Hahahaha! That's probably the best comment I've received so far, Nerio, I believe, however, that "The Last Horcrux" is slightly more artistic than "What JKR Would Have Done if She Had Not Wanted to Have a Horribly, Cliche Ending." Of course I'm not going to down JKR's work, Deathly Hallows was the best of all HP books I think, and I did want Voldemort and Harry to fight at the end, the only things I have to really say that I wish were different about DH are Harry and Hermione would have been nice instead of Harry/Ginny, she should not have killed Bellatrix, and there should have been a huge confrontation between Voldemort and Harry, but oh well. Fan fiction! However, I must point out that this is tragically similar to GOF, the general idea of this scene, sorry, this is my first time writing a full length HP fic, I guarantee you, the sequel will be… not like GOF. Yes, that means I shall do a sequel, not enjoy the follow up to my evil cliff hanger, and did I mention this is the LAST CHAPTER OF THIS FIC? It is (notice I put things in caps to get people's attention) so enjoy that as well, and yes, I WILL BE DOING A SEQUEL so put me on your alerts list.
Chapter 15: The Beginning of a Secret Third War
"… Kedavra!"
Harry rolled to the right, grabbing his weapon as his stomach made contact with the snowy earth. The ground beside him exploded, spraying a shrapnel cocktail of dirty, rocks, and snow in all directions, as the Killing Curse hit it. Lord Voldemort was left shocked for all of two seconds as he watched Potter dodge the spell. By this time, Harry was on his feet, facing his opponent. He caught the Dark Lord in mid turn, a new spell upon Voldemort's lips. Harry beat him to a different incantation.
"Impendimenta!"
A spell that had been with him since Hogwarts, so simple a dueling jinx, yet so effective, it caused a rarity, hardly ever seen. An opponent's jinx made contact with the Dark Lord Voldemort, sending him flying backwards. Harry watched as he flew through the air, toward the group of floored Death Eaters. Potter took the opening they presented; his only goal was to save Scorpious Malfoy. Nothing else mattered here, for even if he managed to defeat Voldemort, or kill him, which could likely happen if struck the man when he was down, the Death Eaters would still be there, still need to be dealt with.
The continuation of a duel in this situation would result in only one outcome. Defeat, for him, for Harry, he had to escape immediately.
Potter ran for the unconscious form of Scorpious Malfoy, keeping his eyes and wand aimed at the Death Eaters he shouted: "Incendio!" just before reaching the boy. A massive explosion of fire erupted from the tip of his wand, and flew toward the unsuspecting Death Eaters and Voldemort who had just landed on the ground. Harry did not stick around to see what might happen, he grabbed Scorpious Malfoy's cold arm and concentrated solely on Hogwarts, anywhere, just within the grounds…. He closed his eyes as darkness engulfed him.
When they opened, the sight of a completely filled Great Hall greeted them. Harry stood up, realizing he was just in front of the staff table, and McGonagall was standing at his podium in mid speech. Students clad in night apparel occupied the house tables, all eyes were on him, including McGonagall who looked harassed and had a long burn mark across her arm. Many bore signs of a recent struggle.
Harry simply stood there for a moment, digesting all that had happened. Trying to find the words to speak, catch his breath. The complete silence seemed to ring in his ears before it was finally broken by the voice of Draco Malfoy.
"Potter, my son…."
Harry was aware of Draco kneeling before him to retrieve his unconscious child. His newest, semi-traitorous hire rose then, and Harry looked at him.
"Poppy," he called quietly. The elderly Madame Pomfrey appeared behind him.
"Take him to the hospital wing, he suffered trauma to his temple, he's unconscious. Have Professor Sinistra help you."
Malfoy gave his son to Aurora Sinistra and Madame Pomfrey, allowing them to carry him off to the hospital wing where he would likely join several more injured students. Harry told Malfoy to remain here for a now, not sure why he wished that. He was still attempting to quiet his racing mind before giving any instructions, before opening his mouth again. Finally someone asked it:
"Professor Potter, what happened?"
It was McGonagall. Harry was drawn from his mind, back into the world, things became clear again, he knew what to do.
"Prefects," Harry began loudly. "Will escort everyone from their house back to their dormitories where they will all remain until breakfast tomorrow."
There was a rush of movement, not one student disobeyed and they all began to file out of the Great Hall. Harry turned to the staff table and began to hand out his instructions for them.
"Hagrid, Neville, Slughorn, ensure the students get back to their dormitories safely. Trelawney, Oakden, Babbling, you know the incantations, start building up wards again immediately, I'll assist when I'm ready. Hermione… go to my office, send Everard to his portrait in the Ministry quickly, relay these orders to the Auror Office from me, they are to send a team to Malfoy Manor and to search the place, be prepared for battle, but I doubt they will have to face it. Nothing is to be overlooked, and they will likely find two bodies there. Send word to the Minister that he should meet me in my office immediately, use the floo network, the wards on it are still undamaged and I will lift them for my office. Ron, Minerva, escort Draco to my office. I need to speak with him. I'm going to check with Hagrid to make sure the students arrived at their dormitories safely, and then I'll go to my office. Hurry, we must do this as quickly as possible."
Harry exited behind the flow of remaining stragglers and set of briskly to find Hagrid. He nearly feinted when a voice sounded from seemingly nowhere and even more so because the voice was of his daughter Lily.
"Dad?"
"Lily," Harry said unsure of what tone to use. "You're supposed to go to the Gryffindor Tower, it's extremely important."
"But, dad…"
"Yes?"
"I want to know… where you were… what happened. I was… scared. I heard older kids talking about people in the castle, the older kids said they fought with the people."
"Yes, Lily, there were some very bad people in the castle tonight. They are gone now, you needn't worry, now please go up to your common room. If your mother was hear she's have a coronary."
"If the bad people are gone, why do we have to hide?" Lily inquired. Harry sighed, why did his daughter have to be inquisitive, she was like her mother.
"You're not hiding, dear." Harry said patiently. "Its five o'clock in the morning, you need to go to bed."
"Ms. Potter!" A prefect's voice shrieked, a sixth year body with dark black hair and bushy eyebrows rounded the corner, looking harassed and very stern. "Why are you… oh, sorry headmaster, I didn't realize—"
Harry raised a hand to stop him.
"It's fine, make sure she gets to the common room."
"I will sir."
"Have you seen Hagrid?"
"In the Grand Staircase."
Harry nodded and made off ahead of them for the location the prefect had specified. He strode quickly onto the first landing of the huge tower of staircases and started up the first one, directly in front of him. His irritation began to surface as the stairs began to move. First he'd nearly been killed, and now he was being prevented from accomplishing vital goals in a timely fashion.
After an eternity, Harry disembarked the irritating set of stairs and started up another. He was level with the third floor when he finally found Hagrid who was inspecting the entire tower warily.
"Hagrid!" Harry cried.
"Harry—er… Headmaster! What's goin' on, Harry—Headmaster—what happened to—"
"Hagrid, have all the students been taken to their common rooms?"
"Yeah, I reckon so, Slughorn'n Neville are seeing to the rest of 'em."
"Good, I need to get to my office."
"I'll come with yeh, if that's alrigh', I want to know what happened."
"You're going to find out then," Harry said in agreement for Hagrid's accompaniment. They started off at a breakneck pace for the Headmaster's office, and were slightly out of breath when they reached the gargoyle that protected the entrance.
"Snape," Harry said, causing it to jump aside.
"Snape?" Hagrid muttered under his breath as they stood upon the escalating, winding staircase which took at least seven eternities to finally reach the wooden door. Harry threw it open and strode into his office, the sight of Malfoy, McGonagall, Ron, Hermione, Minister Percy Weasley, and several of his Aurors greeted him. The headmaster turned, aimed his wand around Hagrid, and shut the door, simultaneously casting a useful security charm that prevented eavesdroppers from listening in on private conversations, strangely enough, Dumbledore had not often used one.
Harry glanced at the late headmaster's portrait, it was empty.
He sighed, sat down, and offered them all seats, conjuring enough to meet the needs out of the air, and an extra large one for Hagrid. Once they were comfortably, though somewhat claustrophobically settled in, Harry opened his mouth to begin, Percy beat him to it.
"What the bloody hell is going on tonight here, Potter?"
Harry did not care about Percy's lack of respect, he was just as frustrated, agitated, and worried as the rest of them, the only difference was that he had the facts, the solid, concrete reason to worry….
"First of all, we need to start with the real source here," Harry began. "Malfoy. He knows much more than I do, I was just going to get around to questioning him, that's why I called you here."
"I don't understand." Percy replied.
"Neither do I, not completely," Harry admitted. "That's why we're turning to Malfoy."
"My family first, Potter." Malfoy stated out of nowhere.
"What?" Harry asked.
"My family, where are they, what happened to them?"
The current headmaster sighed sadly over the feigned snores of the portraits of previous dead headmasters; he looked down and closed his eyes. It was a long time before he reverted them to a subtly grief looking Malfoy.
"They're dead, I couldn't help them, I could only get your son…. I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too, Potter…. Sorry for what I've done, and that this is my fault…. I should have told you from the beginning, you could have helped me, I see that now… there was nothing else I could do…."
"You did it to save them, then?" Harry asked, ignoring the frustrated and confused stares of the officials surrounding him, as well as those of his friends and staff.
"I'm sorry then… terribly sorry there was nothing I can do. I swear that you won't be punished for your part in this."
"Part in what?" Percy hissed in exasperation. Harry ignored him.
"Did you hear anything from him?" The headmaster asked his newest hire. "Did you hear a plan?"
"No…" Malfoy trailed off. "Only about his plans to kill my family… he did. I swear I'll—"
"Excuse me, but I want to know what the bloody rotting hell is going on here at this instant!" Percy barked, soundly very much like Mrs. Weasley while she scolded Fred or George.
"It happened, that's what," Harry said shortly.
"What happened?"
"Something everyone here undoubtedly thought was impossible."
"For the sake of Merlin, Potter, spit it out!" The Minister exclaimed.
"He's returned."
Percy reared back in his chair, and gripped the armrests so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
"Who's back?"
"Lord Voldemort."
All non former Order of the Phoenix members winced at the sound of this, including Hagrid and Percy, the lot simply looked astonished, save for Malfoy who seemed to be in a grief stricken world of his own.
"Are you barking mad?!" The Minister hissed disbelievingly. "He could NOT have returned!"
"I saw it with my own eyes, I fought him, he's back."
"You fought—Harry… be realistic—I… you don't have any evidence—"
"My word's not good enough?! Percy, you should know better than that! You experienced it first hand!"
"If you're referring to the time he returned so many years ago… I was—"
"Afraid? Like you are now? Afraid to accept it? We should all be afraid, Minister. He's back, and he's powerful."
"I… I don't know what to make of you anymore, Potter." Percy said in a hushed whisper.
"Then, I suggest you be so kind as to allow me to interject some advice," said a calm, collected voice behind them. Harry spun and stood in one swift movement that pained his back to see Albus Dumbledore, occupying his portrait, smiling lightly.
"I cannot believe this is coming from me, especially in this terrible time for Draco, but obviously he knows something about this situation. He and Headmaster Potter seem to agree with it. If you are truly unconvinced that both of their stories are true, then why not venture so far as to use Veritaserum. But, Minister, we both know that neither one is lying. After all, what would they gain? Even as a portrait I know what's going on in the wizarding world today, I must say, Rita Skeeter prints particularly nasty articles, and I cannot believe Dolores Umbridge is under your employment. Fabricating a lie such as this would only completely discredit Mr. Potter here, and the Malfoys have never been very popular in the public eye, sorry to say."
Percy shook his head and buried his face in his hands for a quick moment before regaining a hold of himself. He looked up into the bespectacled eyes of Dumbledore's portrait.
"You're right… there is no way this can be a lie… it's unbelievable, and the Auror Office did alert me of their search at Malfoy Manor, Potter. They did find two dead bodies there, but the rest of the place was deserted…. This is a terrible situation."
"I'm glad you are beginning to accept this, because it will not do to live in denial as Fudge did."
"You're right," Percy agreed. "However, the rest of the world must be kept in the dark, we will use the Auror Office to wage a secret war with Voldemort, it will begin at Malfoy Manor. The public must not be told… it will only incite panic, we will discover his plans, and we will fight him…."
"That is foolish," said Harry, after a prolonged moment of silence. "The wizarding world must be informed, they expect Voldemort's Death Eaters, but they must be prepared for him as well. You have to see that this will cause more harm than good in the end, especially when an event occurs that makes it undeniably clear that he is back."
"No, Potter! I am the Minister of Magic and I will not have it! I will not arouse public panic during my reign!"
"That is a foolish course of action, Minister," Dumbledore's portrait agreed with Harry.
"My decision stands, Dumbledore," Percy snapped. "We will fight Voldemort in secret, and Potter, Malfoy, you will not speak a word of this to the public. You'll make sure it does not get out."
"I'll keep my mouth shut then," said Harry angrily. "Since I suspect my job relies upon it! But I will exercise all of my power to find Voldemort and stop him…."
"We're done here for now then." Percy said.
"No," Harry disagreed.
"What?"
"My other position, here at Hogwarts, do you really think I should keep it with what has happened now?"
"The public is in favor of your keeping it, test scores are up, Potter, standards are up, you've got your students working well, that's why the Prophet has not said anything about it."
"Always trying to please the public in times of crisis, Percy, just like you always were a prat, sucking up to your teachers," Ron snapped.
"Ronald Weasley, even though you are my brother, I will have you ejected from your position here!"
"Silence, the both of you," said McGonagall tartly. "Let it be known that I do not agree on your pleasing the public stance either, Minister."
Percy looked like he did not know whether or not to retort. Everything was awkwardly silent for a moment, until Hermione spoke.
"Ridiculous."
"No, it's logical," Percy replied as though trying to convince himself. "You'll remain Headmaster here, Potter, it's your position as Head Auror that'll be quieted down."
"WHAT?!" Harry bellowed.
"You're not in favor with the public, and people will only begin to point fingers everywhere when things… start to get worse."
"This is rubbish, I—"
"I'm sorry," said Percy, cutting Harry off. "But I will remove you from your job if you continue to criticize me so rudely. Now, I'll take my leave now. We must all get some rest. Malfoy, you are hereby cleared of all charges, contingent upon your agreement that you will not speak of Voldemort's return openly, none of you will."
"Fine," said Malfoy, still in deep thought.
"And you'll remain here, so will your son." Harry said. "It's unsafe out there for the both of you."
Malfoy only nodded.
"Goodbye then, Potter," Percy said as he and his squad of ministry officials, as well as Aurors, approached the fire place and stepped into the roaring green flames one by one. Harry casted his floo network wards again as the last one disappeared into the fire. He dismissed his staff and gave them orders to check on one thing or another, whether it be on students, other staff members, or wards.
He sat down upon his chair as McGonagall's cloak disappeared behind the closing door.
"Harry?"
He'd nearly forgotten, the current headmaster turned his chair completely around with the use of magic, while still sitting upon it, to face the portrait of Albus Dumbledore.
"Dumbledore?" Harry asked, feeling slightly awkward, he had not spoken with the portrait all this year, as its occupant had always been gone.
"Harry, I commend you for your stance against Percy, but we must not criticize him too harshly, despite the fact that his secrecy plan is ludicrous, and sadly, I suspect that it will result in his early resignation as Minister…. You've done well, Harry, I've been watching how you run this school, talking with other people in other portraits, and I must say I am very proud."
"Thank you sir."
"You're welcome Harry. But we must now realize, dark times are once again on the horizon. Our cause is still alive, which is tragic. I am no longer with you, so, Harry, I trust you will act in my stead. I can help you, but as the imprint of my former self I cannot hope to provide as much assistance as I could if I were still alive. I trust you, however, and during this third war, I am optimistic that we will take down Lord Voldemort again, Harry, it will be more difficult this time around, however. You lost your connection with Voldemort when he first died, and this time, it is you that must take my place, carefully planning everything as I did, or not. Every choice you make against Voldemort will be your choice, not mine. I planned for you last time, I assisted you to the best of my ability…. I'm confident, Harry, that you can stand as my replacement, I am confident you can defeat Lord Voldemort again… and that you learned from my past mistakes. I'll always be here to grant you advice, however."
"Thank you sir, I'll… do my best."
"And I am sure that your best will be more than enough, Harry. You have a long road ahead of you, I know that you will reach the end of it victoriously."
XxX
The end! To be continued of course…. I've got many plans for the next one… many things are going to fall apart for the Ministry, I can tell you that, and I'll all be because Percy did not alert the public and kept it secret, that'll be a major plot point, so will Draco and his son. Dumbledore's portrait will come in to play every now and again as well I think, and Albus still has use for that Felix Felicis…. Those are some of the things I can tell you now…. For later, put me on your alert list, and hopefully in a few weeks, possibly a month, I'll have the sequel up and started. Thank you for reading.
--Xarkun
