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Chapter 33
"Well, if it isn't the lopsided Dark Lord come to say hello," Harry quipped.
Predictably, Voldemort was not a fan of Harry's wit and showed his displeasure by pointing his wand at Harry and shouting, "Avada kedavra!"
Harry had a shield made of earth ready to block the curse even before Voldemort had finished the incantation. Of course it didn't survive the hit, but Harry pointed his wand at the nearest death eater and cast "Oppugno." All the shrapnel shot like bullets towards the masked figure. A quick follow up Expelliarmus, and the Death Eater could do nothing to defend himself. He was pelted with rocks and was either unconscious or dead before they could think to do anything. If he was honest, Harry didn't care which. "Honestly Tom where do you find your followers? I know school kids who would have put up a better defence than that."
Voldemort snarled at being called Tom but didn't say anything about it. Instead, he freed his left arm from his robes, revealing a silver arm and hand replacing the one that Harry had cut off a year ago. "Not so lopsided anymore Potter, and I really should thank you. This arm is a definite improvement over the last one." Then he withdrew an ordinary rock from his pocket with the new shiny hand and crashed it into dust. "This ends today Potter, you and me or I will start killing your little friends." He signalled to a Death Eater who was hidden from Harry's view by one of the stagecoaches, and a number of masked men walked into view, each one dragging a student. Ginny, Luna, Colin, and another girl from their year, Demelza Robins. None of them were being particularly cooperative with the Death Eaters who were holding them, but as none of them had their wands and their hands were tied with what Harry assumed were conjured ropes there wasn't much they could do though.
Harry felt a surge of panic when Ginny saw an opportunity and slammed her head full on into the mask of the man holding her, and then sprinted away when the unknown asshole let her loose so that he could grab at his face. Harry instantly started to fling spells to try and cover her escape, but Voldemort was faster and Ginny suddenly found herself flying backwards. The man that was at the centre of her nightmares grabbed hold of her while batting away Harry's spells with a flick of his wand.
"Well, what do we have here? A blood traitor from a whole line of blood traitors. Tell me Potter, how willing are you to fire deadly curses at me while I have this bit of trash to act as my shield?" He then laughed at Harry, who felt his anger surge at that. Voldemort was right, Harry couldn't use any kind of powerful damaging magic while Voldemort was holding a hostage. He was a good shot, he had practised a lot for the Triwizard and accuracy was one of the things he had focused on. However, Voldemort and Ginny were far enough away that he could easily move Ginny into the spell's path. Any normal spells like Stupefy that he tried were easily shielded against.
Harry tried to think of what he could do. He could Step so he was directly behind Voldemort, but Voldemort's wand was pointed right in Ginny's neck. All it would take is a thought from Voldemort and Ginny would have the opportunity to join the headless hunt. And as quick as Harry was, if Voldemort saw Harry vanish there was no way Harry was quicker than a thought.
Still the best he could do was stall. Hermione and the others were getting as many people away from here as they could. It wouldn't be long before the cavalry arrived, even if they would have to fight themselves through the ring of Death Eaters who were currently driving back any students brave enough to fight or stupid enough to try to stay and watch. The only consolation was that there were enough baby Death Eaters among the students that the fully grown ones weren't risking the use of any spells that could be deadly or leave permanent harm.
Harry suddenly had to jump back as a green curse came flying at him from his left. Surprisingly, Voldemort was outraged by this. Then shockingly to Harry, Voldemort cast the killing curse at the Death Eater who had just tried to kill Harry. Voldemort's curse struck true and the masked man fell dead. Voldemort screamed out so that everyone could hear him, "I told you all Potter is mine! None may kill him but me! I will show everyone who questions me that I am the most powerful wizard of the age, not this brat."
So that was what this was about. Voldemort had run from Harry last year and it had hurt his reputation as an unstoppable force. This entire attack was built around Voldemort killing him and proving that what happened was a fluke. Now, could Harry use that? Voldemort once again cast the killing curse at Harry, but this time instead of shielding Harry jumped to the side and returned fire with his own Stupefy. Harry's thought was that if he missed and hit Ginny, the poor girl frozen in fear would become a lot harder to hold up, hopefully making it easier for Harry to hit Voldemort with his next spell.
Voldemort, however, was able to bat Harry's spells back at him with little effort. Harry batted the spell himself towards another Death Eater that looked to be standing and preventing Harry from running away. This suggested that perhaps Voldemort didn't know about his ability to Step. Did Voldemort think it was regular apparition? Did he assume that Harry had a portkey in the graveyard? Or did he think it was a convenient case of accidental magic? Harry's spell went wide of the Death Eater and sped off to hit a tree in the nearby forest. At that moment the cavalry finally showed up. However, it wasn't a squad of Aurors like Harry was hoping for. Instead it was Dumbledore, dressed in overly garish bright yellow robes, his long grey beard smoking slightly, who flamed in with his phoenix.
At that moment, Harry didn't care what history he may have with the former headmaster. He didn't care that for a whole year of the country being involved in a civil war, the only times he and his family had been targeted was when they were outside of the school's protection, a massive contrast to his time there with Dumbledore in charge. No, all Harry cared about was that there was a powerful wizard who was going to fight by his side.
"What! How did you get here so quickly?" Voldemort hissed at Dumbledore.
"I have known you for most of your life, Tom. It was obvious to me that you would try to kill Mr. Potter, just as it was obvious that thanks to Mr. Potter showing the world how beatable you are, you don't have the manpower to storm the castle. Factor in your impatience, and the fact that you had your men preparing for an operation rather than out making raids, made it clear exactly what window of opportunity you would try to exploit."
"Well it matters little." Voldemort sneered at Dumbledore. "You, unlike Potter, don't have the stomach to kill or maim even me. And while Potter has that killer instinct, he won't use anything particularly lethal while I have this." He shook Ginny a little to show what he was referring to. "If I didn't, I have no doubt Potter that you would open by trying to chop my limbs off."
"I was thinking I'd start with your head," Harry confirmed, adding "See how well you flee from death without it." He was far from fluent in French still, but he had had regular lessons for nine months now and he could hold a simple conversation well enough to be understood, and he knew enough French to understand the meaning of Tom's nom de guerre.
Behind Voldemort Harry saw one of the Death Eaters collapse and vanish, and his blood went cold. There were a number of explanations for that, but the one he considered the most likely was that Hermione had called for either Dobby or Sassy and had them bring her his invisibility cloak. He just hoped she knew what she was doing, and that buying her some time to do her work was the right thing to do.
Voldemort chuckled. "You and I are so alike, Harry."
Harry couldn't help himself and quipped, "Neither of us have had a good hair day for over fifteen years?"
Voldemort completely ignored him, but Harry thought he saw Ginny's mouth twitch as she held back a smile. As bad as her situation was, both Harry and Dumbledore, the two people who terrified He-Who-Was-Currently-Holding-Her-Hostage, were there to save her. Harry was even cracking jokes at Voldemort's expense.
Tom continued. "Both of us orphans, both of us ostracised growing up. I saw your aunt and uncle's memories after I received your letter. Harsh environments that awoke in us that killer instinct."
Harry watched another Death Eater fall and vanish at the hands of someone invisible as he said, "Sorry, but you and I are different. You kill because it makes you feel powerful, because something is in your way. When you kill, you give little thought to it beyond how it will affect you. I don't do that. I kill not for me, but to protect people I love. You and your band of blood bigots are a threat to everyone around you, and when I kill one of your inbred sociopaths I don't enjoy it. It's like drinking a potion, tastes awful but necessary."
"Then you are a fool, Potter. There is power and there is weakness. The purpose of power is to rid yourself of weakness, whether it is weakness in those around you or weakness in yourself it needs to be driven away by the most expedient method possible. Like this girl for instance, she is one of your weaknesses, although not your biggest one. Those would be the kitty cat and the French tart. This one, however, was left unguarded, so she was easy to turn against you. If it was me in your position, I would just kill her myself. If you rid yourself of the weakness of caring for others, you could fight me at your full potential. With Dumbledore here, it's even likely you could win the fight. But you are too much of a bleeding heart to do that. You embrace your weakness like a fool. That's why you will never defeat Lord Voldemort."
Good, Harry thought. If Tom was going to rant like this, then he was eating into the precious moments that Harry would need to hold him off before more help from the Aurors arrived. However, he hadn't seen any more random Death Eaters fall during voldemort's little speech, so he was worried for Hermione. He hadn't heard her fall, so she was probably sneaking somewhere out of his line of sight, though Harry wished that she would have abandoned the fight and ran. Still, he knew that was a fool's hope, neither of the women he hoped to spend the rest of his life with were the type to run from a fight if someone they loved was stuck fighting. Both were the type who would rather die by his side than live wishing that they had at least tried.
The other Weasleys had apparently now worked out where Ginny was, because he could hear their shouted spells off to the side as they tried to fight past the Death Eaters to get to their baby sister. Harry had no clue if they were winning or not, and he didn't dare to look and see as he would have to turn his back on Voldemort, something he was sure would not only be suicide for him but would probably be the fastest way to get Ginny killed when voldemort no longer needed her as a shield.
"Don't worry about m-!" Ginny tried to shout encouragement to Harry, but a quick poke from Voldemort's wand and Ginny's mouth kept moving but no sound came from her lips.
"Quiet you. Shields don't need to talk." Voldemort snarled at her.
Harry used the opportunity to fire a stunner, hoping that Voldemort would have been too distracted dealing with Ginny that his spell would get through. Unfortunately, Voldemort swatted the spell aside and shot Harry a glare. The spell would have hit Voldemort in the face even at this distance, telling the Dark Lord that even with a hostage to act as a shield he wasn't completely safe.
After that it became a waiting game, which felt like an hour but was probably less than a minute. They all knew what was going to happen. One of them would lose their nerve first and try to cast the first spell. Whoever tried to cast first would be the most open to a counter attack. Technically, Harry and Dumbledore had each other to cover them, but Harry certainly didn't trust Dumbledore enough to risk casting first. Voldemort was certainly intelligent enough to know it was bad for him to cast first. The logical person to fire the first spell was Dumbledore, but the old man seemed happy enough to just stand there looking like the poster boy for serenity and senility rolled up into one.
It turned out not to be any of them who broke first, but Ginny. The youngest Weasley had apparently gotten sick of being held by the man who had once possessed her and forced her to do horrible things. So she did what many young women do while being restrained by a creepy old man; she kicked him in the nuts. It wasn't a powerful kick, the angle just wasn't right and she was kicking behind her. Despite this, as any man will tell you, even a weak hit there will cause a lot of pain. Voldemort grabbed at his abused crotch and inadvertently let Ginny go at the same time, who wasted no time in trying to run. And with the hostage clear and his opening distracted, Harry wasted no time firing spell after spell. He used a combination of slicing, piercing, and bludgeoning hexes.
Unfortunately, Voldemort still had enough of his wits about him to not only defect the attacks, but in a fit of revenge-filled rage he actually reflected Harry's cutting curse at Ginny's back. Luckily for Harry, it seemed that some of the distrust he had with Dumbledore was unfounded, as the old man conjured up a flock of songbirds in the path of the spell. The poor birds were ripped apart by Harry's spell, but Ginny was fine and kept running. As the birds took the hit, Harry felt one of the smaller knots of tension in his stomach disappear and a wave of relief flood him. Voldemort, however, was in no mood to let the girl escape; he pointed his wand at Ginny's back and silently cast.
The spell shot out from Voldemort's wand, and Harry tried to transfigure another ground shield. That spell had worked well for Harry so far because of two factors: Voldemort had been using the killing curse, which had a long incantation, and Harry was quite a bit back from Voldemort. Those two facts had given Harry the time to make a shield that can stop the unforgivable curse. Ginny had neither of those factors in her favour and Harry just wasn't fast enough. Dumbledore tried more birds, but a shield like that was full of holes and luck was a factor. This time the spell flew right between the birds, not even slowing down. Harry could only watch as Ginny dashed onward, the expression on her face changing from determination to surprise and then to horror as the perching hex hit her in the back, smashed its way through her, and then out of her chest, leaving a gaping hole where her heart used to be.
Ginny tried to scream, maybe to beg for help, maybe to shout to her brothers that she loved them, and maybe even to Harry to thank him for trying or curse him for failing. Harry didn't know, because Ginny was still under Voldemort's silencing charm, and even the freedom of her last words were denied her. Then, something more horrifying than anything Harry had ever seen before started. Thick black smoke started to billow from her mouth, her nose, and even the new hole in her chest. It made Harry's skin crawl and his scar ache. Then, Voldemort's face formed in the billowing black smoke, locked in an expression of pain.
It was just like the smoke that had come from Quirrell years ago in the fight over the stone. Harry was sure it was some type of dark magic attack Voldemort was doing. Harry turned to look, hoping that if he could cast spells quick enough then he could disrupt whatever spell was being prepared. However, he didn't see Voldemort hurriedly reciting an incantation or anything like that. No, Voldemort was staring at his own face forming in the cloud, a look of pure horror on his face.
The face in the smoke turned towards Voldemort and started flying right at him. A split second later, the smoke was doing a very good job of shoving itself down Voldemort's throat, even as more and more spewed forth from the dying Ginny Weasley, pain and sadness etched into the poor girl's face. Harry wanted to do something for her, but it wasn't a cut or a broken bone. She was beyond all but maybe the most skilled of healers, and had no time to get to them. Even if he stepped her straight to St Mungo's, she didn't even have long enough for them to call a healer, let alone start treating her.
Harry felt a resolve snap into place. Voldemort may have a way to survive death, but that didn't mean that he couldn't be killed. And while this strange magic was happening, Voldemort was vulnerable. Harry had the opportunity to do something. He Stepped, appearing right behind Voldemort just like he had done at Easter with the Death Eaters who were attacking his house. Now that he was so close, Harry could hear Voldemort was trying to scream in pain, but the smoke focusing itself into his lungs was muffling the sound. It sounded excruciating, like Voldemort was suffering from the Cruciatus. Harry guessed that was why Voldemort hadn't noticed Harry behind him and why he did nothing to defend himself when Harry overpowered a cutting hex, and just like he said he would, he separated Voldemort's head from his body. The black smoke was now billowing back out of Voldemort's body, but instead of one face this time there were two forming in the mist, both Voldemort's face.
It was only now that all the fighting stopped as people from both sides were too distracted by the spectacle of two Voldemort wraiths screaming in pain as they were forcibly merged into one entity. Harry's scar now felt like it was on fire, but he ignored it. Harry was too blinded by his rage to care about something as trivial as a bit of pain. Instead, he pointed his wand at the rolling mass of black smoke and cast the only spell he knew that was likely to have any effect; the hottest Incendio that he had ever seen. He pumped as much magic into the spell as he could, even though he knew there was almost no hope that the fire would kill the wraiths. No, what he wanted was to hurt them, to punish them for what they had done to Ginny. Harry's fury was so bad that he was pouring all his magic and emotions into the fire, and the fire responded by burning white hot.
One wraith came flying out of the fire, and for a split second Harry had hoped he had destroyed one. However, the lone wraith was larger than either of the two, and it now had a torso and an arm so it was quickly apparent that they had merged. The wraith flew directly at Harry, who stepped back and tried to dodge out of the way, but his vision was spotty from the flame he had just cast and the wraith was pretty much on top of him before Harry even tried to move.
The wrath reached for Harry, only for Harry to suddenly start glowing green. Not the green of the killing curse, but the same green as his eyes. When the smoke had reached for Harry obviously meaning him harm, the green light solidified and the smoky hand drew back as though it was burned. The green light separated from Harry and it too formed a head, then a torso, and then a whole woman as the echo of his mother once more stood between Harry and Voldemort.
"Get away from my son!" Echo Lily shouted. A wand seemed to form in her hand and she pointed it at wraith Voldemort. It wasn't a spell, as there was no incantation or wand movement, but a stream of the green energy that made up Echo Lily struck at Voldemort from the tip of her wand. The energy from the wand had the same effect on the wraith as it had when it touched it while trying to grab at Harry.
Voldemort's wraith recoiled, and with a last hateful look at Harry and the echo of his mother standing protectively in front of him called out, "This isn't the end, Potter. I am immortal, I will rise again, and when I do I will kill you." He then turned and fled faster than anyone could follow. Seeing their Lord retreat broke the Death Eaters from their stupor, and the ones that could quickly started Apparating and portkeying away.
Harry stood there for a minute, just staring at the green energy in the shape of his mother as she stood there smiling at him. He tried to reach out and hug her, but the instant Harry touched Echo Lily's energy she popped like a balloon. Harry was just about to lose it, terrified that he had now lost the echo of his mother to the so-called Dark Lord as well. However, the remaining energy quickly absorbed back into Harry, and as it did he got a feeling, one that wasn't his, that he realised had to be his mother's. It was pride, her pride in him for what he had done.
Harry understood. He may not have stopped Voldemort before he had killed Ginny, but he had stood before one of the world's most dangerous monsters and had set himself against it without flinching or backing down. And while he hadn't been perfect, she was proud of him anyway. How he understood that, he had no clue. It probably had something to do with sharing his brain space with the echo. But in any case he did understand and it helped keep him centred.
Harry then had to fight off a wave of fatigue, but he didn't have time to collapse right now. The students were starting to come back, morbid curiosity driving them to come and look at the aftermath. Harry started barking orders at the stunned students, and was only a little surprised when they started following them. He sent a group of students to run up to the castle and inform Professor McGonagall and to get Madam Pomfrey. He sent another group to the clinic he had visited in Hogsmeade for his cousin last Christmas to get them to send some healers. He had older students conjure sheets to put over the dead bodies, and the rest of them to stay well back from the battleground so the D.M.L.E. could examine the scene before a bunch of kids walked all over it. The biggest surprise, though, was that Dumbledore started asking the students to do things as well and almost everyone he asked looked to Harry for approval. As Dumbledore's requests were reasonable, he agreed.
Harry then spotted a group of redheads trying to fight through the crowd. He wanted to run, to not be here, to just go and find Hermione, Daphne, and Tracey and find out what happened to his family. But he had to stay. Harry had the crowd let the Weasley brothers through, and when they approached, looking like they were begging Harry to say it wasn't true, all he could do was point to one of the body-covered sheets.
The twins kneeled down next to the body and pulled back the sheet, exposing Ginny's face. Harry wanted to leave, to look away, he didn't want to see his friends break at the sight of their dead sister. But he couldn't. Predictably, the three Weasley boys broke down, Ron collapsing onto the ground next to his sister and pulling her into his chest as he started to rock back and forth.
Harry couldn't look away until he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see a crying Hermione who herself was now having trouble looking away from where her friend lay dead. Harry pulled her into a hug, and only then, when he and Hermione were holding each other up, did he let go and start to sob for the girl who had truly become his friend this year.
A/N
Okay some may be confused as to why Ginny died and Harry lived. According to canon,having a Horcrux in you has nothing to do with surviving death. Harry survived because of Voldemort using Harry's blood to build his new body. Here is a quote from the original.
"He took your blood and rebuilt his living body with it! Your blood in his veins, Harry, Lily's protection inside both of you! He tethered you to life while he lives!"
This means that surviving was a Harry-only thing and as Harry just killed that body he just lost his "get out of the afterlife free" card.
Thanks to Ec1ipsis who helped me with some of the lore for this chapter.
It has also been decided that chapter 34 will be the last chapter of drawing the lines. The story will of course continue with the fourth book in the series that currently has a working title of "Cry Havoc".
As always I look forward to reading your comments