It wasn't clear how long he'd been gone, but somehow the course of the battle had drastically changed. Voldemort's army was in disarray, and as Harry watched more and more of them were apparating away.

Few of them were left, and the house elves were ruthlessly taking care of the stragglers. Harry couldn't help but feel that the balance of power had shifted drastically. He suspected that many of the people in Voldemort's army had actually worked for the Ministry, and with a great deal of their power gone that left only Dumbledore.

The fact that none of the wizards left behind were apparating away suggested that the wards had been put back up. Harry could see wizards fleeing in the direction of the Forbidden forest, only to be chased by flying disks which surrounded a cackling Peridot. She was riding in a smaller, only slightly larger than man sized robot.

As they fell, Garnet tossed Steven and Hermione. Harry stiffened, but Steven's descent immediately slowed to a crawl.

"Steven only falls as quickly as he wants to fall," Garnet said. "He knows what he has to do."

It was strange being held by this gem. He didn't know her at all, and her visor covered her eyes so he didn't know what she was thinking.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked finally.

"Voldemort," Garnet said. "We've got to finish this."

Harry stared at her for a moment, then nodded. "I keep wishing it'd all be over."

"It will be, soon enough," she said.

If Sapphire was part of her, then she'd know. Garnet seemed a lot more active than Sapphire ever had, and Harry couldn't help but wonder if that meant she spent less time looking into the future. Peering into the future seemed to be all that Sapphire ever did.

Garnet landed effortlessly, as though Harry didn't weigh anything at all. According to Steven, she was the strongest of any of the gems, far stronger than Steven himself. Harry wondered just how strong she really was.

She began running, and it seemed like only a moment before they'd moved to the front of the school, where he and Steven had fought the basilisk.

Voldemort was there, as was Barty Crouch and four of Voldemort's most loyal Death Eaters. For some reason Lucius Malfoy wasn't there with them and neither was Snape.

Voldemort had his wand pointed at Ginny Weasley's temple, his hand around her throat.

Facing him were both of Ginny's parents, along with Dumbledore, Moody, Sirius, Remus, Conks and Pearl and Amethyst. They were spread out in a semicircle and Voldemort's people had their backs to the wall.

"Don't hurt my daughter!" Molly Weasley screamed. She stepped forward, only to stop as Voldemort dug his wand into Ginny's temple.

Garnet gently set Harry down. "You're up."

Harry pulled out his wand and stepped forward. He would have thought it was impossible for Voldemort's face to pale, considering that it was already incredibly pale and the color of polished bone, but the moment Voldemort saw him it did.

"You don't have to do this," Harry said. He stepped forward and Amethyst and Pearl made room for him. "All your horcruxes are gone. Your army has withered away to nothing, and you are outnumbered."

Harry glanced at the people with him. Dumbledore stood at the end of the line.

"What does it take to kill you?" Voldemort snarled, tightening his grip around Ginny's throat.

"You never did hear the entire prophecy, did you?" Harry asked. "I have. Would you like to hear it?"

Voldemort didn't say anything, simply staring at Harry with hatred in his eyes.

"Two with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approach. The Dark Lord shall mark one as his equal, but he shall have a power the Dark Lord knows not. Neither can live while the other survives, but the second can show another way."

"You've heard the rest," Harry said. "Identifying me, and maybe Neville. It's why you killed my parents. It's why you've been trying to kill me for years."

Remembering the twisted remnant that was what was left of Voldemort's soul, Harry felt a sudden surge of pity for the man.

"I've heard about how you were raised," Harry said. "About how people treated you. I'm sure you started with good intentions..."

Harry could see it. The Ministry really was corrupt. There was no real justice there, and the people in power didn't have the best interest of the citizenry at heart. It wouldn't take much to want to change things.

Harry could even see it in himself. He didn't have a lot of faith that working within the system would actually change things, and if he'd had Voldemort's talent and ambition, he had little doubt he'd have been tempted to try to change things.

"It doesn't excuse any of it," Harry said. "But you have a chance now to do the right thing. There's been enough blood shed and you have a chance now to save at least a few lives. You still have a little soul left...use it."

"You're asking me to surrender?" Voldemort asked. He laughed incredulously. "Me surrender to you?"

Harry shrugged. "Is the idea so unbelievable? I've seen what's likely to happen to you if you die and it isn't pretty. At least this way you've got a chance to do something different...maybe even heal your soul a little."

Ginny squeaked; apparently Voldemort had tightened his grip yet again. He sneered. "I'm the one who has your little girlfriend, and you dare to dictate terms to me?"

Harry sighed, and then said the one thing he knew Voldemort would never tolerate.

"I forgive you."

Voldemort pulled his wand free of Ginny and pointed it at Harry, screaming "Avada..."

A moment later a familiar figure landed directly on his head.

It was the fusion of Steven and Hermione, and even as Voldemort dropped like a stone, they were forming a shield and smashing it into the face of Barty Crouch.

The other Death Eaters were already pointing their wands, anxious to kill the abomination that had attacked their masters, but this left Moody and Dumbledore and the others to drop them in a volley of spells.

Stermione or whoever they were moved like a dancer, dodging spells and lashing out with their shield. Even so, a moment later they dropped to the ground as the spellfire became too intense for even they to survive. They covered Ginny and Voldemort with their body, and a rose colored shield expanded to cover all of them.

A moment later and the Death Eaters were all dead. Moody was injured, his arm bleeding where someone had inexplicably used a slicing charm, but a quick check showed that everyone else seemed to be all right.

Ginny was on her feet the moment the shield vanished, running into the arms of Molly Weasley.

Harry walked over to the fusion and offered a hand. He kicked Voldemort's wand away from his outstretched hand.

Sirius and Remus were already tying Voldemort's hands behind his back.

Harry leaned down and said, "Funny thing is, the two destined to defeat you weren't me and Steven. It was Hermione and Steven...a mudblood and an abomination. You've lost everything, and after today there aren't a lot of Pureblooded families left."

If Voldemort hadn't fought so hard to defeat the prophecy, it was likely that he never would have been defeated. It was killing Harry's parents that led to his defeat at the end of the first war, and it was trying to kill Harry instead of focusing on winning this war that had led to his downfall this time around.

Now that the war was over, Wizarding Britain would never be the same. After all this death and destruction, with the vast majority of the dead coming from pureblooded and halfblood families, the old social order was never going to be the same.

"Things are going to change," Harry said. "And you made that happen. I hope you're happy with the consequences of that."

None of them were going to be the same. Harry suspected that without the gems they'd have suffered a lot more losses, but simply seeing the horrors of war were going to change all of them for the rest of their lives.

He looked up and saw that Steven and Hermione had split again. Somehow he wasn't surprised to see that Hermione looked elated but Steven looked sober.

"What's going to happen to him?" he asked, looking down at Voldemort's prone form.

Dumbledore was suddenly there. "The Ministry will likely try to have him Kissed, assuming that they still have control of any dementors. Barring that, they may simply execute him."

"I feel a little sorry for him," Steven said.

"He was just responsible for the slaughter of hundreds of wizards," Moody gritted out. Arthur Weasley has helping him with his arm."And he'd have killed you as easily as I'd kill a bug."

"Still...I saw what was left of his soul," Steven said. "Nobody deserves that."

"He did it to himself," Moody said. He grimaced as Arthur Weasley gestured with his wand over the wound. "He deserves everything he gets."

"We can't let him go," Hermione said. "Or he'll do all of this all over again in another fifteen years."

Steven stared at the ground, thinking for a long, drawn out moment. Finally he turned to Dumbledore and asked, "Why do you think he turned bad?"

"Good or bad, our choices are our own," Dumbledore said. "However I believe the roots of his evil came during his time at an orphanage."

Steven glanced at Harry. "So he grew up like Harry...and the opposite of me. He never had a loving family...or people who loved him. He was all alone in the world and he decided he was going to make the world pay attention to him."

"That's one way of looking at it," Sirius muttered.

"I had a friend named Onion who was a little like that," Steven said. "He'd set fire to a roller coaster just to get his father to pay attention to him."

Steven walked over to Voldemort and leaned down. Voldemort stared up at him, his eyes cold and merciless like a snake.

"Most people didn't like him. He did a lot of things that made people want to stay away from him. Even I sometimes wondered if there was anything good in him."

Steven squatted down next to Voldemort and said. "I was wrong, and I think everyone else is wrong about you too. I think you're damaged, just like a lot of the monsters we fought on the other side."

He hesitated, then said, "I'm going to try something. It might not work, but if it does, there might be a chance."

Steven stuck his fingers in his mouth, then pulled them out and stuck them in both of Voldemort's ears.

Voldemort's entire body began to convulse, almost as though he was having a seizure. Steven left his fingers in what served as Voldemort's ears, and his gem began to glow. It glowed brighter and brighter until it shone like the sun.

It seemed to last forever, and when the glow finally vanished, Voldemort was gone.

In his place was a three year old boy who stared up at them uncomprehendingly.

Steven slumped to the ground, unconscious.