Author's Note: A good number of people expressed that they didn't understand the ending. I guess it was a little over the top, but it remains the ending I envisioned. This is an alternative end, deviating from the point where Harry reaches the graveyard. This chapter is for all my readers who stuck with the story through to the end!
Chapter 22: Yet Another End
Harry tumbled as he reached the graveyard. He slowly got himself off of the ground, before feeling the pull on his body flinging him across the yard. Once again he found himself pinned the wall, except this time he was staring down a masked death eater, who would no doubt try and perform the ritual to revive Voldemort. Typical.
But this time it was going to be different.
Harry mostly ignored the ritual speech that was being chanted by the death eater. He instead mentally prepared himself for the task at hand. He had made sure everything was ready to go the previous day, but one could never be too sure.
Harry saw the death eater approach him with a knife and cut his arm. It stung. But Harry noticed this time that the knife was probably not sanitized in any way. He had better get that checked out when he got back. Another death eater came forward and threw the homunculus Voldemort into the pot. Harry could have sword that violin orchestras were playing in the background as the dark lord slowly rose up, staring at Harry with cold eyes.
"Ahh, Mr Potter. We meet face to face!" said Voldemort in a raspy voice.
Harry was practically giggling on inside as he saw Voldemort's arrogance. The fool believed he was going to win.
"Whats wrong? Trembling in fear Potter?" asked Voldemort, showing fake concern. Voldemort then called over one of the death eaters to call forth his army. Harry let him do it. It was going to be more fun with an audience.
Seconds later, after a painful scream of agony, the graveyard was choc full of death eaters. Voldemort put on a characteristic smirk. "Mr Potter. May I introduce my army! Now you must be wondering how I have come back? How did I know that you would enter in the cup? Hm? Come on, don't be shy! Ask!"
Harry decided to entertain him a little.
"How did you get me here?" asked Harry in a fake trembling voice.
"Hahaha! That's the best part! I thought I would have to enter you in by a special case by fooling the goblet, but turns out, you did that yourself!" answered Voldemort with glee. The army of death eaters also let out a sadistic laugh. Harry chuckled to himself and Captain, now on his head, was also laughing pretty hard.
"Why are you laughing!? Shut up Potter!" yelled Voldemort, slightly unnerved.
Harry's chuckles died down as he slowly raised his stare to look at Voldemort head on. Harry then lazily used slight wandless magic to free his arms and legs, landing on his feet. The look on Voldemort's face was priceless. "Maybe Voltemore, just maybe, I saw this coming. Maybe I planned all this out. Predicted everyone of your actions."
Voldemort looked slightly startled, "No… your bluffing!"
At that moment, Captain jumped up, yelling "Boo!"
Voldemort, who was on edge and hadn't noticed Captain yet, yelped and stumbled backwards.
Harry grinned and pulled out his wand. "Lets do this!"
Voldemort had regained his footing and looked at Harry incredulously, before he smirked, "You believe you can best me in duel? Hahaha!" snorted Voldemort. The death eaters laughed along with him.
Harry merely closed his eyes and concentrated on his magic power. Slowly, but surely, a faint blue magical circle drawn on the ground began to light up. Voldemort quickly took notice, but was confused. What ever it was, it was most likely a hindrance. Voldemort quickly ready his wand and was about to send a killing curse at Harry, before Harry cast his original charm, meant to prevent any dark lord from rising from the dead.
"Chain Horcrux Destroyer!" yelled Harry as the magic circle flared up, sending large amounts of energy at Voldemort, who was at the center of the circle. Voldemort yelled, and the death eaters looked very scared at the moment. Harry grinned to himself, his spell worked.
Second later, it was over.
Voldemort was steaming. He shakily made his was to his feet, wide eyed. "I'm mortal… What did you do to me!?" yelled Voldemort.
"You mad bro?" asked Harry innocently enough, though he was slightly nervous on the inside. Although he had made Voldemort mortal with that last curse, it was a whole other story to best him in a one on one duel where didn't have a surprise attack. At least they were on equal footing now.
"You… I'll kill you!" yelled Voldemort.
"Hey! I was just trying to have a fair match!" said Harry in his defense. To be completely honest, Harry wasn't exactly sure he could be Voldemort. The dark lord was very powerful, and even Dumbledore had trouble against him. In a one on one duel…
"…ah to heck with it."
Harry conjured a sword in his free hand. Voldemort's eyes widened.
"The sword of Gryffindor!? But how!?"
"Hey! I didn't know you could do that!" exclaimed Captain.
Harry smirked, "Neither did I!"
Truth be told, it was actually a very good replica, but neither of them needed to know that.
Harry quickly ducked a green jet of light that almost killed him. He dived to the side to dodge another. Harry quickly decided his plan of attack and charged inward. He nimbly dodged three more curses before he closed in. Voldemort cursed. And not with his wand.
Harry threw a quick horizontal slash, which Voltmort ducked. Harry smirked, predicting that.
"Muggle weapons…" muttered Harry, as he brought down the hard hilt of the sword down on Voldemort's head. The wizard was out cold instantly.
Harry drew a breathe and let the sword evaporate to nothingness. He turned to the death eaters, "Well? Anyone else?"
The army looked at each other, before they quickly apparated away, leaving Harry in the lonely graveyard. Harry looked up to the sky. It was dark. But it felt calming in a way. He had just overcome his greatest challenge. It would be smooth sailing from here.
"Look out!" came an exclamation from Captain.
Harry quickly spun around to find Voldemort shaky on his feet, and pointing his wand straight at him. Time seemed to slow down as the dark lord muttered the last word of the killing curse. There was no way to dodge now. The jet moved at the speed of light, so the only way to dodge it was to dodge the trajectory before it was fired. But it was too late for that now.
Harry felt a weight shift on his head. Captain jumped forward and seemed to hang in air before him. Harry quickly realized what was happening, and was about to yell out. The green glow began to form on the tip of Voldemort's wand. There were only milliseconds left. What could he do? What could he…
Beep-Beep!
A giant rush of wind, and a dull thunk answered Harry's thoughts. Voldemort was launched across the yard. There was no way to survive that one. In front of Harry was the Knight bus, complete with a blazing trail of flames.
Harry's eyes widened as the door opened with the hissing of air.
There stood Stan. But he looked very different. He was wearing a pair of goggles, had fingerless gloves on, a strange watch on one of his hands, and was carrying what seemed to be a hover board under his arm. Needless to say, Harry sputtered out his words.
"Wha… Never mind…"
Behind Stan was Ernie and the strange bobble head that hung from the rear view mirror.
"Hey Harry! You wouldn't believe what we have seen! It was ridiculous! I mean… Ahhh!" finished Stan, jumping at the sight of Captain.
"What?" asked Harry, confused by their reaction. He expected that they hadn't come directly here after that previous incident.
"That cat… its just like the ones from the future that took over all of Earth! What are you doing, run! Quickly!" yelled Stan.
"One second!" yelled Captain. The cat pulled out a pair of shades and tossed one to Harry, who put them on wordlessly. He learned that rolling with the punches could often save his life. Better to ask questions later sometimes.
"What!?" asked Stan, this time it was his turn to be confused.
"Look here!" said Captain, pointing at a device that the cat had just pulled out. There was a bright flash in a couple seconds. "Now you see, you guys were just happily moving along, when death eaters high jacked your bus. They made you drive around, threatening that they had a bomb on the bus that they would detonate if you didn't keep moving. Ernie accidently crashed into this tombstone here, which caused the death eaters and Voldemort to come flying out with the bomb. The bomb was about to detonate, so one of the death eaters made it vanish. Everyone else was knocked out by Stan's kung-fu skills, and you all decide to keep this a secret because it would damage your business. You are all sleeping to make the journey back."
"Okay!" muttered the members of the Knight bus, before lying down to a blissful sleep.
Harry slowly pulled off the shades. This was yet another mystery revolving around his cat friend. "So… you planning to explain anything?"
"Hm? Well, I guess I could… We're sort of the clean-up crew for Earth. You see, when things turn out a way that they aren't supposed to, or I simply don't like it, I have two options. One is raze Earth to the ground, offloading any innocent civilians, before letting everything restart anew. The second option, usually more preferable, involves a little bit of time travel. And thus… this" answered Captain.
Harry took a second to let it sink in. There was no particular rush anymore. "So why me? Why did you send me back?"
"Meh, I thought it would be fun!"
Harry twitched is eye. His fate, the entire world fate, was changed because of a cat's whimsy. Interesting.
"Well, I'm sure you have a zillion other questions to ask" continued Captain, "But I'm not going to answer any of them."
At that moment, what looked like a flying saucer appeared above the graveyard. Harry looked on in awe. The only identifying mark was a red triangle with a dolphin on it. A ray of green light shot out of the craft and shined on Captain. Captain looked up towards Harry.
"Its been fun Harry. I hope you enjoy the rest of your life, but try not to go overboard eh?"
"Wait!" yelled Harry.
"Beam me up!" yelled Captain, with a cynical laugh. The cat dissipated into particles before disappearing completely. Harry was left staring up at the futuristic space craft, which quickly disappeared with a whooshing noise. And Harry was left alone in the graveyard.
Harry just noticed that it was cold. The slight wind wasn't making anything better. Harry trudged his way through the desolate landscape over to the surprise portkey. Captain had been a strange friend, but a friend none the less. Harry sighed, briefly wondering if he was ever going to see Captain again, before decided it was better for the world and his sanity if he didn't.
With Voldemort finally gone, Harry was now truly free. He could do anything he wanted with his life now. Harry had pondered this question the past year. He first thought about maybe becoming a Curse Breaker. That job was always exciting. He scraped the idea though at the thought about constantly having to watch himself so he didn't die. His other idea had been to become a Private Eye. He could just take whatever job he wanted, and he was sure he could get some contracts from the Auror, especially with his skill level. Harry eventually dismissed it in favor of what he really wanted to do. He would play Quidditch.
Harry finally decided he was going to go pro with Quidditch. It felt like something he could see himself doing in the coming years. Heck the sport never got boring, and it had a reasonably low risk of death. And it helped that he was awesome at the sport. Harry felt a cocky grin spread to his face at the thought, before he slapped himself to wipe it off.
Harry stopped and reached down for the trophy. This was it. This was history.
As soon as he touched it, Harry felt the pull at his navel and the ridiculous mind confusion of portkey traveling. When he regained his senses, he found himself standing in front of a large audience. Everything was silent. Harry felt that smirk coming onto his face again. He lift the cup up into the air, cheering. That definitely set the crowd off. Everyone ran off the bleachers and hoisted him up into the air. He had done it. If only they all knew.
Harry grinned through the whole thing. He was actually smiling, one of the lost ones from the last time around. That was what this second chance was for, to live. Harry turned to look at two other members of the audience: Sirius and Remus. They were both beaming with pride. Harry felt content in this moment. It was acceptance. He was a marauder, and that's all there was to it.