It was a particularly cold morning when the combined aura of curruption and darkness of more than seven hundred death eaters and dark creatures nearly saturated the air around Hogwarts.
The castle was being shrouded by a dense shield of protection from the horrible, the Protego Horribilis. More than a hundred strong wizards and witches had their wands pointed towards the sky, constantly chanting the spell.
Edmund meanwhile was contemplating whether to let the other students fight or not. He was strong enough to kill every wanker in Voldemort's camp by himself. But there it was again. His habit of holding back and hiding his skills was re-surfacing. Damn that Altair. Even after death the man was having his effect on him.
Edmund as a child had to hide his power for self preservation when he wasn't strong enough to take on the Vulpises.
His breath quickened at the thought of the kind of response Magical Britain would have to his powers. No, that didn't matter now.
The conversation he had with Iris in ROR that day, when they were about to leave for their homes after fourth year flashed in his mind.
'...I will have to deal with him before I am seventeen. No one else will suffer like I had to. Even if it kills me, I will stop Voldemort.'
Iris was ready to die if it meant that Voldemort was dead.
He remembered the vow he made to himself. That he would protect Iris, her happiness, her smile, he would never let it diminish. Till his last breath. How could he act upon that vow if Iris died?
No, there was no way he could let that happen. Iris was the only one left who kept him sane, with a minor role played by his friends.
But the prophesy....
NO!!
Fuck the prophesy, fuck the Magical Britain's response, fuck his cowardice, fuck his so called self preservation and fuck holding back!
No way in hell would he let any of those twisted wankers lay their hands on Iris or any of his friends.
Enough good blood had been spilt because of his cowardice. All those people at the ministry wouldn't have died if he was not hiding his powers in fear of what people would think.
At that moment, Edmund felt hatred for himself.
Standing outside in front of the school, he look back at every person's face. He could see it in their eyes. Their resolve was set. How could he let these people die when he had the power to prevent it?
He had heard that one quote many a time, said by a muggle minister,
'There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction. The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.'
Edmund's eyes glowed with a newly ignited flame. He rushed back to where Amelia was standing. Iris, who was standing by his side, smiled. Edmund had finally overcome his innermost fears. Voldemort and his army of wankers stood no chance against him.
Edmund called out to Amelia, "Minister Bones, I have to tell you something really important and if you agree with me, we can save the lives if everyone on our side."
Amelia looked at Edmund skeptically. Nodding, she replied, "Alright Lord Whirlpool, I am willing to hear what you have to say."
Edmund explained to Amelia everything that his powers could do while he used shadow clone jutsu and asked forty of his clones to position themselves all around Hogwarts.
The various wizards and witches looked at his clones in awe and surprise. Who could have known such a magical technique existed that could create solid copies of a wizard, with each copy having all the abilities of the said wizard.
After much persuasion, Edmund was able to convince Amelia to let him carry out his plan.
Half an hour later, Voldemort and his death eaters stood at the edge of the dark forest as they gazed upon the massive protective shield all around the castle and it's grounds.
Voldemort gave a silent order to Bellatrix Lestrange who rallied the wankers to attack the shield.
Countless spells showered upon the massive Protego charm like a hailstorm, bombarding the shield as they struck.
The shield held strong as more and more spells attacked it. The death eaters attacked again with a much greater effort, but the shield still remained intact.
Voldemort's expression turned ugly. Pointing his wand at the giant shield, he roared and sent a powerful bolt of magic towards it.
The shield exploded, unable to withstand the brute force of Voldemort's spell.
As the shield began disintegrating, Edmund walked out of the shield's boundary and all of his clones that were positioned around Hogwarts made a hand seal and yelled in unison, "Four Red-Yang Formation!"
Forty pillars of red light shot up into the sky and began expanding towards each other, forming a cylindrical barrier around Hogwarts with the barrier closing at the top.
Everyone who saw this new barrier appear was taken aback. The defenders of Hogwarts loudly cheered, their spirits lifting up as they saw their defences still holding strong.
Edmund looked towards where Voldemort stood and using a sonorous, he spoke, "Tom Riddle Jr., it's good to see you have some sense left in your pathetically deranged brain that you brought so many wankers with you. It's a good plan when you are up against a stronger opponent. But..."
Edmund let go of his aura and flooded the atmosphere with the entirity of his killing intent, channeling the intent of all the nine bijuu through the connection he shared with them.
The sky turned to a darker shade of violet, clouds began circling over Hogwarts, thunder roared and tore the sky as his intent now rivalled that of the incomplete Juubi.
All the death eaters, giants and vampires felt their knees buckle and they fell on the ground, their bodies trembled, unable to breathe as they couldn't bear the brunt of killing intent of such epic proportions. The dementors shrieked in fear as they started falling from the sky. They grabbed their heads and trembled, bowing in front of absolute power.
The waves in seas got eratic and violent with ginormous whirlpools swirling all over the world. Across the ocean, people could feel the sudden sense of unease invading their beings while animals began getting restless, causing widespread commotion everywhere.
"... against power so overwhelming, all you can do is grovel on your feet and beg for mercy. But you won't get any."
Voldemort's body was shaking terribly as his back got drenched in cold sweat. His throat went dry and had difficulty in breathing. He couldn't control his emotions even with occulomency, such was the extent of mortal danger that had invaded his senses.
He could hear the choking and pained voices of his weaker death eaters as they died, their hearts stopped, their lungs failed and their brains bled.
Standing in front of him and his army was that same man from the graveyard.
For the first time in his life, Voldemort truly felt small.
He was just a frog looking at the sky from the bottom of a well.