There's one thing I'd like to say before I start this chapter. Because of the length, complexity, and difficulty of these past two chapters (and eventually the next one), I will not be responding to reviews like I normally do. I'll try to get back to everyone after the very last chapter, but up until then I make no promises.
I have a little speech after this chapter to make on my views about HBP, the recent promotions that scholastic has released, and what it means for us Pumpkin Piers. I would appreciate it if people read it and tell me that I'm just a bumbling idiot.
I do take some movie lines and use them in different places in this chapter (I change them a little bit), so if anyone can tell me what they are and what movies they come from, I will be awarding pumpkin pie.
And now, enjoy the final battle.
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Chapter 16: The Chosen One
The laughter of the greatest evil known to the modern world rang through the halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as Harry nearly flew down the corridors towards the Headmaster's Office. He kept the connection to Hermione closed so that she wouldn't know where to go after him in case she awakened while he was gone.
Panting, he turned the last corner to the hall at the end of which was the stone gargoyle, and froze in his tracks. Between him and the statue (which was currently standing aside, the rotating stone steps visible in the alcove behind where it usually stood) was a murky, bubbling swamp that covered the entire expanse of the corridor, wall to wall. Harry scratched his eyebrow thoughtfully for a moment before raising his wand and shouting, "Evanesco!" which in turn caused the muck to bubble up and splash him in the face instead of disappearing.
"Bloody Weasley twins products..." he muttered while wiping his face with the sleeve of his robe.
Harry knew that he didn't have much time, and decided to do the first thing that came into his mind. He conjured a large metal disk on the floor, stood on it and muttered, 'Adhesio', causing the soles of his shoes to seemingly melt into the surface of the plate. Hoping that either the stone gargoyle was too heavy, or protected by the wards of the school, he then shouted, "Accio stone gargoyle!".
Harry was instantly flying down the hall towards the staircase at the end of it. He was ready to unfasten the adhesive charm and jump to safety when he hit an invisible wall and fell backwards, plate and all, into the bog.
Without warning, the sludge Harry was lying in came to life in murky tentacles and wrapped itself around his body, arms, legs, and finally, neck. He felt the liquid start to rise up around him and realised that the swamp was pulling him under its surface. Thinking fast, Harry went with what worked in his first year and completely relaxed.
Apparently though, the swamp did not function the same way Devil's Snare did, because instead of releasing him, it only wrapped around his body tighter. Harry desperately wracked his brain as the surface of the filthy water came up over his chest.
"Inflamarre," Harry choked out, causing little bluebells of fire to spurt from the tip of his wand. The swamp bubbled in response, and he felt the tendril holding onto his wand arm loosen slightly before reclaiming its painful grip.
Harry was nearly completely submerged at this point, and did the last thing he could think of to save his life. He twisted his wrist around so that his wand was pointed at his body, muttered a freezing charm on himself, then gasped out, "flagrate".
Immediately the entire swamp (and subsequently the hallway) went up in flames. The tentacles holding Harry turned into a sticky goo and he managed to wrestle out of their grasp and fling himself forward. The only problem was that the invisible wall was still there.
"Finite Incantatem," he gasped, trying to get air back into his lungs quickly. When nothing happened, Harry pushed hard against the wall. Vaguely remembering a useful spell they had been studying in charms, he jabbed at the wall with his wand and muttered, "Dispelium." The barrier vanished and Harry struggled forward through the flames and sticky black sludge to the base of the stairs where the swamp ended. Resting on the cold stone of the bottom stair, he removed the freezing charm from himself and looked out into the blaze that was consuming the hallway.
'Well,' he thought. 'At least Hermione can't come to help me now.'
After quickly muttering several cleaning charms on himself to remove the sludge, he glanced warily up to the landing many feet above him. Steeling himself, he placed one foot in front of the other and walked up the stairs to the door behind which, he assumed, stood Lord Voldemort. He had his hand on the knob and was ready to burst into the room when he heard a cold voice call out.
"Come in, Potter. Really, don't be so foolish as to think I don't know you're there."
Not wasting a moment, Harry flung the door open and bellowed out a killing curse at the form of Lord Voldemort that was sitting behind Dumbledore's desk. Voldemort simply raised his hand and deflected the curse up towards the ceiling, which crumbled slightly after being hit.
"My dear Harry Potter," he said with a sickly smile. "Surely you don't think it will be as simple as that?"
"I suppose one can hope," Harry replied, staring the Dark Lord in the eyes.
"A foolish emotion," Voldemort replied offhandedly. "Why would anyone who is intelligent hope? If they cannot have what they want for themselves, why waste time and pray for someone else to get it for them? Those with hope are those without power."
"All the people who hate you are hoping that I kill you," Harry said menacingly.
"And they are weak because of it," Voldemort replied. "Instead of coming to fight me, they let you do it for them. The common people know nothing of the prophecy. How does it feel, Harry, to contain the hope of the free world in your hands?"
"Powerful," Harry replied hatefully. Even though it wasn't the truthful answer, he knew it was the one that Voldemort thought to be correct.
"I'm impressed," the Dark Lord said, looking at Harry appraisingly. "Perhaps there is more Slytherin in you than I thought after all."
"Whatever Slytherin there is in me, you put there," Harry replied.
"Mm....yes," Voldemort replied, his gaze rising to Harry's scar. "The failed curse. My greatest failure. Also my greatest accomplishment."
"How so?" Harry asked.
"I gave you my powers," Voldemort replied in a voice that told Harry he didn't care one way or the other. "All of them."
"And what's so special about you?" Harry questioned. At this, Voldemort smiled evily.
"Ten points to Gryffindor for the question of the hour," he said, rising to his feet. Harry instinctively raised his wand at him, which prompted Voldemort to roll his eyes. "Oh please, Potter put it away, it's insulting to think you could control me by pointing your wand at me." Harry, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor (and that Voldemort apparently didn't want him immediately dead), lowered his wand, but still held onto it. "This, my dear boy, is what makes me so special."
Harry turned to where Voldemort was staring and felt his breath catch in his throat. Placed in a holder on the wall of the office, was the Green Flame Torch. He mentally berated himself for not seeing it sooner and sighed.
"I wanted you to be here to witness my final victory," Voldemort said, answering both of Harry's unspoken questions.
"Why delay and nearly kill me with the swamp then?" Harry asked. "I didn't think you'd stoop so low as to use a Weasley product."
"With some minor modifications, of course," Voldemort said with a sick grin as he raised a hand and Harry went flying into the door, and was pinned against it a few inches off the ground. "Unlike that miserable excuse of a life, Lucius, I do not have bloodline problems with pure-bloods, so long as they put their minds to good use. For the invention of that fantastic device, I may spare the Weasley twins' lives. I needed to delay you long enough for me to break into wherever Albus kept the torch, after all. Imagine my delight when I found the cupboard unlocked and vulnerable."
Harry's mind was racing. He didn't know what Voldemort could do with the torch, but he remembered Snape's final words and knew he had to hold him off as long as he could.
"Why'd you kill Snape?" Harry asked frantically.
"Why wouldn't I kill him?" Voldemort replied with a chuckle. "He betrayed me and my faithful."
"What about Draco, then?" Harry asked. "Why did you let us escape with him?" He seemed to have asked a good question this time, because Voldemort moved his gaze from the torch to Harry.
"A bit nosy, aren't we?" he asked. "I let you escape with Draco because he betrayed me. There was a tactical advantage to be gained by not harming him. You thought him to be my spy in the ministry. I can tell you, that although he was a spy for me at one point, he was never the one you tried so desperately to find . Letting you take him stopped your search for a little while - long enough for me to deal with Wormtail."
"You killed him," Harry stated.
"To put it nicely," Voldemort replied. "I have to say, he didn't go as bravely as your father or as valiantly as Black. He whined and pleaded with me until the end."
"So who is your spy, then?" Harry asked.
"Oh, but why should I tell you and spoil the fun?" Voldemort asked. "I know the connection you have with your mudblood soon-to-be wife. You could just tell her and that would spoil all of my future plans. Of course, once I kill you both your marriage won't really be 'soon-to-be,' will it? Where is she, anyway?"
"She got knocked unconscious when I pushed her out of the way of the killing curse that you sent at her," Harry spat.
"Ah," Voldemort said. "Pity."
"I take it you can become invisible too?" Harry asked.
"I believe a man once said, 'I do not need a cloak to become invisible'," Voldemort replied with a chuckle.
"Dumbledore said that," Harry said.
"Really?" Voldemort replied. "I'll have to thank him for that before I kill him. Of course it can be difficult to kill someone when they can simply turn into a phoenix."
"He's a phoenix?" Harry asked.
"What, he never told you?" Voldemort laughed. "I have reasons not to trust my death eaters with information, but for the old champion of muggles not to trust Harry Potter with the knowledge of his animagus form? I find that to be quite humorous."
"You're a bastard," Harry ground out.
"Now, now, Potter, you shouldn't speak that way to your superiors."
"You're not my superior," Harry replied. "You marked me as your equal."
"I suppose I did...didn't I?" Voldemort asked with a sick smile. "Well, I suppose it's time to remedy that."
Harry felt a rush of power as Voldemort raised his right hand towards the torch and the green flames began to dance out of place from it. The magical energy in the room started to increase as the flames started to draw themselves away from the torch and towards Voldemort's outstretched hand. Harry desperately wracked his mind for some way to stop the Dark Lord, but came up with nothing he could do with his wand sitting a few inches below his feet where he had dropped it when he hit the door.
At the moment when the flames contacted Voldemort's hand, the power in the room exploded in a violent rush of air and magic, causing the invisible bindings holding Harry to the door to disappear. He fell to the ground in a heap and grabbed for his wand, only to look up and see Voldemort hovering a few feet off the ground, a green aura surrounding him. Harry looked to the torch and saw, to his surprise, that green flames were still flickering away in the head.
"Now do you see?" Voldemort asked, though instead of his voice sounding cold and harsh, it was now ethereal, almost godlike. "Infinite power. The torch cannot be extinguished, no matter what affects it. All I have to do is keep taking energy from it. I am....invincible."
Desperately, Harry fired a killing curse at the floating form of the Dark Lord and gasped when it impacted on his body. Instead of killing him though, it merely made the aura pulse brighter.
"Absorbed into my body," Voldemort said. "How will anyone be able to kill me when the most powerful curse in existence merely strengthens me?"
Harry simply looked on at the floating form of the Dark Lord and felt his shoulders slump. There was nothing he could do now. Not even Avada Kedavra would kill Voldemort.
"I sense the despair in you, Harry Potter," Voldemort said. "You know that you are beaten." Harry stayed silent, looking at his hands. "It is a shame, really. You truly are more powerful than you believe. Had it not been for a certain prophecy I might even attempt to welcome you into my ranks. But having the only person who can kill you among your faithful isn't exactly prudent planning. And so, Harry Potter, tonight ends our eighteen-year long war." Voldemort raised his hand and began to gather a ball of green energy in it. Knowing it was useless to run, Harry merely braced himself for the impact.
That was why he was quite startled when instead of hearing the icy whoosh of death, he heard a loud crash. Harry opened his eyes to find Voldemort's gaze following Fawkes, who had apparently flown in right through the closed window. While he was distracted, a second phoenix flew in (though Harry thought this one looked slightly older and grayer) and landed on Harry's shoulder. It put its beak in his ear as if to sing to him, but nearly made him jump in surprise when instead of hearing phoenix song, Harry heard the voice of Albus Dumbledore.
"You cannot give up," Dumbledore whispered. "You cannot let him win."
"He already has," Harry replied as Voldemort shot the ball of green energy at Fawkes, who narrowly evaded it.
"Only if you let him," Dumbledore said.
"He'll kill me," Harry said. "What's the point of trying to win if he'll just kill me either way?"
"What was the point of Lily trying to save you, knowing that Voldemort was going to try to kill you either way?" Dumbledore asked, causing Harry to smile slightly. "There is hope yet. Do not give up."
As Dumbledore finished these words, Voldemort managed to hit Fawkes with one of the blasts of energy, causing the phoenix to explode into flames and drop to the ground. Dumbledore wasted no time in speeding over to the baby phoenix, grabbing it in his beak, and flying out of the blasted window, narrowly avoiding a ball of dark energy.
"So what did Dumbledore want anyway?" Voldemort asked, turning to face Harry again. "He hasn't left you anything...has he? Some protector."
"He did make a valid point," Harry said, getting to his feet.
"And what's that?"
"It's better to die trying, than to die having simply given up."
"Foolish words," Voldemort said as he raised his hand. "It will only serve to anger me and potentially make your death and the mudblood's more painful."
"You wouldn't," Harry said staring his nemesis in the face.
"Oh I would," Voldemort replied with a smile. "Come to think of it, that sounds like a rather grand idea. Maybe I'll spare you just long enough so that you can watch her die from the agony of the Cruciatus Curse."
"You will do no such thing," Harry ground out, the same unearthly red aura from the Burrow battle starting to surround him.
"And who will stop me?" Voldemort asked. "You? Surely you don't believe you can kill me."
"Maybe not," Harry said, the his own aura now shining as brightly as Voldemort's. "But I'll give you one hell of a fight."
Without wasting another second, Harry raised his right hand and fired a blast of red energy at Voldemort. The action caught the Dark Lord so completely off guard, that he barely had time to raise his own hand and fire a bolt of green energy back at Harry.
And then something happened that caught both of them by surprise. The two blasts impacted against each other in midair, but instead of exploding, or dissipating, or anything else that Harry would've expected, they joined together, creating a narrow beam of golden light that connected Harry and Voldemort by their outstretched hands.
"This cannot be..." Voldemort whispered, as Harry was lifted off the ground to the Dark Lord's level.
"The brother wand effect," Harry stated, as two beads of light appeared in the middle of the golden beam. "Perhaps there is more to us then even we know, Tom." Harry could see the fear in Voldemort's eyes and came to the same conclusion that he knew the Dark Lord must have also reached. If Harry had beaten him at this once before, he could do it again.
So remembering what he did at the end of his fourth year, Harry concentrated all his power and might on forcing the beads of light to move towards Lord Voldemort. He could see - no, he could feel Voldemort struggling to force the light back towards Harry, but it was to no avail. A few seconds later the beads of light touched the skin on Voldemort's pale, wrinkled hand, and the tremendous scream from the Dark Lord that followed was loud enough to shatter what was left of the unbroken glass in the room.
The green aura surrounding Voldemort exploded, rushing towards Harry. He felt the green energy surround and engulf him, and using what was left of his remaining energy, Harry forced his own aura outward to protect himself. Just as he felt the last of his power draining away, the rush of dark energy stopped, and both he and Voldemort fell to the ground.
Harry looked up and saw Voldemort laying in a heap on the floor, breathing slightly. Struggling to his feet, Harry staggered over to the wall of the office and pulled Godric's Sword, still stained with the blood of the basilisk, from the holder on the mantle.
"It slew the pet of Slytherin, now it will slay the heir," Harry said as he stood over Voldemort, who was looking up at him with his hateful, red eyes. "I always told Ron I'd avenge his death."
"So, for Weasley, then?" Voldemort spat.
"No," Harry replied. "For me."
Without waiting a moment longer, Harry swung the blade of the sword down in a graceful arc.
This time, there were no screams. No explosions. No golden threads of light. The was simply a dull thud as the head of Tom Riddle fell to the floor of the office, black blood oozing from its base. Harry picked up the discarded wand of his nemesis and pocketed it in his robes, vaguely registering the sound of frantic footsteps before blacking out and collapsing to the floor.
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One chapter to go. Normally I'd say something sappy here, but this is the time when us H/Hr's must stand together and fight because of recent developments in the wizarding world.
There are probably a fair number of people who know this already (at least anyone who goes to mugglenet like myself), but lately, pictures of a promotional cardboard countdown standup that will go up in bookstores on May 27th (50 days before the release of HBP) have been released, and in my opinion, severely hurt the H.M.S. Pumpkin Pie. I am truly troubled by this picture (I will not directly link it because there is the possibility for legal implications). Those who wish to may view it by going to mugglenet.com, and clicking on the link under 'HBP Promotional Stand - New Grandpre Art!' I have one thing to say on the matter before I go, and that is this:
Should the loyal and true sails of the Pumpkin Pie be lowered on some sad, dark day in the future, let it be known to all of us faithful shippers that we fought the good fight. Perhaps the steadfast logics and ideals we believe in are best left untouched, for the majority of the world is not that, and would not understand something so pure.
The relationships that we support will always live true in our hearts, not for the logic of a brilliant author none of us know, but for what we know is just and right. Therefore, I propose a toast to all of my fellow shippers. If, some day, we become divided by the very people we despise, let us never forget the time we had together in blissful ignorance of the dark days to come. Let us remember the days when we valiantly sailed the oceans of fandom on a ship whose heading always was hard and true. To remembrance.
And, in the wonderful case that I'm an idiot and my fears are unjustified, let us then raise our glasses in victory, as there would truly be justice in the world!
I've been reading too much Shakespeare lately lol. Now, as we approach the end of my trilogy, I would like to thank each and every person who has ever reviewed, and especially to all of those who stayed with me for the entire time. You have been my energy to keep writing, and I don't think I would have ever completed such a monumental task without you. I am truly in your debt.
Next week: The conclusion.