Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters.

Triumvirate of power.

Everyone watched in shock as the ugly form of the Dark Lord collapsed, the dagger still deeply buried in his back. No one moved, not daring to believe what had just happened. Finally, Dennis, who had been trying to make sense of everything what was happening, spoke softly, but due to the mortal silence that covered the room, it was as if he had shouted those words.

"Colin?"

The sound travelled through the room, waking everything from their shock. As one, the Death Eaters turned to the teenager still standing in front of Voldemort, forgetting about the teachers that were cautiously watching for an opportunity to get their wands back. Malfoy, the quickest of those who had the Dark Mark, was about to cast the killing curse when the windows behind the teachers' table shattered into a thousand pieces. A large Griffin flew through the opening, roaring, and startling the Death Eaters. This gave Colin the opportunity to move. Lurching forward, the teen started to throw spells left and right and was soon joined by Ron, who had transformed back.

It didn't take them more than a few minutes to overpower the Death Eaters. Soon, the teachers had their wands back in their pockets and were facing the two teenagers. Dumbledore looked a bit hesitatingly.

"Mr. Creevy?"

Before anyone could utter a word, the doors to the Great Hall opened again, and a body fell forward, causing quite a few screams. After the fallen figure, Hermione entered the room, followed by the Potions Master and Tonks.

"I'm afraid he's a bit indisposed right now, Headmaster, but I'm sure he'll be willing to answer a few questions later on."

A dark voice over her shoulder spoke softly. "And if not, I'll make sure he is willing."

Dumbledore moved his eyes from the still prone figure to his double only to be faced with Harry, who was looking unconcerned around the Hall. Before the Headmaster had a chance to comment, the red-headed youth spoke.

"Don't you think we should call the Ministry? After all, I'm sure they'll be interested in seeing all these Death Eaters."

Harry's gaze had fallen on Voldemort's prone form. The dagger was pulsating lightly, and he knew that their work was not finished yet.

"Headmaster, please, can you get everyone out of the Hall? I'm afraid that if we don't do something soon, the power of my dagger won't be able to contain Voldemort's soul for much longer, and we'll have to start all over again."

Dumbledore, while he didn't understand exactly what the teen meant, nodded his assent, and at his movement, the heads of houses started to gather their students and sent them back to their towers. Snape, who hadn't moved from the door, now walked closer to the Headmaster. "What about the Slytherins, Albus?"

The old man turned towards the students; while the younger ones looked scared, the sixth and seventh years were glaring darkly at Harry who was now talking quietly to his two friends.

"I don't know what we'll do with them, Severus. Could you take the older ones to some place in which they can do no harm, to either us or each other?"

Snape looked pensive for a second, then he took his wand, pointed at the place where the older students were sitting and softly whispered: 'dormus'. At once, all the students affected by the spell slumped forward until their heads were resting against the table. At Dumbledore's raised eyebrow, the dark Potions Master shrugged. "I couldn't think of any other way in which they wouldn't harm anyone."

The Headmaster chuckled and left the man to deal with his little snakes. The trio had now approached the former Dark lord and was looking at him critically.

Griffin looked at him when he approached them. "Headmaster, we really need you to hurry and get everyone out of here."

The old man frowned. "It's a bit difficult to manage with so many bodies. It might take us a few minutes."

Ron frowned and returned his gaze to the body. Dumbledore hadn't noticed before but now he was fairly sure that the pulsating dagger was not as deeply buried in Voldemort's back as it had been.

Harry's soft voice offered an explanation to the unasked question. "His body may be dead but his soul is still alive. In the old Chinese wizarding tradition, it is said that a wizard doesn't die until his soul has passed away to the ethereal plane where they are cleansed and returned to the earth to be reborn. And while this happens to every single person, the wizards from old were afraid that the darkest souls, those that came from wizards that had committed murder or other grave crimes, would contaminate the ethereal plane and distort the cleansing of souls. To keep those souls from going, the ancient wizards came up with this dagger. It's not only a powerful weapon, but it's also a soul catcher. The souls from the wizards killed by it were sucked inside the dagger and guarded in special containers until such a time that the wizards thought the soul would be weak enough to not damage the ethereal plane."

Dumbledore nodded in understanding, even if he was a bit chilled at the sight of such a powerful weapon. He couldn't help but wonder what it would do if the wizard attacked by such a weapon was not killed but only wounded. Would the dagger still suck its soul out? Shaking his head, he returned his attention to the matter at hand.

"Is it supposed to do that?"

The dagger had now started to tremble slightly. Harry sighed. "Ideally no, but you have to realise that Voldemort was exceptionally powerful, so it's no wonder that his soul has retained a great part of that power. On the other hand, the daggers aren't used anymore; it was by chance that I managed to get my hands on this one, but their power has lessened over the centuries. Now I don't think it would be able to hold a normal wizard's soul for more than a month or two."

Dumbledore sighed. "So, what now?"

Harry couldn't help but raise an eyebrow to the older man, what was with the suddenly complacence? He had expected the old man to try and do things his way instead of watching passively as they did what they thought was best. Shaking his head, he nodded towards Phoenix, who was just at that moment pulling a small package out of her pocket.

The girl looked behind her and seeing that the hall was nearly clear, she unpacked the small box. Dumbledore watched curiously as a black box was revealed. Hermione made no move to open the box, instead she seemed to be waiting patiently for everyone to leave while taking up the explanation where Dragon had stopped.

"The ancient Asiatics were not the only ones that thought they ought to modify souls before they went to the after-life. In the Mayan society, it was common practice to cleanse the souls just after someone died. They used to think that un-purified souls offended their gods and the greatest punishment for someone was to be killed and left without purifying his soul. I had the chance to research quite a bit on the matter while I was there; at first I thought the rituals were just done to allay people's fears of death, just as many others in the world. But there were a few places in which magic came into play and in which I'm sure they really cleansed souls. To do that, they had large torches cremating with Phoenix fire. They cremated the bodies and just as the phoenix tears, the fire healed the soul of the one who had just died."

No one was left in the hall besides them. Griffin could see Sirius and James standing just outside the hall looking like they wanted to enter but not sure if they should. Hermione, who had noticed too, finally opened the box and showed the contents to Dumbledore.

The old man gasped slightly at the sight. It must have been the most beautiful stone he had ever seen. If the Phoenix necklace he had received from the teenagers had seemed beautiful, this stone was simply breath taking. It seemed fire was directly taken from a phoenix and frozen inside the stone. Hermione, guessing his thoughts, smiled gently.

"It is indeed Phoenix fire. The problem that the Mayans had was that sometimes, the soul fled the body before they had been able to finish their rituals. That was usual for those who betrayed their beliefs or the young teenagers that were not burdened by a long live and had nearly no ties to the world which they were about to leave. Voldemort, being the annoying soul that he is, may very easily be able to flee the fire before we have a chance to end it. That's why we made this, especially for him. The fire is burning inside and the cover made of Dragon scales will be able to contain as much power as needed while Voldemort's soul is cleansed."

While their explanation made sense, Dumbledore still had a few concerns. "Will cleansing be enough for him?"

Griffin spoke this time. "For him? Yes, we're pretty sure that the fire will destroy him. After all, his soul is as dark as he himself was so faced with the pure light of the phoenix fire, he should be destroyed." Sighing, he motioned to the empty room. "But just in case, it will only be the three of us in here. Should he escape his confinement, he will be trapped in this room with us. A few charms will make sure of that, and then we will just have to wait, after all, a soul can only survive so long without a body."

The Headmaster was forced to point out: "You will still be here."

Harry snorted. "Don't worry about us, we're protected against such an attempt. He wouldn't be able to possess one of us."

When the old wizard opened his mouth to ask another question, Phoenix cut him out. "Our time is up. You need to get out of here and allow us to finish our preparations."

Sighing, the old man nodded reluctantly. "Be careful, children, and stay safe."

With those last words, the old Headmaster left followed by the curious gazes of the three teenagers. As one, one thought ran through their minds and into each other's. 'What's up with him?'

Shaking his head, Harry closed the door firmly with a wave of his wand. "Let's think about Dumbledore's passive behaviour after we've done this."

Nodding, his two friends moved to the broken windows, and after mending it, Ron started to walk around the room, muttering softly and poking the walls with his wand, placing the containment charms all along the room in case that Voldemort's soul broke free.

For their part, Phoenix started to draw a large figure one the floor with her wand, and Dragon moved the dead body to the centre of the circle.

It took them nearly half an hour to get all the charms in place, and by that time, only the tip of the dagger was still buried in the Dark Lords prone form. Each of them went to stand at one point of the triangle drawn over the circle, and after sharing a last look they closed their eyes. It was time to end this war.