Chapter 26
A/N: Some of the dialogue in this chapter is canon, taken directly from the book. This is to keep the story canon and to make the story make sense, and if you know the book well, feel free to skip over these particular parts. I did not write those parts, did not think of them, do not own them.
At the next DA meeting, I saw that Neville was missing. Some of the more rebellious students had taken to living in the room, and hammocks were set up in the corners to keep away from the Carrow's wrath. They were whispering. "Hey, what's going on?" I asked, walking towards one of the first years. He looked up nervously. "Neville left through the secret passageway, Jack."
"How long ago?"
"And hour and eight minutes, now."
"Hunh." I was about to sit down when Neville burst through the secret passageway. All at once, everyone started shouting.
"HARRY!"
"It's Potter, it's POTTER!"
"Ron!"
"Hermione!"
They rushed forward in a sea. I gaped. Harry Potter, back at Hogwarts? It was impossible. A grin spread across my face. I got the feeling something very important was going to happen.
"Okay, okay, calm down!" called Neville. They backed off, including myself. I rushed in between Padma and Parvati Patil, trying to see Harry. A brown-haired girl I had never seen before rushed over.
"I know you don't remember, but you helped us escape," she said, "And I cast a memory charm on you so that you wouldn't give us away."
"I- what?!" She never did answer my question, though, because she was crowded with friends shouting greetings and congratulations. Finally, when the noise died down, Harry started on about the ridiculous notion of doing what he needed to do all by himself. The DA would have none of that. I heard a voice echoing out of the secret passageway.
"We got your message, Neville! Hello you three, I thought you must be here!"
"LUNA!" I ran towards her and wrapped her in the tightest hug possible. She laughed and hugged me back.
"Hi, everyone!" she said happily. "Oh, it's great to be back!" She began talking to Harry, and I was still smiling. I think I helped her escape. I helped Harry escape. Luna had been at the Malfoys. Now she wasn't. It made sense. People and people were flowing in from the passageway, some men who looked like Ron and Bill, a pretty Asian girl, and others. There was talk of fighting. There was talk of a battle. I drew my wand tentatively. It was time.
I stayed with Padma. All of the students had been called to the Great Hall. Those of age could choose to fight. The rest had to be evacuated. A high, clear voice echoed throughout the room. Some first-years screamed.
"I know you are preparing to fight. Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magic blood." I shuddered. I knew that dreadful voice. I could see Draco out of the corner of my eye. Go, he mouthed to me, his eyes wild. He placed his hand on his stomach, as if to emphasize the importance of my survival. I looked straight at him, drew my wand, and shook my head.
"Give me Harry Potter, and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight."
There was a pause, until someone shouted, "But he's there! Potter's there! Someone grab him!" Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors all began to form a protective shield around him, and the slithering sound of many wands being drawn out of robes echoed throughout the hall.
"Thank you, Miss Parkinson," said McGonanall in clipped tones. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If the rest of your House could follow." She then turned towards the rest of us. "Ravenclaws, follow on!"
Many Ravenclaws left, but I and mine stayed behind. The underage students trying to stay were ushered out. We were ushered out by the teachers, organized, put into formations. Like soldiers.
And then it began.
I saw the Death Eaters approaching. Some wore masks. Some didn't. Many faces I recognized. Many, I didn't. When they came close enough, we all leveled our wands. There was a deafening pause before the signal was given.
"STUPIFY!" I screamed. A thousand other curses and jinxes echoed around me. I shot them left and right, trying desperately to dodge the killing curses and Cruciartus curses coming from the Death Eaters. I was exhilarated. Adrenaline was pumping through my body as I saw wizards fall to my spells. It was when the creatures came that my adrenaline turned into genuine fear.
Trolls, giants, and dementors joined the onslaught. I crawled under a piece of rubble, sobbing, and when that was obliterated, I fought again.
There were quiet periods when everyone was in the castle. There were moments when the castle shook tremendously. They were a blur. I was only a wandholder, cursing as much as I could. It all came down to one moment. The moment Harry Potter died.
We stood facing each other, students against Death Eaters. Harry's broken body lay upon the ground. I was in too much shock to be sad. He was dead. Many were dead. I could see Draco out of the corner of my eye. He did not see me.
"Draco," I could hear Lucius hiss. "Draco, come here." I saw him began to move. I don't know what made me speak up.
"Draco," I called in a high, clear voice. He turned to me. He was burned, his face blackened. His eyes were filled with fear.
"Time for you to choose, Draco," I said. Many eyes were watching us. "Them… or us." I laid my hand on my stomach, a motion mocking what he had done earlier, telling me to run. He stared. I could hear his parents calling for him, but he ignored them, coming to stand beside me. His face held more fear than I had ever seen on a human, despite the atrocities I had just witnessed.
"Why the change of heart?" I muttered.
His voice was breathless and shaky. "I… the baby…" He reached down to hold my hand, but he didn't look at me. "Potter... saved me."
I looked at his face, his scared, blackened, tear-streaked, desperate face, and for the first time, with absolute honesty and sincerity, I murmured, "I love you."
Our spell was broken when Neville ran into the empty space between the crowds. The Dark Lord immediately disarmed him.
Madness overtook. Centaurs swarmed the hills, house elves swarmed from the kitchens, and sheer numbers overwhelmed the Death Eaters. I turned heel when a killing curse almost hit me, changing quickly into my animagus form and darting away.
When the fighting moved to the Great Hall, I followed, casting spells as I ran. Draco turned on me when a killing curse almost hit me.
"Run, damn you!" he yelled. "Get away from the fighting!"
"The hell I will!" I shot a curse at a Death Eater over my shoulder. A shield charm from Draco protected me from another curse. I stumbled forward, looking around wildly. He was still there, gasping and panting on the ground. I grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet. He didn't let go, staring me in the eyes.
"I can't… you can't die," he yelled, desperate. I shook his arm off and grinned a wicked, maniacal grin. It wasn't right. I should be terrified. I should be pissing my pants. Instead, I felt a sort of deranged elation. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping me standing.
"You'd best get good at casting Shield Charms then, love!" I shouted, sprinting away. He cursed and ran after me. In the Great Hall, I focused all my efforts on staying alive. That is, until Harry appeared.
Screaming and cheering filled the hall, people calling his name. Even I shrieked with happiness, though I did not know him well, until the Dark Lord noticed. Everything became silent.
"I don't want anyone else to try to help," he said. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me." I stepped forward, rapt. This was it. The prize fight.
"Potter doesn't mean that," Voldemort hissed. "That isn't how he works, is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter?"
"Nobody. 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…"
"One of us?" jeered Voldemort. "You think it will be you, do you, the boy who survived by accident, ad 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?"
"Accidents!" screamed Voldemort. "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?"
"You won't be killing anyone else tonight," said Harry. I was tempted to whip out my wand and kill the Dark Lord then and there, while he was distracted, but that wouldn't have ended well. "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-"
"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 the. You can't touch them. You don't learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?" I gasped. That was his real name, wasn't it? No one would name their bouncing baby boy Voldemort.
"You dare-"
"Yes, I dare," said Harry. "I know things you don't know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things you don't. Want to hear some, before you make another big mistake?"
The Dark Lord prowled in a circle. "Is it love again?" he hissed. "Dumbledore's favorite solution, love, which he claimed conquered death, though love did not stop him from 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 dying now when I strike?"
"Just one thing,"
"If it is not love that will save you this time," Voldemort said, "you must believe that you have magic that I do not, or else a weapon more powerful than mine?"
"I believe both," said Harry. The man had balls.
"You think that you know more magic than I do?" Voldemort said. "Than I, than Lord Voldemort, who has performed magic that Dumbledore himself never dreamed of?"
"Oh, he dreamed of it," said Harry, "but he knew more than you, knew enough not to do what you've done."
"You mean he was weak!" screamed Voldemort. "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!"
"You thought you did," said Harry, "But you were wrong." I sucked in my breath. That was interesting.
"Dumbledore is dead!" Voldemort screamed. "His body decays in the marble tomb on the grounds of this castle, I have seen in, Potter, and he will not return!"
"Yes, Dumbledore's dead," said Harry 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," Harry said. Despite the drama of the situation, the only thought that entered my head was, Oh, that explains a lot. "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?" Voldemort was silent. Harry continued. "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?"
"He desired her, that was all," sneered Voldemort, "but when she was gone, he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him-"
"Of course he told you that," said Harry, "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!" shrieked Voldemort. "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 you do not understand! Dumbledore was trying to keep the Elder Wand from me!" Something stirred in my brain. The Elder Wand? That fairy tale Uncle had told me by the fireplace, about the three brothers? "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!"
"Yeah, it did," said Harry. "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… 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-?"
"Yes, I dare," said Harry, "because Dumbledore's plan hasn't backfired on me at all. It's backfired on you, Riddle. That wand still isn't working properly 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! 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?" I was impressed by Harry's ability to talk to the Dark Lord as if he was a particularly dull child. "Possessing the wand isn't enough! Holding it, using it, 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…"
Draco's breathing became rapid, labored. He looked at me, wild-eyed, and mouthed, Me.
I shook my head incrementally back and forth at him. He nodded, staring ahead. Harry Potter turned. "The true master of the Elder Wand is Draco Malfoy." I clutched his arm, terrified a killing curse would come at him. But Voldemort spoke, softly.
"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," said Harry, "You've missed your chance. Someone else got there first. Someone who stunned Draco weeks ago. Someone who took his wand from him, and doesn't even remember."
Draco immediately turned on me. "You?" he whispered.
I turned my face up to him. "What?"
"You stunned me. Took my wand." He was shaking as he whispered, "You're the master of the Elder Wand."
I could not speak. It was a fairy tale that Uncle had told me as a child. The most powerful wand in the world. And I… I felt as if I was going to puke. Or faint. Possibly both.
"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" whispered Harry. "Does the wand in your hand know its last master was disarmed? Because if it does, the true master of the Elder Wand is standing in this room."
Sunrise burst over the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall, temporarily blinding Voldemort. I heard them both scream spells, spells that met in a golden flame. I saw the Dark Lord looking around desperately to find me, kill me, but I had already transformed into a fox and was hiding among the forest of ankles. Voldemort lost control of the wand, and Harry caught it deftly. The Killing Curse Voldemort had cast had rebounded, hitting him square in the chest. He was dead.
Harry stood in the middle of the room, the Elder Wand in his hand. He looked around, as if in a dream. I trod to the vacant center, not far from where Voldemort's body lay. Stepping forward, I turned back into a human, which drew a collective gasp. I looked at my own wand- twelve and a half inches, English Oak, dragon heartstring core- and plucked the Elder Wand from Harry's grasp, then took a step back.
"Disarm me."
"What?"
I smiled. "You just killed the Dark Lord, Harry. You deserve the bloody stick more than I do." If there was one thing I was sure about, it was this. I did not want this great and terrible wand. Power was never my goal. Quite frankly, it was terrifying. I did not want this instrument of death. Cautiously, Harry raised his wand. "Oh, and be gentle, Harry," I smiled. "I'm pregnant, you know."
Everyone's eyes widened at that, but for Draco's. I spread my arms wide. "Go on."
"Expelliarmus." The wand flew out of my hand and clattered across the floor towards Harry. He picked it up, and nodded. I extended my hand. He hesitantly reached out his, and shook it.
Screams and cheers broke out as people surrounded Harry. I avoided the crush and went back to Draco, and the people began to disperse, though they left wide berth around the Dark Lord's body. The rest of the bodies were pulled into the middle of the Great Hall.
"You're an animagus."
"Yes."
"You… you were with them the entire time."
I sighed, looking at my feet. "I know how it seems-"
"So all those times… you said…" He stared at me. "It was all a lie."
"Not all of it," I murmured. "I do love you. I just… realized it after you did."
"When?"
"It started when you forgave me for being under the 'Imperius Curse'," I said, using finger quotes. "And I really, truly realized it when… when you stayed on my side. Instead of going with the Death Eaters."
"That was only a few hours ago."
"Yes," I said. "I know. And I don't expect you to ever trust me again-"
He suddenly swept me up into a kiss, holding me fiercely to him. "You better not be lying," he growled. "You better not, if you are, I swear…"
I smiled and kissed him back, a genuine kiss. "You're just going to have to find out, my Prince,"
After the battle, I approached Lucius and Narcissa. I bowed dramatically to them. "Yes, I was a double agent the entire time, I gave your secrets to Dumbledore's Army, I helped Harry escape under my own will, and I gave up the Elder Wand to him. And I am carrying your grandbaby. Any questions?"
After a long pause, Lucius murmured, "No, your highness."
"Fantastic." I shook myself off. "Now, if everything's calmed down, I think I'll plan my coronation, what do you think?"
