AN: Finally! I got the final battle ready for the upload. I had to rewrite much of the chap because I was not satisfied with my previous work. But now, I believe it is ready to enjoy. I also tried to explain the problem with the wards, some of you mentioned. There are two sets of wards. One is IN the house and that's where Harry placed his anti-portkey ward. And then there was an OUTER layer of wards, anti-intrusion wards and the like which covered the ground around the house. These were taken down by the specialists. But now, on with the story!

Chapter 18 the last battle

As the wards went down and the army of light attacked, the leaders stayed back for a quick analysis of the situation. Rick, Onyx, Dumbledore and Moody surveyed the battle with trained eyes.

„The wards went down as planned. You got an excellent team there." Dumbledore congratulated Onyx.

„They are specialists. That's their job." Onxy answered coolly.

The leader of the wards-specialists came to them to give a report.

„All wards protecting the outer territory are down, Sir. Our sensory charms detected further wards which are protecting the house itself."

„Which kind of wards?" Onyx asked curiously.

„We sensed an anti-apparition ward, quite powerful but still standard spellwork. We believe the dark lord himself or one of his more powerful underlings casted it. Then there seems to be another anti-intrusion-ward like the one we took down for the outer territory. It is keyed to something, maybe the dark mark. Any other intruder has to expect some nasty surprise, maybe an automatically casted crucio or something like that. If we get nearer to the house, we will be able to deal with that. But there seems to be a new ward, recently casted. It is higly complex spellcasting and surprisingly powerful."
„What kind of ward is that?" Dumbledore asked.

„It is an anti-portkey-ward, Mr. Dumbledore. The complexion of the spellwork indicates the work of an Unspeakable. We know for sure, that this particularly knowledge didn't leak out of our department, especially as this is a newly developed charm." the Unspeakable explained irritated.

Rick laughed about that.

„What's up, Rick?" Onyx asked the old Warlock with a raised eyebrow.

„I tend to believe that there is someone in there who doesn't want that anyone escapes from the house to easily." Rick explained, „And do remember, there is an Unspeakable in the house."

„Harry!" Dumbledore gasped.

„If that is the case, we should respect his wish and leave the portkey-ward and the anti-apparition-wards intact." Onyx decided.

„Yes sir!"

„He seems to be quite active then." Onyx mused.

„That's sounding like the Harry I know." Rick grinned, „He is preparing our way, maybe he is even dealing with the dark bastard himself."

„Then we should clear the outer area at least." Onyx decided. As Dumbledore nodded, Onyx dealt the new orders to his men.

Dumbledore did the same with his men. And then the leaders joined their men in the ongoing battle around the Riddle House. As the four most powerful fighters for the light joined the attack, the battle began in earnest.

A wide spread line of light wizards moved in to the large house and that from four directions. It was like a web that was closing in around the old house. The flashes of the casted spells, curses and hexes enlightened the area like an unnatural thunderstorm. The sounds of exploding hexes supported that image. Dumbledore and Rick Weller came under the Death Eaters like gods of war. Dumbledore blasted his way through the dark wizards with highly powerful spells, which stunned three to four wizards each. But other, consiscuos Death Eaters were able to revive some of them quickly. Rick had not that much power but he had less problems to deal with his enemies in a more final way. He fired blasting spells or other lethal curses freely. If a Death Eater went down, who was hit from one of his spells, chances were good that he would never get up again.

Moody used the same line of thinking and fired mostly reductor-spells which dismembered or killed his opponents if he was able to hit them. The Death Eaters themself relied mostly on the unforgivables. So there were some losses on the side of the light as well, mostly wizards killed by the foreboding green light of the killing curse. But all of the Wizards of light were well trained, so the losses were kept to a minimum. The Death Eaters seemed to be the low ranking ones. The higher trained Death Eaters would be within the Riddle House.

Suddenly two wizards appeared out of nowwhere, directly in front of Rick Weller.

He could raise his wand in the last minute and the skull-crushing spell flew over the head of one of the newcomers.

„Snape, Tonks! Take cover!" Rick shouted.

They let themselves fall down to the ground and right in time, because two killing curses flew directly over them.

They robbed over to Rick and behind the gravestone where he was taking cover.

„What's your status?" Rick asked.

„We took down nearly thirty Death Eaters in there, Sir." Tonks reported in a no nonsense tone as she was practically dealing with a superior.

„There are only ten or some more left inside." Snape continued.
„Where is Harry?" Rick asked.

„He was preparing himself to get into the throne room of Voldemort." Tonks reported.

„I wish him good luck." Rick prayed to the gods.

„Thanks. Now, lets deal with the rest of the bastards." Rick ordered and fired another spell around the gravestone. Again a Death Eater went down.

Snape and Tonks took cover themselves and joined in the fight.

Some minutes before the attack Harry still stood in front of the double door.

He cleared his mind of all distracting thoughts and changed into his tiger-form.

Without a sound he disappeared from his spot in front of the door and reappeared in the far back of Voldemort's throne room. The dark lord sat right of him about 20 feet away and hadn't noticed his arrival. The last guard of Death Eaters was in front of him with their backs to him about 30 feet away. They all were facing the door, wands drawn and ready to attack in an instant.

He changed back and became instantly invisible with a soundless spell. Again this action went unnoticed.

He placed silently the three flasks in front of him. With a flick of his wand they were hurled over to the Deatheaters and exploded in hot fire and sharp glass shards.

Three of them were instantly dead. The most of the rest was burning and screaming in pain. With another flick of his wand, the doors locked safely.

Voldemort jumped up and screamed "HE IS IN HERE! FIND HIM!"

Only four of the Death Eaters were able to obey his command. The others were busy rolling around the floor to extinguish the burning fire, but Snapes potion wasn't beaten so easily. It was burning despite all their tries to take out the flames. The fire burned through their skin until they didn't move anymore because they ceased to live.

Voldemort and the remaining four Death Eaters fired spells blindly everywhere around the room. They hadn't seen him until now and no idea where he was.

Harry used the time and casted a skull-crushing spell on one of the remaining four. He wanted to take out all of Voldemorts underlings before he would finally deal with the dark lord. He wanted no distractions during this final duel.

The fatal curse hit his target and one of the Death Eaters went down. Three were left plus Voldemort himself. The dark lord had seen where the spell came from and casted a revealing spell. But Harry was now well trained and left his position instantly. The revealing spell missed by more than four feet.

Still moving, Harry killed one more with a slashing spell targeted on the throat of the Death Eater. He was one of the few wizards, who could aim with such precision and out of the movement too. Unseen of Voldemort, Harry had moved further to the remaining two Death Eaters. They were still firing curses into the air, no idea where the attacker was.

Harry stood suddenly in front of Wormtail and he had yet to be seen.

Voldemort roared again: "FIND HIM YOU USELESS BASTARDS!"

He was still casting revealing spells but missed his target widely.

"Goodbye Peter!" Harry whispered and took a last look at the shocked face of the betrayer before he beheaded him with one swift strike of his sword.

Now Voldemort knew, where he was and Instantly flew curses at him. He jumped quickly out of the way and avoided the curses only by inches.

He rolled over the floor and as he jumped up, he stabbed the last Deatheater through the stomach. He recognized the features of this special Death Eater.

"Greet Sirius, Lestrange!" he whispered and tore his sword out.

"It is Potter!" she screamed before falling on the floor dead in a pool of blood.

Harry jumped away as the red beam of a Cruciatus hit the floor where he just stood.

He took a quick look around, only to see, that Voldemort was the last one standing.

"Fight like a man, Potter and reveal yourself!" the Dark Lord roared.

"As you wish!" Harry said politely and became visible. He knew that Voldemort himself wouldn't be fighting 'like a man' but Harry himself was bound to the codex of the warlocks.

They stood before each other eying the opponent wands raised and in Harry's case the sword too.

"Well, we finally meet again. I will have fun with your girlfriend when we are finished." The dark lord hissed.

"You are wrong in two cases. Firstly, my girlfriend isn't longer here and secondly, when we are finished, you will be dead." Harry said with an amused voice but it was laced with power and again he was surrounded by an eerie aura.

The room was filled slowly with the smell of the burning flesh mixed with the smell of blood.

"My servants will be here shortly." the dark lord taunted him.

"Sure. The few that are left. I have been on the lose for two hours in your precious home, Tom. What do you think I have been doing the whole time? By the way, the army of light is approaching and the few that are left will be soon battling them and fight for their own life."

A second later the building shook under an mighty explosion.

"The outer wards!" Voldemort gasped with wide eyes.

"Well, I guess they have arrived then." Harry laughed.

"It seems to be between the two of us then. Care for a duel?" Voldemort asked but attacked before Harry had a chance to answer.

Harry was hit with a really dark cutting curse and had now a huge slash on his left arm.

He holstered his sword, because it hurt too much to carry it with his wounded arm.

"You have no honor, Tom." Harry stated unphased and ignoring the pain.

Then he sent a bone crushing spell at Voldemort but he was easily able to deflect it.

The brown beam was deflected harmlessly to the ceiling and burned it lightly.

"You are using dark magic now? Isn't that forbidden?" Voldemort joked as they began to circle around each other. Despite their joking they were still eyeing each other warily.

"For you, yes, it is forbidden, but I am permitted." Harry joked back and fired an rain of ice shards against him.

He countered it with a fire ball which melted the ice.

"CRUCIO!" he bellowed but Harry simply took a step aside and fired a skull crushing curse at the dark lord.

"No mercy? And you are a warrior of light?" Voldemort was slightly surprised.

"No, a warrior of good." He answered and fired a whole series of bone crushing curses and stunners at him.

Voldemort was forced to jump out of the way and growled.

"Well then, so be it. No mercy! AVADA KEDAVRA!" Voldemort yelled and Harry levitated a chair in the way of the curse.

"Took a leaf out of Dumbledores book then? I am impressed."

"You will be far more than impressed… you will be dead!" Harry spat but still kept his cool.

Suddenly Harry heard a hissing sound beside him and fired a fireball at the huge snake. He killed her, but that distracted him and Voldemort yelled: "EXPILLIARMUS! CRUCIO!"

Harry wasn't able to react fast enough and lost his wand. He was hit with the pain curse instantly afterwards. Harry was able to keep standing and he bit back the shout of pain which wanted to escape his throat.

"Now lets take a look what two brother wands can make for a difference. CRUCIO!"

A beam three times as thick as the normal one was hitting him and now he screamed.

In the one minute he had to endure the curse, he stood shortly before to lose it. His world now only consisted of pain, there was nothing else. He had resisted so much pain in his short life, physical and emotional pain, but that was way too much. He only wanted to end it and he felt the darkness surrounding him and then .... he knew. If the darkness would swallow him completely he would be dead... it would finally end.. the pain would be over. But as he felt himself slipping away he had an image before his inner eye, the loving and smiling face of Tonks as he gave her the necklace and suddenly he didn't want it to end it anymore. He wanted to live and to love. He fought the darkness with all his heart. An he held on fueled from the love in his heart. Suddenly, an eternity for him later, it was over. Voldemort had lifted the curse from him unable to keep up the necessary power to held on the curse.

"That is nice!" Voldemort laughed, "I think I will keep it and have some fun with it when I am torturing your friends and your girlfriend."

Rage filled Harry now and something snapped inside of him. He jumped up with new inhuman strength all pain forgotten.

A magical surge was forming around him and whirled all the debris around him like a whirlwind. His eyes blazed with green fire: "YOU.. WILL… NOT… TOUCH… MY… FRIENDS! YOU WILL NOT DO SO MUCH AS LAY AN EYE ON MY LOVE!" he stated with a voice of pure steel.

"CRUCIO!" Voldemort bellowed but Harry held his hand out and a lance of a bright blue flame shot out of it and hit the curse. The curse dissipated to the astonishment of Voldemort. The flame and the curse had canceled each other out.

Harry held his other Hand in front of him and yelled with all his might: "EXPILLIARMUS!"

Both wands flew out of the hands of the dark lord and came over into his.

The Dark Lord stood there now gaping.

An instant later Harry was surrounded by pure blue fire.

Voldemort backed away from him and the heat and shielded his face with raised arms.

But Harry ran over to him to start the final attack. Voldemort drew two daggers and lunged at him.

Harry jumped back at the last moment. Hadn't he, his throat had been cut.

He drew his sword now with his right hand and stroke at Voldemort but he blocked the blade with crossed daggers.

The heat which Harry was emitting in a growing rate was getting to the dark wizard, his daggers began slowly to glow and as Harry stroke the next time, he couldn't hold them any longer. The way for Harry's sword was free. He buried the blade deep in the heart of his enemy. The dark lord screamed as his body died.

"That will not be the end." Voldemort screamed with madness.

"Yes it will be!" Harry said icily and let his fire go free.

The body of Voldemort was vaporized by the explosion of heat and blue fire starting from Harry. The pure fire erupted in a single circular blast. And Harry was in the center of it. But Harry was emitting another thing, compassion for his friends and pure love for his girlfriend which fueled the fire further. As Voldemort's body was vaporized, he saw, that also the unholy spirit of the dark lord was blasted into nothingness from the fire of his pure love. Another last unearthly scream filled the air before the spirit wasted away and the expanding fire reached the walls of the house and all went black for Harry.

While Harry was dealing with the Death Eaters in the throne room and engaging the dark lord, the combined force of the ministry consisting of aurors and Unspeakables and the Order of the Phoenix was still fighting out there against the Deatheaters. While in the first place there were not much in the house anymore and also outside, reinforcements had apparated in and now around fifty light wizards were fighting sixty Deatheaters.

The light wizards were led by Dumbledore, Snape, Rick, Tonks and Moony and they alone were a force to be reckoned with.

They felled Deatheater after Deatheater and again Rick and this time also Snape killing them while the rest was mostly stunning them. For the first time in her life, Tonks was also using lethal curses and hexes. She sent exploding hexes ans slashing spells against the Death Eaters, hoping that Harry was staying alive.

After five minutes of fighting, three explosions were heard in the second story of the house.

"That is Harry!" Tonks yelled, "Whatever you do, don't enter the house!"

"Why?" Dumbledore yelled back to her.

Rick muttered to him, because he was beside him: "Because he is not only a Warlock but a fire mage as well."

Dumbledore gasped before he stunned two more Deatheaters.

They managed it to push them back to the house and there were no more than ten Deatheaters left fighting now. The light forces had lost around ten aurors and members of the Order and more were stunned or hurt.

Tonks stayed back now and looked worried to the windows of the second story.

"Please, be alright!" she prayed.

Flashes after flashes of light were to be seen through the windows and then they heard unearthly screaming.

Suddenly she saw the known light of blue flames. Her yes widened and she yelled: "TAKE COVER!"

It was not a moment too early, because a second later the whole building was blasted apart in an explosion of blue and white flames followed by a wave of unimaginable heat.

The light forces were just out of the circle of destruction and the ones nearest to the house got minor burns.

The Deatheaters, who had stood with their back to the house, weren't as lucky. They were now ash along with most of the house.

As the rest of the heatwave washed over them and they looked up again, there were only ruins of the old house standing, one or two walls here and there with parts of the first and second story. The rest was only debris.

"HARRY!" screamed Tonks and broke down to her knees heavily sobbing.

Remus was beside her in an instant and hugged her.

"He will be alright. I know it." he whispered.

Rick came also over to the two wizards: "Yes he will be, he is immune to his fire. We have to look for him though. You wait here, we will tell you when we find him."

Tonks nodded and buried her head on Remus chest.

"I hope he is alright! The scream, that was he. I know it." she sobbed.

Poppy and other healers were tending the wounded and the others stepped carefully in the house and levitated the debris aside.

After a hour they found nothing and Tonks became despaired.

Even Moony looked lost now.

Another hour later most of the wizards were back with sad faces.

Lastly Dumbledore came to them and said: "We have moved away every pile of debris and found nothing. There are only small parts left of the upper floors, but somehow I don't believe there could have anything survived, I am sorry."

Tonks jumped up and looked to the upper floors.

She yelled at the top of her lungs "HAAARRRRYYYY!"

She stared for an eternity at the upper floors and was about to start to run in the house now looking for him herself as a silvergrey shadow raised from one dark corner of the rest of the second floor where the center of the explosion must have been.

The shadow raised himself into the air and Tonks asked quietly "Nightwing?"

Then she yelled full of hope: "NIGHTWING!"

The screech of a bird of prey answered her and a magnificent huge eagle glided down to her location in large circles.

The huge bird landed smoothly exactly in front of her and changed back to a battered figure of Harry Potter.

She wanted to hug him, but he broke down before she could grab him.

"HARRY!" she screamed again.

Poppy rushed over and cast some spells on him.

"He is utterly exhausted, that blast, if it came from him, would have cost him his last reserves." she explained.

Snape came over and pured a potion down his throat.

After some minutes his eyes fluttered and he awakened.

"Hi honey." He whispered to Tonks and tears started to fall down her eyes.

Then she gasped as she saw his arm, "Harry! Your arm!"

He turned his head and looked at the long bloody gash.

Poppy gasped too and muttered some spells directed to the wound, "It was caused by a really dark spell. I can't heal it and it was poisoned too."

"WHAT? Po... poisoned?" Tonks yelled and began to sob again.

She stared full of sorrow at her love but he looked back confidently.

"Well, now I could use the help of Derion." he said slightly smiling.

A blue flame erupted over them and shortly after that they could hear and feel the powerful song of a phoenix. Derion was gliding down to him and landed softly on his shoulder.

He held his head over the wound and let some tears fall on it.

Blue smoke raised from the wound and then it closed slowly until there was no more than a fine scar.

"Thank you my friend." He said and stroked the feathers of his bird.

Tonks beamed now and tears of happiness started to fall as he hugged her softly, but still weakened seriously.

As they separated she looked him sternly in the eyes and asked: "Are there any more secrets left?"

He seemed to be pensive.

"Well I have yet to show you my properties other than that… well ... yes. There is one more." He said with twinkling eyes.

"Spill it!" she demanded.

"What here? Around all the people?" he asked grinning like a devil.

"I don't know what he means, so it can't fall under the department." Rick said shrugging.

"Come on ... please!" she asked with puppy-dog eyes and the surrounding people laughed at her antics.

He lifted her chin and kissed her softly on the lips.

Then he looked deeply into her eyes and said quietly:

"Okay, I'll tell you. … It is over!"

Her eyes widened and she whispered: "You mean it is really over? Finished? Done? He… he is dead?"

Harry nodded, "I buried my sword in his black heart and then let the heat out of me. He was vaporized before my own eyes. There was nothing left of him not even his spirit, because the magical flames were only powered by my love for you and my friends and cleaned his soul of all evil."

She hugged him fiercely and kissed him this time passionately and the others around them began to cheer and clap each other on their backs.

After she separated from him, he groaned and she could see that his eyes were filled with pain.

"Poppy what is it?" she asked worried.

"That are the aftereffects of a really powerful Cruciatus. I have never seen such a thing before, not even on Severus." Poppy explained with sad eyes.

"Harry, what happened?" Tonks asked on the verge of tears again.

"He.. he got hold of my wand and decided, it would be funny to try out how brother wands are working together. Well… they do work together very well. I really thought for a moment I would die from pain. I... I wanted to die for a moment." he whispered, his eyes looking far away.

Tonks gasped but then Harry smiled fondly, "But as the darkness began to swallow me, I saw your beautiful face with your beaming eyes, as I gave you the necklace for Christmas and I decided, that I didn't want to die. I wanted to live, so that I can show you, how much I love you and fought. Only you saved me, Tonks, only you." he whispered.

She hugged him again with beaming eyes and whispered in his ears: "I love you, Harry. I love you with all my heart and forever."

Harry continued his story as they separated again.

"After my torture he said, he would use these both wands on my friends and you… and then I snapped. Well.. you see the result."

"You must heal now." she pleaded concerned.

"Yeah, give me a bed and I will rest…" then he whispered in her ear: "And one of your fine massages would do wonder."

She grinned and nodded.

"Let's head back then. Headmaster could you charm a Portkey to my quarters? I am kind of burned out." He added chuckling.

The headmaster nodded with twinkling eyes and said: "Sure, Harry."

But instantly he was regarded with a cold stare from Harry, Tonks and Rick.

"What?" The headmaster asked irritated.

"Well... I would say you learned nothing headmaster." Rick stated coldly, "He had just saved the world and is a full trained Warlock and some other things as well. He is also a first class Unspeakable. I am sure you remember how you parted... not on friendly terms. And not even after that you show him the least respect. You are to regard him as Mr. Potter and if I would be in his place, I would demand that you call me 'Sir' as well."

The headmaster blanched, "I... I didn't realize how much I did him wrong."

"And you never will. You never will know how I truly suffered under my relatives. You will never know how it was for me to lose my godfather and just then you revealed me the real burden that lasted on my shoulders and on top of that you again left me to suffer alone, separated from my friends, not able to speak with anyone. And you will never know how I felt, as you putted the life of my girlfriend in danger only because of your drive for personal prestige." Harry said full of sadness.

Tears of regret fell now down from the eyes of the old headmaster.

"I... you are right. I am truly sorry about all my errors. I hope, you can forgive me one day. I will set up your portkey Mr. Potter. I would like to talk to you both tomorrow, Mr. Potter and Miss Tonks. And I would like to thank you both... to thank all of you for what you have done."

Harry nodded and grabbed hold of the portkey as well as Tonks but only after Snape gave him another vial with potion.

"That is my personal reserve for aftereffects of the Cruciatus. I don't know how much it will do after the curse you suffered though. You have to wait at least half an hour after that energizing potion."

Harry nodded, "Thanks... Severus?"

"It is nothing, after all you have done today, Harry." he said smiling.

Then Harry and Tonks disappeared and Derion followed shortly after.

Thanks for all your reviews! I hope, this chap answered some of your questions. Sadly to say there are only 2 more chaps left until this story comes to an end and one is only kind of an epilogue. I don't know, if I am going to write a new english story in the near future, because I am behind the schedule with my ongoing work in german. I am also busy with some new german projects for now, so you will have to be patient if there ever is a new English story. But you have the Author alert. I am planning to mention it in the title of the story, if it is going to be in English so keep your eyes open, at least, if you enjoyed this story ;-)

Athenakitty: Nice to hear from you again. I think your questions are answered for now. Yes, Snape is thinking of Harry as an own person now and he does respect him now as well. A little bit more on that in the next chapter.

BovinePimp: Thank you for your many reviews!