A/N:
Chalice13: It's a 4 chapter finale this weekend, I promise you'll enjoy...
Pentaghast 2.0: Thank you for the feedback :) I'm glad you enjoyed Luna and the story overall :)
HiPot-and-News: To each their own kind of romance I suppose :) I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
and Ajd21596: This one is for you...
Voldemort and Dumbledore were locked in duel of epic proportions. Spells no one had ever seen before, magic crackled in the very air. It was almost too blinding to watch.
"Stop this Tom… You have polluted the very fabric of the old Magic by taking the Brassard of Morgana… the magic will shun you… it's a fate worse than death that awaits you beyond the veil… stop while you still have the chance…" Dumbledore pleaded
"Are you begging or threatening me old man? I can't seem to tell the difference…" Voldemort smirked "As for what lies beyond the veil… well it seems I'll never find out will I…" His eye's glowed red as falling serpent shot out of his hands
After a bit of battling, Dumbledore had managed to hit him once and a curse had left a deep gash on one side of Voldemort's face. Voldemort yelped in pain and then began to laugh… "After all these years…. You still fight only to wound" He laughed and then with every ounce of spite he could muster he said "Well, Dumbledore… let's see if you want to kill me after I've show you who Nagini truly is…"
—
Snape and Hermione had stepped out of the great hall and were duelling a few of the stray death eater's who had managed to make it there past the order's defences. Hermione ran out the main door and saw the army of giants rumbling towards the castle "Shit…" she exclaimed
Snape joined her and sighed "Get inside and take cover…" He began to mumble spell after spell to add to the castles defences.
The Giants began hurling rocks and a 2 more death eaters had managed to break through the order's ranks and reach the great hall as Hermione rushed in. She yelled in pain and fell as a spell hit her on her shoulder. She rolled out of the way of the next spell and hit both men with body bind curses. The castle shook with the barrage of rocks hitting them and Hermione wondered how much battering this old castle could take.
—
"Professor McGongall!" Yelled Ron who had a bruised lip from getting into a boxing match with a death eater after both of them had lost their wands. "We have a problem!"McGonagall stepped closer to the window in the passage to see the armies of Voldemort approach and dodged the rocks the giants and trolls were hurling at the castle "Mr. Weasley, it's time to activate your brothers…" she said and sent a patronus with a message
—
"Ready Gred?"
"Born Ready Forge…"
Fred and George Wesley locked their wand arms and touched each other's forehead before mounting their brooms. Between their brooms they levitated a massive bag. The took off from the side of quidditch pitch
"Aim for the giants…" Fred yelled as they took a sharp turn
George tore a slit in bag and shot yelled "Bomb's away…"
There were bright colourful sparks as the biggest and best of the Weasley Wizard Wheezes Wizbangs were launched into faces of the giants and trolls. The massive lumbering beasts were blinded and confused as they began to swat around these sparkling creatures and in the process ending up getting in a fight with one another. The wizards leading their charge were more concerned with saving themselves form being trampled and ran into the dark forest for cover.
"This is not a place for wizards…" Bane said as he reared and then charged with his centaur brothers at the shocked unsuspecting wizards with swords.
Fred and George Hi-Fived each other in air as they head back towards the wards of the castle
—
Blaise hit the onslaught of werewolves with a massive bombarda and yelled "YOU SHALL NOT PASSSSSSS!"
Luna who had put a up a shield around the both of them smiled and said "Damn right they won't Gandalf…"
Blaise suddenly shocked turned to Luna "You read fiction too…"
"Don't sound so surprised my love…I am a Ravenclaw after all… pursuit of knowledge and all that… " Luna said as she threw a few sitting hexes over her shoulder making the half turned wolves of Greyback yelp and dive for cover…
Blaise smiled proudly and said "You're fucking perfect is what you are…"
Luna "You're not so bad yourself…"
"Look out!" Blaise yelled and shielded Luna with his body as jet of magic shot towards them and turned into a poisons snake. It missed them by inches as they both fell
"Lucky…" Blaise sighed and then winked at Luna. She was already levitating at their assailant in mid air by one leg and said "Indeed…" with a dreamy smile…
—
Voldemort and Dumbledore's wand's were locked as a stream of magic crackled between them. With his free hand Voldemort released Nagini from the bubbled and the snake transformed…
Dumbledore broke the connection in shock and limping Hermione made it back just in time to see Nagini transform into a beautiful woman…
Voldemort smiled and held out his free hand, keeping his guard up with the wand arm "I just love family reunions…" he said his eyes gleaming red again "Meet the obscurial that nursed me and kept me alive…" Nagini took Voldemort's hand and almost slithered into his arms looking viscously at Dumbledore. She gave Voldemort a kiss on the nape of his neck. Voldemort kept his eyes on Dumbledore who was still looking at the woman
Hermione was looking from the woman to Dumbledore. 'They have the same eyes…' she thought.
Then for the first time, she spoke "Hello bother… It's been a century…"
"No…." Dumbledore crumpled where he stood "Arianna… you were… you died… I saw you…"
"You saw nothing…" Arianna spat viciously walking towards the broken man "You didn't even care to look! You were just glad that I was gone and you could leave! You never cared about people Albus, you didn't even care about your own bother… you just cared about power…" she sneered "… and you didn't care what you had to sacrifice to get it…"
Dumbledore dropped his wand just as Harry, Draco and Narcissa reached the great hall
"This Dumbledore… this is a fate worse than death…" Voldemort sneered "but, lord Voldemort is nothing if not benevolent…" Voldemort raised his want and said "Avada Kedavra…"
The jet of green light shot out of his wand
Draco stopped short in shock, Harry screamed as a searing pain shot through his scar.
Narcissa and Hermione had no time for theatrics, she took Hermione's hand in her free arm and raised her wand on Arianna yelling "comminuet animam!" A golden stream of magic gushed out of the wand and wrapped itself around Arianna like a broad ribbon. Arianna screamed as she began to burn. Cracks began to appear on there body. Arianna struggled as she tried to break free of the bindings that seemed to be burning her. Magic flowed from Hermione into narcissi strengthening the ribbon and making it glow.
Voldemort heard Arianna scream and was livid at Narcissa but before he could curse her Harry hobbled over in front of Narcissa and yelled "You'll have to kill me first!"
Harry challenge had stirred Draco. As Harry Potter stepped in front of his mother, he ran towards Voldemort from the side.
In the next few seconds
Draco raised the sickle over his head Voldemort shot another killing curse and Harry was about to raise his wand to counter it but the potion in him stirred. He dropped his wand and waited for the stream of green magic to hit him Voldemort was shocked to see Draco leap at him The killing curse hit Harry and he fell The gold ribbon burning Arianna glowed brilliantly and she disintegrated into dust
The second the Sickle and brassard touched, everything and everyone in the room was thrown.
Draco was thrown towards the ceiling
Snape who just made it back caught the flying limp body of Harry Potter and tumbled keeping him safe.
Hermione put a shield around herself and Narcissa as several objects came flying at them as they were slammed into a nearby wall.
Voldemort screamed in rage from the epicentre of the attack as Snape saw a limp Draco fall from the sky. He shot a spell to slow his decent and made Draco's body float over to him. He lay both the boys bored next to each other.
Voldemort had reverted to his pale snake like self. His red eyes stared at his reflection in a piece of glass that was lying next to him "NOOOOOOOOO!" He yelled. He wandlessly accioed the' wand he'd been using and it came flying through the air
—
Lucius and Grindelwald landed on the gates of Hogwarts. Once inside the barrier, Grindelwald apparated them to the entrance of the great hall just as the blast from the destruction of the brassard and sickle shook the castle. They waited for the waves to die down and walked in just as Voldemort yelled out in rage and disbelief
Voldemort got up and like a crazed man yelled "I am immortal!" He grabbed a candle-stand lying on the floor next to him and looked around for the first persons to kill he spotted Grindelwald and whispered "You'll do…"
"Correction… You were immortal…" Grindewlad said and then yelled "Avada Kedavra!"
A Jet of Green light shot from Grindelwald's wand, just as the same jet shot out Lucius Malfoy's wand in Voldemort's hand.
Lucius Malfoy stepped in front of Grindelwald and waited for the Killing Curse to hit him
—
Flashback 30th December Malfoy Manor Dungeons
"I need a new wand…" Lucius said to Ollivander
"Your wand already chose you and it has not been damaged… I doubt another wand will choose you…" The old man said
"I am going into battle!" Lucius snapped
"The wand chooses the wizard Mr. Malfoy… and yours has chosen you…"
Ollivander walked away from the gate of the cell and lay back down in his bed
Frustrated Lucius spun around and was about to leave when Ollivander said
"You wand won't fight against you… it chose you after all…"
Lucius paused for a second and smiled as the words sunk in…
Later that night as Narcissa filled him in on the details of the plan he said "I will return with Grindelwald…"
"No Lucius… you don't even have a wand…" Narcissa said worried
"And I won't need one…"
—
Harry was in Limbo. There was a curled up dying creature lying on the side, it was whimpering in pain. The out of the blue, Dumbledore appeared before him…
"Am I dead?" He asked
"Ah.." said Dumbledore, smiling still more broadly. "That is the question, isn't it? On the whole, dear boy, I think not."
"not?"
"Not" Dumbledore nodded
"But I should have died! I didn't defend myself! I meant to let him kill me!"
"And that…" said Dumbledore, "will, I think, have made all the difference…"
"Explain…" Harry said flatly
"You were the eighth Horcrux, Harry, the Horcrux he never meant to make. He had rendered his soul so unstable that it broke apart when he committed those acts of unspeakable evil, the murder of your parents, the attempted killing of a child. But what escaped from that room was even less than he knew. He left more than his body behind. He left part of himself latched to you, the would-be victim who had survived." Dumbledore took a breath and continued "His knowledge remained woefully incomplete however… That which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to comprehend. Fae and other creatures, Wandlore, Family, Voldemort knows and understands nothing…. That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped…. He took your blood believing it would strengthen him. He took into his body a tiny part of the enchantment your mother laid upon you when she died for you. His body keeps her sacrifice alive, and while that enchantment survives, so do you and so does Voldemort's one last hope for himself. Without meaning to, as you now know, Lord Voldemort doubled the bond between you when he returned to a human form. If he could only have understood the precise and terrible power of that sacrifice, he would not, perhaps, have dared to touch your blood …"
Harry was a little surprised and confused
"He was more afraid than you were tonight Harry…" Dumbledore continued "You had accepted, even embraced, the possibility of death, something Lord Voldemort has never been able to do… So tonight when chose not to fight, Voldemort's magic that flowed through the wand of Lucius Malfoy recognised you as it's own kin. It was imbued with the same protection of familial magic that Lilly gave you when she sacrificed herself. The spell that hit could not pass through those defences as it was now infused with them…"
"So it only killed the part of my soul not protected by Familial magic…" Harry said understanding slowly
"Precisely…" Dumbledore said with a smile
"So that… that is a piece of Voldemort's soul… do I have to stab it or something?"
"Well no…"
"Okay good…" said Harry sighing in relief "So what happens now?" He asked
"You have choice to make…" Dumbledore said as the train arrived and suddenly Harry realised he was at platform 93/4 … "You can choose to get on the train and come with me beyond the veil…" Dumbledore said picking up the creature that was in pain "or you can just go back…"
"How do I go back…"
"Just open your eyes…" Dumbledore said smiling as he boarded the train
—
"Lucius!" Narcissa screamed as she watch the killing curse move towards him but the curse stopped short hovering right in front of Lucius Malfoy for a mere second before dissipating into nothingness
Voldemort let out another scream of rage as he dodged the first curse and charged towards Lucius and Grindelwald like a madman. Grindelwald was quick to shoot another killing curse at him. This time he held the stream of magic till hit Voldemort square in the chest. Voldemort was thrown back and lay on the floor, like dead looking like the shadow of a man paralysed with fear.
A drop of blood fell onto the back of his hand as Grindelwald crumpled to the floor
"Grindelwald!" Lucius said turning to face the man who had more than atoned for his many sins.
"Ah, the unforgivables…" Grindelwald said with a smile as he lay down "they take so much out you…" Narcissa crawled over to them as he said "trust the magic to make the choice " He smiled at his cryptic rambling and finally Gellert Grindelwald breathed his last…
—
Hermione let out hiss as she healed her bleeding leg. She stood up gingerly and looked around for Draco. She saw Snape walk in with tears in his eyes from the entrance of the great hall and she ran towards him… He shook his head…
Hermione pushed past him slowly and made her way to the bodies of the two boys. Snape and Lucius helped Narcissa up and the 3 slowly made their way to bodies of the boys. Hermione was crying silently and holding on to both there hands. She looked at Narcissa who had eyes for no one else but her own son
"We can do it together… we can bring them both back! Please…. Let's just try!"Hermione cried
Narcissa kneeled down beside her son and stroked his hair as tears streamed from her face "two halves to form a whole….it can only be one…"
See you tomorrow!