CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

It had been a week since they had the last attack. Unknown to Harry Voldemort had no support from any dark creature and he had only four followers remaining. It was getting harder and harder to hide in the magical world and with very little funds remaining in the coffers, he had to go truly underground by hiding in the muggle world.

Everyday Voldemort's magic had been slipping or failing outright. Today he was lucky if he could do lumos. As he kept reviewing his tomes he found it was all too clear that his magic was maintaining his body and as the days progressed he knew the time for this bodies demise was close at hand, he was dying and there was nothing he could do about it.

He had taken to wearing muggle clothing and taking long walks in the afternoon. After the third day he released all of his followers and told them not to return. One afternoon he came upon a muggle shop that sold replicas of the old cap and ball guns. He remembered on one of his many trips abroad that he had fired this particular type. He knew that all one needed was some gun powder, a flint to spark ignition of the gun powder, and a slug or metal ball for a bullet that he could make himself.

In a moment of clarity he knew what he had to do and with something he hadn't felt in many years, he found a purpose to his life. He went inside and bought a small knick –knack and stole the cap and ball gun. He left the shop smiling and returned to the abandoned building he had taken residence in last week.

He prepared by gathering all the material he needed. He found lead in weights used to fish somehow, he never understood muggles and probable never would. He had a terrible time finding gunpowder until he happened on some fireworks and reading the warning he found gunpowder is what made them go up and then explode.

He had everything ready and was sitting back enjoying his afternoon tea. His one problem had been how to get Harry Potter out to get close enough to make his plan work. He was not able to get into Hogwarts and an appearance into Diagon Alley was sure to get him arrested.

Voldemort knew now that his death was certain which gave him an advantage over Harry Potter because he would be reborn again as he had ensured it. He knew of one that had escaped Harry's grasp, it was well hidden and would never be found. A paper suddenly flew onto the table as he was in thought.

When a headline flashed into his mind he suddenly smiled. He went to get his writing material with a much brighter outlook.

The daily prophet article was staring back at Harry just as hard as he was staring had it.

I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! MEET ME AT DIAGON ALLEY SATURDAY NOON – LET'S FINISH THIS! – LORD VOLDEMORT.

Hermione and Daphne sat down on each side of him and they had very concerned looks. Harry felt their presence but did not respond immediately. He finally sat the paper down and calmly said "I know what you are going to say. It is a trap. Don't take the bait and it will not be good for you."

Hermione and Daphne both relaxed a little until Harry said the next "The other side of the coin is that we can finally finish this once and for all. Our lives can be taken off hold dealing with this demi-god and we can move on with ours the way we want."

This caused Daphne to tense and Hermione followed seconds later. Daphne snorted "You can't believe that Lord Thingy just wants to stand before you and die?"

Harry looked at her "Absolutely not! He is up to something and we know it. We have systematically removed his funding, his support, and most importantly his followers." Harry turned to Hermione "We can be very sure he has lost his magic, or very close to it."

Hermione sighed "Sometimes the most dangerous opponent is the one that has nothing to lose. Lord Voldemort has nothing to lose here. We have taken everything from him."

Harry smiled "Because of the absolute brilliance of the four women who stand with me." Harry sighed "This has to end eventually and we all know it, why not now?" Harry hesitated "Something tells me that this is the moment, this is what we have strived for and to walk away now… well it isn't the right thing to do."

Daphne's head hit the table "We are not going to talk you out of this are we?"

Harry smirked "Both of you know that I will listen, I have always listened to you but I think the problem is that what I am telling you is logical and we have the upper hand here. My belief is that Voldemort believes he has his horcruxes safe out there and that if he dies, then it will only help his situation."

Hermione sighed "I think that too but that only makes me more afraid. Are we being cocky, to self-assured of ourselves that we are ignoring the obvious?"

Daphne sat up "That is my greatest fear as well. I once told you Harry that I wanted to be able to have freedom from a male running my life. I should have said I only want you living my life with me because I need you here more than you know."

Harry winked at her "What no threats from the queen?"

Daphne turned to look at him with tears in her eyes "No…no threats I love you Harry and I am very afraid for you, for Hermione, for us and my world needs you in it more than I have told you…please don't make fun of me." Daphne got up and ran away.

Harry looked down "I know all of you are afraid but all of what we have done has led to this moment and I cannot change my fate. I need to see this through." Harry grabbed Hermione's hand "Don't forget I have my fears too."

Saturday came and they had all spent as much time together as possible. The discussions had been over and they all put on brave faces for Harry. Harry smiled at them as he always had. It was 11:45 AM. They were all dressed and ready for Noon to come.

Harry with a kiss to their cheeks, Apparated them to Diagon alley. They landed in the middle of the street and looked at a crowd that had grown steadily for the last hour. Lord Voldemort had watched them come in from a position on a roof next to them. Harry seemed detached and showed no outside appearances of fear or apprehension.

At 11:59 AM Voldemort yelled down to the alley below. "Mr. Potter you came."

Harry said nothing but immediately reached out and pulled Voldemort to the ground. Voldemort rolled with the movement and then stood before dusting himself off quickly twenty feet away from him. Hermione, Daphne, Fleur, and Gabby moved back from him to give him some room.

Voldemort sneered "Still full of theatrics I see."

Harry answered with an even tone "You asked for this. So what is the plan?"

Voldemort pulled a sword and held it up as he threw his wand and a dagger to the ground. "Harry we duel of course. I thought perhaps we could do this the old fashioned and duel with swords, if you are up to it."

Harry dropped his outer robes and then pulled the Sword of Gryffindor to hold up. The crowd gasped as he did so. Voldemort stated "A most impressive weapon." Harry then threw his wand behind him before advancing to close the distance between them.

Harry kept the sword up as he threw on the ground the burlap bag of his Horcruxes "I just wanted you to know Tom that after today there will be no coming back, no resurrection in your future."

Voldemort stepped back "That is impossible. I hid them."

Harry smiled "Surprise!" Harry then launched an attack to begin the duel. Both men traded hits back and forth but neither could gain an advantage over the other. After five minutes Voldemort had gotten seriously weaker and left his middle open as Harry thrust his sword through Voldemort's abdomen.

Voldemort dropped his sword and kept moving forward on the sword driving it through himself even more. Voldemort looked at Harry and grunted through the pain "I knew today would be my last on earth. I knew that you were going to be the one to kill me."

Voldemort almost had a smile "I remembered one thing about the prophesy…" he wheezed out through his clenched teeth "Neither can survive!" Voldemort reached in his robe and pulled out the Flintlock pistol and fired the round straight up through Harry's chin. Both men fell to the ground and their lifeless eyes looked up into the sky.

Harry the instance before he felt the bullet enter below his chin "Thought Hermione and Daphne are going to kill me." As he fell to the ground he felt his consciousness leave his body and then found himself looking down as four women cried over him.

It was a few minutes later he felt a presence beside him and then looked over to find death looking down too. Harry closed his eyes and tears fell down his cheeks "I am truly dead and I can't go back, can I?"

Death watched the scene below them "No, your destiny has been fulfilled. You were necessary to fulfill a need to rid the world of the darkness."

Harry looked at Hermione and Daphne hitting his chest in anger "I never did get a break… not one time. I never got my family or children or any kind of life. One year of happiness with fifteen years of misery."

A woman came by "You will have heirs young Harry. Three of your women were pregnant."

Harry in anger flipped her arm from his shoulder "Great more children that will never know a parent. Just what the world needs."

Harry stomped off as Death said "Harry loss is all a part of this."

Harry turned on them "What did you lose or you," he pointed at them both "Lose to get here?"

They had dumb looks before Harry "Nothing, which just shows you that the people running this show just say the words because they feel nothing."

Harry was walking and he looked around before entering a clearing that was unlike he had ever seen before. He found a small clearing with a small pond with the clearest water he had ever seen. He sat there for many minutes and looked at his image and he felt the sense of loss but worse he felt the grief of having hurt those he loved most in the world. The tears flowed from his eyes in rivulets as he kneeled and cried like he never had before.

Soon he felt someone beside him but never looked up but he heard a soft voice female voice say "I felt the same way when I got here. My baby was taken from me because I had to fulfill some destiny."

Harry sputtered out "Why though. They ask so much from some and in return we get only more sorrow, more heartache."

The soft voice said nothing for many minutes "Don't you want to look on them. To see how they are doing."

Harry shook his head "No, it will only hurt more as I will realize all that I lost and how I have hurt those that I loved."

Harry finally looked up and recognized his mother's face. She moved to embrace him and he moved away "No, I am tired of having hope for it all to be pulled away from me. I don't want to touch or be touched or to feel ever again. I don't want to be hurt or to hurt others that choose to love me." Harry ran off and continued to run. Lily Potter the mother he had never known began to cry and then finally she became mad. They, the fates, had been overly cruel and now her son would deal with no one and that she couldn't abide by."

Lilly Potter then began to march herself to the great conclave, the center of all in this realm. Most did not go as they were not wanted but her child had been hurt so greatly and by someone and she wanted to fix it and fix it she would.

It seemed like days or months as time passed differently here. She reached the center of the conclave and found beings of light seated around a circle of shimmering light viewing something. She asked a passerby who seemed to be doing some task "Who is in charge here?"

The small man looked at her strangely "In charge?"

Lilly looked angered "Yes, who decides what happens, how someone's life will be?"

The small man looked flustered and pointed to the beings of light "The light ones of course. They follow and adjust the time."

Lilly scowled and walked over to them "Who is in charge here?" the beings continued to murmer and look on ignoring her completely. Lilly angered even more jumped into the middle of the pool and watched the ripples disrupt their viewing.

One screamed "Get out we must see how to adjust things and you are disrupting our great work."

Lilly looked at the being that had spoken "You have done a great harm and you have done an injustice that must be fixed. She pointed at her feet "Look what you have caused."

They saw Harry Potter much older and scraggly perched near a rock ledge. Tears still streamed down his face as they looked like he had been crying for many years. To his right were three women who were trying to reach out to him. They were distraught as Harry ignored their plea.

Lilly looked on and said with disdain "Your manipulations have damaged and hurt his soul so badly he has withdrawn into himself and will not accept any kindness nor any help from others. How can you do this to anyone?"

A being stood up "We are sorry but in various times one must sacrifice to save the rest, it is for the greater good you must understand."

Lilly wiped the tears from her eyes "All the rest of us can make choices to go back to the human realm, to live again but you have place such hurt upon him that he trust no one and will not risk hurting or being hurt ever again. You have condemned his soul to an eternity of loneliness and unhappiness… how can that be fair?"

Lilly looked very distraught "How can this end be justified?"

The being spoke up "We are greatly sorry for his pain but we cannot change what has been. He must choose to move on!"

Another being said softly but firmly "You must remove yourself from our work so we can continue."

Lilly looked over and flopped down "No, I will not. What value is your work if one who deserved better is condemned to a living hell."

The being was about to speak again but a great shaft of light came down and enveloped them all. Another spiritual being alighted next to Lilly and then gentle lifted her up. "Child your plea has been heard and I come to address it. You have done well for your child."

The spirit turned to the beings of light and looked at each one "Your task is a great one and you have done well. As with any great undertaking there are great mistakes made." The Spirit pointed at Harry "You have made one to shoulder a heavy burden to such an extent that he can be said to be living and dead at the same time. His soul is not yours to damage in such a way. His soul belongs to me and I cannot bear the anguish of losing one."

A light being spoke "Great one we had to make a choice and this was the best to save as many as possible."

The Spirit smiled at them "I do not blame you for your choice as it is your right to do so. But the anguish this choice caused is too great and thus he has been damaged beyond repair and lost to me and those that loved him and to those he had loved. Your choice placed great weight upon his shoulders and then we never released that burden when he accomplished his task and came to us. It could have been different and thus not caused him such grief."

The spirit smiled at Lilly "His end would thus be more justified and his soul returned to me some where farther in time."

"I require you to each touch him to understand his grief and to help you in your choices in the future." The spirit said gently to them.

Each being of light as they touched Harry wept in great sorrow. Once done they watched as the Spirit twirled the view of time and the scene of Harry's final battle was frozen within the portal's depths.

The spirit smiled at them "I ask that in the future you do not over look the obvious things that you can do so that I do not lose a soul from your choices."

The final Battle -

"I knew today would be my last on earth. I knew that you were going to be the one to kill me." Voldemort stated with glee in his eyes. Voldemort almost had a smile "I remembered one thing about the prophesy…" he wheezed out through his clenched teeth "Neither can survive!" Voldemort reached in his robe and pulled out the Flintlock pistol and fired but the flames did not propel the lead ball out of the flintlock pistol. They expanded to burn into Voldemort's chest. Voldemort looked at Harry in surprise as he fell backwards dead.

Daphne, Fleur, and Hermione screamed "Harry!" they ran as Harry fell backwards very confused and very shocked. He had a lucid vision where he felt the bullet kill him and he moved on to know years of pain and deep hurt from loss.

Daphne was in anguish and was angry began to pound his chest "Damn you Potter. You wake up. You made me fall in love with you and you are not going to leave me…"

In another realm the Spirit looked upon the beings of light "Is it not fool hardy to believe that gunpowder from fireworks does not expand fast enough to propel the lead ball? As you can see his soul is no longer lost to me but will become another nexus point in time if you have need. Remember along with the burden you must grant a boon and allow the soul to heal." The spirit disappeared from their view.

Next to Gabby who was looking on with great concern the Spirit came to her and she felt it next to her. She looked over and the Spirit smiled "Do not be distraught as your journey will be long but I promise you that one day you will be gifted with a child, a child of Harry's."

Gabby smiled and then the spirit continued "You are the first of many creations that Harry has forged for that is his greatest gift." The spirit then held her necklace from Harry and squeezed it in his hands. "Make sure as they end each life that they interface with the necklace before their last breath and tell no one of this." Gabby just nodded as the spirit disappeared.

Harry flipped his eyes open and said loudly "Oww!'

Daphne stopped and looked at him in shock "Damn you Potter did you do this as a trick. I hate you."

Harry stood up and then Daphne walked away before turning sharply about and then grabbed his collar and kissed him fiercely "I hate you but I am ever so glad you are alive and I love you like there is no tomorrow… Master." She then slapped him with a little smirk "Don't you ever scare me like that again!" She walked away to sit on the steps of Gringotts.

For the next two hours as Fleur and Hermione clung to him, the Aurors questioned him while people milling about thanked him or wished him well. They finally finished and then sat beside Daphne.

Daphne looked at him "I have memories from a life lived without you. A son I named Harry James Potter Junior in memory of you and a very lonely life. I also remember when we got to another place of us trying to reach out for you but in your anguish you ignored us."

Daphne looked deeply into his eyes "Something happened and you did not die and everything that did happen was undone. Can you explain that Potter?"

Harry scratched his head and looked confused before a little smile came on his face "Not in a million years. I have some strange memories as well, memories that are very unpleasant. I think the most important thing to remember is that I own your ass Greengrass and strange things happening around me is normal. All you need to remember is to say Yes master when told to do something or face the consequences if you don't."

Hermione and Fleur tried not to laugh as Daphne retorted "You are delusional Potter. I am not some plaything for your amusement." Harry snapped his fingers and a collar appeared around her neck.

Daphne scowled "Potter!"