Everytime

Chapter 11 – Hands Down

The chaotic streets around us held no significance to me; the screams of people and the roaring of giants all around me did little to stir any emotion. For me, there were only a few things that mattered. One was making sure that the wizarding world was purged of the scourge that was Voldemort. The other was making sure that neither Hermione nor I died in the battle and that I wouldn't lose her the day that I realized the extent of what I felt.

The streets around us were home to several small skirmishes, but nothing to attract our interest. The occasional flashes of light from the field outside of Hogsmeade served as a signal to guide us to the spot where we were needed most—the spot where the attack was being launched from. The spot where Voldemort and his Death Eaters were. We brushed past the fleeing forms of several Hogsmeade citizens who had failed to heed our warning earlier in the day and were now probably regretting their decision. The entire time that we were fleeing through the unpredictable darkness of the initial stages of the Battle of Hogsmeade I barely noticed a thing. The screams and flashes of the eerily lit Hogsmeade streets became an unidentified blur. At some point during this episode I happened to look Harry in the eyes and see his staunch determination staring back at me. This bolstered my confidence more than any statement by the Minister or any amount of Auror reinforcements could. And yet in that one look I saw something slightly frightening, something that I couldn't quite place my finger on but that was going to come back with some greater meaning, that I knew for a fact. And yet there was no time to do nothing but run, so we did.

And then we ran some more. My feet eventually became unconscious of hitting the ground; although I was running as fast as I could and dodging curses and giants alike, an eerie calm was descending over my entire body. I looked over at Hermione, who caught my eye and smiled. We could die in this battle; that was true. But if we did, we would die happy.

Finally, the screams and flashes of light magnified greatly, causing Harry to tense next to me. What waited ahead of me was going to be the most important battle of my life, and yet somehow none of that was important. Instead, something inside my body was taking over, something strange yet easily recognizable, scary yet eerily reassuring. I did not yet know what it was, but all the same I trusted it to guide me. And guide me it did.

I flew onto the battlefield, throwing curses every which way, Harry and Hermione by my side. We formed a sort of triangle, each of us shooting curses from a corner and casting shields whenever a curse was about to hit us from any side. In this way we made a great deal of headway against the attacking Death Eaters, managing to throw a few aside unconscious with the force of our combined Stunning Spells. Harry was throwing Imperius Curses indiscriminately, the curse being the only Unforgivable that we could bear to allow Harry to use. By simply making the recipients of the curse Stun and Body-Bind themselves we could save a great deal of time on the battlefield, valuable time that could be used to defeat other Death Eaters instead. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Harry fell to the ground, writhing in pain from a Cruciatus Curse that had managed to break our boundaries. But suddenly the battle around me seemed to fade away and allow me to concentrate on simply defeating the Death Eater that was there, and I managed to easily dispatch of him with a well-aimed Sectumsempra curse before he could do so much as react. Within seconds Harry was back onto his feet and fighting by our sides.

"Wotcher, you three!" came a voice from next to us, and when I looked after a deluge of curses failed to shatter Hermione's shield, I found a pink-haired and vivacious Tonks fighting next to us. She was challenging her beloved Aunt Bella when a sudden Avada Kedavra from the side forced me to throw Hermione and Harry to the ground, Stunning our would-be assassin.

While the battle had begun chaotically, the way it had become was anything but. The Death Eaters, seeing the formation of the Golden Trio, were apparently ordered by their master to organize as well, because soon mini-battalions of Death Eaters were splitting off and fighting their way towards us. The Aurors that were present at the battle, by way of retribution, formed a perimeter around us, taking many curses that otherwise would have found their mark in Harry, Hermione, or I. I noticed happily that we were diverting the attention of most of Voldemort's forces away from attacking the town of Hogsmeade and towards our makeshift attacking formation. We rotated incessantly, the bursts of light from our wands taking out countless Death Eaters in every direction. The tide of battle was slowly but surely turning in the favor of the Light, based greatly on the actions of Harry, Hermione, and me.

When almost all the Death Eaters had fallen, the Aurors around us fell away, instead forming squads and attacking the individual remaining Death Eaters full force. One by one they picked off the remaining members of Voldemort's cult, leaving the Death Eater army disheartened and shorthanded. It seemed that soon the battle would be over. Hermione and I looked at each other once again, smiles on our faces.

And then suddenly the happy shouts of Aurors began to fade and an inexplicable pall fell over the battlefield. Instead of the remaining Death Eaters taking jets of red light and falling unconscious to the ground, a new barrage of green, like some alien tidal wave, took the lives of almost half of the Aurors surrounding us. Without even having to see the evil red eyes staring at me, I knew Lord Voldemort had arrived.

Hermione and I raised our wands and pointed them in the direction of greatest darkness, preparing to continue the fight. But Harry raised his hand silently and, without a word, broke off from our group, muttering something that sounded strangely like "Sonorous" as he left.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle," came the familiar voice from somewhere in the murk ahead of me. Every Death Eater and Auror in the region stopped fighting, instead choosing to stare into the darkness in hopes of seeing the incredibly brave man that hid somewhere within it who dared to challenge the most powerful Dark Lord in centuries.

"Harry Potter," came the magically magnified voice from the other side of the battlefield. "At last you speak. What took you so long?"

"I was just destroying your army," Harry said, and I smiled at his nerve. "Sorry that it took so long, but I didn't want to make it look too easy, or I might lose my reputation as the modest hero."

"Big words for someone who's going to die in a matter of minutes," said Voldemort, and the smile that had briefly appeared on my face faded as quickly as it had come. "You know not my true power, Harry Potter. For example, I happen to know that the old fool Dumbledore told you, before his unfortunate death last year, of the formation of several Horcruxes on my part?"

Oh, shit.

"Yes, that is right, Potter," continued the foul beast that stood somewhere in our vicinity. "I know much more than I would let on. Do you honestly think that I would challenge the entire wizarding world without a great deal of power to lean on? Do you honestly think that someone like me, someone who has gone further into magic than any wizard or witch in the history of the world has ever done before, could even be scratched by a mere boy?"

"The answer is no on all counts, Potter. My power extends beyond human comprehension. I am not a mere wizard anymore, Potter. I am a god. I am more than a god. You have no idea..."

"I know that you've got a god complex," said Harry, speaking for the first time since Voldemort's surprise revelation, "but that's something entirely different. You see, Voldemort—flight from death—the strength of our side lies in the fact that we aren't gods. We aren't anything but wizards. We aren't anything but mere humans. But, Tom Riddle, we know it. We don't try to take over the world. We don't believe that we can kill someone that is immortal. But we will try anyway. And we will die before we let the world fall into the hands of a sadistic monster like you."

A loud cheer rose up from several of the Aurors in the region, and Voldemort seemed to notice them for the first time, for a loud growl resounded throughout the mist. Suddenly three twin streams of green light shot out from the darkness, and the body count of the bloodiest battle in wizarding history increased by three. The noise died down extremely quickly.

"Do you see now, Potter?" whispered Voldemort almost lovingly. "Do you see now the futility of your cause? Without a word on my part I create death from life. Yet I can create life from death just as easily. Would you like to see, Potter? Let's get rid of this blasted darkness," he said, and suddenly the entire battlefield lit up like a sun. Before our eyes could adjust to the sudden brightness, however, Hermione and I were bound head to foot by invisible ropes that left no tension whatsoever for us to move in. Harry threw an Imperius Curse at Voldemort, but a simple wave of his wand caused the curse to dissipate.

"Temper, temper, Potter," said Voldemort teasingly. "The show hasn't even begun yet. Crucio!"

There was a flash of light, and suddenly Harry was writhing on the ground in pain. I wondered at first why the Aurors surrounding us didn't do anything, but I realized that Voldemort and Harry were the only ones in the entire field that could move. Voldemort must have thought that it was strangely befitting for the last stand of wizardkind to be a one-on-one battle.

Voldemort moved closer to Harry and cast the curse again. Through it all, somehow, Harry did not scream. The cause was revealed to us when Voldemort lifted the spell briefly and we saw the blood pouring out of Harry's mouth—he had been biting his own tongue with enough force to puncture straight through it.

"You haven't screamed yet?" asked Voldemort in a singsong voice. "Well. Bella would be ashamed of me. Let's see if we can fix that. Crucio! Crucio! Crucio! Crucio!"

Voldemort moved step by step closer to Harry until he was but inches away from his prostrate body, casting the Cruciatus Curse each time. Eventually the pool of blood surrounding Harry became enough for him to begin to lose consciousness, and Voldemort briefly gave him a break until he was fully conscious again. My emotions at the time ranged from wanting to curse God down into hell for allowing such a thing to occur on Earth and from wanting to literally curse Voldemort down into hell for doing such a thing to my best friend.

Finally the Cruciatus Curses ceased. Harry did not move from his place on the ground.

"Do you think you have suffered yet, Potter?" said Voldemort horribly. "You do not know true suffering. Soon you will begin to see just why it is truly a curse to have those that you care about."

Time seemed to freeze in that instant. Slowly, something within me realized what it was that Voldemort was about to do, and the world before me swum in some sort of flux that was visible only to me. But it was too late.

"Avada Kedavra!" shouted Voldemort, thrusting his wand at Hermione. The curse shot out of his wand and seemed to move torturously slowly towards Hermione, the until-then-unrealized love of my life and the one person I cared about more than anything in the world. And yet no matter what I did to try and save her, I could do nothing but watch as the horrible green light swam its way sickeningly towards the person I cared about more than anything.

"Fuck you," came the whisper of pure hatred from Harry's lips before utilizing his remaining strength and throwing himself in front of Hermione, taking the Killing Curse in his chest.

I can honestly say that when the savior of the wizarding world died, there was no fanfare. There was no bang. There was no miracle, no period of ascent into the sky, no great period of mourning. He was simply alive one moment, throwing himself with all his might into the path of Voldemort's Killing Curse, and then dead and lying motionless on the ground the next.

No.

The battle was over. There was no hope left. Harry was dead; Voldemort had won. Hermione and I were both going to die just when we had found what we wanted the most.

Hermione. No.

I could move again. A beam of light shot out from my feet and covered the surrounding area, freezing everyone else in a sort of temporary stasis. Voldemort was left unscathed, as I knew he would, staring at me.

"Ronald Weasley?" he said disbelievingly. "The Muggle-lover's son? How on earth are you able to hold such great power?"

"That's right," I said, although the words felt foreign coming out of my mouth, as though they were not mine but a response to an order given to me by someone with more control over events than myself. "Ronald Weasley. Descendant of Godric Gryffindor."

Voldemort's face paled with shock, then filled with an expression of acceptance. "You are the descendant of Gryffindor?" he breathed. "How...unlikely. But then, you can do nothing to me now. None but Potter could defeat me, and he is gone. I have made every preparation to avoid death, and now I have conquered it. Not even Gryffindor himself could defeat me now. Avada Kedavra!" he shouted before I could move. The curse hit me head-on, and my vision filled with green light. Inside my body was an incredible ache to let go, to give up and be free with Harry. I felt my body leave my control...and then suddenly I regained it, and I was standing upright again and staring Voldemort in the face, Hermione's image flashing through my mind.

"How on earth did you..." gasped Voldemort, seeming briefly astonished. "But—it is no matter. You will never defeat me. I am immortal."

"We'll see," I said bravely, although inside I felt as though my insides were turning to mush. What was I doing?

"Indeed we shall," the bastard said, red eyes narrowing to slits. "But before we do, answer me this. Why do you and your friends insist on filling your heads with this love bullshit when it is so impractical in the end? The very idea of being willing to sacrifice yourself and your entire life for even one other person is preposterous. You know that you will always be hurt in the end."

"And that's why you'll never know your only weakness," I said. Then, summoning every single ounce of strength remaining within me, I shouted, "Avada Kedavra!"

I didn't really expect the curse to work. In the excitement of the moment, I thought that my brave words could possibly create the amount of force that I needed to defeat him, but even then I had my doubts. So you could understand my astonishment when the curse hit Voldemort dead-on, causing him to crash backwards onto the ground. A high-pitched scream filled the air as his body began to dissolve into dust. A flash of white light erupted from the scene around me, and every member of the Light side could move again, running towards Voldemort's decaying body and staring in amazement.

Hermione was by my side somehow. I murmured, "Of course. Harry was his last Horcrux. We're done now. It's over." Then I fell to the ground utterly exhausted and allowed my injured body to remove my mind from consciousness.