Connections
"Drop your wands!" Potter shouted as he entered the heavily warded chamber followed by the Order and the few Aurors that the Ministry had offered for this final assault on the forces of Voldemort.
Lucius Malfoy raised his wand, and died messily, his internal organs liquefied and sprayed across the chamber and his fellow Death Eaters.
"They had their chance. Take them!" Mad Eye Moody called from his right and the Order immediately began casting against the cloaked murderers. It took only a second or two for the Aurors to join in. The Chamber quickly became an abattoir as each side went out of its way to slaughter the other.
Severus Snape was suddenly in front of his wand. "As arrogant as ever Potter! Now you die!"
He distracted his former classmate with a billowing of his robes, much like a bullfighter would distract a bull with his cape. A thundering left flattened the hooked nose of Voldemort's Potions Master, dropping the greasy bastard to his knees. An ice spear flew from his wand to Snape's chest, running the Half Blood Prince through. "You always did talk too much Snape," he said as he watched the light fade from the bastard's eyes. That was when his scar erupted into an ocean of pain. "Riddle's here," he ground out through clinched teeth.
"So kill the Bastard, Potter," Moody barked. "Do you need me to hold your hand?"
Potter ignored the ancient Master Auror, scanning the room for Tom Riddle, the man who had taken so much from him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Remus Lupin end the life of Peter Pettigrew.
"Come on out Riddle!" he called. "Your financier is dead, your Potions Master is dead, even your backstabbing rat is dead, face me you coward."
The few Death Eaters still standing blanched at the thought of anyone daring to call their Dark Lord a coward, yet Voldemort still didn't appear.
"Oh no you don't, cousin," Sirius' voice came from behind him, followed by a meaty thump. He spared enough of his attention to note that Sirius had prevented Bellatrix from hexing him in the back by the simple expediency of smacking her upside the head with a table leg.
"Now your bitch is down Riddle, how many of your people do we have to kill before you face me?"
Voldemort appeared in the center of the room with a clap of thunder and a wave of force that dropped everyone in the room to the floor in a body bind. Everyone except Potter.
"Are you so ready to die boy?" the evil bastard asked.
"I've been ready since you killed my family in '81 Riddle. What about you? Are you done hiding behind women and children you coward?"
"You dare?"
"I dare more than that, 'Lord Runs from Death'," all around them Potter sensed the surviving members of the Order and the few remaining Aurors rising to their feet, wands at the ready. Sensing the signal that preparations were complete, Potter began walking around the Dark Lord, working off the excitement that after more than fifteen years, finally coming into a final confrontation with Tom Riddle. "Come on Riddle, it's time for you to die."
As usual Riddle led with a cruciatus. The man was so bloody predictable. Dodging the sickly yellow curse, Potter responded with a blasting curse to the flooring in front of the Dark Lord. The evil bastard's lower body was shredded by the resulting splinters from the oak floor. Riddle screamed in pain and cast a banisher that Potter caught in the chest, causing the younger man to slam into the wall behind him hard enough that he saw stars.
"I will kill you Potter, I will kill everyone you love."
"You're too late coward," the last scion of House Potter spat as his wand twitching in the pattern of a summoner.
"Crucio!"
Potter's world was suddenly awash with pain, but as suddenly as it had started, the pain stopped. Potter blinked away the tears that had filled his eyes to see that Voldemort was on his knees, with a foot long shard of window glass thrust through his neck, emerging from the mad man's throat.
He rose shakily to his feet, his hands still shaking from the unforgivable, as Riddle's body went through its death spasms, finally a black mist rose from the former Dark Lord. "No running away coward, not this time," Potter hissed as his wand moved in an intricate pattern. "Anima Capere!" he called.
A globe of silver energy enclosed the black mist that was all that remained of Tom Riddle. A thin band of magic tied the silver globe to Potter's wand, which was now held in both hands.
"Now Mad-Eye!" Potter paused while the copper kettle slid to a stop in front of him. Copper had been chosen carefully for the bonding medium. Struggling with the orb containing Voldemort's essence, he slowly forced the sphere of magic onto the kettle. "Vinculum Animi!" he chanted, bonding Tom Riddle's soul to the copper vessel.
"Ok," he said panting from the exertion. "He's bonded to the kettle. Get the box!"
Moody levitated a small iron box in front of the kettle, and with great care Potter levitated the kettle into the box, then a lid was placed on the box and melted into place. The only way into the box now was the small hole in the middle of the lid.
Potter stuck his wand through the hole and incanted "Anima Perdree!"
A bright light pulsed inside the box, and Potter pulled his wand free. Remus filled the hole with an iron plug and melted it into place.
Sirius pulled the Man Who Won into a hug. "It's over," the dog animagus sobbed, it's finally over."
"Not yet Black," Moody barked. "Not until I personally throw what's left of this bastard through the veil. "Good job Potter." the old man nodded as the Aurors gathered the Dark Lord's destroyed body and the iron box that contained what was left of Riddle's soul.
Potter just stood in Black's embrace until Remus joined them. "Now what do I do?" he asked his oldest friends.
"You won't be bored." Remus promised.
"We'll see to that," Sirius agreed.
"But, what do I do now?" Potter asked again.
-oooOOOooo-
Severus Snape stood disillusioned in the shadows, being very careful not to move, as he watched the carnage. The Death Eaters were being destroyed, and there was nothing he could do that might make a difference.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be. This wasn't Dumbledore's plan at all. The Death Eaters were to be shown the error of their path, not outright killed. He watched as Sirius Black shredded Peter Pettigrew with a spell so very dark that Snape didn't even recognize what it was. Moody was there as well, taking horrible damage, yet dealing out even more, moving in ways that a one legged man should never be capable to doing. Moody seemingly went out of his way to prove this when he crushed the fallen Lucius Malfoy's head under his wooden leg
Lupin moved through the crowd in that odd almost transformed state of his, dealing violence as he flowed from Death Eater to Death Eater. The Were came to a sudden stop in front of Snape, obviously not fooled for a second by the disillusionment charm. "Stay out of this Severus. They haven't decided what to do with you yet."
After Lupin moved back into the fight, Snape's attention was drawn to… Potter. Not Lily any longer, she was Potter... Potter was focused on the Dark Lord to the exclusion of all else. Moving like a dancer Potter slipped in and out of Voldemort's guard, striking, and then moving beyond the Dark Lord's reach. It was something that Snape had never expected to see. Unable to match the Dark Lord in power, Potter was using speed and finesse, and Voldemort was losing.
But that was... impossible.
Bellatrix finally made her appearance, materializing behind Potter and beginning the incantation for the killing curse, only to be interrupted when Alice Longbottom, Potter's constant companion for the last decade and a half appeared and slid a knife between the crazed witch's ribs. The shock of the blade robbed Lestrange of her voice, and she sunk to her knees.
Longbottom followed the murderous witch to the floor and continued to use her blade on the woman who had killed her husband and child, insuring that Bellatrix's passing was as slow and painful as humanly possible.
An odd sound pulled Snape's attention back to Potter and the Dark Lord. Both of the combatants were battered, burnt and bleeding at this point, but Potter wasn't slowing down in the slightest. The odd sound came from the odd rectangular shape in Potter's left hand, it buzzed and spit and a bluish fire seemed to dance at one end. Once again Potter dodged inside the Dark Lord's defenses and pushed the blue fire into Voldemort's neck.
Immediately the Dark Lord stiffened and seemed to be looking skyward in a silent scream before falling to the floor in convulsions. Potter pressed the blue fire to his neck again, and a third time. The odd buzzing stopped and Potter reached to her belt and pulled another of the rectangles out. The buzzing began anew and the blue fire was applied three more times.
"That should keep you entertained for a few moments Tom," she said as she carefully carved a runic symbol onto his forehead.
"Wha... wha... what di. di. did you do t. t. t. to me?" the Dark Lord slurred.
"Just a little Muggle device called a taser," Potter explained, turning Voldemort's bald head to inscribe a rune over his left temple.
"The Death Eaters are down Lass," Moody called from his position by the door. "Do that hoo doo you've got planned."
"Working on it Mad-Eye," Potter called, her attention never shifting from the rune set she was physically carving on the Dark Lord's skull.
"Yo can't kil me!" Voldemort protested as he fought to regain control of his body. "I am imm immm immm..."
"Immortal, yes I know," Potter said as she finished the rune set over the man's right temple. "Believe me, killing you is the very last thing I want to do. You killed my husband, you killed my son, you killed my unborn daughter. You and your Death Eaters have causes so much pain and suffering that I've decided that death is too good for you. You're going to be punished, punished like no wizard has ever been punished, and with any luck, your punishment will last forever."
"Wha..t .t are you going to do to me?"
"Well, I'm Muggleborn, you know? That means I know of things that most wizards have never thought of. Not you, of course, being a halfblood the way you are, but you cut yourself off from the Muggle world back in the 1940s, and there has been a been a few changes since then. I was reading a Muggle spy novel and there was an example of an interrogation technique that used Sensory Deprivation to break people so that they would tell their secrets. It seems that being alone without sound or light or sensation is very hard on the mind. It's said that only the strongest of men could last longer than a few days in such an environment. So I thought that I would try that on you."
"What do you mean?"
"The runes I've drawn will inhibit almost all of your higher brain functions. Sight, hearing, smell, taste, conscious motor control, heat, cold, touch. All gone, leaving you alone with just your thoughts forever," the woman smiled down at the incapacitated Dark Lord. "I wonder how long you'll last like that. How long until you go mad?"
"You can't win woman!" Voldemort screamed, having regained enough control to lose his stutter if not regain control of his limbs. "No matter what you do to my senses, I will regain them!"
"No, happily you won't," Lily Potter said. "When I said 'inhibit' I misspoke. What I mean was, my rune sets will puree' those portions of your mind, you'll be alive, but no force on earth can heal what I'm going to do to you," she reached out with her wand to touch her wand to the initializing rune on the Dark Lord's forehead. "Goodbye Tom."
Voldemort arched his back and screamed until he suddenly went limp and silent.
Silence owned the chamber for several moments broken only by the moans of the wounded and dying.
"Is it over then?" Sirius asked
"No," Lily shook her head as she stood up, reaching down to pull Alice to her feet. "It's not over just yet," she turned to face the disillusioned Severus Snape. "Is it Severus?"
Snape swallowed noisily and dropped the disillusionment charm. "I was a spy for Dumbledore."
"I'm sure you were," Lily said as the two women approached. "Just as I'm sure you were the one who told Voldemort the prophecy that set him on our families. It is because of you that James and Harry were slaughtered in our home. It is because of you Frank and Neville were killed," she pulled at the collar of her cloak revealing the angry red scar that ran from her throat disappearing between her breasts. "It was because of you I've worn this for fifteen years."
"Why do you suppose we timed our attack for when you would be at one of his meetings Severus?" Alice asked. "What will we do now that Dumbledore isn't here to protect you?"
A cold chill ran up the Potion Master's spine. They knew.
"You were playing both sides against the middle the whole time, weren't you Severus?" Lily purred dangerously. "Do you know what your Lord and Master told me when he stunned me that night fifteen years ago? After he killed my husband and son, he woke me up and told me that I was to be a reward to you for your fine work. I think he meant to keep that promise to you because he didn't try to use the killing curse on me until I attacked him. The look on his face when his curse rebounded almost made up for the pain it cause me."
"That's why you're going to die tonight Severus," Alice said quietly.
"Lily," Snape whispered. "Please?"
"Certainly Severus," she answered, her wand against his neck "It's the least we could do."
-oooOOOooo-
"What the hell?" I hear a lot of readers asking.
Yet another 'dimensional travel' story. I was reading a story where on the run from Tom and his Death Eaters, Harry, Hermione and Ron ended up somehow, accidently translate to another universe where they are all dead. Harry fell to Tom as an infant, where Peter died protecting him (after stupidly sharing the secret with the wrong person in the midst of pillow talk), Ron died due to the violating the 'Unbreakable Vow' that the Twins had tried to get him to take in canon, and Hermione died to the Troll in her first year.
So, that got me to thinking. What if each of the Potters became the X "who lived"? Each in their own world.
James gathered Sirius and Remus to him, and together used their pull with the Wizengamot to get him a hunting license with no bag limit.
Lily found an ally in Alice Longbottom, the only survivor of her family's slaughter. Being a 'Muggleborn' Lily was celebrated but not taken seriously, and again the bulk of the Death Eaters found acquittal via claims of Imperius.
Lily pulled her group together and became a criminal organization after Tom managed a rebirth via the Triwizard.
So, after the battles are over, James is flailing about without a purpose to his life. In desperation Sirius and Remus find a way that might allow James to transition to a world where Lily and Harry are.
Lily and Alice are arrested and sentenced to the Veil.
I planned for James and Lilly & Alice to end up appearing a few weeks apart in a semi-canon world to find a desperate 15 year old Harry and co on their way into the Ministry to 'save' Sirius.
Who doesn't believe for a second that these people are his parents, and Neville freaks right the hell out over an aware Alice.
I got the fights semi-written, but then it just stopped.
I may come back to it someday, but for now, free to a good home.