The Final Battle

Okay, here we go with this week's post. I know that it's only half as long as the chapters I posted before, but as I said before, now I actually have to write the story on. It takes some more time, so the chapters will be shorter. But maybe, if time allows, I'll post more often. (not that I stuck to my 'one post a week' rule before, mind you).

Enjoy!

Preparation for the Battle

Harry could not recall how he and Hermione had pulled through the next couple of days. Ever since Ron had gained knowledge that his brother was missing and possibly dead, he had withdrawn from their normal activities. He did go to classes, but neither did he seem to pay any attention there, nor appeared he to be interested in anything else.

Harry and Hermione had tried to occupy their friend's mind with something else for a couple of times. Hermione had offered to play chess against him and Harry had tried to get him out of the castle and onto the Quidditch Pitch, but everything they had tried so far had failed.

Ron mostly spent his time in the dormitory, sitting on his bed and pretending to read a book. The other inhabitants of the dorm knew that he wasn't really reading, but nobody dared to disturb Ron in his thoughts. And whenever Ron agreed to come down into the Common Room, he merely sat next to Ginny and said nothing at all.

And from what Hermione had told him, Ginny wasn't coping much better, either.

Once or twice Harry had already thought to ask Remus for a possibility to postpone their Dementor demonstrations, but in the end he had realized how important they were. Unfortunately, next to those additional lessons and his own struggle to catch up in classes, he hardly found any time to look after Ron, at least not to the extent he would have liked to.

Harry started to develop a huge bad conscience about letting his friend down, and the little voice inside of his head couldn't be silenced, no matter how often he told himself that what he did was important for all of them.

The Dementor demonstrations actually went quite well. During the last three days, Harry had fought the Boggart in the presence of all fifth years and below and till the end of the week he would be finished with the upper classes as well.

Especially the first and second years had been left very confused and drained by the presence of the Boggart, a few of them had even started crying when the lights had begun to flutter and they had felt the coldness that seemed to absorb every single happy thought from them.

Harry knew that it was only thanks to Remus' educational calmness (and his seemingly never ending supply of chocolate) that none of these confrontation had become traumatizing for the rather defenceless young students.

But right now, four days after Ron had received the bad news, Harry was on his way to Dumbledore's office. Professor McGonagall had told him that morning after breakfast that the headmaster wished to see him at tea time, but as usual she had not told Harry what this was all about.

So now he stood once more in front of the gargoyle and didn't know what was expecting him.

"Liquorice"

Professor McGonagall had given him the password, and the gargoyle immediately swung aside and allowed Harry to make his way to Dumbledore's office. Cautiously, he knocked on the wooden door which immediately sprung aside and revealed the old headmaster, sitting behind his desk. Seeing who was standing there, Dumbledore smiled and rose from his seat.

"Ah Harry, just in time. Come in, take a seat. Can I offer you a cup of tea?"

Harry sat down in one of the chairs and nodded.

"Yes, thank you. Professor McGonagall said you wanted to see me?"

Dumbledore poured Harry some tea and then sat down again.

"Yes Harry, that's right. Remus told me that the Dementor demonstrations went quite well."

Harry just shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. I have the feeling that they rather discouraged the younger students. I mean, they weren't even able to produce a Patronus without a Dementor present, and now that they know what it feels like..."

Dumbledore nodded.

"Yes, I understand. But I think it will be more than just helpful for the ones who actually could produce a Patronus. Don't worry too much about the younger students, they will be the first to be evacuated in case we really get attacked."

Seeing Harry's confused look, Dumbledore laughed.

"As soon as the wards around the castles fall down, some of the teachers will apparate the younger students out. Group-Apparition. It's not without risks, but I'd rather have some students spread around the country than letting them fight. One after another, we'll evacuate every student from the castle in case we get attacked."

Harry nodded and took a sip of his tea.

"But Professor, what about Voldemort?"

"Ah Harry, that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. And I'm afraid that I don't have very good news for you."

Harry frowned his forehead.

"What do you mean?"

"Well Harry, you surely remember the last time you met Voldemort. That incident has proven that the Dark Lord has grown far too powerful to be destroyed by the Killing Curse."

Again, Harry nodded.

"Yeah, and it worries me. I mean, if Avada Kedavra isn't of any use, then we can't beat him."

Dumbledore just raised a hand.

"Don't give up hope too soon, Harry. Voldemort is not invincible, there are still ways to defeat him. He has made mistakes in the past, and I think that we can use those mistakes to our advantage."

"What kind of mistakes, Professor?"

Dumbledore sat back in his seat and watched Harry for some moments, then he began to speak.

"You know that when the Killing Curse Voldemort aimed at you bounced back on him, he was reduced to a mere spirit. Barely alive and far from being powerful. He hid after that until there was a chance for him to gain a human body once again, and he was hiding because he knew that in this state, he could be destroyed. There is an ancient spell that wipes out spirits like he was one.

But then, two years ago, Voldemort finally found a way to resurrect himself and at first it seemed that he had crossed the last barrier towards invincibility. But again, he made a mistake."

Harry just shook his head and raised a questioning eyebrow at his headmaster.

"He needed blood for the rite he carried out, and I think he made a mistake in taking your blood, Harry. Truly, he might have planned to kill you after everything was over, but he failed. The fact that he used your blood to resurrect himself has connected you to him, Harry. Connected you even closer than you had been before. The extend of which you have felt last summer."

Harry just nodded and tried to fight the nausea that always overcame him when he thought back about the fits he was having during the last term.

"But how could that be of any use?"

"Well, Voldemort still wants to kill you. And if he can kill you without harming himself..."

"Then I can kill him as well?" Harry interrupted.

Dumbledore nodded.

"Somehow. You see, Voldemort is only strong as long as his body and his spirit are connected. As soon as we can force his spirit to leave the body, he can be destroyed. And that's where you come in. Harry, I don't know very much about the bond that exists between you and the Dark Lord, but I'm fairly sure that you are the one who can enforce this. In fact, I am convinced that if anybody else would try to do so, it would harm you as well."

Harry looked flabbergasted and remained silent for some long moments, trying to digest everything he had just heard.

"So you mean I have to separate his body and spirit somehow, because if anybody else tried, I would die?"

Dumbledore looked at him.

"Maybe it wouldn't effect you at all, maybe it would harm you and maybe it would even kill you, yes. But as I said, that is something I really don't know, as much as it pains me to admit that."

"But how could I manage to do that? I don't know any spell or hex or whatever to separate a body from a spirit."

Dumbledore smiled at him.

"Ah, but you don't need to - I do. There is an ancient spell that can accomplish this task."

To say that Harry was confused would be an understatement.

"But then, where is the problem about it?"

Again, Dumbledore smiled gently at his student.

"Well, the first problem is that you would have to be the one to utter the first spell and I would have to utter the second. Meaning that we both would have to face Voldemort, and we would have to do it together. And I don't have to tell you that a confrontation with the Dark Lord is something one can never be prepared for. Though I don't doubt that a confrontation with him would be highly probable in case that he really attacks Hogwarts.

The second, bigger, problem is that in order to make the separation spell work, Voldemort must be weaker than he is. I'm afraid that he is far too strong to make that spell work."

Harry nodded thoughtfully. It sounded somewhat like a plan with too many questions.

"I understand, Professor. But how can Voldemort be weakened?"

"That, Harry, is the one question I cannot answer. Distract him, hurt him physically, I really don't know. That would be the one thing in which we'd be unprepared. I know that it's a highly unsatisfying answer, but I'm really running out of answers here."

For long moments, there was silence in Dumbledore's office. Harry watched his headmaster carefully. To say that Dumbledore's last statement had confused him would be an understatement. Once again, Harry realized how old and tired Dumbledore looked ever since Voldemort had risen back to power. There was a huge weight of responsibility on the old wizard's shoulders, so many people in the wizarding world put their trust in Dumbledore to come up with a solution for the threat against them all. Finally, Harry broke the stillness.

"Professor? When I last faced Voldemort, I cast Cruciatus on Wormtail and it hurt Voldemort. Could this...I mean, maybe this is what we search for..."

Blue eyes met green and for some long seconds stared into each other, as if hoping to find the answers to all of their problems.

"Yes Harry, maybe. But I, as well as you I guess, would only use this as a last resort in case that there is nothing else we can do. We are still talking about an Unforgivable Curse here."

Harry nodded. Of course he knew. After he had cast Cruciatus on Wormtail some months previously, he had spent an entire night thinking about the impact of what he had done. Truly, Wormtail had been the traitor, the main reason why Harry had not parents at all, but still he had remained a human being and what Harry had done had been highly illegal. He had feared that he would be sent to Azkaban for this. But there was no use in pondering on this now, so Harry brought his thoughts back to the present.

"I know Professor. But about that spell you talked of, I would need to learn it."

"There is not much to learn about it, Harry. The fact that a spell is powerful doesn't mean that it is difficult to learn or use. In fact, this spell as such is just a string of ancient words which can be learned quite easily.

What is important about casting such highly powerful magic is that the wizard or witch who does so is actually aware of what he or she is doing. You will have to focus very hard, to try and summon every magical fibre within you to put into that spell, basically very much like you have to focus on your happy memory to produce a Patronus. The spell could possibly leave you magically drained for a couple of days, but otherwise it won't have any lasting effects on you.

I can look it up and explain and teach it to you tomorrow after dinner if you like. But it is important that you are aware of what you are doing. Agreeing to what I proposed today means putting your life in danger, Harry. You will have to confront Voldemort once again, and I don't need to tell you about the danger that lies within that. I cannot guarantee that it will work, and neither can I guarantee that we will get a chance to cast our spells, or even to survive that night. Are you aware of the danger that this means for you?"

Dumbledore gave Harry a very intense look, and Harry realized that his headmaster would not accept a mere 'yes' as an answer.

"Professor, if I get this right this might be the only way to destroy Voldemort for good. And if I don't do it myself, it's possible or even probable that I die anyway if somebody else tries to do it.

And we simply have to try to destroy Voldemort as long as it is possible. He has caused so much harm already, if we let him continue then soon there won't be any hope left at all. And I'm not willing to let that happen, I've lost too much already because of him and because of people who were too cowardly to stand up against him like they should have done."

The last part of this sentence just slipped out before Harry realized what he had just said. Dumbledore nodded pensively.

"Very well Harry. If you come back tomorrow after dinner, I will teach you the spell. There's no use in wasting time, we don't know how long we still have."

Harry nodded in response and was just about to get up when Dumbledore called him once more.

"Wait Harry, there is one more thing I need to talk to you about."

Hesitantly, Harry sat back into the chair and waited for his headmaster to continue. He could guess what was coming next, and he really wished that finally people would stop telling him how to live his life.

"What did you want to talk about?"

The words came out harsher than he had intended, but Dumbledore didn't seem to acknowledge this. He merely took another sip from his tea and sighed.

"What did you mean when you talked about people who were too cowardly to stand up against Voldemort like they should have done?"

Harry hesitated shortly, wondering what this meant, but then answered, staring at his feet..

"Well, Wormtail. I thought that was obvious."

Dumbledore only shook his head.

"Harry, I've known you for a very long time now, since you were a baby to be exact. And though I admit that I have not been present for most of your childhood but probably made the biggest mistake in letting you grow up with your relatives, I think I've gotten to know you quite well since you started at Hogwarts. And the boy I got to know reminded me very much of his parents. Talented like them, not as studious as Lily was but rather taking things like they come just as James did. A natural flyer like your father. Daring and courageous, never afraid of adventures and taking every mean to protect your friends. Compassionate like both of them were, just remember the night when you first met Sirius. You hardly knew him, everybody told you that he murdered your parents and wanted to kill you. But you believed him and pleaded for his life. Actually saved his life.

Though you never knew them, you are so very much like your parents. And just like your father when he once more stood in my office after he had broken another school rule, you are a very bad liar."

Dumbledore smiled, obviously caught in a memory of James standing in his office, most probably accompanied by a fuming McGonagall.

"James never was able to lie when they were caught, it was easy to tell whether he was telling the truth or not. It's always been Sirius who tried to bail them out verbally, that was his skill. But James wasn't like that, he always looked to the floor when he didn't tell the truth. Just like you did now. Tell me Harry, what is bothering you."

Harry bit his lower lip and fought an inner battle. Dumbledore always seemed to know everything, didn't he? Why couldn't that man just leave him alone, why on earth did he actually bother about what Harry was thinking?

"Well, you did answer your question yourself, didn't you? You said that I was just as compassionate as my parents were. That I believed Sirius when nobody else did, that I pleaded for his life. For the life of a man whose biggest skill is to convince people of what he wants them to believe. Just like my parents, I allowed him to convince me of his version of the things that happened. It has cost them their lives, but I won't allow it to cost mine."

Dumbledore looked at Harry, his blue eyes unreadable.

"What makes you believe that, Harry? All of a sudden?"

Harry just laughed harshly.

"I don't need a specific event to finally see the truth, do I? After I woke up in the hospital wing, I was eventually able to see behind some things and I realized that everything was just about him and what he wants and does. But not anymore. And do you know what else? I think I'm right when I think like that. Just a couple of days ago, Professor Trelawney made a prediction, very much like she did when she predicted Voldemort's rise back in my fourth year. A prediction that concerns me, at least I think so. And she said that only if I start doubting everything I believe I'd be able to defeat the dark. And now, with all due respect, I'd ask you to let that matter rest. This is a thing between Sirius and me, and finally I am able to make my own choices. I'd ask you to respect that."

"Harry, I respect your choices and I have always done. But neither Divination nor family relations is something for which there is just one was to interpret it or just one way to handle it. And - if you don't mind me giving you an advice - willingly hurting people you love without even telling them why isn't a way to defeat the dark. It's a way into the dark."

Harry just raised an eyebrow and got up from his seat.

"I'll come back tomorrow after dinner, then we can talk about that spell. Good night Professor."

"Good night Harry."

Harry left the office without another word and Dumbledore sank back into his seat with a heavy sigh. Fawkes left his perch, and after flying a couple of rounds around the office, settled himself on the old wizard's shoulder. Dumbledore stroke his feathers absent-mindly.

Sure, he now knew better why Harry all of a sudden rejected Sirius, and he strongly believed that this had something to do with where Harry's mind had been during the time he had been asleep. But where had Harry been and what did he see there? Dumbledore strongly suspected that there was a reason behind what had happened to Harry and he feared that it was connected to Voldemort.

But how could he possibly convince Harry of that?

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

"Wormtail!"

A small figure emerged from the shadows of the hall and fell to his knees next to the armchair from which the voice had come.

"Y-y-y-es m-master?"

"Get up! Now tell me, how is the situation in Wales going?"

Wormtail quickly got back to his feet and started his report, all the while avoiding to look directly into Voldemort's eyes.

"E-everything is the w-way you planned it, m-master. McNair says that we are able to strike w-whenever you order us."

Voldemort nodded.

"The Dementors?"

Wormtail shivered involuntarily. He had been in the hiding place in Wales by the time the Dementors had arrived there, and their presence had affected him badly. Especially since he knew that their constant presence was what supposedly awaited him, should their plans fail and he get caught.

"T-the D-Dementors wait for your orders, master. B-But McNair said that they might need h-human prey soon, or they w-wouldn't be able to stand back from attacking the D-Death Eaters, m-master."

Voldemort nodded and thoughtfully scratched his chin. Finally he looked up.

"They will get their prey when I order it, and they better restrain themselves. Tell that to McNair. They don't have too wait very much longer. Go now."

Wormtail bowed and made his way towards the door. Just as he reached it, his master called him once more.

"Oh, and Wormtail?"

"Y-yes master?"

Wormtail didn't like the sly grin that played around Voldemort's lips.

"I think I don't need to tell you that another failure like last autumn isn't acceptable.

Crucio!"

Wormtail immediately fell to his knees and screamed in agony. No matter how often he was put under that curse, and since the events of last autumn it had been nearly daily, he could never be prepared for that pain. Eventually, Voldemort removed the curse and Wormtail lost no time in fleeing from the hall.

Voldemort smiled slyly and put a hand onto the Dark Mark on his left forearm. Not even a minute later, a knock sounded from the door.

"Enter, Valeria."

The doors flung open and a tall woman, clad in black robes that billowed after her, strut into the room. Her appearance could not have been more different from Wormtail's, her bearing showed no sign of fear, merely a large amount of self-confidence and respect for the man she was about to confront. She came to a halt in front of Voldemort's armchair and bowed, her long brown hair falling over her face as she did so.

"You called me, master."

Voldemort nodded.

"Yes, I did Valeria. Tell me, how are things going with our project?"

Valeria rose into an upright position again, revealing the fact that she was unusually tall for a woman.

"Everything is going as planned, master. The potion is administered daily, and so far there is no sign indicating towards any unexpected side-effects."

Voldemort allowed himself to smile.

"The guards?"

Valeria nodded.

"Do as they are supposed to. There have been no problems with them, and I will personally see to it that there won't be any problems with them in the future."

"Very well, Valeria. Very well. We will keep this up for some time longer. I want to be informed immediately as soon as anything unexpected happens. Don't disappoint the faith I put in you, Valeria. You'll be informed as soon as it is time to act upon our plan."

Valeria bowed once again.

"I won't fail you, master. Everything will work the way you have planned, I guarantee."

"Very well. You may leave now."

"Master."

Another short bow and with a swish of black robes, Valeria had vanished out of the doors. Voldemort got up and walked towards the fireplace where Nagini lay curled up on a rug. Recruiting Valeria Salenin had been the best idea Lucius Malfoy had ever had. The woman had graduated from Durmstrang a couple of years ago and was one of the most brilliant Potion brewers in the entire wizarding world. True, she wasn't a match for Severus Snape, but what she lacked in skill, and it wasn't much, she made up for in inventiveness and creativity. A huge part of his plan would not have been possible to accomplish without her and her ideas.

And, to be bluntly honest, her presence was refreshing. Though she sometimes seemed to lack the due respect, she always showed that she was fully aware who the master was and who was the one standing in duty. And - very much unlike Wormtail and a lot of other Death Eaters - she didn't seem to faint by the mere sight of him. On the contrary, she seemed to search his presence whenever possible.

Valeria Salenin clearly enjoyed being surrounded by power, and she enjoyed the power Voldemort gave her. Her skills, her lust for power, her will to subordinate herself under a master who could bring her to ever new heights of authority and control, as well as her strong will and pride made her a very powerful ally indeed. And an enemy that should be dreaded.

Voldemort allowed himself another sly smile.

Soon, the time would come to show Dumbledore and the Ministry, and all the other 'allies of the Light Side' what he was truly capable of. That day would be the greatest day in his life and he would enjoy every single moment of it.

And the day would come soon...

...soon Hogwarts, the Ministry of Magic and the time in which mud- and halfbloods still had their place in the wizarding world would be over, and nobody would be able to prevent it. Not Albus Dumbledore, not Hermes Wielding, and especially not Harry Potter.

Soon...