It's finally here... It's actually here...
CXXXIV. HEROES OF HOGWARTS
21:79 ─❁────────── 31:80
◁ Ⅱ ▷
❝Be students, be teachers, be believers, be leaders
Do it for your people, do it for your pride,
You could beat the world, you could beat the war,
And the world's gonna know your name❞
༻───────────────༺
"OH, DUMBLEDORE'S SMELLY FOOT..."
They heard an uproar from the distant boundary of the school as what sounded like hundreds of people came swarming over and out-of-sight walls and pelted toward the castle uttering loud war cries. At the same time, Grawp came lumbering around the side of the castle and yelled, "HAGGER!" His cry was answered by roars from Voldemort's giants: They ran at Grawp like bull elephants, making the earth quake. Then came hooves and the twangs of bows, and arrows were suddenly falling amongst the Death Eaters, who broke ranks, shouting their surprise. Lucia couldn't fathom of the situation, but what she could register was Neville's movement.
In one swift, fluid motion, Neville broke free of the Body-Bind Curse upon him; the flaming hat fell off him and he drew from its depths something silver, with a glittering, rubied handle —
"OH, YOU BLOODY BASTARD! I KNEW IT!" Lucia cheered, glad that she was not the reason for her friend's demise anymore as Seamus and Astoria frantically pulled her back from the chaos with their wands brandished out.
The slash of the silver blade could not be heard over the roar of the oncoming crowd or the sounds of the clashing giants or of the stampeding centaurs, and yet it seemed to draw every eye. With a single stroke Neville sliced off the great snake's head, which spun high into the air, gleaming in the light flooding from the entrance hall, and Voldemort's mouth was open in a scream of fury that nobody could hear, and the snake's body thudded to the ground at his feet —
"HARRY!" Hagrid shouted. "HARRY — WHERE'S HARRY?"
Chaos reigned. The charging centaurs were scattering the Death Eaters, everyone was fleeing the giants' stamping feet, and nearer and nearer thundered the reinforcements that had come from who knew where; Lucia saw great winged creatures soaring around the heads of Voldemort's giants, thestrals and Buckbeak the hippogriff scratching at their eyes while Grawp punched and pummelled them; and now the wizards, defenders of Hogwarts and Death Eaters alike, were being forced back into the castle.
"Where to first?" Astoria asked, adrenaline taking over her as they dodged.
"Dunno... but reckon we may or may not need to SPLIT!" Seamus yelled the last word as curse flew above their heads and just like that, they separated.
Things in Hogwarts had always been so chaotic, but yet this one takes the cake. Despite longing to find Harry, whom she wasn't all that sure was dead anymore. She found herself in a bit of a situation where all she wanted was to die and at the same time strive to live as she shot countless of curses to Death Eaters, dodging one or two of them. The entrance had never been so crowded before, but unlike the round one of the war, things were looking up.
Because round two was the beginning of the other side's end. They'll make sure of.
Whatever it take, they'll win this time.
Voldemort fired spells from his wand as he backed into the Great Hall, screaming instructions to his followers as he sent curses flying left and right; Lucia felt overwhelming anger of vengeance within her. Vengeance for not only her family, but as well as for those who have lost their lives because of him: Fred, Erin, Collin, Tonks, Lupin... her peers... And Harry.
She sent a series of curses at him.
Many did. They were no longer afraid of him, instead they merely strive to rid of him finally. To avenge those who were killed.
As many times as she cursed him as he cursed back, something seem to protect her. Like a shield was casted in front of her and many others that he had directed the curses at. However every time she were to look around, she was only met by nothingness except for the ongoing roars and fights that surrounded her.
She wasn't sure where it came from, but she sure believed that it was a sign that someone was looking after her, and many the defenders of Hogwarts.
And now there were more, even more people storming up the front steps, and Lucia was able to see Charlie Weasley overtaking Horace Slughorn, who was still wearing his emerald pajamas. They seemed to have returned at the head of what looked like the families and friends of every Hogwarts student who had remained to fight, along with the shopkeepers and homeowners of Hogsmeade. The centaurs Bane, Ronan, and Magorian burst into the hall with a great clatter of hooves, as the door that led to the kitchens was blasted off its hinges.
The house-elves of Hogwarts swarmed into the entrance hall, screaming and waving carving knives and cleavers, and at their head, the locket of Regulus Black bouncing on his chest, was Kreacher, his bullfrog's voice audible even above this din: "Fight! Fight! Fight for my Master, defender of house-elves! Fight the Dark Lord, in the name of brave Regulus! Fight!"
They were hacking and stabbing at the ankles and shins of Death Eaters, their tiny faces alive with malice, and everywhere Lucia looked Death Eaters were folding under sheer weight of numbers, overcome by spells, dragging arrows from wounds, stabbed in the leg by elves, or else simply attempting to escape, but swallowed by the oncoming horde.
As she ventured around, throwing spells all over their enemies, Lucia saw Yaxley being slammed to the floor by George and Lee Jordan, saw Dolohov fall with a scream at Flitwick's hands, saw Walden Macnair thrown across the room by Hagrid, hit the stone wall opposite, and slide unconscious to the ground. She saw Ron and Neville bringing down Fenrir Greyback, Aberforth Stunning Rookwood, Arthur and Percy flooring Thicknesse, and Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy running through the crowd, not even attempting to fight, screaming for their son.
Voldemort was now duelling McGonagall, Slughorn, and Kingsley all at once, and there was cold hatred in his face as they wove and ducked around him, unable to finish him —
Lucia let out a loud gasp as she threw herself aside, a jet of green dart pass her in a nick of time as it instead hit another Death Eater. She looked at the culprit, getting back up and her heart instantly drop at the sight of the man that crazed her family to ruins.
Rodolphus Lestrange.
"Lestrange..." she growled, before casting, "Bombarda!"
But he was quick to shield himself.
"Using the same spell that I used to kill of that wretched Blood-traitor is such an odd thing to do, DiFiore!" grinned Rudolphus, flicking his wrist.
She was blasted roughly against the wall, hissing in pain. He sauntered up to her, grabbing her chin and looked at her victoriously. She saw his eyes dilated in such sanity that she very much believed was the outcome of him being sent into Azkaban more than once.
"Lost everything already, why still live? I will do the extreme pleasure of sending you to precious Potter and your pathetic father and that bitch of a grandmother," he mocked pout her. Lucia snarled, trying to yank herself away from his hold. She wanted to spat at him.
Wait.
She could.
And she did it with no remorse.
"Best not underestimate me, Lestrange," said Lucia, smirking. It was a smirk that haunted him so much as he starred at her, reminded of the man he once called brother. It made him more angered. "You never underestimated my father, so why underestimate his daughter? Wasn't that why you killed him, because he angered you so much even when you thought you had outsmarted him for once? You never did... he had always been ten steps ahead of you..."
"Shut up," he hissed. "You look just like that Half-breed he married,"
"Yeah, and he married her without a second thought," said Lucia, mocking him. "I mean, you did told him that he would find love, but why are you so mad when he did? Is it because it wasn't the way you wanted? Is it, because unlike you, he married for love?" She stared up at him scornfully, deride. "Oh, I can go on for days about this, Rodolphus. Especially the fact that Florian" — she smiled as she saw his face twisted with anger at the mere mention of the name — "knew you were going to kill him."
"He never knew, because he was stupid!" Rodolphus said, throwing her across the floor. But Lucia sat up, standing her ground. "Ever since he married that half-breed, his mind never function the same. He began to become stupid —"
"He said once remember? He said to you that you'll end up killing him one day, and you dismissed it. You never thought that every happen, but he knew all this time," said Lucia simply.
How could he forget that conversation they had during their seventh-year, how ridiculous Florian sounded back then... but it all turned out to be reality, and he ended up eating his words.
Rodolphus glowered under his breath, a hysteric expression painted his face. He wanted to finish off the smirk, just the way he finished off Florian. However, much to his dismay, there was no trace of fear as she closed her eyes, as though awaiting. "Avad —" But before he could finish, he was blasted away by a spell.
Lucia looked to her right and saw the culprit to be Astoria, who stood, enraged.
"You are the reason she's dead?" Astoria flared, as she helped Lucia back up to her feet, still pointing her wand at the Death Eater. "How dare you!"
"Avada Kedavra!"
Lucia scurried around to find her wand when she saw a jet of green light going directly at Astoria. Time slowed as Lucia moved to push Astoria away from the deadly curse, however she did not think she could make it in time. Minutes reduced to seconds as the jet of green was inches away from her face —
"Malfoy!/Draco!"
Draco Malfoy had arrived, pushing Astoria away right as the curse shot through where she had once stood. She had missed death by inches —
"Where — I — you?" Astoria stammered, shocked at his sudden appearance.
"Shut up," was all he said, glaring at Rudolphus. "Hello, Uncle,"
"Draco, come to help out your darling uncle, have you?" said Rodolphus as he got back up, looking at his nephew-by-law. Needless to say, they did not share the same expression, for while Rudolphus had a sense of amusement, Draco, however, if looks could kill, his uncle would've been six feet underground by now.
"No," said Draco simply, coy. "I just want you to know that I've never like you one bit. I only tolerated you because of Aunt Bella. Have fun in hell," He threw the Mahogany wand he had found on the floor to Lucia, in which she swiftly catch and pointed her it to the Death eater in front for her.
"Kill him, please," he said, as Astoria used a Shield Charm upon them, protecting them from the many curses that went blindly their way. "Avenge her. Avenge Erin."
Lucia's lips twitched into a small leer. "Will do,"
"DRACO — !" snarled Rodolphus.
"Protego Maxima!"
A strong Shield was casted in front of them, protecting them from the fiery blast of the Blasting Curse.
"Malfoy," panted Lucia, not tearing her attention away from Rudolphus. "Your parents are trying to find you. Best try and find them — tell them what happened to Erin. They at least need to know what happened to their daughter, especially your mother."
Draco nodded and was ready to set off.
"Astoria, go with him," instructed Lucia, producing another shield from a jinx. She could not afford to be distracted, facing the the torturer of her mother the murderer of her father, grandmother, and Erin. Astoria opened her mouth to protest, but Lucia didn't let her. "I want to be the one to finish him off. I'll be the one to kill him, so go!"
Astoria had never seen Lucia so serious before. It was, in actuality, a bit scary. But she understood why. When she looked at the man, he merely held a ridicule grin at Lucia and only her. He was the reason as to why the DiFiore family had become how it currently. He and only him.
She recoiled.
"Fine," huffed Astoria, seizing the shield she had produced behind the three of them. "But I better see you during the after party when we win this thing!" And she set off with Draco behind her into the crowd of chaos.
"Oh, you will," said Lucia in a low voice.
"Remember round one of our duel, little DiFiore? You lost. Miserably," he laughed, but Lucia was not wavered.
"I think you're mistaken. You underestimate my growth a little too much, Lestrange," Lucia bit back.
"Be it like that, foolish girl! Pray that you'll join your precious Potter and father when I'll give you the bleeding hell itself!" Rodolphus declared, and Lucia narrowed her eyes, staying conscious through the madness and chaos surrounding her. "CRUCIO!"
Lucia quickly shielded herself before throwing an Expulso Curse at him, in which he was swift enough to dodge from: Like that, the battle between them began. Lucia moved forward, her wand slashing in movement, directing every anger she had that had been kept within her throughout the years to reanimate through her whole body, turning into the energy she had lacked prior. She levitated the rocks that laid hidden in the rubble, transfiguring them into hundreds of small daggers. She directed it to Rudolphus with a simple sound, "Oppugno,"
The daggers raced at the Death Eater in a flash, but Rudolphus was quick to burn them with an Exploding Charm, but Lucia wasn't letting him go easily when she saw him slowly backed away from her. He threw a series of spell at her, in which she dodged each time, her hand moving as though she was brandishing a sword around.
Her wand was her sword.
As they battled, the crowd that surrounded them had seem to be invisible moments ago. They watched in anticipation when Lucia raised her wand once again, but this time, instead of to defend, it was to attack.
She sent Curses his way, confident for once in her own abilities. "I would say, Rudolphus, but I have never seen someone dance so well," taunted Lucia, wrist growing weary, but she never waver from her attacks.
There was a look of pure sadistic pleasure on her face, watching the scene in front of her unfold. Watching as Rudolphus tried to fit in an attack only to continue on with his dance of avoiding the spells that was directed to him. It was now clear as the skies above that Lucia DiFiore was not stalling, but torturing him in ways that she knew best; she was going to carefully exhaust him before killing him.
Oh, how the tables have turned.
"But, not to be the bearer of bad news, but that's pretty unnecessary — Locomotor!" Rudolphus was lifted off the ground and with another swish, he was immobile, his wand falling off from his grip, clattering to the ground. All Lucia could see when seeing his face was the terror in her mother's eyes at the very mention of his name, the sorrow in her late-grandmother's eyes, and the acceptance in her father's as he awaited for his untimely death. Unbridled anger shook her very body and to her hand as she flared, "Expulso!"
Rudolphus was blasted directly at the wall, hitting his heard before he slid against the wall grunting. The watching crowd roared at another victory, as Lucia sauntered forward at the man, pointing her wand at the man who was now at her feet, something she had fantasised for so long. The Killing Curse would never be enough to satisfy her vengeance, her bloodlust over the man before. She wanted something that could entirely make sure he'll never walk again. Something that could bring pain as he fade into history.
"Any last words?" Lucia asked, apathetic.
Rodolphus hissed in pain as she gazed up at the daughter of Florian DiFiore. He managed a hysterical, yet incoherent laugh. "Those mad eyes... You're just like him... You're just like Flor —"
But she didn't let him finish as her wand slashed fluidly in front of him, voice dull: "Reducto,"
She watched without any sort of remorse at the man who bore eyes wide as saucers, shock being his last expression before he reduced into ashes before her eyes at the blind blue spark of her wand.
"You'll never earn the privilege of calling him by his name ever again," Lucia mumbled.
Now, he'll never show his face in front of her again. She made sure of that.
Lucia grasped the Lestrange's wand in her hand, starring down at the ashes before she kicked it, causing the debris to scatter away with the wind. It felt good. It felt really really good. The Death eaters were slowly being defeated, they were taking back everything they had lost because of them.
They were winning.
But somehow, even as hope returns, she could not forget about Harry. Her body quivered just thinking of him. He was gone, and she no longer have him. He promised her to stay alive, and yet he went against it all because of his nobility. She needed to find him — well, his body at least. The last thing he deserved was to be ran over through the chaos.
She pocketed Rodolphus's wand and ran to find him, but stopped in her tracks when she arrived in the Great hall where she saw Bellatrix Lestrange, still alive and fighting fifty yards away from Voldemort, and like her master she duelled three at once: Hermione, Ginny, and Luna, all battling their hardest, but Bellatrix was equal to them, and Lucia's attention was diverted as a Killing Curse shot so close to Ginny that she missed death by an inch —
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"
Mrs. Weasley threw off her cloak as she ran, freeing her arms. Bellatrix spun on the spot, roaring with laughter at the sight of her new challenger.
"OUT OF MY WAY!" shouted Mrs. Weasley to the three girls, and with a swipe of her wand she began to duel. Lucia watched with elation as Molly Weasley's wand slashed and twirled, and Bellatrix Lestrange's smile faltered and became a snarl. Jets of light flew from both wands, the floor around the witches' feet became hot and cracked; both women were fighting to kill.
"No!" Mrs. Weasley cried as a few students ran forward, trying to come to her aid. "Get back! Get back! She is mine!"
Hundreds of people now lined the walls, watching the two fights, Voldemort and his three opponents, and Bellatrix and Molly.
"What will happen to your children when I've killed you?" taunted Bellatrix, as mad as her master, capering as Molly's curses danced around her. "When Mummy's gone the same way as Freddie?"
"You — will — never — touch — our — children — again!" screamed Mrs. Weasley.
Bellatrix laughed, the same exhilarated laugh her cousin Sirius had given as he toppled backward through the veil, but then Lucia realised what was about to happen.
Molly's curse soared beneath Bellatrix's outstretched arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart.
Bellatrix's gloating smile froze, her eyes seemed to bulge: For the tiniest space of time she knew what had happened, and then she toppled, and the watching crowd roared, and Voldemort screamed.
Lucia felt as though she was now striding in front of her best friend's mother in slow motion; she saw McGonagall, Kingsley, and Slughorn blasted backward, flailing and writhing through the air, as Voldemort's fury at the fall of his last, best lieutenant exploded with the force of a bomb. Voldemort raised his wand and directed it at Molly Weasley.
"No —" Lucia pushed Mrs. Weasley out of the way right as she heard a familiar roar that caused her heart to both flutter and soar through the bewitched ceiling of the Great hall.
"Protego!"
It was Harry.
Harry Potter.
Her Harry.
A Shield Charm expanded in the middle of the Hall, and Voldemort stared around for the source as Harry pulled off the Invisibility Cloak at last.
She staggered up to her feet, staring at what she thought to be a figment of her imagination. But it was real. He was real.
"Ron, Hermione," croaked Lucia, her heart pounding. "HE'S ALIVE!"
It seems as though Ron and Hermione, too, were staring at their best friend in disbelief in bewilderment as their eyes watered slightly in relief. He's alive.
The yell of shock, the cheers, the screams on every side of "Harry!" "HE'S ALIVE!" were stifled at once. The crowd was afraid, and silence fell abruptly and completely as Voldemort and Harry looked at each other, and began, at the same moment, to circle each other.
"I don't want anyone else to try to help," Harry said loudly, and in the total silence his voice carried like a trumpet call. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me."
Voldemort hissed.
"Potter doesn't mean that," he said, his red eyes wide. "That isn't how he works, is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter?"
"Nobody," said Harry simply. "There are no more Horcruxes. It's just you and me. Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good..."
"One of us?" jeered Voldemort, and his whole body was taut and his red eyes stared, a snake that was about to strike. "You think it will be you, do you, the boy who has survived by accident, and because Dumbledore was pulling the strings?"
"Accident, was it, when my mother died to save me?" asked Harry. They were still moving sideways, both of them, in that perfect circle, maintaining the same distance from each other, and for Harry no face existed but Voldemort's. "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, but still he did not strike, and the watching crowd was frozen as if Petrified, and of the hundreds in the Hall, nobody seemed to breathe but they two. "Accident and chance and the fact that you crouched and snivelled 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 as they circled, and stared into each other's eyes, green into red. "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 another big mistake?"
Voldemort did not speak, but prowled in a circle, and Serafina realised that Harry had kept him temporarily mesmerized and at bay, held back by the faintest possibility that Harry might indeed know a final secret.
"Is it love again?" said Voldemort, his snake's face jeering. "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 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?"
"Just one thing," said Harry, and still they circled each other, wrapped in each other, held apart by nothing but the last secret.
"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," said Harry, and he saw shock flit across the snakelike face, though it was instantly dispelled; Voldemort began to laugh, and the sound was more frightening than his screams; humourless and insane, it echoed around the silent Hall.
"You think you know more magic than I do?" he said. "Than I, than Lord Voldemort, who has 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."
Her breath hitches, and she felt two hands holding her as a mean of support. At either side of her stood Ginny and Astoria, not tearing their gaze away from the scene before them while Neville stood patiently behind her. And at their side was Luna and Daphne, whom Lucia was quite grateful was still alive. They watched along with the crowd, it was so suspenseful that not even a muggle film could compare.
"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."
For the first time, the watching crowd stirred as the hundreds of people around the walls drew breath as one.
"Dumbledore is dead!" Voldemort hurled the words at Harry as though they would cause him unendurable pain. "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's dead," said Harry calmly, "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?" said Voldemort, but still he did not strike, and his red eyes did not waver from Harry's.
"Severus Snape wasn't yours," said Harry. "Snape was Dumbledore's, Dumbledore's from the moment you started 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. They continued to circle each other like wolves about to tear each other apart.
"Snape's Patronus was a doe," said Harry, "the same as my mother's, because he loved her for nearly all of his life, from the time when they were children. You should have realized," he said as he saw Voldemort's nostrils flare, "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, who had followed every word with rapt attention, but now let out a cackle of mad laughter. "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 all 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?"
Of all the things that Harry had said to him, beyond any revelation or taunt, nothing had shocked Voldemort like this. Lucia couldn't quite blamed the monster, for she, too, was confused. Remorse? Was Harry asking him to be more, well, human?
"It's your one last chance," said Harry, "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.
"Yes, I dare," said Harry, "because Dumbledore's last plan hasn't backfired on me at all. It's backfired on you, Riddle."
Voldemort's hand was trembling on the Elder Wand, and Harry gripped Draco's wand very tightly. The moment, he knew, was seconds away.
"That 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 had never been won from him!"
"But then, Potter, Dumbledore as good as gave me the wand!" Voldemort's voice shook with malicious pleasure. "I stole the wand from its last master's tomb! I removed it against its last master's wishes! Its power is mine!"
"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..."
Voldemort's chest rose and fell rapidly, and Harry could feel the curse coming, feel it building inside the wand pointed at his face.
"The true master of the Elder Wand was Draco Malfoy."
Lucia's jaw dropped, and she was sure that the rest around her gaped at this new information as well. They all wheeled around at Draco Malfoy, who stood with his parents with equally wide eyes. What. The. Fu —
Blank shock showed in Voldemort's face for a moment, but then it was gone.
"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..."
"But you're too late," said Harry. "You've missed your chance. I got there first. I overpowered Draco weeks ago. I took this wand from him."
Harry twitched the hawthorn wand, and he felt the eyes of everyone in the Hall upon it.
"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" whispered Harry. "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."
A red-gold glow burst suddenly across the enchanted sky above them as an edge of dazzling sun appeared over the sill of the nearest window. The light hit both of their faces at the same time, so that Voldemort's was suddenly a flaming blur. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he too yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco's wand:
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
The bang was like a cannon blast, and the golden flames that erupted between them, at the dead centre of the circle they had been treading, marked the point where the spells collided. Lucia saw Voldemort's green jet meet Harry's own spell, saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling like the head of Nagini, spinning through the air toward the master it would not kill, who had come to take full possession of it at last.
And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand in his free hand as Voldemort fell backward, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward. Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and Harry stood with two wands in his hand, staring down at his enemy's shell.
One shivering second of silence, the shock of the moment suspended: and then the tumult broke around Harry as the screams and the cheers and the roars of the watchers rent the air. The fierce new sun dazzled the windows as they thundered toward him, and the first to reach him were Ron and Hermione, and it was their arms that were wrapped around him, their incomprehensible shouts that deafened him. Then Ginny, Neville, Luna, and Astoria were there, and then all the Weasleys and Hagrid, and Kingsley and McGonagall and Flitwick and Sprout, and Harry could not hear a word that anyone was shouting, nor tell whose hands were seizing him, pulling him, trying to hug some part of him, hundreds of them pressing in, all of them determined to touch the Boy Who Lived, the reason it was over at last —
Then he saw through the crowd was Lucia. She didn't made any movement to move, only stared at him; her lips wobbled dangerously, her crystalised starry night eyes blinking once, twice, and multiple times, trying to register of the fact that he was still alive. Harry thought nothing of it as the moment he saw her, all he wanted was to be near her. With her.
Finally he stopped in front of her, ignoring the loud thunderous cheers that erupted the Great Hall as everyone celebrated their victory, because to him, she was the only one that present. "I figured it out,"
Lucia halted the tears that well in the corner of her eyes, glancing up at him, puzzled.
"This," he took out the familiar heart locket, the ruby stone on the centre of the heart frame shining with such glimmering light. Then he pointed at the words that engraved on it. "'Heaven is in your eyes,'" His eyes softened as he saw the dullness in her eyes came back to life, the beautiful glint that rose like the moon in the night, shining. A look of realisation of what he meant crossed her face.
Lucia and clamped a hand over her mouth, stunned.
"Nei tuoi occhi c'è il cielo," they said in unison, not tearing their eyes away from one another. Harry took her in his, smiling.
"I hope I didn't butchered that," said Harry, rubbing his nape sheepishly. "Also, I still don't know what your full name is and frankly your 'clue' isn't exactly helping me eit —"
"You're such a — complete — arse — Harry — Potter — !" Lucia hit Harry's chest lightly with every word punctuated with every blow: Harry yelped , backing away but he didn't shield himself as she advanced.
"Well if this isn't déjà vu, I don't know what is," grinned Ron as he watched the scene in the side-lines with Hermione, who glared at him.
"Careful what you say,"
"Right,"
"You come back here from the dead and expect me to be okay with it?!" Lucia backed away slightly as she fold her sleeves up and cracking her neck, "Oh, I'm going to unalive you now — !"
Harry merely stood there with a delicate look as he was welcomed the hit, but Lucia could not advance further when she stood inches away from him. Her raised her arm faltered and her eyes began to water. He was real. Before she knew it, those hot tears won over her and she let out a sob as her arms instead wrap around his neck, sinking into his embrace.
"Damn you..."
He was surprise, not regardless, Harry gave into the warm embrace as he cradled her in his arms, sighing in nothing but tranquillity as he took in the scent of peonies that filled his nostrils... the peonies that he almost lost. But now, he had nothing to worry about anymore, for the threat was gone. He was home.
"I'm sorry..."
She shook her head. "I'm glad you're okay," she croak. "Don't do that again, please,"
Harry kissed the crown of her head, "I won't... I'm back,"
Lucia closed her eyes tightly, taking in his scents, fisting his jacket tightly in her hand as happy tears dropped onto his shoulder, soaking them. "W-Welcome back,"
The sun rose steadily over Hogwarts, and the Great Hall blazed with life and light. Harry was an indispensable part of the mingled outpourings of jubilation and mourning, of grief and celebration. They wanted him there with them, their leader and symbol, their saviour and their guide, and that he had not slept, that he craved the company of only a few of them, seemed to occur to no one. He must speak to the bereaved, clasp their hands, witness their tears, receive their thanks, hear the news now creeping in from every quarter as the morning drew on; that the Imperiused up and down the country had come back to themselves, that Death Eaters were fleeing or else being captured, that the innocent of Azkaban were being released at that very moment, and that Kingsley Shacklebolt had been named temporary Minister of Magic...
They moved Voldemort's body and laid it in a chamber off the Hall, away from the bodies of Fred, Erin, Tonks, Lupin, Colin Creevey, and fifty others who had died fighting him. McGonagall had replaced the House tables, but nobody was sitting according to House anymore: All were jumbled together, teachers and pupils, ghosts and parents, centaurs and house-elves, and Firenze lay recovering in a corner, and Grawp peered in through a smashed window, and people were throwing food into his laughing mouth. After a while, exhausted and drained, Harry found himself sitting on a bench beside Luna.
"I'd want some peace and quiet, if it were me," she said.
"I'd love some," he replied.
"I'll distract them all," she said. "Use your Cloak."
And before he could say a word she had cried, "Oooh, look, a Blibbering Humdinger!" and pointed out of the window. Everyone who heard looked around, and Harry slid the Cloak up over himself, and got to his feet.
Now he could move through the Hall without interference. He spotted Neville, the sword of Gryffindor lying beside his plate as he ate, surrounded by a knot of fervent admirers. Along the aisle between the tables he walked, and he spotted the three Malfoys, huddled together as though unsure whether or not they were supposed to be there, but nobody was paying them any attention. Everywhere he looked he saw families reunited, and finally, he saw the three whose company he craved most.
"Are you still crying?" Ron deadpanned at the girl who knelt opposite of him and Hermione. They had just done told her about the kiss and she have yet to cease from crying.
"I knew it!" Lucia sobbed harder. "I wished I've got to see it! This isn't fair!"
"Not sure if that's anything to cry about," said Hermione sheepishly.
"Let me cry! I deserved it — you would be crying if you're still comprehending of the fact that your ex-boyfriend who you're still in love with was declared dead and then not long after he showed up out of nowhere — alive — and BOOM! Voldemort's dead and he's the reason for that!"
"Ah, well, we cried too when we saw him back," laughed Ron. "We're not in place to talk about you being a cry-baby, are we?"
"Oh, honestly, I would've think you would be more crying about Lestrange though," said Hermione, and Lucia's comical cries ceased immediately, replaced by a look of melancholic pride.
"I did it,"
Ron and Hermione shared a knowing gaze and turned to the girl with a small smile. "Yeah, you did it."
Lucia took out the wand and twirled Rodolphus Lestrange's wand between her fingers before grasping at both ends of it. "Time to let go of the past?"
"And look forward to the future," encouraged Hermione, as Ron put a hand on Lucia's shoulder.
With a sharp inhale, Lucia snapped the wand in two. The snapped wand sparked for a moment before its magic diminished into nothingness. She couldn't believe it, she was finally free from the shackles of her past that she had so desperately been living this whole. She avenged her family.
Finally.
"It's me," Lucia jolted in startlement when she heard a voice directly at the empty space beside her. It was Harry undoubtedly. "Will you come with me?"
They stood up at once, and together he, Lucia, Ron, and Hermione left the Great Hall. Great chunks were missing from the marble staircase, part of the balustrade gone, and rubble and bloodstains occurred every few steps as they climbed.
Somewhere in the distance they could hear Peeves zooming through the corridors singing a victory song of his own composition:
We did it, we bashed them,
wee Potter's the one,And Voldy's gone moldy,so now let's have fun!
"Really gives a feeling for the scope and tragedy of the thing, doesn't it?" said Ron, pushing open a door to let the other three through.
Happiness would come, Harry thought, but at the moment it was muffled by exhaustion, and the pain of losing Fred and Erin and Lupin and Tonks pierced him like a physical wound every few steps. Most of all he felt the most stupendous relief, and a longing to sleep. But first he owed an explanation to Lucia, Ron, and Hermione, who had stuck with him for so long, and who deserved the truth.
Painstakingly he recounted what he had seen in the Pensieve and what had happened in the forest, and they had not even begun to express all their shock and amazement when at last they arrived at the place to which they had been walking, though none of them had mentioned their destination.
Since he had last seen it, the gargoyle guarding the entrance to the headmaster's study had been knocked aside; it stood lopsided, looking a little punch-drunk, and Harry wondered whether it would be able to distinguish passwords anymore.
"Can we go up?" he asked the gargoyle.
"Feel free," groaned the statue.
They clambered over him and onto the spiral stone staircase that moved slowly upward like an escalator. Harry pushed open the door at the top.
He had one, brief glimpse of the stone Pensieve on the desk where he had left it, and then an ear-splitting noise made him cry out, thinking of curses and returning Death Eaters and the rebirth of Voldemort —
But it was applause. All around the walls, the headmasters and headmistresses of Hogwarts were giving him a standing ovation; they waved their hats and in some cases their wigs, they reached through their frames to grip each other's hands; they danced up and down on the chairs in which they had been painted; Dilys Derwent sobbed unashamedly; Dexter Fortescue was waving his ear-trumpet; and Phineas Nigellus called, in his high, reedy voice, "And let it be noted that Slytherin House played its part! Let our contribution not be forgotten!"
But Harry had eyes only for the man who stood in the largest portrait directly behind the headmaster's chair. Tears were sliding down from behind the half-moon spectacles into the long silver beard, and the pride and the gratitude emanating from him filled Harry with the same balm as phoenix song.
At last, Harry held up his hands, and the portraits fell respectfully silent, beaming and mopping their eyes and waiting eagerly for him to speak. He directed his words at Dumbledore, however, and chose them with enormous care. Exhausted and bleary-eyed though he was, he must make one last effort, seeking one last piece of advice.
"The thing that was hidden in the Snitch," he began, "I dropped it in the forest. I don't know exactly where, but I'm not going to go looking for it again. Do you agree?"
"My dear boy, I do," said Dumbledore, while his fellow pictures looked confused and curious. "A wise and courageous decision, but no less than I would have expected of you. Does anyone else know where it fell?"
"No one," said Harry, and Dumbledore nodded his satisfaction.
"I'm going to keep Ignotus's present, though," said Harry, and Dumbledore beamed.
"But of course, Harry, it is yours forever, until you pass it on!"
"And then there's this."
Harry held up the Elder Wand, and Lucia, Ron, and Hermione looked at it with a reverence that, even in his befuddled and sleep-deprived state, Harry did not like to see.
"I don't want it," said Harry.
"What?" said Ron loudly. "Are you mental?"
"I know it's powerful," said Harry wearily. "But I was happier with mine. So..."
He rummaged in the pouch hung around his neck, and pulled out the two halves of holly still just connected by the finest thread of phoenix feather. Hermione had said that they could not be repaired, that the damage was too severe. All he knew was that if this did not work, nothing would.
He laid the broken wand upon the headmaster's desk, touched it with the very tip of the Elder Wand, and said, "Reparo."
As his wand resealed, red sparks flew out of its end. Harry knew that he had succeeded. He picked up the holly and phoenix wand and felt a sudden warmth in his fingers, as though wand and hand were rejoicing at their reunion.
"I'm putting the Elder Wand," he told Dumbledore, who was watching him with enormous affection and admiration, "back where it came from. It can stay there. If I die a natural death like Ignotus, its power will be broken, won't it? The previous master will never have been defeated. That'll be the end of it."
Dumbledore nodded. They smiled at each other.
"Are you sure?" said Ron. There was the faintest trace of longing in his voice as he looked at the Elder Wand.
"Hmm... I feel like it'll be best to snap in half," said Lucia, smiling slightly at the wand as though she would like to do it herself.
"I think Harry's right," said Hermione quietly.
"That wand's more trouble than it's worth," said Harry. "And quite honestly," he turned away from the painted portraits, thinking now only of the four-poster bed lying waiting for him in Gryffindor Tower, and wondering whether Kreacher might bring him a sandwich there, "I've had enough trouble for a lifetime."
"Oh, don't we all agree that?" laughed Ron.
"Then let's go home together, shall we?" said Lucia.
They four shared a gaze before they walked out of the headmaster's office exhausted, swaying as they walked with their arms linked with one another down the corridors, singing on top of their lungs, "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwart, Teach us something please..."
Their journey in Hogwarts have finally came to an end, and they were aware of that. They were no longer the naive kids that prioritise House points to survive and goes through the drama of school life, but four young adults just waiting to fall asleep again after a long adventure.
At last.
one more chapter to go before we have to say goodbye to lurry T_T
i'm going to be absolutely sad when i end this book. like, this is my like my baby and its finally coming to an end...
- Winnie