Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. Inc., Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Raincoast, and any other affiliated party.
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Chapter 18: The Battle of Snow-Covered Fields
With a mighty cry, the two sides charged at each other. Fighting was fierce as Alliance soldiers hacked at orcs, trolls, and Durmstrang soldiers as metal and wood flashed. Blades hacked, arrows flew, and maces crashed down on armor as red blood spilt on the white snow. In the air, Griffin riders took on dragons as lightning and flame struck each other's opponents down. Mage Knights fired Patronuses at dementors who tried to suck away morale from the Alliance. Unfortunately, the fighting was much too fierce for the Mage Knights to get together and create a patronus river like they did at the Battle of Little Hangleton.
The Alliance also had a few phoenixes flying around. The magical birds, led by Dumbledore's Fawkes, flew around singing their enchanting songs which gave courage and hope to the Alliance soldiers: the direct opposite of the demntors' effects. Their magical tears also healed wounded soldiers.
Hagrid had tried to join the Grifin Riders in the air. Unfortunately, due to his tremendous weight, Buckbeak could only make fifteen feet high leaps before he came crashing down. They usually managed to crush an enemy soldier in the process however. And Hagrid also bashed a number of enemies with his monstrous war hammer.
Ron had his moments as he decapitated an orc. He deflected the blade of a Durmstrang soldier and ran him through. Before he could pull his blade out, another orc slashed at him from behind! Before the blade could slice him, Ron placed a swift kick at the orc's face. He then spun around and stabbed the orc.
Ron also caught sight of Ginny whirling a discarded flail she had picked up. With her fiery red hair and the twirling sword and flail, Ron decided that he was exceptionally glad that he wasn't on the wrong side of his sister. She looked like the living incarnation of fire. What Ron didn't realize was that he looked quite similar swinging his sword around and beating off his enemies.
Things were not going so well for the Alliance however, if only for one reason. At the head of his dark forces stood Voldemort, his emerald encrusted sword flinging Alliance forces away from him. No soldier, not even the Mage Knights stood a chance against the all-powerful Dark Lord, and many a brave soldier died trying to bring him down.
Voldemort was like an impenetrable wall or perhaps an impassable mountain. Just the simplest glare from him paralyzed Alliance soldiers with terror. The flashing of his red eyes signaled death for his enemies. And his high-pitched laugh rang with the foreboding of doom. Ron couldn't but help imagining that Voldemort was many times more powerful than when he last fought him.
"Is that all you have to offer me?" said Voldemort with a laugh. "I would've expected more from Mage Knights."
Ron boiled with anger and started making his way to the Dark Lord. Before he could get there, Draco had leapt at Voldemort, flailing his sword! Voldemort simply swung his sword out and the two blades collided. In an instant, Draco was flung away some fifteen feet into the air and landed in the midst of Alliance soldiers some forty feet away. Voldemort continued flinging away Mage Knights with just a flick of his sword.
Ron finally made it to the Dark Lord. He yelled, "Expelliarmus!" and tried to disarm him. Voldemort simply blocked the spell by catching it in his raised left hand.
"I would've though that you of all people would know that you can't stop me that easily," he said with his malevolent grin. Ron simply growled and charged at the Dark Lord. Voldemort twirled his sword and sent Ron flying into the midst of a battalion of orcs!
Before Ron could get back to his feet, orcs were upon him. Ron saw his life flash before his eyes, and everything seemed to go in slow motion. 'I'm sorry Margaret,' he thought. 'I'm so sorry.' Ron closed his eyes as the orc blades flashed down to him. Ron braced himself for the end…
Suddenly, a female Gryffindor Mage Knight leapt in front of Ron. She proceeded to stab and decapitate the orc that was about to run Ron through. She then beat off all the other orcs with incredible sword skills. Finally, after all the orcs had been killed, the Mage Knight turned to Ron. Ron gasped and his eyes bulged as he recognized the Mage Knight.
"Hermione?! No bloody way!"
"Well of course its me," said Hermione with a sweet smile. "And its nice to see you again as well, Ron."
Ron didn't care that they were in the middle of a battlefield. He leapt up with a whoop of joy and hugged Hermione fiercely. Hermione chuckled as she hugged him back.
"Dammit, I missed you," said Ron after they pulled apart. He studied the armor Hermione was wearing. "You're a Mage Knight?!"
"Apparently." Hermione would've said more if Ginny hadn't suddenly come forward and grabbed her in a bear hug.
"Oh, Hermione I'm so glad you're alright!" she said, a few tears glistening in her eyes. Hermione hugged Ginny back.
Voldemort soon noticed that Hermione was in the battlefield. He didn't have time to contemplate the turn of events however when another Mage Knight leapt from behind him and swing his sword down. Voldemort whipped around and his blade caught the blade of Sir Harry Potter.
"Harry Potter," hissed Voldemort.
Harry walked up to the Dark Lord with a gleam in his emerald green eyes. "Voldemort." Harry swung his sword forward. Voldemort wasn't fast enough to deflect the blow. Although the blade couldn't penetrate his skin, the Dark Lord still stumbled backwards.
Seething with anger, Voldemort raised his sword and lowered himself into a battle ready stance, his red eyes burning with rage. Harry calmly walked forward and swung his sword back and forth. The Dark Lord deflected each of Harry's blows, but the slight grin on his Harry's face indicated that he held the pace of the duel.
As the duel dragged on, Voldemort seemed to get nervous as Hermione tried to make her way to her husband, while fighting off the dark forces that stood in her way. It was clear that Voldemort feared the magical rings greatly and that it would now be only a matter of minutes before the two were united right in front of him.
"I am not going to let you destroy me!" said Voldemort as he blocked one of Harry's thrusts. The Dark Lord suddenly started hissing in parseltongue. Harry was the only one who could understand what the Dark Lord was saying and his response was a raised eyebrow.
"You're actually calling a basilisk here when there's a whole army of griffins flying in the air?" said Harry with a slight smirk. It was common knowledge that griffins specialized in hunting basilisks.
Voldemort grinned. "Not just any basilisk, Harry." Suddenly, the ground started to shake. The earth broke forth like a volcano of rock and snow as a basilisk sprang out from under Voldemort's feet! But this wasn't any basilisk, for it had twenty feet long bird wings attached on either side of its fifty-foot long body. The basilisk flew into the air with Voldemort standing on its head, laughing hysterically. Alliance soldiers looked up at the monstrous creature in terror.
Harry muttered "What in heavens?"
"This," said Voldemort with a laugh, "is my newly created modified basilisk. I unfortunately had to sacrifice its lethal glare to create it, but it is still just as deadly. And not as easily killed by griffins."
Most of the Griffin Riders were still busy fighting dragons. There was one griffin however, who did not have a rider. Harry placed two fingers on his lips and blew a shrill whistle. The griffin flew down to Harry and landed next to him. "All right, Godric," said Harry as he clambered on the golden griffin's back. Harry looked up at Hermione who had just made it to his side. "Come on," he said. Hermione nodded and climbed onto Godric sitting behind Harry.
Harry pulled the reins on the griffin's head and the Godric climbed into the air, his powerful wings beating furiously. Hermione held onto Harry's waist tightly as she muttered, "I don't like this. I really don't like this."
It was now the flying basilisk and the griffin in the air. The baslisk lunged at the griffin flashing its fangs. The griffin simply flew back a bit. It then squawked and tried to sink its talons into the basilisk's crown. The basilisk thrashed out of the way and tried to sink its fangs into the griffin again. Harry swung his sword and deflected the fangs.
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry sent the griffin flying back and just barely avoided the killing curse fired by Voldemort. The Dark Lord simply grinned and fired another killing curse, which was also dodged by the griffin.
Harry and Hermione decided they had enough. They pointed their rings forward and shouted, "Expecto Patronum!" Once again, the golden lion and scarlet phoenix sprang forward and combined into a single griffin patronus! Unfortunately, before it could hit the Dark Lord, the basilisk flew higher and shielded Voldemort from the patronus. Harry heard the parseltongue Voldemort had used to command the basilisk to shield him. Harry and Hermione fired another griffin patronus, only to meet the same results.
"This isn't working, Harry," said Hermione. Harry seemed to be contemplating something when he passed the reigns to Hermione. Before she could stop him, Harry leapt off of the griffin and onto the basilisk's back, a move that startled the Dark Lord.
The basilisk didn't dare thrash Harry off in fear of flinging Voldemort off as well. Harry ran forward and thrust his sword at Voldemort who caught the blade with his own sword. They couldn't use any magic for the simple reason that their blades contain brother cores and therefore couldn't duel each other the magical way. The two exchanged blows for sometime while fighting the turbulence for being so high in the air. When it came to sword fights however, Voldemort had the upper hand. "You can not beat me this way, Potter," he hissed, with his malevolent grin.
Harry however, simply grinned back. "Did you think I jumped on top of here to duel you," he said. Without warning, Harry suddenly plunged his blade into the top of the head of the basilisk!
"No!" Voldemort tried to rush forward, but the basilisk was killed and was now falling to the ground. The Dark Lord turned to Harry only to find that the griffin carrying Hermione was flying right next to him.
"Expect Patronum!" shouted Harry and Hermione. The scarlet and gold griffin patronus once again shot forth, and this time Voldemort wasn't able to defend himself from it! He perished screaming as his body once again crumbled to dust! And this time, there was no questioning that his spirit had been vanquished too.
Harry leapt back onto the griffin as the corpse of the basilisk came crashing down to the ground. With their master dead, the dark forces lost all their powers and the Alliance armies wiped them out. Thus, the battle was won and the war was finally over.
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A/N Well, that was an enjoyable chapter, was it not? I actually semi based the two battles in this fic on the battles in "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King". The battle of Little Hangleton fits into the Battle of Pelennor Fields while the Battle of Snow-Covered Fields is the equivalent of the Battle before the Black-gates of Mordor. So R/R. Next: it's the last chapter! Sorry, but all good things must come to an end. Thank you so much for reading this fic.