Chapter 35
Vampires, demons and Slayers alike were whipped out of Voldemort's path as he stalked towards Harry who was still bent over Dumbledore's too still body. Harry couldn't bear to look at the kind face of his headmaster, whose eyes no longer held that familiar, warm twinkle.
Pure rage kindled inside Harry as he straightened to see Voldemort coming towards him. He had a moment to register Voldemort move his wand arm in an elaborate motion and say something unintelligible before he heard the roar of more fire. He risked a glance behind him to see that Piper and the others were trapped behind a wall of fiendfyre. It stretched yards and yards to either side, seemingly endless. Their only hope to get to him would be to run down the length of it and try to get around. But it would cost them precious minutes, and who knows what else they'd run into on the way. The seal was still open, spilling vampire reinforcements out into the chaos. There were still demons left looking for anyone and everyone to make victims of.
"Phoebe, we need to close that seal, now!" Piper yelled. She was trying not to panic, but not being able to see Harry and Voldemort was further fraying her already spent nerves.
"I don't know if I'm close enough," Phoebe replied.
"We need more power," Willow said, wiping her bloody nose on her sleeve. "If we have enough, the distance won't matter."
"We'll use the power of three." This from Paige. "It's never let us down before."
"Fine, we'll try, but someone has to get to Harry. He needs help!" Piper insisted. The thought of Harry facing Voldemort alone was too much to handle.
Draco had felt Harry's rage like a punch to the gut. It shouldn't have surprised him, but the force of it made him stagger a step. An understanding so thorough lanced through him in that moment. Voldemort had ruined countless people's lives in the time he had been alive. There wasn't a person on the battlefield that wouldn't have gotten a fierce satisfaction from being the one to take him out. But Draco felt it more strongly, perhaps, than even he had anticipated. Oh, he was terrified of course, but the determination now thrumming through his veins was strong enough to temporarily overpower the fear. Voldemort was the reason his whole life up to this point had been miserable. He was the reason he barely had parents; the reason those parents had spent more time raising him to be cruel rather than loving him. There was no denying that Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were hateful people but Draco couldn't help but wonder how they might have been if they hadn't had Voldemort there as a beacon to rally behind and lead them. Would they have learned to get past their bigoted views and given Draco some semblance of a happy childhood? He'd never know, but in that moment, he knew he had to make Voldemort pay.
"I'll go," Draco said fiercely, as he jammed his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small golden pill. The felix felicis pill. He had seen the others use theirs at various stages of the fight, but something kept telling him not yet, not yet - save it. And so he had. He tossed it into his mouth and it went down smoothly. He felt the effects instantly. His insides felt fuzzy, as if his entire body was a sleepy limb waking up. His mind, however, was clear. Suddenly, he knew what he had to do. Before anyone could stop him, he sprinted towards the fire.
"Draco, no!" Hermione yelled.
The closer Draco got to the flames the more the heat beat at his entire body, but the better he could make out the animals writhing within. He just had to find his opening. There. Without slowing down, just as a snake made of flames formed and slithered out towards him, he leapt with all the strength he could muster and made it through the gap the snake had left, landing squarely next to Harry. Draco took in Dumbledore's still form and felt his own rage entwine with Harry's within him. He looked at Harry and willed him to see the depth of his need to help in this moment. Harry gave him a small nod of understanding.
They turned to face Voldemort and Draco saw Harry's hand go quickly to his mouth as he took his own luck pill. The two boys practically vibrated with fury and anticipation as they stood shoulder to shoulder and faced their biggest enemy. Draco didn't know if it was the pill or some other higher power at work, but the feeling of rightness in that moment, standing next to Harry and ready to face down possible death, flooded into him and only granted him an extra boon. This is what he had been missing out on; real friends, happiness, hope and even possibly love. It was not lost on him that he was only just now realizing all of this a moment before it might all be ripped away.
"Draco," Voldemort hissed and the boy tried hard to suppress a shiver. "It's not too late to come back where you belong." He held out a hand expectantly. "If you come now, I will spare your parents."
If was an effort for Draco not to laugh. "My parents don't care about me," he said bitterly. "All they care about is their status in your inner circle," he spat.
As he talked, the two teens and Voldemort began circling each other, all of them looking for an opening. "I'll distract him. You blow him up," Draco whispered. "Make. Him. Pay."
Before Harry could agree, Draco bolted forwards. Harry's stomach dropped as Voldemort launched a killing curse right at Draco. At the last second, Draco leapt into the air and levitated towards Voldemort trying to aim a kick at his head. The Dark Lord was momentarily surprised, but only for a second. Before he could adjust his aim and fire off another killing curse, Harry was on him, sending blow after blow of Piper's explosive power barreling into him. The blows weren't enough to kill him, but they made him stagger. Harry was relentless and Draco, now back on the ground, joined him, firing off spell after spell with his wand. Voldemort, somehow able to block most of the spells was slowly advancing.
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Piper and Paige knelt beside Phoebe as she finished setting up the spell to close the seal. "You three start chanting and I'll join your energies and amplify the spell. It will work," said Willow with more confidence than anyone had a right to have in their situation.
The fire still raged in front and behind them. But down the long corridor formed, they could see shapes running towards them. What they couldn't tell was if they were friendly shapes. It turned out to be a mix of both as the fighting spilled towards them, threatening the spell.
"Granger, Weasley, with me," Snape commanded. They formed a line in front of the witches and readied for battle as the shapes came into focus.
Vampires and Slayers battled fiercely. Ron tried to help by orbing vampires away while Hermione and Snape fired off carefully aimed stunning spells to help their allies.
"Hurry," Snape urged through gritted teeth, but the sisters were already chanting.
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Harry struggled to think of a time in his life where he had ever been more exhausted. Him and Draco had somehow managed to disarm Voldemort but it proved to be of little help, as the Dark Lord was able to keep firing off brutal spells with some kind of wandless magic. Harry did note with some savage satisfaction that Voldemort was now moving with a slight limp but he knew that his own injuries were more severe. He could feel blood trickling down the side of his face from a wound on the left side of his forehead. He had a massive gash across his chest and he was fairly sure his own ankle was sprained, at the very least. They had to end this before he passed out from blood loss. A quick look at Draco showed that he wasn't fairing much better. His right pant leg was soaked with blood and he kept wincing whenever he landed and took off from his frequent levitating dodges and attacks. Harry was pretty sure that Draco would have been dead a while ago if not for Phoebe's powers.
Harry tried again to freeze Voldemort but the older wizard was able to fight through it. "I grow tired of this," Voldemort hissed. He waved his hand and a blast of power sent both boys sailing. "Legilimens!" he yelled as both boys struggled to get up off the ground. He wanted to torture them. He wanted to break them mentally before he broke them physically. He reveled at what he saw in their memories and laughed mirthlessly as he ended the spell. "I see you've both grown attached to that pitiful, wandless witch and her sisters. Piper," he spat her name as if tasted bad in his mouth. "How I will delight in ripping her apart. Almost as much as I will delight in flaying the filthy mudblood alive and making you watch, Draco. In fact, perhaps I will use the Imperious curse and make you flay her yourself."
"NO!" Draco and Harry both yelled so loudly, it was a wonder they didn't collapse with the effort. Taunting them was the wrong move. Taunting them reminded them what they were fighting for. Harry staggered to his feet, somehow angrier than before, and began his assault anew. The energy of the feelings coming from him hit Draco, amplifying his own until it was almost painful. Until it was almost too much to bear. Suddenly it was too much to bear. He felt like everything that was inside of him, every conflicted feeling, every memory, everything that he was, was now trying to break out of his skin. If he didn't figure out a way to control this or channel it, he knew he would explode. He grabbed onto the strongest of his feelings, vaguely surprised that it was hope and not fear - hope for the future, hope for something better after this, because surely there would be life after this moment - and he honed that hope like a spear in his mind and sent it flying at Voldemort.
Draco could feel the moment it connected, like a mental tether in a tempest suddenly connected to a gaping void. He knew what they had to do. He saw Voldemort's eyes widen, saw him stagger backwards, as he poured every single emotion he was feeling into Voldemort's emptiness, overwhelming him. This was their chance. "Use it!" he yelled at Harry. "Channel your love into Piper's power and blast the son of a bitch!" Because Draco could feel that it was love, not anger, that drove Harry, that kept him fighting. And it was the power of that love that Voldemort truly feared, perhaps because it was the one thing he could never truly understand.
Harry saw Voldemort stagger and was momentarily stunned. Then Draco yelled. Harry used every ounce of concentration and shred of strength that he had left in him and channeled it into one last blast that he knew would leave him spent.
"AHHHH!" he yelled as he flung his hands forward, palms facing Voldemort. He thought of his parents, he thought of his friends, he thought of Piper and her family. He thought of all the people that didn't have their families because of the wizard in front of him. Finally he thought of the family that he could one day have, safe and free from this type of relentless torment. Blinding, white-hot power erupted from his hands. He almost fell over but Draco was there behind him, bracing him, teeth gritted in concentration. Harry groaned. His hands felt like they were melting but still he held on.
The sound that Voldemort made was so inhuman, both boys were sure it would haunt them to their graves. Eyes watering from the power emanating from Harry's hands, they watched as the Dark Lord ceased to be.
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The seal was finally closed. Panting, the sisters shot to their feet as an ungodly howl ripped through the air. The Slayers were finishing off the last of the vampires and it looked like the remaining demons were fleeing as the howl finally subsided. The fiendfyre suddenly extinguished leaving the group a clear view of Draco and Harry prone on the ground, a crater a short distance in front of them.
"Oh my god," Piper said, horrified. "Leo!"
Hermione and Ron were already sprinting to the two boys and Leo orbed in from where ever he had been fighting to Piper's side, but she just ran towards the boys.
Hermione knelt in between them both, frantic. "Harry, Draco please wake up," she said desperately. Ron was to stunned to speak and just stared at the injuries covering both boys, his eyes snagging on Harry's burned hands and the blood soaked leg of Draco's pants.
Leo was there, hands glowing with his healing powers. Slowly, the visible injuries faded and the boy's breathing became steady but still neither one opened their eyes.
"Boys?" Piper asked uncertainly, wringing her hands. "Please say something."
Harry groaned and opened his eyes. "Ow." He sat up slowly.
Draco coughed as he opened his eyes. "Ow pretty much covers it, I think," he said, pushing himself up on his elbows.
Ron let out a sigh of relief. Piper resisted the urge to smack them both. Hermione, sobbing and laughing and still in between them, threw one arm around each, knocking them both back down and planted a sloppy, teary kiss on each of their cheeks.
"Gross," Draco mumbled as he wiped his face and Hermione smacked him.
"Let's go home," Piper said.
