Decisions about Divination: A Guideline for the Sidekicks

Harry Potter is not mine

Advice for the Good Auxiliary Character (Good Guy's sidekick/s)

If the Hero is fated to slay certain evil entities, Evil Overlord's in Particular, this mean I will not slay them and I should avoid trying

Well, we all know how a certain character in the HP world feels about divination…

=/\=

The sky was dark, the clouds heavy with rain and the wind howling across the plains. To one side was a sea of men and women in black cloaks and bone white masks. In front of them stood their leader, a tall man with skin like paper and crimson eyes, impeccably dressed in dark robes made of the finest materials.

To the other side was a more motley crew dressed in every color imaginable. A pair of red headed twins were particularly vivid in canary yellow and lime green. Their own leader stood among them, a young boy with messy dark hair, green eyes and trainers that were held together by tape and hope.

A week prior to this standoff, the sneering reptilian man had invoked a ritual, a ritual which had brought the two groups together, a ritual which kept them from fighting just yet.

Harry took a deep breath as he stepped in front of his friends. He felt his stomach churning and his throat was tight. His grip on his wand tightened as he tried to keep himself from shaking. Voldemort stood ahead, a smirk on his pale, reptilian face. The death eaters stood behind their master, jeering and laughing at those who fought against them.

“And now Potter, once you lose this duel, the ritual will ensure that all your power will be mine,” Voldemort cackled, “And this will happen. You are destined to die by my hand. And none of your friends can help you.”

“The prophecy didn't say I would die,” Harry snapped, concentrating on the anger as he tried to let the fear just move through him so he could think, “And your band of sheep can't help you either.”

“Lord Voldemort needs no one's assistance,” the self named dark lord sneered and he stepped forward. Harry took another step towards him, wand raised. Neither noticed two girls and a second boy step into the field as well. A shimmering wall of light encased the five before anyone could pull the other three back. Voldemort smirked.

“How kind of you Potter,” he sneered, “After I kill you I'll take the mudblood's magic and the magic of these blood traitors and be even more powerful!”

“What,” Harry turned slightly and his eyes widened as he saw Luna, Hermione and Neville standing firmly behind him, each of them with expressions of determination on their faces, their wands ready. Hermione smiled at him.

“Guys,” Harry began.

“Protego!” Neville snapped before Harry could say anything else. A curse from Voldemort bounced harmlessly off of the bright shield the once shy boy cast.

“Less talking,” Luna ordered, sounding uncharacteristically firm, “More cursing.”

“Right,” Harry, “But we're going to have a serious talk after this.”

“Opungo!” Hermione cast as way of reply and Voldemort was immediately plagued by a murder of crows. A flick of her wand added a swarm of starlings. It gave them just enough time to get some breathing room and then they began their attack in earnest as Voldemort blasted all of the birds away with a wave of magic.

The four traded spells against Voldemort with tireless devotion, pressing the dark lord, trying to crack his defenses, a task made easier since over time the dark lord had become accustomed to fighting against only one person. The four took ruthless advantage of this weakness.

“You know Potter,” Voldemort taunted, barely breathing hard, “Even if you defeat me, you'll have to turn against your friends. Only one may leave this place!”

“Expelliarmus!” Harry snarled and Voldemort laughed as he countered it.

“I can see it now,” the snake lord goaded the boy who lived, “You fighting against your precious mudblood and defeating her, her life's blood spilling and her magic stolen by you. For the rest of your life you'll have to deal with the fact that you killed your closest friends and the woman you love. And you'll have to kill them, there's no other way out.”

Harry blushed and began casting sells as quickly as he could, not daring to look at Hermione. His wand began to heat up in his grip as he channeled as much magic as he could, trying to cause Voldemort to slip up.

“Even if you defeat me now Potter, you'll lose. You'll become even darker than I.” Voldemort cackled.

“One thing you've never understood Tom,” Hermione interrupted, conjuring and sending more birds to attack the monstrous wizard.

“One for all,” Luna laughed as she summoned a rock to block a killing curse aimed at Neville and Harry blinked as he caught the reference.

“And all for one,” Harry chimed in with Neville as they both cast shields to protect Hermione and Luna. He smiled as Voldemort looked confused.

That confusion was all it took. The dark lord faltered and the four immediately jumped on it.

“CONFRIGO!” Luna snarled.

“SECTUSEMPRA!” came Hermione's contribution.

“EXURO!” Neville roared.

“EXPULSO!” Harry finished.

The four shot off their spells almost simultaneously. The curses cut through the air and hit their target, just behind the boy who lived's attempt to be rid of his foe. Voldemort easily blocked the attempt and managed to block the spell that would have set him on fire as well but the following spells caught him by surprise. There was a flash of light and was shimmering wall disappeared, freeing the four inside. The entire gathering watched in shock as Voldemort fell to his knees, blood pouring from his wounds. He stared at Harry who looked on in disbelief.

For a moment no one moved.

Then Bellatrix gave a shriek of dismay and ran to her lord.

“But, the prophecy,” Voldemort managed to say with his last breath as Bellatrix hovered over him, fruitlessly trying to save what was once a man. And thus the dark lord who had terrorized Wizarding England for decades, died.

“Run!” one of the brighter death eaters yelled and half of them stampeded away while the other half were trampled as they tried to get their comrades to stay and fight. Harry and his followers were almost as quick in their endeavors and spells flew across the battlefield. Some fell, some mourned, but in the end, the dark was conquered.

In the aftermath, Harry Potter cornered his the three who had stood by him.

“Why?” Harry demanded, “You knew I was the one with the prophecy over my head. How did you kill him when it was supposed to be me?”

“Honestly Harry,” Hermione huffed, “Divination is a bunch of rubbish. Just because someone who could use a lozenge claims that only one person, who wasn't even born at the time, could defeat the greatest threat to the stability of England since Grindewald doesn't make it true.”

“You and Hermione destroyed the horcruxes,” Luna pointed out and Harry noted the lack of surprise on Neville's face. Harry shot Hermione a look and the bushy haired girl shrugged as if to say, `why shouldn't I have told them?'.

“Once those were gone,” Neville continued Luna's explanation, ignoring the byplay between the two, “There was no reason for you to be the only one to fight him.”

“But, the ritual,” Harry protested weakly.

“Luna and I figured out what ritual Voldemort used,” Hermione explained, “Anyone on the field was fair game, but there was one way that more than one person could leave.”

Luna lifted her sleeve and revealed that someone had used a marker to draw a very familiar looking lightning bolt on the pale skin of her forearm.

Hermione raised her own sleeve to reveal an identical lightning bolt on her shoulder.

Neville grinned and pulled down the collar of his shirt, revealing a lightning bolt just below his collar bone.

“By marking ourselves like this we ensured that the ritual thought of us as auxiliaries of you so we wouldn't have to battle each other once Voldemort was taken down,” Hermione informed him, “Voldemort could have done the same but that would have required him to take the dark mark on himself.”

“And he wouldn't have done that,” Luna said with a smile, “If he had then they would have been able to use the mark against him like he used it against them.”

“Hermione thought it up,” Neville said with a grin, “She got the idea from a muggle novel.”

“Well, I certainly wasn't going to let you stand up against him by yourself,” Hermione declared, her cheeks pink, “You know I'd never do that Harry.”

For a minute Harry couldn't find the words. He could see in their eyes that what they had done, the taking of someone's life, hurt them more than he could probably comprehend. That it had been Voldemort they had taken down was probably why they were able to hold themselves together at the moment. What they did was beyond anything Harry could imagine. These three were truly his best friends, the best friends that anyone could ask for.

“Thank you.” Harry said at last, his voice choked up.

“Of course Harry,” Hermione said softly and she took his hand. The two left while Luna and Neville stayed behind to run interference against those that wanted to bother the pair. For now everything was at peace. For now they had time and they were going to make the most of it.

=/\=

Hmm, that turned out more serious than I meant it to…

Yeah, while amusing myself with the evil overlord's list, I caught sight of a few other guidelines. I read the guideline for the good guy's sidekicks and this rule caught my attention. In my mind it went two ways because technically Harry has two sidekicks, though classifying Hermione a sidekick takes a bit of suspended belief. This is what happens when Hermione challenges the guideline. Of course, her status as more of a heroine than a sidekick is probably why I couldn't picture her failing when she wanted to take down the evil overlord herself, but it still makes for a fun story I think. I'm not sure how Luna got into the story but where Luna went Neville followed. Don't ask me why Ginny and Ron didn't draw lightning bolts on themselves and join in the battle, I'm not sure.

I might come up with what would happen when I confront Ron with this particular guideline.

A note on the spells, the exussum, with the incantation of exuro, is just Latin for “to burn down”. In this context it supposedly it sets people on fire. The rest of them are all canon

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