Chapter 18. meet your end, Apemort

Near Riddle house, Little Hangleton, October 31st 1995

"why did I even agree to this?" Marcus thought bitterly the hundredth time that day. Ever since hearing Augustus Rookwood, be it under the influence of insanity wards, mention "the other prophecy", the wizard could not shake off the feeling of it being important. Nudged by Regulus, he even pulled Harry out of school for one Saturday in September, to go to the Department of mysteries and hear the entire thing. Not that it helped – the prediction was too straightforward to give any hope. Harry, despite being only fifteen, had to either kill Voldemort or die trying. But then, what could "the power the dark lord knows not" be? It couldn't as well be love or some such nonsense Dumbledore spouted when asked, could it now? Teamwork though… Marcus, Regulus, Harry and a couple house elves (Dobby and Alexa, with Hermes for backup) would be enough, considering the form Voldemort was stuck in. through those and similar thoughts, a plan was born – get the sword of Gryffindore and let Potter do the honors at Halloween. But as if the devil himself would have it, Marcus' carefully laid plan was derailed a week after being perfected, by a single word meaning unknown number of obstacles.

Horcruxs (yes, as in plural).

Flashback

"why do you keep this… abomination alive?" – Marcus demanded one September day after Regulus' daily report on the ape's misdeeds. "cant you just… chop her head off or something?" no matter how powerful of a dark lord she was in the past, a baboon, magically created or not, was as mortal as… well, a monkey.

Regulus just shook his head tiredly. A shadow of horror passed over his face, and what he said was nothing Marcus expected to hear: "I really don't want to talk about it, but Voldemort has made sure to stay alive as long as possible. Do you remember that locket we cleansed to save Kreacher? Or how we closed Harry's link with that madman?" the wizard nodded in recollection, not really understanding where the unspeakable was going with those horrid memories. After all, cleansing Harry took almost all of their magic (they vowed never, ever to do that again to a living soul) and after seeing the locket, Regulus had to obliviate himself to stop the nightmares. the next proclamation though shocked Marcus to the bone: "today I accidentally stumbled upon true scale of Lady Apemort's insanity. Memories from the time she was a he show five other horcruxes: a diary, Gaunt family ring, Ravenclaw's diadem, Hufflepuffs' cup and his familliar, a green vine snake he enhanced and made venomous." Too shocked to reply, Marcus threw incredulous glance at the other man – making a single soul container was considered the most atrotious act of magic, but seven? How was this absolutely insane dark lord walking the earth on his own two feet, let alone casting spells? and, more importantly, how was a fifteen-year-old supposed to vanquish the madman with seven lives? On the other hand, was he supposed to act alone? perhaps, and possibly very likely, not. Even though he vowed not to change the past too much, Marcus Longhurst decided then and there – he, alongside Regulus and maybe a couple house elves, will help his not godson.

End flashback

Thus the strange party of three wizards (one clearly underage) and two house elves (a short distance away under heavy disillusionment) found themselves at Little Hangleton in the morning of Halloween. The scene was reminiscent of a ritual, if someone happened to stumble upon it accidentally: four lead boxes holding a ring, a diadem, a cup and a stunned snake formed a square around a holly tree halfway between the Riddle house and the road but far enough from the latter to not be spotted by locals. Tied to the tree with elfmade ropes sat lady Apemort, her red eyes glazed over from numerous calming draughts the unspeakables had force fed her since June. despite of it being late morning and the sun bathing the village in light, the entire area around the gathering was cloaked in impermeable shadows, both from the tree and dark magic. Harsh October wind, so unforgivingly ripping apart the remaining leaves off the greenery, seemed to avoid the spot where history was about to be written. Even birds kept giving a wide berth to the tree – so much dark magic leaked from the boxes below it…

For a good ten minutes after aperating to Little Hangleton, no one dared even breathe too loudly, let alone move or start what had to be done. Finally Marcus' patience snapped: "are we going to stand here all day, or do this?" after all, he and Regulus were preparing for that moment since September, gathering information and horcruxes. The diary, as they learned, was destroyed three years ago by Harry. The diadem was easy to get (house elves at Hogwarts were more than willing to lead an unspeakable to the room of requirement), but other treasures were not. The thrice be damned ring had more protections on it than Hogwarts and Gringats put together, not to mention that most of them required a Parseltongue password, and one particularly horrible curse which would have burned an adult wizard from inside out was combined with a compulsion to wear the thing. The cup appeared to be locked up in the Lestrange vault in Gringats, making it nearly impossible to retrieve. Fortunately, elves and goblins were more than willing to cooperate, and Alexa's diplomatic skills saved the wizards from needing to break into the bank. But the most difficult by far was the snake – all the attempts to talk the beast into submition by two Babel tower brew Parselmouths almost ended up in Marcus getting bitten. Because of the danger, it was decided to cleanse the living vessel first, followed by the ring, the cup and the diadem.

"right as always" – Regulus wasn't so certain of their plan, but had no choice other than go with a flow. "release the snake." Hands shaking, Marcus enovated the reptile. it started cursing immediately after sensing freedom of movement, be it limited by its magically neutral cage. Marcus struggled not to reply (with Babel tower brew stil working, he couldn't stand someone as brainwashed as that beast insulting his mother), but the unspeakable vanished the lid of the box. The runic containment field activated, two patroni aimed at the snake's head entered it, a black cloud rose, signaling the successful extraction of a horcrux… yet something didn't feel right. the dark mass was way larger than what came out of the locket or Harrys scar. When it dispersed, everyone was struck speechless. After all, it isn't every day one sees a seventy something Asian-looking woman in place of the evilest snake in Britain break the restraining enchantment, leap gracefully out of the box, nod in thanks and hurry away as if nothing happened. Despite the strangeness of it all, the shock was short-lived – the wizards had other abominations to send on their way.

Next on the list was the Gaunt family ring, after that the cup and the diadem would follow, and finally the (not so) dark lord himself. after the surprise appearance of who had to be freed maledictus, extracting other horcruxes felt somehow… anti-climactic. Cleansing non-living things was way much easier than live ones, so the trio decided to split their work. Harrys stag attacked the ring (which tried to trick the boy into wearing it), Marcus' double guardian kicked the darkness out of the goblet, and Regulus' sharp-beaked protector pecked the diadem clean. No one noticed Lady Apemort straining in vane against her bindings, eyes flaming with unimaginable malice, right hand trying to reach and touch the non-existent dark mark (the unspeakables were no fools to leave it uncared of). No one heard her growls and screams, baboon equivalent of cursing. Only when the horcruxes were dealt with did the trio draw their attention to the ape, and it didn't end well for the beast.

At first they thought about ending the dark lord with a patronus, but it only enraged the abomination more. wind started swirling around the tree, sparks flying to all directions, almost setting the ropes on fire. Elven shield rose over the wizards, their own protective charms strengthenning it from the sides. The fiery storm lashed, tongues of flame brushing against the impromptu dome, which cracked and sputtered from the pressure alone. the two elves dropped their disillusionment to pour more magic into reinforcing their shell, as little of a help it would be. "Dobby, Hermes, do something!" – Alexa's desperate voice rose over the wind. The shield could not stand any more heat or pressure… then out of a sudden, Harry let a cry of surprise and charged, jeweled sword in hand.

"meet your end, Apemort!" the words left Harry's mouth of their own accord, after realizing what sword he was holding. The blade of Gryffindore had responded to him again, and now was the time to put it to good use. Time to make Voldemort pay for orphaning him, for ruining professor Quirrell, for Jinny Weasley suffering nightmares since three years ago, and every other crime. The beast just cackled coldly, losing his concentration on the storm. Harry used that moment to charge forward, sword flashing in weak sunlight. His hand moved seemingly on its own; one second, evil cackles of a deranged ape echoed through the fields, the other – severed head of a baboon was rolling on the ground. A barely visible black spec escaped the quickly disintegrating body, disappearing above the foliage. The head, having no resistance to basilisk venom the sword was soked in, turned into dust even faster than the body. At the end everything that left of Voldemort was his left earlobe, few leg and arm bones, and a pool of blood. Barty Crouch's earlobe, bones of a baboon from London zoo, and Harry Potter's willingly given blood.

For several minutes no one dared speak or move, the same as before everything started. The sword had disappeared to wherever it was stored, the elves reapplied their disillusionment but stood close to their wizards for the trip home. A barely audable cheer rose to the skies out of nowhere (or precisely from Hermes' lips) joined by another elf's voice, then another of a wizard, then two other… "we did it! we did it!" the company of six chanted louder and louder, til Alexa, ever the rational one, threw a wide area silencing charm to cut the celebration short. "let's get out of here", she instructed. "you don't want to get questioned by the aurors just yet, do you?" "alright, Grimmauld place then", Marcus sighed. The elf was right as always: aurors will be showing up at any moment to investigate the mysterious huge discharges of magic near muggle settlement. no matter that most of them were caused by the baboon messing around, no one wanted to risk being caught. With the last whisper of "meet your end, Apemort!" each wizard grabbed their elf's hand and popped away.