Chapter 7: The Last Battle
Harry had a death grip on Ginny’s arm as his other hand helped explain his plan.
“We’ll all go. Ron and Hermione, you work on the Death Eaters and save Malfoy. I’ll rescue Ginny. As soon as I try to touch her, she should return here to her body, where she’ll be safe. Seeing as we’ve found the last of the Horcruxes, this will be the last battle against Voldemort. We’ll need to get as many on our side as we can; the Order, and the DA.”
When everyone was seated in the Weasleys’ living room, Harry quickly explained the plan to the others. Even Fleur was one of those seated around Harry. The whole house shook as the lot of them Apparatedd to Hogsmeade. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in the front of the formation.
Harry gave them all a look that said ‘be careful’ before his eyes narrowed as he spat, “Whoever happens to come across that rat, Lestrange-Let either Neville, Lupin, or myself finish her. With us-it’s personal.”
The small army marched up to the castle until they reached the gate. The three were still in front with Harry in the middle, Ron towering over him to his right, and Hermione to his left. All eyes were set on the doors, waiting for their leader’s signal. A sharp cry ripped through the curtain of thick suspense in the air, and a familiar bright red bird landed on Harry’s shoulder. A flash of lightning crossed the dark sky behind them. Lightning, but no sound of thunder. A confident smile crept across Harry’s determined face as he thrust his wand towards the sky to signal everyone for their wands to be at the ready. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, and Lupin’s wands were pointed at the monstrous door. In one enormous explosion, the door splintered, sending huge shards of wood through a few unlucky enemies on the other side.
Bellatrix Lestrange, Severus Snape, and Lucius Malfoy appeared to be the leaders of the other, considerably large, army. Harry caught the last shard of wood in his left hand and tossed it at Lestrange’s feet.
“I was hoping this one would puncture the empty space where your heart should be,” he spat in disgust.
A crackling laughter split through the air as she shrieked, “Still haven’t forgiven me then, eh, Potter? Hoping to avenge my dear cousin, are you? I suppose you’ll be seeing him soon.”
Harry’s grip on his wand tightened considerably before his voice rang, “I doubt it, and at least my friends are brave enough to show their faces when yours hide behind those masks that none of us fear to look at anyway.”
Lestrange’s eyes narrowed as she snapped her fingers and the Death Eaters pulled off their masks and revealed their true identities.
“Shall we begin then?” she asked, wand pointed at Harry’s chest.
Harry raised his own wand and coolly replied, “Ladies first.”
As soon as Bellatrix Lestrange shrieked, “CRUCIO!”, fifty other curses were set into motion.
Ginny was being dragged around the room as Voldemort paced the Astronomy tower. Why is he so nervous? She snuck a look out of the window after she felt an electrifying shock of lightning strike the tower.
There’s Harry! And Ron! And Hermione! And…oh no…this is it.
“Don't worry, Ginny, our side will surely win. They are outnumbered,” stated Voldemort as he misread her facial expression.
Ginny nodded, smiling evilly, as nervous thoughts raced through her head. She turned back to the window and watched her love dodge curse after curse from the woman who acted like she was her daughter. Ginny was sure she would have died of suffocation from holding in nervous breaths if she still had her body. In one, swift motion, she witnessed her love, her life, her Harry, fall to the ground and twitch in exuberating pain. She could almost hear his screams from the tallest tower of the whole castle. Life slowed down as she watched her laugh repulsively in amusement at his hurting and suffering.
Harry dodged curse after curse, trying to squeeze one or two of his own spells in-between his rapid breaths. Lestrange’s favorite curse took him by surprise, and before he knew it, he found himself on the ground screaming as the pain washed over him. A thousand white-hot blades penetrated every inch of his skin repeatedly, each following the shriek of Lestrange’s piercing laughter.
Ginny watched Harry writhe and scream in agony. Without her body, the only tears shed were the tears on the inside, the healing tears that would have fallen next to her only love if she had a choice in the matter. She eyed his face, feeling his pain spreading through her own soul, and without realizing it, she turned to Voldemort himself and screamed, “STOP IT. PLEASE MAKE HER STOP!”
Voldemort shot a heartless smile at Ginny’s horror-stricken ghost of a face.
“I knew it.”
Ginny turned to the window again.
She’s stopped!
Ginny looked around the grounds. She witnessed her brother yank her best mate out of the way of an incoming curse before kissing her cheek and running off again.
“Hermione!” roared Ron as he threw her out of the way of a killing curse. The curse had missed her by inches. She looked at Ron with a pale face and fearful eyes. As he pecked her on the cheek and sprinted off, praying that it wouldn’t be the last kiss he’d ever plant on her angelic face. My Angel.
The pain suddenly stopped. Harry saw a horror-struck Neville standing behind his torturer’s paralyzed body. He gave Neville a quick nod before running madly up the stairs in search of Voldemort.
The lightning! It struck that tower!
Faster and faster he ran, head pounding, lungs about to burst open, as he made his way over the sea of stairs.
Hermione pulled herself up off of the ground and caught, out of the corner of her eye, Harry making his way up the stairs. She dodged a few spells and jinxes and made her way over to the flight of stairs, taking out whom she thought were Crabbe and Goyle’s parents along the way. She followed Harry, who was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn’t even realize he was being followed, at a short distance. A single tear ran down her cheek at the thought of the secret plan she had to carry out in a few moments.
He’ll never be gone. Not as long as those who remain stay loyal.
She watched Harry slowly open the trapdoor to the room she despised so much, and closed her eyes, concentrating with all her might.
I am Lord Voldemort. I am Lord Voldemort. I am Lord Voldemort. I am Lord Voldemort.
Harry entered the trapdoor with his wand raised and ran to Ginny. He quickly tried to pull her into a hug, but her misty image, of course, disappeared, exactly as planned.
“This is it, boy,” spat Voldemort
“This is it, boy,” whispered Hermione, inaudible to Harry, from down below.
“Only the end for you, Tom,” Harry smirked at his opponent
“Don’t you dare-”
“Call me that!” hissed Hermione
“Tom Marvolo Riddle,” Harry spat.
Hermione thrust out her wand hand as Voldemort pointed his wand at Harry’s chest.
“I might give you-”
“Mercy,” laughed Hermione, with the blank expression and cold eyes that only came over her in her “special dreams”.
“I won't be needing your mercy,” stated Harry as he aimed his own wand.
“CRUC-” shouted Voldemort as Harry easily blocked it; he was getting much better at this.
“Avad-” spoke Hermione softly, not actually meaning to go any further than the first two syllables.
“EXPELLIARMIUS!” shouted Harry, sending Voldemort’s wand flying out of his hand.
“Kill me-”
“Now, Potter,” Hermione whispered with unknown tears filling her lifeless eyes. She would have to die. Die to save everyone else.
Harry was breathing deeply, thinking. He killed my parents. He killed Sirius. He killed Cedric. He killed Dumbledore. He tried to kill Ginny. As if on cue, Ginny had appeared next to him, obviously having learned how to Apparate since she’d been a Death Eater. Apparently, most of the spells surrounding the castle had been taken off since Voldemort had taken over. He looked at Ginny’s beautiful face. He’s murdered so many people. Finish him, NOW!
“Avada Kedavra!” yelled Harry, hatred for Voldemort burning through every inch of his body.
A jet of green light shot out of the end of his wand, and Voldemort fell limply to the floor. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one that fell when Harry shouted his curse.
It worked! Ginny ran to Harry and kissed him softly on the cheek. He wrapped his arms gently around her waist and pulled her into a hug he’d been longing to give her. Then another thought occurred to him. “That was too easy.”
Ron fought beside the last person he would have ever thought possible.
“EXPELLIARMUS!” bellowed Malfoy as a Death Eater to Ron’s right fell to the muddy ground.
Ron gave Malfoy a quick nod and they continued battling. Soon enough, the pair were the deadliest on the grounds, and a small circle of Death Eaters were surrounding them. The teens stood back to back, turning and facing each opponent.
“Well, it was nice working with you, Ron,” Stated Malfoy.
“Er”you too, M”Draco,” Ron managed to force out of his mouth.
Draco stopped turning when he stood in front of his father. In disbelief, he realized that his own father would want to kill him. His father was, in fact, the first person to speak.
“AVADA KEDAVRA!” yelled Mr. Malfoy.
“STUPIFY!” shouted Draco, just in time to Stun his father and dodge the curse.
Everything after that was a blur for both Draco and Ron. It was dodge this and that, and yell this curse, Stun this person. Soon it was down to two people that surrounded them. Snape and Wormtail. Draco took Snape as Ron battled Wormtail. After several minutes of dodging and yelling, Draco managed to Stun Snape, and turned to help Ron. Apparently, this was too much for him to handle and the Death Eater Disapparated before either one of the boys could curse him. They looked around the grounds. Many people had fallen. There were still at least twenty-five Death Eaters left compared to his army of fifteen (plus their new ally). He couldn’t see Harry or Hermione anywhere. Ron couldn’t push away the feelings of panic at the thought of something happening to Harry or Hermione. It would just be too much for him to bear. Another curse exploded as it hit the wall behind Ron and Draco, and Ron quickly woke up from his own thoughts. They both Stunned a Death eater to Draco’s right and ran into the battle.
Draco stopped running as a sharp pain ran from his mark through his veins. He looked around and saw others looking at their left arm in horror. It was no longer black, but blood red, and the veins he could see in his arm were no longer blue, but midnight black. He fell to his knees as he felt this poison spread through his body.
“Draco?” asked Ron, bewildered.
“Tell Harry”Tell him I’m sorry for last year,” Draco managed to splutter before he lay limply on the ground.
Ron looked around the grounds. Every Death Eater was on the ground, staring at their left arm. One by one he watched them fall, never to get up again.
Harry shoved Ginny against the wall and covered her with his body as what Muggles described as a shockwave came from Voldemort’s body. He nearly screamed, but kept it inside. When the pain had left him he managed to talk.
“Did you feel that?” Harry asked.
“A little…” said Ginny honestly.
Harry helped her up and stepped down the trapdoor. When her foot reached the bottom, it wasn’t the hard stone floor she was expecting to feel. She looked down and screamed as she fell to the floor. Harry followed her and stared at the body in disbelief.
“Hermione…” he choked, not realizing he was crying.
“HERMIONE!” he yelled in rage.
Memories flooded back to him as he looked into her lifeless eyes and remembered the spark that used to be there whenever she figured something out.
He remembered in their first year how she had saved Ron by remembering that the Devil’s Snare was afraid of sunlight, and how she used good logic to get him past the fire.
In second year she was the one that figured out the mystery that had once lain within the Chamber of Secrets.
In third year, she was the one who helped save Sirius.
She was always behind him when he was competing in the Triwizard Tournament, and helped him with spells he would need.
She fought beside him at the Ministry in their fifth year and helped him out a lot last year.
Harry felt a shaky hand pull him away from her body. He didn’t even realize he had fallen next to her body. He stood up and pulled Ginny into his chest, where they both cried for what seemed like hours. When both of them had composed themselves to just tearing instead of wailing, Harry scooped Hermione into his arms and carried her down the many flights of stairs. Each step he took seemed harder than the next, and each step put more weight on his chest. When he reached the grounds, he looked around at his friends that had fallen to the ground. Lupin and Tonks both lay Stunned at his feet. He stepped over some Death Eaters’ bodies. Kingsley Shacklebolt lay dead near Bellatrix Lestrange, whom he kicked in the side before continuing. Luna Lovegood’s lifeless body was set in front of him. Everything was so automatic. Just keep walking.
He didn’t realize how far across the yard he had come until he nearly ran into Ron. Ron fell to his knees as Harry set Hermione’s limp form against him. Soon enough, her face was covered in salty tears from all three of her best friends, and somewhere in the distance he heard Ron calling, “Hermione, come back, please…”
Harry took one last look around the grounds as he wondered if the whole world was crying right now.
A New Beginning by MissPriss86
Chapter Notes: So this is the chapter you've all been waiting for isn't it? I won't keep you waiting any longer! Enjoy!