Voldemort paced the length of the Malfoy's lounge, which he had taken over as his defacto throne room. "Where is Severus?" The new headmaster of Hogwarts had not attended a Death Eater meeting in months, and now he had refused a direct summons. Voldemort suddenly whirled towards a Death Eater standing guard by the door. "Give me your arm again!" He demanded of his attendant. With a whimper, the wizard extended his arm so that his master could dig his finger into the Dark Mark, activating it (and sending a searing pain shooting through him at the same time).
"Severus! Attend me!" Voldemort pronounced for the third time. The Death Eater staggered back to lean against the wall. The pain of the Dark Mark was tolerable, but getting hit with it three times in ten minutes was rough.
And again there was no response.
"Get Lucius. We are convening a war council!" Technically, Lucius would do all the convening and any other required leg-work while Voldemort awaited regally on his throne.
\*/
Harry and Hermione were in the Room of Requirement again, preparing to work on the Horcrux. Harry stood a couple of feet away from it, with Hermione a couple of paces further back, ready to cast Protego on him or to Finite the spell, or anything else that Harry needed to keep him safe.
"Ok, remember that the last syllable has to be longer."
"Yeah," Harry sighed in frustration. He would prefer to be working with Terry (or anybody else really), but nobody else was willing to come up here every night. He glanced over at Hermione. She seemed perfectly cheerful – or at least not annoyed at being up here with him, losing valuable homework time – but the frizzy haired genius wasn't like normal people. Once upon a time he had thought that he understood (and liked) her, but in actuality there was no telling what was going through her fuzzy head. 'She's worse than Luna.'
"Whenever you're ready," Hermione cast a Protego around herself. She liked working with Harry. It was almost like they were back to being friends, but without the risk of… entanglements that she had no idea how to handle. She watched his back as he struggled to maneuver the spell glowing on the tip of his want into position. It required a surprising amount of physical exertion. Fortunately Harry was in good (really good!) shape from quidditch. And he once mention during one of their Ranger sessions that he worked out also.. a high pitched whine pulled her attention back to their Working. "Harry! Look out! Protego!" She cast on him.
A pulse of light shot out of the amulet. Suddenly, Hermione was floating, light headed, looking down on her body. The entire Room was filled with little strands of energy drifting, looping in the air. Most looked like they were coming off of her or Harry, but many also were attached to the walls, and even … she could see something glowing stuck on the locket! And it had a strand on it as well.
She tried to compare it to the other stands – was it thicker? It looked thicker. That was good. A sense of satisfaction permeated her. But then a frayed greenish strand floated past her eyes. She glanced around – it was one of the ones coming off of her. 'Why is it broken?' Hermione was suddenly angry. She had always hated her imperfections (her hair, her teeth). She looked around – there was the other end! It was fluttering on her other side. Something had ripped it in two, like it had rubbed against a sharp rock. A giggle escaped her. Did magic rub against rocks? 'Reparo' she cast. Or tried to, but no sound came out.
But something did happen – the strands rejoined. The moment they did, she was sucked back into her body.
Hermione staggered, her head pounding like it was hit with a hammer.
"Are you ok?" Harry asked, just starting to turn around to see what the commotion was about.
"Yeah, I'm fine. But can we call it a night?" She straightened, hiding all signs of discomfort. She didn't want to be a burden on Harry.
Harry's lips compressed into a thin line. "I guess."
Hermione turned away so as to hide her smile. Even though Harry clearly didn't want to stop, he was always solicitous of her requests. And she found that she really liked that, now that she didn't have to worry about him asking her out.
\*/
"Lily," Sirius called out as soon as he stumbled out of the floo, "one of my sources says that Voldemort is gathering his forces to attack Hogwarts."
"What? Why on earth would he do that? Some of the Death Eaters have their own kids there!" Lily was shocked. Hogwarts had always been sacrosanct as neutral territory.
"I think he wants direct control of all the institutions of Wizarding England. And Snape, though he can be a bit of a git, refused to play along."
"They're going to kill him," Lily agreed morosely. She hadn't been close with Severus since they finished school. They would exchange a polite nod at Order meetings, but that was about it. Still, she felt a sense of despondence that he had put his life in danger like this. "If he ever leaves Hogwarts, he's a dead man." He couldn't even hide – the Dark Mark could be used as a tracking spell.
"Get the Order together," Lily snapped herself out of he funk, "Everybody who can duel. We need to protect Hogwarts."
"Even George and the younger members?"
"Them too – I'm not Dumbledore, with his patriarchal ageism."
She went to her desk and quickly wrote a letter to James with the news. She then took out a small box containing Chudley Cannons pins and stuck one to the paper. The paper shrank until it was the size of a postage stamp and the whole thing disappeared without a sound.
James was still in France, and sending an owl internationally was a slow and dicey proposition, which is why she had made up a set of these messenger portkeys that would always teleport to wherever James was. She checked the box – she had 3 left. 'We had better get our plans coordinated quickly.'
\*/
Ron was laying in bed, reading a quidditch magazine and trying not to think about the disaster that was his life when he heard George arrive. "Dad! Dad! Mrs. Potter is calling all the Order members together. We have to defend Hogwarts!"
Ron rolled out of bed. 'He's finally making his move.' Now that he knew where Voldemort would be, it was time for him to go do something. Finally.
Ron got dressed in his best robes, and while George and his dad where out in the garage getting their gear together, he threw some food into an expanding bag, took his broom, and left the Burrow, possibly for the last time.
\*/
The following day, word got around the school that something was going on. During quidditch, the Hufflepuff seeker had spotted suspicious figures moving through the Forbidden Forest. The existing tension in the school rose to a fever pitch. Even the Slytherins were nervous.
During lunch, Snape called the entire school together in the great hall.
"It has come to my attention that Lord Voldemort has been mustering his forces outside of the school wards. While I can not comment on what his motivation might be, I can say that the Hogwarts wards are strong enough to keep any unwanted intruders out. Please stay inside the building proper and you will be perfectly safe until the end of the school year. You can carry on with your academic schedule without concern. Dismissed."
As Snape turned and stalked out of the hall, the whole school broke into a buzz of conversation. Harry exchanged glances with Neville. Something really bad must be in the offing if Snape was actually willing to defy Voldemort."I think I want more information than that." At Neville's encouraging nod, he strode off after Snape.
Apparently he was not alone in this, as several other students followed after him, but when they arrived at the hallway Snape was nowhere to be seen.
\*/
When Neville caught up with Harry, the shorter Potter was lost in thought. "We need to finish up the project." 'the project' could only mean one thing – strengthening the connection between the locket Horcrux and Voldemort.
"You want me to go get Hermione?"
"No. I know what I'm doing now. I just need somebody to 'spot' me, in case something goes wrong. And honestly, working with her around makes me a lot more tense."
"What happened between the two of you? I thought you were friends?"
"What do you think?" Harry asked, frowning. "I asked her out, she shot me down. Hard."
"Again? I mean after the Slug party?"
"Yes. I thought things had changed. Apparently I was wrong." Harry walked off, to make it clear that this topic was closed.
Neville nodded, not certain how to reply. Anything he said would sound insincere, given that he was in a happy, stable relationship. "Do you want me to set you up with anybody?"
Harry smiled wryly, "I don't think now is the time to be worrying about such things." They were just entering the Room. "You should stand back and raise a Protego - this spell has some 'back-splatter'"
Neville watched in fascination as Harry pronounced the eight words and maneuvered the glow on his wand so that it connected with the Horcrux. He couldn't see what was happening the way Harry could, but he felt something, even through the shield.
"I think that's getting better," After several minutes, Harry examined the Horcrux dangling from the locket. It was no longer an isolated dot of blue with a thin strand stretching off into the distance. Now, it looked thicker, like a rope.
Neville nodded. "Are you all done? I was planning to meet up with Daphne at 8." And he wanted to get out of the Room. The air felt close, like there was something in the air that he was breathing in.
"Yeah. I'll see you back at the dorms."
Harry waved as he made his own way down. 'It's good that Neville seems to have things figured out. He's got a girlfriend. Assuming the Ministry gets back to normal, he's going to join the Aurors.' But his own life was a mess. With that stupid marriage contract hanging over him, who would want to date him? And Harry wasn't certain that he wanted to be an Auror anymore. It seemed somehow… petty. But what else was there? All he knew was getting into fights. He didn't have any others skills.
He was half way back to the dorms when the building shook. Harry raced to the nearest window. It was an overcast day, but that made it all the easier to see spell light smashing into the Hogwarts wards. And by their flicker he could see several huge figures wielding whole trees as clubs, waiting.
'It's begun!'
\*/
"Severus, you can not continue ignoring the Dark Lord!" Amycus had to practically run to catch up to the Headmaster as he left his office.
The wards rumbled.
"I am the headmaster. I have responsibilities to my students."
"No, you have a responsibility to obey the Dark Lord!" Amycus drew his wand. He barely had time to raise it before Snape cast a stunner. Amycus dodged it, and he shielded against the Expelliarmus that followed, but the Bombarda that reflected off of the wall behind him sent him staggering right into the path of a second stunner.
Snape was just considering what to do with his rebellious Dark Arts professor when another bolt of spell light shot past him. He whirled to see the better Potter standing over the stunned form of Alecto Carrow. "She was just about to cast at your back, sir" Harry explained.
Snape considered and gave a jerk of his chin down in approval.
Harry beamed and transfigured the two Stupefied Death Eaters into china cups. "Here sir. For your collection."
Snape snorted. It was the closest he ever came to a laugh. "I see you have talent for Transfiguration, like your mother."
"I thought you said that my mother was an expert at potions."
Snape smiled sadly, "She was a paragon at everything." He turned and continued on his way to the owlery.
Harry turned and raced back to the Gryffindor dorms.
\*/
An hour later, Neville, Hermione and Harry were in the Room of Requirements again as Harry struggled to expand the connection.
"This is not going to work," Harry sighed as he sat down, "Not in the time that we have."
"You want to try casting something into the locket?" Neville asked. "Maybe it worked better than you think."
Harry shrugged and after aiming carefully for the Horcrux, he cast a tickling charm. "I could see it – the spell dissipated after a couple of feet."
"I wish we could coordinate with the Order," Neville was having a hard time standing still. He had tried using the floo to call the Weasley or any of the other Order members (the Potter floo was under wards that made it inaccessible from the public network, so he didn't even try), but the floo was blocked. He wasn't certain if it was blocked by the defenders or by the Ministry.
There was a knock on the door and Terry poked his head in, "Um, guys, do you need any help?"
Ginny pushed the door all the way open and walked in. "What Terry means is that we want to do something. McGonagall is having us just sitting in our dorms, but we can see the wards starting to buckle. The professors are outside, waiting for the first breakthrough." Ginny was an action girl. Doing nothing was very difficult for her.
"I think we should wait.." Neville began when Harry interrupted.
"No, Ginny's right - we're going to have to fight sooner or later. We should get ready for it." He had already wasted enough time hiding up here in the Room of Requirements. "Get the Rangers and Dueling Club together in the Great Hall. Neville, get Daphne and Tracy, and then seal the rest of the Slytherins in their dorms – I don't want a fifth column if – when - things get bad." Neville nodded and ran for the stairs.
"What are the rest of you waiting for – go! I'll meet you in the Hall." Harry grabbed the Horcrux and headed downstairs as well.
\*/
There was a buzz of conversation as the Order congregated in the Burrow. The house wasn't large enough to contain all of them, so most were out on the back lawn. They stood talking in clusters, including one around a blue Ford Anglia
"Ok, everybody, quiet down!" Lily cast Sonorous to be heard, "I just got an owl from Severus that Voldemort is attacking Hogwarts. Form up into the teams we discussed and Portkey to Hogsmeade. The village should still be safe, but stay on your guard – I wouldn't be surprised if there are some Death Eater stragglers there."
"Is it going to be just us?" Asked an older witch.
"Let's hope not. But remember, we're going there to save our kids. We don't have to defeat Voldemort, just drive him off."
Groups of wizards started disappearing. George and Charley Weasley joined their father in the Ford Anglia and that disappeared as well.
\*/
Meanwhile, in the Great Hall, Harry called the Dueling Club to order. "Ok, I know your all scared, wondering whats going to happen. This," He gestured to encompass the shaking walls, "is not the sort of thing any of us signed up for. But you have all shown that you can be depended to keep your head about you under pressure. You're smart and responsible. I want the Dueling Club, with the assistance of the prefects, to lead all of the younger students down into the kitchens – those are going to be the safest place in the castle."
"But the professors said that we should stay in our dorms" A second year Ravenclaw objected.
"Harry is correct," Pomonoa Sprout interrupted, bustling into the great hall. "The Kitchens will be a safer area than the dorms. I am sorry that we can't be here to guide you - all of the professors are occupied strengthening the wards. Please follow your prefects."
Harry nodded his thanks. "And I want some of the Dueling Club to stay with the students, to keep them safe in case anything happens. But any older Dueling club members that wants to, should come up and help the professors. I recommend you take up positions on the walls, where you will have some protection."
"Harry, I don't think that is required," Professor Sprout objected, but Harry just continued.
"Don't go looking for trouble, stay under cover as much as possible, but help protect the professors and keep the Death Eaters out of Hogwarts." At the very least their spells would distract the Death Eaters
The assembled teens exchanged glances. Most didn't look like they were ready for such a responsibility, but the older Gryffindors took on a look of determination. Sometimes doing what was right was scary and dangerous, but that didn't mean it wasn't the right thing to do. And somebody had to do it.
"And Rangers, your with me. We're taking the battle to Voldemort!" Harry pronounced grimly.
There were determined nods as the dozen witches and wizards trickled to join Harry, each carrying a broom.
\*/
Lord Voldemort was standing on a platform that had been transfigured from the trees that had been cleared to create a staging area for his forces (though no staging area was big enough for the trio of giants that had joined him). The attack was going well – the Hogwarts shields were as impressive as expected, but not even those thousand year old wards could long withstand the pressure being applied by the barrage of spells (and thrown rubble, from the giants). And each time they shimmered and buckled, Rookwood would peel off a layer.
"My lord, I captured a spy!" Macnair dragged a teen anomalously dressed in formal robes to face Lord Voldemort. He looked like he was ready for a day in court rather than skulking through the woods. Though 'a day in court' wasn't so far from what would happen now, as he would shortly be pleading for his life.
Voldemort sneered down at the musclebound oaf. Macnair was one of the more useless of his disciples, lacking the raw power to damage the wards or the skill to disassemble them. But he made an adequate go-fer.
"I am not a spy!" The Boy Who Lived tore his arm out of Macnair's grip. "I came here to offer an exchange."
Before he could say anything more, a blue Ford Anglia flew by, strafing a giant with rapid fire blasting spells, and moments later shouting and spell fire sounded from the periphery of the Death Eater encampment.
"The Order! The Order is here!"
"Kill him!" Voldemort pronounced offhandedly. Ron has just enough time to cast a Protego before Macnair attacked.
Ron stumbled backwards, struggling to keep his feet as he retreated across the debris strewn clearing, trying to escape from the ferocious looking Death Eater. He barely managed to block the incoming attacks with wild swings of his wand, and he was too terrified to cast anything back.
Voldemort quickly looked around, assessing the situation. The air was filled with spells as the Order members pressed their attack, but they were all coming from one side, showing that the Order didn't have the manpower for a full battle. It was clear that they had fewer wands than his forces. Voldemort sent a blasting spell between two of his fighters to catch one of the Order in the chest.
And their fighters were inferior.
Voldemort smiled. It was a matter of time before their offensive buckled.
Maybe today he could finally clear away all the nuisances that were blocking his rise to power. Just then a Death Eater stumbled over his own legs and got Stupefied. Voldemort grit his teeth and resisted the urge to Crucio him. 'Not all of my people can be like Bellatrix.'
Speaking of - his lieutenant had taken the the lead in the battle, pushing the Order back.
But then a sudden motion seen out of the corner of his eye sent Voldemort diving to the side as his platform exploded into debris, which then rained down on all the nearby Death Eaters. Macnair got hit in the back with a branch the size of his arm, causing him to look up stupidly as a flight of students on brooms zoomed in. He was just raising his wand when one of them hit him with a tongue twisting hex which sent him to the ground in pain with his tongue knotted into a pretzel
These new combatants were extremely fast and far more daring than the older and more traditional Order. A pair swooped up the length of a giant, hitting him in each eye with a conjunctivitis curse and then leading him on a rampage through where the Death Eater forces were clustered as he futilely tried to club the annoying gnats out of the air.
Voldemort hissed in frustration. Just as he was about to take flight and deal with them, he saw the stupid Boy Who Lived make a break for it. "Avada Kedavra!"
As he cast the death curse, he was shocked to see one of the fliers swooped into its path.
And keep going, water spraying in all directions.
"You!"
"Me," Harry replied, casting a blasting hex at the ground under Voldemort's feet followed by a decapitation curse. But the Dark lord simply rose into the air to avoid losing his footing, and shielded against the cutter.
Harry was able to fight without pausing as this time he had been smart and blocked the Avada Kedavra with an Aguamenti instead of his body, but being that close to the death spell had still made the burn on his chest ache.
"You're the one they call Entil'Zha," Voldemort cast a dark red blood boiling curse.
Harry didn't deign to reply, instead concentrating all of his attention on flying and casting. He knew one slip up would lead to his death, either from Voldemort or from one of his psycho followers.
The Rangers managed to confuse the Death Eaters defenses, but they were still too few to turn the tide of battle. The half blinded giant finally stopped flailing about and began rubbing at his eyes to clear his vision.
Which is when the flying Ford Anglia hovered above him and Charlie dumped a cauldron of potion out through the back door. Everything the potion touched, it coated in rivulets of stone, trapping the giant's hands pressed up to his face.
Another of the giants came to his brother's rescue, trying to bat the car away, but he missed and instead smashed his trapped brother on the head, sending him to the ground. With a roar, the giant tried again, swinging his tree to hit the flying car, but he was too slow, as it dodged blow after blow. Finally, in frustration and needing to pummel SOMETHING, he turned around and threw himself at the wards, swinging his club with such force that the wards flared red and failed, dropping him to the ground.
Many of the Death Eaters had been standing around, watching the battle. Most of them had some dueling skills, but none had any training in real combat, and they were worried that if they joined in the close quarters battle at their compatriot's side that they would end up getting in their way. So instead they stood and anxiously waited for the Dark Lord to tell them what to do. Hopefully without casting any pain curses on them first. For them, it was a great relief when the wards finally collapse - they finally could set about their designated task (And avoid being disciplined).
They raced in to attack the castle, expecting to easily overcome the half dozen professors that could use a wand with any skill, only to be met with a barrage of spell fire, some of it coming from the afore mentioned professors standing on the grounds, but much of it raining down from students manning the parapets. Most of the students didn't know any fighting spells, but what they lacked in skill they made up for in enthusiasm, pouring down tripping jinxes and tickling spells by the dozens. Many of them were so poorly aimed that there was no way to dodge them, forcing the Death Eaters to shield up and advance at a snails pace.
McGonagall took advantage of her semi-immobile opponent to momentarily transfigure the ground under her into water, letting the Death Eater drop neck deep into it before releasing the spell, trapping her under ground with just her head sticking out.
At the same time Flitwick animated the oak that a Death Eater had taken shelter under, causing it to flail like the Whomping Willow, smashing into the Death Eater with arboreal fury until his shield collapsed. By then Flitwick was busy dueling with another Death Eater, so he did not see the tree continue pummeling the dark wizard until he was reduced to a red paste.
When his students were in danger, Flitwick let his inner goblin out.
\*/
The battle moved away from the clearing and towards the castle, but Harry was too busy to notice. He was struggling to stay alive - he couldn't keep up with Voldemort's casting speed. And not only that, but Voldemort was more powerful than anybody he had ever fought against before. And more vicious, casting a wide range of dark spells. Even though he could see the spells before they were cast, Harry still wasn't certain what most of them did. The only thing that saved him was his uncanny agility on the broom.
"Watch out!" Ginny yelled, causing Harry to flinch, but the warning was directed at Ernie, who jinked left too late. A red curse clipped him in the arm, sending him spiraling to the ground. Hermione landed to render aid, but she was immediately forced onto the defensive by a pair of Death Eaters that had rushed over to finish off the wounded flier.
The sight of Hermione trapped between two attackers momentarily distracted Harry. Voldemort's next spell flashed by so close that even though it missed, it still sent pain shooting through him. Harry barely held onto his broom as he jinked behind a tree, crash landing though some bushes.
Suddenly, there was the sound of multiple apparitions, followed by yelling in French.
Voldemort lost track of the annoying boy as three squads of French Aurors led by James Potter apparated in and attacked the Death Eaters from the flank. They fought in teams, overwhelming their opponents through coordinated spell fire.
The team lead by James hamstrung one of the remaining giants before he knew what had hit him.
Even with the odds closer to parity, Voldemort was not concerned. His wand danced through the air, sending dark curses and simple blasting charms at the trio of Aurors closest to him. They tried to defend, but his first spell was so powerful that it smashed clear through the leader's shield, sending him to the ground coughing up blood. The remaining two tried to fend off the other spells, but moments later the second was knocked to the ground by the broken body of the third.
Voldemort smiled. He could easily sweep away half of these all on his own. And Bellatrix and his other lieutenants would make short work of the others. At worst, the Aurors would separate out the useless chaff from amongst his followers.
\*/
Meanwhile, on the Hogwarts grounds, Bill raced after a Death Eater that had force open a door into the castle. Tonks had instructed him to stay close to her, but his defenseless little sister was inside! He ran inside and up the stairs. He was half way up when a spell flashed down from above. He threw himself to the side, but the stair was too narrow to dodge effectively, and the spell caught his cheek, melting the flesh. Bill tumbled back down the stairs as he collapsed in pain.
Which saved his life, as the Death Eater's blasting curse sent rubble raining down on him.
\*/
The remaining giant had managed to avoid the Auror's cutting curses that had brought down his companion, instead hopping back and forth as he tried to stomp the annoying pests.
He had just landed on an Auror and was grinding his Protego covered body into the mud with his heel when Ginny took advantage of his momentary distraction to swoop around his head and use the Depulso charm to propel a pair of potions, one after the other, up his left nostril.
The first - the shrinking potion - shattered as the giant breathed it in, causing his head to shrink to the size of a hamster, which in turn shattered the other, the Erumpent potion. That finicky potion immediately exploded, sending snot and gobbets of flesh flying through the air. Even a giant couldn't easily ignore an explosion inside its nostril - the giant sat down hard and grasped his head. Or he tried to, becoming increasingly agitated as he couldn't find it.
\*/
"Bombarda!" Using the distraction of the collapsing giant, Ron emerged from the rubble he had been hiding under to cast a blasting hex at You-Know-Who. Voldemort batted it aside easily before whisking Ron's feet up from under him with an off hand spell, sending him sprawling back down into some bushes.
"So what were you planning to offer me, boy?" He asked, bemusedly as he approached to stand over the helpless Boy Who lived. His forces (except for the giants, who were a serious disappointment) were holding their own, so he had a few moments to chat with the Boy-Who-Lived before he became the Boy-Who-Bled-To-Death.
"I was going to say that if you stop bothering people, like my friends, that I would go with you, do whatever you wanted!" Ron replied. He knew the prophesy – Dumbledore had told him – but there was no way that he had a power that the Dark Lord didn't, or that he had the ability to slay the Dark lord. So this was his best option.
Voldemort laughed at the naivete. "The only thing I that want from you is … Avada Kedavra."
Voldemort froze – that wasn't his voice casting the death spell! His vision got dim, tunneling down to a pinpoint and he suddenly couldn't move. He had to force himself to keep breathing and to not topple over.
\*/
[[earlier]]
Harry's leg was twisted from the landing, throbbing painfully. There was no way that he could stand up or even get back on his broom. Moving it sent more pain shooting up his whole body. Harry resisted the urge to cry out - Voldemort was just on the other side of the tree! If he made any noise, he would be on him again. The only thing that saved his life was that Voldemort was toying with Ron. Careful not to move his lower half, Harry pulled out the Horcrux from his pocket and placed it on the ground. He took a ragged breath and tried to relax, squinting his eyes, trying to see it with his mage sight alone.
In the dim light under the tree, he could the thick blue cord extending out towards Voldemort. This close, the connection was thick all the way to the body that Voldemort was using.
He heard Voldemort laugh and start to say something, but he tuned it all out, concentrating on the blue dot as he tried to build up all the hurt and anger that he had experienced recently and weld it into a single mass of fury in his chest.
This situation was unfair. He should have been enjoying the final year at Hogwarts, spending a last few precious months with all of his friends. Instead, here he was, fighting for his life against a megalomaniac that wanted to remake the world in his image.
And Hermione! Thinking of her him down right furious. She was always leading him on, acting like she liked him only to reject him. She was the worst sort of girl, toying with other people's feelings! 'I bet she had a good laugh at my expense'. She better not have gotten injured.
Harry let the anger and the hate build up. It wasn't easy, as these feelings were foreign to him, but Voldemort made it easier. "Avada Kedavra!" He jabbed his wand straight towards the the blue dot of the Horcrux, lining it up with the strand stretching out towards Voldemort. The sickly green spell shot out and slipped inside the blue ribbon, like a pea going down a straw.
A moment later Voldemort's head exploded as Ron hit the immobilized Dark Lord with a Bombarda at point blank range
\*/
"Voldemort is dead!" James called out.
"Voldemort is dead!" Went the call through the battlefield. The Death Eaters broke in a panic. If their leader was no more, then what would become of them? Voldemort had tortured all leadership and independent thinking out of the majority of them (though honestly, most had been lacking in those skills when they came to join him).
"No, you fools! Hold together!" Bellatrix called out, trying to rally her fighters as they turned to flee. She had taken her eyes of the battle in front of her for just a moment when she felt something grab her leg.
She whirled back, casting a 'Finite Incatatem' at the dirt that had flowed over her foot.
Facing her was Lily Potter. Despite approaching middle age, she had not let herself go the way some women did. Her husband was an Auror and therefore had to train and exercise regularly, and she wasn't going to let him down by going to fat herself.
And now she was putting all that hard work to good use. She cast spell after spell at the psychotic woman that had tried to murder her son.
Bellatrix danced out of the path of the spells, but she had been fighting for a long time now, and unlike Lily, her stamina was wrecked from her stay in Azkaban. When her foot landed wrong on a tree root, she staggered, not able to recover.
"Sectumsempra!"
Bellatrix just had time to throw herself to the ground, but the cutting curse still hit her wand hand, taking it off at the wrist.
As the crazed woman collapsed, Lily followed up with a simple stunner.
The remaining Death Eaters began apparating away (some were in such a hurry that they splinched, leaving pieces of themselves behind), but many were still caught in the crossfire as the French Aurors drove them towards the Order members.
Seeing that the battle was turned, Neville looked around – he could see eight other Rangers still on their brooms. Hermione was leaning tiredly against a tree, and Lavender had just landed next to Ron and was hugging him fiercely.
Harry was nowhere to be seen. "Ginny, take the the rest of the Rangers and clear out any remaining Death Eaters from the castle. I'm going to look for Harry and anybody else who was downed." Neville peeled off and flew down to where Ron was standing in shock by Voldemort's body.
"Ron, have you seen Harry?"
Ron blinked, realizing that a witch was hugging him. He distractedly raised his arms and put them around her. "No.. yes. He was..."
"I'm over here, Nev!" Came the rasping yell from behind some undergrowth. "I can't move!"
Neville left the shell shocked Boy-Who-Was-Really-Really-Lucky-To-Not-Have-Died and made his way through the bramble to his brother. "Are you ok?"
"No. I can't move my leg."
Neville nodded. "You stay here, I'll go get a mediwitch"
Harry grunted something that could have been a laugh, "I told you, I can't move."
Slowly, the chaos of the battlefield was untangled, and wounded witches and wizards received first aid.
\*/
Of the Rangers, Ernie was portkeyed to St. Mungo's. The healers didn't think they would be able to save his arm, but they thought his chances otherwise were pretty good. Hermione had to be transported by stretcher to Madam Pomfrey – she had been hit by some curse that was making her nauseous. Until a mediwitch was able to diagnose and counter it, she was instructed not to do any magic.
Harry had a simple fracture, and was back on his feet (albeit with a cast) within a few minutes.
"Thank Merlin you're ok!" Lily finally had a chance to see her (biological) son. James had grabbed Neville and asked him to walk with him while he squared away the French Auror contingent. Harry wasn't quite up to walking round, so instead he had hobbled over to a toppled tree and sat down there until he felt up to making his way back to the school. "What were you doing out here?"
"That's a long story," Harry replied pensively. And not one he really wanted to tell, especially not without his father there to help support him. "Hey, Sirius!" He called out, waving the Auror over. "Sirius helped me come up with a training regimen for some of the better duelists in the school, and when we saw what was going on out here, we came out to give a hand," Harry turned to Sirius expectantly.
As soon as Sirius realized that Harry was going to try to pin his rashness all on him, he looked for some way to escape, but it was clearly too late. Instead, he went on the offensive. "What are we doing about the Ministry? Now would be the best time to flush out the Death Eater sympathizers."
"I asked Shacklebolt to take Arthur along with some of the other Ministry people and go check for Dark Marks. The one advantage of Voldemort's management style was that everybody who wanted to advance had to ingrate themselves by showing up here today. The ones that are still back in London are all low level toadies." There were going to be a lot of vacancies at the Ministry. "But back to Harry – Why were you encouraging him to get involved in something so dangerous? He's just..."
"Brilliant!" James interrupted, swooping in to give Harry a hug. "Neville was telling me about your organization, and the leading role you had in bringing Voldemort down. It's just brilliant! I couldn't be more proud of you!"
Lily rubbed at her forehead, "James Potter, I thought you at least had outgrown such things!"
"He's not a kid any more, Lils. And you have to admit that his team was amazing. Especially that Weasley girl – that was brilliant flying when she took down the giant!" James leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, "You should date that one. Your kids will be born on a broom."
Lily sighed in frustration. She still had a massive amount of work to do, orchestrating the purge of the Ministry. At least the number of fatalities had been surprisingly low. "Speaking of dating, the Marriage contract has been doing some strange contortions in the last few days." She pulled a small square out of a pocket and restored the parchment back to its original size
Harry leaned over and read. It was a lot longer, and far more pompous sounding than it had been last time he had looked at it:
"Harry Potter, after achieving his full adulthood, with all the respect and honors due to him on his eighteenth birthday…. or after graduating from a school…. whichever comes first, will enter into matrimony. And get married with all the standard traditions according to the rituals of the land of magical Britain, to none other than Hermione nee Granger, who is to be his lawfully wedded wife."
Sirius squinted at the word salad that was haphazardly scrawled (but with elegant gold-leaf letters) on the parchment "What the heck happened here?"
Lily shrugged in frustration. "I don't know. I just noticed the change recently - it must have happened in the past week or two, at most. I have never heard of Marriage Contracts changing on their own – somebody must have cast a spell on it! It certainly looks like it was hit by a Confundus, though that of course doesn't work on magical contracts."
James took out his wand and cast a diagnostic charm. "Whatever happened, it's still binding." He turned to Harry, "So, do you happen to know a Hermione Granger?"
"Yeah," Harry sighed, "But there's no way I'm getting married to her. Hey, Sirius," He turned to his godfather, "You want to mentor me in the ways of bachelorhood?"
The contract did say 'married to none other than Hermione'
END
Author's note:
I am going to take a break here, as I have a Fate / Stay Night story that has been demanding to be written. It's a Shirou / Ayako romance (Yes, I do like rare pairing, why do you ask?)
After I'm done with that, I will comeback and finish off this story. In the meantime, if you have any comments or recommendations, fire away!
Nb: in my take, 'The power he knows not' is teamwork. This is a theme that I have used before, eg in my Harry Potter: Zero series.
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Hermione arrived home from school. It had been a trying, grueling year, but at least it was done now. Hogwarts was over. She had her diploma, though there hadn't been any official graduation ceremony. Now all she needed was to decide if she was going to go find a job or continue on to higher education.
"Sweety, there's a letter for you – an owl dropped it off a couple of months ago, but we had no way to get it to you." Her mother called from the kitchen as Hermione carried her trunk up to her room.
Hermione picked up the small parchment from her desk and unsealed it, reading it quickly.
"Oh, damn."