Disclaimer- Not mine.
Chapter 12
The chambers seven weary individuals sat in a circle in the rooms center. "The best I can tell from Dumbledore's directions," Fred concluded. "Is that we should continue through the door there."He pointed to the door across the room. "It's not like we have many other options at this point anyway, and we've all obviously chosen to move forward." He said, alluding to the rooms they had each just passed through.
The troop fell silent, not one of them daring to meet their companions gazes. They hated to think of the things that they left behind in order to pursue this future, which may prove to be fleeting at best. True, there was no guarantee that they would not find those things once more, in some round about way at least, but there was no guarantee they would either.
The future is always murky at best.
"Lets have at it then." Neville spoke into the silence, rising to his feet. "No point in wasting any more time away, as they say." The room gradually followed suit, as Ginny sprang off the floor, followed by Ron who offered Luna his arm, and Hermione and Fred who had each held tightly to the others hand since joining the circle. Harry was the only one to hesitate.
For a moment he was lead back to the room he had entered through the door in the cave. The voice filled his head once more, taunted him with the promise of destruction and pain. What had he led them all into?
It was Ginny who took the initiative to step forward, crouching down on the ground before him in order to make eye contact. "Don't even consider it Potter." She spoke firmly. "Not before, and not now." She knew what he was worried about, and she knew his worries were unfounded. When war is waged, no one is ever truly untouched. Even if it hadn't been for Harry, the war would have found them all eventually.
Silently she took his hand in hers, pulling him up along with her. "It's time to go." She said, and he nodded.
✤
The sun sank into the horizon giving way to a murky, starless night. A soft haze glazed the landscape, shrouding all that the battalion of young adults could see. Silently they broke from their tightly knit group, and expanded themselves into a line. As they moved forward the line splintered, its counterpart falling behind the first. If the first line fell the second was there, which made little sense to Ginny, because as she had pointed out if Harry 'fell' they were all in a load of trouble. "But hey." She had said. "What do I know."
Despite any misgivings the others had as far as their limited plan was concerned, they had all forged ahead. Which in truth, wasn't incredibly hard to do seeing as there were quite literally no other options available. The windows through which they had each passed had served as a last choice. That final decision had sealed their fates. Each had willingly walked into a future that held no certainty, and yet they each argued quietly to themselves, how many things are we ever truly certain of?
They were at the edge of a wooded area, which seemed to open into a clearing. As the band of young adults stepped into the clearing, a similar band of wizened wizards and witches stepped forth from the clearings opposing side. The Order of the Phoenix were here. The two groups were able to obtain minimal glimpses of one another, before the clearing's center began to fill with death eaters.
The final battle had arrived.
"We need to fan out." Fred muttered, to which several voices rose in agreement. Harry nodded reluctantly, and the group once more formed a single line.
✤
Jack sat vigilantly at his old friends bed side, clutching Dumbledore's frail hand in his own stronger one. There had been a shift taking place in the air over the past few days. A finally like no other was on its way, he could sense it. "My friend." He spoke softly. "You've done all that you can." He reassured.
He felt a slight pressure as Dumbledore attempted to squeeze his hand. "You may go forward. All is well." Jack murmured, closing his eyes as slowly Dumbledore let go of the life that he'd been holding onto.
✤
Chaos may not even be apt enough a word to describe the battle that ensued. It hadn't taken long for Harry to loose the others in the crowded clearing. Voices rang out, and spells shot through the air. Body's fell left and right, but Harry forged ahead. Something that he had long learned to do.
Harry raised his wand. "Playing it scared." He taunted with more confidence than he had as he faced Voldemort near the clearings outer edge.
"I don't appear to be the only one." Voldemort drawled haughtily.
"There's hardly a window for comparison." Harry replied through gritted teeth, no comparison to Voldemort was a welcome one.
"The window appears rather large, in truth." A sinister smirk crossed what passed as his face, as the pair circled one another. Gradually they crossed the battlefield, coming to its center. "But perhaps you may delight in being partially correct. I do not send my friends to die for me after all. I am not so hindered." Harry could feel himself tense at the mention of all those he had lead here. Voldemort's smirk grew more self satisfied. "Struck a nerve, have I?" His cruel laugh echoed through the open air. "Tsk, tsk, Potter. You always did wear that heart of your's on your sleeve. Didn't mummy and daddy... oh, but that's right..."
In that moment Harry allowed his growing rage to boil over and yelled the first spell that came to mind. The spell that had, of course, become his signature move. "Stupefy!" He screamed at the same moment in which Voldemort sent the killing curse hurtling towards him.
The spells connected, forming a vortex around the combatants. "Give up!" Voldemort yelled over the howling wind that had picked up within the vortexes confines.
"Make me!" Harry challenged as they began to rise steadily into the air. All around them on the ground below the battle began to slacken as people began to shift their attention to the rising figures. In fact, action didn't truly pick back up until the two figures had risen completely out of sight to which many of those congregated below found decidedly befuddling.
✤
The battling duo broke through the cloud line and found themselves entering a sealed off, narrow hallway. At the end of the hall stood an ajar door, Dumbledore was leaning in the entryway staring intently upon the two.
"Here at last." He spoke at length, turning and disappearing back into the depths of the room at the halls end. Before the pair in the hall could muster the will to move forward, the wall behind them found the ability to move and spurred them forward. The hallway disappeared and gave way to a single, outlet-less room. "There are things which you each should know, the most important of which, is that death weighs upon the soul."
Voldemorts laughter engulfed the silence that had once consumed the room. "You old fool, there is no need to worry over my soul." He smirked smugly. "The soulless have no worries."
"I would hardly say you soulless Tom." Dumbledore answered with a small smile of his own, the usual twinkle playing in his eyes. "In fact, I would say that you are a man in possession of several souls." Voldemort's eyes narrowed, as a smile akin to Dumbledore's own grew upon Harry's face. "Wouldn't you agree Harry?"
"I wouldn't actually." Harry answered.
"No?" Dumbledore quipped with little surprise.
"No." Harry reiterated. "The diary of course has been gone for years now." He began to list off the horcruxes that had been found and done away with. "Dumbledore found the Gaunt family ring."
Dumbldore held up his charred and decayed hand. "Though I will admit, it was not so easy to do away with."
"This hardly matters." Voldemort retorted.
"You'd be right." Harry replied. "If we hadn't been several paces ahead of you. We traced the locket, goblet and bracelet all of which were disposed of upon entering the cave to which Skye's ring was the key. Of course, since her ring was also a horcrux, being used as a key to that particular cave destroyed it." Harry grinned. "When will you learn not to underestimate those around you." Harry wondered aloud, referring to the dream in which Skye had appeared to him and his friends. Even in her death she had been helping them along.
Dumbledore nodded, and Voldermort seemed paler than usual, though a bout of confusion was beginning to dawn on Harry. If all of the horcruxes had been destroyed than why had they been brought here? Why was Voldemort even still around? The same thought seemed to tug at the edges of Voldemorts consciousness because he grew to appear just as confused as Harry.
Dumbledore appeared just as serene as ever. "Where then, may we wonder is the seventh horcrux?" Just as Voldermort began to argue that there couldn't be, Harry realized aloud that there must be, and their joined voices fell into silence. "There is indeed." Dumbledore revealed. "You made a mistake Tom, a blunder of the most unintended kind. Not only did you not mean for Harry to live that night, but you didn't mean to make him one of your horcruxes." The eyes of his audience expanded. "I leave you each with this information."
As he walked past them each to vacated the room, he whispered a piece of information that only Harry could hear. "All lies in the bloodlines."
✤
As they free-fell back to earth Dumbledore's final words echoed in Harry's head. All lies in the bloodlines. There were so many things that such a thing could mean, but he knew there was only one thing to which Dumbledore could be referring, and it all fell back to that gleam in his eyes following the events in the graveyard in 4th year. Bloodlines. Voldemort had taken his blood, he and Harry shared a bloodline. Harry had been made a horcrux, ergo Voldemort now possessed a portion of his own soul. He was vulnerable and he didn't know it.
They each hit the ground simultaneously. Voldemort immediately pointed his wand at Harry who stood completely still. He would do nothing. There was nothing for it. He had made his choice. "Distrugga!" Voldemort shouted and a ray of orange light shot from his wand, aimed directly at Harry's chest.
He didn't move, he didn't even lift a finger. Harry waited for the spell to make contact.