We stood in horror, all looking at each other, all knowing in our hearts that Harry had turned himself in. No one spoke, could speak. There wasn't a sound from outside, just the awful pressing silence.
"What's going on?" A wonderfully familiar, unsure voice questioned. We spun around, staring at the Gryffindor table in surprise. Fred sat up, with help from Angelina and George, both of whom were grinning. I opened my mouth to answer him but stopped short as a horrid voice echoed through the castle, magically amplified.
"Harry Potter is dead. He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him. We bring you his body as proof that your hero is gone.
"The battle is won. You have lost half of your fighters. My Death Eaters outnumber you, and the Boy Who Lived is finished. There must be no more war. Anyone who continues to resist, man, woman or child, will be slaughtered, as will every member of their family. Come out of the castle now, kneel before me, and you shall be spared. Your parents and children, your brothers and sisters will live and be forgiven, and you will join me in the new world we shall build together."
"NO!" The scream echoed from countless voice, joining together to form one defiant, heartbroken note.
"It's a trick, it's not true!" Ron yelled, his hands clenched and his face fierce. I sunk to my knees in horror, gripping the table's leg to keep myself from falling over. My tears started to fall again and a sob broke from my lips. I couldn't believe it, it couldn't be true, and they couldn't really have him. If he had a body though, you couldn't fake that.
"He's lying!" Ron said again, his voice defiant, daring anyone to challenge him.
"I think he's lying about running away." Neville's deep voice echoed across the hall painfully loud. "He'd never run away. He turned himself in, we all knew he'd do it." His eyes found mine across the room. He spoke the next words directly to me. "He tried to pass the torch onto me. He tried to tell me what his mission was, he wanted me to help him finish it."
"I don't think so. Dumbledore left the mission exclusively to him, he would not have given it up lightly." Kingsley's voice sounded from behind me, its deep tone measured and reassuring, but it didn't calm me, not now.
"No, I think this was his plan." I said, looking up and staring at Neville, I couldn't look at Ron, I didn't want to see my expression mirrored in his. "Dumbledore did leave him a mission. Voldemort split his soul into seven parts, that's how he's survived so long. We've been hunting them down all year, that's where we've been-"
"Well, that has nothing to do with Harry turning himself in!" Ginny interrupted, her tone tight.
"There's more to it than that though. The prophecy that was destroyed, Dumbledore had a copy of it. It said that neither can live while the other survives, that's why he went alone. He thought he had to die." I closed my eyes, my voice choking on the last words, I couldn't bear to think it, but it had to be said.
"I think that's why Harry didn't take Ron and I with him when he went, because he knew that he had to die too." I opened my eyes again, letting the defiance I felt show through them.
"So he's mortal now?" George asked, his voice strained and hollow.
"If he got the snake, then yes." I replied, tears still pouring down my face. I brushed them off angrily with the back of my hand .
"So an AK will kill him?"
"If you hit him, yes."
"Then he'll die." Sirius said, stepping forward and gripping his wand.
"I don't know, he's still a powerful dark wizard." Ernie's said.
"Yeah, but he can't dodge all of us." Ron said, his voice determined.
"All of us?" Ernie asked, his voice guarded.
"I'm in." Sirius said, stepping forward and laying his wand on top of Ron's. I stood up on shaky legs and pulled my wand out, laying it on top of both of theirs.
"Me too."
"Count us in." George and Fred said, stepping towards us. George wrapped his arm around my shoulders. Luna stood from the table, limping forward and placing her wand on ours. A moment later wands were appearing from everywhere, all stacking on top of Ron's and Sirius's. I couldn't see through my tears now. I couldn't think about what would happen after we left this room, I couldn't think about what I would do when I saw Harry, I wouldn't face that now. I only knew that Voldemort would die, today would be his last. He'd pay today, he'd pay for all the lives he'd taken, for Harry.
"They're here!" Michael's cry brought us out of our sorrow, and got us moving again. Everyone who was able to ran from the room, heading towards the castle entrance. This was it, this was the last stand we would make. For good or bad, it would all end here.
There were still over a hundred of the Death Eaters, hundreds of spiders were lined up behind them, along with hundreds of other magical creatures I couldn't identify. Giants brought up the rear, their huge figures rising up menacingly out of the trees. No one was looking at any of this though, all eyes were on the two figures who stood at the very center of the huge army.
Hagrid, almost small next to his giant cousins, was standing with his head bowed, his great shoulders shaking with heartbroken sobs. His tears were soaking the small, broken body in his arms. It was Harry, his tall body looking so much younger than the seventeen years he was. He was hanging limp in Hagrid's gentle arms, dead. The Boy Who Lived, The Chosen One, my very best friend, dead!
"NO!" McGonagall let out a loud, aching wail, the first to find her voice at the horror of the sight. We all moved as one, all surging down the steps to face the mortal man who had killed him, killed our greatest hope. We all drew to a startled halt once we got outside though. Draped across Voldemort's shoulders was Nagini, very much alive and in one piece. A sob broke across my lips and I couldn't stop the scream of pain that left me. Cries of shock and horror rose up from everywhere, vows of loyalty, battle cries, promises to keep fighting till the bitter end.
"SILENCE!" Voldemort bellowed, flicking his wand, and with a bang and a burst of light, our mouths were silenced. He wouldn't even allow us to grieve. All his spell did was enrage us even more. We all knew what had to be done. One of us would get the snake before it was over. "It is over!" He smirked, "Set him down, Hagrid, at my feet, where he belongs!" Hagrid didn't move a muscle, he just stood there rigidly, his giant tears still soaking Harry's hair. With another wave of his wand Hagrid was forced to bend at his waist and set Harry down on the bloodstained grass.
"You see?" Voldemort snarled. "Harry Potter is dead! Do you understand now, deluded ones? He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!"
Ron lunged forward, a look of utter rage on his face. He opened his mouth and the force of his friendship burst through the silencing spell. "He beat you!" His words seemed to shatter the spell for all of us. Our shout sounded again, reminding him of just how many times Harry had beaten him. We yelled louder and louder, until another louder and brighter bang silenced us all again.
Voldemort smiled in cruel satisfaction before continuing. "He was killed, while trying to sneak out of the castle grounds. Killed while trying to save himself –" He was cut off before he could continue. A figure raced down the steps, across the empty ground between our two armies, and right towards Voldemort. His wand was raised and aimed at Nagini, he was going to kill the snake. Voldemort didn't even blink, he just twitched his wand and Neville was disarmed. He flew through the air, landing hard on his back. He shot back up, facing Voldemort defiantly, daring him to stop him.
Voldemort just laughed, then in a mocking voice; "Who has volunteered to demonstrate what happens to those who continue to fight when the battle is lost?"
Bellatrix's high, insane shriek of laughter sounded from almost directly behind her master. "It is Neville Longbottom, my Lord! The boy who has been giving the Carrows so much trouble! The son of the Aurors, remember?"
Yes, she would remember. The bitch was the one who destroyed them.
"Ah, yes, I remember… But you are a Pureblood, aren't you, my brave boy?"
Neville raised his head, pushing his hair back. The boy I had known would have been terrified at this attention, at the fact that Voldemort knew who he was. This new Neville didn't even blink. "So what if I am?"
"You show spirit and bravery, and you come of noble stock. You will make a very valuable Death Eater. We need your kind, Neville Longbottom."
What? He actually thought he could claim Neville? Had he missed the part where Neville had just tried to kill his snake?
Neville's reply was instantaneous, loud and clear. "I'll join you when hell freezes over! Dumbledore's Army!"
I screamed out answering cry, the Silencing Charm shattered just as it had before, beaten by our loyalty to each other, to Harry.
The cheer died away a few long moments later, Voldemort merely nodded his head, taking a little bow towards Neville. "Very well…if that is your choice, Longbottom, we revert to the original plan. On your head be it."
He made an elaborate gesture with the wand, and for a moment, there was nothing, then I heard an odd flapping, and I turned around to see a large shapeless flying towards us from the Headmasters tower. It was the Sorting Hat, why summon it?
"There will be no more Sorting at Hogwarts School," Voldemort said calmly. "There will be no more Houses. The emblem, shield, and colors of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice for everyone. Won't they, Neville Longbottom?"
Voldemort gave another flick of his wand and Neville went rigid, his arms snapping to his side as he was hit by the full body-bind jinx. Voldemort jammed the hat down on his head and then stepped back. A roar of protest rose within the crowd and we made to lunge forward, determined not to lose even one more person. The Death Eaters on either side of Voldemort flicked his wand and we were forced to stop, forced to be silent, forced to just stand and watch.
"Neville here is now going to demonstrate what happens to anyone foolish enough to continue to oppose me." Voldemort waved his wand and then the hat was ablaze, and Neville was frozen beneath it. A voice less scream rose within me and I thrashed around determined to break the spell, I couldn't watch Neville burn, I couldn't let him die.
He moved, in a heart beat Neville moved, his hand coming out of the hat in an arc, swooping a heavy sword around before bringing it down on Nagini's neck. Her head was severed off, it spun through the air before landing with a dull thud in the middle of the blood stained grass.
Voldemort was finally mortal.
Without a pause Neville brought the sword back around, aiming for Voldemort's throat this time. I let out a scream of triumph, surging forward to help Neville. We ran forward, running towards the far larger army as a thousand more voice joined our cry. The reinforcements we had been promised had finally arrived, and the arrows of their army flew from the woods in a deadly rain. The early morning was lit up as thousands of spells started to fly across the broken castle's entrance. I started to duel with the nearest Death Eater, and he started to collapse under the sheer weight of the spells that were hitting him. Hagrid's voice rang out loud and clear above the chaos, uttering three impossible words.
"HARRY-WHERE'S HARRY?"
Harry's body was gone, it had disappeared. Gone.
I couldn't think, couldn't comprehend the fact that he was gone. How, where, why?
Alive?
Nothing made any sense, I only knew that he was gone, and Voldemort was mortal. I raised my wand anew, only thinking of bringing as many Death Eaters as I could down. I'd lost track of George, of Ron, of Neville, of everyone I cared for, but it didn't matter in that moment. I only wanted to end it, or at least make it easier for someone else to.
I spun around wildly, dodging a green flash and aiming my own red in return. The Death Eater fell with a shriek of pain, and I saw Bellatrix behind him. Rage filled my stomach, mingling with a bitter hatred. She was fighting Luna and Ginny, they were using everything they had just to stay alive. I lunged forward, not caring for my own safety, only wanting to help even the fight in they're favor.
Together the three of us were nearly impossible to beat, let alone keep up with, yet she matched us spell for spell, and she did it with painful ease. She seemed to think of the fight as little more than a game, as though she were playing with us before she killed us. We dodge curse after curse, moving seamlessly together, fighting with everything we had just to stay alive. Ginny's hair flared green beside me as a killing curse passed close enough to her to burn her hair.
A voice so extremely familiar, but completely foreign in its anger and hate rang out in the hall; "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"
Mrs. Weasley charged across the hall, "OUT OF MY WAY!" she screamed, flinging us away from Bellatrix with a wave of her wand. She threw her cloak to the ground and began to fight the deranged witch.
For a moment Bellatrix grinned, nearly laughing as she faced the plump, older, motherly witch. Her smile faded into a snarl as she realized that Mrs. Weasley was no easy victim. She was the mother of seven, Ginny had gotten her fiery spirit from her mother, George and Fred had gotten their disregard for the rules from her, Bill and Charlie their sense of adventure, Ron his undying loyalty. She was a strong witch, and now she was fighting for her children, the pure force of her love making Bellatrix lose ground. She was holding her own, and Bellatrix was really having to fight.
I couldn't take it any longer, I loved her like a mother, even if she was holding her own I couldn't hold myself back when I saw a killing curse fly within an inch of her head. I stepped forward, along with half the others left in the hall.
"No!" she yelled, "Get back! Get back! She is mine!"
I stopped in my tracks, horrified, yet unable to look away. I could only stand there, holding my breath as I watched in terror. Bellatrix threw her head back and let out an exhilarated laugh, cruel and high. "What will happen to your children when I've killed you?" She asked, her voice high and insane.
Mrs. Weasley's voice was contorted in more rage and hate than I had ever seen. Her reply was deadly as she screamed it out between the flying curses, never stopping her fight; "You – will – never – touch – our – children – again!"
Bellatrix let out another high, mocking laugh. Mrs. Weasley's curse flew under her outstretched wand, hitting her perfectly in her chest. Her laugh cut off, her eyes growing wide in a half second realization before she flew back, dead.
I let out a breathless scream of triumph, along with half the hall. The scream of triumph was drowned out by Voldemort's scream of rage. He threw McGonagall, Kingsley, Sirius, and Slughorn, all whom he had been fighting, across the hall and into a motionless pile. He spun in fury and raised his wand towards Mrs. Weasley, a scream of horror rose up on my lips, but I couldn't make a sound.
"Protego!" A shout sounded from the middle of the hall, where no one was. A shield erupted between Mrs. Weasley and Voldemort, so powerful that it knocked Mrs. Weasley back, and the source of the spell appeared. A cloak I had seen and worn countless times fell to the floor and the raven haired wizard stepped forward, his back straight and his emerald eyes bright as he faced his greatest enemy.
It was Harry, and he was alive.
"HARRY!" I screamed out, unable to hold back the joy at seeing him again. I couldn't believe it, couldn't comprehend it. He was alive, he was alive!
He stepped forward without any hesitation, and started circling Voldrmort at the same time that Voldemort started to circle him.
"I don't want anyone else to try to help. It's got to be like this. It's got to be me." He yelled out when we had stepped forward, his voice loud, clear, and steady. It didn't have a trace of uncertainty in it, it was determined.
Voldemort gave a low hissing sound like a snake. "Potter doesn't mean that. That isn't how he works, is it?" He motioned towards us, "Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter?"
"Nobody." Harry said in the tone one would use to state a simple fact. There are no more Horcruxes. It's just you and me. Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good."
I stared in horror, unable to move, scarcely able to believe he was really in front of me. Ginny took in a shuddering breath by my side and I grasped her hand tightly in my own, twisting and grabbing Luna's hand as well. They gripped my hands back, looks of equal disbelief on their faces.
"One of us?' Voldemort repeated, sounding said, sneering. "You think it will be you, do you, the boy who has survived by accident, and because Dumbledore was pulling the strings?"
"Accident, was it, when my mother died to save me? Accident, when I decided to fight in that graveyard? Accident, that I didn't defend myself tonight, and still survived, and returned to fight again?" Harry's voice was taunting, holding a note in it as though he knew something Voldemort didn't. They continued moving, circling each other in a deadly dance. T
"Accidents!" Voldemort screamed the word in hate and rage, his snake like face contorting. "Accident and chance and the fact that you crouched and sniveled behind the skirts of greater men and women, and permitted me to kill them for you!"
Harry didn't even flinch there was no sign of fear in his green eyes. "You won't be killing anyone else tonight. You won't be able to kill any of them ever again. Don't you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people –" I sucked in a shocked breath, had he done what I thought he had done?
"But you did not!"
"—I meant to, and that's what did it. I've done what my mother did. They're protected from you. Haven't you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can't torture them. You can't touch them. You don't learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?"
Voldemort glared at Harry, his eye full of hate for the boy who dared challenge him. "You dare –"
Harry smiled, his emerald eyes bright and mocking. "Yes, I dare. I know things you don't know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things that you don't. Want to hear some, before you make another big mistake?"
"Is it love again?" Voldemort sneered. "Dumbledore's favorite solution, love, which he claimed conquered death, though love did not stop him falling from the tower and breaking like an old waxwork? Love, which did not prevent me stamping out your Mudblood mother like a cockroach, Potter – and nobody seems to love you enough to run forward this time and take my curse. So what will stop you dying now when I strike?"
His wand twitched, and I felt my body give an involuntary jerk forward. Luna's hand tightened around my own and jerked me back, forcing me not to move. I knew I shouldn't step in, there was a magic far deeper and grander than I could understand, but I wanted nothing more than to run to Harry's aid.
"Just one thing." Harry said quietly, but his voice still rang across the hall clearly.
"If it is not love that will save you this time, you must believe that you have magic that I do not, or else a weapon more powerful than mine?"
"I believe both."
Voldemort stared back in simple shock. His mouth twisted and he let out a laugh, utterly mirthless, high and shrill, just as insane as Bellatrix's had been.
"You think you know more magic than I do? Than I, than Lord Voldemort, who has performed magic that Dumbledore himself never dreamed of?"
"Oh, he dreamed of it, but he knew more than you, knew enough not to do what you've done."
"You mean he was weak!" was the spat out reply. "Too weak to dare, too weak to take what might have been his, what will be mine!"
"No, he was cleverer than you, a better wizard, a better man."
"I brought about the death of Albus Dumbledore!" Voldemort yelled, Harry shook his head, a smile dancing across his lips and lighting his eyes.
"You thought you did, but you were wrong."
Before I could even think about the implications of that statement, Voldemort screamed. "Dumbledore is dead! His body decays in the marble tomb in the grounds of this castle, I have seen it, Potter, and he will not return!"
"Yes, Dumbledore's dead," Harry replied calmly, "But you didn't have him killed. He chose his own manner of dying, chose it months before he died, arranged the whole thing with the man you thought was your servant."
"What childish dream is this?"
"Severus Snape wasn't yours. Snape was Dumbledore's, Dumbledore's from the moment you started hunting down my mother. And you never realized it, because of the thing you can't understand. You never saw Snape cast a Patronus, did you, Riddle? Snape's Patronus was a doe, the same as my mother's, because he loved her for nearly all of his life, from the time when they were children. You should have realized, he asked you to spare her life, didn't he?"
What? Snape was ours? I could hear Sirius's shocked intake of breath coming from the right. Even he hadn't known, and he went to school with them. Dumbledore had been right, Snape was ours!
"He desired her, that was all," Voldemort scoffed, "but when she had gone, he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him –"
"Of course he told you that, but he was Dumbledore's spy from the moment you threatened her, and he's been working against you ever since! Dumbledore was already dying when Snape finished him!"
"It matters not!" Voldemort railed, then laughed again. "It matters not whether Snape was mine or Dumbledore's, or what petty obstacles they tried to put in my path! I crushed them as I crushed your mother, Snape's supposed great love!"
"Oh, but it all makes sense, Potter, and in ways that you do not understand! Dumbledore was trying to keep the Elder Wand from me! He intended that Snape should be the true master of the wand! But I got there ahead of you, little boy – I reached the wand before you could get your hands on it, I understood the truth before you caught up. I killed Severus Snape three hours ago, and the Elder Wand, the Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny is truly mine! Dumbledore's last plan went wrong, Harry Potter!"
I could barely keep up, it was so much to take in, yet Harry still didn't look upset by this last revelation. "Yeah, it did." Harry said, sounding uninterested. "You're right, but before you try to kill me, I'd advise you to think about what you've done….Think, and try for some remorse, Riddle…."
"What is this?"
"It's your one last chance, it's all you've got left….I've seen what you'll be otherwise….Be a man…try…Try for some remorse…."
"You dare –" Voldemort hissed.
"Yes, I dare." Harry said, annoyance rising up in his voice. "Because Dumbledore's last plan hasn't backfired on me at all. It's backfired on you, Riddle. That wand still isn't working properly for you because you murdered the wrong person. Severus Snape was never the true master of the Elder Wand. He never defeated Dumbledore."
"He killed –"
"Aren't you listening? Snape never beat Dumbledore! Dumbledore's death was planned between them! Dumbledore intended to die undefeated, the wand's last true master! If all had gone as planned, the wand's power would have died with him, because it had never been won from him!"
"But then, Potter, Dumbledore as good as gave me the wand!" The high voice was raised in a cry of satisfaction. "I stole the wand from its last master's tomb! I removed it against its last master's wishes! Its power is mine!"
"You still don't get it, Riddle, do you?" Harry's words said, and I could hear the slightest hint of a chuckle in his voice. "Possessing the wand isn't enough! Holding it, using is, doesn't make it really yours. Didn't you listen to Ollivander? The wand chooses the wizard…."
"The Elder wand recognized a new master before Dumbledore died, someone who never even laid a hand on it. The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never realizing exactly what he had done, or that the world's most dangerous wand had given him its allegiance. The true master of the Elder Wand was Draco Malfoy."
What! How the hell had that happened?
Of course, it was Draco who had disarmed him, how had we not thought of that? How had we been so stupid?
"But what does it matter? Even if you are right, Potter, it makes no difference to you and me. You no longer have the phoenix wand: We duel on skill alone…and after I have killed you, I can attend to Draco Malfoy…."
"But you're too late. You've missed your chance. I got there first. I overpowered Draco weeks ago. I took this wand from him. So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" Harry's voice was a whisper, but it carried across the hall effortlessly, more powerful than Voldemort's screams.
"Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does…I am the true master of the Elder Wand."
The Great Hall became ablaze with the light of the morning sun, it was as though it was planned. Voldemort threw his wand back and struck at the same moment as Harry, and the golden rays of the sun lit the terrible scene as the two powerful spells collided with a blast so strong that the floor trembled.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
Voldemort's wand flew in the air, flipping in the morning light. Harry leap into the air and with the unerring hand of the Seeker he was, he caught the wand, turning as he landed and aiming both wands at Voldemort. I held my breath, unable to move as I stared at the motionless body of Voldemort. He didn't move, he would never move again.
Lord Voldemort, You-Know-Who, Tom Riddle, was dead, forever and eternally dead.