War Against Magiterran

Chapter 17: The Counter Invasion

Within five days, the Alliance armada landed on the coast of Durmstrang. There was no problem landing the armies of all four kingdoms on the snow-covered beach. Neville blew his trumpet as each commander walked off the flagship. By the time Ron came off the ship however, he had grown so fed up with Neville's trumpet that he yanked it out of Neville's hands and blasted it into pieces.

"Trevor!" cried Neville looking teary eyed. He cradled the pieces of the trumpet and started crying.

"Sorry about that," said Ron. He decided that he didn't want to know why Neville called his trumpet "Trevor". Ron said, "Reparo." And the trumpet were instantly fixed.

The Alliance militaries proceeded to march toward the royal capitol of Durmstrang. With the Griffin Riders circling in the air above them, they didn't need to worry about any surprise attacks similar to the one they had sprung on the Durmstrang army. Of course, the Alliance had already crushed the bulk of the Durmstrang military in the Battle of Little Hangleton and they were positive that there wouldn't be too much of a threat in the soldiers who had remained in Durmstrang.

As they neared the capitol however, the Alliance soon learned just how wrong they were.

Right outside of the city was an army. And not just any army, but the largest army of dark powers ever assembled. Besides men, the army was composed of orcs, trolls, dementors, dragons (mostly fireballs and vipertooths), and monstrous creatures that could only be demons. These demons were about the size of trolls, had black skin, heads shaped like an ox's with razor sharp teeth, two golden horns on their head, black full plated armor, and were carrying maces and war hammers.

Yet the most surprising thing of all was that this army was not rushing out to attack the Alliance armies. Rather, they were flying the green flag, which meant that their commander wished to speak with the commanders of the opposing side.

"Do you suppose it's a trick?" whispered Sirius.

Dumbledore studied the opposing side for a minute before saying, "I don't think so. I am sure that the other side is planning something but I believe that the commander of the other side truly does wish to speak with us before we fight." The other commanders nodded their acknowledgement.

Dumbledore, Sirius, Remus, Ron (representing Gryffindor in Harry's absence), Draco, Penelope, and Justin made their way to the center of the snow-covered field where the two armies were glaring each other from each side. Neville (who always went ahead of the commanders as herald) and Ginny (who wanted to stick by Ron) came with them.

As soon as the Alliance commanders had made it to the center of the field, the commander of the dark forces also made his way to the center on foot. As soon as he drew close enough to them to be recognized, all of the Alliance commanders gasped in horror. For the commander was none other than Lord Voldemort himself!

The Alliance commanders stared at the Dark Lord who had once held their homeland in an iron grip of terror and whom they had believed to had been dead for the past two years. Terror coursed through their bodies, and their faces paled as their eyes went wide. Voldemort simply grinned at them. "Oh come now, surely it cannot be that much of a surprise," he said. "You've obviously figured out that my Death Eaters had returned if you have even bothered coming here. To imagine that I too had returned shouldn't be that much of a stretch."

The commanders finally snapped out of their stupor. Ron was the first one to speak, "How could you be alive?! I saw you die with my own eyes!"

"Oh, and we can trust your eyes?" mumbled Draco despite the fact that he was visibly shaken by Voldemort's appearance. For once, Ron ignored him.

"What you saw was my old body being destroyed. Not I myself being destroyed," said Voldemort with a pensive look. "Lets just say that my curse halved the power of that Patronus."

"You engineered this whole mess, didn't you?" said Dumbledore. His eyes had lost their twinkle and he was radiating a sense of extreme power that could make any dark force quell in fear.

"Oh, well spotted Albus," drawled Voldemort, almost lazily. "Of course I'm the one who engineered this whole ordeal. I've been working on it for the past two years, ever since I was exiled from Magiterran."

"But why?" demanded Remus.

"I believe I can answer that," said Dumbledore. "This is all an elaborate scheme to get a hold of the two rings isn't it? Those rings nearly destroyed you before. So you set up this whole scheme in an attempt to get them out of the picture. Without, the two rings, nothing could ever destroy you, and you'd eventually grow powerful enough to conquer the Alliance militarily again. Is that correct?"

Voldemort grinned. "I see that there is no fooling you, Dumbledore," he said. "That is correct. Viktor Krum always did have an infatuation toward Queen Hermione ever since he had heard rumors of the outcome of the War in Magiterran. I simply used that infatuation he had and twisted into mad lust and desire, with a little help of my modified Imperius Curse. And in that way, I placed my remaining Death Eaters in control of this land. I couldn't kidnap the Queen from Godric's Hollow palace where she is much too protected. However, the right opportunity arrived when Potter's twins were born. Being newly born, the protection wards hadn't been fully implemented yet to protect the twins from being kidnapped by my Neo Death Eaters. I used the twins to lure their mudblood mother out of the palace and into our hands."

"And get a hold of the Ring of the Phoenix," hissed Sirius. Voldemort smirked.

"After that, the rest was easy," continued the Dark Lord. "Harry Potter would walk through fire to get to his wife. Therefore, in the process of luring him to me, I also get a hold of the Ring of the Lion. Invading Magiterran was just something extra I thought. The Alliance was at its weakest point with Potter away and I just couldn't resist." Voldemort laughed his high-pitched laugh, which made the Alliance commanders shudder.

"And so it comes down to this," said Dumbledore. "One last battle where both sides gamble everything that they have for victory."

Voldemort grinned. "Oh, but you do realize that you cannot destroy me without the rings."

"Ah, but then the question is where are those rings?" said Dumbledore. He and Voldemort stared into each other's eyes for minutes, neither one blinking. It appeared that they were sizing each other up. Finally, Voldemort smirked and started walking back towards his army.

"Hey, just answer one more question," shouted Sirius. "Why did you even bother telling us all this?"

Voldemort turned to him and grinned. "I just wanted you to know who it was that destroyed all of you." He laughed as he walked back to his army. The Alliance commanders also tuned around and headed back.

"Why were Dumbledore and You-know-who sizing up each other like that?" asked Ron.

"Because," answered Remus, "we don't know what happened to Harry and Hermione."

"What?"

"Harry and Hermione haven't returned to us so we don't have the two rings. But there is a possibility that the Dark Lord doesn't know that; he may believe that we have the means of destroying him with us. On the other hand, we don't know if Harry was also captured and the rings were lost meaning that the Dark side is laughing at us right now as we prepare a hopeless battle. Whichever way, we don't know what happened to the rings and there is a possibility that the other side doesn't know either. That's why they were studying each other like that; they were trying to figure out what the other knew."

"I think I get it," said Ron.

Suddenly, as soon as the respective commanders had made it back to their side, the dark forces gave out a huge battle cry! Fully prepared, the Alliance armies also raised a great battle cry. Before, a single snowflake had fallen, the two sides rushed to the center of the field, their weapons drawn and ready. The battle of snow-covered fields had begun!

Chapter 18: The Battle of Snow-Covered Fields

With a mighty cry, the two sides charged at each other. Fighting was fierce as Alliance soldiers hacked at orcs, trolls, and Durmstrang soldiers as metal and wood flashed. Blades hacked, arrows flew, and maces crashed down on armor as red blood spilt on the white snow. In the air, Griffin riders took on dragons as lightning and flame struck each other's opponents down. Mage Knights fired Patronuses at dementors who tried to suck away morale from the Alliance. Unfortunately, the fighting was much too fierce for the Mage Knights to get together and create a Patronus. river like they did at the Battle of Little Hangleton.

The Alliance also had a few phoenixes flying around. The magical birds, led by Dumbledore's Fawkes, flew around singing their enchanting songs which gave courage and hope to the Alliance soldiers: the direct opposite of the dementors' effects. Their magical tears also healed wounded soldiers.

Hagrid had tried to join the Grifin Riders in the air. Unfortunately, due to his tremendous weight, Buckbeak could only make fifteen feet high leaps before he came crashing down. They usually managed to crush an enemy soldier in the process however. And Hagrid also bashed a number of enemies with his monstrous war hammer.

Ron had his moments as he decapitated an orc. He deflected the blade of a Durmstrang soldier and ran him through. Before he could pull his blade out, another orc slashed at him from behind! Before the blade could slice him, Ron placed a swift kick at the orc's face. He then spun around and stabbed the orc.

Ron also caught sight of Ginny whirling a discarded flail she had picked up. With her fiery red hair and the twirling sword and flail, Ron decided that he was exceptionally glad that he wasn't on the wrong side of his sister. She looked like the living incarnation of fire. What Ron didn't realize was that he looked quite similar swinging his sword around and beating off his enemies.

Things were not going so well for the Alliance however, if only for one reason. At the head of his dark forces stood Voldemort, his emerald encrusted sword flinging Alliance forces away from him. No soldier, not even the Mage Knights stood a chance against the all-powerful Dark Lord, and many a brave soldier died trying to bring him down.

Voldemort was like an impenetrable wall or perhaps an impassable mountain. Just the simplest glare from him paralyzed Alliance soldiers with terror. The flashing of his red eyes signaled death for his enemies. And his high-pitched laugh rang with the foreboding of doom. Ron couldn't but help imagining that Voldemort was many times more powerful than when he last fought him.

"Is that all you have to offer me?" said Voldemort with a laugh. "I would've expected more from Mage Knights."

Ron boiled with anger and started making his way to the Dark Lord. Before he could get there, Draco had leapt at Voldemort, flailing his sword! Voldemort simply swung his sword out and the two blades collided. In an instant, Draco was flung away some fifteen feet into the air and landed in the midst of Alliance soldiers some forty feet away. Voldemort continued flinging away Mage Knights with just a flick of his sword.

Ron finally made it to the Dark Lord. He yelled, "Expelliarmus!" and tried to disarm him. Voldemort simply blocked the spell by catching it in his raised left hand.

"I would've though that you of all people would know that you can't stop me that easily," he said with his malevolent grin. Ron simply growled and charged at the Dark Lord. Voldemort twirled his sword and sent Ron flying into the midst of a battalion of orcs!

Before Ron could get back to his feet, orcs were upon him. Ron saw his life flash before his eyes, and everything seemed to go in slow motion. 'I'm sorry Margaret,' he thought. 'I'm so sorry.' Ron closed his eyes as the orc blades flashed down to him. Ron braced himself for the end...

Suddenly, a female Gryffindor Mage Knight leapt in front of Ron. She proceeded to stab and decapitate the orc that was about to run Ron through. She then beat off all the other orcs with incredible sword skills. Finally, after all the orcs had been killed, the Mage Knight turned to Ron. Ron gasped and his eyes bulged as he recognized the Mage Knight.

"Hermione?! No bloody way!"

"Well of course its me," said Hermione with a sweet smile. "And its nice to see you again as well, Ron."

Ron didn't care that they were in the middle of a battlefield. He leapt up with a whoop of joy and hugged Hermione fiercely. Hermione chuckled as she hugged him back.

"Dammit, I missed you," said Ron after they pulled apart. He studied the armor Hermione was wearing. "You're a Mage Knight?!"

"Apparently." Hermione would've said more if Ginny hadn't suddenly come forward and grabbed her in a bear hug.

"Oh, Hermione I'm so glad you're alright!" she said, a few tears glistening in her eyes. Hermione hugged Ginny back.

Voldemort soon noticed that Hermione was in the battlefield. He didn't have time to contemplate the turn of events however when another Mage Knight leapt from behind him and swing his sword down. Voldemort whipped around and his blade caught the blade of Sir Harry Potter.

"Harry Potter," hissed Voldemort.

Harry walked up to the Dark Lord with a gleam in his emerald green eyes. "Voldemort." Harry swung his sword forward. Voldemort wasn't fast enough to deflect the blow. Although the blade couldn't penetrate his skin, the Dark Lord still stumbled backwards.

Seething with anger, Voldemort raised his sword and lowered himself into a battle ready stance, his red eyes burning with rage. Harry calmly walked forward and swung his sword back and forth. The Dark Lord deflected each of Harry's blows, but the slight grin on his Harry's face indicated that he held the pace of the duel.

As the duel dragged on, Voldemort seemed to get nervous as Hermione tried to make her way to her husband, while fighting off the dark forces that stood in her way. It was clear that Voldemort feared the magical rings greatly and that it would now be only a matter of minutes before the two were united right in front of him.

"I am not going to let you destroy me!" said Voldemort as he blocked one of Harry's thrusts. The Dark Lord suddenly started hissing in Parseltongue. Harry was the only one who could understand what the Dark Lord was saying and his response was a raised eyebrow.

"You're actually calling a basilisk here when there's a whole army of griffins flying in the air?" said Harry with a slight smirk. It was common knowledge that griffins specialized in hunting basilisks.

Voldemort grinned. "Not just any basilisk, Harry." Suddenly, the ground started to shake. The earth broke forth like a volcano of rock and snow as a basilisk sprang out from under Voldemort's feet! But this wasn't any basilisk, for it had twenty feet long bird wings attached on either side of its fifty-foot long body. The basilisk flew into the air with Voldemort standing on its head, laughing hysterically. Alliance soldiers looked up at the monstrous creature in terror.

Harry muttered "What in heavens?"

"This," said Voldemort with a laugh, "is my newly created modified basilisk. I unfortunately had to sacrifice its lethal glare to create it, but it is still just as deadly. And not as easily killed by griffins."

Most of the Griffin Riders were still busy fighting dragons. There was one griffin however, who did not have a rider. Harry placed two fingers on his lips and blew a shrill whistle. The griffin flew down to Harry and landed next to him. "All right, Godric," said Harry as he clambered on the golden griffin's back. Harry looked up at Hermione who had just made it to his side. "Come on," he said. Hermione nodded and climbed onto Godric sitting behind Harry.

Harry pulled the reins on the griffin's head and the Godric climbed into the air, his powerful wings beating furiously. Hermione held onto Harry's waist tightly as she muttered, "I don't like this. I really don't like this."

It was now the flying basilisk and the griffin in the air. The basilisk lunged at the griffin flashing its fangs. The griffin simply flew back a bit. It then squawked and tried to sink its talons into the basilisk's crown. The basilisk thrashed out of the way and tried to sink its fangs into the griffin again. Harry swung his sword and deflected the fangs.

"Avada Kedavra!" Harry sent the griffin flying back and just barely avoided the killing curse fired by Voldemort. The Dark Lord simply grinned and fired another killing curse, which was also dodged by the griffin.

Harry and Hermione decided they had enough. They pointed their rings forward and shouted, "Expecto Patronum!" Once again, the golden lion and scarlet phoenix sprang forward and combined into a single griffin Patronus.! Unfortunately, before it could hit the Dark Lord, the basilisk flew higher and shielded Voldemort from the Patronus. Harry heard the Parseltongue. Voldemort had used to command the basilisk to shield him. Harry and Hermione fired another griffin Patronus., only to meet the same results.

"This isn't working, Harry," said Hermione. Harry seemed to be contemplating something when he passed the reigns to Hermione. Before she could stop him, Harry leapt off of the griffin and onto the basilisk's back, a move that startled the Dark Lord.

The basilisk didn't dare thrash Harry off in fear of flinging Voldemort off as well. Harry ran forward and thrust his sword at Voldemort who caught the blade with his own sword. They couldn't use any magic for the simple reason that their blades contain brother cores and therefore couldn't duel each other the magical way. The two exchanged blows for sometime while fighting the turbulence for being so high in the air. When it came to sword fights however, Voldemort had the upper hand. "You can not beat me this way, Potter," he hissed, with his malevolent grin.

Harry however, simply grinned back. "Did you think I jumped on top of here to duel you," he said. Without warning, Harry suddenly plunged his blade into the top of the head of the basilisk!

"No!" Voldemort tried to rush forward, but the basilisk was killed and was now falling to the ground. The Dark Lord turned to Harry only to find that the griffin carrying Hermione was flying right next to him.

"Expect Patronum!" shouted Harry and Hermione. The scarlet and gold griffin Patronus. once again shot forth, and this time Voldemort wasn't able to defend himself from it! He perished screaming as his body once again crumbled to dust! And this time, there was no questioning that his spirit had been vanquished too.

Harry leapt back onto the griffin as the corpse of the basilisk came crashing down to the ground. With their master dead, the dark forces lost all their powers and the Alliance armies wiped them out. Thus, the battle was won and the war was finally over.

Chapter 19: The End of it All

With the death of Voldemort, Viktor Krum had snapped out of the Imperious Curse the Dark Lord had held him. One of the first things he did was apologize to the Gryffindor Royal Family and most especially to Hermione. It was quite a sight, seeing the king of Durmstrang on his knees, begging for forgiveness in front of the Queen Mage Knight. Hermione said, "I will forgive you. But I cannot easily forget what happened. I don't think I ever will." After that, Hermione had nothing more ever to do with Viktor Krum.

All of the Neo Death Eaters had perished either in the Battle of Little Hangleton or in the Battle of Snow-covered Fields. So the threat of dark powers was ended once and for all.

It was decided that the Alliance would temporarily occupy Durmstrang, at least until Krum had recovered from the effects of the Imperious Curse and a new government had been set up. However, the occupation was to be under Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Gryffindor wanted nothing to do with it.

Within days of the War's conclusion, the Gryffindor Armies sailed back to Magiterran along with the Mage Knights. They went back to Godric's Hollow hailed as heroes once again. Harry and Hermione felt so much relief to be finally back home as the citizens of Gryffindor crowded the streets to welcome their beloved king and queen back.

The first person to greet them after Neville heralded their return was Margaret Chapel. She was now dressed in elegant blue robes of the noble woman she was. "Ron!" she called out.

"Margaret!" Margaret ran forward and leapt into Ron's arms. "I missed you," she said. She and Ron shared a long, passionate kiss before she pulled back and said, "I love you."

"I love you, too," said Ron, turning as red as his hair. Margaret finally let go of Ron and timidly faced Hermione.

"Um, h-hello your majesty. I-I am Margaret Chapel..." Margaret would've of continued if Hermione hadn't suddenly hugged her fiercely, completely shocking Margaret.

"Its so nice to meet you, Margaret," said Hermione. She pulled away and beamed at Margaret. "And please, call me Hermione." Margaret made a small smile and nodded.

Other people came to greet the returning heroes: Prime Minister Seamus Finnigan, Valet Dean Thomas, Ladies in Waiting Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, even guards Colin and Dennis Creevy came and greeted the heroes.

What followed was probably the biggest celebration in all of Gryffindor as guests from all over the kingdom crowded in to the Royal Palace. The entire Weasley clan was there and Lord Arthur and Lady Molly were chatting amicably with Sirius and Remus. Mage Knights Alicia and Katie were chatting with General Oliver Wood while Angelina was laughing over the tricks Fred and George performed on Percy. Charlie and Bill were discussing things with Dumbledore. Margaret was a reluctant participator in Lavender and Parvati's gossip as Seamus, Dean, and Neville started dancing around getting drunk.

At one point, things came to a complete stand still when Margaret quite suddenly cried out "YES!" at the top of her lungs. As it turned out, Ron had just proposed to her. Fred and George continued bugging Ron for hours about their baby brother growing up and Ron just scowled at them. For their part, Arthur and Molly were absolutely thrilled about having Margaret as a daughter in law. The Weasleys were all showered with plenty of congratulations as well as backslaps and hugs.

The house elves working in the palace were worked to the brink of exhaustion preparing meals for all the guests. Hermione promised to give them salary bonuses and some extra time off. That reminded Ron of something. "Hermione, what is this spew nonsense I heard about?"

Hermione scowled at her red haired friend. "For your information, Ron, its S.P.E.W., not spew. Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. It's a good cause. You should join as well."

Ron was about to retort, but something else had caught Hermione's eyes and Ron was out of the picture. "James! Lily!" Hermione rushed over to Hagrid who had just come in carrying the twins.

"They've ben waitin' fer mommy an' daddy ta return fer some time," said Hagrid as he passed the twins to their mother. Hermione hugged her babies close to her and let a few tears of joy fall down her cheeks. Harry came up and hugged Hermione with his left arm as he stroked the twins' hair with his right hand.

"Hey you two," he said. "Didn't daddy promise that he would bring mommy back? Daddy keeps his promises." Hermione turned around and kissed Harry on the lips.

"That reminds me of something," she said.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?" Hermione nodded and made a small smile. Harry grinned and called out, "Hey Ginny, could you come here for a second?" Looking confused, Ginny walked up to the Royal Family, followed by Ron.

"What is it?" she asked.

Hermione smiled and said, "Well you see, I'm pregnant."

"Oh, when did this happen?" asked Ron with a large grin.

"While we were hiding in a cave under snow," mumbled Harry, as both he and Hermione blushed red.

Hermione continued. "Anyway, we've used a few charms and discovered that it's going to be a girl. So Ginny, with your permission, we'd like to name her Virginia."

Ginny looked absolutely startled as her jaw dropped. "Permission? You don't need my permission. I'd be honored to have your next daughter named after me. Thank you so much!" Harry and Hermione both beamed at her.

"What's this I here about Hermione being pregnant?" called out Remus from the other end of the room. This was followed by whistles from Sirius and remarks from Fred and George that caused Harry and Hermione to blush VERY red. Soon, everyone in the palace was giving their congratulations to Harry and Hermione. Laughter continued to ring out late into the night as the festivities continued.

* * * * * * * * * *

That night, Harry and Hermione were once again in each other's arms in their four-poster bed in the west wing. Their twins were in the nursery next door, safe and sound.

"Harry, are you awake?" asked Hermione, her hair spread out on Harry's bare chest.

"Yeah," said Harry. He turned and kissed Hermione on her forehead. Hermione shivered a little as Harry ran his fingers along Hermione's bare shoulders.

"I was so afraid that we would never be able to be this happy again." A few tears slid down her cheeks.

Harry was puzzled when he saw the tears. He softly kissed them away and asked, "Why are you crying?"

"I'm just so happy," said Hermione she smiled up at him.

Harry drew her closer to him. Hermione snuggled up by her husband. "Lets make a promise to Lily, James, and Virginia," said Harry, "that we will always be great parents."

Hermione smiled. "Yes, lets make that promise." She snuggled up closer and said, "I love you."

"I love you too." The two kissed each other intimately as the night moved along peacefully. And this time, they truly did live happily ever after.

THE END