Sorry for the massive wait. Old computer died and had to buy new one and transfer all old data from back ups to new one. but anyway thank you all for bearing with me.

Penultimate chapter here. Enjoy

The next thing that I knew was someone shaking me by the shoulder. I raised my head and saw Sirius kneeling beside me. His eyes were full of tears.

"Harry, you have got to come. Voldemort has captured the great hall" the words sank in. I was sure they meant something but it didn't seem important.

"Harry, snap the fuck out of it!" My head snapped around at both at the words and the slap that followed them.

"What" I said

"Voldemort has taken the great hall and you have to come"

"Why? What's the point?" I asked and my eyes fell again. Hermione's sightless eyes stared back at me. They offered neither comfort nor answers. Instead it was as if I could see infinity in them, a never-ending stretch of black despair that seemed to envelop me when I looked into it. A hand interrupted my view. Sirius had closed her eyes.

"Come on Harry. She wouldn't want you to give up would she?"

"No" was my answer. Without another word I stood up and gathered Hermione up in my arms. With my life in my arms I strode towards what I was sure would be the death of me.

It didn't disappoint. As I walked into the great hall I took in a number of things. There was a group of students and teachers huddled in a corner under the watchful glare of the Death Eaters. Voldemort was sitting on the Headmasters throne on the dais at the end of the hall. As I walked in a gasp arose from the prisoners. First a gasp of surprise and then a gasp of horror. I walked into the middle of the hall with my face set. I laid Hermione carefully on the ground at my feet and then stood and faced the man who had taken my life away.

"So Harry Potter comes at last" he said as he rose from the throne.

"Yes" I answered not breaking eye contact.

"Yes" he said mockingly and laughed. All the Death Eaters joined in the laughter. Until I spoke.

"Shut the fuck up" I said levelly. That silenced the hall better than a silencing charm.

"Do you still think that you still have a chance" Voldemort asked calmly. While he had been laughing he had made his way down the hall and now stood less than 10 feet from me.

"A chance? No. Hope? No. A reason to try and to keep trying until death? Yes." As I spoke I drew my wand and held it by my side. Voldemort looked unmoved.

"Aww. Does Harry hate me for killing his girlfriend?" he asked as he drew his wand and mirrored my pose.

"Had you not killed Hermione then you may have won" I said. He open his mouth to answer but I cut him off.

"Had you not killed her you may have lived. But now there is no way you are walking out of this hall with your skin intact. I am going to die, I know this but if I am to die I am going to fucking take you with me!" as I spoke my voice rose until I was shouting the words around the hall. My voice reverberated around the hall and then fell silent.

"We are with you Harry" a voice said from behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see Sirius standing in the doorway with the sword of Gryffindor in his hand. He flipped it around and tossed it to me, hilt first, I caught it and turned back to face Voldemort. The prisoners all stood up and started to chant. "Harry, Harry, Harry"

"You are a fool Harry Potter, and you will lose. Everything" Voldemort said as he raised his wand in a duelling stance. I copied his move with my wand hand. I spun the sword in my off hand so that it was point down and rammed it with all my strength into the stone of the floor. The next thing that happened caught me off guard.

As the sword pierced the ground there was a deep throbbing note. The sword sunk in a good foot before it stopped suddenly as if it had hit an impenetrable level. The hilt began to shiver and glow with a bright white light. The light suddenly shot up out of the handle in three different coloured beams and headed for Voldemort. One went left and was coloured in a deep blue with a yellow band that twirled around it. The one that went right was a bright yellow with a black strand striking through the middle. The band that was brightest was red. A deep blood red that glowed with a golden hue that was indescribable. The three beams shot towards my enemy and wove around him and then detonated in a huge explosion that blinded my briefly. When my sight returned there was a dome of energy that enclosed both me and Voldemort.

The shield kept changing colours and pulsing with an irregular rhythm. Faces also appeared in the fabric of the shield and looked out at me. There was Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw. These three all flowed and stood behind me facing Voldemort. Other faces were only fleeting likenesses of people. Except one. Her face appeared out of the mist and locked her gaze on me. Then, as though from sheer force of will, she stepped out of the shield and stood next to me. She was as beautiful as ever but now she was globed by the coalescing colours that shone from her body. Then they stopped moving and folded in on themselves and disappeared from her body and Hermione Granger was stood beside me as large as life. I looked down and her body had disappeared.

"I am not alive. You know that. No magic can raise the dead" she said in a voice that did not belong to the mouth that spoke it. I just nodded.

"But it can use materials left behind to aid those who need it"

"How?" I asked still slightly staggered.

"It doesn't matter Harry. What matters is beating Voldemort" as she said his name her face flinched involuntarily just like Hermione's had whenever she said it out loud.

I nodded and faced my adversary once more he was standing not 5 feet from me now. His wand was in his hand but it hung by his side in his slack hand. Then he seemed to wake up. He shook his head and raised his hand and quickly looked around.

"What have you done?" he asked me.

"Nothing. If you want to know, ask Hogwarts" I said as I fell back into the duelling stance I had learnt during second years duelling club. He looked at me and followed suit.

"You will die Harry Potter"

"So will you"

"So be it"

I stared at him and he stared back, both of us daring the other to strike first. He blinked first.

"Avada Kadavra" came his opening gambit.

"Expelliarmus" went my reply. The two spells met and sparked off each other and shot off into the shield which bulged at the impact and then dissipated the spells energy and returned to its unmarked multi-coloured perfection.

"Bombarda, Expelliarmus, Stupefy!" he called out in quick succession. I ducked to avoid the first and cast Protego to shield me from the second and third.

"Stupefy" I called as he called the same. Our spells impacted and then formed a golden ball that connected our wands. I forced my will into my wand to try to make it go further but even so his spell inched closer to me.

Then Hermione put her hand on my arm and I felt a wave of power run through me and it flowed into my wand and caused a pulse to come forth from my wand and it smashed into Voldemort staggering him. I ran forwards grabbing the sword from the ground as I did. As it came free from the ground with no resistance the dome burst as suddently as if someone had pricked it with a pin. I swung the sword at Voldemorts reeling body as he glanced of the last tatters of the shield and came falling towards me. The sword sliced through his torso at the right shoulder as if it was nothing but mist. It exited him via the left hip. The upper part of him crashed into me and I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my chest as I fell to the ground.

The crowd was silent for a second then there was a huge explosion of noise from the assembled prisoners and Death Eaters. I pushed the body off me and stood shakily. Theni fell to my knees. I looked down at my chest and saw the hilt of the ceremonial Dagger Voldemort had had embedded in my chest. I looked up and began to laugh. The laughter turned maniacal as my vision went red and the world went dark.