The Allegiance of a Wand
All the teachers at the blasted school are idiots, Voldermort thought uncharitably.
"Oh, look. Professor Entwhistle just summoned a huge elephant made of fire! Can you see that, Tom?"
Voldemort ignored the bleating girl beside him. I could produce a better Fire Construct than that. A snake, of course, with fangs the size of horses.
"That's clever," another idiot said, looking out of the windows. "Inferii are weak to fire."
Voldemort resisted the urge to scoff at him. 'inferii are weak to fire', Merlin, what a simpleton. Almost everything is weak to fire. He is weak to fire. If Entwhistle was clever or powerful, he'd just use a little soul magic. Empty husks that they are, inferii are easily defeated by even the simplest of soul manipulations. But, no! No 'good' wizard could ever use anything as useful as necromancy.
"Where did all these bodies come from?" asked a cowardly idiot. "You don't think they're the villagers from Hogsmede, do you?"
What?! Does she think that Grindelwald just waltzed into the heart of wizarding Britain's largest magical settlement, killed everyone and made them all into inferii without the alarm being raised? I'm surrounded by stupidity.
"There's a large Muggle cemetery about twenty miles west of here," Voldemort said, continuing to watch the professors battle against Grindlewald's horde.
"Uh," said a voice on his other side, "and just how do you know that, Tom?"
Oops.
Rather than offer up an excuse, Voldemort just fixed the questioner with a scornful gaze and used legilimency to force self-doubt and embarrassment onto him.
The other boy's expression twisted and he looked away in shame. "Sorry, I mean…"
"Forget it," Voldemort said, turning back to watch the battle.
These professors are pathetic. I could have defeated all of the inferii by now, by myself! What's more, it's obvious that Grindlewald is not leading the inferii from here, so this is clearly a distraction, but all the professors have rushed out and left us poor students defenceless.
But by far, the biggest idiot is Dumbledore. Galavanting around Europe, going on adventures, seeing out his destined enemy for a glorious duel to determine the future of wizardkind, meanwhile, he leaves the school that he purportedly cares for, without his protection.
Not that I have anything to fear. I'd give myself good odds of defeating Grindlewald by myself and, as weak as they are, there are a thousand other wands here. If necessary, I can let them act as a distraction, while I escape to the Chamber of Secrets and release the basilisk against him. If worst came to worst, the Diary is safely in my trunk. No wizard can truly threaten me.
Screams erupted behind him and there was a great scurrying of feet. Voldemort turned slowly, and was entirely unsurprised to see Grindlewald marching through the doors to the Entrance Hall. What was surprising was that he was alone. Voldemort expected him to have at least a few of his dark lieutenants with him. Even I couldn't take on hundreds by myself, teenagers or not.
Hogwarts students retreated to the corners and to the stairs, but didn't flee entirely. Presumably they'd come to the same conclusions that Voldemort had.
"Don't worry, Tommy," a seventh-year Slytherin said. "He can't take on all of us." Voldemort resisted the urge to incinerate him on the spot.
"Children," Grindlewald's voice boomed out, only a trace of accent in it, "sons and daughters of Merlin, heirs of Hogwarts, it is foolish to resist me. Your teachers are at the mercy of my servants and your great defender is busy searching for me a thousand miles away on the continent. Join me and help us take our rightful places as rulers over the Muggles!"
Muggles are not for ruling over. Muggles are for sport.
"Together, we can lead Britain into…"
Someone, probably a Gryffindor, was clearly not interested in grand speeches (which was a shame, in Voldemort's opinion, because he also shared a flair for the dramatic), and shot a Stunning Charm into Grindlewald's back. As quick as a flash, Grindlewald's wand had swept around to intercept it, but it was the action that broke the dam and unleashed the river. A huge torrent of spell fire was sent at Grindlewald. Hundreds of colourful lights, blasts of fire, bolts of lightning and all manner of conjured rocks, spikes and weapons all sped towards him. Voldermort joined into the attack and sent some of the nastier curses that he'd been wanting to try out towards him. For a moment, incredibly, Grindlewald held his ground, his wand dancing with unimaginable grace and precision. Voldemort raised his eyebrows. Was this the level of power that wizards can achieve?
But as powerful and skilled as Grindlewald was, nothing could beat the stubbornness of Hogwarts students. Voldemort thought he saw a look of surprise on Grindlewald's face, when his shield fell, and a look of betrayal towards his wand, but he might have imagined it.
What did he expect? He could have been the reincarnation of Merlin, welding the Lost Wand of Atlantis, and he couldn't have defeated five hundred witches and wizards all at once.
The smear that was left on the floor was barely recognisable as human, let alone as Grindlewald, but they had done it. Years of tension and war had been ended in less than a minute by a bunch of teenagers without a responsible adult in sight.
Voldemort tried to get close enough to steal away Grindlewald's wand. If he could use the reverse spell effect and study the kind of spells that Grindlewald had used, it could prove an invaluable source of knowledge. But clearly, the overzealousness that the students had displayed had destroyed the wand, as well as the body, as it was nowhere to be found.
Voldemort felt like laughing.
"So this is what Dumbledore sends to his champion? A song bird and an old hat?"
The Potter annoyance plunged the hat onto his head and then, almost immediately, took it off and drew from inside it a strange, long wand. The boy pointed it at the shade of Voldemort with shaking hands.
"Oh, my mistake. I didn't realise that Dumbledore meant for you to duel me." Voldemort said sarcastically. "Very well, let us place the skill and power of the Dark Lord Voldemort against a second-year student."
Seriously, how does Dumbledore come up with these plans?
"Experlliarmus!" the boy cried. Oh, come on! If this is what I'm faced with, I'm more likely to be defeated by second-hand embarrassment.
Voldemort used the Potter boy's own wand to deflect the Disarming Charm away, but he was shocked by how powerful it had been. He responded with a dark curse, directly at the boy's heart, but the strange wand suddenly swept up to meet it and the curse dissipated into nothingness. Voldemort narrowed his eyes at the boy, but it was clear that he didn't understand what had happened either. Apparently, the wand had acted on its own accord. When I kill him, I must find out what that wand is.
Another curse, even darker than the last, shot out of Voldemort's stolen wand, but this time, it was reflected back at him and he had to drop to the floor in order to escape it. The miserable child was still confused, but now he was filled with confidence as well and he smirked at Voldemort.
The following battle was spectacular, but only lasted a few minutes. Nothing that Voldemort could do could overcome the wand, moving entirely of its own volition, and his own defences were growing weaker. Even resorting to the Unforgivable Curses didn't help him in the slightest, the very stones beneath their feet rising up to intercept them. Suddenly, the speed at which the boy's wand was moving doubled and Voldemort found his stolen wand ripped from his grip and magicked back to its original owner.
So, Dumbledore really did have an impressive trick up his sleeve. No matter, I'll just summon the basilisk and let her deal with him. Then, that wand will be mine.
"Speak to me, Slytherin…" Voldemort began, but then no more sound came out. He had been silenced! Him! Lord Voldemort had been silenced by a pre-teen hero!
Fine! So long as the I can complete my possession of the girl, I can hide inside her until I can escape and rejoin my older self. There's no magic that the boy can use to destroy the Diary in the next minute until it is over.
"Let Ginny go!" the child said, pointing both wands at him.
Time to play along.
"Fine, fine. Just don't hurt me. I'll leave the stupid girl alone." But faking contrition and surrender was not one of Voldemort's strong suits and the boy narrowed his eyes dangerously. Seemingly of its own accord again, the wand swung the boy's arm around until it was pointed at the Diary. The flame that appeared at the tip of the powerful wand was positively dripping with maliciousness and dark intent.
"No!" Voldemort cried, jumping forward to try and stop what was about to happen.
The flame at the tip of the wand exploded and a fiery lion leapt forth. It crushed the diary under his foot almost contemptuously. The shade of Voldemort vanished in almost an instant, the very last thing he saw, before his consciousness faded into oblivion, was the Fiendfyre lion jumping into the deep pool of water and extinguishing itself.
"But how did the wand do all that on its own, sir?" Harry asked Dumbledore, once they were finally alone in McGonagall's office.
Dumbledore smiled at Harry. "Many years ago, a wizard brought that wand here to try and conquer Hogwarts. It's a very special, and entirely unique, artefact that can grant it's wielder the power to win any duel. That wizard, Grindlewald was his name, was overcome by the students of Hogwarts. Their devotion to each other and trust in their collective strength overcame the power that Grindlewald wielded. As a mark of respect to that achievement, the wand pledged its loyalty to the students of Hogwarts."
"The wand chooses the wizard," Harry said.
"Exactly," said Dumbledore, beaming at him. "When you went down into the Chamber to save another student and stand with them against an outside enemy, the wand appeared to you to help you in your hour of need. That is one of Voldemort's greatest weaknesses, that he could never selflessly put the welfare of others ahead of his own, but you did so without hesitation and what's more, I think that you always will." Harry blushed. "That is why the wand came to you. And now the wand has disappeared again, waiting for the next worthy student to require it's power."
"And Voldemort?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore sighed. "He too shall return, but make no mistake Harry, you have grievously wounded him today."
"And the basilisk?"
"The greatest danger was that its existence was a mystery. Now that Ms. Granger has revealed its nature to us, I can take action to subdue it. But, only after the students have left, I think," he winked at Harry. "Speaking of, I think you should head to dinner, young man. I have a sneaking suspicion that we will have a grand feast to celebrate the events of today."
Harry smiled and left, leaving Dumbledore alone with his thoughts. The Elder Wand was truly knowledgeable about all kinds of magic, Dumbledore had long harboured the thought that the wand contained knowledge from its former owners, and no one had more knowledge of the Dark Arts than Gellert. There were a few reasons as to why it would seek to destroy the Diary, but only one reason that would require the use of Fiendfyre.
"Tom, you idiot. What have you done?"
