For the first time that Harry could remember, he froze with indecision.
Voldemort's towering soul, malignant and divine, pressed down on him from where his vast wings loomed in the darkness.
The Castle was under attack, with enemies already within the walls.
Great tendrils of living, ravenous Dark exploded from Voldemort's back as he cackled madly.
Luckily, Albus didn't freeze.
Phoenix song filled the air as the ancient headmaster's power flowed forth, easing the divine weight on Harry's soul and pushing back the Dark.
Dumbledore connected and saturated their minds with his power, conversing at the maximum speed that their enhanced minds would allow.
"Stick to the plan, Harry. You and Hermione must return to Hogwarts. The fact that Minerva begged me to return despite knowing the plan means that Alastor, Mr Longbottom and Miss Lovegood must be overwhelmed. The children are in danger. The Castle must not fall."
"You cannot win on your own, Albus."
"You are correct, I cannot. I will buy you as much time as I can, then you must return to aid me. If I fall, Fawkes will return to you, and you must hunt down your Nemesis before he can lay waste to the world."
Harry tried to focus even as his emotions threatened to overwhelm him. Hermione reached through their souls and held his in place while he processed their options.
"Fine. But I will be very irritated if you die on me in the final hour, old man."
"I am overdue for my next great adventure, Harry. Additionally, there is something that cannot remain in this cave."
Still moving as quickly as possible while Voldemort closed in on them, Harry felt Albus disentangle his soul from the Deathstick.
"It is time, Death Walker. You must master the Elder Wand. Our Enemy cannot be allowed to acquire it, and I have a feeling that you will need it."
Harry knew then that Albus did not plan on living for much longer.
"Dammit Albus, the world still needs you. We can't do this alone."
"The world has no more need for the Old Man in the Tower, Harry. What the world needs now is its Knight. And its Queen."
Harry once again pushed back the overwhelming tide of emotions. He would process later.
"Fine. But I'm still coming back for you, until Fawkes comes to me."
Harry grabbed the Elder Wand and threw his anguished soul against its endless, raging Dark.
Worthy be the wizard who has conquered Death.
The wand was fundamentally different, if more simplistic, than the cloak or the sword. It was furious, bloodthirsty. It wanted to end him and everything else, wanted to bathe in glorious battle until the world was naught but ash. Harry could not just let himself fall into its dark waters like he had with the cloak. He had to master it, and he pitted his will and his helpless anger against the infinite wrath of the Deathstick.
It felt like an age before the fragment finally acquiesced and allowed him to connect with its soul. In truth, it was only moments. Less than a second.
The wand disappeared from physical reality just as the cloak had, straining at its collar like a chained beast within his soul.
Albus met his gaze with an expression of serene acceptance.
"Farewell, my friend. We will meet again when you are ready."
"Goodbye, Albus. Thank you, for everything."
Before he could second guess himself or waste any more time, Harry and Hermione took off towards the ward line at maximum speed.
…
Albus watched his successor leave with a smile, the weight on his shoulders lighter than it had been since he had gone to war against Gelert.
He turned to his other great mistake, the unholy abomination looming above him.
Phoenix song filled his heart as Fawkes circled overhead. He reveled in the triumphant optimism of the Immortal Fire as it drowned his soul.
"You are a fool, Dumbledore. You will not leave this cave alive."
"Certainly not," Albus said in a lively tone as his raw power clashed and crackled against the divine Dark of Voldemort's. "But I am long overdue for my departure, I think. As are you, Tom. I think that neither of us are long for this world. Are you ready to embark on your next great adventure with me?"
Albus allowed himself to enjoy the outrage and frustration on Tom's ruined face as the divine creature spluttered.
"I will shred your soul before you are allowed to escape from this life, Dumbledore!"
Albus spread his arms and above him Fawkes did likewise, wide wings of immortal fire spreading to drive back the skeletal Wings of Dark.
"I'm sure you will try, Tom. But I think you shall find that I will not go quietly."
…
Harry and Hermione rocketed over the ward line of the ancient castle. Harry could feel his own sense of growling horror mirrored in Hermione's soul.
The school was ablaze, a great plume of smoke rising into the night sky. So wide that he couldn't see the stars anymore.
They shot forward at incredible speed. He let his power wash over the school and attempted to control the worst of the fire, even as he looked for Mad-Eye's thunderous soul within the inferno.
He found him, just in time to feel him slip into the Dark.
Harry pushed back yet more overwhelming emotions as he plummeted towards the old Auror, who appeared to have been on the seventh-floor corridor fighting…
Monsters.
Harry froze for a fraction of a second as he returned to the year-one classroom in Surrey.
The bone white, skeletal creatures with unhinged jaws and scuttling limbs tore through the school just as they had his classmates that very first time.
Harry roared and brought his power forth, great blasts of emerald power burning through as many of the creatures as he could manage while they poured from a hole in the wall on the seventh-floor corridor. Their souls were drowned in Voldemort's divine Dark and he could not shred them directly from within the fabric of reality. Where the hell were they all coming from?
He landed next to Moody's corpse. The tough old veteran looked smaller, shrunken but peaceful without his furious soul to fuel him. The Eye of Fjolnir spun wildly in his ruined face.
Harry was getting tired of taking fragments of divinity from his dying friends.
He was tangentially aware of Hermione fighting her way through hundreds of the disturbing, twisted dead men with glowing red eyes. While his Queen defended him, he picked up the Eye and once again dove into the infinite soul of divinity.
One does not require more Eyes to see Truth.
Harry's mind overflowed as he understood the Truth of the world around him. He was already aware of the infinite Dark, but now he could See it. He could Know it. The Eye of Fjolnir, Truesight of Souls, briefly appeared in the center of his forehead and his vision tripled, his Third Eye now open and beholding the very fabric of the universe. He could see the sparks of others far more clearly than ever before, could see their wants and hopes and dreams. His enhanced brain struggled to process and catalog the vast swell of information that flooded his mind.
Luckily, the Eye also retreated within his soul as he mastered the fragment. He hadn't been looking forward to explaining the huge electric blue eye in the middle of his forehead.
Unluckily, he could now perceive the true depth of their plight.
The Castle was dying.
The monsters flooded through every corridor by the hundreds. Over every wall by the thousands, crushing and eating the screaming children as they fled.
He could feel it. Feel their bones break and their flesh tear as they died.
He could feel the remaining pockets of resistance, huddled in corners and barricaded in dormitories. He could feel Neville slaughtering his way through the school with unbridled fury, a hurricane of death as he hunted for survivors. He could feel Luna holding her shield against the onslaught in the Great Hall with as many students as she could fit under her indestructible bubble.
"Not so cocky now, are you, Potter?"
Draco Malfoy stepped out of the door where the monsters originated.
What.
"The Dark Lord will finally show you once and for all that-"
Harry shredded Malfoy's body from within and the blond exploded in a shower of blood like an especially morbid piñata.
The students were still dying.
He almost froze with indecision and overwhelming horror until he heard his Queen's voice in his head.
Save them, Harry. I'll take care of the monsters. You don't have to fight alone anymore.
Save them all, my Knight.
Harry pressed his hand to the stone floor of his home and bonded his power with the Soul of the Castle.
With the Truesight of Souls, he could see and feel every spark left alive in the ancient fortress.
With the Shroud of Death, he could not be contained.
With the Blade of the Castle, he could not be shackled.
With the Elder Wand, he could overcome any barrier, as long as he had the strength.
Emerald power spilled from his eyes and his enhanced body quivered with the sheer volume of magic he forced through it.
With a thunderous crack that broke the very air around him, he shattered the wards of Hogwarts.
And apparated every remaining soul in the castle to safety.
Every soul except for his Queen.
…
Tears dropped from Hermione's chin as she flew over the bodies.
So many bodies.
Her friends. Her teachers. An unknown number gone to the Dark forever.
Even through her tears, she allowed her rage to burn with frozen fire.
How dare Voldemort do this. How dare Malfoy do this, of all people.
Monsters ran rampant in her castle. This could not stand.
She floated in the middle of the ruined Great Hall, the ceiling reflecting the smoke rising in the sky overhead. Her power flowed from her, and she flooded every corner of her castle with sapphire magic.
She closed her eyes.
She had always known just how deep her power could truly go. She knew the devastation that she could cause if she allowed herself to break the shackles of her mercy.
The monsters deserved none.
I am the Ice Queen.
Harry's dramatic tendencies were definitely rubbing off on her.
Absolute Zero.
Deep within the Dark of the fabric of reality, all motion stopped.
The building blocks of the world stood motionless as she held them within her frozen power.
The castle was still. The demons hung like statues where they froze.
All sound ceased. At its most basic definition, sound was motion, and there was none here.
There was no ice, no frost, no indication of the horror taking place beneath the surface. Ice would require the vapors in the air to move and crystals to form. Any change would be something, and within her Kingdom there was nothing.
Here, where the cold was absolute, the world was perfect and still.
Hermione let out a frozen breath and opened her shining, ice-blue eyes. She imbued the stone and the remaining fixtures that contained the soul of the castle with her power so they wouldn't crumble to dust when heat returned to the world.
She relaxed her grip and the frozen vortex of true cold exploded forth as the world was allowed to move once again, the particles of reality starting to adjust as kinetic energy quickly filtered in from outside the desolation. Ice raced over every surface as any water within the air froze instantly. The air cracked and grew sluggish and dense as the nitrogen and oxygen solidified, immediately liquified, then evaporated from the energy trickling in from the world around them.
Within it all, the demons died. The bodies shattered.
The ancient castle became a tomb with a single soul left standing.
The Queen in her dead Castle.
…
Harry, Neville and Luna stood with the survivors on the burned wasteland of Hangleton. It was the first place Harry could think of that was far enough away from the Castle and safe from the prying eyes of the mundanes.
All around him, the remaining teachers helped organize and comfort the students. Helped them figure out who was gone.
He turned to his friends. "I need to get back to Albus as soon as I can. Should we wait for Hermione or go to the cave by the sea now?"
He was saved from answering when Hermione appeared next to him and threw her arms around him.
Harry… I… I killed them all.
You did perfectly, Hermione. You can breathe now. Are you ready to go save Albus?
She nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes. Harry was just turning back to Neville and Luna when a flash of fire appeared above him.
On reflex, he caught the tiny flightless phoenix chick that fell into his hands.
Shit.
He stared into the Fawkes' fledgling eyes and felt the small spark of the Immortal Fire reach out for his soul, the flame's power all but spent.
He reached out and wrapped its quivering soul in his own as the fragment mourned the loss of its greatest master.
Tears leaked from his eyes as his magic sang the mournful tune in harmony with the phoenix song. The connection between them grew stronger until the grieving fragment of divinity took refuge to recover within his soul.
He closed his hand as the phoenix chick disappeared, clenching his fists and facing his friends. He also saw McGonagall and several other teachers staring at him with despair.
"I'm sorry, everyone. Dumbledore has fallen. Voldemort has returned, far greater and more terrible than before. We have to go. I'm sorry, for everything. We will try and return when, if, the Dark Lord is defeated."
He looked at the terrified faces of the remaining students. He knew that there was no going back to the way things were, not after this. The Castle may not have fallen completely, but all of their souls were broken.
He thought that he had braced himself for the worst news of the evening. In hindsight, he should have known better.
A shimmering, silver wolf bounded through the air and skidded to a stop in front of the surprised group. It spoke rapidly in Amelia Bones' voice.
"Come at once, Voldemort is destroying London."
Shit.
…