Chapter 97: Love Will Keep Us Alive

Harry awoke in a room of pure white. The stone table on which he lay was the only differentiating feature. He swung his feet over the side and as his feet hit the floor white robes of the softest fabric wrapped around his body. He inspected the room he was in now. It was a high-ceilinged chamber with windows from the ceiling to the floor. A sweet smell permeated the air, giving him a peaceful feeling but a sound he could not hear. Even his feet were soundless as he padded around the area.

"Is this heaven?" Harry asked aloud, hoping someone would speak.

When he spoke, a whimper sounded in reply. Following it to the other side of the chamber where a creature lay shivering and bleeding in the corner.

"Not a pretty sight is it?" A woman's voice called attention to itself. Harry looked to his right and stumbled right onto his hindquarters.

Just over his shoulder stood a woman with auburn hair and brilliant emerald eyes. Just behind her stood a man with messy black hair, glasses and a mischievous smile.

"Mum…dad…?" Harry gazed up at them with wide eyes.

"It's us, son," James Potter smiled and nodded.

"My boy," Lily Potter opened her arms and Harry sprinted into them. "My baby boy. I'm so proud of you. We're so proud of you. You've done so well."

"I've wanted this my whole life," Harry mumbled and he burrowed deeper into his mother's chest. "It's all I asked for every Christmas and every birthday was a chance to hug you and have you both hug me."

"We know," James said. "We've been there the whole time. Watching you struggle, watching you overcome, persevere and grow. We couldn't be any prouder of you, Harry."

"But there's so much I haven't done yet," Harry pushed himself away from his embrace. "Master the lightning whip, get the rest of my Owls, marry Hermione, and have kids. That's all gone now, isn't it?"

"Not necessarily," Lily said with a smile.

"You mean I'm not dead?" Harry asked as a beacon of hope ignited in his chest.

"You're not completely dead," James said. "For 13 years, give or take, you've been carrying two souls."

Harry looked over his shoulder toward the creature whose whimpers increased. From there he stroked his scar.

"Exactly, son," James nodded excitedly. "When Tom came to our house to kill you, he started a ritual to create an abjectly evil object called a Horcrux. It wasn't his first but it was going to be his last. Well with the ritual started and his soul already brittle, a piece of it blew off the whole and latched itself onto the only living thing left in that room: you."

"Why didn't you tell me this when you came out of his wand?" Harry asked.

"Our time was limited and our focus on the present, not the past," James said. "We couldn't be bogged down at the time but now, we have all the time in the world."

"The point is, my protection ritual worked and continues to work this day so Tom's soul could only host itself on a small part of you," Lily said. "Despite my best efforts, there was still some connection forged."

"Is that why I could speak to snakes?" Harry asked.

"Yes, though you'll probably keep the skill as your brain has lived with it long enough to remember how to do it," Lily said. "There were other… complications. Did you ever find yourself getting irrationally angry at certain points, especially this year?"

Harry nodded.

"That was him," Lily said. "Though not entirely, you do come by your temper honestly but when Tom was especially angry or frustrated, it bled through."

"And that's not all," James picked up the conversation. "The bloody thing was leeching off your magic to stick around so watch your casting when you get back, okay? And you know how you mentioned the Lightning Whip?"

Harry nodded again.

"Tell me, what's the main stipulation to family spells?" James looked at Harry either eager anticipation.

"Only those in the family can learn them," Harry said. "I can't even teach someone else how to do it so the spell stays in the family."

"Exactly!" James hugged his son exuberantly from the side. "And that's why you couldn't do the spell, much as you tried. As long as Tom and you were connected, you couldn't possibly learn the spell because then he would have learned it."

"So it's gone then?" Harry inquired hopefully.

"It is gone," Lily said. "With my protection still active, Tom's spell targeted the only thing it could have: his soul piece."

"But he has that protection now, doesn't he?" Harry said. "He took my blood."

"He took your blood but the protection isn't in your blood, is it?" Lily reminded him. "When he touched you, he just happened to touch the only thing of him that was on you. My protection still lives in you, though I don't know how strong it is anymore considering it's been working since that night to keep Tom's soul shard from growing."

"Did Dumbledore know?" Harry asked, fearing the answer.

"He had theories but once you brought him the diary, he confirmed them," Lily spat. "He thought you had to die for it to be removed and, sadly, Tom ensured you couldn't be killed. He anchored you to life, at least tenuously. Whenever he gets here, both of them actually, I will be having words with them."

"So what next?" Harry asked as the group of three sat down on a bench.

"What next?" James looked at his son quizzically.

"Well, where do we go from here?" Harry asked, his voice quiet.

"You, my wonderful son, have to go back," James said. "Well, I guess you don't have to but we all know there's a beautiful young woman who is waiting to see you open your eyes."

James waved his hand from his left shoulder to right and a portion of the wall turned into a screen showing Hermione cradling his head in her lap. Tears fell from her eyes and she was saying something that Harry couldn't hear to someone he couldn't see. Harry could see spellfire clashing around her.

"She's a real spitfire, that one," James said.

"When you're ready, just think of going to her," Lily said. "It'll be just like waking up from a dream. And as for us, we will be staying right here as we always have been."

Lily tapped his chest where his heart would be.

"Know that we love you and are proud of you, son," James said.

"And tell Helen thank you from me," Lily said. "She took you in, took care of you as a mother would. From one mother to another, that meant the world to me."

"I will," Harry brought his arms around both his parents and they shared a last group hug. As Harry closed his eyes, the contact faded and he felt the ground and his position on it changing. "I love you."

"We love you too," both parents said. "More than you can ever imagine."

Earlier that night

Hermione watched from the stands as the dots on the map moved across the grounds. Harry and Krum were close together, though clearly separated by a hedge. She watched Barty Crouch approach and then move off. She looked up to the judge's stand where Barty Crouch stood but the platform was obscured on the map.

"Something troubling you?" Daphne asked as Tonks moved to allow her to sit next to Hermione.

"The map shows Barty Crouch on the map but he's up in the stands," Hermione said. "It never lies but the judge's stand is obscured. Do you know why that might be, Sirius?"

"We'd do it from time to time," Sirius said. "Mostly James would do it when he and Lily were out on a date."

"Did Pettigrew know how to do that?" Daphne asked.

"I think so but he's not here," Sirius said. "I'd know him even under Polyjuice."

"Still, we should tell Dumbledore," Hermione said.

At that moment a guttural roar echoed across the maze. Hermione gathered the map and saw Harry was close to the center but he wasn't moving. Suddenly, he moved back the way he came and then stopped. A loud thud cut through all noise and Harry moved away.

"Okay, Harry's safe," Hermione said. "He's not moving quickly but he is moving toward the center."

"Hermione!" Luna pointed toward the map. "Look!"

Sitting right outside the judge's box was a dot labeled "Rita Skeeter."

"I can't see her over there," Parvati said.

"Maybe she's wearing an invisibility cloak?" Lavender suggested.

"No," Hermione said. "Moody's right there too. I know he said his eye can only see as far as a regular eye can see but he'd clearly be able to see her."

"Not if she was tiny," Luna said.

"That's it!" Hermione quickly drew her wand and conjured a jar. As she finished flourishing her wand, a bright light lit up the center of the maze. Hermione sealed the jar and watched as Harry and Cedric vanished from the center of the maze. Hermione turned toward the victory podium where she expected them to re-appear. But they never did. She looked around at her group, pleadingly asking everyone the question that was on all their minds.

"Where are they?" She asked desperately. "They should have appeared. Where are they?"

Murmured voices echoed across the stands as conversations began, everyone wondering where the two missing champions were. After a few minutes, Hagrid removed Fleur and McGonagall a bound Viktor Krum. Maxime, Dumbledore and Karkaroff exited their booth to check with Hagrid and McGonagall.

Hermione sprinted down from the stands, making a beeline for the group.

"Where is he?" Hermione grabbed Dumbledore by the labels as she just about collapsed into him. "You told us you had a way to find him, that he'd be safe. Where is he! You promised!"

Hermione collapsed into hysterics, still holding on to Dumbledore's robes. Around them, terrified whispers filtered down from those in the audience.

"Easy, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said as he nimbly plucked Hermione's hands from his robes. "We will find him."

"How?" Hermione asked desperately. "How will you find them?"

"Give him some space, Miss Granger," McGonagall said as Amelia approached with two Aurors.

"Albus, what is happening?" Amelia asked.

"Trying to figure that out, Amelia," Dumbledore pulled his wand and started waving it in an intricate pattern. "The portkey was definitely activated but they were sent to another place. I am trying to track where it sent them."

"What about his tracker?" Helen asked. "You gave him one. Has he activated it?"

"Not yet," Dumbledore said, not looking up from his wandwork.

"Where is he?" Hermione spun and asked the group, desperately hoping someone would answer. "He's not… not…"

"Hermione," Sirius whispered and reached for Hermione but Hermione turned and threw herself into her mother and father where she bawled out her eyes. Time passed and nobody moved except for Karkaroff and Maxime who moved off with their respective students. They heard Iris let out a faint roar in the distance. In the stands, everyone seemed to find comfort in one another. Parvati and Lavender both held each other tightly. Hannah was holding herself up on Neville and Susan sat on the ground, trying to keep her thoughts positive while Tracey was the only thing keeping Luna upright.

"Don't go, Harry," Luna whispered. "Don't join my mother. I can't take it if you did. Come back to us."

Beyond them, Crabbe and Goyle held a silent vigil with Ginny holding on to Vinny and Millie leaning on Goyle. Just beyond them, Dobby and Winky were popping beverages to different students, trying everything they could to keep busy.

Eventually, Dumbledore started to move from his spot. He picked up his sleeve and smiled.

"Finally," Dumbledore said. "Fawkes."

Fawkes flamed to Dumbledore's side, pecked at the rune on his robes and then flamed out again. When he flamed in again, Dumbledore got to work again.

"There are some anti-apparition wards around them," Dumbledore said. "Ah Tom, you are predictable as always. Haven't changed your wards since you were a boy."

Hermione picked her head up and wiped the tears that fell down her face.

"You-you found him?" Hermione said.

"Yes," Dumbledore barely glanced over his shoulder. "Amelia, Minerva with me. Filius, Alastor if you would keep guard over the school until I come back? Grab one of Fawkes' feathers and he will take us to him."

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Hermione could see Dumbledore closing his hand on Fawkes's plumage. Hermione broke away from her parents and sprinted toward the group. Just as Dumbledore closed his hand on Fawkes, Hermione dove and together the four of them flamed out.

As her feet hit the ground, she looked around at a cemetery, an old one at that. As she gathered her bearings, she saw spellfire coming from the center of the biggest headstones. That was when she spotted Harry hobbling toward a dark mass she couldn't make out. He extended his hand and a cup zoomed toward his hand. Inwardly she cheered as he looked like he was going to escape but at the last minute, the cup vanished into thin air. Harry closed his hand on nothing and his shoulders drooped.

A white-faced man advanced on Harry, saying something Hermione couldn't quite hear. The next thing Hermione knew, a green curse raced toward Harry. Dodge it, she whispered but instead, he just stood to face it head-on. Once Hermione realized what was about to happen, she sprinted toward him, pushing her way between Dumbledore and McGonagall to get to Harry.

"Harry!" She shouted just as the curse hit home. She caught him just before he hit the ground. "No! Harry! You can't go. There's so much you still need to do. I love you, Harry. Come back to me."

"Foolish girl," Hermione raised her head to the snake-faced man. "He will not wake. He's gone and he's not coming back. Perhaps if you'd gotten here sooner, you could have saved him."

Hermione yowled in frustration as she dropped her head to look Harry in the eye. I'm sorry I wasn't quick enough.

"Don't worry, child," Voldemort said, though his breathing was labored. "Lord Voldemort is merciful. I'll reunite you forthwith."

Hermione's eyes widened as another green curse moved toward her but before it could hit, a headstone intercepted it.

"What!?" Voldemort looked up and finally spotted the man in blue robes walking nonchalantly toward him. "Dumbledore!"

"Hello, Tom," Dumbledore said. "You're looking well. Sorry, we didn't realize you were throwing a party, I would have called ahead."

"Oh come in, come in," Voldemort said. "We were just throwing a celebration. After tonight, you will join the Boy-Who-Lived in the afterlife. After tonight, nothing will hold me back!"

Voldemort let off a maelstrom of fire, building until a wall of flame headed toward Dumbledore. Dumbledore transfigured a stone over the top of Hermione and Harry with one flick and cast a strong water jinx to douse the flames. Behind him, McGonagall engaged the remaining Death Eaters. With a final stab of her wand, the Tombstones came to life, pulling together to form a gigantic Golem. From the other side, Madam Bones reminded them why she advanced through the ranks. She launched a brace of Exsanguination curses, one of them dropping the Death Eater into a pool of its own blood while the other Death Eaters scurried.

The Death Eaters cast spells in a panic at the Golem, tearing pieces away. The Golem encircled the Death Eaters and soon, the bones of the graveyard animated, pulling themselves from the earth to bind the Death Eaters within. Before she could catch him, Lucius apparated out and Wormtail morphed into his rat form.

"You've become soft since I left you," Voldemort snarled at his men.

He cast a wide beam that tore the right arm off the Golem, followed by a black curse that turned its left leg to ash and the Golem fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Dumbledore launched another attack, pulling the water from the soil to launch itself toward Voldemort. Voldemort flicked his wand, turning the water into steam. Behind him, McGonagall and Bones frantically worked to keep the Death Eaters from escaping.

"Why do you bother, Dumbledore?" Voldemort asked as sweat poured off his body. "The Boy-Who-Lived is dead. You're too old and feeble to challenge me, old man. Why bother fighting the inevitable?"

"There is no greater fight than the one against tyranny, Tom," Dumbledore said. "Something I tried to teach you many years ago and yet here we are. As long as I still breathe, I will oppose you."

"Potter said something similar years ago when I asked him to join me," Voldemort sneered. "Now look at him."

Voldemort vanished the stone protecting Hermione. She cradled Harry's head in her lap as tears poured down her cheeks and onto his expressionless face.

"All your plans, all your machinations, Dumbledore," Voldemort cackled in glee. "Everything you did to protect him and here he is: dead. How pointless, how fruitless. How powerless must you feel?"

"You're wrong," Voldemort stopped dead at Hermione's voice. She looked at him and, while her eyes were red and puffy, her face was set into a look of pure intensity. "Harry didn't die for nothing and his death wasn't pointless. He was a beacon, a signal to the world that we didn't have to stand alone. I will stand; I will fight and by Morgana's will I will finish you. For Harry, for Harry's parents and for all those who you intend to kill during your reign of madness. And I won't be the only one. Wherever there is oppression, there will always be those to stand and fight it."

"And that is why mudbloods need to be stamped out," Voldemort shouted. "You are nothing! Nothing but a smear on the bottom of my boot! You will die, slowly and the world will know that anybody who opposes me will share your fate. ~Kill~."

Hermione heard the hiss and the next thing she knew a snake rose from the grass, readying a strike. Hermione raised her wand in a shaky hand, ready to defend herself. As the snake reared back to strike, Fawkes flamed in to grab it with his talons. The bird then flamed out with the snake, emerging 20 meters above their heads. Using his powerful beak, Fawkes tore the head off the snake, dropping the remains at Voldemort's feet.

Voldemort staggered, his rage a bonfire in a lake of oil as an inky substance oozed from the corpse of the snake while a shriek filled the air. Voldemort held a hand over his heart as he steadied himself. His magic burst from himself, knocking over Professor McGonagall and Madam Bones as his rage boiled over. Dumbledore used his own magic to quell the storm headed toward him and Hermione. Just as Voldemort's rage started to diminish, Harry's eyes flickered open.

"Harry!?" Hermione shrieked as she felt him stir.

"Hey…" he croaked; his voice raspy. "I'm so glad to see you."

"Impossible!" Voldemort's eyes widened comically. "How many times do I have to kill you?"

"Well, you do keep trying," Harry said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Try this on for size," Voldemort said as he launched a flurry of curses toward Dumbledore, keeping the headmaster off balance. He then trained his wand on Hermione. "See what happens to all who oppose Lord Voldemort. I will take your precious mudblood from you and leave you to cry over her corpse. Avada Kedavra."

As the green light lanced toward Hermione, Harry gripped his wand. With a flick of his wrist, three cords extended from his wand, and lightning arced off them, going down to the end of the cords and back to his wand. As the circuit was completed, brilliant white light flooded the cemetery. The light formed into the shape of a whip, its tendrils reaching out to intercept the curse, deflecting it into the nearest headstone.

Voldemort snarled in fury but as Madam Bones hauled McGonagall to her feet, he realized he was surrounded. With a last contemptuous glare, Voldemort vanished in a puff of smoke, not realizing a rat latched onto his robes right as he escaped. A few of the Death Eaters escaped their bone prisons and apparated out before Dumbledore conjured a whip of flame. Deftly, he plucked the strand from his wand and wrapped it around the remaining prisoners, solidifying it into an unbreakable chain, binding the Death Eaters together.

While Dumbledore worked, McGonagall set to repair and replace the headstones and their inhabitants. Once they finished working, they approached Harry who was unsteadily picking himself up off the ground.

"Mister Potter," Professor McGonagall tried to compose herself but still gave him a thorough once-over to confirm he was, in fact, alive. "You never cease to impress. Any chance you can take it easy for, say, a decade?"

"Would if I could, Professor," Harry grimaced as he put weight onto his ankle.

"How did you survive the killing curse again?" Madam Bones asked.

"We can ask Harry all the questions later but first, let's get him back to the castle," Dumbledore cut across. "Amelia, do you need help with your prisoners?"

"I made the call," Madam Bones said.

To punctuate her statement, a chorus of cracks echoed across the graveyard. Professor McGonagall then looked at Cedric's body laying on the ground.

"What about Mr. Diggory?" She asked as the group gathered around him.

"We'll take him back with us" Dumbledore said, a tear in his eye. He twitched his wand and a black sheet wrapped around Cedric's body. "Fawkes."

The phoenix flew down and wrapped his talons around the sheet, letting out a mournful trill as everyone grabbed one of his feathers and the group minus Amelia all flamed out of the graveyard.

(A/N: Two horcruxes down with one of them dispatched by Fawkes who gets his own moment to shine. We get to see a little of McGonagall and Madam Bones in action but most importantly, Harry gets to have a conversation with his parents, something I wish had happened in the books. As for why Voldemort didn't collapse with Harry, he still has other Horcruxes so while he was staggered, he didn't collapse completely. Gave Hermione a chance to stand up to him. Happy New Year to you all. We're entering the final year and change for this and we're in uncharted territory for the most part. The end of fifth year has been planned. Just figuring out how to get there.)