Chapter Thirty-One
Blood and Tears

Harry was forced to return to where Voldemort was, laughing viciously, and inside his head, there was a different battle going on than the one between him and Voldemort.

'That's it, take the knife and plunge it into your heart. Just do it!'
'Why should I? Then I would probably die. And he would win, because he's making me do this. Nope, I won't do it.'
'You will! And you will do it NOW!'
'Will I? I don't think I want to do that. Sorry…'

Harry instead took the knife and plunged it into Voldemort's heart. Suddenly, the knife turned red, not from Voldemort's blood, but from some outside force. The knife became hot to the touch also, and Harry could hardly hold it any longer. 'But I must! I have to…'

"Arghhh!" Voldemort cried out, falling to the floor. He still wasn't bleeding though, Harry noticed. Just as Harry felt that if he held the knife any longer his hand would burn off, the knife became cool once more, and Voldemort let out one more terrible cry of pain. Voldemort's eyes became scarlet, redder than they were before, and his skin began to wrinkle further, as if his face would crack in any moment.

"POTTERRRR! YOUR BLOOD WIL PROTECT ME: THE BLOOD DRAWN FROM YOU, WHICH GAVE ME THE POWER TO BE REBORN! HAAHAAHAAA…"

With that, Harry pushed the knife even further into Voldemort's chest, and with that, a purplish liquid protruded from his wound. The ground began to quaver beneath Harry's feet, and the purple fluid ran down the knife, down to Harry's arm, and finally drenching the sleeves of his robes. Harry was standing over Voldemort at this time, because he had fallen to the floor, and although Harry was sure Voldemort was dead, he did not remove the stiletto from his enemy, the most terrible wizard in the world, the wizard who murdered his parents, and whose Death Eaters destroyed the families of many.

All of this seemed to play a role in the great anger Harry was feeling as he broke free from the Imperius Curse and killed Voldemort. But there was another emotion that caused him not to let go. Harry began to cry as he remembered the vision of his parent's death. They had died to save him, and he wanted to make sure that this avenged that greatly enough.

"HARRY! HELP ME! HELP M-" Ginny screamed from within the cupboard under the stairs. Now the ground shaking began to get worse, and the wind was so strong that the front door was blown off its hinges. Harry looked over at where Snape and Ginny were dueling, now outside of the cupboard. Ginny had Snape in a headlock, but his wand was pointed at her throat.

"Harry, you must release that knife! Look at your robes!" Ginny hissed as the purple liquid was dripping off Harry's robes onto the lightly polished wooden floorboards.

"H-h-he can't be dead! H-h-he's immortal! H-h-he told me he was immortal! Why, j-just look at his blood!" Snape cried out, terrified.

Harry and Ginny both looked at Voldemort's purple-covered chest. That is what Voldemort's blood must have been, they both realized. Harry never thought of Voldemort's never-ending quest for immortality. What if he wasn't dead? What if he had only passed out?

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" Ginny screamed, as she had finally been able to take her wand to Snape. She leapt of the ground and tried to pull Harry's arm with her. There seemed to be some kind of storm brewing outside, and the house was shaking so badly, Ginny thought it would collapse at any moment.

Ivy and Ebony hurried down the stairs, astounded by Harry's position over Voldemort's corpse. One silent tear rolled down Harry's face and fell onto Voldemort's chest. Harry finally pulled the knife from Voldemort and allowed himself to be dragged out of the house by Ebony and Ginny.

Seconds after they were a safe distance from Godric's Hollow, it collapsed, presumably killing Snape with it. Ginny sobbed and threw her arms around Harry's neck, and he held her gently. The house caught fire and Ebony and Ivy began to run, for they knew that the fire would spread.

"What're you two doing? Over here, c'mon now!" Ivy called, but Harry and Ginny did not move. There were smoky figures rising out of that house; not from the fire, because these figures were colored; they at least were human.

The figures floated over towards Ginny and Harry, and settled on the ground in front of them. The figures were familiar to Harry; he was sure he had seen them all before. Harry and Ginny recognized some of them, while others they had never seen in their lives.

But these figures all shared a connection…they all had at least one relation to one another…they were all killed because of Voldemort.

Some of these figures were actually killed by Voldemort himself; some were killed by his Death Eaters; and some were killed by the hand of an innocent witch or wizard who was put under the Imperius Curse by Voldemort or his followers.

Among these shadowy figures were Cedric Diggory, Bertha Jorkins, many old people, Tom Riddle Sr., the Prewitts, Neville Longbottom and his parents, Arthur and Percy Weasley, Sirius Black, and Lily and James Potter.

"M-Mum? Dad?" Harry whispered, afraid that they would disappear if he spoke too loudly. Lily and James smiled down at their son, sixteen years older than when they last saw him.

"Harry! You look so grown up. We knew that you would defeat him. But we have too much catching up to do to talk about that. Sirius told us much about your excellent powers. How about we see that Patronus of yours?" James asked, laughing heartily as he grinned down on his son.

It was not hard for Harry to think of a happy memory because his current situation was quite happy enough for him.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

A pearly-white stag erupted from Harry's wand and galloped around the grounds nobly. James looked down proudly at his son, yet a hint of disappointment shadowed his face that he could not have watched Harry grow and develop magically, physically and emotionally.

"Harry, we miss you so much! We love you, and we'll always be proud of you. I hope you know that," Lily Potter confessed, a small smile formed on her lips.

Harry grinned warmly, wishing he could reach out and hug his parents, but they were transparent, and definitely not solid. He glanced over at Ginny who was conversing with her father and brother happily.

"So, you aren't going to say hello to your old godfather?" Sirius boomed as he floated over to Lily, James and Harry.

"Sirius!" Harry shouted with joy, not that he missed his godfather more than his parents, but that he was happy to see the last member of his 'family' join in on the reunion. Even the fire burning behind them could not smolder Harry Potter's happiness.

"I see you have a girlfriend? She's a Weasley, isn't she?" James asked, glancing over at Ginny and smiling slyly.

"Ginny? My-my girlfriend? Nah, she's just the girl who helped me defeat Voldemort and save the world. That's all," Harry replied sarcastically, finally realizing his true feelings for this beautiful red-haired witch.

"So Harry, do you know how we're here?" Lily asked her son, her eyes glowing with satisfaction.

"No, not really. I was hoping you could explain that to me," Harry replied, a little confused once more. However, this feeling was slight compared to his extraordinary happiness and love for the people standing before him.

"Well, allow me to explain that Harry," Sirius suggested. "When you saw that vision of your parents' death, you wanted nothing more than to avenge that. You wanted to kill Voldemort right then. But you had to wait, and that made you even angrier, actually. When he used the Imperius Curse on you, you fought it off because you wanted nothing more than to avenge the ones that he cost you, the ones you loved. No one has ever thrown off an Imperius Curse cast on him by Lord Voldemort himself. But you are such a powerful and emotional wizard, that you were able to do it. But you Harry, you have a good heart, also. I believe Dumbledore has already told you this, but that is what separates you from Voldemort. You care, Harry, and as you watched yourself kill someone, although it was for a good reason, you couldn't help but cry. Your tears, tears of the loving, and tears of the innocent, mixed with the blood of someone who was partially immortal, was so powerful that it could release all of the souls that were cost because of Voldemort, and were later trapped with him. Only when you set him free by his death could we be set free. If he had killed you, then we would never have become what we are now: living memories."

Harry stood there in awe for a few seconds, still trying to realize what Sirius had said.

"So does that mean, you'll be here, forever?" Harry asked, suddenly uplifted at the thought of never losing his parents and his godfather again.

"Harry, I'm afraid not. We will vanish as soon as Voldemort's body is burnt completely, however crude that sounds. When his body is gone, we will leave with it. But we thank you Harry, because we would've never had this opportunity to talk to you. We'll always be with you in your heart," Lily explained.

"No! You can't, I need you!" Harry protested, but James interceded.

"Harry, there is a way for us to never have to leave you. You'll have to figure that out. But it won't ever be complete; we won't be able to live, but rather explore our past with you. But you'll have to be fast, because I feel as if I'm starting to diminish now," James explained as he slightly lost color.

Ginny, Ebony (who had been talking to her husband) and Ivy rushed over to Harry. He needed their help to figure out how he would never have to suffer without some reminiscence of his family.

"Portraits," Ginny said quietly.