Harry looked around at the expectant faces. The order meeting had been called. Bill had announced that he had returned, upon which Lupin almost had a heart attack.
Now Harry stood before them, about to begin his tale. He searched for a good place to begin, wondering how he was going to have the courage to finish. He took a deep breath, and began.
"My story begins a year and a half ago. At that time Dumbledore revealed to me the only way to completely destroy Lord Voldemort. He revealed to me that Voldemort had been using Horcruxes to make himself almost immortal. The biggest problem was that there was not just one Horcrux. No, Voldemort had created seven of them. In order to destroy Voldemort, we had to kill him seven times. That is where Dumbledore and I went the night- the night he died. The search and destruction is a fascinating story in itself, but not for now. Perhaps I will tell you later. What I need to tell you about now takes place after the three of us barley making it alive, had already destroyed the last of the Horcruxes. Now came the most terrifying part of the journey: killing Voldemort himself. We learned that he was stationed where he was the first time I met him, the Riddle house. We went there. I made sure I could be seen entering so that he would come outside. Indeed he did, followed closely by Snape and Wormtail, the two people I hated most, aside form him. They faced Ron and Hermione, and I faced Voldemort.
He said to me mockingly, 'You are more courageous than I thought, Harry. I did not expect you to come here voluntarily and thought I might have to brew some scheme to make you come here so I can kill you. I must thank you; you've made it so much easier. I never did give you much credit for your brains though. A wise person would prolong his life as much as possible. Had you not come today, you may have lived another year.' He gave one of his high pitched laughs. I did not respond, just looked into his eyes and raised my wand. He was too quick for me though, and had me under the imperious curse. He tried to humiliate me, but I resisted. Surprising him, I did the Cruciatus Curse on him. He fell back, screaming in a pain no one ever deserves to feel. But he deserved it, and so I stood watching him scream, knowing I was the one causing it. I disarmed him next. There was the dark lord, without a wand, facing his final doom. Of course, he didn't know that these were his last moments. He looked at me, smiling.
'You may kill me now, Potter,' he said, 'but the Dark Lord is invincible. I will return, make no mistake about that. Face it Potter, you cannot win against me!'
I told him, 'I already have. It's over Tom. The Horcruxes are gone. I've destroyed them.' I saw panic flicker in his eyes before I killed him. As his body fell, Snape gave a cry and lunged for me. I killed him to. I looked past the two bodies and saw Ron and Hermione lying unconscious on the ground. Wormtail cowered in the shadows. I advanced on him, and he fell on my robes, begging for his life. I stared down at him, thinking of all the pain he had caused me. Everything that happened, every death, was all his responsibility once you broke it down. Every one I cared about who was dead, Dumbledore, Sirius, my parents, even Cedric Diggory, it was all his fault." At this point Harry had to pause to keep his composure. This was the hardest part of the tale for him to tell. "And there he was, a coward begging for his life. I knew he didn't deserve to live. I knew I had to kill him, but his pleas shook me. I couldn't kill him, but I knew I also couldn't leave him alive. Shaking, I raised my wand. He yelled in desperation, 'James would have had mercy on me! He would want you to also!' That did it. I yelled in total rage 'I'm not James! You killed him, so now he cannot be here to save you!' And then I killed him." Harry, crying now sat down hard. It was over now, it was out. Lupin, in shock, put a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Harry…" he said. "Harry."