DISCLAIMER: Based on situations and characters created and owned by J.K. Rowling.
The first part of The Neville Trilogy
NEVILLE NUMQUAM
chapter six
the death of lord voldemort
When we last left our hero, he had a Malfoy standing on his back and a sword stuck in the ground beside him. Things had not exactly much improved. At least now he was standing, but now he had Lucius Malfoy blocking his path and behind him a horde of angry Death Eaters was surely making their way towards him.
"So, you like to play with swords, do you?" Lucius drawled.
Neville decided the best course of action would be to drop to his knees and shake his head.
"Get up!" Lucius snapped. "Draw your sword and we shall spar." He dropped into a crouch that let Neville know that Lucius certainly knew more than him and probably was going to die soon. As Neville raised his sword, he pondered a list of things his regrets in life...
Most of his regrets seemed to centre around helping Hermione and Ron when he could have just let Lavender Brown have her wicked way with him when they were looking for Trevor.
He raised the sword and swung it for Lucius' head with all his might. The older man easily ducked under it and spun his sword around behind him to make a rather sizeable slash in Neville's left arm.
"Ah!" Neville gasped, deciding quickly that he didn't care much for this situation.
Neville tried the swing-for-the-head tactic once again. This time Lucius parried instead and took a slash at Neville's right leg, which buckled when the blood started flowing. So Neville found himself on one knee and facing a man who could quite easily kill him.
"Come on, I'll give you one more free shot," Lucius said. "Just to make it sporting."
With a cry Neville thrust forward, not concerned with the head but aiming for Lucius' black heart instead. Unfortunately the thrust went well wide and saw Neville crashing into the wall and landing in a heap.
"You know, this almost doesn't seem sporting," Lucius said. "To kill you like this." For a moment he pretended to look thoughtful. "Ah well." He raised the sword to deliver the coup-de-grace.
Neville shut his eyes. He decided he'd rather not look.
Suddenly there was a loud BANG! Neville was somewhat relieved. He'd expected his death to be somewhat more painful than that, though perhaps not quite so loud.
It was then he opened his eyes and discovered he was not dead, that Lucius Malfoy was in a heap on the floor and that the contents of the man's head had been used to redecorate the wall behind Neville.
Standing there with a big grin on his face and his Muggle weapon was Ron Weasley.
"Class," Ron said.
Neville rose to his feet with as much dignity as he could muster.
"I had it totally under control," Neville said. "If you hadn't have turned up, I would have killed him."
"I know," Ron replied. "From where I was standing I could see that your master plan of cowering in fear and whimpering was working really well."
Neville narrowed his eyes. "Shut up. Let's just find the others."
They ran straight off in the direction the others had run, and somehow managed to wind up back in the Entrance Hall. Harry, Hermione and Malfoy were surrounded by Death Eaters who were jeering and taunting them.
Ron was about to sprint forward with his Muggle weapon waving in the air when Neville hauled him back.
"Right, let's think about this before we do anything," Neville said.
They stood there for ten seconds.
Then Ron shrugged and leapt over the banister and down into the middle of the Death Eaters, where Malfoy kindly broke his fall.
Neville slapped a hand to his head. Thankfully the Death Eaters failed to notice, as they were busy now taunting Ron.
"Honesty, Ron!" Hermione said hotly. "How could you possibly have expected that to work?"
Suddenly Voldemort emerged from the crowd of Death Eaters to face Harry. Hermione and Ron both stepped in front of Harry. Malfoy tried to roll into the crowd.
"If you want to get to Harry you'll have to get through us!" Hermione said. Voldemort paused for only a second.
"Okay," he answered. He quickly used his wand to stun Hermione, and turned to Ron, who whimpered and cowered away. "That's what I thought," Voldemort said smugly.
Voldemort and Harry stared each other down, neither willing to so much as blink. Neville looked around frantically, hoping to find some way of creating a distraction.
"Harry Potter," Voldemort hissed. "I have waited a long time for this. You have wronged me so many times, and now you've killed Lucius as well."
"NNOOOOO!" Malfoy shrieked. "That's impossible!"
"It's true, though," Voldemort said calmly. "He was a valuable boot-licker. I will miss him greatly... well, not really. I have so many followers to show blind devotion to me. I'm sure I'll survive without one."
He raised his wand and pointed it squarely at Harry's head.
"And now I'll have to survive with one less enemy."
Neville was totally lost for ideas. He'd decided that his only option was to jump off the banister with his sword swinging and hope he got Voldemort. He was halfway there when Ron provided another distraction. His Muggle weapon had fired and blown a hole through the shoulder on the nearest Death Eater. As Neville clambered up onto the banister the BANG! went off and caused him to lose his balance, sending him crashing to the ground. He groaned, almost certain he'd broken some bones.
He opened his eyes and gazed upon the carnage. Malfoy apparently blamed Harry for his father's death, and the pair were currently rolling around on the ground trying to choke the life out of each other. Ron was firing his weapon at random into the crowd of Death Eaters. The weapon eventually stopped firing, instead just making clicking sounds. Ron took it in his stride and pulled his wand out instead, sending all the foulest and most nasty curses he could send at them.
Neville drew the sword and mustered strength he didn't know he had. He thrust it forward without really thinking and drove it straight through Voldemort. The Dark Lord's red eyes widened in shock as he registered what had happened. For a moment Neville locked eyes with the most powerful dark wizard in a century.
"No," Voldemort hissed. Neville released the hilt of the sword, and Voldemort stumbled backwards. He hit the ground, causing the blade to push out of his stomach slightly.
The Death Eaters reacted by utterly panicking and running away as fast as they could. Some sprinted into the mansion, others towards the doors. Neville let them go; he only had eyes for Voldemort, who was now struggling for breath. He wheezed and rolled over to cough up some blood. Harry had enervated Hermione so she could bury her head in his chest and weep.
"He was so young," Hermione sobbed. "Oh, Voldemort, we will miss you!"
Harry offered a consoling pat on the back. Ron was too busy examining his Muggle weapon to notice. Malfoy was curled up in a ball and crying by himself.
Voldemort struggled for one breath as he did every other. Neville waited for the next breath, but it never came. Voldemort just laid there, his eyes locked upon Harry's and yet seeing no more.
"Is it over?" Neville asked.
"Is what over?" Ron asked, looking up from the task he was engrossed in, which involved testing if the unknown Muggle weapon was any more suitable for insertion in the left nostril than the spear had been.
Harry seemed utterly livid.
"This isn't fair!" he exclaimed. "I wanted to be the one who killed Lord Voldemort!"
"You can kill the next Dark Lord, Harry," Hermione tried to reassure him. This took five minutes and involved her rather subtly pressing her ample chest into him.
"So, we can leave then?" Ron said. "Come on, Malfoy, lead the way out of here." For the sake of emphasis (as well as amusement) Ron delivered a swift kick to Malfoy's midriff.
Malfoy eventually got the front doors upon. The group were about to walk triumphantly towards the horizon when suddenly they heard a hiss from behind them.
"You fools! Did you honestly believe a mere sword would kill me?"
Slowly the five teens turned around to face Voldemort, who was now standing upright with his wand pointed straight at them.
"Yes!" Harry hissed and pumped his fist. Everyone looked at him for a moment. "Well, now I get to be the one to finish him off."
"Oh, do you really think so?" Voldemort asked. "Because, I have a little wand here that will disagree with you. Avada -!"
"Look!" Neville shouted, pointing behind Voldemort. Neville's cunning plan worked, as Voldemort turned around to look behind him. Neville turned and fled, not even looking to see if the others were following.
Voldemort continued to stare straight at where Neville had been pointing.
"Perhaps, this is not my finest moment," he admitted.