When Jon's consciousness left Harry's mind, it still felt a little unreal.
Why couldn't the things that happened in his mind be real?
It was strange to hear this coming from his mouth, but it was normal when he thought about it. If it wasn't so, how could the whole thing make sense?
Only when he experienced it himself would he be able to skillfully integrate this part of the story. Otherwise, where would Joanne get such material to write a book?
What a wonderful cycle of reincarnation.
But on the other hand, Hagrid was already carrying Harry to another battlefield.
Jon was behind.
He was following from a distance.
He was counting down.
Voldemort was talking, but he didn't know that England wasn't the only place in this world. Outside the Barrier of the Sleeping Dragon, huge changes were taking place.
It was a little pitiful.
Shouts pierced the dawn sky. Neville was on fire, but he was nailed to the ground, unable to move. Harry couldn't take it anymore. He had to move.
Then many things happened at the same time.
They heard a commotion from the school wall in the distance, as if thousands of people were climbing over the wall outside their sight, shouting and rushing towards the castle. At the same time, Glopp swaggered over from one side of the castle, shouting, "Hagrid!" Voldemort's giants roared back. They rushed at Gropp like mighty elephants, shaking the earth. Then there was the sound of horses' hooves and bows being drawn. In the blink of an eye, arrows were fired into the midst of the Death Eaters. They cried out in surprise and were thrown into disarray. Harry pulled the Cloak of Invisibility out of his robe and put it on. He jumped up from the ground, and Neville could move.
Neville straightened his body and broke free of the Binding Spell. The hat on fire slipped off. He pulled out a silver object from it, the handle glittering and inlaid with rubies.
In the roar of the crowd, in the battle cries of the giants, in the stampede of the horsemen, in the sound of the silver sword slashing down, no one could hear it, but it seemed to attract every pair of eyes. With one stroke, Neville cut off the snake's head. The snake's head spun high into the sky, shining in the light of the hall. Voldemort opened his mouth and let out an angry roar, but no one could hear him. Then, with a loud crash, the snake's body fell heavily at his feet.
Harry hid under the Invisibility Cloak, and before Voldemort could raise his wand, he cast an Iron Armor Spell between him and Neville. Then, amidst the shouts, the roars, and the heavy footsteps of the fighting giants, Hagrid's shout drowned everything out.
"Harry!" shouted Hagrid. "Harry — where's Harry?"
The entire scene was in chaos. The centaurs charged and broke through the formation, chasing the Death Eaters in all directions. Everyone was trying to avoid the trampling of the giants, but the reinforcements that came from nowhere were getting closer and closer. Harry saw the winged behemoth Nighthawk and the winged hippogriff Buckbeak circling above the heads of Voldemort's giants, clawing at their eyes, and Glopp pummeled them with punches. By this time, all the Wizard, the Hogwarts' defenders, and Voldemort's Death Eaters had been forced back into the castle. Whenever Harry saw a Death Eater, he cast Curses and Hexes. They crumpled to the ground, not knowing who or what had attacked them, and were trampled underfoot by the retreating crowd.
Harry, still hidden under the Invisibility Cloak, was pushed into the hall. He looked for Voldemort, and saw him at the other end of the room, still shouting orders to his men as they retreated into the hall, waving his wand and casting Hexes in all directions. Harry cast more Iron Armor Spells, and Seamus Finnegan and Hannah Ember, who had narrowly escaped being hit by Voldemort, hurried past him into the hall to join the battle that was already raging there.
By this time, more and more people were crowding up the front steps, and Harry saw Charlie Weasley catch up with Horace Slughorn, still in his bright green pyjamas. Behind them, it seemed, were all the Hogwarts' heavy relatives and friends who had stayed behind to fight, as well as the shopkeepers and owners of the village of Hogsmeade. Ben, Ronan and Margery, the centaurs, rushed into the hall with a fierce clatter of hooves, and at the same time the door behind Harry to the kitchen was blown off its hinges.
The house elves of the Hogwarts swarmed into the hall, screaming and waving knives and meat cleavers. At the front was Klitscher, with Regulus Black's locket on his chest. Even in the midst of all the noise, his bullfrog-like voice could still be heard clearly. "Fight! Fight! Fight for my master, the defender of the house elves! In the name of the brave Regulus, resist the Dark Lord! Fight! "
They slashed and stabbed at the Death Eaters' ankles and calves, hatred burning on their little faces. No matter where Harry looked, all he saw were Death Eaters pinned down by a large number of Leprechauns, subdued by spells, those who were stabbed in the leg were pulling arrows out of the wound, and those who were desperately running away were drowned by the Leprechauns.
But the fight was not over. Harry sprinted past the combatants, past the struggling people under the spell, into the Great Hall.
Voldemort was in the center of the battle, attacking the people around him from left to right. Unable to aim, Harry inched forward, still under the cover of the Cloak of Invisibility. More and more people were crowding into the hall, and those who could move were pushing their way in.
Harry saw Yaxley being knocked to the ground by George and Lee Jordan, saw Dolohov shrieking and collapsing in the hands of Fleetwood, saw Walton McNeill hit the ground, and saw him fall. Hagrid threw McNeill across the hall, where he hit the stone wall with a thud and slid to the floor unconscious. He saw Ron and Neville defeat Fenrir? Greyback, Aberforth knocked out Rookwood, Arthur and Percy knocked out Sinkniss, and Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were running around the hall. Malfoy ran through the crowd, not taking part in the battle at all, but calling out for his son.
Voldemort was fighting with Mag, Slughorn, and Kingsley at the same time. His face was filled with cruel hatred. The three of them shuttled around him and dodged, but they couldn't end his life.
50 meters away from Voldemort, Béla Trix was also fighting fiercely. Like her master, she was fighting three people at the same time: Hermione, Jenny, and Luna. They were all using all their skills, but Béla Trix was evenly matched with them. Suddenly, a Killing Curse almost hit Jenny. She would have died if it had been an inch to the side. Harry's attention was drawn over.
He changed direction, let go of Voldemort temporarily, and dashed straight for Béla Trix, but was knocked aside after a few steps.
"Don't touch my daughter, you bitch!"
Mrs. Weasley threw off her cloak as she ran, freeing her arms. Béla Trix turned around and saw the new challenger, and laughed boorishly.
"Get out of the way!" Mrs. Weasley shouted at the three girls. Then she waved her wand and began to fight. Harry looked at Molly with horror and joy. Mrs. Weasley's wand danced. Béla Trix's smile began to tremble, and then turned into a roar. Light shot out from the two wands, and the floor at the witch's feet became hot and cracked. The two women were fighting to the death.
"No!" Mrs. Weasley shouted when she saw several students rushing to help. "Go back! Go back! She's mine! "
At this time, hundreds of people were standing by the wall, watching the two duels: Voldemort and his three opponents, Béla Trix and Molly. Harry stood there, torn. He wanted to attack, but he also wanted to protect his own people. He wasn't sure if he would hurt the innocent.
"If I kill you, what will happen to your children?" Béla Trix taunted. She was as crazy as her master, jumping to avoid Molly's spells. "What will happen if Mommy ends up the same as Fred?"
"Don't — ever — touch — my — children!" Mrs. Weasley screamed.
Béla Trix laughed heartily, just as she had laughed when her cousin, Sirius, fell backwards through the curtain. Suddenly, Harry knew what was going to happen.
Molly's spell flew under Béla Trix's outstretched arm and hit her in the chest, right over her heart.
Béla Trix's smug smile froze, and her eyes seemed to pop out of her head. In that instant, she knew what had happened, and then she fell to the ground. There was an uproar in the crowd, and Voldemort screamed.
Harry felt as if he were turning around in slow motion. He saw Mag, Kingsley, and Slughorn being blown away, thrashing and flipping in the air. Voldemort saw his last and most loyal assistant being knocked down, and his fury exploded like a bomb. Voldemort raised his wand and pointed it at Molly Weasley.
"Armor for protection!" Harry roared, and the Armor Spell immediately spread across the center of the auditorium. Voldemort looked around to see who had cast the spell. Harry finally took off his invisibility cloak.
Cries of astonishment, cheers, shouts of "Harry!" and "He's alive!" rang out everywhere, followed by silence. Voldemort and Harry looked at each other and began to circle each other. People's hearts were in their mouths, and the auditorium suddenly became deathly silent.
"I don't want anyone to help," Harry said loudly, his voice sounding like a trumpet in the absolute silence. "It has to be. It has to be me."
A hissing sound came from Voldemort's mouth.
"Potter wasn't telling the truth," he said, his red eyes wide. "It wasn't his way, was it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter? "
"No one," Harry said briskly. "The Horcruxes are gone. It's just you and me. We can't both live. Only one of us lives. One of us will be gone forever — "
"One of us?" Voldemort sneered, his whole body tense, his red eyes staring like a snake ready to strike. "You think it's you, don't you? The boy who survived by chance, with Dumbledore pulling the strings behind him?"
"Was it by chance that my mother died to save me?" Harry asked. The two men were still moving sideways, circling each other, keeping the same distance. To Harry, other than Voldemort, the other faces did not exist. "Was it by chance that I decided to fight back in that graveyard? Was it by chance that I survived tonight without fighting back, and came back to fight again? "
"By chance!" cried Voldemort, but still he did not strike. The crowd around them froze as if they had been petrified. There were hundreds of people in the hall, and they seemed to be the only ones breathing. "By chance, by chance, by chance, by hiding behind the Lord and crying, and letting me kill them for you!"
"You won't kill anyone tonight," said Harry. They circled each other, staring into each other's eyes, green and red. "You won't kill any of them. Never. Do you understand? I was ready to die to stop you hurting them —? "
"You weren't!"
"— I made up my mind. That's the key. I did what my mother did. You can't hurt them any more. Don't you see that the spells you shoot at them have no power? You can't torture them. You can't hurt them. You never learn from your mistakes, do you, Liddell? "
"How dare you —"
"Yes, I do," said Harry. "I know things you don't know, Tom? Liddell. I know things of great importance you don't know. Don't you want to hear them, in case you make another big mistake? "
Voldemort said nothing. He circled in silence. Harry knew that he was momentarily bewitched and afraid to strike, fearing that Harry might really know some deadly secret …
"Love again?" Said Voldemort, his serpentine face full of sarcasm. "Dumbledore's magic weapon, love, which he claims to conquer death, didn't stop him from falling from the tower and shattering like an old waxwork! Love didn't stop me from crushing your mudblood mother like a cockroach, Potter — no one seemed to love you enough to stand up to my spells this time. So how could you not die when I struck? "
"Only a little," said Harry. Harry said that the two men were still circling and facing each other, with only that last secret between them.
"If it wasn't love that saved you this time," said Voldemort, "then surely it was the belief that you had some magic I didn't have, or some weapon more powerful than mine?"
"Both," said Harry. He saw a flash of alarm pass over the Serpent's face, but it was gone. Voldemort laughed, and it was a laugh more terrible than his shout: cold and mad, and it echoed through the silent hall.
"You think you know more magic than I do?" he said. "More magic than I, Lord Voldemort? I've done more magic than Dumbledore ever dreamed of! "
"Oh, he did," said Harry. "But he was wiser than you. He didn't do what you did."
"You mean he was weak!" shrieked Voldemort. "He was weak and cowardly. He was weak and afraid to take what should have been his — and now will be mine!"
"No, he was wiser than you," said Harry. "He was a better Wizard and a better man."
"I killed Albus Dumbledore!"
"You think so," said Harry. "But you're wrong."
For the first time there was a stir in the crowd of onlookers, and hundreds of people around the walls gasped.
"Dumbledore is dead!" Voldemort flung the words at Harry, as if they would cause him unbearable pain. "His body is rotting in a marble tomb on the waste ground of this castle. I saw it, Potter. He's never coming back!"
"Yes, Dumbledore is dead," said Harry calmly. "But you didn't arrange it. He chose the way of his own death. He chose it months before his death. He arranged everything with the person you thought was your servant. "
"What childish nonsense!" said Voldemort. But he didn't attack, and his red eyes were fixed on Harry's.
"Severus? Snape isn't one of your men, "said Harry." Snape is one of Dumbledore's men. He's been one of Dumbledore's men since long before you began to hunt my mother. You never noticed, because you don't understand that sort of thing. You've never seen Snape's Patron, have you, Riddle? "
Voldemort didn't answer. They continued to face each other in a circle, like two wolves ready to tear each other to pieces at any moment.
"Snape's Patron is a stag," said Harry. "It's the same as my mother's, because he loved her almost all his life, since they were children. You should have noticed. "He saw Voldemort's nostrils suddenly flare." He begged you to spare my mother's life, didn't he? "
"He desired her, that's all," said Voldemort with a sneer. "But after she died, Snape admitted that there were other women in the world, purer in blood, more worthy of him —"
"Of course he would say that to you," said Harry. "But he's been one of Dumbledore's men ever since you threatened my mother, and he's been against you ever since! When Dumbledore was on the verge of death, Snape ended his life. "
"That's not important!" Voldemort shrieked. He was listening intently to Harry's every word. At this moment, he suddenly laughed maniacally. "It doesn't matter whether Snape is my man or Dumbledore's man. It doesn't matter what little obstacles they set in my path! I've destroyed them, just like I destroyed the so-called great love of your mother — Snape! Oh, but that explains the problem, Potter. But you won't understand! "
"Dumbledore stopped me from getting the old wand! He wanted Snape to be the true owner of the old wand! But I beat you to it, kid. Before you could lay your hands on it, I had the wand. Before you even realized what was going on, I knew the truth. Three hours ago, I killed Severus? Snape, now, the old wand, the Death Wand and the Staff of Fate truly belong to me! Dumbledore's last plan has gone up in smoke, Harry? Harry Potter! "
"Yes, that's right," said Harry. "You're right. But before you kill me, I suggest you think about what you've done … think about it, and try to repent, Liddell …"
"What do you mean?"
None of the things Harry had said to Voldemort, including the revelations and the sarcasm, had shocked Voldemort as much as he had. Harry saw his pupils shrink into two narrow slits, and saw the skin around his eyes turn white.
"This is your last chance," said Harry. "Your only chance … I've seen what happens when you don't repent … be brave … try … try to repent …"
"How dare you —?" said Voldemort again.
"Yes, I dare," said Harry. "Because Dumbledore's last plan didn't surprise me at all, but it did to you, Liddell."
Voldemort's hand trembled as he held the old wand. Harry gripped it tightly. He knew the moment was coming.
"That wand still won't obey you, because you killed the wrong person. Severus? Snape isn't the true master of the old wand. He didn't defeat Dumbledore. "
"He killed —"
"Didn't you hear me? Snape didn't defeat Dumbledore! They planned Dumbledore's death together! Dumbledore planned to die without being defeated, and become the last true master of the wand! If everything had gone according to plan, the power of the wand would have died with him, because no one would have won it from him! "
"But, Potter, Dumbledore gave me the wand!" Voldemort's voice trembled with malice. "I stole the wand from its last owner's grave! I took it out against the wishes of its last owner! Its power belongs to me! "
"Don't you understand, Liddell? It's not enough to have the wand! Holding it and using it does not make it truly yours. Didn't you hear what Ollivander said? The wand chose the Wizard... Before Dumbledore died, the old wand recognized a new master, and that person didn't even touch it. The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore's hands against his wishes. He doesn't know what he's done, doesn't know that the most powerful wand in the world has pledged its allegiance to him... "
Voldemort's chest rose and fell violently. Harry could feel the spell rushing up, felt it gathering power in the wand pointed at his face.
"The true master of the old wand is Draco Malfoy? Malfoy. "
Voldemort's face showed blank astonishment, but it was only a fleeting moment.
"But what does that matter?" he said softly. "Even if you're right, Potter, what does it matter to you and me? You don't hold the wand with the phoenix feather: we fight by skill... I kill you, and then I deal with Draco Malfoy. Malfoy — "
"But you won't have time," said Harry. "You missed your chance. I beat Draco Malfoy a few weeks ago. Malfoy, I took this wand from him. "
Harry shook his hawthorn wand and felt all eyes in the auditorium on it.
"So this is the end, is it?" Harry whispered. "Does the wand in your hand know that its last master has been disarmed? If it does... I am the true master of the old wand now. "
Suddenly, the magic sky above them burst into a golden light, and a small half of the sun appeared on the windowsill nearest them. The sun fell on both their faces at the same time, and Voldemort's cheeks were flaming red. Harry heard Voldemort's high-pitched scream, and at the same time he raised Draco's wand and shouted his most fervent wish to the heavens:
"Avarda for life!"
"Remove your weapon!"
There was a crash, like the explosion of a cannonball, and golden flames shot out from the centre of the circle where they had trod over and over again. That was where the spells had collided. Harry saw Voldemort's green light touch his own spell, saw the old wand fly up into the air, black in the rising sun, and whirling like Nagini's head under the magic ceiling towards the master it would not kill — who would own it completely at last. Harry caught the flying wand with the finesse of a ball hunter with his free hand, and saw Voldemort stagger back, his arms outstretched, the slender pupils of his red eyes rolling up. Tom Riddle lay on the floor, dead as a mortal man, his body limp and twitching, his pale hand empty, the serpent's face empty and blank. Voldemort was dead, killed by the rebound of his own spell. Harry stood, clutching the two wands, looking down at the husk of his opponent.
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