The Rani.
The Final End.
Albus Dumbledore coughed and spluttered as he and the students of Hogwarts, the Professors, and members of the Order milled about in confusion in the Great Hall of Hogwarts - muggle borns, half bloods, and purebloods, from all houses; Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, Slytherins, and Gryffindors, all in the same position; choking and ill.
Dumbledore focused for a moment through the dizziness, trying to use his occlumency to strengthen his mental concentration. It didn't work. What did make him focus was the sight of his phoenix, Fawkes. The phoenix himself was ill, sickly looking. His scarlet and gold plummage, usually so bright, were now dulled. The phoenix seemed to be dying infront of him. Even Hogwarts seemed to be dying all around them. How was this possible? Hogwarts was immortal.
" Albus," he turned to face Lily Potter. Her face was an unhealthy colour, and her eyes had darkened in the sickness. " Four more have died, two of them children." Then Lily's voice became hysterical. " Damn it Albus, what's happening?"
Dumbledore sighed. " I think Ursula is proving her point. Think about it, Fudge sent his cronies to deal with her, and now this. Voldemort would never use such a method, but Ursula would. You saw yourself how she used that thing, that mollusck to infect that Death eater. If she could and would do that, she could also do this."
Lily frowned, coughing violently. " She'd also warned us we would regret it if we ever tried medddling in her life."
Dumbledore nodded. " Yes," he replied weakly.
Lily shook her head, stopping violently when her head ached. " I won't accept that, Albus." She said weakly.
" You'll have to," Dumbledore remonstrated harshly, but kindly, as kindly as he could in the grip of their agonies. This plague was going about the whole magical world, everyone was starting to die. St. Mungo's was no help, all their healers themselves were patients. The plague had appeared in the face of little gold spheres that glowed brightly then died out.
Dumbledore had one of them in his office, he'd been studying it for the last month as death after death mounted. The spheres were made of a metal his magic couldn't identify, it could only be a result of Ursula's work. The old wizard had tried to enter Ursula's home, calling ahead, trying to arrange an appointment and all that, but she would not see him. He'd become so desperate he'd tried to use magic to enter her home, something Ursula had warned against, but the problems he was dealing with were too great - Voldemort was now only a small number of the equation, next to the rising threat of extinction at the hands of an unknown illness, Lord Voldemort was now nothing more than a mere insect.
Dumbledore was about to move away from Lily when the woman gasped, eyes turned towards the door. Dumbledore was turning when he heard the gasps of the students, the people in the hall as they saw what was in the entrance. Dumbledore couldn't believe it.
Lord Voldemort was lying on the ground, having been pushed there by Ursula Potter, who was towering over the fallen dark wizard she'd pushed there. Dumbledore regarded the downed dark lord, he looked as bad as the rest of them in the hall. He couldn't help but feel a thrill, now Voldemort was getting what he deserved, and there was nothing his arrogance could do about it.
Ursula bent down, her eyes cold and stony, and picked up the weakened Dark Lord, and dragged him closer to Dumbledore. She bent down, and slapped him on his cold skin. " Wakey, wakey, rise and shine. Come on, freak. Wake up." Voldemort didn't stir, he was too weak, and he seemed to Dumbledore's eyes to be slipping away.
Ursula growled under her breath, and she took a silver instrument from her pocket. Dumbledore watched, convinced they couldn't do anything to stop her. They heard the instrument hum and buzz close to Voldemort's neck, then the Dark lord woke up groggily as Ursula stood up. It seemed like whatever Ursula had done, it happened to everyone in the Hall.
People were still weak, but they were coming round.
Voldemort woke up, shook his head to clear it. He saw Ursula looking down at him. Before he could speak, she got there first. " The plague and the dampening fields will wear you all down, then you will die." She glared at them all. " Admit it, you old fool. You're out of your league." She returned the glare to Voldemort's form. " You should've stayed in the pit you belong. You had no right to become what you are. You're a filthy nothing, a delusional little boy crying for mummy and daddy. Oh, yes. I found your horcruxes. And I destroyed them. All of them." She sneered. " What a fool you've been, Riddle. Don't tell me not to call you that, I have that right. I am the Rani, and you Lord Voldemort, are dead. No matter what happens here, you will die."
Lily walked towards Ursula, her daughter. " Ursula, please stop this."
" Oh, mummy, mummy, pay attention." Ursula sneered / pouted at her. " Haven't you worked it out yet? You brought this on yourselves. If you'd left me alone, this wouldn't be happening. But no, you had to pry. Death eaters, Ministry people...Can't you people take the hint to leave well alone?" Ursula turned to Lily, and her mother backed away shivering at the look on her daughter's face. " I gave you enough chances. What part of leave me alone do you people not understand? Do you truly think your exempt from consequences? What about you, freak?" She sneered at Voldemort. " I'm the mighty Voldemort," she mimicked cruelly doing an accurate impression of Voldemort. " No one can defeat me, how does it feel freak to know your wrong?"
" Don't call me that!" Voldemort growled, trying to be intimidating.
It didn't work. The Rani sneered disdainfully, ignoring him. " Well someone has defeated you, right? How does it feel? How does it feel to know you're dying as well? For someone who claims immortality, you're not very good at it."
The mention of horcruxes made Dumbledore remember the fact Voldemort had a horcrux in Ursula herself. He was about to mention this, but Ursula surprised him again.
" Oh, and your last horcrux in my head. I destroyed it, so I'm safe." A thoughtful look appeared on her features. " Did you actually know you'd done that?" She asked quietly. " Did you know what I would do with you once I got my hands on you?"
Voldemort gasped, he could feel himself weakening every second. His magic, formidable as it was, was no help. It was drained, and the agony he was feeling was getting worse and worse.
Ursula wasn't expecting an answer to either his questions, she just walked about the room. Hermione Granger was too delirious to care, she just wanted to know something from this woman.
" What can we do, what do we have to do?" When Ursula's cold eyes turned to her, Hermione shivered but carried on, using the vaunted Gryffindor courage. " Can you cure us?"
" Why should I do that?" Ursula's voice was like a blowtorch through ice. She didn't say anything, she recognised Hermione as her secretary's cousin. " If I did cure you, what would happen?" She pointed at Voldemort. " Would he still live, live to kill those unable to fight back like the cowards he and his followers are? Or you, Albus Dumbledore, will you still meddle in people's lives for your own ends? Does the magical deserve special treatment?" Ursula didn't let anyone answer her, she answered herself.
" No. The magical world has never done anything. Instead of you using your power to change humanity, to grow, to learn beyond issues like pollution, species extinction, war, and sickness, you have sought to destroy for your own ends. I've calculated the odds," she told them coldly, " and they don't favour the chances."
" There must be a cure!"
Ursula looked down. " Actually there is. My blood. I based the virus on the blood of a death eater, my mother, Albus Dumbledore, and Lord Voldemort, but I made sure my blood had the antibody." She said automatically, then she clapped her hand to her mouth. " Oops, did I just say that." Then she smirked mockingly. " I knew you would use me to fight your war," she told them, " but I'm not stupid." She nodded. " As long as I lived, you've got a chance...well good luck with that!" She shouted, hand going for her pocket, where Lily saw a handgun come out. Ursula pushed the muzzle into her mouth, pulling the trigger.
" NO!" Lily screamed, watching as her daughter collapsed to the ground, blood pooling all over the ground. She glared at Ginny Weasley, the girl who'd asked about the cure. " Your fault! My daughter's dead!"
Dumbledore saw things differently. " Quickly, take a sample of her blood - Oh my!"
Ursula's body burst into flames, Lily screamed as she scrambled away from her daughters body, which rapidly became a pile of ashes.
Within the next six hours, the virus effects became worse, without the presence of Ursula to regulate it. One by one, the magical world started dying. Fawkes had died because of his connection to Dumbledore, but the other magical animals would survive. Goblins, Veela, house elves, they would all survive.
Wizards were not so lucky.
Lily Potter cried as her body failed more and more, and she cried over James' body. Her husband had died before Ursula had. She looked at the pile of ashes which had once been her daughter. Fresh tears leaked from her eyes. How could her daughter do it, wipe out wizarding kind and then shoot herself in the head?
Then she saw things from her daughter's point of view. Ursula had just wanted to be left alone, but no one listened to her, so she'd retaliated, and what better way of retaliating than by genocide?
Her eyes turned to Dumbledore and Voldemort, it was strange to see the two enemies who'd fought together for so many years die together. Lily clutched her chest as agony shot through her heart.
Then her ears pricked. Someone was coming into the hall. She looked up, and thought she was about to have a heart attack.
It was Ursula.
She was dressed in simple clothes, and she was walking like a robot, with a jerky move.
" Ursula?" Lily called.
The girl ignored her, then she bent down over the ashes, and slowly and jerkily she bent down before Lily's failing gaze. She's picking something up, Lily thought in realisation.
She was right.
Ursula picked up a silvery object, and Lily saw it was a ring. Did Ursula even wear a ring, and who was this?
The ring was slid on the finger of the girl, and her eyes blinked as she looked around coldly. Those same cold eyes lighted on her, and a sneer appeared on Ursula's face.
" You're still alive, are you?" Her voice was croaky, like she hadn't spoken for sometime.
" How?" Lily gasped, hit by a sudden wave of agony.
" Please don't get up," Ursula instructed, walking over to where her mother was dying. " Let me explain. This body is a clone. As was that one," she pointed at the pile of dust, " my body was badly damaged once, and I recorded my mind and transferred it into a clone of my body. This is my third clone body. I keep my clones close at hand. As soon as I shot myself," Ursula grimaced as she recalled how she'd killed herself, " this ring sent a signal to my time ship to despatch the next clone." Ursula smirked. " Soon you will join the magical world, and I'll watch as a new form of magical kind rises. Don't worry, history will remember you as fools."
Ursula got up and walked away from her dying mother. Lily died with the realisation she had lost everything.
Even her daughter.
