The news of Voldemort's appearance in the castle spread like wildfire, and that forced everyone to retreat back to the Great Hall, where the final battle was truly set to take place. The armors were still guarding the halls, but it was expected that they would fail to do more than pick off a handful of Death Eaters at this point. But that was well within parameters, aside from the lack of response from Snape, there had been no casualties, so the side of the Order was still at least fifty strong, and had taken out no fewer than thrice their number of adversaries. The numbers still heavily favored the Death Eaters, but that had always been the case, and it was expected.
A crow flew into the great hall, landing on Luna's shoulder, before cawing into her ear. "Professor Snape has successfully taken out Nagini and Barty Crouch Jr, but doesn't appear to have survived the encounter." She spoke, translating the beast's speech for him. A pregnant pause flooded the chamber at that moment, recognizing both the great victory, and great cost that that new entailed.
"That leaves only Avery, Rookwood, and Dolohov as Death Eaters of any real skill, alongside Voldemort himself." Harry said, checking over the list that Snape had provided him of the Death Eater's roster.
"Greyback himself is almost certainly still alive, but he's more wolf than wizard, although still a threat." Remus said, glancing over the list. "I believe it'll be for the best if I'm the one who takes him on. Personal hatred for the man aside… I'm the only one who isn't at risk of turning into a werewolf if he manages to pull one over on me."
"I should be more than enough for Dolohov." Sirius piped up, looking over the list. "I'm still fresh, and he's going to need someone willing to hit him hard and fast. I remember him from the first war, he's brutal and sadistic. One of the five that went to kill Molly Weasley's brothers." Sirius whispered that last part, his gaze flipping over to where said woman was doting over her oldest son, who had taken a cutting curse to one of his arms. The wound wasn't too deep, and between the potion Daphne had provided him and the tender mercies of Poppy Pomfrey, was closing up rapidly.
"Leave Avery and Rookwood to us then." Nymphadora said, grabbing Kingsley and Hestia Jones. "Three on two should be enough. Even though Kingsley can probably handle either of them on his own."
"I suppose that leaves the rest of us to deal with the other Death Eaters then." Professor McGonagall noted, looking over the rest of the forces who were still capable of fighting. Thankfully, the number one cause that kept people out of the fight for now was magical drain, but not exhaustion. Neville was the only one who had pushed himself quite to that limit, and since he had overshot his Death Eater takedown quota by a large amount, including taking out Bellatrix Lestrange herself. While few people were truly "fresh", only Harry and Dumbledore had been fully away from all the fighting so far so they could take on Voldemort at full strength, most were still fighting fit.
"I'll be taking on Voldemort… I knew it'd happen but it's still crazy to think about." Harry said aloud. Hermione laced her fingers with his and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.
"You won't be doing it totally alone. We are all here. We will fight with you." She said, shooting him a reassuring smile. "Remus, where is he on the Marauder's Map?"
Remus looked over the page, trying to find Tom Riddle's name on the map. "He's regrouped with Avery and Rookwood. Looks like they'll be leading the charge through the main door there. Dolohov meanwhile seems to be trying for that door. Maybe they think getting us in a pincer maneuver will force us to surrender?"
"They underestimate our will and ability then." Dumbledore mused, a twinkle in his eye as he looked over the gathered fighters. More than a half-century of wizards stood, ready to take on whatever odds would come. While he did not think this group would be as effective on an offensive push, they had already proven themselves more than capable on defense, and now that they were all gathered into a single, highly defensible area, were near untouchable. They say that an animal is most dangerous when cornered, and such was certainly the case with the group here. They would not simply sit idly and allow the Death Eaters to run over them, and, should it be necessary, would die fighting. Hogwarts would fall with its last defender, and no sooner, for as long as there was one wizard willing to fight, there was still a chance. "I believe the plan is simple then."
"I'll challenge Voldemort to that duel he wants." Harry nodded. "He knows it's his best chance of victory, that if I lose to him, you all will be demoralized and less likely to fight back. He's wrong about that, but he'll think that. He also thinks it's impossible for him to lose, because even if I kill him, he'll just come back. He's wrong about that as well. He'll lose, and the Death Eaters will lose their rallying point. No Bellatrix and no Crouch means there's just not enough leadership left for them. We'll have cut off the head of the snake, and the rest might thrash, but it'll still die."
"Are you sure about taking him on alone though? We can help, surely." Daphne asked, looking at him with worry.
"It'll be better to take him out on terms that he thinks are most in his favor. We're good, and I think we would win even if all of the Death Eaters converged here… but the casualties would be greater. If I can take him out on my own, and come out on top, his troops will be too demoralized to fight on. Especially once you all deal with the last of the leadership." Harry said with a deep sigh. Truthfully, he was terrified. He was 15, and was being forced to fight the strongest Dark Wizard since Grindelwald. Looking over everyone gathered before him though, especially his girls, he knew he had to do it. Had to do everything he could to guarantee them a future where they could be happy. "Estimate on how long before he makes his final push?" Harry asked, looking over to the strategy team who surrounded the marauders map.
"A few minutes at least, It looks like he's sending out scouts for the rest of the lower levels, making sure they aren't getting caught in their own pincer." Remus called out from the table.
"Then I'll make this quick." Harry said, before turning to Hermione. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pulled her in for a deep kiss, pouring every ounce of love and care he could into it. Separating a moment after, he moved to Daphne and did the same. Susan, Padma, Luna, and Fleur followed in turn, each receiving a deep, loving kiss from their fiance. "I love you, all of you. I plan on coming out of this, but just in case I end up wearing myself out and going unconscious for a day or so again, I want you to hear it." Harry gave them a smirk. He didn't want to mention the possibility that he'd die in the process. They knew that, but they didn't want to hear it. Him just wearing himself out again though? They could deal with that. A little magical exhaustion hadn't stopped him before, and it wouldn't do so now. A couple nights in a hospital bed was just an excuse to play nurse, something that Susan in particular loved doing.
"You'll be telling us later. Don't think you get to just pass out after all this is done!" Daphne said, pulling out what seemed to be a never ending supply of wiggenweld potions. "Once this is done? You're mine, and I'm not stopping until I pass out." She mused, causing everyone to chuckle at her forwardness.
"I'll hold you to that." Harry teased, before smiling softly at all of them. "I love you."
"We love you too." Came the chorus from all six of them, as they pulled him in for a group hug.
"'Ere.. I believe you may need this." Fleur said, as she handed him her wand.
"Won't you need it?" Harry asked as he took it. Fleur's wand felt right in his hands, something he knew from before. Supposedly, a Veela's wand would work as well for someone she loved as it did for its wielder, and Harry could sometimes swear it was more effective for him than his own wand was.
"I am far from defenseless without it." Fleur said with a sly grin, conjuring a small fireball in her hand before extinguishing it. "And I believe that if the 'power he knows not' truly is love? Then I have no greater sign of it I can provide than my own wand."
"I suppose we shall have to see if that is the case… but otherwise, I know that I carry your love, all of your love, with me always." Harry said, smiling at them. He took each of their left hands in turn, rubbing his thumb over their engagement rings. "We'll come out of this. Together. Now, we need to get to our actual positions. Voldemort isn't going to just wait outside forever. Every second he does is another second he gives reinforcements to arrive. He thinks he has us cornered, but I don't think even he is arrogant enough to think that no one would notice Hogwarts being attacked."
The girls all nodded, returning to their stations where they were needed. Harry tucked Fleur's wand into his back pocket on the side of his off-hand. He made his way back to Dumbledore's side, where he stood alongside McGonagall, Sirius, and Remus, waiting for the final confrontation.
The anxiety filling the room was palpable, as everyone knew exactly what was at stake here. While they did believe that they would win the day, there was always the chance that not all of them, or even most of them, would see that victory. Everyone was willing to lay down their lives for that cause, but it was still terrifying to face your own mortality in such a way.
The thunderclap of spells hitting the massive double doors to the great hall announced Voldemort's attempts to enter. They'd been heavily reinforced, strengthened by centuries of layered protective enchantments designed to stop anyone unauthorized from opening them. The mere act of forcefully opening them was sure to magically exhaust many Death Eaters, which was just another boon for the defenders, it would take more of them out of the fight, for whatever was left of it.
Within a moment, the doors were flung open, falling off of their hinges and hitting the ground with a loud thud. A cloud of dust filled the air, as Voldemort, flanked by Avery and Rookwood, stood in the doorway, an evil glare on his face. "Defenders of Hogwarts," the snake-faced man began, lazily drifting his wand over the crowd, "You have performed admirably, prepared far more and done far more damage to my forces than I would imagine would be possible for weaklings such as yourselves… but alas, it was all for not. You have no escape, and with a flick of my wand, all of you would perish. Surrender, and there need not be any more blood shed on this day. You have lost."
Harry could see through Voldemort's bravado he was attempting to play it cool, but he was shaken by how much they had been able to fight him off. Perturbed that so many of them still seemed fresh, while there wasn't a single Death Eater who wasn't at least slightly winded. Harry knew that he was trying to keep the morale among his Death Eaters sufficiently high, to make them not give up. They only ever won battles based on shock and terror, but that was just another advantage Hogwarts had over them.
Hogwarts was not afraid.
Harry was not afraid.
"We'll never surrender to you, Voldemort." Harry said, standing tall and stepping forward to glare at the Dark Wizard. "You've lost. Your lieutenants are gone, and once you fall, there will be nothing holding your Death Eaters together. Your movement dies with you." Harry played his bravado against Voldemort's, letting his own words and conviction bolster those who fought alongside him. Harry could show no fear, no doubt. He WOULD defeat Voldemort. This war WOULD be over, and he WOULD live the rest of his life without the specter of this man haunting him.
"Such bold words for a child." Voldemort said, looking down on Harry despite the great distance. Voldemort knew how to present himself, how to speak before his people to bolster them. When surrounding yourself with bullies, you need to make your targets seem small and yourself seem large. For all his faults, Voldemort was quite good at that.
Harry however, knew exactly how to deal with bullies. "A child who you've never beaten." Harry pointed out, shooting the elder man a sly smirk. "At age eleven, I defeated you as you possessed my teacher. At twelve, your shade and your pet basilisk. At fourteen, I fought you in the graveyard in front of your lieutenants, and you couldn't beat me, and just this past October, you ran with your tail between your legs in the department of mysteries. You've never beaten me, Voldemort. The score is 4-0 in my favor… at some point I believe mercy rule is going to kick in." Even Hogwarts defenders were shocked by how casually Harry was dressing down the Dark Lord. How a boy not even old enough to drive was staring down the boogeyman who had haunted two generations of wizards with all the confidence in the world.
Voldemort wasn't great at hiding the emotions that brought to his face. The calm facade of the unshakable leader the Death Eaters expected had vanished, instead pure rage was present on his face. The Death Eaters themselves looked on in confusion. Surely that wasn't correct? Surely their infallible Dark Lord hadn't lost to a child… could he? But knowledge of the attack on the Department of Mysteries had gone through the ranks, and what was supposed to be a great triumph was swept under the rug. While the Dark Lord had returned from the graveyard, they'd known that Harry Potter was there and had somehow escaped. Was their leader someone who was truly incapable of defeating a single child?
"I'll offer you one last chance, Voldemort, all or nothing. One last duel, right here, right now." Harry said, spreading his arms wide. "Surely a wizard as powerful as you are has no fear of a poor pathetic fifth year Hogwarts student? Why, I haven't even had my OWLs yet, surely that is nothing for a wizard of your caliber." Harry taunted and jeered, putting a bully's own playbook against him. He was getting under Voldemort's snake-like skin, he just knew it.
"Of course I am not afraid. I accept your duel, and once you lie dead at my feet, the world will know the true terror of Lord Voldemort." Voldemort said, stepping forward.
The room cleared around them, a platform rising from the center as Harry and Voldemort took their places on either side of it. No matter what happened from here, this would be the final battle between Harry and Voldemort, one of them would not be walking away from this fight, and they both knew that. Voldemort could not comprehend a world where it was not him, and Harry was well aware that he still had every chance to lose this fight.
"We start with a bow." Harry and Voldemort said at the same time, bowing to each other before pointing their wands towards the center. "Begin!" They shouted simultaneously, before spells began to fly.
Voldemort began by summoning a great flaming serpent, a beast that burned as hot as hellfire, but far more controlled than a normal fiendfyre spell would be. Harry could tell he felt he needed to be more cautious. He could no longer afford to sacrifice his own people, they were far too likely to turn on him now, and even if they didn't, the numbers were needed to survive longer than this day.
Harry countered the serpent with a familiar beast, the milky-white shimmer of a sphinx jumping from his wand and tackling the serpent, dispersing it with a great WHOOMF. The flames consumed the patronus, dispelling it as well, but the serpent was no more. The exchange was a tie. Harry took the initiative on the next encounter, shooting forth a standard disarming charm, the red sparkle flying towards the dark wizard who merely caught it on a shield.
"A pitiful display Potter, you attempt to defeat me with a mere disarming charm?" Voldemort sneered, shooting back with a nasty looking purple curse that Harry didn't recognize off hand, but he wasn't about to let it touch him. Using his agility, honed from hours and hours of grueling training under Flitwick, Harry dodged out of the way, shooting forward a more powerful spell.
Twelve explosions in a long chain rocked against Voldemort's shield, each one rocking the very foundations of Hogwarts an obvious display of extreme power and prowess from the pair of wizards. As a gap in the chain formed though, Voldemort shot back, a curse that manifested itself as three white blades of smoke shot towards Harry, forcing him to roll out of the way. The third one caught his ankle, slicing it open. The cut was about an inch into his ankle, taking a deep chunk out of the bone, and forcing Harry to one knee. He wasn't going to be able to use that leg anymore, and while he could probably heal it on his own, the amount of time it would take him to do so would mean that Voldemort would be uncontested for a follow up attack. One that would certainly be more lethal.
"I believe it is over now, Potter. With your death, I begin my new world order." Voldemort said with an evil smile, before incanting. "Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!" Harry shot back, the red spell meeting the green one between their two wands, a battle of wills and magic forcing the connection point back and forth between them.
"You should have learned a more powerful spell, boy! You're nothing compared to me! You never will be!" Voldemort pushed forward, and Harry could see the connection point of their spells moving toward him.
In that moment, Harry could feel his life flash before his eyes, brief, instant moments compounding in his memories, showing everything that led to this moment. The green flash in the house on Godric's Hollow. Hagrid showing up at the tower on the island. Meeting Hermione at King's Cross. Forming the Sphinx Club. Meeting Luna. Kissing Padma for the first time. Saving Susan from the Basilisk. Daphne's Debut. Fleur telling him she loved him. The night of the Yule Ball. Their engagements. Every moment that brought Harry to him. Every struggle he faced, and every moment that made his life worth living. Deep in his heart, he knew one thing, one unassailable truth.
He wasn't going to lose today.
Reaching into his pocket with his off hand, he pulled out Fleur's wand, letting his love, his care, flow through the wood and felt it resonate with the veela hair inside. "Accio Voldemort's shoes." Harry incanted a solid focus to work with the unfamiliar feeling of duel casting. Had this been almost any other spell, Harry didn't think he could do it, but there was no spell he knew, had internalized more than this. There was no one on the planet who had a deeper, more thorough understanding of how to Push and Pull in a duel.
Voldemort's shoes flew out from underneath him, sending him unceremoniously onto his back, his focus unable to keep on the spell he was holding, as the disarming charm shot past the killing curse, shooting his wand into the air. With barely a thought, Harry summoned the wand to him, snapping it over his knee in an instant. "It's over Voldemort. You've lost." Harry managed to say simply, pointing both of his wands towards the Dark Wizard.
"You poor fool." Voldemort spat, standing back up. "I have cheated death. Even if you strike me down today, I shall come back. You can never defeat me Potter. I will always come back, always be a thorn in your side."
Susan stepped forward, locking her eyes on Voldemort. "The Diary of Tom Riddle."
Voldemort looked over her in confusion, before Daphne stepped up. "Slytherin's Locket."
Voldemort's eyes widened, as Fleur took her place. "The Gaunt Signet ring."
Hermione was next. "The Cup of Helga Hufflepuff."
Luna spoke up, a charming smile on her face. "Lady Ravenclaw's Diadem."
Padma finished the sextet with a single word. "Nagini."
"We found them all, Tom." Harry said, glaring at the Dark Wizard before him. "There's no coming back. There's no third or fourth or whatever chance you are on. You've lost."
Voldemort sneered, anger and malice and hate evident on his body, summoning forth every bit of magic within him, he summoned Harry's wand from his grasp. Their wands had feathers from the same phoenix in their cores, and while they were subtly different in other ways, they were still compatible enough for this. "Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort incanted once more, determined to defeat Harry once and for all.
With barely a second to react, Harry responded with the first spell that came to his mind. The spell that had won him his first ever fight against the troll in the bathroom all those years ago. "Flippendo!" He bellowed, pointing Fleur's wand towards his own. The holly wood wand in the dark lord's hand flipped, the tip now pointing at the man who cast the killing curse, ending his existence in a single, solitary green flash.
The world went silent then, as everyone could see the body of Voldemort on the ground. The head of the snake that was the Death Eaters was cut off, and it was clear that without it, the movement was no more. Harry grabbed his wand from the body of Voldemort, before glancing over everyone who was gathered, Hogwarts Defender and Death Eater alike, before declaring aloud. "Voldemort is no more. He lost, and will not be coming back. This war is over."
It was to be expected that not all of the Death Eaters took that lying down. Those who felt they had any real chance of taking the Dark Lord's place, Avery, Rookwood, and Dolohov charged forward, attempting to take out Harry, but they were subdued within moments by Sirius, Remus, Nymphadora, McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Kingsley. With all of their top lieutenants gone, and the head of their movement no more… the rest of the Death Eaters simply gave up, their morale devastated, as the man they had fought and sacrificed for was defeated soundly by a mere child.