Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
More Important Than Any Broomstick - Chapter 44 - The Graveyard
The weeks passed quickly, and Harry got more and more used to his new magical core. Krum did get a new fifteen-inch wand from Ollivander's shop in Diagon Alley, and was glaring at Harry more than ever. When Harry explained how Viktor got hurt to Hermione, she was quite amused, and was glad that he was once again capable of tripping someone magically, although she admonished him to be more careful.
Before he knew it, Harry was eating breakfast with Hermione on the day of the last task. He was chewing a forkful of eggs when Professor McGonagall walked up to him.
"Potter, the champions are congregating in the chamber off the hall after breakfast."
"But the task's not till tonight!" said Harry, accidentally spilling scrambled eggs down his front, afraid he had mistaken the time.
"I'm aware of that, Potter," she said. "The champions' families are invited to spend the day here with them."
"But Sirius is my only family, and he's sitting at the staff table over there."
"Someone has come to see you," said McGonagall with a slight smile, glancing at Hermione, and walked away.
"Do you have any idea who came?" Harry asked his girlfriend. "Maybe if the Dursleys believed I was going to die, they'd come to watch."
Hermione was slightly smiling but trying to control her expression. "There's only one way to find out."
-
After he got through his breakfast and kissed Hermione goodbye, he walked to the room indicated by McGonagall to see who had come. He saw Fleur with her parents and Viktor with his. He didn't miss the glare that the Krums gave him when he entered. He then stopped dead in his tracks when he saw who had come.
A man with brown hair that was just starting to go grey was standing next to a woman with brown, bushy hair, just like Hermione's. Harry smiled broadly as he walked up to Hermione's parents. "Adam! Marissa! I had no idea you were coming! It's good to see you!" He shook Adam's hand and then Marissa pulled him into a hug.
"We told Hermione not to ruin our surprise," she said. "We called her last night and told her."
"She looked like she knew who was visiting."
"So," said Adam, "Hermione was right that your scar is a lot lighter now."
Harry took a deep breath. "Yes. I do feel a lot better without a piece of Voldemort inside me. Your daughter is absolutely amazing. Dumbledore didn't think it was possible to remove it, but she came up with a way five weeks after finding out about my problem!"
"We're very proud of her," said Marissa, "But we're also proud of you. That's why we're here today. To watch you become the youngest Triwizard champion that's ever been."
"At least according to Hermione no one younger has won before you," said Adam.
Harry blushed at the praise. "I haven't won yet," he said.
"But you've mopped the floor with the others for the first two tasks," pointed out Adam.
"So you've got a huge head start into the maze," said Marissa.
"You'll probably win the tournament before the others even enter the maze!"
Harry's face was red. "I don't know about that."
-
Harry gave the Grangers a tour of Hogwarts, even showing them the outside of the maze. Hermione was very happy, though not surprised, to see her parents at lunch. They spent time together chatting, and before long it was time for the final task.
-
As Harry stood near the entrance of the maze waiting for time to start, for a moment he felt his ward tell him a Death Eater was near, but then the feeling went away. He didn't have time to think about what to do about it because at that moment the whistle blew and Harry had to go into the maze. He was confident that he'd be able to fight any Death Eaters he ran across anyway, so he wasn't that worried. He pulled out his wand for show and started jogging into the maze, putting up his shield.
He found it quite easy to blast through any creatures he came across, even Hagrid's blast-ended skrewts as he quickly advanced in the proper direction, using his wand to point him every so often. He was momentarily slowed down by a boggart that showed Hermione being killed, but once he realized it, he turned Hermione into a plastic doll and laughed at the idea of mourning the death of a toy.
He came across a fog that looked weird so he used his wandless magic to move it away as he hurried through the maze. Using a powerful burst of magic, he blasted away a very surprised sphinx who ran off after one hit. Harry then saw a huge spider and remembered his anger at how Aragog had told his kids to eat him and Ron, and realized that this was probably one of the spiders that had attacked him. He incinerated the spider with his magic before it could attack. Then Harry caught sight of the cup. He went up to it and grabbed it confidently before he felt two separate sensations. He felt as though a stunning spell hit him in the hand that touched the cup, and as he passed out he felt a tug beneath his navel.
-
He awoke to find himself tied to a grave, with a sharp pain on his left palm. He saw a big snake crawling around. He smiled as he realized he didn't have his glasses on, thankful that Hermione had healed his eyes. He also saw Barty Couch Jr. standing up, holding his arm that appeared to be missing a hand. Snape was also there, holding a sharp dagger that had blood on it, and was shaking drops of it into a huge cauldron. Harry healed his palm as he realized with fury that the blood was his. He thought he could probably handle this, but decided to make sure. He called for the only help he could, by rubbing the ring he was wearing on his right index finger with other fingers. This would alert Hermione that he needed help, and allow her to apparate as close as whatever wards (which he did detect) were in place would allow.
Before Harry could do anything else, he saw something he'd feared for a long time happen. Voldemort, complete with his red eyes and snake-like nose, rose out of the cauldron. Harry knew that he must be stopped. However, he waited for Snape to robe Riddle before deciding what to do. He watched Tom take his wand from Snape. As Voldemort pressed his wand to Snape's dark mark and other Death Eaters started arriving, he knew what he had to do.
-
Hermione was proudly watching a magical screen that showed Harry advancing in the maze next to her parents, and saw that he'd reached the cup right after Fleur entered the maze. All of the sudden, Harry and the cup disappeared. She shouted, "Where'd he go!?!" Her parents had been trying to calm her down for about ten minutes when she felt a sensation she knew about, but had never actually felt. The ring Harry had given her was starting to burn. Harry was in trouble. She stood up, saying "Harry's in trouble," and tried apparating, only to find that as she already knew, you can't apparate on Hogwarts grounds. Without another word to anyone else, she started making her way down the stands as quickly as possible, intent on reaching the boundaries so she could apparate.
-
Harry found he didn't have his wand, and decided that he'd have to just reveal his powers and hopefully put an end to this new war before it began. Without moving, Harry caused the ropes that were around him to snap, gaining Voldemort's attention. As Tom pointed his wand at Harry, he shouted, "Leave him! He's mine!" just as the wand Tom was holding broke in his hand.
Voldemort's body was then thrown into Snape, who fell down while still holding the dagger right onto the snake, killing it as green smoke came from it. Harry grinned as he realized what that meant.
Voldemort hurriedly grabbed Snape's wand from him and faced his adversary just before being pulled up and turned upside-down while the Death Eater's watched. Voldemort finally shouted, "Kill him!" a moment before a blast from another direction killed Snape. The Death Eaters turned their attention to their immediate threat, leaving their master to deal with Harry Potter.
"You killed my father!" shouted Harry as Voldemort's wrist was twisted until it broke, causing him to drop Snape's newest wand. Tom screamed in pain. Harry continued, "You killed my mother!" Tom's other wrist broke as he was still hanging upside-down in midair. "You put a Horcrux in my head!" Voldemort's right foot broke. "Which by the way was removed and destroyed." Riddle's left foot broke.
"WWWWhat?" said Riddle, stunned by the news.
"That's right, Tommy boy! Your diary, Slytherin's ring and locket, Hufflepuff's cup, my Horcrux, and your sixth one based off the smoke that came from your snake have all been destroyed!"
While Tom took this information in, Harry summoned him above the cauldron and dropped him in upside down, causing a large splash.
As Riddle quickly got his head out of there, Harry took control again and Voldemort was in the middle of the sky with his hands and feet in the positions to be crucified. Harry shouted, "If I don't kill you now, you're going to start a war to kill hundreds or even thousands of people!"
"No, we can join together and share power…"
Harry actually laughed. "Haven't you noticed yet, you don't have power anymore! You died fourteen years ago!" At that moment, while feeling revulsion, yet resolution over what had to be done, Harry magically broke Voldemort's neck, causing instant death. Harry let Voldemort go and looked around him.
-
Hermione finally got to the wards around Hogwarts, and apparated to the edge of a cemetery she'd never seen before. She looked around and saw a commotion in the middle, and guessed that Harry was part of it. She stopped for a moment and gasped as she saw someone who could only be Voldemort himself pushed into Snape. She hurried up, knowing that the other Death Eaters would soon join the so-called fight. She grinned to herself imagining how surprised Voldemort must be right now. She blasted Snape with a curse similar to reducto and turned her attention on the rest. She was so busy taking out the terrified Death Eaters that she missed the moment Tom got dropped into his cauldron. She dodged and ducked as death curses were shot at her, and took them all out, one by one, leaving no one alive to hurt anyone else. She had realized that this was Voldemort's inner circle who had bribed and lied their way out of prison before and were wanting to rejoin him. If they were left alive, they'd do the same things they'd already done.
When the last one had fallen, she looked around to see that Voldemort was now dead and Harry was standing, looking just as grim as she was feeling. She also noticed both Harry's wand and the Triwizard cup that had obviously been a portkey lying on the ground.
"Th-Thanks for coming, Mine. I was beginning to wonder if you were."
"I had to get out of Hogwarts' wards before I could apparate here."
"The cup stunned me and pulled me here. I must have woken up when Snape cut my palm. He was putting my blood in the cauldron Voldemort rose out of."
She sighed. "He didn't live very long in his new body, did he?"
"No. I didn't know what I'd be facing, so I rubbed my ring before I started fighting back."
"I'm glad you did." She then gave a small smile. "I guess the prophecy's been fulfilled."
He smiled back. "I guess this means I can live now."
"I guess we should take the cup back to Hogwarts."
"After we gather these bodies together."
"I don't know about that," said Hermione. "It might be better if we keep this a secret. You don't want even more fame do you? Most people think Voldemort was already dead."
"You're right. Some people may claim that I made up the story if I tell what happened."
"Let's take away everybody's wands and any other evidence of magic, including the cauldron, and make an anonymous call to the muggle police."
"Just make sure I get Voldemort's broken wand, and the last one he had in his hand, as well as my own. You can have the rest. Then I suggest you apparate back and I'll take the cup back to Hogwarts."
"You should go back now. I'll be fine."
"Are you sure Hermione?"
"Yes, Hero." She gave him a quick kiss and He grabbed the cup and wound up back at Hogwarts for the celebration. Harry assured Hermione's parents that she was safe as soon as he could. Hermione showed up about an hour later looking miserable. They spent the night in the common room holding each other once they escaped the party in the Great Hall. They decided to tell their group what really happened the next day.
-
"Well," said Dumbledore after Harry and Hermione finished telling their tale in Dumbledore's office, "This is excellent news, and I do agree that there is little point in panicking everyone by telling them Voldemort's back if he's already dead."
Hermione then spoke. "I also incinerated Voldemort because I thought his body might alert the muggles that something was wrong."
"Excellent. Now even if the ministry finds out, they'll only assume that the Death Eaters had gathered and fought amongst themselves," said Lupin.
Sirius smiled. "Perhaps they were trying to decide who would be their new leader."
-
Please review. All I have left is an epilogue. I may eventually write a sequel though. In every other story I've read, no matter how powerful Harry is Voldemort always escapes. I wanted a story where he didn't - where Harry utterly destroyed him right there in the graveyard.
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