Chapter 37: The Final Battle
Harry was in the war room depositing the memories he received from Nagini when everyone caught with him. The look on their faces told Harry all he needed to know, they knew they needed help.
When Harry finished, he set the pensieve down on the projection podium and turned to the assembled group. "We have a very big problem. As I have stated, we have 2 days to prepare for Tom's attack. He figured that he would the duel as a chance to bypass the wards, but he was wrong."
At this point, Molly, Minerva, Filius, Arthur, Bill, Fleur, Fred, George, Mackrack and Griphook all entered the war room. Without another word, Harry started the pensieve, allowing everyone to observe what he had learned from Nagini. They saw how a young Tom Riddle found and tortured Nagini until she was able to not only be possessed, by bond to Tom by literally leaving a piece of his soul in the snake.
"HE made the snake a Horcrux, he made a god damn Horcrux" Shocked Mackrack, jumping to his feet in rage. Harry paused the pensieve and looked to Mackrack, looking for an explanation. However it was Bill who explained what a horcrux was, "Harry, a horcrux is one of the evilest things a wizard can create. To create a horcrux you must split your soul, by means of cold blooded, premeditated murder. You then take this piece of soul and bind it into an object. In order for Tom to place his soul fragment in Nagini, he had to almost kill her first."
Hermione asked why he would create one in the first place; however it was surprisingly Ginny who answered. "If a piece of soul is outside the body when the body is destroyed, the soul will remain bond in this dimension. He created the horcrux in Nagini as a means of immortality. He then tried to split his soul even further that is when he created the Diary that I wrote in. I still have all of the memories from it.
"I think I realized I them after experiencing Nagini's memories thru the bond. But Nagini's memories go well beyond what I have, what happened?"
"Lady Gryffindor, this is why it is dangerous for a living being to be used as a Horcrux, especially when it is in close proximity to the creator. As Nagini grew and evolved, so did the soul inside of it. If I am not mistaken, Voldemort also performed another ritual that allows remote possession. This basically reunited the two pieces of soul while the smaller piece remained protected in Nagini's body. While Voldemort possessed the snake, the snake was able to explore within Voldemort's mind and learn more."
Hermione processed everything she had learned, and then turned to ask another question, "Is the piece within Nagini gone, or did it return to Voldemort, and did he create any other Horcruxes?"
This time Harry answered the question, "The piece of soul was destroyed by Nagini herself after Tom's little speech; she was finally able to strike back. The phoenix magic embedded into the wards caused Tom a lot of pain. His horcrux was weak to begin with because while it gained knowledge, it never gained magical unlike Nagini. Tom's possession was feeding it enough power to fight back and survive. According to what I learned from the knowledge from Nagini, when I entered Nagini's mind, I helped her break the possession. Unfortunately, the damage was already done to the body.
"And to answer your other question Hermione, after Tom created the Diary, he was physically and mentally unstable, more then normal, for weeks afterward. He was lucky that his magic was able to stabilize him finally. From what I found from Nagini, he killed a small child at the orphanage he returned to every summer to create Nagini. He learned how to remove the trace from wand thanks to an obscure potion he found in a textbook his potions professor gave him for a research project.
"He then killed his Muggle Grandparents and Father to create the diary, which left him unstable as I already said. He never attempted to make another one after that. So with Nagini destroyed and the Diary destroyed, and when we reversed all the rituals he has performed, when Tom dies this time, he will stay dead."
Minerva then spoke up, "Why didn't we know from the Aura scan that You-Know-Who had created Horcruxes?"
Hermione spoke up, "If I am right, there is no spell to split your soul, just intent. The intent to deliberately kill someone. After it was made, all of the spells would be caste to protect the Horcrux, but not on himself."
Everyone was quiet for a few minutes before Ron spoke up, "Ok, so Snake face can be killed, and according to the prophecy only Harry can do it. We also know he is bringing a shit load of fighters and dementors. We also know that we are seriously undermanned. Even with every student, Order member, centaur, goblin, and ministry worker, we'd be in deep shit. So anyone got any ideas?"
Harry, who had remained quiet since the end of the Horcrux discussion spoke up, "I have sent Astral Projections to Beauxbatons and the ICW; Madam Maxine is gathering a fight force of 100 with 4 giants. The ICW has contacted the American Secretary for Magic and they are sending us another hundred or so wizards plus 50 vampires under the command of a day walker named Blade—"
Harry was interrupted by two multiple portkeys arriving on the Hogwarts grounds and two portkeys arriving in the war room. Before the group stood Olympe Maxine, Headmistress of Beauxbatons, and a black man who wore all black and sun glasses. On his back was a fine looking sword.
"Madam Maxine, Blade, welcome to the Hogwarts War Room."
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The new arrivals quickly blended into the life of castle. By now the Hogwarts forces were sitting at 400, half of what Voldemort was bringing, but these people were highly trained compared to the Deatheaters.
The next day and half went by very quickly around the castle and before anyone knew it, it was it the night before the battle. Harry had already dismissed the last meeting before the fight. He was staring out of the War Room's windows towards the rising full moon.
Harry was wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn't hear Mackrack, Albus, and Ginny walk in. "Harry?" asked Ginny tenderly.
Harry turned around and saw that they had a large crate with them. No matter how hard Harry tried, he could not see what was inside of it. "Lord Gryffindor, on before of the Goblin Nation, the Ministry of Magic of Great Britain, the Council of Magical Brethren, the International Confederation of Wizards, Albus, Ginny, and myself, I would like you to accept this. Every warrior for the light will be wearing one of these tomorrow for the battle."
Mackrack opened the crate to show off the most impressive armor Harry had ever seen. "It is made from the Scales and Hides of a Hungarian Horntail and the remains of Ursula. The chain mail was forged from metal that was mixed with freely given Unicorn Blood and ashes from a newly reborn Phoenix.
"The Gauntlets have holly and phoenix feathers imbedded into them to aid in your wandless magic and with your wand casting. Ginny has spoken with Godric Gryffindor and has taken your sword and merged it with another phoenix and holly wand, along with Godric's wand. Your sword is now a battle wand.
"You'll also note that there are a number of runes etched onto the armor. These are human, elfish, dwarven, goblin, and phoenix runes.
"Your existing dragon hide battles robes will fit underneath this armor. It has also been submersed in a potion that replicates the natural magic within a dragon and phoenix. This means that that components are just like they had just be given."
Harry was amazed at the armor that stood before him. With a quick thought, he flamed his battle robes onto his body while he flamed the armor onto him as well. As soon as he was wearing the armor, his phoenix powers brought the armor to life even more.
With final farewells, Albus and Mackrack left Harry and Ginny alone. Harry flamed out of his armor and banished it to where his and Ginny's suite. He then grabbed Ginny and stepped into a shadow, when the emerged from the shadow realm, they were in their bedchambers.
"Ginny, I want you to know that if anything should happen tomorrow, I am leaving you everything. Mackrack has a copy of my will. Hogwarts is not to be placed under Ministry control for any reason, alright."
Ginny merely nodded. She knew Harry was planning for all eventualities and that is what scared her. "Gin, I am the last of the Potter Family. Thru my veins runs the blood of the Potters, Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, Slytherins and Hufflepuffs. I do not want my family line to end. I hope, and pray, that I'll make it out of this, but if I don't, Ginny I want to make sure that there will be another Lord Gryffindor."
Ginny knew what Harry was asking. Harry wanted to get Ginny pregnant; he wanted to conceive a child with her. One of the spells that was renewed each year was a birth control charm. This charm was placed on the castle so that anyone who engaged in intercourse in the castle could not conceive a child. The only people who had the ability to counter the charm were Harry and Ginny. But even then, the counter was only temporary and for a specific area. The biggest issue was that the counter could only be used on a specific area once a month.
Ginny, with tears in her eyes, nodded her head and pulled out her wand and began to caste the counter to birth control charm. The counter required the people who were going to have intercourse to caste the first part of the spell, and then the second part of the spell would be performed by the High Lord and Lady. As Ginny finished her first, Harry kissed her deeply and caste his two parts.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur of emotions, smells, and feelings. Harry and Ginny explored each other completely and made sue that both felt the love for each other. They finally dropped off to sleep, wrapped around each other.
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It was very early in the morning on December the 1st. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, his wife Minerva McGonagall Dumbledore, and his best friend Alastor Moody were all standing on top of the Astronomy Tower of Hogwarts watching as Voldemort's forces began to appear on the side of Hogsmeade.
Albus bowed his head and said a little prayer. It was a prayer to protect his friends, family, and his school. Albus then activated the alarm system that would awaken the warriors within the castle. Once it done, Albus and two others walked down the steps and prepared for the final war.
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At 4:45am, Harry Potter and his most of his generals were assembled in the war room. Neville, Luna, Blade, and Madam Maxine were waiting with the troops for their orders. As Harry watched the monitors, he saw that Hogsmeade had been evacuated and the weak wards were already in place. As Voldemort's forces began to enter Hogsmeade, Harry ordered the Hogsmeade defense system to open fire.
Hermione and Colin Creevey both nodded and hit a few buttons on a control panel. The displays showed that 40 automated defense units had been activated and were beginning to scan for their targets, Deatheaters. Once they were locked on, Harry ordered, "All Hogsmeade defense systems, open fire!"
With a sudden burst of magic, all 40 defense systems opened fire, stunning over 200 Deatheaters. Suddenly dementors crossed over Voldemort's forces and the black lake heading for the castle.
"Activate Anti-Dementor units 1-15" Harry ordered. From the top ramparts and the black lake itself shot out hundreds of different patroni. Leading the pack was a stag, a doe, an otter, a lion, a tabby cat, and a phoenix. However, these patroni were not wisps of smoke however, they were on fire. When they collided with the dementors, the dementors began to shriek in pain and began to smoke and…for lack of a better word…die. When powering the Anti Dementor Units, instead of 'Expecto Patronum', they used the spell 'Incendio Patronum'. This caused the patroni to be made of fire and able to kill dementors.
As the Dementors were killed, the Dark Army pushed its way thru the Hogsmeade and towards Hogwarts. As they proceeded, more and more automated units activated and continued to take out members of Voldemort's Army. By the time they reached the outer wards of Hogwarts, the army was already cut down to less then 300 members. Those who had fallen were being tagged by the centaurs with portkeys that were able to be attached to an arrow. The portkeys deposited their targets in Azkaban where the Goblins processed them.
As the Dark Army began to work on the wards, four people walked out of Hogwarts Castle and stared down the path at them. Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall were standing on either side of Harry and Ginny Potter. All four of them were wearing the new armor and had their swords drawn. Harry noticed that Albus' sword was in fact Excalibur, King Arthur's Sword. With two of the most powerful swords in the history of the world in their hands, Harry and Albus shared a feral smile.
20 minutes later, the outer wards dropped. The Dark Army thought they had dropped them, but in reality it was Bill Weasley from a secondary War Room located behind the Sorting Hat's Chamber. As the Army approached the castle, Bill released the Goblins who had been hiding in underground bunkers. They quickly dispatched more of the Dark Army, everyone thought life was good when suddenly another 1000 troops for the Dark Army appeared and began to attack.
All at once, Harry, Albus, Ginny and Minerva ran into the fight. A moment later the members of the DA, Order of the Phoenix, Beauxbatons, and the Americans all poured into the fight. The fighting was fast and furious; the organized fighters of the light quickly began to dispatch the less trained and poorly organized Dark Army. As Harry took out another vampire, he suddenly heard Bill over his communication link. "We have target one in Hogsmeade. He is approaching the castle on the back of…oh fuck he's on a fucking basilisk!"
A moment later Harry heard Ron, "Confirmed, Target One is on the road leading to the castle. He is on a 60 foot basilisk. Wait, I have three phoenixes attacking the snake. They're taking out his eyes!!"
The Harry heard Hermione, "Bill, once he reaches the gates, use group G-12S to fire a Sectumsempra right behind the snake's head. Those units should have power to handle the snake."
Harry saw Ginny had just dropped her opponent, and moved over to Harry who was heading for his destiny. As they walked, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Luna, Remus and Tonks all joined them and continued to the gates. They saw the basilisk fall down dead, throwing Voldemort and Bellatrix to the ground.
As Voldemort rose, he spotted Harry and conjured a sword. Harry raised his sword and ran towards Voldemort. Their swords collided and the fight was on. As their fight continued, Ginny took on Bellatrix and each of the other members took on what looked like Voldemort's personal guard. They were Snake-Human Hybrids.
As Harry fought Voldemort, Bill started firing the counter curses that would make Tom mortal once again. As the spells hit Tom, Harry saw that he was beginning to look more and more human. When the last spell hit him, he fell to the ground.
Bill shouted thru the link, "That's all of them Harry. You're all clear kid!"
Harry stood over Voldemort and channeled every bit of magic he could. He drew from himself, Hogwarts, the ambient magic around, and channeled it all into the Sword of Gryffindor. The sword and Harry's entire arm turned blue.
He raised the sword high above his head. The rising sun reflected off the sword, Harry stared down at Tom Riddle and spoke in a large commanding voice, "Tom Riddle, I now take my revenge! For James and Lily Potter, for Cedric Diggory, for Frank Bryce, for Fabian and Gideon Prewett, and for all those that you have killed!"
Harry drove his sword into the place where Tom Riddle's heart was supposed to be. When the sword pierced Tom Riddle, he let out a piercing scream as the magic, purified by love, purged the evil that was once Tom Riddle. Moments later, the body of Tom Riddle was ash.
Harry fell to knees, completely exhausted. He had done it, fulfilled his destiny. The last thing he remembered seeing before blackness overtook him was his wife Ginny Potter, with Apollo on her shoulder looking over him. Around him stood his family, Albus, Minerva, all the Weasleys, Remus, Tonks, Neville, Luna, Severus and many others. Above them all wee three ethereal forms, his mum, dad, and Sirius.