Chapter 16: "This Time Potter Will Die!"
Snape looked around the exterior of his house. He nodded to Moody as they approached cautiously. He broke the wards on the door and entered with Moody behind him by three paces. Feeling something familiar, he extended his hand and cast the "accio wand" nonverbally. His own wand flew from the sitting room to his hand. Snape smiled broadly, but then backed up looking around for intruders.
"What is it, Snape?" Moody wanted to know.
"My wand is here. That means that the Dark Lord was likely here, too. I don't sense his presence at the moment, but we may not have much time…no not much time at all," Snape worried. "This way…"
As they turned the corner to go to the hidden doorway, they both heard humming from the kitchen. They flattened themselves against the bookcases. Wormtail came around the corner with a tray of goodies made for himself. He saw Snape and Moody, dropped the tray, but could not retrieve his wand quickly enough. Moody commanded: Expelliarmus!
"Who else is here," Snape hissed as he placed his wand to Wormtail's neck.
"No one, Severus, no one," Wormtail whimpered.
"How did you get my wand?" demanded Snape.
"Come on Snape, there is no time for this!" Moody was impatient.
Snape flicked his wand at the secret door and let Moody in. He dragged Wormtail along after casting an anti-transformation spell onto Wormtail. He also did a body bind to hold him fast.
"No slipping through my fingers this time," Snape's eyes narrowed to which all Wormtail could do was shake his head.
Moody tore through Wormtail's belongings and found what they were looking for in short order, "Let's go, Snape. We're done here."
Snape hissed, "This thing goes with us."
"Fine. Let's be off," Moody commanded.
Once the cup was delivered to McGonagall, Moody removed Pettigrew to the Ministry but not before Wormtail told Snape that the Dark Lord had given Snape's wand to him as a trophy, together with Snape's house at Spinner's End. Pettigrew was placed in the cell recently vacated by Malfoy. Special wards were placed on the cell so that he could not Wormtail his way out as Sirius had done years before.
That left something of Ravenclaw's and Nagini to eliminate as soon as a safe way of destroying the cup was discovered. It was Bill Weasley, the expert Gringott's curse breaker, who discovered a way to remove the horcrux without killing the spell caster.
Scrimgeour requested that Harry join him in the Minister's Office for a face-to-face meeting. The first thing Harry wanted to know was if Stan Shunpike had been released from Azkaban yet.
The Minister chuckled, "Yes, we're releasing him today. But of more interest is that we have cleared your godfather, Sirius Black's name in conjunction with the Muggle slayings and the death's of your parents. It seems another of their friends, Peter Pettigrew, was wholly responsible. Auror Alastor Moody has captured Pettigrew and put him in Azkaban. I thought you'd like to know that."
"Thank you Minister," Harry said as politely as he knew how, when he really wanted to just scream at the man.
"I understand that you have a desire to become an auror, yourself," Scrimgeour noted.
"That's true, I do want to become an auror," Harry affirmed.
"The new class begins in fall. I expect to see you there," the Minister stated. "And I also expect you to stay out of trouble until then."
"Understood, sir," Harry chaffed.
As Harry left the Minister's office he noticed the portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw. It was not the traditional one from the Frog Cards. On her head was a tiara that looked terribly like one he'd seen before. If only he could place it. Then it hit him; it was in a vault at Gringott's! Now how to get it out… The Order decided to have Bill investigate which vault and its nominal owner before trying to get it out. It was listed under the Black name. Harry was the legitimate heir of Sirius Black who had been the last remaining Black heir, thus Bill and Tonks went with him to retrieve the article. To prove it, he took Kreature with him. The Black's house elf, while not happy about it, had to obey what his master's commanded. That was sufficient for the Gringott's staff. Once the seal to the vault was broken, Bill immediately broke the horcrux curse on the tiara in the same way he had to Hufflepuff's cup. They brought the tiara back with them and placed it next to the cup in the same display case as Gryffindor's sword in the Headmistress' office. Now only Nagini and the Dark Lord himself remained to be eliminated to set the Wizarding world free from the tyranny of Voldemort.
There were two preferred places for the final battle: Hogwarts and the graveyard where Voldemort had returned. Snape preferred Hogwarts' home field advantage, but McGonagall preferred anywhere but Hogwarts. She had lost enough here to have any desire to lose more in a battle that was certain to be marked by total destruction and heavy loss of life for both sides. The Order decided it would be better to have the final battle take place in a space that they controlled. Moody, Snape, and Lupin planned the defenses for Hogwarts, if the final battle were to take place on the grounds or in the castle. Hagrid had a large assortment of magical creatures on which he could call. Even the centaurs had agreed to kill any Death Eater who dared enter their forest but would spare the lives of others who sought temporary refuge within the dense foliage. Now all they had to do was lure Voldemort with Nagini into their carefully laid trap. With what to bait such a trap? The beings that Voldemort most wanted dead: Potter, Malfoy, and Snape!
Luna let it slip to her father that the surviving Malfoys, Snape, and Harry were staying at Hogwarts and that the wards just were not as secure as they had been under Dumbledore. Hermione worked on Rita Skeeter to put a similar story in the Daily Prophet. The trap was now baited; all they had to do was wait for it to be sprung. They figured the most likely day would be graduation day since that was when Voldemort could do the most damage. McGonagall and Flitwick transfigured radishes into a crowd of cheering students and family. The real students had already been given diplomas then evacuated while aurors and Order members stayed in the castle waiting for the attack. Hermione, now graduated, managed to convince McGonagall that she should be allowed to remain in the hospital wing with Madam Pomfrey, as she was already quite a competent healer. Snape had voiced his strongest opposition numerous times to Hermione remaining behind, but he was overruled. The Weasleys were not about to miss this fight for anything. The entire clan came. Harry and Moody watched the crowd from the Astronomy Tower. Snape was near the platform. Draco was opposite Snape while Narcissa waited apprehensively in the hospital wing with Hermione and Madam Pomfrey. Arthur Weasley was the guest of honor in the place of Minister Scrimgeour who was conveniently out of the country on graduation day. Except for Ron and Arthur, the rest of the Weasleys waited in the castle, ready for action. Charlie and some of his mates from Romania were mounted on hippogriffs for an old-fashioned cavalry charge.
Graduation was scheduled for eleven o'clock, so it was no surprise when the Death Eaters came fifteen minutes early. Moody's magical eye spotted them as they took down the wards and stormed the castle grounds. A shot of red alerted the Order and aurors. Just as quickly, a Dark Mark was set upon the sky. Hermione watched it all begin to unfold from the hospital wing window. She turned back to Madam Pomfrey with a nod and moved away from the window.
Death Eaters streamed into the castle grounds and began firing the killing curse indiscriminately. Each "person" who was hit immediately turned back into a radish.
"It's a trap!" shrieked one Death Eater upon inspecting a recently transformed radish person.
Snape coolly aimed, sectumsempra. The Death Eater fell in a pool of his own blood. Ron had mastered a particularly nasty curse invented by Rackharrow to disembowel his opponent. Two Death Eaters collapsed near his feet before they could do much damage. Harry continued to observe from the Tower, waiting for Voldemort's entrance. Moments later, he heard the distinctive pop. Harry wheeled around to see the snakelike man with Crabbe and Goyle as bodyguards.
Moody shot off more red before taking out Crabbe with a body bind curse. Goyle engaged Moody in an all out duel. Meanwhile Voldemort was sizing up Harry.
"So, we meet again," Voldemort lisped. "This time, you will die."