Neither can Live While the Other Survives …
Chapter one: This is It
Summary: Either must die at the hands of the other, for neither can live while the other survives … the Prophecy is about to be fulfilled …who will die at the other's hand? Harry must vanquish the Dark Lord, or the Dark Lord will vanquish him …
Disclaimer: I cannot tell you how mind numbingly pointless these are. Am I JK? No. Do I own Harry? No. Did you think I did? No. All I own is the plot.
AN: Hi all; I'm getting bored with writing all these Harry fics and never actually getting to the exciting parts. So here it is, straight in at the deep end. If it helps you to get in to it, I kinda imagined the action scenes to the Gladiator music, (any sado like me who actually has the soundtrack, track 13; Barbarian Hoard.) Might be short, only a few chapters, but please read and review. Savvy?
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BOOM. The great oak doors rang and shook with a shuddering sound as from outside, various spells, trolls, giants and battering rams were being hurled at it. The defences would have to hold a little longer; not everybody was safe and out of harms way. BOOM. The doors shook again, creaking under the strain of the invasion and the burden of having to guard the entrance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The entrance hall was, in fact, empty but hidden up the great marble staircase and behind the two adjacent doors, an army was stationed. It was the last army, the last stand against the Dark Side. Voldemort only had to obliterate these protestors, and his reign of power would be complete.
Harry Potter was standing tall, wand clutched in his hand, heart pounding hard against his ribcage. This was it, either way, after this … it would be over...
By his side where his best friends in the entire world, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. After sticking by him for as long as they had known him, Harry was immensely grateful that they were here, standing next to him, when it could be the last time they were all together. Don't think like that, or it probably will be, he told himself. Hermione seemed to sense what he was thinking.
"This is it, Harry," she said quietly, fear in her eyes.
Harry swallowed. He was worried of speaking because he might actually voice what was going on in his head, and the others did not need to hear that. "This is it," he repeated. Harry had not told anyone what the Prophecy had said. He had not told anyone, save Dumbledore who already knew, that very soon, Voldemort would either be dead and everything would be all right, or he, Harry, would be dead. The latter would be nice, he thought.
Ron seemed to be shaking. "I'm right here with you, mate," he said in a shaky voice, which conveyed that he would rather be anywhere else than here, but when Harry turned to look at him, a loyalty lay within his eyes that told Harry that Ron would die for him.
They were standing in the Great Hall, all tables removed, obviously. Behind Harry, Ron and Hermione stood the vast majority of the seventh year. Many parents had forbidden their children from taking part in the final battle, but some had agreed and were in a different room with the other parents, ready to fight themselves. Also in the room was Luna Lovegod and Ginny Weasley, neither of them seventh years. Ginny was there against her parent's will, who were currently standing by Dumbledore. She was also strategically hidden behind Luna's dirty blond hair, unnoticed by Harry or Ron, who would have wilfully objected at her presence.
In the dungeons opposite resided parents of children and Ministry workers, along with them, Cornelius Fudge. On the first floor stood the Professors; Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick; they were all there. Opposite to this door was the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom in which stood the Order of the Phoenix, Lupin at the front. They were all there.
McGonagall turned anxiously to Dumbledore. "Albus, if they … when they get in … the first they are going to meet is Harry! Is this wise?"
Dumbledore turned his head towards McGonagall. "Minerva, you know the plan. You know what we must do."
McGonagall nodded, swallowing. "I do, Albus, it's just … Harry has waited all his life for this battle … it is what he has suffered for, it is why he bears the scar … I want to be by his side!"
"We will, Minerva. We will."
McGonagall drew a shuddering breath. "This is it, Albus."
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BOOM! The doors shook one final time and then clattered lifelessly to the floor, finally defeated. A great and echoing silence rang through the entrance hall as neither side moved. Voldemort's army seemed to be still, for the moment. Everyone heard the doors crash, everyone knew they were inside.
The first Death Eaters entered the threshold, wands out at the ready. Behind them followed an army of Dementors, easily one hundred strong. More Death Eaters followed afterwards, in their hundreds. A tall and hooded figure came next, Death Eaters at his side, a couple of giants behind him. Presently he spoke in a voice that chilled the grave.
"Station the trolls outside, one for each boarded exit. No one gets in, no one gets out alive."
The Death Eaters nodded and a few went to follow up the orders.
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Harry's scar seared with a sudden pain and he clapped his hands over it in case in began to bleed. People gasped, as though this were the signal they had been waiting for. Harry felt a surge of triumph that he knew had nothing to do with his own feelings. Shakily, he stood to face Ron and Hermione, their faces anxious.
"They're here. He's in."
AN: First instalment : complete! Haha. READ AND REVIEW!!!
