Okay, so now that I've revealed all the extra information that was hidden in the fourth and fifth books of the series, I think it's time to try predicting the outcome of the final battle. From now on, everything you read will be my interpretation of the closing scenes of the 7th book. It gets a little confusing in parts ...
Oh, and I'll be giving out bonus marks to anyone who can spot Dumbledore's appearance in this chapter.
“Hermione, over here!” Harry called, running, almost tumbling, down the grassy slope. He couldn’t be sure, but there seemed to be a rectangular kind of shape to the piles of moss-covered stones.
Gasping for breath, Hermione stumbled into the hollow from the opposite side to Harry, pulling twigs out of her hair as she ran. “Are you sure?”
“Look ” the front door would’ve been there, right?” Harry pointed. “And you can still see the stove in the place where the kitchen used to be.”
He sat down on the remains of a wall, his legs suddenly weak.
“I don’t know, Harry,” said Hermione. “These ruins look really old, and it’s only been ” what? ” sixteen years?”
“Hagrid said the house was destroyed,” said Harry dully. “This is it. I know it.”
Hermione sat down next to him and for a few minutes they listened to the silence.
“Um ... Harry?” said Hermione.
“Yeah?”
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to say to you for ” well ” for ages, really.”
Feeling unaccountably nervous, Harry leapt to his feet. “I wonder where the others have got to.”
“I always thought it must be really obvious, but you’ve never said anything so maybe I was wrong. These last few years I’ve ””
CRACK!
“Ron!” bellowed Harry, frantically waving his arms. With a muffled yelp, Hermione fell off the wall. “Ooops ” sorry, Hermione,” he said, helping her up. “I didn’t realise you were so close to me.”
Smiling sheepishly, Ron trotted across the hollow. “Sorry ” sorry,” he said. “We misheard you ” ended up at Spaldrick’s Hollow instead: apparated right in the middle of a wedding! Neville’s modifying all their memories now. And Luna reckoned you probably meant ””
“And you’ve left him to do that all on his own, have you?” said Hermione, narrowing her eyes.
“Well, you know how good he is ... ”
Harry moved a few paces away; they were his best friends and he loved them both, but their constant arguing was just so boring. He kicked a small pebble over the wall. There was a tiny, almost inaudible, “Ouch!” But, when he looked around, he couldn’t see anyone else nearby who might have said it. He shrugged. What did it matter, anyway? It was Midsummer’s Day and his parents’ house was a ruin.
With a CRACK! and a CRACK! Neville and Luna appeared at the top of the slope. They ran down to join the others.
“Right,” said Harry, speaking determinedly loudly so that Hermione and Ron would get the message and shut up. “Here we are, then.”
Everyone was looking at him curiously, and he couldn’t really blame them. They’d followed him here, at a moment’s notice, without once questioning him; but clearly it was time for an explanation.
“Right,” he said again. “Um.”
“Harry?” said Ron. “Mate? Just before you disapparated I was going to ask you, you know, why? Why Godric’s Hollow? Why today? What’s going on? Is You-Know-Who (shut UP, Hermione!) here?”
“Wands out, is it?” said Neville, peering over the wall as if he thought a gang of Death Eaters might be hiding there.
Harry swallowed nervously. It had seemed so logical when the idea first popped into his mind ...
“OK,” he took a deep breath. “I just thought that we’ve been waiting all year, for practically the whole book, for Voldemort to show his face ” and nothing’s happened. And then I realised that I’ve never been here before, despite its deeply potent symbolism in the story of my life. Plus it’s Midsummer’s Day which is very significant, according to Luna. And, since it’s nearly the end of the book, I thought it was probably best to give Voldemort a good chance of getting near me ” because he’s clearly not going to manage it while I’m inside Hogwarts. Er. And that’s it.”
“And what will you do if or when Voldemort appears, Harry?” said Hermione, with a look of deep sympathy.
“You know ” use my Special Power,” said Harry.
Neville and Luna frowned in puzzlement.
By way of explanation, Ron said, “Paperclips.”
“Ah,” said Luna, nodding.
“Huh?” said Neville.
Biting her lip, Hermione said, “Are you absolutely certain that Dumbledore meant paperclips when he told you about your Special Power?”
“I was there, Hermione, not you!” snapped Harry.
“I know, I know,” said Hermione, “but it was two years ago, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, but you don’t forget something that surreal in a hurry, you know. He spent an hour rambling on about paperclips. I’m telling you: That’s my Special Power.”
Neville smiled uncertainly. “So ...” he said, “are you just going to ... throw paperclips at him, or something?”
“I might,” said Harry, still on the defensive.
“The light’s fading,” murmured Luna.
“Huh?” said Ron, ducking to avoid a small bat.
The hollow was filled with a barrage of CRACK!s.
“Good evening, Potter,” squeaked Lord Voldemort, walking slowly across the grass, Death Eaters forming into a menacing group behind him. Wormtail was floating six feet above the ground, holding six or seven helium balloons in his silver hand, and attached to Lord Voldemort by a rope around his waist. “I’m going to kill you in a moment, but first I intend to waste a few minutes in gloating over your imminent demise ” thus giving you time to formulate evasive tactics of your own.”
“Yeah,” said the unctuous tones of Lucius Malfoy. “You tell him, master.”
“OK,” said Harry. He looked around for his friends, and saw four pairs of eyes peering over the top of the tumbledown wall. “Guys, what are you doing?”
“Neville’s got a plan,” whispered Hermione. “We’re just waiting for the right moment.”
“When’ll that be?” asked Harry, exasperated. “After I’m dead?”
“No, mate,” Ron chuckled. “But try to keep him gloating for as long as you can, alright?”
“Fine. Right,” Harry turned back to Voldemort. “So how exactly do you think you’re going to kill me this time? You know your wand won’t work against me anymore.”
“It’s always worth having another go, don’t you think, Potter?”