March To The Sea - George Weasley ✔️

- 1 8 7 - THE FLAW IN THE PLAN

"One of us?" jeered Voldemort, George moving Lorelei back when Voldemort's eyes looked around the room and locking on Lorelei's for a moment. "You think it will be you, do you, the boy who had survived by accident, and because Dumbledore was pulling the strings?"

Harry shook his head. "Accident, was it, when my mother died to save me?" he asked. "Accident, when I decided to fight in that graveyard? Accident, that I didn't defend myself tonight, and still survived, and returned to fight again?"

"Accidents!" screamed Voldemort. "Accident and chance and the fact that you crouched and sniveled behind the skirts of greater men and women, and permitted me to kill them for you!"

"You won't be killing anyone else tonight," said Harry. "You won't be able to kill any of them ever again. Don't you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people--"

"But you did not!"

"--I meant to, and that's what did it. I've done what my mother did. They're protected from you. Haven't you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can't torture them. You can't touch them. You don't learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?"

"You dare--"

"Yes, I dare," said Harry. "I know things you don't know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things that you don't. Want to hear some, before you make a big mistake?"

Voldemort sneered but still neither were moving to strike as they circled each other. "Is it love again? Dumbledore's favorite solution, love, which he claimed conquered death, though love did not stop him falling from the tower and breaking like an old waxwork? Love, which did not prevent me from stamping out your Mudblood mother like a cockroach, Potter--and nobody seems to love you enough to run forward this time and take my curse. So what will stop you dying now when I strike?"

Lorelei was about to yell something against his last statement, but George held her to his chest, both hearts beating in sync as they stared at the scene.

"Just one thing," said Harry, a secret lingering in the air.

"If it is not love that will save you this time," said Voldemort, "you must believe that you have magic that I do not, or else a weapon more powerful than mine?"

"I believe both," Harry said simply. The shock was seen in Voldemort's snake-like face before he laughed, the echo was louder in the quiet hall.

Voldemort said, "You think you know more magic than I do? Than I, than Lord Voldemort, who was performed magic that Dumbledore himself never dreamed of?"

"Oh, he dreamed of it," said Harry, "but he knew more than you, knew enough not to do what you've done."

"You mean he was weak!" screamed Voldemort. "Too weak to dare, too weak to take what might have been his, what will be mine!"

"No, he was cleverer than you," said Harry, "a better wizard, a better man."

"I brought about the death of Albus Dumbledore!"

"You thought you did," said Harry, "but you were wrong."

Lorelei gasped as everyone around her did the same. Voldemort screeched, "Dumbledore is dead! His body decays in the marble tomb in the grounds of this castle, I have seen it, Potter, and he will not return!"

"Yes, Dumbledore is dead, but you didn't have him killed. He chose his own manner of dying, chose it months before he died, arranged the whole thing with the man you thought was your servant."

"What childish dream is this?"

"Severus Snape wasn't yours. Snape was Dumbledore's, Dumbledore's from the moment you starting hunting down my mother. And you never realized it because of the thing you can't understand. You never saw Snape cast a Patronus, did you, Riddle?" Voldemort did not answer. "Snape's Patronus was a doe. The same as my mother's because he loved her for nearly all his life, from the time they were children. You should have realized. He asked you to spare her life, didn't he?"

"He desired her, that was all," sneered Voldemort, "but when she had gone, he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him--"

"Of course he told you that," said Harry, "but he was Dumbledore's spy from the moment you threatened her, and he's been working against you ever since! Dumbledore was already dying when Snape finished him!"

"It matters not!" shrieked Voldemort. "It matters not whether Snape was mine or Dumbledore's, or what petty obstacles they tried to put in my path! I crushed them as I crushed your mother, Snape's supposed great love! Oh, but it makes sense, Potter, and in ways that you do not understand! Dumbledore was trying to keep the Elder Wand from me! He intended that Snape should be the true master of the wand! But I got there ahead of you, little boy--I reached the wand before you could get your hands on it, I understood the truth before you caught up. I killed Severus Snape three hours ago, and the Elder Wand, the Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny is truly mine! Dumbledore's last plan went wrong, Harry Potter!"

"Yeah, it did," said Harry. "You're right. But before you try to kill me, I'd advise you to think about what you've done... Think, and try for some remorse, Riddle..."

"What is this?"

"It's your one last chance. It's all you've got left... I've seen what you'll be otherwise... Be a man... try... Try for some remorse."

"You dare--" said Voldemort again.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, I dare. Because Dumbledore's last plan hasn't backfired on me at all. It's backfired on you, Riddle. The wand still isn't working properly for you because you murdered the wrong person. Severus Snape was never the true master of the Elder Wand. He never defeated Dumbledore."

"He killed--"

"Aren't you listening? Snape never beat Dumbledore! Dumbledore's death was planned between them! Dumbledore intended to die undefeated, the wand's last true master! If all had gone as planned, the wand's power would have died with him, because it never been won from him!"

"But then, Potter, Dumbledore as good as gave me the wand! I stole the wand from its last master's tomb! I removed it against its last mater's wishes! Its power is mine!" Voldemort yelled.

"You still don't get it, Riddle, do you? Possessing the wand isn't enough! Holding it, using it, doesn't make it really yours. Didn't you listen to Ollivander? The wand chooses the wizard... The Elder Wand recognized a new master before Dumbledore died, someone who never even laid a hand on it. The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never realizing exactly what he had done, or that the world's most dangerous wand had given him its allegiance...

"The true master of the Elder Wand was Draco Malfoy."

Voldemort allowed the shock to show. "But what does it matter?" he said softly. "Even if you are right, Potter, it makes no difference to you and me. You no longer have the phoenix wand: We duel on skill alone... and after I have killed you, I can attend to Draco Malfoy..."

Harry seemed to smirk. "But you're too late. You've missed your chance. I got there first. I overpowered Draco weeks ago. I took this wand from him. So it all comes down to this, doesn't it? Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does... I am the true master of the Elder Wand."

Lorelei gulped when the rising sun seemed to cascade over the hall. Voldemort growled, raising his wand as Harry raised his own.

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Expelliarmus!"