Chapter 21
Showdown at Godric's Hollow
Godric's Hollow
The following morning
Harry and his friends had spent several hours in preparation at the sweat lodge. Recognising that no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy, they also went over several options in case of the plan falling apart. The combat team was ready, the only things that could trip them up would be if either Voldemort didn't show or the giants did. Harry was pretty sure that Voldemort would show, it would mean a total loss of influence if he did not. As far as the giants went, unless Voldemort had figured a way to transport them from Scotland, they should be safe.
As the team began to leave the inside of the lodge in order to deploy, Harry signaled to Dudley to stay behind. "Cousin, are you ready?" he asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be, I suppose. I was thinking to myself last night, asking what in the bloody hell I had gotten myself into now, when it hit me that if I wasn't here, I would probably be dead now… just like Mum and Dad. Whatever happens, I plan to get a chunk of justice for them."
"Dudley, if this goes off right, you will be responsible for getting them all." Harry gave Dudley's arm a squeeze. "Time to get set up." With that, Dudley left while Harry got ready to contact Voldemort. Taking a last look around as he sat down in a cross-legged position, he sighed. In a short while, this place would be nothing more than an oddly shaped, crudely built hut.
Fixing his mind onto Voldemort, Harry reached out for his opposite. Reaching into Voldemort, Harry could feel his anticipation as he waited. He took this time to check out what Riddle was doing and seeing. In front of him was every one of Voldemort's Death Eaters. This was exactly what Harry wanted to see. He tried to get some sort of clue as to Voldemort's location, but no such luck.
"Tommy… where are you?" Harry broke in on Voldemort's thoughts.
"I'm right here going over how I'm going to kill you and your friends. Voldemort sent a few images back at Harry, but by now he was immune to it. The training over the past few months had bolstered his confidence greatly.
"Oh, wow. I'm just quaking in my boots over a has-been wannabe. Ready to put your wand where your mouth is?"
"That's why I'm here. Where are you, you arrogant child?"
"I'm at the first place that I ever whipped your arse, Godric's Hollow. You ready for a rematch? Against the only person who ever beat you? It's just me and my friends. The Aurors aren't even here. They are just waiting to receive the bodies after the dust settles."
"Fitting. It will make it very convenient for them to put your body next to your parents. I believe that I will build my new manor on the very ground where your parent's house stood.
"If you want it, you have to win it. I do have one non-combatant here. She is a reporter from the Prophet. She will be reporting on the outcome. However, if you aren't here in the next ten minutes, she will be reporting to the entire Wizarding world that you have ducked out, afraid to face me. You will have no one left." Harry was lying about the reporter, but he decided to toss it in to make sure that Voldemort would not wait until nightfall to bring in Vampires to aid him. This was a human/sorcerer intramural event, and Harry wanted no interference.
"Very well, I will let her live. She can interview me as I become the leader of the Wizarding world. Ten minutes. Voldemort sounded all too confident. Harry wondered what he had up his sleeve. He did not immediately break the contact, but rather withdrew from the forefront of Voldemort's mind so that he wouldn't be detected. He saw Voldemort instruct a Death Eater whom he did not recognize to go to the giants and hurry them along. The Death Eater appirated out, but did not return. Voldemort waited a few minutes, cursed, then instructed the remaining Death Eaters on their destination.
POPPOP POP POP The Death Eaters and Voldemort appeared in the meadow outside of the sweat lodge. Harry's team, sans Dudley, were behind various points of protection. They had to make sure that all of the enemy was in place. Suddenly from the upper branches of a tree came a shout.
"AUFERO VENEFICUS!!!" This was called out by Dudley from under Harry's invisibility cloak. Immediately Harry felt the loss of something.. He could tell from the expressions on the faces of Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange that the spell was successful. The rest of his team came out from behind their hiding places holding one litre squirt bottles. Neville led the charge. He ran up to Bellatrix as she desperately attempted to cast a spell in what was now a null-magic area. Neville held out the squirt bottle and sprayed Bellatrix directly in the eyes.
The effect was drastic. As the pure habenero pepper juice hit her eyes, blinding her, she screamed in pain. From inside his robes, Neville pulled a wooden billy club and, with all his might, hit Bellatrix right in the teeth while yelling, "YOU BITCH! This is for my parents!" Two more hits from the billy left Bella unconscious on the ground. Neville quickly stripped her of her wands, both the main one and her back up, then using the flex cuffs, trussed her up so that she could not move if she did come to. He then went after another Death Eater.
All around, the same situation was happening with the other team members. Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were actively taking the battle to the enemy. Dudley was still in the tree holding the spell that robbed the power from the battle zone. Harry tried listening for the telltale crack of trees falling that would herald the arrival of the giants, but never heard anything. Death Eaters, seeing that they were losing a battle that they did not know how to fight, tried to get away, but any magic that they attempted in order to leave also did not work. The same for portkeys and brooms. They were now no different from muggles. The dead zone was also too large to run out of to escape. They were faced with the fact that all they had as weapons were oddly shaped sticks and their fists. One squirt from the spray bottle of pepper juice in the eyes would immobilize them, then all the defender had to do was billy club them and truss them up.
In this vein, Harry walked boldly up to Voldemort, hands empty. Voldemort sneered. "What, no bottle of whatever potion the others are using? Why the special treatment?"
"I want you to see it all coming, Tom. I want to make sure that you feel everything." With that, Harry brought up his fists and smashed Voldemort in the face. "That one is for my Dad. Another punch. "And my Mum". As Harry moved in, hard fists smashing in with 16 years of anger and months of training by Dudley in the art of boxing, he drove Voldemort back while saying the names of everyone who he knew to be dead at Voldemort's hand.
As Voldemort went down on one knee, he dropped his wand and, reaching in his robes, pulled out a dagger. He lunged forward and Harry jumped back out of the way. Harry was sure that the dagger would be poisoned, and he could not afford even a scratch.
Voldemort staggered to his feet, sneering. "Now you will die, boy. Did you really think that you could kill me by brawling with your fists? I'll be eating your heart!"
"I don't think so, Tom." With that, Harry reached back between his shoulder blades and drew his katana sword from its sheath. Bringing it in front of him, he slashed down and severed Voldemort's hand holding the dagger. As Voldemort screamed and grabbed his arm to stop the blood flow, Harry spun around and sliced at the back of Voldemort's knees. Voldemort fell face down on the ground. Harry then brought up his sword over his head.
"Tom Riddle, for crimes against humanity, multiple murders of both wizards and muggles, you have been tried by the Wizengamot and sentenced to death. By authorization by the Wizengamot and the Ministry of Magic, I hereby pronounce and carry out that sentence." With that, Harry swung the sword downward towards Voldemort's exposed neck. The razor sharp sword bit into the flesh and cleanly severed the head, digging into the ground a good 2 inches. He then kicked the head away from the body.
Smoke arose from Voldemort's body and it began to decompose right in front of Harry's eyes. He stood, fascinated, as the flesh fell off the bones and a putrid odor arose. Tearing his eyes away, he saw that his combat team had disabled all of the opposition. The Death Eaters were tied up with the flex cuffs and all of their wands had been collected and broken.
"Dirt Eaters! Here is your Master!" Harry shouted. He grabbed the hood of Voldemort's robe and pulled the stinking corpse into a sitting position. He saw Bellatrix's eyes open in shock. Ginny was standing next to Bella, and as Lestrange began to scream, she stuck Bella in the buttocks with a hypodermic needle. A few seconds later, Bella's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed, unconscious once again. This procedure was repeated with each of the remaining Death Eaters. When the last one had dropped to the ground, unconscious, Dudley reversed the magic nullification spell.
RESTITUO PONDERA!!
With that, the magic flooded back into the area. Dudley, exhausted from holding the spell for so long, fell from his branch in the tree and collapsed on the ground. Ginny hurried over to him with a restorative potion. A few seconds later and he looked much better. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Lupin and Neville were going around the prisoners and turning their flexcuffs into portkeys that would transport them directly to the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry. They purposely saved Bella and Lucius until last. As they turned the last prisoner's cuffs into portkeys, Neville grabbed hold of Bella's cuffs while Lupin did the same with Lucius' cuffs. The four promptly disappeared.
Harry walked over to Voldemort's body, looked around, then picked up Riddle's wand. He immediately felt the power travel through, no wonder since it was identical to his own. He tucked it into his pocket, then turned Voldemort's robe into a portkey, and, taking hold of the cowl in one hand and the head in the other, took the body to the Ministry.
Ministry of Magic
Department of Mysteries
Harry arrived at the Department of Mysteries just in time to see a hard faced Neville read the death sentence to a still groggy Bellatrix Lestrange and personally push her through the veil. Lucius had taken his journey into eternity a few scant seconds previously. All together there had been 29 Death Eaters, all hard core survivors, whose lives had been ended that day with their death sentences carried out. That left only the one Death Eater who Harry had seen through Voldemort's eyes going after the giants. Harry had no idea who it was, but figured that someday the Death Eater's Dark Mark would give him away. He still had no idea of what happened to Draco and Narcissa Malfoy, Snape had never told Sirius. They still were not on speaking terms.
Harry pulled the body of Voldemort up to the veil to the accompaniment of gagging and retching from the assorted Aurors who were there to assist the team with prisoner disposition. He first threw Voldemort's head through the veil, then pulling Voldemort's wand out of his pocket, tucked it into Voldemort's robe pocket and pushed the body through. There was a flash of light and a scream was heard.
"Kind of thought something like that would happen. I just wanted to make sure that he was completely gone with no link back to this world. I believe that he channeled a horcrux into his wand, just in case he lost. He probably figured that since our wands were identical, that I would keep the wand and he would have a gateway back. He got very predictable at the end. Is there someplace I can wash my hands?"
As one of the Aurors pointed him to the facilities, Harry's knees began to shake. It was over. He still had his friends and Ginny. Life could finally begin.
A/N: And that's it, folks! There will be one more chapter, then a couple of associated stories in my little alternate universe. I hope that you have been enjoying it so far…please R&R!