Chapter 19

Life and Death

Godric's Hollow
The Sweat Lodge
One week later

Harry and Lupin were sitting cross-legged in the Lodge with the ceremonial fire burning. The spirits of James, Lily and Sirius were sitting in ethereal chairs chatting with them.

"Still haven't changed the décor, son? I was hoping that you could make it look like something other than a teepee", James said. "And I see that you have Moony down to a loincloth also."

"Loincloth, fur, what's the difference?" Lupin asked. "Once you've seen someone in werewolf form, there's not much left to the imagination" With that, the other Marauders hooted with laughter.

"So, Harry, Have you thought of trying to change this place to make it a bit more….. British?" Lily asked.

"I actually have, Mom." Harry replied. "I am just so afraid of messing up the magic and losing contact with you guys again. We have years to catch up on. And I need advice."

"Just like a teenager. You never hear from them unless they need something." This from James. "I remember that time well….. " The spirits and Lupin laughed. "So, son, what advice from our extensive store of knowledge can we give you?"

Lily poked an elbow into James. "And what advice do you feel qualified to give… Prongs?"

"As I was saying, Harry", said James. "What advice can your mom give you?" He muttered in a lower voice, "Sometimes that whole 'Brightest Witch of Her Age' bit can get a little bit tiring." This earned him another elbow from Lily and a new round of laughter from the others.

Harry knew how James felt. After having spoken several times with Lily, she tended to remind him of Hermione. She had been the one to tell him of the wedding ring set in the Potter Family vault. She had also given him a lot of good, practical advice on how to approach and treat Ginny. In matters of the heart, Lily was tops. James, on the other hand, was somewhat of a bumbler with interpersonal relationships. Harry guess that passing to the other side of life didn't change certain things.

"It's like this; I believe that I am ready to take on Riddle. I am, however, unable to get to Nagini to remove the shard of soul he put in her. I don't want to go through all of this just to have him pop back up in a couple of years, or even weeks. I have to break the back of his organisation now. I also need to meet him on my ground. Him and all of his Death Eaters."

"Alright. First of all, Voldemort doesn't play fair. But I guess that you know that well by now. He will have Vampires, werewolves, and giants with him if any way possible. You can get rid of 2 of those threats just by meeting him in daylight during the new phase of the moon, when it is pretty much just a sliver. And as far as the 'where', how about right here?"

"Why here?" Harry exclaimed. "I would like to consider this place as sacred ground."

Sirius joined in. "Its perfect, Harry. This is the place of his first and greatest defeat. Your hard part will be getting him to bring Nagini with him. Have you tried the thing with the Room of Requirement? That was bloody brilliant. I never would have thought that your cousin had it in him."

"We did try it, but he has her well protected from things like that. I can talk with her, but not much else. He only lets her free to eat, then just the first foot or so of her body. I am really starting to feel sorry for her. I hate to see any creature abused like that. The good news is that I have talked to her without Voldemort knowing. As long as I don't try to connect with him specifically, he doesn't know, or at least I don't think he knows."

Lily got excited. "That's the way that you can get him and free her at the same time. This is what you need to do……"

Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft

"Nagini," Harry hissed in Parseltongue. His mind reached out across space to locate the captive snake. "Can you hear me?"

"Harry Potter," the snake hissed back, "Pleassse freee meee!"

"I'm working on that now, Nagini." Harry thought back. "Has anything changed?"

"Yesss. The Evil One put meee in a glassss tank. Heee hasss three two-legsss watching meee allways now."

"Do you know why he did that?" This made Harry curious.

"Yesss, I wanted to die before continuing to beee hissss ssslave." Nagini sent a satisfied feeling to Harry. "I tried to bite him. I misssed." Harry could feel the serpent's disappointment.

"Good try, though. Nagini, can you tell me what your surroundings are?"

"Yesss. I am in the lair of the Evil One. Heee isss not here now."

"Can you tell me anything about the house?"

"It isss the houssse of hisss sssire. I am in the big room. I want to essscape, but the glassss holdsss meee in."

"Do you know where Voldemort is?" asked Harry.

"Theee Evil One sssaid heee was going to get sssomething elssse to put the sssoul in. It will kill meee, but death isss better than thissss."

"Oh, no! Nagini, I need to get some help." Harry jumped up and ran into the Great Hall. "Everybody! I need help!"

Moony came running up. "What's the problem?"

"I need Tonks to warn the Ministry that Voldemort may be coming to get an artifact to transfer the Nagini portion into. Everyone else needs to get ready to go now!" Dudley ran up to get his dueling wand, while Ginny ran out of the Hall to fetch Hermione from the Library. "This will be a dress rehearsal for the big one, minus Voldemort. No witnesses."

Ron ran off to get the supplies, and within a couple of minutes, the whole team was gathered in front of McGonagall's office. Ron handed everyone a one-litre squirt bottle and some heavy duty plastic flex cuffs. These were created for muggle policemen as a one-use, disposable set of handcuffs. They rushed into the office and, each grabbing some Floo powder, gave their destination and disappeared.

12 Grimmauld Place.

One at a time, the group came through the fireplace. This time, Dudley came through last in order to allow the others to make it through without a tangle. As they got themselves organised, Moody asked, "Just where are we going?"

This drew Harry up short. "I'm not sure, actually. Nagini says that she is in Voldemort's house that was also his father's. I was hoping that you knew the location."

"Actually, I do. It is in Little Hangleton. The old Riddle Manor. I thought that it had been destroyed though." What we can do is go through the Floo network to the old Gaunt home."

"That old shack is still on the network?"

"Yes, and as a matter of fact, it has been used by the Aurors to keep an eye on the area. Over the past couple of years, there has been occasional Death Eater activity there. They have never actually seen anything happening around the Manor, and every time the Aurors get into the area, the Death Eaters disappear."

"I see. So is everyone ready to go?"

There were nods of assent, but then Moony stopped them before they Floo'ed out. "Harry, you need to stay here. We need to save you for Voldemort, and there are plenty of people on this team. It's going to be a quick smash and grab with no witnesses. If Voldemort senses you around his house though, it could blow the whole thing"

"But what if Voldemort shows up? I'll need to be there."

"If Riddle shows up, then we'll all Appirate out. If they show up in force, the mission is a dud anyway"

"But Ginny can't Apparate. She would have to be protected."

"Hmm, you're right. Ginny, you'll have to stay here with Harry. And Harry will have to talk to Nagini so that she won't attack us."

Ginny clenched her fists in frustration, but Harry headed off the tantrum. "Ginny, I need you here. You have a big part in helping to remove the shard of soul from Nagini. There will be enough people there, Nagini says that there are only 3 Death Eaters there. I don't like the fact that I'm not going, but this is the best way." Harry looked at the group. "Are you going to be using a portkey if everything goes alright?

"Yes," said Moody. "We'll come back in two groups."

"Okay, you had better get going then."

Harry watched most of the operation through the eyes of Nagini. He had contacted the snake to tell her that she was being rescued. The whole operation went off just like clockwork, and less than 30 minutes from the time the team floo'ed out, they returned by portkey. The two prisoners had been rendered unconscious, bound with flex cuffs, then the flex cuffs were made into portkeys. As an added insult to Riddle, they had torched his house on the way out. The lair was now a smoking ruin, the same way that Voldemort had left Harry's parent's home in Godric's Hollow.

Harry had the tank with Nagini taken into the Black Family library at Order Headquarters. They had a quick discussion on the best way to go about the soul removal without harming Nagini. Harry translated the discussion into Parseltongue for the snake.

"Jussst do your besssst, friend. If I die, I will ssstill beeee freee of the Evil One. If you cannot do it without killing meeee, I forgive you."

When Harry translated this for the others, they looked at Nagini with new respect. Hermione summed up the feelings of the group. "Nagini is very noble. She has more humanity than Voldemort and his entire crowd put together. Harry, we have to do our best on this one."

Opening the tank and allowing Nagini to comfortably coil up on a chest, Harry, Ginny, Dudley, Ron and Hermione gathered around her while drawing their wands.

"DILIGO PROSAPIA!" Dudley cast the Love of Family charm

"DILIGO AMICITIA!" Ron and Hermione cast the Love of Friends charm

"DILIGO MATERIA!" Ginny cast the Love of Mate charm.

They held their charms steady on Nagini while Harry prepared to cast the first of two spells. The first one would separate the souls of Nagini and Voldemort, then the second would remove the invading soul, leaving Nagini with just her soul.

"Feeeelsss niccccee" The snake said to Harry. He smiled and cast the first spell.

"TRIBUO ANIMUS!" Harry could feel Voldemort's soul struggling to stay attached to the essence of Nagini. He also saw the pain in her eyes.

"Keeeep going!" the snake hissed. "I feel him losssing hisss grip!"

Harry felt the souls tear, then quickly cast the second spell before Voldemort's soul could get a new foothold.

"AUFERO PERVASOR!" The partial soul of Voldemort came slowly out of Nagini, where it was hit by the other three charms. It was quickly destroyed by the combined love of the quartet.

"I'M FREEEEEE!" Nagini hissed her joy at the removal of Voldemort's soul piece.. "I will ssserve you assss long assss you will have me. You will beee my massster!"

"Nagini, I don't need a servant," Harry said in Parseltongue. "I would be honored to be your friend though." Harry noticed that he actually had to speak Parseltongue now, the connection that allowed him to psychically communicate with Nagini was gone. The good news is that Voldemort could also no longer invade Nagini's mind and control her.

"Harry," Ron asked, "Does Riddle know that you have destroyed the last Horcrux? He was in a lot of pain the last time."

"I'm not sure, but I don't believe so. He will be coming back to a burned down house, and Nagini and the Death Eaters missing. He may suspect, but he won't know. And speaking of the Death Eaters, I wonder what Mad-Eye and Moony have done with them."

"Did I hear someone saying my name?" Lupin came in the room.

"I was just wondering aloud what happened to the prisoners." Harry said.

"Moody floo-talked to the Ministry to see if the coast was clear, and found out it was. We took them through the Floo to the Ministry and turned them over to the Aurors." He looked at his watch. "They were on the list of the Death Eaters already convicted, so they ought to be going through the Veil right about…..now."

"Actually, about 5 minutes ago," Mad-Eye Moody stepped in the room. "I stayed to make sure that they didn't get rescued. They were still unconscious when the Minister read the death warrant and the Aurors shoved them through. Hell of a way to wake up, but at least they won't be around to tell Voldemort what happened."

"So the Death Eaters never attacked the Ministry?" Harry had a bad feeling about this.

"No," Moody looked grim. "Dudley, I'm sorry. They came into Little Whinging. They killed Mrs. Figg first, then went to your house. They killed your parents, then took some trophy from the front room. It was the only thing missing. I was hoping to tell you privately, but son, you have a good group of people here to support you."

"How were they able to get past the protection?" Dudley had tears on his face. He was trying to be brave and hold it in, but it wasn't working.

"The protection has been gone for months. It only lasted until Harry's 17th birthday, and the two of you were in Texas then. We offered to put new protection in, but your father refused it and demanded that we leave."

"Did they suffer much?"

"I would like to tell you no, but I have to be honest. They were tortured for quite a while. That is why we were able to get in and out of Voldemort's house before he came back."

Harry put his arm around Dudley and his friends followed suit. "Harry, promise me that you will kill that bastard. I know that my folks treated you badly, and my dad absolutely hated you, but do it for me, if not them."

Harry looked Dudley in the eye. "I will. For them and every other innocent victim of Riddle's war. Dudley, I know that they didn't ask for the trouble, but they received it anyway. All they wanted was to pretend that our world didn't exist. No one would let them have even that illusion."

Ron spoke up. "Harry, what are you going to do with Nagini?"

"I don't know. Nagini, would you like to go out in the back and roam the garden? I'm sure that there will be good hunting there."

Nagini hissed her agreement, so Harry told her to follow Lupin to the back entrance, then the rest of the group grabbed some Floo powder and headed back to Hogwarts.

A/N: We are getting close to the end now. I purposely did not detail the happenings in Riddle Manor, it would have spoiled the climax chapter. I have given you hints throughout though. :)