Harry heard the scream from the top of the lawns, just as he was beginning to feel hopeful.
"Oh no! Please no! Harry, he's dead!"
It was Hermione, and she was shouting for him as loud as she could. There was heart-breaking sorrow in her voice.
"No" Harry whispered to himself, as Luna gasped and Ginny walked up behind him, visibly shaking. "Not Ron".
He did not know what exactly happened next. Whatever it was though, it was causing a great deal of commotion at the top of the lawn, as many people began cheering and clapping. In contrast, screams of shock and pain were coming from down near the gate, and, he was sure he heard it, the distant shout of the killing curse by Voldemort himself.
He didn't stop to look, and only allowed himself to breath when he had reached Hermione's side, with Ginny and Luna arriving seconds later.
Hermione had tears running down her face but she was no longer screaming. She looked up as he arrived.
"He's still alive. I found a pulse but he needs a potion to bring him back around immediately!"
"What happened?" Ginny asked as she bent down too. Harry looked around and saw that all of the trolls were dead and there were only a few Dementors left. Unicorn blood glistened on the grass and there was a dead Acromantula nearby, but except for that there were no animal casualties for their side.
"A troll killed that spider over there and threw it at Ron. Its fang pierced his leg and he didn't get up. He's close to death!" she sobbed, beginning to cry again.
Harry was thinking desperately what to do when the commotion behind him suddenly reached deafening point. He turned around and a formidable sight met his eyes.
Serverus Snape was running for his life up the lawn toward them casting spells, but he wasn't firing at them, he was firing them over his shoulder at the Death Eaters who were chasing him. There were two of them and they had broken away from the others to bring him down.
Looking further down the lawn, Harry saw what all of the fuss was about: whoever had been controlling the Inferi had set them on the Death Eaters and they were now all fighting amongst themselves.
Snape moved his wand slightly, flicking it and muttering a counter-curse under his breath and quietly slipped away from the crowd of Death Eaters.
"Avada Kedavra" he heard Voldemort shout. He instinctively ducked and rolled away, but found that the curse wasn't aimed at him at all, and the Death Eaters still hadn't noticed that he was slinking away into the night. He looked back and saw Wormtail dead on the damp grass. He turned and ran as the screams started and the Inferi that he had freed from the curse began to attack everything in sight. He could hear footsteps behind him.
Harry knew what Snape had done. He could tell by the way that he was running that he was fleeing, not attacking. He looked around at his own people. Molly, Hermione and Ginny were knelt around Ron who was lying down, Arthur was standing near them and everyone else was fighting the last few Dementors and Werewolves. He made his decision and ran towards Snape as he grew closer and he could hear others behind him too.
As he got closer he saw that the two who were after Snape were Malfoy and Belatrix. He ran and drew level with Snape at the same time that the former Professor created a great shining dome around them both, as well as those who were with Harry. Harry looked and saw (with the tiniest bit of disappointment) that it was Arthur and Neville.
He turned and faced Snape as he began to talk.
"Listen, Potter!" he said quickly and breathlessly. "It was always Dumbledore's wish that I do anything to maintain my cover, and I know that he realised what had to be done that night on the tower. The Death Eater army is almost dead but you need to get down to Voldemort before he gains control of the Inferi that I cursed. If that happens then it's over!"
"Fine" Harry said, surprising himself that he instantly trusted Snape for the first time in his life. "You need to get up there though! Ron is dying and he needs a potion for Acromantula venom now! You two," he turned to Arthur and Neville, " you have to keep these two occupied" he told them as he nodded toward the two Death Eaters outside the dome, which was visible enough to allow them to see them both prowling around the edge of the shield.
"Right" he shouted. "Now!"
The shield went down and everyone moved.
Abeforth, Hagrid and Mrs Scrivenshaft were by now searching the almost empty castle for Madam Rosmerta, Mr Scrivenshaft, Fortesque and Olivander. They were nearing the Entrance Hall when they saw from their position at the top of the Marble Staircase that some people were emerging from the entrance to the Dungeons. Abeforth beckoned for them to stop and they watched as Rosmerta emerged, looking around. As she did, Serverus Snape barged through the Great front doors and straight past her. None of them had time to register what was going on and as they walked down the staircase to meet Rosmerta, who was showing signs of wanting to follow him but was holding herself back, he ran back out of the door, holding a small glass vial of green liquid. Mrs Scrivenshaft walked over to Rosmerta and gave her a hug, then looked into her eyes.
"Where did you go?" she asked, wanting an explanation.
She revealed to them how she had followed the Malfoys and how she had discovered their plan: to capture McGonagall and force her to magically surrender Hogwarts and all of its magic to Voldemort. They were both now locked in one of the lower dungeons. As she was telling them this, Olivander walked out of the Great Hall, probably to see who was talking. Behind him, Fortesque and Mr Scrivenshaft came in. The followed a happy reunion between the Husband and Wife, in which both promised that they would never leave each other again. With this, Abeforth and Hagrid ran out into the battle, while the others went out to care for the injured. The War was almost over. They could all feel it.
Harry was running straight towards the crowd of fighting Death Eaters and Inferi. He knew that Voldemort would be at the very centre.
He saw Malfoy and Lestrange running to cut him off, but two jets of light hit them as they drew close. They both got up, but now focused their energy on the two people behind Harry. Two duels began: Arthur versus Lucius and Neville versus Bellatrix!
Harry wanted to stop to help them, but his brain told him to keep going for the greater good.
There were hardly any Death Eaters left anymore. Voldemort had finally performed the right counter-curse on the Inferi, and they had dropped to the ground like rag dolls. He now looked up, into the sharp, green eyes of his greatest foe and smiled. The smile was cold and scary, and quite obviously told Harry that he was going to die. He heard Voldemort shout as the Death Eaters began to run up the lawn towards him.
"Leave Potter! I must kill him!"
As Harry continued running towards Voldemort, the Death Eaters passed him in a drone on either side. He didn't look where they were going.
As he came up to his Enemy, he stopped and raised his wand. Voldemort did the same thing.
They watched each other for a moment, then both acted at the same time.
"AVADA KEDAVRA" yelled Harry
"CRUCIO" screeched Voldemort.
Their wands met and connected, as both of them knew it would, and they both began struggling frantically to gain the upper hand as the beads of light rolled along the golden thread.
They were still doing this five minutes later, and the beads of light were still exactly in the middle. Harry knew that he couldn't hold on much longer. He had emptied too much of his magic into his wand and his vision was darkening rapidly.
With a violent flashing light and a crackling-fire sound, his wand ignited and shattered, burning the palm of his hand. Harry looked over and saw that the same thing had happened to Voldemort.
Harry's strength came back to him so suddenly that he jumped to his feet. The magic that he had put into the spell must have been released when the thread broke.
They both looked at each other again. Suddenly Voldemort thrust his fist forward into thin air and Harry was sent hurtling backwards onto the grass. Harry didn't know what to do. He had never studied Wandless Magic. He knew that he was going to die.
He was ready to die fighting, when he heard a song echoing over the lawns from far away. It was a beautiful sound that sent Harry's heart soaring and gave him hope. At the same time, Voldemort seemed to look around in fear, searching for the source of the song. Harry recognised it as Phoenix song, and a second later, a great column of fire erupted out of the ground beside them both. Out of its centre sprung a glowing Phoenix which was unmistakably Fawkes. In his talons he was holding the Sword of Gryffindor and he swooped down above Harry's head and dropped it into his outstretched hand. Without thinking he gripped it and swung at Voldemort – only to have it repelled by what Harry could feel deep in his magic to be a sword made of pure magic. Harry continued to fight against this while Voldemort controlled it.
Without warning, Fawkes suddenly swooped down at Harry and Harry thought that – unbelievably – Fawkes was going to attack him! He wasn't aiming for Harry though, and out of the corner of his eye he saw him attack a gigantic green snake – Nagini. Harry knew that Fawkes had just stopped Nagini from killing him and this gave him renewed strength. Deep inside he could feel something waiting to explode, and he let it go all at once. All that he could hear was the Phoenix song, and as he fell to the floor, with unconsciousness coming quick, he could see blurry shapes running away from them in the direction of the gates and the Forest. More people were coming to his side and three people in particular were knelt by his side. Two with an orange blur around their head and the other with a fuzzy mane of brown. Consciousness slipped from him and he was at peace.
He opened his eyes slowly and looked around. He had been awake for a few moments and had expected to be in the Hospital Wing, where he usually ended up. he wasn't, however. He was instead in the Dungeons. He couldn't see a thing in the gloom (especially since he had no glasses on) and relied fully on the smell of damp walls and potion ingredients to tell him this. The only person there was Snape. Harry tried to get up but only succeeded in knocking a metal goblet off the dresser and causing Snape to turn around. He smiled (more scary than usual) and walked over.
"I suppose you want to know what happened, do you?" he asked, back to his cold self again.
"You saved Ron?" was all he was able to come out with.
"Yes, he's okay, as is everyone else. We have some major casualties though. I thought if I brought you down here I could give you the potion you need immediately, which I just did" he said, motioning to the goblet on the floor.
"What about Voldemort?!" he half-shouted in realisation.
"He is dead! You sent a bolt of pure magic at him, which ripped his body apart. With no Horcuxes left, he should now be gone forever".
"How did I do that?"
"The Sword of Godric Gryffindor is a powerfully magical object. It can extract the magic itself from one pure and just and turn it into a weapon. It caused you to collapse and the remaining Death Eaters fled. Aloster and Abeforth have gone after them. They'll catch them. The upside to this particular death is that since it was a semi-unconscious act on your part, it didn't rip your soul in two, like murder normally would. Trust me, I know how that feels and you don't want it!
"Bella and Malfoy are both dead, but I'm afraid it was me that had to kill her in the end. Arthur Weasley managed to kill Malfoy but Longbottom was severely injured. He will live though. The only captured Death Eaters are Narsissa and Draco Malfoy, who are on their way to Azkaban. Fawkes has gone out of this world again, but killed Nagini the snake first. The House Elves are cleaning up the grounds and everything will soon be back to normal.
"Well," Harry said, "It'll be a while before things are back to normal for me, but I do agree that, as far as Voldemort is concerned, this is the end.
Thank you all for reading this story it has been a long time in the making and i'm glad that i finally got around to finishing it. than you for all my reviews and please review my last chapter. Bye