A New Path
AN: Another shortie I'm afraid, less than half the length I was hoping for and almost delayed. Sorry. It's a little because another story has been swimming around my head for the last week and I finally got fed up and wrote it down. So yeah, I spent the time I would have spent on this writing that instead. Hope you enjoy the new chapter.
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CHAPTER 14 - The Showdown
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"McGonagall?"
The witch smiled at Harry. "Tom contacted me a while ago to tell me you might be making a visit soon."
"Tom?"
"He didn't tell you?" McGonagall shook her head, amused. "It doesn't matter. I imagine he is still waiting for you up at the castle."
"He's what?"
McGonagall chuckled.
"Tom is up at the castle waiting for you, Harry. He has been there a while now. Follow me." She led him up the castle steps.
"He's -? In the castle -? Waiting -?" Harry was confused. "But I just left him?"
"Not quite."
Harry barely contained the jump that the unexpected voice caused. He spun around to face the owner. "But you were just..."
"Harry, you were down in the cells for hours. I left not long after you locked yourself in."
"Why here?"
Voldemort raised an eyebrow.
"And why are you wearing that thing again?"
McGonagall coughed to hide her laugh.
"You really expect me to wander through Hogwarts looking as identifiable as I look naturally?" Voldemort asked. "You're not going to pounce on me again, are you?"
Harry blushed and looked away from the blue eyes. "No." He muttered quietly.
"Good. On to the more important topics. You discovered Dumbledore."
McGonagall choked. "What? Dumbledore's alive?"
"Aberforth." Harry muttered to the ground.
"I don't believe it." The witch clutched her chest. "How could he?"
"He said his brother died of natural causes."
Voldemort scoffed. "Yeah right."
McGonagall shook her head. "Whether or not that is the truth is not important at this moment." She said. "I would imagine why he would pretend to be dead and what his current intentions are is more relevant."
Voldemort nodded. "True."
"Harry!"
Harry turned to see Hermione running down the hall to meet them. Ron, Neville and a few other students were following them.
"Hi again." Neville said when he saw the glamoured Voldemort.
Hermione glanced at him. "Are you going to introduce me?" She asked.
Harry cleared his throat. "You've already met, Hermione."
"We have?"
"Yes." Harry caught her eye.
"Oh. Oh! Uh, nice to meet you, again."
Voldemort smirked. "The pleasure is mine, Miss Granger."
Hermione blushed.
"Hermione? You know him?" Ron was looking between Harry, Hermione and Voldemort.
"We'll explain later, Ron." Harry assured him.
/Master!\
"Is that you-know-who's snake!" Someone at the back near screamed as the large serpent made her way in through the castle doors towards them. Nagini flicked her tongue in the voice's direction but other than that ignored it.
/The bearded one is on his way here.\ She told the two people capable of understanding her. /And look who I found...\ Nagini the second appeared on the older Nagini's head.
/'Gini!\ Harry cried happily. He scooped the little snake up. /Thank you. I was worried about you.\
"What happened?" Hermione asked, coming up beside Harry and the two snakes. "I thought she was up your sleeve?"
"I had an, incident at the pub. She gave me a distraction I could flee through." Harry stroked the little snake's head. "But Nagini brought her back to me."
"So that is his familiar?" Neville asked.
Harry caught McGonagall watching Voldemort in the corner of his eye. She was giving him a look that demanded an answer but Voldemort was pointedly, but discreetly, looking the other way.
"Um..." Harry hesitated. "Yes?"
"What the -? What is she doing here?" Ron asked forcefully.
"Helping us?"
"How?"
"Um... she told me that Dumbledore's on his way?"
"Dumbledore?" Several of the students asked.
"He means his brother, Aberforth." Hermione explained.
"No I don't. I mean Dumbledore. He's not dead."
"Obliviate. ...Seriously, Harry." Voldemort shook his head while all the students, including Ron but not Hermione or Neville, were standing around with glassy looks on their faces.
"Really Tom, did you really have to obliviate my students?"
Voldemort and McGonagall exchanged looks. Voldemort smirked. "Would you rather your students to be in a panic, Minny, because Mister Potter, here, is incapable of thinking before he speaks?"
Harry glared at the glamoured wizard.
"Who are you again?" Ron asked like the conversation before hadn't happened. Most of the other students seemed to have recovered too.
"A friend of Harry's, Ronald." Hermione whispered sharply.
"Only a friend?" McGonagall asked quietly, "I was under the impress you were in the process of adopting him."
"It is underway." Voldemort agreed. "Come, we should discuss the important matters somewhere more private."
"Yes. Follow me."
McGonagall walked away from the crowd of students, Voldemort following her. Harry stayed with his classmates.
"Imi. Come." Voldemort didn't even turn around.
Harry started to obey but stopped when he caught one of the foreign girls giggling. "What?"
"Possessive, isn't he?" She asked.
Harry was confused but didn't get a chance to ask what she meant because Voldemort had sent a charm at him that effectively dragged him by the collar after them.
"I'll be back in a bit." Harry called to his friends. "I think."
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The hall was full. Everyone was watching.
It was 'the final battle'. What everyone had been waiting for.
Harry Potter versus Lord Voldemort.
Harry stood opposite the snake-faced man. Green eyes staring into red.
"So here we are, Harry. Are you going to fight me?"
Harry stared into the face of his life-long enemy. One way or another, he knew it would be the last time he saw that face.
Harry raised his wand.
Voldemort raised his.
The crowd gasped and then silence ruled once more.
Harry's hand was shaking. He didn't want to show it but he was genuinely scared. With the corner of his eye he spotted Hermione and Ron amongst a group of Weasleys; McGonagall and Snape keeping to themselves to one side off the majority; various order members that just happened to be close by and had rushed to the castle.
Voldemort cleared his throat and Harry's full attention returned to him. "Focus, Harry." Harry silently thanked Hermione for the privacy charm that meant no one else would know what was said between them. Except, perhaps, lip readers.
Harry focused on Voldemort. They were circling each other, neither wanting to be the one to throw the first curse.
"So this is what it comes down to after everything? You and me walking circles, about to curse each other?"
Voldemort chuckled darkly. "It would appear so."
Then the silence came back.
"I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Harry said quietly to himself, lifting his wand just a bit higher.
Voldemort seemed to take that as a go. "Avada kedavra."
"Oh sh-""Expelliarmus!"
Harry tried to duck the familiar green spell, his red reply hurtling towards Voldemort.
There was a deafening silence...
...And then the crowd roared in cheer.
The few death eaters that had been present tried to flee, the order members instantly chasing them.
Harry turned back towards his enemy. Voldemort was on the floor, not moving. Harry stared, his lip quivering. He turned his gaze to the wand in his hand, Draco's. The young Malfoy hadn't been happy when Harry had turned up and disarmed him, but it had been for a worthy cause.
Voldemort had stolen the Dumbledore's wand from the man's grave. Or more correctly, he had stolen the elder wand from Aberforth's grave.
Harry had gone back to Dumbledore, tried to apologise. Dumbledore had been cautious but forgiving, telling Harry what he had to do. The elder wand would respond to its owner whether in the hand of another or not. Voldemort was not that owner, nor was he, Dumbledore, any more. Due to the events on top of the tower that fateful night, Draco was now its true owner. If Harry were to disarm Draco and use the boy's wand when he faced Voldemort, Dumbledore had said, the elder wand would recognise Harry as its true owner, refusing to obey Voldemort. Harry had nodded and gone to find Draco.
The privacy charm had clearly fallen because the sounds of the crowd were smothering Harry. He had to get out.
Hermione tried to grab him as he passed but Harry shook her off. He could tell she was confused, the last she knew, Harry and Voldemort had been practically family.
Harry fled through the masses of cheering and stunned people. He passed a death eater being taken to a classroom that, it appeared, had become a sort of temporary cell.
As he turned to see the man being dragged in his binds by an auror, Harry caught sight of some of the order members moving something. As he looked closer, Harry saw that they were moving Voldemort's body out of the hall to somewhere less open. Harry almost ran in the opposite direction just to get away.
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Slowly, Harry walked to the dorms. He was tired, mentally and physically. No one followed him and, for that, he was grateful.
When he reached his old dorm room, Harry pushed the door open and headed straight for the bed. He threw himself down, closing his eyes before he even hit the pillow.
Silence.
Blissful silence.
And peace.
Nothing to pester him and steal his sleep.
"Are you just going to ignore me?"
Harry groaned into his pillow. "Yes."
The once-Voldemort walked up to the bed beside Harry's and sat down, waiting.
After a moment's stubborn stillness, Harry rolled onto his side so that he could see the man. "You look good for a dead man." He said seriously and with as straight a face as he could maintain.
"Funny." 'Voldemort' did not look amused.
"So, Voldie -"
"Tom."
"- Tom - seriously? Tom? - So, Tom, what's the doings now?"
Tom stared at the teen before answering. "Minny and Severus are dealing with the students as we speak. You're friends are with their families, apart from Hermione who, last I saw, was wandering between the groups. And, doing nothing for my self-esteem, almost everyone seems to be celebrating."
Harry laughed, he couldn't help it.
"It's not funny." Tom sounded affronted.
"But it is." Harry argued.
Tom scoffed and broke eye contact with the younger wizard.
"We still have to deal with Dumbledore." Harry reminded him.
Tom nodded. "He won't stay quiet for long." He agreed.
He stood up and walked over to Harry's bed, sitting on the edge. Harry sat upright and pulled the man further onto the bed.
"That fake spell really scared me. I thought it was real." Harry laid his head on Tom's shoulder. The older wizard glanced down at him tentatively but then held him. "It will be OK. He'll understand, I'll make sure of it."
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AN: I tried to end on a 'aw...' note. Did it work? According to my plan, there are only two more chapters to go. That said, I've strayed a little from the original plot, so who knows. Fair warning, the next update may be slow to arrive.