Chapter Thirty - The Battle of St Nectans Glen
Harry sat on a rock at the lakeside some distance away from Ron's meditation spot and watched him cleanse himself with the ghost of Dumbledore. Hermione sat beside Harry and offered him some water.
"No thanks."
"It's strange isn't it?" she asked him as they watched Ron expel a dark green cloud of smoke from between his lips, "They barely even spoke during all that time he was alive and now look at them."
"Well we can't look at them seeing as only one of them is visible and they aren't really talking right now either are they?" Harry said with a mischievous grin.
"Don't be facetious Harry, you know what I meant."
"Are you happy that it's Dumbledore or do you think...are you a little...? Never mind."
"You're still angry with him for the coffin aren't you?"
"Aren't you?"
"Every day," she said quietly, "I'm sure there must have been a reason for him having to do it that way but I still can't help but think that he could have tried other things first. He could've tried a little harder to spare him that."
"Yeah."
They watched for another two of three minutes.
"How long has it been now?" Hermione asked him.
"Twenty six minutes, not long now," Harry said looking at his watch, "one of us should go over there to catch him."
"You're right, his head's still a little sore, I'll go."
Harry hadn't expected it to be any other way. Hermione was doing her very best to give Ron more space but it was obvious how much it killed her to be too far away from him. He put his hand in his pocket and felt one of the two hoops. Maybe he was wrong not to have destroyed them when he said he had. He vowed to do it the next time he was in London.
Hermione sat beside Ron and watched his meditation. The swirling light around his head being drawn in through his nose and the noxious smoke being blown out of his mouth over and over again, it was hypnotic in a way. Ron always looked so peaceful when he was like this. His skin had a healthy glow and he looked so relaxed. A knot tightened in Harry's stomach and he remembered his encounter with the Slytherin prefect who wasn't.
At breakfast the following morning Harry had scanned every face at the Slytherin table and he hadn't been there. He had confided in McGonagall and she had summoned all Prefects to her office, he wasn't among them, and Harry felt even more edgy. Was it just a Slytherin wind-up or was it something more sinister? He watched Ron inhale and exhale and prayed that his friend's serenity wouldn't be compromised. He couldn't believe that after all the trouble they went to keeping the truth from Ginny and Neville that Ron was at even more risk of being abused by a string of dead Death Eaters who knew his secret while his own little sister was in the dark. Well as much in the dark as a person like Ginny would ever allow herself to be.
Ron exhaled a small wisp of green smoke and then nothing but his own breath came out. This was the first time Harry had seen it happen but Ron had completely purged himself of magical toxins. Hermione's face lit up and just as she was going to beam at Harry Ron slumped and she leapt into action, catching him and resting him in her lap.
"Did you see that Harry?" she called over to him proudly, "He got it all out of him that time."
"Yeah I saw," Harry smiled as he got to his feet and walked over to them.
"Do you want to wake him or shall we let him sleep a little longer?" she asked.
Harry was about to reply when he heard a crack in the distance, it echoed around the valley and Harry froze, he had his wand out and Hermione looked startled.
"Did you tell anybody about this place? The twins maybe or Ginny?" Hermione whispered.
Harry shook his head and scanned the area around the waterfall. Then he heard several more cracks and turned to Hermione.
"Wake him up now!"
He heard Hermione mutter the revival spell and Ron being shaken awake against his will.
"Ron on your feet we've got trouble," Harry whispered.
"What?" Ron frowned as another few cracks echoed around the valley, but this time they were louder.
"How many of them are there?" Hermione asked him as she scanned the horizon with her wand, "I can't see anyone."
"This is not good Harry, something's really wrong," Ron said as he stood at Harry's other side.
"Ron there's something I think you need to know," Harry began.
"What?"
"Last night I..."
"Avada Kedavra!"
Hermione flung herself on top of both of them and they hit the ground, the green light of the killing spell whizzing past them far too closely for comfort. Harry looked in the direction the spell had come from and saw a triumphant looking Voldemort standing before him.
"You're stupider than I thought Voldemort," Harry scowled as he jumped to his feet and cast a bubble shield charm around Ron and Hermione as they helped each other up, "you just saved me the job of looking for you to finish you off."
Voldemort laughed and hurled a violent attack curse at Harry that he was more than ready for and deflected with ease. This was a mere mortal now, not an unbeatable sub-human beast, and Harry was going to take him down.
"You really think that Dumbledore's tomb was my last horcrux? I heard about to raising the thing to the ground, not a trace that the old coot ever existed now and for what? For nothing Potter, like I told you it was the phoenix and that my dear boy cannot die."
"The phoenix is the only thing on this earth that can't die, " Harry smirked, "including you. Plaga!"
The attack was defended without a blink. Harry noticed the shield around Ron and Hermione falling and so did Voldemort. Harry raised his wand to defend them against his attack but the two of them had an attack of their own planned.
"Sectum pulpa crebro!" they both yelled and multiple cuts slashed Voldemorts body before Harry threw up a shield charm before all of them and Ron turned around to throw another shield up to defend from the attack they all knew was about to come from behind them.
"Death Eaters," Voldemort bellowed with rage, "rid me of the two pests and leave me to duel with Potter in peace!"
"Like we planned it yeah?" Ron said to Hermione.
"Good luck," Harry heard Hermione saying before they went running off in opposite directions and seeking cover in the area that was, thankfully, more familiar to them than their attackers.
They had a plan, which was good Harry thought to himself, Ron's a great strategist. Then, as Harry threw three reinforced shield charms between himself and Voldemort, he realised that the dark wizard had just instructed his Death Eaters to kill Ron. He couldn't know about Ron, he wouldn't dispose of such a valuable weapon, Harry found his confidence boosted by this and went on the attack.
"Everbero letaliter! Oppugno leto! Trunco pulpa!"
After the onslaught of destructive and harmful spells was released from the tip of Harry's wand he cast another bubble shield around him to cover his back from the Death Eaters he couldn't trust to follow their master's instructions and leave their fight between the two of them. While Voldemort staggered and cast his own wand across his injured body, healing himself without any trouble, Harry heard Ron and Hermione's voices attacking and shielding themselves from the Death Eaters that outnumbered them.
Harry's shield was hit by a powerful spell of Voldemort's and he threw himself to the ground as a secondary spell penetrated the failing walls and whizzed past his left ear. From his spot on the ground Harry aimed up at Voldemort and yelled a spell to try and disarm the smirking wizard who gleefully approached him with his wand directed at Harry's chest.
"Abdo wand!" Harry said as he rolled away and jumped to his feet.
Hermione had once confided in Harry that the more obscure the spell, the harder it was to defend against. He could have used the standard disarming charm but that was easy to block. This one was supposed to remove something and hide it. Harry almost whooped with joy when he saw the wand vanish from Voldemort's hand.
"Foolish boy!" the dark wizard snarled, "Your childish games aren't any defence against me."
Voldemort flexed his long thing fingers and the wand re-appeared in his hand and his eyes flashed red.
"Impendio!"
Harry felt himself dragged upwards, off his feet, by his neck. He began to choke and gasp for air as he fought the invisible pressure that was crushing against his voice box to try to free himself. It was no good, he couldn't say the incantation, he couldn't say anything, and he couldn't call for help.
"Expedio!" Hermione's voice yelled and Harry was released, falling heavily to the ground, and she ran in front of him to put up a shield between them and Voldemort.
"Hermione no, this is my fight, Ron needs you in position. He can't hold them off by himself."
Hermione looked over her shoulder and raised her eyebrows while non-verbally reinforcing the shield as Voldemort threw shattering curses at the magical walls around them.
"I think you're underestimating Ron there."
Harry chanced a glance over to the other side of the valley where Ron was taking cover behind a rock as fifteen different curses slammed into it before standing and throwing a hex from his own wand that caused long spears to repeatedly shoot from his wand tip, like a medieval machine gun, and the Death Eaters fled.
"How the hell does he know how to...?" Harry began as he saw Hermione staring at the floor in a state of distraction, "...Hermione?"
She met his eyes and looked both betrayed and elated at once before answering Harry's half question.
"It's a gardening spell, they're poles for beans to climb up, he adapted it into a weapon, he might not be able to pull a sword out of a hat but he can use what he does know."
Hermione's voice was drifting off into a breathy whisper as she finished the sentence. What was going on? Was Voldemort weakening her through he shield? It still seemed to be holding. Harry did notice that Hermione's abandoned post was letting more Death Eaters close in on them from her side and he had to shake her out of this state of shell-shock. What on earth was she so distracted by?
He looked at the ground at his feet and saw what had fallen from his pockets when he had hit the ground; the bond of blood hoops. She could see that they weren't destroyed; she could see he had lied to her, and Harry could see her overwhelming longing for them.
"Hermione it's not..." Harry began but Voldemort finally broke through her shield just as a hooded Death Eater ran onto the clearing to stand at his master's side.
"Abrumpo discerpo!" Hermione screamed at the two figures with wild eyes and the Death Eater's hood blew off of his face and the man's wand arm was sliced clean off by Hermione's spell.
Harry gasped as Severus Snape roared in pain as he fell to his knees at his masters feet, clutching the stump at his shoulder. Harry felt an unfamiliar jubilation swelling inside him at this sight and pointed his own wand at the traitor, about to do some damage of his own when Voldemort took advantage of the distraction and blasted Harry off his feet and into the rock face behind him. Hermione was now standing before Voldemort alone, just as she had done before, Voldemort sneered. He wouldn't let her get away so easily this time. Hermione seemed to have a steely look in her usually warm brown eyes and pointed her wand to her feet.
"Accio hoops!"
"No..." Harry tried to shout out to her, this wasn't the time to get territorial over Ron, she'd get them both killed, what was she thinking?
The hoops flew into her waiting hand and she pushed one of them over her hand on let it float around her wrist.
"Bond of blood girl?" Voldemort sounded even more high-pitched than usual as his mirth increased at Hermione's odd behaviour, "You think your binder can save you and Potter do you?"
Hermione looked furious as she aimed her wand at the dark wizard.
"I am the binder and you are about to pay for last time," Hermione disapparated before Voldemort could laugh at this threat, she reappeared right behind him and thrust the other hoop over Voldemort's free arm at his side, the dark wizard spun around and lifted hi wand arm with genuine fear and fury before freezing on the spot like a statue, "I'm afraid I won't allow that."
Harry was amazed, Hermione stood before a completely immobilized Voldemort with a triumphant expression on her face.
"Oh my God, that was incredible Hermione!"
He ran to her and stared at the magically paralysed wizard.
"Well go on then, finish him off," she said with that familiar warmth and confidence back in her eyes.
"Weasley..." Snape's weakened voice growled from the spot he knelt, bowing over the arm he no longer possessed.
Harry spun around to scowl at Dumbledore's murderer.
"Don't you dare try to talk to my friends Snivelus, and Ron's doing a fantastic job if you care to look over..." Harry was turning to gesture to his valiant friend and his heart sank as he saw that Ron was no longer taking cover behind the rock.
"Ron!" Hermione screamed up into the valley.
The rock was in pieces, the Death eaters were wounded, some dead, but still throwing curses at the spot Ron had been as if the didn't know he was no longer there.
"Where did he go? What did they do to him?" Harry demanded as he turned back on Snape.
Snape's face contorted with pain and he shook his head.
"They didn't take him Potter, they've no reason to..."
Harry kicked his old professor in the stomach and jabbed his wand into the slimy bastard's throat.
"Did you see what happened to him?"
"He was there fighting and then he wasn't, I was keeping more of an eye on the two of you to be honest Potter."
Harry kicked him once again.
"Honesty? You talk about honesty to me you traitor!" Harry pointed his wand between Snape's eyes.
"Don't attempt an unforgivable curse Potter, you'll never have it in you."
"I will unless you tell me what they've done with Ron, I'll kill you all and I'll fucking well enjoy it too."
"He doesn't know Potter," a sickeningly familiar drawl came from over Harry's shoulder, Harry saw Hermione pointing her wand at the robed figure who revealed himself to be Draco Malfoy.
"You pathetic little ferret," Harry spat, "come to watch more dirty work you haven't got the stones to go through with yourself have you?"
"He doesn't know about the Weasel, I didn't tell any of them"
Harry felt a chill rattle his bones.
"What are you saying?"
"A prefect badge and my old tipple of polyjuice potion, the security in that damned school is still so bad you know, I'm not surprised hardly anyone came back this year."
Harry felt sick.
"That was you!"
"That was me," Malfoy smirked, "I was supposed to report back to my master when I found out just how it was your Weasel-king could suddenly do wandless magic. Well I found out didn't I?"
"What have they done with him? Where did they take him?" Harry began to shake.
"I promise you Malfoy if they hurt him I'll..." Hermione possessive instincts shone through so violently that even Malfoy cringed at her rage slightly.
"They've no reason to mudblood, I didn't tell them."
"Oh and I really believe that!" Harry scowled.
"He didn't even tell me Potter, and he's too good an occlumens for me to take the information from him," Snape's ragged voice said at Harry's feet.
"Another reliable source!" Harry snorted and kicked Snape again, feeling the satisfaction of a rib cracking in Snape's chest as he did.
"I know exactly what he is and I know exactly what they'd do if they found out," Malfoy said, trying to take a step forward but Hermione caught his eye with her own wand directed at him in the same way Harry's was aimed at Snape, "and I didn't tell any of them Potter."
"And why would I fall for that?"
"Because I'm asking you to," Ron's voice, though at the same time it wasn't his voice at all, sounded from the direction of the immobile Voldemort.
"Ron!" Hermione gasped and ran towards him with tears in her eyes.
"Miss Granger I have to say this is the best use you have made of those hoops since you first activated them."
Hermione stopped in her tracks.
"Miss Granger?" she asked, Ron didn't call her Miss Granger.
Harry felt as if he was going to be sick.
"Professor Dumbledore?" he said with a childishly frightened squeak in his voice.
Mayfoy smirked.
"Weasley asked me to bring him out for him, thought you could use a little more help than he could provide."
Harry looked from the Dumbledore wearing a Ron suit to Malfoy and back again.
"What did you do to Ron?"
"Harry he is safe, he is waiting." Ron's unusually calm voice smiled.
"But...but..." Hermione began to stammer, "...but he's not, you can't, you killed him so you could come out?"
Ron's hand rested upon Hermione's shoulder and he smiled sadly.
"He isn't dead Miss Granger, he's just swapped places with me for a short time."
Harry shook his head. That sounded bad.
"Swapped places; with you? Swapped places with you ya mean? That means he is dead doesn't it?"
Ron let out a sigh and looked over to Malfoy.
"You see sir I caught on immediately, even Weasley knew how it had to be, but these two? I don't know why Potter was ever your favourite sir, he's so dense and emotional."
Ron looked wearily amused and then turned his attention to Snape on the ground and crouched.
"Oh dear Severus that's a nasty nick isn't?"
Malfoy laughed. Hermione looked about ready to pass out and Harry wanted to scream. He wanted to grab Ron's body by the shoulders and scream into his friend's face for him to come back to them, to come back to life.
"Albus?" Snape croaked in disbelief, "It can't be, it's not possible, not unless Weasley..."
Ron put his finger to his lips and nodded over his shoulder to the immobile Voldemort.
"Those who do not move still have the ability to listen Severus."
Snape nodded, though his eyes were still wide with a horrified awe.
"Of all the promises I have made you make to me I'm afraid I must ask you to make me another," Ron sighed as he helped the weakened traitor to his unsteady feet.
"Anything, as long as you don't ask me to kill you again."
Harry felt himself sway, what on earth had been going on between the two wizards?
"You must promise me never to do as I do now, this is a matter of great urgency and as soon as our task is complete I will never disturb the peace of this boy's life again. I need to know you will not abuse this knowledge Severus."
"Oh my honour Albus." Snape bowed.
Snape bowed to Ronald Weasley! Harry convinced himself he had been killed, he had been killed and he was in hell.
"Honour?" Harry managed to sputter, "Him?"
Ron smiled at Harry and a familiar but absolutely un-Ron like twinkle flickered in his eye.
"I trusted Severus with my life and I trusted him with my death and I trust him with both life and death as far as Ronald is concerned. He is quite safe Harry, none of us want to destroy his wonderful mind, I promise you that."
Hermione tugged at Ron's elbow and looked up at him with tearful eyes.
"Give him back now, please give him back."
"Oh Merlin Granger you really are pathetic you know?" Malfoy grumbled as he rolled his eyes.
Harry drew back his fist ready to strike the ferret down but Ron took his arm and held it back with considerable strength.
"Mr Malfoy is on our side Harry, he has been working with Severus as a double agent," Harry snorted and glared at Snape.
"Where have I heard that before?"
"He discovered Ron's gift and kept the information to himself, not even telling Severus because he knew of the dangers of too many people knowing about it, and he didn't kill me if you care to remember Harry. He is not a murderer."
Harry glared at Snape.
"No that's him."
"Come now Harry you know now that it wasn't like that at all. If I remember rightly Ronald told you himself when you were nothing but two eleven year old boys, you have to make some sacrifices, Ronald made his sacrifice on that chess board and I made mine in the astronomy tower."
Harry shook his head.
Hermione suddenly spun around on the spot and searched the hills and smooth rock face of the valley before gasping.
"When did all the Death Eaters leave?"
"They didn't leave Miss Granger, Draco and Ronald bested more than enough to give them time to bring me out and I forcibly apparated them into Azkaban," Ron smiled.
"It is time for you to destroy the last fragment of Tom's soul now don't you think Harry? The seventh piece is waiting for you."
Harry bit his lip and began to breathe rapidly. He was about to kill somebody in cold blood. He was about to avenge his parents. He was about to fulfil that bloody prophecy that had caused all this trouble in the first place. He stepped up to the immobile wizard and felt his arm shaking.
"Unfortunately Harry it cannot be as simple as that," Ron said with a sad shake of the head, "if he is killed while bound to Miss Granger than there could be some negative effects."
"You mean I've got to release him?" Hermione gasped, "No, I won't do it, the bond of blood is only dangerous if the binder dies not the bound."
"Come now Miss Granger think logically, you know that isn't true."
Harry wondered why that had never come up when Hermione had argued with Ron about using the hoops if she knew the curse of death while bound worked both ways. Then he thought he understood. Hermione had obviously not been able to contemplate Ron being killed while under her protection and must have thought that if he ever did she would want him to still be with her, even in death. Hermione wasn't just going out with Ron, she was whole-heartedly and selflessly and selfishly in love with him all at once.
"But we've got him, we've finally got him and we're all safe, if I let him go then he could kill more people. he could kill Harry."
"If you never let him go the fear will never die, he will always be a threat, he will always be a shadow cast over Harry's life."
Harry understood this was how it had to be.
"He's right Hermione," Harry spoke, his breathing becoming strangely calm now, "I want him out of my life for good. I want it over with now."
Hermione gulped and she looked up at the dark wizard, his eyes flashing red as she did.
"I will protect everybody else," the Ron and Dumbledore in one said as he bent over to look Harry directly in the eyes, "you will have no distractions, we will all be safe and you can focus upon the task at hand. I promise you Harry, I will keep them safe for you."
Harry glanced over Ron's shoulder, he couldn't care less about Snape and Malfoy despite Dumbledore's claims that they were really good at heart, but he wanted to know that Hermione was going to be looked after. He also wanted to know that Ron was going to be protected wherever he was within the spirit world.
"Ron too," Harry said, knowing it didn't need to be said but demanding Dumbledore say it anyway.
"Ronald is my priority Harry, I will do everything in my power to preserve his physical form and his dear uncles are with him now to ensure that his spirit is guarded while he waits to come back to you."
Harry smiled.
"Fabian and Gideon?"
Ron nodded and Dumbledore's glint appeared in his eyes once again. Harry felt a little better about Ron's absence from his own body now, his uncles would look after him and see that he got back alright, he was going to be ok.
"Hermione, take off the hoop and stand well back," Harry said with newfound confidence.
Hermione sniffed and took a step toward the dark wizard and slid the hoop over his hand and leapt backwards as Voldemort made a grab for her as it left the tips of his fingers.
"Contego sempra!" Ron yelled as the continual protection spell enveloped Hermione and Voldemort's fingers burned against the magical barrier.
"Annullo! Depulso!" Harry yelled as the two curses hit Voldemort.
He blocked the first but had no time to shield himself from the second and was knocked off his feet and onto his back.
"Servo! Detino!" Ron's voice called out from behind Harry, he knew they were all being protected and didn't allow himself to be distracted.
He took a step forward and flicked his wand back down at Voldemort as he got up and threw the cruciatus curse at him, Harry ducked it and heard Ron levitating a rock to catch the curse in their stead as it hurtled toward them.
"Dirvo! Discerpo! Trucido pulpa!"
"Perfringo!" Voldemort jerked his wand and fragmented the spells and scattered them to the wind.
"How many times does it take you to fail before you realised that you can never win this Voldemort? It isn't meant to be."
"Neither are you boy," Voldemort's mouth twisted into a cruel sneer, "Obtineo captivas! Compescor!"
Harry felt himself being compressed, constricted, and he recognised the spells as ones Hermione had used to restrain Ron when he was first sleepwalking, the sound of Ron's voice echoed around the valley and Harry felt his invisible bonds pull apart.
"Reluctor!"
"Stay out of this old man!" Voldemort hissed at Ron.
Harry's heart jumped into his throat, Voldemort knew that Dumbledore possessed Ron's body, he just hoped he hadn't worked out how. With a combination of fear and rage he struck out at Voldemort with a roar.
"Oppugno! Ron is no concern of yours Voldemort; I'm the one you should be worrying about right now. Everbero crebo! Everbero intus!"
Voldemort ducked the first spell but caught the second and doubled over with pain, he aimed at Harry and cursed him with more different kind of hexes than Harry had breath to defend against.
"Discerpo! Caligo! Everbero doleo! Plaga leto! Trunco pulpa!"
"Contineo permeo!" Ron's voice yelled out and another bubble shield covered those behind him but now extended to Harry as well, Ron fell to his knees and Hermione dropped beside him and put her arm around his shoulders while Snape looked fearful and tried to perform a strengthening spell with his existing hand but to no avail as he wasn't ambidextrous, "Continue to fight Harry, spells can escape this shield but not penetrate, go on."
Harry nodded and hoped that this would be over soon; if Dumbledore was being forced out and left Ron with a weakened body there would be nobody to protect Hermione and the others. Harry flinched, he had just expressed concern for Malfoy and Snape, and he set his jaw with a determination to end this now and glared back at Voldemort who looked as if he was searching himself for something internally.
"Lost something Tom?" Harry said before hurling a spell at him, "Dirvo! Everbero caedo annullo!"
"The phoenix still lives, this can't be, this can not be!"
Harry felt enough joy in him at the sight of Voldemort panicking that he suspected he could produce the most powerful patronus in the history of magic, it would never fade, his grandchildren could play with it when he was an old man. That was how long this patronus would last. Harry laughed at this thought and realised that if he could laugh at a time like this then this was truly the time to conjure one.
"Expecto Patronum!"
The stag erupted from Harry's wand with as much brilliance as the sun, Harry couldn't even look at it the light was so blinding, and he yelled instructions to the great mystical creature.
"Attack him, drive him out of his body, drive him out of his living form, drive him out of existence!"
The stag charged and Harry threw curses at the wizard as he cowered and fell under the stag's hooves.
"Nusquam esse sempra!" was the final attempt Harry made to finish him off.
The dark wizard was losing, he had fallen and was struggling, weakened, screaming...but still not dead. Harry was running out of different spell combinations.
"Avada kedavra!" he bellowed as the stag reared up and hammered down upon the stricken wizard.
"No Harry," Ron's voice called out over Voldemort's screams of despair and fury, "you forget what I taught you, you never did believe me when I told you that was the way did you? It is love and not hate; you can't kill him with those curses because you have more love than hate. Strike him down with positive energy Harry, the most positive energy you have, the patronus was the right direction to go and you went back to the hate filled curses. Think Harry think!"
Harry searched his brain, any positive spell he could think of would help Voldemort, heal him or strengthen him or save him and that wasn't what he wanted to do. Why couldn't Dumbledore just tell him the spell he needed? Why was he always so bloody cryptic the frustrating old codger?
"Potter...close your mouth and you mind remember?" Snape growled and Harry stared at him with wide eyes.
He looked back at the dark wizard that just wouldn't die and stepped out of the protective bubble shield. Hermione screamed out for him to be careful but he just walked calmly toward Voldemort and called off the stag, which stepped away and stood at his side.
"Potter, you may have destroyed the other horcruxes but the one inside me is the one you can never touch. My soul resides within me in a place you would never think to look and none of your righteous anger can ever penetrate. You can never defeat me and I will one day finish you."
The dark wizard smiled, he grinned an evil grin and his eyes flashed red as he began to laugh.
"Whatever you do, however you do it I will destroy you, you will die. There will never be a happy ending for you boy..." Voldemort pointed up at Harry's scar, "...you are a marked man."
Harry knew what was needed but he didn't know how to achieve it. He looked back at Ron, supported on the ground by Hermione and Snape, and asked for help.
"How do I make him see?"
Ron's face looked triumphant and he pulled himself back to his feet, Harry knew that Dumbledore had just used Legilemancy to understand Harry's plan and he wondered how this was going to be possible. The Dumbledore Ron left the bubble shield, still supported on either side, and seemed to be having an internal moment of concentration before letting out a deep breath and smiling at Harry.
"Severus, Miss Granger, this is as far as I need to both, thank you but I will be able to do this myself from now on."
Hermione didn't want to let Ron's body go anywhere near the danger zone and Snape was equally reluctant to let Dumbledore, his true master, go near Voldemort in his vulnerable state but they both stepped back into the shield and waited with Malfoy who had his wand out, covering the possessed redhead as he stood behind Harry and rested his hands on his shoulders.
"Now Harry I need you to produce another patronus for me but this one won't be yours."
Harry looked over his shoulder but Ron nodded for him to focus back on Voldemort in front of him.
"Will it be yours sir?" it felt weird calling Ron sir.
"No, not mine either Harry, just conjure the patronus and I'll will do the rest...along with Mr Weasley and the Prewitts of course."
Harry felt another buzz of pleasure and confidence, Dumbledore's little internal moment had obviously been some kind of communication with Ron, wherever he was, and he and his uncles were going to help him. Ron and Dumbledore were going to be fighting with him, they were right behind him, and Harry had never felt happier than this since he heard the prophecy. He had always feared that this final moment would be his loneliest but it wasn't going to be that way at all. He was surrounded. He was surrounded by love.
"Expecto..."
"Send her now Ronald!"
"...patronum!"
A brilliant light exploded from the end of Harry's wand and when the flash died down a glowing silvery white figure stepped away from the wand tip, it was a woman. It was a woman Harry recognised.
"Tom?" the woman spoke in a ghostly echo that made Harry's body feel cold inside, he even shivered when the sound of her speaking again hit his ears, "You can't be..."
The woman crouched down before Voldemort and reached out a translucent hand to his face. Voldemort looked terrified and tried to pull away from the woman.
"...my Tom, my boy?"
"No!" Voldemort shuddered and looked disgusted as the woman tried to cup his face in her extended hand, "No!"
"What have you done to yourself my angel?"
"No!" Voldemort said again as he scrambled backwards away from the figure of his mother.
"What have you become?"
Voldemort was scrambling away from the spectre of his dead mother backwards while unable to tear his eyes away from the woman who looked so desperately sad as she drew nearer to him.
"I tried my best for you, I never wanted to leave you, my precious baby boy."
You aren't her, she was weak and pathetic and a filthy muggle-loving..." Voldemort trembled.
"You've become one of them,"
"...you should have been a squib! You're a disgrace to the Slytherin bloodline. You have nothing to do with me you worthless pathetic blood traitor!"
"You've become nothing more than the man my father wanted to be."
"No!" Voldemort screamed with disgust.
"You are just like them, your grandfather and your uncle. I just wanted you to be good and kind and loving and all you wanted was..."
"I am nothing like those imbeciles, those rancid parasites living off the name of Salazar Slytherin, I am Lord Voldemort!"
"...power."
"I have power, I am an immortal, I have done what you couldn't do mother, I cheated death. I wasn't that hard. Why couldn't you have done it? Why couldn't you have done it for me?"
"You are my Tom, my boy, you aren't Lord Voldemort at all. He never existed my love."
"Don't call me that!"
"Tom is your name, you're my boy Tom, Tom Marvollo Riddle. My son Tom."
"Not that, don't call me that either but don't call me love."
"You are my love Tom."
"Don't say that!" Voldemort curled in on himself and screamed, he forced his eyes closed so he couldn't see the woman who kept advancing them more he tried to retreat from her. He was at the edge of the lake now and could go back no further, "Love is what took you from me. You let yourself die for love. You were weak and selfish and wrong. Love is wrong!"
"I love you Tom."
"I don't want it!" Voldemort roared as he scrambled back further and found himself sitting waist deep in the still lake.
"I gave you my life and you spent the rest of your own taking other people's from them. All because you thought love killed me, my love for you."
"Shut up!"
"I didn't die because I loved you Tom."
Voldemort crawled back further into the lake.
"You ignorant blood traitor, you were a disgrace to a disgrace of a family and I broke away from them, I eliminated their shameful presence from the history books before it could be recognised the they dirtied the name of Slytherin. I am the heir of Slytherin. I am the new generation. I am the one who will show the wizarding world the way back. We have been lost and infected and out blood has been diluted. You diluted my own blood you whore!"
"Your blood is poison now Tom, you tainted it when you killed innocent people, you were a great gift to the wizarding world and you took your gift and made it toxic. You are the poison Tom. You are the disease that infects the wizarding world."
The ghostly woman was waist deep in the lake now and Voldemort was floating and flailing as he tried to keep of her reach.
"No!"
"Father told me to drown you at birth but I did everything I could to save you and give you life."
"Mother stay back, stay away from me!"
"If I had know then what I know now Tom I would have done as he asked."
"Mother no, please don't say that!" Voldemort looked crushed as he flailed in the deepening water.
"You are the one with the tainted blood Tom, the blood of those you killed is coursing through your veins, and I have to stop you now."
"No, mother please don't," Voldemort's red eyes faded and he looked at the ever-advancing image of the young woman as she curled her fingers around his shoulders.
"I love you Tom, but it's time to wash you clean away from this world."
As Voldemort was gently dragged under the water his eyes stared in to his mothers as they were both immersed in the still waters of St Nectans Glen, the magically created source of water and purity, and he managed to say one more thing before the water covered him completely.
"Mother don't leave me again."
As both the figure of Voldemort and the patronus in the form of his mother disappeared under the water the lake shone with silver light and Harry knew what he had to do.
"Septus profundum sempra!"
The lake bubbled for a moment and then was still once again. Voldemort would not rise from the lake again.
He heard a groan behind him and spun around to see Ron collapsing onto the ground. Harry dropped down beside him and held him up, the twinkling eyes they weren't really Dumbledore's to twinkle gazed upon Harry as Hermione, Snape and Malfoy ran to join them.
"Professor is it still you or are you...?" Harry began before Hermione interrupted him.
"Ron?"
Hesmiled and shook his head.
"Not quite yet Miss Granger, he's on his way now," Dumbledore turned Ron's head to look back at Harry and smiled a little wider, "I'm very proud of you Harry, you were magnificent."
"I didn't do it alone."
"You are never alone Harry, and now you can live...as the other no longer survives."
Harry felt a weight lift off his shoulders as Ron's eyes began to close and his body began to relax further in Harry's arms before opening again and his head lifting to stare at Harry quite purposefully.
"Would you say goodbye to Ronald for me Harry as I will not be speaking to him any more after today?" Harry nodded, Ron was finally free again, "And please thank him for being such a gracious host."
"I will, thank you for keeping him safe."
Ron's eyes closed and his head fell back. Ron's body was hanging completely limp and loose now. Hermione leaned forward and kissed his forehead before jumping back and gasping.
"He's burning up!"
Harry suspected as much, and looked at Malfoy who was frowning guiltily.
"Yeah well that was me, he told me to do it Granger, don't give me that look!" Malfoy tried not to cower under Hermione's livid scowl, "he said Dumbledore would be stronger if he had a fever so I...made him ill, nothing that St Mungo's can't fix I swear."
"Well it better hadn't be," Hermione warned him as she helped Harry drag the unconscious Ron to his feet while Malfoy helped Snape up.
"Well let's get them to hospital and tell the world that the great bloody Potter is the new messiah," Malfoy grumbled.
Harry scowled at the still easily hateable boy before looking across the Snape's severed wand arm resting on the bank.
"Shall we take that, they might be able to re-attach it, they can do it in the muggle world sometimes so the magical..."
"Don't bother Potter," Snape growled, "it's too late for that now, let the scavengers have it. Come on, before Granger decapitates me on a whim."
"Well I didn't know you were on our side did I?" she snapped defensively as she swayed under Ron's body weight, "Can we go now Harry, he's getting really heavy now."
"I'll do it, you help professor Snape," Malfoy snapped as they swapped burdens, both looking extremely reluctant to do so.
"So what are we going to portkey then?" Harry asked none of them in particular.
"Well use the hoops," Hermione said, Harry flashed her a concerned look, and did she still have the bond of blood on her mind even now he wondered? "I have to take them with me so I can make sure Fred and George actually do destroy them this time around."
Harry smiled at her as they prepared to leave.
It was all over, they had done it, they had survived and they were going home all in one piece.
Well apart from Snape!