Harry ran pell-mell down the corridor, but stopped and covered his head when a window exploded in front of him. He was surprised to see Hagrid's body hit the opposite wall, and relieved to see him get unsteadily to his feet and shake his head to clear the cobwebs.
"Harry, yer here!" Hagrid stopped to stare out the window, slack-jawed. Harry turned to look as well, and felt a cold chill wash over him. A Dark Mark was glowing brighter than any he had ever seen, and Harry thought it looked might be somewhere in Hogsmeade.
"Your beloved hero, your savior, 'The Boy Who Lived'," a high-pitched voice said, loud enough to carry for miles, "lives no more. He came to me to beg for his life, to plead for mercy. He learned that I have no mercy for those who stand in my way.
"Students and teachers of Hogwarts, it is not too late for you. Lay down your wands and surrender, and I will show that I am not utterly without pity. Continue to resist me, however, and I will destroy not only you but your entire families.
"You have one hour to decide your fates."
Hagrid looked from the Dark Mark to Harry, back out the window, then back at Harry. "If yer not dead, Harry, then who..."
"I wish I knew, Hagrid...but he's killed somebody, and he thinks that it's me. I don't know who, or why, but I have an idea as to how. I've got to go."
Harry took off at a sprint toward the Entrance Hall. Everyone he passed stopped to stare, and behind him he could hear shocked gasps and whispers. He leaped over the head of a shattered stature that groaned at him and he skidded to a halt, realizing where Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem was. He paused for only a second, torn between going to the Room of Requirement to destroy the diadem, or to find the others to let them know that he was still alive. He really had no choice, however – he knew that if the students and teachers who had stayed to fight thought that Voldemort really had killed him, they might well give up the fight.
He ran into the Entrance Hall and stopped. The noise of people arguing amongst themselves was almost deafening. As they noticed him, the tumult gradually died down. Hermione was among the first to react, dropping an arm full of long, curved, yellow fangs. She ran over to give Harry a bone-crushing hug.
"You're alive!" she whispered in his ear after a moment. He could feel her tears on his cheek. "I was so afraid."
Before she could finish, she was roughly pulled off of him, and Ginny took her place, giving him a long, passionate kiss that made the one they had shared on his 17th birthday seem like a sisterly peck on the cheek.
Ron and Hermione both cleared their throats noisily trying to get Harry's and Ginny's attention, to no avail. It wasn't until Ron yelled his sister's name practically in her ear that they finally came up for air.
"Sorry," Harry mumbled, looking properly embarrassed. Ginny, however, merely gave Harry a grin and stepped back.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked. "We thought you were dead!"
"Yeah," Ron said. "Why would You-Know-Who be crowing about killing you if you're still in here?"
"About that..." Harry grabbed Ron and Hermione and pulled them aside. "Hermione, what would happen if someone died after they had taken a Polyjuice Potion?"
"I don't know. It's never happened, that I've read about. Do you think that's what happened?"
"I think so. I know Voldemort has killed me, or at least someone who looks just like me. I saw it. I couldn't have stopped him," he said when he saw Hermione's shocked look before she could upbraid him for not keeping up with his Occlumency practice to keep Voldemort out of his mind.
"I don't know who could have done it," he continued, "who could have gotten something to make a Polyjuice Potion to turn himself into me."
"What about the batch from when we moved you from your aunt and uncle's house?" Ron asked.
"Don't be ridiculous," Hermione scoffed. "Mad-Eye made sure that we used all of it. Hold on, let me ask Professor Slughorn."
As Hermione ran off to speak with the Potions teacher, Harry turned to Ron. "I think I know where Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem is!"
"Brilliant! Where?"
"It's in the Room of Requirement. I remember seeing it when I was looking for a place to hide Snape's potions book. All we have to do is find it."
"Leave it to me and Hermione," Ron said.
"And me," added Ginny.
"No," Harry said to Ginny. "You shouldn't even be here! You're under age and need to evacuate with the others!"
"A little late for that, Harry. And you're not going to make me leave, anyway. Besides, I'm the Gryffindor seeker now, and I am every bit as good as you were!"
"If not better," Ron muttered. Harry looked at him in surprise. "Well, she is!" Ron added.
"And what are you going to when you find it, anyway? We don't have anything to destroy it with!" Harry argued.
"What do you think these are for?" Ron said as he pointed his chin at the bundle of fangs in his arms.
"What are they?"
"Basilisk fangs."
"How did you get your hands on basilisk fangs?"
"It was all Ron's idea," Hermione said as she returned, then explained how Ron had gotten the idea to go down to the Chamber of Secrets, as the fang of the basilisk that Harry had killed a few years earlier had been able to destroy Tom Riddle's diary, and how Ron had even managed to fake Parseltongue well enough to open the girl's bathroom entrance. Ron's face grew redder as she spoke.
"Yeah, but she's the one who used one to destroy Helga Hufflepuff's cup." Ron beamed.
"Really?" Harry said.
"Yeah. You got to destroy You-Know-Who's diary, I got to destroy Slytherin's locket, it was only fair."
"Good." Harry told Hermione what he had told Ron about where the diadem was. "It may be hard to find. So, when we get there, we can..."
"Not you, Harry, us," Hermione said as she pointed to herself and Ron.
"And me," Ginny said. "I'm just as good on the broom as you are, I'm the best Seeker at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall said that I'm even better than you were. And you've seen my wandwork, so you know I can defend myself if we get caught."
"But I..."
"Need to be here at least for a while so people don't give up. They need someone to rally around when they get ready to face You-Know-Who. Especially the students. They were all rattled when he said you were dead. Especially me." Ginny said the last almost under her breath.
Harry looked at Ginny for a moment before he turned to Hermione. "What did Professor Slughorn say about dying under the Polyjuice?"
"He wasn't sure. He thinks you would change back, either when you died or when the hour was up, but he couldn't remember it ever happening."
"Here's hoping he's wrong. Well, off to find the diadem, and good luck." Harry gave Hermione a quick hug, and Ginny a not-so-quick kiss, before his friends ran down the hall.
He spent some time awkwardly mingling with those who had stayed behind, and proving that he really was who he said he was time and again.
There was a commotion at the front door. Hundreds of wands raised as one to take aim at a disheveled, frantic-looking Severus Snape. The headmaster dropped to his knees and raised his empty hands in surrender.
"I must speak with Potter, now! It's important! There is information that he has to have before he goes out to face the Dark Lord!"
"Your master, Severus?" Professor McGonagall said, making no attempt to hide the contempt in her voice. "How can he trust a word you say? Especially as you've proven that he was right about you all along."
"No! I am not the Dark Lord's man, I swear it! I only served him on Dumbledore's orders, ever since L...the boy's parents were killed."
"Do you honestly expects us to believe that?" Ron yelled.
"If you don't...Professor Slughorn, you have some Veritaserum in your bag do you not?"
"Of course," Slughorn replied.
"Seriously, Severus, do you expect us to fall for that?" Professor McGonagall shook her head. "We all know how skilled you are with Occlumency, and how do we know you haven't already taken the antidote?"
"Very well. There is one other way." Snape carefully and deliberately pulled a stoppered empty flask and his wand from his pocket, showing no reaction when the wands pointed at him were raised slightly higher.
He unstopped the flask, then tapped the wand to his temple repeatedly, each time drawing a shimmering silvery thread out and down into the flask. When he was finished, he stoppered the flask and set it on the floor between him and Harry. "You know what to do, Potter. The password is 'Dumbledore'."
Harry looked from Snape to McGonagall, who for once seemed at a loss for words. He grabbed the flask and ran quickly down the hall to Dumbledore's office (Harry had to keep reminding himself that it was now Snape's office – it would always feel like Dumbledore's, to him). When he arrived, he removed the Pensieve from the cabinet and set it on its stand, then carefully emptied the flask into it.
He took a deep breath and ducked his head into the Pensieve, watching the tale that Snape's memories told. He saw how Snape met Harry's mother, and had loved her from the beginning. He saw Snape meet Harry's father. He saw how Snape had been bullied and tormented by James Potter and his friends the whole time they were at Hogwarts, and how Snape's choice of friends eventually drove Lily away.
He saw how Snape was devastated when he confessed to Dumbledore that he had, by his own ignorance, led Voldemort to Lily Potter and caused the Potters' deaths, and how Dumbledore convinced him to try to redeem himself by becoming a double agent within the ranks of the remaining Death Eaters, reporting to Dumbledore, and by protecting Lily and James's son. He then saw how Dumbledore was mortally wounded when he destroyed Marvolo Gaunt's ring, and engineered his own death at Snape's hands. And he saw that he himself had accidentally become a Horcrux when Voldemort had failed to kill him.
When he emerged from the Pensieve, Harry realized what that meant and what he had to do. He slowly walked back to the Entrance Hall, knowing that this would be the last time that he ever saw Hogwarts.
Just before he reached the hall, he stopped and reached into his pocket. He pulled out the Golden Snitch that Dumbledore had left him, held it up to his mouth, and breathed, "I open at the close." When he did, the Snitch split open to reveal a spherical stone with the sign of the Deathly Hallows (a triangle within a circle, with a straight line down the middle) engraved upon it, and broken down the middle line. He put the stone back in his pocket and walked into the Hall.
As he did, Voldemort's high voice carried across the grounds.
"Your time is up, and I must say that I am very disappointed. Almost all of you have decided to join your beloved hero, Harry Potter, in death, and in so doing have condemned your entire families to share your fate."
Harry walked over to Professor McGonagall. "I'm going out there, alone. I know how to defeat him, but it has to be me."
"Are you mad, Potter? We can't allow you to go out there by yourself!"
"Professor, unless you restrain me or knock me out, you can't stop me. And if you do, you know that he will kill each and every one of you. Professor, I have to do this."
"Very well, Potter," McGonagall reluctantly said. "And God be with you."
As Harry reached the door, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Neville ran up to stop him.
"Are you absolutely mental?" Ron hissed. " Do you honestly think you can kill Voldemort by yourself?"
"I have to. I'm the only one who can. It's hard to explain."
"Are you absolutely certain, Harry?" Ginny said as she fought back tears.
Harry simply nodded, and wrapped his arms awkwardly around her as as she hugged him tightly. "Come back, please, Harry," she said so softly that only he could hear. "For me, please." She let him go entirely too soon, he thought, as he turned once more to leave.
Harry strode out onto the front lawn, and stopped. He was shocked to see his own body floating above the approaching mob of Death Eaters like a toy balloon. Voldemort was at the front of the parade like a grand marshal.
"Not one step farther, Voldemort!" Harry yelled over the noise of the students and teachers behind him yelling in shock at the sight. He reached into his pocket and turned the Resurrection Stone three times. He took a quick glance around him, and saw the spectral forms of his parents, his godfather...and himself. He stopped and stared at the apparition for a moment, coming to his senses only when the spectral Harry mouthed, "Don't worry, you'll be fine."
"What?" Voldemort stopped dead in his tracks. "Impossible! You're dead, Potter! I killed you!" With a flick of his wand, he threw the dead Harry's body at the school. Harry forced himself not to look when it hit the ground nearby.
"I don't know who you killed, but it wasn't me."
"No matter. I've killed you once, I'll simply have to kill you again." Voldemort drew his wand and pointed it at Harry.
"You'll have to, Voldemort. Because that's the only way you'll be able to reach Hogwarts."
"Avada Kedavra!" screamed Voldemort. A bolt of green shot from the tip of his wand to strike Harry square in the chest. Both Harry and Voldemort flew back several feet and fell, unmoving, to the ground.
Voldemort's Death Eaters approached him fearfully, looking for any signs of life. Ginny, Hermione, Ron, and the Doctor (who had just ran to the scene from the Forbidden Forest) reached Harry before anyone else, although Professor McGonagall wasn't far behind. Ginny was crying uncontrollable, as was Hermione. Even McGonagall was unable to hold back her tears.
The Doctor immediately pulled out his sonic screwdriver and ran it over Harry's torso. "You can't be dead yet, you've got so much left to do!"
"Oi! Who are you?" Ron yelled as he grabbed the Doctor's shoulder and pulled him away from Harry's body.
"I'm the Doctor. I'll explain later."
"You can't be the Doctor," Hermione said, "you..."
"Yes, yes, I know. New face, new body. It happens. Just remember, bigger on the inside."
"But what are you doing here?"
"I'll explain as much as I can later, Hermione. But Harry needs to come back first."
"What do you mean 'come back'?" Neville said. "Is he really dead?"
"Yes, he is...but he's not supposed to stay dead."
Some distance away, Voldemort slowly got to his feet. Lucius Malfoy handed him the Elder Wand.
Neville turned murderous eyes toward Voldemort and charged as he drew his own wand, but before he could do anything Voldemort Disarmed him, causing him to fly back onto the ground.
"What have we here?" Voldemort said softly. "One of Harry Potter's lackeys wishes to be the first to share his fate? Who is this martyr?"
"Neville Longbottom. A Gryffindor," drawled Malfoy.
"Longbottom. Why does that name sound familiar?"
"The son of the Aurors, my Lord," purred Bellatrix Lestrange.
"Ah, yes. I remember now. You're Pureblood, aren't you, Longbottom? You belong with me, with my Death Eaters, not debasing yourself with this lot."
"I would rather die before joining you, Voldemort! Dumbledore's Army!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.
Voldemort hit Neville with a Full Body-Bind Curse and looked around angrily at the crowd as they yelled in response.
Those who were around Harry's body stood to watch Neville's defiance of the Dark Lord, and did not see Harry's eyes flutter.
"Very well. On your own head be it, Longbottom," Voldemort said in his soft, high voice. A flick of his wand brought the Sorting Hat flying to his hand.
"We won't be needing this any more, I should imagine. The only House that will be allowed at Hogwarts is Slytherin." Voldemort took the Sorting Hat and pulled it down firmly so far over Neville's head that it covered his eyes. Voldemort touched his wand to the hat, and it burst into eerie blue flames.
Just then, Harry staggered to his feet and draw his wand.
"No more, Voldemort," he said weakly. "No more death. The killing stops here, now."
"What? That's impossible!" Voldemort screamed. "I've killed you! Twice!"
He stared dumbstruck at Harry, who was growing stronger by the second. He did not notice Neville break free of the Full Body-Bind and pull the hat from his unmarred head, nor did he see Neville reach into the hat and pull out the Sword of Gryffindor. He did, however, notice Nagini's head when it rolled to his feet.
He screamed in rage and hurled a Killing Curse at Neville, who barely dodged in time.
"Voldemort," Harry said. "I told you, no more. It's just you and me now. Nobody else. One on one, a duel to the death."
"Do you really wish to die, Potter? I've already killed you twice, you can't stop me from killing you a third time!"
"It's the dawn of a new day, Voldemort. And you will never kill anyone, ever again."
"Very well."
Without a word, everyone formed a circle around the two. Defenders of Hogwarts stood shoulder to shoulder with Death Eaters, but no one seemed to notice. Every eyes was fixed on the two duellists. There was yelling and cheering for a short time until everyone realized that Harry and Voldemort seemed to be simply circling and talking to each other, although it seemed that Harry was doing most of the talking.
Finally, just as the first rays of dawn peeked through the branches of the Forbidden Forest, they both struck simultaneously. Voldemort's Killing Curse met Harry's Disarming Charm halfway between them. The Dark Lord's spell rebounded with a loud bang, and Voldemort fell back onto the grass, dead.
It took a few moments for the onlookers to grasp what had happened. When the truth set in, a deafening chorus of cheers erupted, and Harry found himself being swept into the castle.
Almost no one saw the Doctor stay behind and pick up the lifeless body of the Boy Who Lived.