Twilight

Twilight

L.S. Song

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Destiny's Call

"Where's... WHERE'S HARRY?" roared Ron over the chaos.

Hermione and Ginny had finally found their ways back to Ron.

"He blasted the dolmen there... and then he just... STUPEFY!"

"And he just... what?"

"Disappeared," yelled Ginny, whipping around and yelling, "Skeledestructo!"

"Let's go after him!" hollered Hermione, after dodging a curse aimed at her.

Ron didn't respond, but rather ran to the mound where the dolmen had stood.

As he ran, however, a curse caught him from behind, and he let out a shriek, falling and screaming.

His arm and part of his torso slumped.

The bone breaker curse.

"RON!"

"Man that felt good!" cried a voice.

Ginny had reached Ron by now, and with inhuman strength spawned only from situations like these, picked him up, running away from the fray.

Hermione, however, turned to the person who had shouted.

"Malfoy," she spat.

He turned to her, his eyes flickering from her sneaker-covered toes to the stray strands of hair blown up by the wild winds.

He smirked.

"My mudblood."

"Bastard."

"You must feel nice, Granger," he said conversationally, as if they had met in the Great Hall at Hogwarts and not a place heard merely in legends, with hundreds of curses flying about, some dangerously close to them.

"Feel nice?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I guess you're not really my little mudblood anymore - you do realize that the - infusion of the more superior bloods has ridden you from the filth from your... parents," sneered Draco, still speaking conversationally, his magic eyes rolling about in their sockets.

"Too bad an infusion of blood can't rid you of your filth," retorted Hermione. "You'd have to remove all of your blood to do so."

"Oh, touché."

Hermione now turned the conversation more serious, as she had a very nasty feeling of foreboding creeping up against her.

"We have a score to settle, Malfoy," she said in a cool tone, a trait she had picked up in her time as a part-Veela.

"Do we, Granger?"

His voice turned hard.

"Yes, we do. Didn't you hear what I just said?"

"Then settle it," he said, ignoring Hermione's last comment.

Malfoy moved into the standard dueling position.

She moved into a 'quick dodge' stance, something she had picked up from watching Harry.

"I'm not counting down against the Death Eater that shoots on two," said Hermione skeptically.

"Code of honor," replied Draco, raising up his hand.

"What's your honor worth, a knut?"

"Well, actually less... but I digress..."

"No countdown?"

Hermione raised her eyebrow.

"Nope, Granger. Pity we couldn't have another quick shag before I have to kill you."

"Oh woe is me."

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" shouted Draco suddenly.

But Hermione was ready.

She easily rolled to her left, and jumped up.

"So much for your honor, Malfoy," snarled Hermione.

Draco laughed and reached into his pocket.

"Here, take a knut, Granger, my apologies," he said, strangely calm and collected, throwing a knut in Hermione's face.

"Reducto," she snarled, and a round hole appeared in the middle of the knut.

She tossed it back.

"Just like your honor. A big hole in it."

"Stupefy!"

"Skeleincendio!"

The spells bounced off each other and flew off in different directions.

"Mudblood," he hissed.

"The word you're looking for is part-veela, unless what you told me was wrong," said Hermione with a smirk.

"AVADA KE-"

"TRANSFIGURO FERRET!" Hermione bellowed out of a strange reflex, and in a loud crack, a silvery ferret appeared where Malfoy had stood a few seconds ago.

Hermione laughed aloud.

"Ah the memories," she said to the ferret. "Goodbye, Malfoy."

The ferret started twittering like mad, attempting to flee.

"Accio Ferret."

The ferret zoomed back dejectedly.

"Obliviate," said Hermione coldly, and Draco remembered no more.

***

"It's been awhile, Potter," spat Lord Voldemort.

Harry's scar flared up with pain, but he managed to completely block it out this time.

There will be another time for pain, he told himself.

"Not long enough," said Harry, staring his nemesis in the eye.

Voldemort, however, continued as if no interruption had taken place.

"Tell me, Potter... how have you managed to escape me again and again, even after your mudblood mother's protection wore off?"

"Don't call my mother a mudblood."

Voldemort laughed, a high-pitched, mirthless laugh that chilled Harry's very bones.

"You tell me what to do, Potter?"

He laughed again.

The sound was as horrible to Harry as a person dragging their fingernails down a blackboard.

"Why not? After all, my blood's purer than yours," Harry snarled, using Voldemort's own obsessions against him.

"How DARE you?" whispered Voldemort. "Question the sacred blood of the Slytherin line? CRUCIO!"

Fortuna bounced the beam of light away, and Voldemort glared at the mysticat.

"Potter, I have not brought you here so your cat could save you time and again."

"I'm not running this time," said Harry.

"You don't have a choice!" shrieked Voldemort. "Anti-apparition fields, anti-portkey charms, and all the wards you could find in a thousand tomes of ancient spells have been activated as soon as you appeared through the Summit."

"So you've trapped yourself in," said Harry, sounding more confident than he felt.

"Your insolence amuses me. Perhaps I'll allow you to live a few more minutes longer this way," Voldemort said, recovering his cool.

The mood took a serious turn as Harry locked eyes with Lord Voldemort.

Harry could feel a strong, warm feeling rush through his veins, just like the phoenix song.

"This ends tonight."

Voldemort smiled wickedly.

"Yes it does, Potter... yes it does."

***

At the Summit, winds were blowing ferociously, biting the skin of those left alive.

"Ron!" a girl's voice could be heard sobbing.

A boy was lying on the floor, limp and helpless, crying out with pain with a throat that was too dry to make a sound.

"Leave me..." said Ron.

Ginny felt tears come to her eyes.

"No, Ron!"

"Go... we need every person we can get... there's nothing more you can do for me, Gin."

"I'm going to take you back, Ron... you're going to be okay..."

"No!" snapped Ron, gathering up the last of his energy.

Ginny flinched at the hardness of her brother's voice.

"Go... we can't lose this fight," he said, and he fell to the floor.

Sobbing, a red-headed girl bent over her brother's body.

A few seconds later, she bounded up, rage consuming her.

She ran back into the fray, her mind bent on revenge.

***

"Honora!" shouted Lord Voldemort in the echoing halls of the Pandemonium Fortress.

A massive cannonball of yellow light flew towards Harry.

"RONDACHE CONJU..." he started, but halfway through he realized that there would not be enough time.

Harry jumped to the side, and the ball of light smashed into the Veil, disappearing.

"PARISTRAN MAGICA!" shouted Harry.

Without saying a word, Lord Voldemort waved his wand and the beam of light disappeared.

"You realize, Potter, that you can't possibly win?"

"Trixtonia!" he bellowed.

The shockwaves hit Voldemort in the stomach, and he fell back a few paces.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The spell was poorly aimed, and Harry did not even have to move to avoid it.

"SKELEINCENDIO!" he roared.

The spell again found its target, and Lord Voldemort let out a shriek of pain.

Finally, a spell that works!

Much to his dismay, however, within a few seconds, his enemy had recovered.

"Tsintsuacha!" hissed Lord Voldemort, and a strange net flew towards Harry.

Not knowing what to do, he cried, "Protego!"

But it was of no use.

The net smashed into Harry, and wrapped around him like a cocoon.

Fortuna was blasted off his shoulder, and collapsed against the wall with a piteous meow.

Only then did he realize that the net was cold steel.

"Well, well, look what got caught in the mouse trap this time..." drawled Voldemort slowly and casually.

"Son of a... REDUCTO!" cried Harry.

The spell bounced right back into his leg, causing a searing pain to come through him, which he ignored. He dropped his wand in pain, and it fell out of the prison, on to the floor next to Voldemort.

"Did you really think I'd give you a breakable prison, Potter?" asked Voldemort, obviously very pleased with trapping his opponent so cleverly, now walking around Harry, stopping behind him.

"Is this how you win your usual fights, Riddle? Beat your opponents when they're trapped? But then, one would expect that from a person with blood like yours."

"SILENCE POTTER!"

Harry's heart was beating hard in his chest, but he knew that the only way he'd survive was to taunt Voldemort into letting him out.

"You want to win fair and square, Lord? Let me out and let's finish that battle."

"But why should I let you out when I've already won?"

"Unless you're scared," said Harry, cutting in with a long drawl.

Voldemort laughed.

"Very well, little mouse, let's play a little more."

With a wave of his wand, Harry tumbled out again.

Voldemort kicked the fallen wand to Harry.

"Emmendo," Harry said, pointing the wand at his own leg.

Then, standing up, he faced Lord Voldemort again.

Time for round two.

***

The wind howled.

Things were changing.

Thunder roaring.

Death.

Blood.

It was the end of the path.

The beginning of the end had come.

The Summit itself glowed eerily, the very mountains trembling, wind now so strong it butchered those without cloaks, and bit at the face and eyes of the ones that did.

No more thought of battle came to any of their minds, wizards from both sides focused just on keeping themselves alive whilst rain poured down on them, and the bitter wind blew all things without roots clear off the top.

Just one stood at the very top, one Ginny Weasley, who in her rage could not be moved.

The skies were dark around her.

She trembled.

She, just as everyone else knew, great things were happening.

***

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

"CRUCIO!"

The spells clashed and bounced off each other yet again.

Somewhere in this surreal place, the rain from the Earthly Dimensions had come through, and was pouring into the fortress at every second.

"FLIPENDO!" shouted Harry.

"Zonareteco!"

The spell smashed into Harry, and he felt a strange force tug from inside, as if someone was trying to rip him into two pieces.

He grit his teeth as to not shout out - he would not give Lord Voldemort the pleasure.

I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter... after all He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great...

Flashes of his life came unbidden to his head.

The Prophecy.

Cedric's lifeless eyes staring blankly up at him.

Sirius.

His parents.

Remus Lupin who had died saving him.

Dumbledore who had died needlessly, so he would have the power it took to defeat Voldemort.

And yet he stood here, grimacing with pain.

Get yourself together, Potter. You owe it to them.

Harry shut his eyes.

Lord Voldemort laughed a high pitched laugh, which turned into a pathetic moan.

As Harry opened his eyes again, Lord Voldemort saw a defiance that was rarely seen in any of his combatants - he had always managed to break them.

Every last one of them.

"IMPEDIMENTA!" cried Harry all of a sudden.

The spell served no purpose rather than to make Lord Voldemort stumble a few steps backwards, in which he took his chance.

"REDUCTO!" he roared.

"Flipendo!" yelled Voldemort, after being hit by yet another spell.

"Stellartica Lumare!"

Voldemort blinked.

Harry saw yet another chance, and just as he raised his wand, he saw it.

Lord Voldemort is only immune to magical damage.

He suffered, as Harry could see, from physical damage, stumbling with each spell.

But what good is it to make him stumble?

"Crucio!"

Harry jumped aside.

"REDUCTO!" he cried.

It hit Lord Voldemort again.

"FLIPENDO!" shouted Voldemort, and Harry was blasted across the room, where he crashed against a candlestick holder, his glasses knocked away, a searing pain going up his arm.

He groaned.

Voldemort's shadow came closer.

And then he realized that his arm was impaled.

Gritting his teeth, he wrenched his arm out from the now blood-covered candlestick stand, clutching his wound.

The rain washed his blood over the floor, so that the ground beneath him was stained.

And then Harry felt it.

It was an emotion that could not be described in words.

It was similar to the trances he had received earlier, only this time he wasn't controlled at all.

He knew what he had to do.

Picking himself up off the ground, he started sprinting towards the shadow that was Lord Voldemort.

Voldemort, taken aback, did nothing to stop him.

Harry leaped into the air.

"TEMPUS REWINDO!" he yelled, his voice drowned out by the rain.

***

Lord Voldemort, for the first time in a long while, was at a loss.

Where had the boy gone?

He turned around, clutching his wand.

The boy was nowhere.

How was this possible?

Another few seconds passed.

Had he escaped again?

But no... Potter would not leave his little pet.

He was hiding somewhere.

"Come out, Potter, I had not brought you here to hide."

But he was nowhere.

"Serpensortia."

Find him, he hissed in Parseltongue.

The snake slithered off.

He, Lord Voldemort, was now a bit nervous.

He cannot have left... it isn't possible.

And then he heard a roar.

***

Harry burst into a lion upon returning, letting out a bloodcurdling roar, still flying through the air, rain beating down upon him.

He crashed into Lord Voldemort, and with yet another roar, smashed the wand out of his hands. The wand snapped in two as it hit the ground awkwardly.

Such adrenaline he had never known was pumping through his veins.

He let out another savage roar, as he extended his massive claws and swiped at Lord Voldemort.

He let out a shriek of pain.

YES, the human part of Harry thought.

But the lion part of him caught fire in this heated battle, and was now fighting furiously.

Much to his surprise, however, the gashes that he had left merely seconds ago disappeared.

But in the accursed veil that had been his godfather's bane, he had at last found a solution.

Sinking his jaws into the throat of Lord Voldemort, he ran and dragged him to the Veil.

Then, as Lord Voldemort struggled to stand, he turned back into his seventeen-year-old self.

"It ends now, Riddle. Good Riddance."

And with strength no one would suspect from his lanky frame, he grabbed Lord Voldemort by the neck, lifting him up inches into the air.

He ignored the elder man's desperate kicks towards his body.

Pain is for later.

And with the last of his strength, he raised his wand, and yelled, "WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!"

And so raising the body of the most feared sorcerer in the world, he sent him flying into the Veil.

Then came such a destructive force unseen in the long years of magical history, as a gargantuan burst of energy was released from the Veil of Death, consuming itself and spreading to obliterate the very foundations of the ethereal Pandemonium Citadel.

And a seventeen-year-old boy clutched his now glowing white scar, drowning in pain, and Harry Potter collapsed onto the floor, and for him, in a flash of fire before his eyes, he knew no more.

***

At the Summit, the winds and rain died down.

"Huh?" mumbled Hermione, who had been hanging onto a large root with one hand and Ron's hand with another, she quickly dragged Ron onto a mound of dirt and raised her head to the girl standing a few meters away from her.

"It... it's stopped," whispered Ginny.

"It's stopped?"

"It's over, Hermione..."

"What's..."

And then it sunk in.

"Harry... where's Harry?" shouted Hermione.

And as if in answer, a burst of fire appeared right before her eyes, and a boy with a cat slumped on top of him landed at her feet, and a phoenix flying overhead.

"HARRY!" she shrieked.

"What? Where?" cried Ginny, running to Hermione.

"Harry!"

"Oh no... I think..." moaned Hermione, as she looked at the two bodies on the floor.

"No, Hermione!" yelled Ginny, making Hermione jump.

"HARRY! ANSWER ME!" yelled Ginny, shaking his motionless body.

"Ginny..." started Hermione, tears now sliding down her cheeks at an alarming rate.

"Harry... wake up!" she cried, now furiously slapping Harry.

"Ginny..." said Hermione again, but this time finding the strength to finish her sentence. "He's... he's gone."

"No he's not!" shouted Ginny, now moving over to feel for a pulse.

But even as she did so, her face gradually grew deadened, until she collapsed entirely, and started beating the ground with her fists, sobbing her heart away.

***

Sirius Black snarled as he saw a crippled form of an old man topple into his realm.

"Looks like my godson has finally done his job," he spat bitterly.

The old man jumped up.

"Stay away, fool! Don't you know who I am? I am Lord Voldemort!" he said in what was obviously meant to be an intimidating tone, but came out as a croak.

Sirius laughed a mirthless laugh.

"You don't understand, do you, Lord."

"Stay away!"

"No... you don't. Down here, you don't give orders. Down here, you're nothing."

The man tried to laugh, but the sound came out as a dry cough.

"Down here, I'm the boss," snarled Sirius.

Three years of indescribable suffering had hardened him, driven him to a state of psychosis, no traces of the joyful person he was as a child left in him.

"Look at yourself, Voldemort... or should I say, Riddle."

Only then did the once high and mighty Lord Voldemort realize that as he fell through the Veil, his earthly transformations were removed.

He was human again.

"Don't... go away..." moaned the man piteously, who without a wand could no longer instill fear or command anyone, let alone this looming shadow in front of him.

"This is what I've been waiting for, Tom Riddle... I'm here to finish my godson's job. I've Seen it all."

The shadow grew and grew, a mysterious darkness engulfed the body of Tom Riddle, and as the shadow shrunk, he was no more.

Sirius Black let out a laugh of insanity, before calling on the powers picked up over three bitter long years, and turned them on himself.

As he consumed his own substantial body, his wraith-like existence, with his own bitterness, his spirit was freed at last, and Sirius Black finally returned to his long lost friends.

***

Harry floated through empty space.

Is this death?

It isn't so bad after all, he thought, as he glided through the strange emptiness that could not be described as air.

He swept across the skies towards a glowing white light.

He raised his hand to his eyes, to no effect - he saw that his hands were see-through.

Am I a ghost?

Suddenly, he felt something jerk on his stomach, and he felt himself land hard onto a bed.

And he could feel that he was completely solid.

"Wake up, Harry," called a voice.

It was all a dream, he thought dimly.

A long dream at that.

"Just a few more minutes, Aunt Petunia..." he mumbled, and turned over.

"Why I never!"

That wasn't Aunt Petunia's voice.

He opened his eyes, and found himself face to face with another set of bright green eyes, in a face framed by dark red hair.

He gasped.

It was his mother.

Lily Evans Potter.