The Darkness Inside
Hey, so here it is, the Final Battle. Unfortunately, this will be the penultimate chapter (only one more to go!) but I will be doing an epilogue. I know I was evil at the end of the last chapter but I wanted to tell you who Morgana is descended from during this chapter.
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By the way, I'm going to give you a hint about Morgana's lineage. She said to Tom in the last chapter when he found out that Dumbledore is a descendant of an Ancient, that she is more than a match for Dumbledore. Also, I've got few massive twists to bring out so prepare yourselves!
Anything you recognise is not mine.
000
Chapter 6
Smoke and the scent of blood filled the air as Morgana rushed towards where Tom and Dumbledore were fighting, dodging both enemies and allies alike. Her long black hair, tied in a ponytail with a black leather thong whipping out behind her as she ran and her black boots were charmed so the heels didn't sink into the mud. A stunning spell glanced off her charmed black leather skirt and hit someone nearby, she couldn't tell who in all the smoke and the loose white peasant top she wore was splattered with someone's blood which was also on the black leather underbust corset. Hanging from her black leather belt (on the right hand side where it was clear that she wasn't going to use it) was a gold and silver inlayed scabbard with a sword, probably the most famous sword in existence, Excalibur, that her family had been its keepers for centuries and she knew that it was needed today. On her left side was a plain black scabbard with her own sword, made of Elvin silver with gold silk binding on the hilt, the pommel was a large Elvin diamond that glittered like frost on a winter morning and seemed to hold its own light. She had a small dagger also made of Elvin silver in a small holder next to Excalibur, its handle carved in an intricate Celtic knot work design. On her hands were a pair of black leather fingerless gloves and on her left forearm was a black leather gauntlet. Slung across her back, facing her right shoulder, was a quiver that had containing a few arrows with black and silver fletching (the others had been fired already) and a light ash bow was slung over her other shoulder. Her rose and snake marking on her right fore arm was visible and she didn't bother to attempt to hide it, rather she showed it off proudly. She was wearing her usual red lipstick, black mascara and black eyeliner but the only jewellery she wore was a small pair of silver snake earrings.
She paused only briefly to cast a wandless and non-verbal stunning charm on an enemy in her way before running even faster to reach Tom's side. She skidded to a stop just as she reached him and whipped out her sword.
"Morgana! Get away before he hurts you!" Tom yelled, casting a shield charm over them both as Dumbledore threw a fireball at them.
"No Tom! I'm not leaving you to face him alone!" She shouted back sending a load of water at Dumbledore's latest fireball.
"How sweet, Slytherin's Heir and Ravenclaw's Heiress, fighting together. A pity, then, that both your lines will end with you today!" Dumbledore sneered, his right hand aflame and pulled back, ready to throw.
"True, we are both Heirs of two of the Founders, something I know you're jealous of. But you don't know who I truly am, do you, Mordred-Kin?" Morgana smirked, throwing Dumbledore off track. Whispers began around them. "Dumbledore, a descendant of Mordred? Impossible. He's too good. Surely she's mistaken, surely he's a descendant of Merlin?" The whispers said.
"What? How did you know that?" Dumbledore snarled, anger flashing in his eyes.
"You don't recognise me then? I'd have thought that someone who resents the Founders and the other Ancients would have realised who I am. Or at least recognised the magic I just used and the sword on my right hip." Morgana smiled sweetly. A glance at Tom told him that she was deliberately irritating him, to cause him to make a mistake.
"Nimuë!" Dumbledore snarled, anger flashing in his eyes.
"Ah, now you know a part of my lineage. For you see, I'm not just a descendant of Nimuë, that's impossible. Did you not realise that she never trapped Merlin? She married him! He left the Court of Camelot because Nimuë was cursed and had to stay by her lake for the rest of her life or die painfully. I am a direct descendant of their only child." Morgana smiled calmly, her voice carrying across the battlefield. By now, all fighting had stopped so that everyone could observe the fight between Dumbledore and Morgana and Tom.
"I should have known! The amount of power I felt you had was too great for you not to be related to Merlin!" Dumbledore growled. Harry, Ginny, Neville, Luna, Fred, George, Snape, Draco and Lupin joined them. Ron joined Dumbledore.
"Ah, but, the question is. Did you ever actually recognise me?" She replied. Dumbledore looked at her closely for a few moments and gasped.
"Impossible! Seren had no children!" He choked slightly, looking taken aback.
"Wrong I'm afraid. My grandmother married Garath Jones, a childhood friend, and had not just Hywel Jones, my uncle, but also my mother, Eleri. They just weren't educated at Hogwarts." She smirked, Tom took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. She looked at the gathered crowd, both Order and Death Eaters alike.
"Most of you know me as Morgana Raven, but every daughter in my family has had the same last name, until my parents decided to hide me. My real name is…" She paused for emphasis, everyone was straining to hear her next words, the anticipation in the air was palpable.
"Morgana Le Fey! Not only am I a direct descendant of Rowena Ravenclaw, Nimuë and Merlin, who's real name was Myrddin, but I am a direct descendant of Morgana Le Fey!" She continued, her words causing the gathered people to gasp. She knew why, it was because she was the heiress to one of the founders and not one but three of the Ancients. Her power levels were phenomenal because of her lineage and Tom's were almost the same level as hers, there was a reason that Slytherins called Salazar 'the greatest of the Hogwart's Four'. More and more people left Dumbledore and came to stand behind Tom and Morgana. Arthur Weasley moved as if he was going to but Dumbledore turned to glare at him.
"Arthur! Stay put!" He growled, his grandfatherly façade completely shattered. Arthur froze, his eyes and expression vacant.
"The Imperius curse." Tom whispered to Morgana. She nodded and called the Shadows to her.
'Yes Mistress?' They whispered, their voices only audible to her and Tom.
"I need you to break the Imperius curse on Arthur Weasley." She replied, keeping an eye on Dumbledore. The tide of the battle was turning against him and that would make him dangerous. The Shadows didn't reply, they just went to do her bidding. Morgana could tell the exact moment that they broke the spell, Arthur's eyes cleared and he was able to focus on what was happening around him. Dumbledore was aware too and he was furious, especially when Arthur hurried over to Ginny and the twins, whispering a quick apology for what he had done while under Dumbledore's control.
"Miss Le Fey, give me the sword." Dumbledore said suddenly and, instantly, Morgana knew why he had arranged the Final Battle for that day.
"That's what this is about! You want Excalibur!" She gasped, looking stunned.
"Of course, and the only way I could lure it out was this battle. With the sword in my possession, I can finally have everything I deserve, everything that your ancestors took away from mine! I'll finally be able to properly punish Slytherin's Heir for the support that Slytherin provided for Mordred's banishment and seclusion from Wizarding Society!" Dumbledore snarled, his face fierce. Morgana whipped her bow off her shoulder and, like lightning, she notched an arrow on the bowstring and had it levelled at Dumbledore's chest.
"Try and take it pen pidyn!" She snarled.
"You know that someone here is destined to wield it, you can't deny me the sword." Dumbledore smirked.
"It might be true that someone here will wield it, but you will never get your hands on it!" She replied with her own smirk before glancing at Tom.
"Tom, would you draw Excalibur for me?" She asked him as she returned her focus to Dumbledore.
"You're asking Voldemort to take Excalibur? I overestimated your intelligence." Dumbledore laughed.
Tom grasped the hilt of the sword and smoothly drew Excalibur out of its scabbard. A glow of silver, gold and green surrounded him; when it receded, the emeralds and diamonds adorning the hilt and pommel glittered with life and the Dwarven gold burned with a bright fire while a cold fire seemed to emanate from the Elvin silver. What made the sword so special was the fact that it was the first and last collaboration between Elf-kind and the Dwarves, it held the power to call both species to aid its wielder. All around them, Elvin archers and Dwarven axe-men appeared, as if from no where to fight alongside Tom's forces. Dumbledore and those who still stood by him were visibly shocked that Excalibur had accepted Tom, although Morgana could see a cold fury in Dumbledore's eyes. Losing his chance for the sword was the final straw and he called the attack once more by firing a Blasting hex at Tom which he deflected with the sword. Morgana released her arrow at Molly Weasley who was screeching in anger at Arthur and firing the Cruciatus curse at Ginny. The arrow went straight through her chest, hitting an unknown Order member behind Molly who looked down at the arrow suddenly growing out of his chest with a rather stupid expression on his face. Molly crumpled, her lifeless eyes open in shock, her face still twisted in anger. Ginny, having recovered from the Crucio that her own mother had placed her under, was fighting Dean Thomas who was calling her a Death Eater Whore, earning himself one of her famous Bat Bogey hexes. Thinking that she had sufficiently incapacitated him, she turned her back on him and didn't see him attempt to cast a Scetumsempra curse at her. Draco leapt into action and killed him before he could hurt her. Neville and Luna were trying to persuade Moody to listen to them and were doing a pretty thorough job of it on their own.
Harry was occupied with his fight with Ron, who was still preaching his superiority over everyone else, and was doing pretty well. Tom was fighting Dumbledore, both of them using swords, Tom with Excalibur and Dumbledore using a sword that he'd conjured. While Tom had youth, energy and cunning on his side; Dumbledore had age, experience and a lack of scruples. In an attempt to distract Tom, Dumbledore attempted to attack Morgana with the Killing Curse. She neatly jumped out of the way, her legs doing the splits in midair, before landing and running to help Tom.
000
The Shadows were darting around the battlefield, using their power to heal the injured on their Mistress' and her Mate's side and to harm those fighting for Dumbledore. At the sight of living Shadows swooping around the battlefield and easily killing Dumbledore's followers, panic started to sweep through the remaining members of the Order. Some of them surrendered, but others started to fight fiercer than before with their actions tinged by panic.
000
The Elves and Dwarves were fighting Order members and those who stood with Dumbledore exclusively, only when one of them threw down their wand and weapons, did they spare them. The Elvin Prince, Orodreth Carnesîr, was dealing with Tonks who had surrendered her weapons immediately upon seeing him. He was tall with long light blonde hair in the same shade as the Malfoys and dark green eyes. As her wand rolled to stop at his feet, Tonks' hair changed to long copper coloured loose curls and her eyes changed to a vibrant pink, both without her realising. She seemed almost entranced by him and willingly walked over to and stayed by his side for thee rest of the battle.
000
Dumbledore was getting more and more annoyed, both Morgana and Tom were easily able to avoid his attacks whilst getting their own hits on him. Finally, he cast a powerful blasting hex at Tom whilst his attention was diverted on helping Morgana up.
"NO!" She screamed, throwing herself into the path of the hex. It hit her squarely in the chest and flung her against one of the castle walls, hitting her head sharply on the stone wall, causing her to crumple unconscious on the floor. Tom saw red, a hot fury boiled through his blood because of Dumbledore's attack on his love. Everyone froze, shocked at what had happened. Dumbledore took this opportunity to make his way over to Morgana's prone form where he drew the dagger from its sheath on her belt. Grasping her hair, he pulled her head up an placed the blade against her throat.
"And here ends the line of Ravenclaw, Merlin, Nimuë and Morgana!" He crowed triumphantly, drawing his hand back to strike. And in that moment, Tom almost flew at him and, raising Excalibur high, swiftly cut Dumbledore's hand off. With slow deliberateness, Tom cut Dumbledore's other hand off before slicing off his arms, then his feet, then his legs, neatly dismembering the man who had made his life a misery for so many years.
When Dumbledore was completely limbless, Tom leant close to him.
"You can fuck with my life, you can cause me to have a painful and miserable childhood, you can even destroy some of my hopes and dreams, but when you harm and attempt to kill the woman I love, that is a step too far!" Tom hissed, his voice loud enough to carry across the gathered fighters on the battlefield. He was dimly aware that a couple of the students who had stayed neutral approached Morgana to do a medical check on her but he was more concerned with what to do about Dumbledore.
"Here ends the line of Albus Dumbledore!" Tom snarled, almost mirroring Dumbledore's words to Morgana. Putting all his rage, anger and hate for the Headmaster, Tom swung the sword in a flashing arch, slicing cleanly through Dumbledore's neck. The severed head flew from the body and fell to the ground, bouncing away to land at the feet of Aberforth Dumbledore who had hurried up to the school from Hogsmeade at the sounds of the battle.
"It's over, it's finally over." He muttered in relief before stepping over his brother's severed head. He slowly made his way towards Tom, who was watching the last remaining Dumbledore warily.
"Thank you. Not only have you saved the Wizarding World from my brother's manipulations but you have also avenged my sister." He smiled, bowing to the shocked Tom.
"Your sister?" Tom questioned, feeling a little confused.
"Albus perfected his use of the Perdo Sanitas spell on Ariana which ended in her death when she was sixteen. He was also the one who had me convicted for supposed bestiality with a goat." Aberforth explained.
"He used an Insanity Spell on his own sister?" Bellatrix gasped, her own time under an Insanity Spell horrified her and probably would for many years.
"Yes, it was all part of his plan. He became obsessed with Mordred in his youth and discovered that the reason that he was scorned was because of how his daughter was conceived. Morwenna was the product of incest; Mordred raped his sister, Malen, and showed no remorse. Albus honestly believed that Mordred was the greatest of all wizards, and strived to be as like him as possible. From what I managed to find out before Ariana died, Albus had planned on taking her as his lover and was going to use the Insanity curse to make sure that she thought they weren't related." Aberforth sighed sadly, pulling out a large gold locket and opening it. After glancing at it, he showed those near him the pictures inside.
One was a mini-painting of two teenagers dressed in Hogwarts uniforms and was clearly very old. Both of them had auburn hair and blue eyes but while the boy was a Gryffindor, the girl was dressed in the uniform of Ravenclaw. He seemed about 16 while she was 14 but even at that tender age, she was beautiful. It was obvious that the two were related, not just from their looks, but from how fond of each other they seemed to be. The second was of the girl at a ball, she looked the same age as in the picture with her brother so it couldn't have been painted more than a few months after the first. She was wearing a royal purple ball gown with a dark blue under dress that had royal purple embroidered vines. The main part of the dress had flowers on vines embroidered on the royal purple silk in dark blue and emerald with white lace edging from the three-quarter length sleeves and around her shoulders with an emerald green ribbon edging the hem of the skirt. A royal purple ribbon with dark blue flowers and emerald green leaves woven into it, edged the underskirt. Her long auburn hair was curling around her bare shoulders and she had a gold tiara shaped like a starburst adorned with pearls atop her head. Around her neck were two matching ropes of pearls, with dark sapphires in gold settings interspersed between the pearls; hanging from the centre of the smaller set of pearls was a square sapphire in its gold setting that hung just above the tops of her breasts while the longer strand actually dipped into her bodice, hiding the end. Around her slight waist was a rope of pearls with an emerald set in a gold oval setting that hung down until the bottom set was about 3 inches from the hem of her gown. In her left hand was a book bound in dark brown leather, despite the dancers swirling in the background. The second painting was the only one that moved, and the girl would walk around the dancers, occasionally reading her book but most of the time, she would look at the happy couples dancing behind her with a sad expression. When the pictures were shown, she looked out of the picture and smiled.
"This was painted of Ariana and I when we were at Hogwarts. Albus had just left and I became responsible for looking after Ariana. It was painted by a friend of mine shortly before the Winter Break when we returned home for Ariana's 15th birthday." He smiled fondly, pointing at the first picture. "And this," He said, gesturing to the second. "This was painted at the ball that was held for her birthday. It was the last painting ever painted of her. Two days after we returned for the Summer Holiday, Albus cast the Insanity Curse on her and she died less than six months later, on her 16th birthday." He continued.
Aberforth sighed and looked around, his eyes sad as he saw the destruction that his older brother had caused.
"So much death and destruction, all caused in the name of Mordred and his line. Well no more, the line of Mordred ends with me." He said, softly before leaving quickly, completely ignoring his brother's corpse. For a few moments, everyone was slightly stunned by Aberforth's words and the story he had told of his own brother's actions, a lot of people had assumed that Dumbledore cared so much about his family that he wouldn't dare do something so horrible to his little sister. Tom ignored the shock and confusion around him, choosing to kneel beside Morgana's prone form. He was extremely relived to feel a pulse, for a few moments he was worried that the force with which she'd hit the wall had caused fatal damage to her. A gentle hand on his shoulder brought him back to reality. It was Poppy Pomfrey, the Hogwarts Nurse, she had remained neutral due to her wishes to care for the students.
"Let's get her into the Hospital Wing, she needs to be checked over for any major injuries, the Students have sorted any minor ones." She said softly in a gently tone. Tom nodded and carefully picked Morgana up and carried her to the Hospital Wing.