Lightning didn't say anything. He slammed Voldemort into the ground as hard as he could. Then he lifted Voldemort again and slammed him down again. And again. And again. And again. He did all of this as quickly as he could so as to keep Voldemort off balance.
After he slammed Voldemort into the ground for the fifth time he took to the air and flew straight up as fast as he could go. As he flew he telekinetically pushed Voldemort up ahead of him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Angel flying up alongside him. After some time Lightning stopped and hovered where he was facing Voldemort. Angel quickly joined him.
"Thanks for the back up" Lightning said to Angel, "let's take him like we did before." Angel nodded. The dark wizard had managed to recover himself a bit and was pointing his wand at the two of them. He fired a spell at Angel which the winged mutant dodged before doing the same to Lightning who shielded against it.
"I wouldn't do that again if I were you" said Lightning, "we're at least a thousand feet up and the only reason you're not falling is because of me. If you kill me can you fly on your own? Can you summon a broom quickly enough to catch you before you hit the ground?"
"Even this can't kill me!" yelled Voldemort, "I'm immortal!"
"Really?" said Lightning, "perhaps we should test that."
Lightning let go of Voldemort.
"AHHHH!" screamed Voldemort as he plunged towards the ground.
"That was mean" said Angel but without any heat in his voice.
"He killed my parents" said Lightning as the two of them dove after Voldemort, "you know what they say: payback's a bitch!"
While the X-Men were facing off against Voldemort a lot of other things were happening on the field. The Avengers had joined the aurors and the professors in fighting the second wave of Death Eaters and were doing very well. Dumbledore personally partnered with Captain America. The wizard shielded the super soldier from curses while the Captain bashed the attacking Death Eaters with his fists and his shield.
"Too bad we didn't do this during the war" quipped Dumbledore.
"Better late than never" Captain America replied.
"I completely agree" said Dumbledore as the two of them continued their work.
The Death Eaters still had a numerical advantage but it was the only advantage they had and they were quickly losing it. The saying "quality over quantity" mattered in this battle. Most of the Death Eaters couldn't take on people like the Sorcerer Supreme, the Ancient One, or the Avengers. Even the aurors were tougher fighters than they had been in the past. Death Eater numbers were falling pretty quickly.
Despite how well the defenders were doing there were a couple of Death Eaters who managed to avoid getting too involved in the fighting. One of these was Voldemort's most loyal Death Eater of all: Bellatrix Lestrange. She had gone to Azkaban after Voldemort's fall in 1981 when she refused to renounce him. Her stay there had driven her absolutely insane – and she hadn't been very sane to begin with. She was cruel, sadistic, and fanatically loyal to her master. Instead of fighting anyone she crept around the edge of the battle and made her way to the front doors of Hogwarts. She thought that since all of the staff seemed to be out here in the fight that if she could get inside the school she could cause all sorts of damage before anyone even knew she was there.
Unfortunately for Bellatrix a wrench was thrown into her plan when she reached the landing at the top of the steps in front of the open doors of the castle. She thought no one would be there to stop her but she was wrong. There was someone blocking her path however after a split second of surprise she completely dismissed the idea that her greeter could ever be a threat. After all everyone, even mad Death Eaters who had been locked up in Azkaban for over a decade, knew that Neville Longbottom was little more than squib. 'I will enjoy this' she thought as she looked at Neville through the open doors of the school.
Neville had stayed inside the entrance hall but only just inside the doors as he was as curious as anyone to see the battle. He was very impressed with what he saw, especially where the X-Men and the Avengers were concerned. As much as he could he observed how they fought first against the Death Eaters and later against the dementors and the giants. His resolve to join the X-Men when he was of age was strengthened as he realized that he had a power that could have been quite useful in this battle if he'd been fully trained to use it.
All of his resolve couldn't prepare him for the moment when Bellatrix Lestrange appeared right in front of the doors of Hogwarts. The two of them looked at each other for a long moment.
"Well, well, well" said Bellatrix with a cackle, "if it isn't little Nevvy. How are your parents doing? Want to join them? Crucio!"
She moved so quickly that Neville wasn't able to dodge the curse.
Pain. Pain like nothing he had ever felt before in his life. It was like every nerve in his body was being stabbed with red hot knives. He heard himself screaming and he dimly heard Bellatrix laughing at him.
Something in him snapped. He was barely conscious of a wave of power bursting out of him followed by a short scream that quickly changed into a gurgling sound before stopping altogether. It took a few seconds before Neville realized that the curse had stopped. He lay twitching on the floor for a few minutes before he was able to raise himself up on his hands and knees, his whole body trembling. He wondered why Bellatrix wasn't laughing at him anymore or even saying anything. He looked over to where she was – and screamed in horror.
Bellatrix Lestrange was dead. Of that there was no doubt. She was about as dead as a person can be. It was the manner of her death that was so horrific. A spike of rock, maybe three inches in diameter, was shooting up from the floor of the landing outside the doors of Hogwarts. It shot up about ten feet high. Bellatrix was impaled lengthwise on it. The spike had entered through her crotch area, shot up through the middle of her body and, with her head thrown back, it came out of her mouth and shot up a couple more feet. She had been lifted up off the ground by the impalement but as Neville watched she was slowly sliding back down the spike. Blood was dripping down between her legs and from her mouth. Her eyes were completely devoid of life as they stared up at the sky.
Neville couldn't take it. He screamed again and fainted dead away.
Dr. Strange looked around the field. He threw out the occasional spell now and then but avoided getting into fights with anyone. He was seeking something that he was sure was here. Quite by chance he ended up meeting Thor.
"What dost thou seek Sorcerer Supreme?" Thor asked him.
"I'm looking for an unusually large snake" said Dr. Strange, "it should be here as Voldemort keeps it close to him from what I've seen."
"A large snake?" repeated Thor, "I saw such a snake a short time ago. What of it?"
"That snake has to be killed if we are ever to finish Voldemort for good" said Dr. Strange. Thor knew what that meant.
"Is that snake a horcrux?" he asked with anger in his face.
"Yes" said Dr. Strange, "one of only two that are left. The other one is accounted for and can be dealt with whenever we wish. But we must get that snake first."
"Aye" said Thor and he raised his hammer and took off. Using his cloak of levitation Dr. Strange followed him. Once they were a few score feet above the battle they looked around to see if they could see it.
"There it is" said Dr. Strange pointing near where the X-Men were. It was slowly slithering towards Cyclops who had his back to it.
"No!" said Thor who pointed his hammer at the snake and fired lightning bolts at it. The lightning hit the snake right in the head and knocked it out.
"What?" said Cyclops in surprise as he turned around to see the snake behind him, "wow! That's a big snake!"
"Aye, it is" said Thor landing next to him along with Dr. Strange.
"What's going on?" asked Cyclops.
"That snake has to be destroyed if we are to win" said Dr. Strange, "Thor, Mjolnir can destroy horcruxes, can it not?"
"It can" said Thor who stepped over to the snake, raised his hammer high and brought it down right on the snake's head, crushing it flat. As soon as the snake was dead a high pitched scream came from it. Smoke poured out of its body and formed an ugly face for a few seconds before fading away.
"What was that?!" asked Iceman who happened to see Thor kill the snake.
"Something that mortals should not know about" said Thor.
"He's right" said Dr. Strange, "now, however, we can finally defeat Voldemort for good."
They heard a scream from high above that rapidly got closer.
"We might not need to do much" said Cyclops. He pointed upward and they all saw Voldemort falling toward the ground. Lightning and Angel were diving after him. About one hundred feet from the ground Lightning began slowing Voldemort's fall before bringing him to a stop about ten feet up in the air.
"Wow" said Lightning hovering above Voldemort, "I don't think I've ever seen anyone look so terrified as you did just now."
"Who are you?" demanded Voldemort.
"I'm your worst nightmare" said Lightning in a menacing voice before grinning, "you know, I've always wanted to say that. Thanks for giving me the chance."
"Oh brother" said Angel rolling his eyes, "talk about ham and cheese!"
"You miserable pair of freaks!" howled Voldemort.
"Hey pot, meet kettle" shot back Angel which was a good thing because it allowed Lightning to restrain his anger for once over being called a freak. If he lost control of his emotions now he knew they'd probably lose the fight.
Now that Voldemort was no longer in danger of being dashed to pieces his fear turned to fury and he shot several spells at Lightning in quick succession. Lightning blocked all of them and sent them bouncing back at Voldemort.
"I'll kill you!" said Voldemort, "no one laughs at me! You will suffer. Oh how you'll suffer! I'll make you all beg for death ten times over and then ten times more. You'll be nothing but wasted husks when I'm done with you. I am the greatest wizard who ever lived and I will not be mocked!"
Just because they knew it would make Voldemort even angrier Lightning blew him a loud raspberry while Angel thumbed his nose at him. Voldemort blew his stack and began firing spells at a furious rate. Lightning blocked all of them although once again it took some effort. From down on the ground Marvel Girl sent her own power up to him to reinforce his shield which helped a good deal. Lightning floated down toward the Dark Lord closing the distance between them. Voldemort now had to be more careful as the spells bounced back from the telekinetic shield since he had less time to avoid them. Lightning kept floating closer until he was only a few feet away from his foe although he took care to stay out of his physical reach. Lightning looked at Voldemort and raised an eyebrow. Voldemort didn't take well to this either.
"You think you've stopped me?" Voldemort said, "no one can truly stop me. You were lucky in the past but you won't be again. Once I've dealt with you I'll rule this land. I'll take over Europe next and then the rest of the magical world. Once I have control of that I'll take over the muggle world too. No one can stop me!"
Voldemort kept on ranting in this vein and it didn't look like he be would stopping any time soon. Lightning sighed and telekinetically pulled Voldemort straight to him, finally interrupting the man's rant. Lightning held his arms out with his hands open. When Voldemort reached him the young X-Man grabbed both of the Dark Lord's wrists and held them down toward the ground. He and Voldemort were eye to eye now and Lightning stared straight at his foe for a moment before speaking. A lot of thoughts ran through his head in that moment as he tried to figure out just how he should feel about the fact that he was about to beat Voldemort. He and his parents would finally have justice and the magical world would no longer have to worry about this man's depradations. Lightning wondered if he should tell Voldemort who he really was but decided he'd rather not. Why should Harry give Voldemort the satisfaction of knowing just how hard he'd worked to beat him in the end? If Voldemort didn't know the truth it would be worse for him because he would think that he had been beaten by outsiders to the magical world.
All of these thoughts flashed through Lightning's head but in the end he just didn't want to get worked up about the moment that was happening. His feelings would take care of themselves in due course. He also briefly considered what pithy statement he should make to mark the victory. In the end he just went with the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach.
"You know what?" Lightning said, "you talk too much."
With that Lightning sent his electricity into Voldemort's body in an unstoppable stream. Lightning directed it through Voldemort's left wrist straight through his body and out again through his right wrist where Lightning simply recycled it and sent it through the circuit again. He kept this up for several seconds, never taking his eyes off of Voldemort's face until suddenly Voldemort's eyes rolled up in his head. Lightning let go of him and he dropped down to the ground and didn't move.
Lightning landed next to Voldemort and stared down at the wizard with some surprise to see him really taken out of the fight. Angel landed next to him. Beast joined them and crouched down over Voldemort, checking him for signs of life.
"Is he dead?" asked Lightning in an uncertain voice, "did I actually kill him?"
"No" said Beast, "he's alive, but I daresay when he wakes up he'll probably wish he was dead."
"That's good, I guess" said Lightning, "thanks for the help earlier."
"Of course" said Beast, "we told you we wouldn't allow you to engage him in combat by yourself and we meant it."
Lightning nodded his thanks and then took a moment to look around the area. The fighting was mostly over with only a few Death Eaters still fighting scattered here and there on the battlefield. The rest of the X-Men gathered in a group around Lightning and looked down at the unconscious Voldemort.
"How art the mighty fallen" quoted Beast.
"What now?" asked Iceman.
"We'll let the authorities deal with him" said Cyclops.
"And we will deal with him" said Dumbledore who had just arrived accompanied by Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Madame Bones, Mad Eye Moody, and several aurors. Madame Bones immediately took charge directing the aurors to place magic suppressing cuffs on Voldemort's wrists and ankles and take him into custody.
"You'll want to be very careful guarding him" said Dumbledore, "let only people you trust implicitly anywhere near him so that any Death Eaters or Death Eater allies won't have a chance to try to break him out."
"Oh I will" said Madame Bones grimly, "even if I have to guard him myself. Nothing will save him from his trial."
"Good" said Dumbledore.
They heard a groan and turned to see that Voldemort was waking up again. It didn't take long for him to become fully aware of his situation. From his place lying on the ground he sneered at everyone and looked up at them with contempt.
"You think you've beaten me" he said, "you never will. Lock me away and I'll wait. Kill my body and I'll come back again. You can't defeat me. I'm immortal."
"Not for long" said a new voice as Dr. Strange joined the group. He was holding a metal box that both Lightning and Dumbledore recognized.
"Dr Strange?" asked Voldemort looking up at him.
"Yes, I am Dr. Stephen Strange" was the reply, "the Sorcerer Supreme and I've been hunting you, or rather your little devices for quite some time."
"What do you mean?" asked Madame Bones.
"I – we" Dr. Strange gestured to himself and Dumbledore, "know how Voldemort cheated death all of those years ago. For the past year I and the Ancient One have been working to find and counter everything he did."
"But what did he do?" asked Professor McGonagall.
"He did what no mortal should ever do" said Thor joining them. In his hands he was dragging the carcass of the dead snake. When Voldemort saw this he gave a scream of anger.
"Thor?" asked Lightning, "I thought you were on the other side of the field. When did you get here?"
"I arrived while you were battling yon villain" said Thor, "and a glorious victory you made of it. The All Father himself would be pleased."
"Thank you" said Lightning, "what's with the snake?"
"The snake" said Dr. Strange, "was one of the objects that I've been hunting. The last one in fact – except for this." He held out the box.
"Impossible" said Voldemort, "you couldn't have found all of my horcruxes."
"But I did" said Dr. Strange, "your diary was destroyed by Harry Potter first. Following a lead he gave me I was able to track down Slytherin's Locket, Ravenclaw's Diadem, Hufflepuff's Cup, and the Gaunt Ring, all of which I cleansed. Thor killed your snake with his hammer. All that is left now is the fragment in this box."
"I didn't make a seventh horcrux" said Voldemort.
"Not on purpose" said Dr. Strange, "but your soul was so unstable that it fragmented shortly before you fell. An extra fragment broke off and embedded itself somewhere. I won't say where. Let's just say that once it was found I was able to use it to track down your other pieces. Now it is time to destroy it."
Dr. Strange put the box down on the ground.
"I can use the Eye of Agamotto to cleanse it" he said, "or Thor, your hammer can destroy it. There is no reason to save this box like the other items if you would prefer to smash it."
"Can I? Can I?" asked Lightning sounding eager, "please, oh please, let me do it."
"Someone sounds eager" said Mage.
"Let him do it" said Cyclops.
"Yes" said Dumbledore as he thought about the prophecy, "let him do it."
"Very well" said Thor with a smile as he handed Mjolnir to Lightning.
"Thank you" said Lightning who turned, raised Thor's hammer high and brought it down on the silver box as hard as he could.
SMASH! Mjolnir flashed a golden light as it flattened the box and broke it into pieces. A high pitched scream came from the wrecked box as black smoke leaked out of it, briefly formed an ugly face that matched Voldemort's, and then faded away. The soul piece's scream was matched only by Voldemort's scream of despair as he realized that all of his horcruxes were gone.
"It is done" said Dr. Strange, "Voldemort is once again mortal."
"Thank goodness for that" said Lightning, "and thank you Thor for letting me use your hammer again."
"You're welcome young warrior" said Thor gravely as Lightning handed Mjolnir back to him.
"Young warrior?" said Lightning, "you've been calling me that for a while now. After today maybe it's even true."
"It is fitting for one who can wield my hammer" said Thor.
"Thank you" said Lightning, "I admit I really enjoy using Mjolnir. I don't suppose you could convince the All Father to have a similar hammer made for me?"
Thor threw his head back and laughed.
(To Be Continued)
A/N - That closes this chapter of the story. I debated about having Voldemort find out that Lightning was really Harry Potter but ultimately decided against it. As far as Voldemort knows he's been beaten by people who have nothing to do with his nemesis. Oh if he only knew!
More than one of you wanted Neville to deal with Bellatrix Lestrange and he did, although not in the way that I originally expected but I think this way fits his character better. He has started training with his new powers but he's not a fighter yet.
That's all for now. There are 2 or 3 chapters left in part 2 depending on how the next part goes. As usual please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. As always stay safe and well everyone.