Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot and anything you don't recognise.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel.
Chapter twenty: One Last Release.
Harry burned with determination as he walked back to the common room. His face was an angry scowl and adrenaline surged through him. He was charged. The injustice of it all angered him, the fact that he had to go through all of this again. He would be scared later, he knew that, but right now his fear was suppressed and all he could feel was hate and fury.
But another part of him was relieved, relieved that it would soon be all over, whatever the outcome. There would be no more uncertainty. He could prepare and then he would fight. Simple.
Except that it was not. Harry sighed and shook his head. There were so many unsolved problems. He had still not discovered what this "power the Dark Lord knows not" was. That worried him the most. Without it, it seemed to Harry to be like going to open a locked door without the key.
Then he laughed. If you don't have the key to a locked door, then you're not completely screwed. Just kick the bastard down. He laughed again, that's what he would do, then.
It wouldn't be easy, and despite what Hermione, Cho, Ron and Ginny all said, he didn't expect to come out on the other side. But if he did die, then he wanted to take Voldemort down with him.
The Gryffindor common room was in sight and Harry quickened his pace. He wanted Ron, Hermione and Ginny to know as soon as possible. After all, it would be them that helped him prepare for it all.
The Fat Lady looked at his determined face curiously but refrained from asking any questions. Harry was grateful for that; it meant that he didn't have to make up some story on the spot. Not one of his greatest talents.
The common room was empty, save for the other three. They looked up from their game of exploding snap when he walked in. They didn't ask what Dumbledore wanted to see him about; Harry's visits to the Headmaster's office were so common nowadays that they were no longer a big issue. It was only Harry's look of angry determination, most common in battles, that caused them to ask about it.
"Problems, mate?" Asked Ron, looking up.
"You don't want to know." There was a bitter edge to Harry's voice, but underneath that, almost undetectable, was the note of fear.
"What is it?" Asked Ron, slightly more urgently. Harry sighed, sat down on the couch and put his head in his hands. He was almost tempted not to answer, in the hope that the problem would solve itself.
"The Unspeakables have found a way to get the wards back up around Hogwarts." His voice was filled with resignation and fear now, all the bitterness gone. Ron, Hermione and Ginny's reactions were the same as Harry's.
"No!"
"Oh Jesus!"
"Shit."
The three of them each knew what it meant. It required no explanation.
"So what do we do now?" Asked Ron. His face was horrified and there was a panicky edge to his voice. Harry found that he could deal with that.
"We calm the fuck down." Harry, by no means was perfectly clean-mouthed, but it was rare that he would use such profanity. Ron shut up.
"What do we do, then?" Ginny asked, forcing herself to remain calm, though inside she was screaming with terror.
"We have two weeks before Dumbledore thinks Voldemort will attack. So we prepare. Get the goblins and the Aurors ready to come to our aid, devise a battle plan, and work with the Guardians and the DA. We prepare."
"What do we do now, though?" Ron asked, he was impatient to get things started.
"Nothing for tonight. Well. None of us can think straight, and our emotions have been messed up by this news. We get a good night's sleep and then we start sorting things out tomorrow."
"Is this it?" Asked Ron. Harry knew what he meant.
"Yes, this is it. The end of the road. Now let's get some sleep."
…………
Harry was up pacing at five o'clock the next morning. He had the familiar sick feeling that accompanied the approach of a battle. The only comfort was that at least there wasn't as much organising as he had originally thought. Dumbledore would take care of the goblins and the Aurors, the Order would be alerted by him as well. All Harry had to do was prepare the DA and the Guardians.
Then there were the typical questions before a battle, where would they attack? How many of them? When exactly? However, they were questions that, with a couple of palms crossed with gold, could usually be answered easily.
There were a couple of things that he wanted to do, improve his sword fighting was top of the list. If he was going to get close to Voldemort then he would have to be able to cut people down quickly and efficiently. That, too, was another easy one to solve. He would just speak to Lupin.
Having got all that straight all in his mind he felt slightly more relaxed and was tempted to go back to sleep. He shook his head though; he knew that sleep would be impossible.
Instead, he sat down on the end of his bed and considered what it all meant. It felt unreal, now that it was here. The final battle, the fulfilment of the prophecy, it had always felt like it was something he just had to live with, yet he could never imagine it actually happening. Now that it was actually here and actually upon him, it didn't quite feel real.
He stood up and began pacing again as a wave of panic flooded through him. His pacing woke Ron, who looked up.
"Oh Jesus."
"Good morning to you too, mate, but you can call me Harry." Ron laughed and fell backwards on to his pillow.
"You alright this morning?" Ron asked him.
"Considering I'll be dead in two weeks, yes."
"Optimistic."
"Realistic." They were speaking in whispers so as not to wake the others.
"Seriously, Harry, you'll be alright, you have so many people looking out for you and watching your back that the Death Eaters won't be able to touch you." Even if that wasn't completely true it did reassure Harry.
"Thanks mate."
"No problem. What time is it anyway?"
"About five thirty."
"Five thirty? Jesus! How long have you been awake?"
"Not long."
"So much for a good night's sleep."
"No, I'm alright. I've got everything clear in my mind."
"Good. What do you intend to do then?"
"Let Dumbledore take care of it all. Or most of it anyway, I'm just going to concentrate on myself, the DA and the Guardians."
"Smart move. Stops you getting too overloaded."
"I hope so. I reckon I need to work on my sword fighting a bit more."
"Harry, you are unbelievable with that thing! You don't need any more practice."
"I don't know, I think I could get better. I'll go and find Lupin later on."
"When are you going to tell the DA?"
"Not now, sooner rather than later, but not now."
"Fair enough." They fell silent. Harry wondered how he was going to stand the waiting. Experience had told him that waiting for a battle was worse than the actual thing. There was plenty of time to worry, and be scared and speculate on what he would happen to you. During a battle there was no time to feel any of that. You were so charged with adrenaline that you didn't feel fear. You reacted on instinct.
Suddenly Ron went pale, and sat up quickly.
"Sweet Jesus!"
"What?"
"We're really going to do it, aren't we, Harry? We're really going to do it!" Ron's voice was awed and slightly panicked.
"Yeah, we're really going to do it." In contrast, Harry's voice was quiet and calm.
"Aren't you scared?"
"Petrified."
"You don't sound it."
"I know." Ron shook his head wonderingly and lay back down.
"Psycho. I'm going back to sleep. I'll see you later."
"Alright." Ron turned on to his side and closed his eyes. Just as he fell asleep, he heard the door open and then close again as Harry left the room.
Harry left Gryffindor Tower and headed down to the Quidditch pitch, with his Firebolt over his shoulder. Flying, right now, seemed to be his only chance of a release, and at this moment, he needed a release more than anything.
He opened the door and slipped out. The morning was damp but there was no mist and it was relatively warm. He hurried towards the Quidditch pitch.
He was surprised when he saw that someone was already there. Then he smiled when he recognised who it was.
He continued walking towards the Quidditch pitch, now with a faintly content grin on his face.
"Good morning, my early bird." He called up when he arrived there. Cho looked around at the voice and then smiled down at him before diving towards him.
She stopped just short of him, trying to make him flinch, but was disappointed when he didn't even blink.
"You're up early." She said, after he had kissed her on the cheek.
"So are you." She laughed.
"True."
"Why are you up so early?" Harry asked her, she shrugged.
"Practising to beat you at Quidditch."
"Really?"
"No, just wanted to fly. I can beat you without any practice!" She teased. Harry grinned.
"The last Quidditch game says differently." She grinned ruefully.
"I knew you'd bring that up."
"You know me too well."
"But there is more of you for me to learn about." She said, smiling wryly and taking a step closer to him. Harry grinned at her and took a step back.
"You want to fly? Then lets fly." He jumped on his broom and pushed off in one fluid motion. In seconds he was lying flat on his broom and shooting vertically upwards. Cho looked at him, smiled, got on her broom and followed him.
She flew up towards him, revelling in the feel of the wind in her hair. He was sitting on his broom, his eyes sparkling as he laughed at her. Just as she approached, he pulled the broom up over his head and began a freefall back to the ground. She gasped; it was a thing of beauty, watching Harry fly.
He belonged in the air. The seemed to be nothing that he couldn't do. She watched him twist and tumble through the air, the wind rushing through his hair. She thought she could hear a faint laughing coming from him as he hurtled towards the ground.
She was terrified as she watched him race towards the ground at a sickening pace with seemingly no control over his broom, yet it was mesmerising at the same time, it seemed to be a dance that only Harry could do and no one else could ever dream to match. Harry truly was a demon in the air, the air belonged to him.
She almost cried out when she saw how close he was to the ground, but at the very last second he pulled the broom upwards and pulled out of the freefall. He flew up to her.
His eyes were bright as he approached and he was grinning broadly. He laughed at her scared expression.
"Scared?" He laughed again.
"How do you do that? How do you freefall on a broom? How do you do what no one else can?" she demanded. He shrugged.
"I don't know. I just do it."
"Maybe that's why then, you just dare to do the impossible." Harry laughed loudly.
"The impossible? No. I just dare to try."
"I wish I could do it."
"You could." Cho looked faintly horrified.
"I couldn't!"
"Yes, you could. It's easy. Just pull your broom up over your head and fall backwards, don't hold yourself up, just relax and you'll freefall." Cho looked hesitant.
"What if I can't pull out of it?"
"You will be able to. Just trust me. I'll do it alongside you and if you get into any difficulty then I will pull you out of it."
"Ok. I'll try it."
"Good girl. Trust me." Harry smiled at her. She took a deep breath and pulled her broom up over her head and relaxed. For a minute nothing happened and she just hung there. Then she felt herself begin to fall.
It was nothing like she had ever felt before. She plummeted towards the earth, yet she felt oddly calm about it. There was no time for fear, she was travelling too fast. Beside her she saw Harry freefalling with her.
It was a pure release. There were no constraints. The adrenaline pumped through her. There was only her instinct. There was no time to think about it. Every second counted, a millisecond could be the difference between life and death. Your instinct and the quickness of your reactions was the only thing between life and death. There was no other feeling like it. There was time to panic, to worry, you relied solely on your instinct and nothing else.
She hurtled through the air and revelled in the feeling of fear as the ground came closer. She surrendered herself to the freefall and closed her eyes; letting her other senses take control. She opened her eyes and laughed at her own daring.
The ground came ever closer and she tensed, ready to pull up. The adrenaline was pumping around her body at immense speeds. She gripped the handle of the broom.
Twenty feet from the ground, she wrenched the broom upwards. She gave a loud whoop of delight and barrel rolled in the air. She turned to watch Harry and saw that he was still freefalling, just as he was about to hit the ground he pulled up and barrel rolled in one fluid motion. She grinned, even though she had done it, there was no way she would ever do it as well as Harry did.
He flew up to her and grinned at her. Her eyes were bright and she was laughing loudly.
"That was brilliant!" She exclaimed. He laughed at her delight.
"Well done, Cho." She grinned at him, the adrenaline still pumping around her body.
"There's nothing else like it. Nothing!"
"No, there isn't" He flew over and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
Harry grinned as he kissed her. This was what he wanted. This was all he wanted.
A/N Finally, here ends the filler chapters. I was getting pretty sick of them, I expect you were too! The next couple of chapters will be about the final preparations, though do not worry, there will be plenty of light-hearted moments and lots of H/C!
Thanks to all my reviewers.
Aizan19 – Thanks for the review. Glad you like where this fic is going. After this I am going to write a Harry/Ginny called "When Dreams Come True". If you want any more information about it let me know in a review.
Dark Phoenix Mortal - Thanks for the review. Glad you like them.
J or The Blind – Thanks for the review. The wards around Hogwarts. I thought Harry's words were pretty cool as well.
Colm - Thanks for the review.
Dragon Sword Master - Thanks for the review. More H/C coming up.
(No Name) - Thanks for the review. How big the difference is in what?
Goddess Usagi - Thanks for the review. Thanks, I'm glad you think I'm getting better. True, people wouldn't review if they didn't like it. You don't need to be an excellent writer to write a good fic, and one of the best things about is that it is a place to improve. I'll bet that you are a better writer than most!
Hockeyman - Thanks for the review. I'm afraid that the trilogy will end with this fic. The rest will be left to your imagination.
FSI - Thanks for the review.
Keep reading and reviewing 'cos I'll keep writing.
Fireboy.