Qui homo amphitheatrum init...

***

Every witch and wizard of Britain was awaiting the day: The day of the final destruction of He Who Must Not Be Named.

A week prior the Boy Who Lived had managed the impossible and had defeated the Dark Lord in the final, cruel battle on Hogwarts' grounds.

The once so strong and proud Tom Riddle was now no more than an unresponsive spirit trapped in its useless body.

Considering the ruthlessness of the crimes the Dark Lord had committed, the Ministry of Magic had decided on an accordingly cruel punishment.

Even though the nearly lifeless body didn't respond visibly, it could still feel pain; that much had become clear after the battle, when Harry in a phase of fury had kicked the limp figure over and over again.

The verdict was as such: The body would be publicly exposed to the Cruciatus Curse until the moment of death.

The Quidditch Pitch at Hogwarts had been modified as an amphitheatre to hold all the people who would be present in the Dark Lord's demise.

Since every magical citizen wanted to attain, the spectacle would only be accessible to people who fought in the war, had lost family or were known to spy for the light.

Still, the stands were bursting full that day.

Harry Potter sat along the remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix and the spies for the light in the middle of the stands in the place where the late Albus Dumbledore would have been seated.

On either side of him the two men who had in the end decided the Dark Lord's fall: to his right Severus Snape and to his left Lucius Malfoy.

Neither friends nor people Harry considered family were with him.

Hermione Granger: dead.

Ron Weasley: dead.

Sirius Black: dead.

Remus Lupin: kissed by a Dementor.

Albus Dumbledore: dead.

Seamus Finnigan: exposed to Cruciatus until insanity.

Neville Longbottom: dead.

Hardly anyone had survived the last few weeks of battle. Voldemort had either attacked directly or used a pawn to kill every single one the Boy Who Lived could rely on. And he had succeeded.

In the end the only ones standing by his side were people he used to hate: Severus, Lucius and even Draco (who sat next to his father).

And now that he was so close to achieve the goal he seemed to have stayed alive for, his hate for the creature that was put in the middle of the pitch by the executioners was burning like nothing ever before.

The four executioners standing around the slumped figure raised their wands and the crowd cheered.

Their voices were being carried until the very back of the stands as they shouted as one: "Crucio!"

Voldemort was nothing anymore than a pathetic worm, with muscles twitching involuntarily at the maddening pain it was exposed to.

Harry's eyes gleamed at the intoxicating feeling of revenge being fulfilled. He breathed harshly and a dark grin pulled at the corners of his mouth.

He felt a hand on his left shoulder. Lucius.

It takes nearly half an hour to actually kill someone through Cruciatus, even someone as battered as the former Dark Lord.

Still it didn't seem enough to Harry. A lifetime of suffering wouldn't be enough for that vile creature now dying slowly under the most excruciating pain imaginable.

The executioners were sweating heavily from the exhaustion the curse demanded of them. Still it wasn't finished.

It would be coming to an end in maybe another ten minutes.

Harry found himself being disappointed at the prospect. The pain that was inflicted now for all that had happened in his life wasn't enough! There were so many more that deserved a fate even worse than Voldemort!

He deserved more as compensation than what the always demanding Wizarding World had offered him!

He deserved the head of Rita Skeeter on a stick for giving out the hiding place of Hermione and thus getting her killed!

He deserved to torture Minister Fudge to death for giving Remus Lupin the Dementor's kiss, even though the infection of another human being had been a scheme of Voldemort and once again Veritaserum could have proven someone Harry saw as family innocent!

He deserved to kill Peter Pettigrew with his bare hands for causing all that he did!

He deserved to see every Death Eater who killed one of his friends die a most painful death!

He deserved the Wizarding World for what it had done to him!

The body lying on the pitch stopped twitching and the breathing stilled.

The crowed cheered once more as one of the executioners verified the man's death.

Harry sat up straight and demanded sharply: "Lucius."

"Yes, Harry."

"This world owes me itself," he hissed.

Harry didn't see the satisfied smirks on the faces of the three men accompanying him. He would get anything and everything he wanted! He deserved it! It was all his!

Harry turned towards Lucius with a dangerous gleam in his eyes and pulled the other man's head towards his in a demanding kiss.

When they separated Lucius bowed his head lightly: "Whatever you wish, my Lord."

FIN

Translation of the title:

"Entering the amphitheatre as human, leaving the amphitheatre as beast"