Maybe this chapter should be rated PG-13...
Chapter 34 – The Duel in the Great Hall
"My dear Harry!" he said jovially, standing triumphantly on the rubble. "How nice it is to see you again."
Harry felt Dumbledore's restraining hand on his back. "Leave now Tom," he said quietly, his frail form emanating power.
"I knew I'd come back someday," said Voldemort, who took a step forward, and looked around at the old castle walls with an expression that Harry could only describe as warmth. Or at least, as much warmth as you could expect from such an evil man.
However, as soon as Voldemort had stepped forward, so had Dumbledore, wand raised. "Leave now Tom," he repeated quietly. "I won't ask again."
Voldemort drew his own wand, and behind him, forty or so Death Eaters did the same. Harry, the Weasleys, the Order and the remaining D.A did likewise. Voldemort let out a sneering laugh, but his Death Eaters could not resist any longer. Howling, they leapt out of the shadows.
Harry saw two fall at a wave of Dumbledore's wand, but Harry's eyes were fixed on the Death Eater behind Voldemort. She had killed Sirius. Harry leapt forward to duel her.
"Ooh the wee bitty Potter thinks he's strong enough now does he?" she taunted, and she knocked him backward with a flick of her wand. Harry fell back out of the melee, but Bellatrix Lestrange followed him.
"You killed him," said Harry, his face set with cold fury and determination. "I'll make you pay for what you've done. I'll get you back for Neville, for Remus, and for me!"
Her eyes widened at this determination from Harry, but she blocked his stunning spell easily. Harry rained spells down on her, recalling anything and everything he could call to mind at the moment. She blocked with equal fury. Harry forced her back away from the battle; nearby only Colin Creevey was duelling another Death Eater.
Harry and Bellatrix entered the Entrance Hall. Harry could see that the Great Hall, off to one side, was empty except for the watching ghosts, who were yelling encouragement to Harry. Even the Bloody Baron and Peeves were there, egging him on trying to help him.
By this time Bellatrix was fighting back. She had shot off a few of her own spells, and Harry was forced to dive onto the stairs to avoid a killing curse. As Harry was face down, Colin Creevey, who had obviously dispatched his early Death Eater, came forward to get Bellatrix. Harry rose to his feet and turned around as Bellatrix had just blocked Colin's spell.
"Avada Kedavra!" She yelled. Harry let out a cry of shock as there was flash of green light and his head exploded in pain. He sank to his knees and through his tear-strewn eyes he saw Colin fall limply onto the floor. He was dead.
"I'll kill you!" yelled Harry, and he turned his wand on her.
"Avada Kedavra!" he bellowed. A flash of green erupted from his wand, but Bellatrix had dived out the way. Behind her mask her eyes narrowed at Harry, and she ran into the Great Hall. Harry thought for a moment about chasing her, but he heard footsteps both high above him and below him.
Before he could turn and face the person approaching a story or two up, he saw the Death Eater at the bottom of the stairs.
"Impeditia!" the Death Eater yelled, his voice strangely familiar... However his wand had not been aimed at Harry, but had hit the person behind him. Harry looked up and to his horror, heard the scream as a girl's form was knocked off the stairs a full three floors up. Harry lunged to grab her, but she landed on her front with a sickening crack on the stone floor and lay twitching.
Harry snarled with anger and quickly stunned and bound the Death Eater. Harry thought for a moment about going to the girl, but he saw Bellatrix Lestrange fire a spell at him from inside the Great Hall, and he raced towards it. Before he entered, he noticed that no one was left in the rubble of the entranceway, although he recognised the prone form of Professor McGonagall lying face down amidst a circle of Death Eaters. Harry did not want to leave her, but he had to follow Bellatrix into the Hall.
The first thing he registered was that only two people were duelling. The Death Eaters were standing at the far end of the hall, and the Order members at the nearest. Standing on one of the house tables, at the far end, was Voldemort, and he was facing Dumbledore. Bellatrix ran forward and stood up on the far end of the table next to Voldemort. Harry guessed she was like a second in command, if that were possible with Voldemort. Harry ignored the Order members, and climbed up onto the table facing Bellatrix.
"Ah, so we're all hear then Albus," said Voldemort coolly. "Is this what you want? To try and "save the bloodshed?" For you will not beat me Albus, now that I have the power to destroy Potter..." he laughed his terrible cruel laugh and the other Death Eaters laughed loudly too.
Dumbledore turned to Harry. "You know what to do," he said quietly, and at this Voldemort let out another laugh, but Dumbledore kept on talking quietly to Harry. "If she tries to kill you, transform into a Phoenix and save yourself."
At this Voldemort was riveted and he wasn't the only one. At both ends of the hall small gasps had been let out. "Don't tell me you're an Animagus, Harry?" Voldemort said derisively. "Oh do give us a demonstration!" Harry shot Voldemort a glare that told him exactly what he thought of that. "Oh well..." Voldemort sighed softly, before turning his attention to Dumbledore. "And so we begin."
Voldemort and Dumbledore began duelling so quickly that Harry was sure they had no control of their wands, but Harry couldn't pay attention to them. He turned his gaze, and his anger, towards the woman who was standing in front of him. Bellatrix held her wand forward in a classic stance, and fired a stunning spell.
"Stupefy!" she yelled.
"Protego!" Harry had responded so quickly that the spell bounced back towards her, and she had to duck to avoid it. "Impeditia!" Harry cried out. She blocked his spell so fast that it came hurtling back towards Harry, who had to pirouette to one side to avoid the beam of light. He fell from the table, and the Death Eaters laughed.
"Reducto!" Harry bellowed, aiming at the nearest part of the long table he could see. The whole table exploded in a shower of sawdust and wood, and Bellatrix fell with a howl and she fell sideways, and her head hit the floor, and she lay limply unconscious.
Seeing that Bellatrix was down, Harry turned to help Dumbledore. He ran over just as Voldemort managed to fire a killing curse at Dumbledore, which Harry knew Dumbledore wouldn't avoid. Like he had earlier with Ron, he dived at Dumbledore and the two of them flew off the table and landed on top of the next table. Harry's momentum kept him going and he rolled onto the floor behind the table.
This was too much for the Death Eaters. Incensed, they leapt from their end of the hall towards Harry and Dumbledore, but Aurors and Order members, and the remnants of the D.A met them. Most of the D.A was still there, save for the now deceased Colin Creevey, Hermione (who Harry assumed was still in the Gryffindor Common room with the others), and Ginny who Harry hoped was safe with the girls he had entrusted her to.
The battle raged again once more, and Harry saw the Weasley twins fighting desperately into the furore, there once comedy spells now being replaced by deadly stunning spells.
Harry got to his feet and he turned to face Voldemort. "It ends now." The words carried many years of pain and suffering that did not belong just to him, and Harry felt emboldened... somehow he knew that his parents were there with him, helping him, guiding him.
"Stupefy!" he bellowed, his red beam blasting out of his wand with all the force Harry could muster. Even Voldemort could not block something of that power, and he was sent flying metres backwards and he toppled off the back of the table. Incensed, he rose to his feet and clicked his fingers, and Harry felt ropes twist themselves around him. Harry closed his eyes in concentration and the ropes burst apart around him.
He saw Voldemort preparing himself for the kill. "Avada Kedavra!" those tortuous words were screeched to the night, and Harry knew it was too late, his body drained of energy he would not be able to fight anymore... he raised his eyes to see the green beam coming towards him...
He felt a huge force shudder into his side and he sent flying from the table. But he wasn't dead... he opened his eyes and saw that someone had dived towards him to knock him out the way. The girl raised her head to him. It was Cho.
"Oh Harry, are you all right?" she asked tearfully.
"Yeah," said Harry, dumbfounded.
"I just had to say sorry for all of the things I've done this year..." she said, and she sniffed. But this was not the time. Harry raised himself to his feet, and then he saw something that made his heart stand still.
Behind Cho, Voldemort's wand swished down. The whole world seemed to go quiet, and as if in slow motion, a green jet of light whooshed towards them. Harry made to move Cho out of the way, to take the hit, but it was too late. She died instantly, her lifeless eyes still looking into Harry's. Harry let out a sob of horror, and he placed her body gently on the floor, but too late he turned to see Voldemort raise his wand once more.
"Crucio," he said calmly. Harry once again found himself under the immense pain of the Cruciatus curse. He felt like his whole body was being stabbed repeatedly over and over. But then a clear image of Sirius and his parents burst into his mind, and then Harry saw Voldemort in his head. All his hatred came pounding, throbbing through him like some fatal beat, and he felt the curse lifted and, to his astonishment, he saw Voldemort twitching under the curse. He watched with a kind of savage pleasure as Voldemort writhed under a curse that Harry felt sure he had never felt before, and Harry somehow also knew that if any other person had tried it, it would have failed.
Harry kept watching, unsure as to whether to lift the curse and perform another, deadlier one, or to let Voldemort suffer for all the pain he had caused. His indecision cost him dear.
"Impedimenta!" Harry recognised Lucius Malfoy's voice and saw the hooded Death Eater advancing down on him as the curse struck him, and he flew backwards through the air and hit the wall before crashing down onto the floor. Harry raised his aching body upward to face his predicament.
Lucius Malfoy was bearing down on him, as behind him Voldemort got to his feet. Dumbledore leapt forward to challenge Voldemort, and this managed to stop his advance on Harry. Lucius Malfoy raised his wand.
"Avada..." but he didn't finish the curse. For a small body had slammed itself into the tall slender form of the Death Eater, who fell heavily to the floor. Harry recognised the blonde hair and Draco Malfoy's voice as he looked down on his father.
"Sorry father," he said. "Petrificus totalus!" The tall shape of Lucius Malfoy went limp, and Malfoy turned to face Harry, but Harry was distracted.
Bellatrix Lestrange had got to her feet, out of the small rubble that was the table Harry had destroyed. "Why you insolent pup!" she squealed angrily. "Crucio!" Harry watched as Malfoy fell under the curse and he leapt forwards.
He felt anger coursing through his veins: anger at the death of his parents, anger at the death of Colin Creevey, anger at the death of his godfather Sirius Black, anger at the torture of the Longbottoms and now anger at her torturing Malfoy. He raised his wand, knowing in his heart, that this world would be better without this foul excuse for a human being in front of him.
"Avada Kedavra!" A flash of green light erupted from Harry's wand and Harry saw Bellatrix's eyes widen in shock as the curse took her full in the stomach. She crumpled where she had stood and moved no more.
The fighting seemed to stop. Harry stood alongside Dumbledore, the entire Order now standing behind them. Opposite them, beyond the still form of Bellatrix Lestrange stood Voldemort. He was clearly enraged, but he was no fool. He would not win this fight.
"We shall return for what is ours Albus!" he yelled shrilly and he let out a not too convincing laugh. Behind his back, he blew away part of the entrance hall wall, and the Order members all ducked as the rubble flew. By the time it had cleared, there were no Death Eaters left in the hall.
Harry ran to the gaping hole in the wall and he saw them, running through the grounds as their lives depended on it. There were about twenty left, and Harry would have gone after them, but five giants were defending from behind. Harry felt Dumbledore's arm on his shoulder, and he sat down with his back to the wall.
"Don't worry Harry," said Dumbledore's calm voice. "For the time being at least, it is over."
Chapter 34 – The Duel in the Great Hall
"My dear Harry!" he said jovially, standing triumphantly on the rubble. "How nice it is to see you again."
Harry felt Dumbledore's restraining hand on his back. "Leave now Tom," he said quietly, his frail form emanating power.
"I knew I'd come back someday," said Voldemort, who took a step forward, and looked around at the old castle walls with an expression that Harry could only describe as warmth. Or at least, as much warmth as you could expect from such an evil man.
However, as soon as Voldemort had stepped forward, so had Dumbledore, wand raised. "Leave now Tom," he repeated quietly. "I won't ask again."
Voldemort drew his own wand, and behind him, forty or so Death Eaters did the same. Harry, the Weasleys, the Order and the remaining D.A did likewise. Voldemort let out a sneering laugh, but his Death Eaters could not resist any longer. Howling, they leapt out of the shadows.
Harry saw two fall at a wave of Dumbledore's wand, but Harry's eyes were fixed on the Death Eater behind Voldemort. She had killed Sirius. Harry leapt forward to duel her.
"Ooh the wee bitty Potter thinks he's strong enough now does he?" she taunted, and she knocked him backward with a flick of her wand. Harry fell back out of the melee, but Bellatrix Lestrange followed him.
"You killed him," said Harry, his face set with cold fury and determination. "I'll make you pay for what you've done. I'll get you back for Neville, for Remus, and for me!"
Her eyes widened at this determination from Harry, but she blocked his stunning spell easily. Harry rained spells down on her, recalling anything and everything he could call to mind at the moment. She blocked with equal fury. Harry forced her back away from the battle; nearby only Colin Creevey was duelling another Death Eater.
Harry and Bellatrix entered the Entrance Hall. Harry could see that the Great Hall, off to one side, was empty except for the watching ghosts, who were yelling encouragement to Harry. Even the Bloody Baron and Peeves were there, egging him on trying to help him.
By this time Bellatrix was fighting back. She had shot off a few of her own spells, and Harry was forced to dive onto the stairs to avoid a killing curse. As Harry was face down, Colin Creevey, who had obviously dispatched his early Death Eater, came forward to get Bellatrix. Harry rose to his feet and turned around as Bellatrix had just blocked Colin's spell.
"Avada Kedavra!" She yelled. Harry let out a cry of shock as there was flash of green light and his head exploded in pain. He sank to his knees and through his tear-strewn eyes he saw Colin fall limply onto the floor. He was dead.
"I'll kill you!" yelled Harry, and he turned his wand on her.
"Avada Kedavra!" he bellowed. A flash of green erupted from his wand, but Bellatrix had dived out the way. Behind her mask her eyes narrowed at Harry, and she ran into the Great Hall. Harry thought for a moment about chasing her, but he heard footsteps both high above him and below him.
Before he could turn and face the person approaching a story or two up, he saw the Death Eater at the bottom of the stairs.
"Impeditia!" the Death Eater yelled, his voice strangely familiar... However his wand had not been aimed at Harry, but had hit the person behind him. Harry looked up and to his horror, heard the scream as a girl's form was knocked off the stairs a full three floors up. Harry lunged to grab her, but she landed on her front with a sickening crack on the stone floor and lay twitching.
Harry snarled with anger and quickly stunned and bound the Death Eater. Harry thought for a moment about going to the girl, but he saw Bellatrix Lestrange fire a spell at him from inside the Great Hall, and he raced towards it. Before he entered, he noticed that no one was left in the rubble of the entranceway, although he recognised the prone form of Professor McGonagall lying face down amidst a circle of Death Eaters. Harry did not want to leave her, but he had to follow Bellatrix into the Hall.
The first thing he registered was that only two people were duelling. The Death Eaters were standing at the far end of the hall, and the Order members at the nearest. Standing on one of the house tables, at the far end, was Voldemort, and he was facing Dumbledore. Bellatrix ran forward and stood up on the far end of the table next to Voldemort. Harry guessed she was like a second in command, if that were possible with Voldemort. Harry ignored the Order members, and climbed up onto the table facing Bellatrix.
"Ah, so we're all hear then Albus," said Voldemort coolly. "Is this what you want? To try and "save the bloodshed?" For you will not beat me Albus, now that I have the power to destroy Potter..." he laughed his terrible cruel laugh and the other Death Eaters laughed loudly too.
Dumbledore turned to Harry. "You know what to do," he said quietly, and at this Voldemort let out another laugh, but Dumbledore kept on talking quietly to Harry. "If she tries to kill you, transform into a Phoenix and save yourself."
At this Voldemort was riveted and he wasn't the only one. At both ends of the hall small gasps had been let out. "Don't tell me you're an Animagus, Harry?" Voldemort said derisively. "Oh do give us a demonstration!" Harry shot Voldemort a glare that told him exactly what he thought of that. "Oh well..." Voldemort sighed softly, before turning his attention to Dumbledore. "And so we begin."
Voldemort and Dumbledore began duelling so quickly that Harry was sure they had no control of their wands, but Harry couldn't pay attention to them. He turned his gaze, and his anger, towards the woman who was standing in front of him. Bellatrix held her wand forward in a classic stance, and fired a stunning spell.
"Stupefy!" she yelled.
"Protego!" Harry had responded so quickly that the spell bounced back towards her, and she had to duck to avoid it. "Impeditia!" Harry cried out. She blocked his spell so fast that it came hurtling back towards Harry, who had to pirouette to one side to avoid the beam of light. He fell from the table, and the Death Eaters laughed.
"Reducto!" Harry bellowed, aiming at the nearest part of the long table he could see. The whole table exploded in a shower of sawdust and wood, and Bellatrix fell with a howl and she fell sideways, and her head hit the floor, and she lay limply unconscious.
Seeing that Bellatrix was down, Harry turned to help Dumbledore. He ran over just as Voldemort managed to fire a killing curse at Dumbledore, which Harry knew Dumbledore wouldn't avoid. Like he had earlier with Ron, he dived at Dumbledore and the two of them flew off the table and landed on top of the next table. Harry's momentum kept him going and he rolled onto the floor behind the table.
This was too much for the Death Eaters. Incensed, they leapt from their end of the hall towards Harry and Dumbledore, but Aurors and Order members, and the remnants of the D.A met them. Most of the D.A was still there, save for the now deceased Colin Creevey, Hermione (who Harry assumed was still in the Gryffindor Common room with the others), and Ginny who Harry hoped was safe with the girls he had entrusted her to.
The battle raged again once more, and Harry saw the Weasley twins fighting desperately into the furore, there once comedy spells now being replaced by deadly stunning spells.
Harry got to his feet and he turned to face Voldemort. "It ends now." The words carried many years of pain and suffering that did not belong just to him, and Harry felt emboldened... somehow he knew that his parents were there with him, helping him, guiding him.
"Stupefy!" he bellowed, his red beam blasting out of his wand with all the force Harry could muster. Even Voldemort could not block something of that power, and he was sent flying metres backwards and he toppled off the back of the table. Incensed, he rose to his feet and clicked his fingers, and Harry felt ropes twist themselves around him. Harry closed his eyes in concentration and the ropes burst apart around him.
He saw Voldemort preparing himself for the kill. "Avada Kedavra!" those tortuous words were screeched to the night, and Harry knew it was too late, his body drained of energy he would not be able to fight anymore... he raised his eyes to see the green beam coming towards him...
He felt a huge force shudder into his side and he sent flying from the table. But he wasn't dead... he opened his eyes and saw that someone had dived towards him to knock him out the way. The girl raised her head to him. It was Cho.
"Oh Harry, are you all right?" she asked tearfully.
"Yeah," said Harry, dumbfounded.
"I just had to say sorry for all of the things I've done this year..." she said, and she sniffed. But this was not the time. Harry raised himself to his feet, and then he saw something that made his heart stand still.
Behind Cho, Voldemort's wand swished down. The whole world seemed to go quiet, and as if in slow motion, a green jet of light whooshed towards them. Harry made to move Cho out of the way, to take the hit, but it was too late. She died instantly, her lifeless eyes still looking into Harry's. Harry let out a sob of horror, and he placed her body gently on the floor, but too late he turned to see Voldemort raise his wand once more.
"Crucio," he said calmly. Harry once again found himself under the immense pain of the Cruciatus curse. He felt like his whole body was being stabbed repeatedly over and over. But then a clear image of Sirius and his parents burst into his mind, and then Harry saw Voldemort in his head. All his hatred came pounding, throbbing through him like some fatal beat, and he felt the curse lifted and, to his astonishment, he saw Voldemort twitching under the curse. He watched with a kind of savage pleasure as Voldemort writhed under a curse that Harry felt sure he had never felt before, and Harry somehow also knew that if any other person had tried it, it would have failed.
Harry kept watching, unsure as to whether to lift the curse and perform another, deadlier one, or to let Voldemort suffer for all the pain he had caused. His indecision cost him dear.
"Impedimenta!" Harry recognised Lucius Malfoy's voice and saw the hooded Death Eater advancing down on him as the curse struck him, and he flew backwards through the air and hit the wall before crashing down onto the floor. Harry raised his aching body upward to face his predicament.
Lucius Malfoy was bearing down on him, as behind him Voldemort got to his feet. Dumbledore leapt forward to challenge Voldemort, and this managed to stop his advance on Harry. Lucius Malfoy raised his wand.
"Avada..." but he didn't finish the curse. For a small body had slammed itself into the tall slender form of the Death Eater, who fell heavily to the floor. Harry recognised the blonde hair and Draco Malfoy's voice as he looked down on his father.
"Sorry father," he said. "Petrificus totalus!" The tall shape of Lucius Malfoy went limp, and Malfoy turned to face Harry, but Harry was distracted.
Bellatrix Lestrange had got to her feet, out of the small rubble that was the table Harry had destroyed. "Why you insolent pup!" she squealed angrily. "Crucio!" Harry watched as Malfoy fell under the curse and he leapt forwards.
He felt anger coursing through his veins: anger at the death of his parents, anger at the death of Colin Creevey, anger at the death of his godfather Sirius Black, anger at the torture of the Longbottoms and now anger at her torturing Malfoy. He raised his wand, knowing in his heart, that this world would be better without this foul excuse for a human being in front of him.
"Avada Kedavra!" A flash of green light erupted from Harry's wand and Harry saw Bellatrix's eyes widen in shock as the curse took her full in the stomach. She crumpled where she had stood and moved no more.
The fighting seemed to stop. Harry stood alongside Dumbledore, the entire Order now standing behind them. Opposite them, beyond the still form of Bellatrix Lestrange stood Voldemort. He was clearly enraged, but he was no fool. He would not win this fight.
"We shall return for what is ours Albus!" he yelled shrilly and he let out a not too convincing laugh. Behind his back, he blew away part of the entrance hall wall, and the Order members all ducked as the rubble flew. By the time it had cleared, there were no Death Eaters left in the hall.
Harry ran to the gaping hole in the wall and he saw them, running through the grounds as their lives depended on it. There were about twenty left, and Harry would have gone after them, but five giants were defending from behind. Harry felt Dumbledore's arm on his shoulder, and he sat down with his back to the wall.
"Don't worry Harry," said Dumbledore's calm voice. "For the time being at least, it is over."
