~ ~ = Parseltongue
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"If you come with wands blazing to kill innocent children just because they stand in your way, I will hunt you down and kill you, just like how I put down your pet werewolf, Fenrir Greyback. You have been warned."
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Lord Voldemort seethed as he listened to Potter's speech. Since when had the boy grown a backbone? The Harry Potter he knew wasn't this confident in defeating him! This was the breaking point. Not even Dumbledore, in all his meddlesome schemes, had dared to publicly announce Voldemort's ancestry. The old man had tried, of course, but had been thwarted by the Dark Lord's brutal attacks on innocents. Potter was brave to attempt this, but foolish to think that anyone would believe him.
"How dare the filthy half-blood lie about our Lord!" screeched Bellatrix, fury clearly marked on her face, her insane eyes glinting with rage.
Many looked at her wearily. No one wanted to cross her when she was angry, not even her husband. In fact, it was during her last fit of rage that she had gone and killed her sister Andromeda for 'betraying' her family by marrying a Mudblood.
"But –" said a Death Eater uncertainty, but that was the last word he spoke before a jet of green light flew from Bellatrix's wand and impacted his chest. He dropped to the ground, dead.
"Does anyone else have anything to say?" Bellatrix hissed.
Many of the Death Eaters gulped, but they knew better than to say anything to the mad witch. She was the Dark Lord's absolute favourite, not to mention was batshit crazy. No one wanted to mess with her.
"Harry Potter is lying, my friends," said Voldemort silkily. "He is nothing but a conniving liar who is trying to destabilise what we have achieved over the past year and a half. Think of our great achievements. We have removed the Mudblood filth from our society! Muggles have no place among us. Pretty soon, all of Britain will be free from the contaminant of Muggles and purebloods alone will rise as the leaders of the new order. Once the international magical community sees what we have achieved, we can take over the world! We will show the Muggles their place and eradicate them, but for that, we need to kill Harry Potter. He is the beacon of light for them all. Once he is dead, the war will be over and we shall have peace! I, Lord Voldemort, the heir of the Salazar Slytherin, the greatest of the Founders of Hogwarts, declare it so!"
Thunderous cheers and applause greeted Voldemort's speech as the Death Eaters bowed to their Lord in submission.
"ATTACK!" shouted Bellatrix as hundreds of Death Eaters entered the grounds, launching brutal spells at the castle in order to bring down the various protective enchantments the defenders of Hogwarts had erected.
Voldemort tapped his wand on his head, casting a Disillusionment Charm so powerful that no one could see him. He walked towards his destination with a smile on his lipless mouth. A sense of euphoria rent the air, a sense of purpose flooded his mind. Potter's words wouldn't have the effect the boy thought it would. His army wasn't going to betray him. It was not possible for them to betray him. Bellatrix did a good job in showing them exactly what would happen to traitors.
The entire situation did nothing but amuse him greatly. He had been planning on attacking Hogwarts to lure Potter here, but instead, the boy did it himself! It was unfortunate that he could not check on his Horcruxes. By the time he had left Godric's Hollow after confirming Grindelwald's identity with the pictures owned by Bathilda Bagshot, word had already reached him through Snape that Potter had been spotted in Hogsmeade and would soon make his way to Hogwarts. There had been no time to go to the Gaunt shack in Little Hangleton as he needed to mobilise his Death Eaters and plan an attack strategy. After all, he wasn't a fool like Potter who would engage his enemy without a plan.
He wondered if he should join his servants.
No, he would wait. After innocent blood was shed, Potter would come to him. Of this, he was certain. The boy wouldn't be able to stand it if his friends died because of him. He would have Potter within his grasp soon. Until then, his Death Eaters would do the killing. He was positive that those idiots of Hogwarts would never use lethal spells. The members of the infamous Dumbledore's Army student organization as well as the Order of the Phoenix would stun people left, right and centre. By the time he entered the battle, the defenders of Hogwarts would be weakened while the Death Eaters would still be large in number. Voldemort laughed softly. Dumbledore's philosophy of giving second chances was foolish, and whatever Potter might say, he was Dumbledore's pet through and through. The boy would only disarm or stun; how pathetic.
When he reached his destination, he was annoyed. The marble tomb was a blemish on the beautiful grounds of Hogwarts. He raised his Yew wand. How fitting that this would be its last, great act. The tomb split open and the wrappings fell apart. He could almost taste his victory …
Unfortunately, the Elder Wand wasn't there.
He screamed in rage. White hot anger coursed through his veins. Dumbledore must have known that he would search for the Elder Wand and had taken appropriate precautions to guard it. The old man was a thorn in his side, even in death!
Within minutes, he was in the Shrieking Shack, with Macnair at his feet.
"Call the giants and dementors, now!" Voldemort ordered, in a deadly, cold voice.
"Yes, my Lord. At once!"
Voldemort fumed. They would all pay for denying him the Deathstick. He would kill them all! He wondered how his enemies could possibility hope to stop the giants under his command and drive away hundreds of Dementors. The Dark Lord smirked in satisfaction.
Harry Potter had already lost the battle; the boy just didn't know it yet.
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"Harry, why did you come to Hogwarts?" Hermione cried. "You know that we haven't destroyed any of the Horcruxes. You should have –"
"Stop, just stop!" Harry interrupted her curtly. "I've been busy ever since you two decided to abandon me."
"Harry, mate –" Ron began, but the younger boy ignored him.
"I have a lead on another one, which is why I'm here. If you want to help, be my guest, but if you want to cause trouble, leave me alone."
Ron's ears slowly turned red in anger but one look from Hermione shut him up. Harry paced three times in front of the wall and the metal gates appeared. There was a loud explosion from below; the battle of Hogwarts had begun. Just as he entered a room that resembled a junk yard, he noticed Ron and Hermione following him. He remembered the diadem from where he had hidden Snape's old potions book at the end of last term. He asked them to split up.
"Somewhere here," he whispered urgently, the light from his wand illuminating his path. After several minutes of search, he found it; a faceless bust with an innocent looking tiara on top. He smirked at the Horcrux and wasted no time in grabbing it. Just as he was about to slip the diadem into his expanded pocket, he heard a sound from his left. Acting quickly, he silently cast, 'Homeneum Revelio!'
The moment three shadows appeared on the ground, their presence revealed by the spell, he saw a jet of red light heading his way. He dodged it and fired a Cutting Curse at his opponent. There was an unholy scream. The Disillusionment Charm came unravelled and he saw Gregory Goyle thrashing on the ground, his face bloody; Harry's curse had impacted his eye. There were two other intruders as well: Draco Malfoy and Vincent Crabbe.
"Hold it, Potter," said Malfoy snidely. "Don't think you can leave."
"We're here to take you to the Dark Lord," Crabbe spat, surprising Harry. For six years, he had been under the impression that Crabbe and Goyle were too stupid to speak. He didn't let the situation bother him, though. The diadem was firmly in his hand and he had planned to go searching for Draco after destroying the Horcrux. Maybe Mother Magic was looking out for him tonight as the Malfoy scion had come searching for him!
"I never thought I would be this glad to see you, Draco," Harry smiled, unnerving the Slytherin. Both of them moved at the same time. Harry and Malfoy slashed their wands in the air as jets of light flew in all directions. The Boy-Who-Lived was duelling two at once, using the junk in the Room of Hidden Things to his advantage.
"Avada Kedavra!" yelled Crabbe. Knowing the curse was coming right at him, Harry banished the diadem in the path of the curse. The Killing Curse impacted the artefact, destroying the Horcrux in the process. A screeching sound unlike anything Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle had heard before echoed throughout the room.
"Harry! Look out!" screamed Hermione, emerging from behind the broken vanishing cabinet. Her sudden appearance startled Harry, who was caught in the path of a Cutting Curse. He gasped in pain as his white shirt slowly turned red due to blood. Harry snarled in annoyance. Really, what was the need to screech like that? Didn't Hermione know that it didn't help during a duel?
Wanting to end the fight quickly, Harry cast a rapid spell-chain. Goyle was already incapacitated. A Blood-Boiling curse impacted Crabbe. Two Bone-Breaking curses shattered Malfoy's wand arm and left leg. Malfoy screamed in agony, but it was nothing compared to what Crabbe was going through. The boy's blood was so hot that it was literally boiling within his body. His skin blackened and he died a gory, painful death.
"H-Harry, y-you cast t-that –" Ron stammered, his face extremely pale due to fear, his eyes not darting from Crabbe's corpse.
"Y-You killed him, Harry!" whispered Hermione fearfully.
"They chose to attack me first," replied Harry, panting heavily. "You heard him, Hermione, he cast a Killing Curse. Did you expect me to disarm him instead?"
"Actually, yes!"
Harry snorted. He might have done that several months ago, but not now. The reality of war had hardened him. He now understood what Remus had told him back at the Burrow, just after he had been moved from Privet Drive. It was imperative that their enemies were crushed, lest they get back up and continue fighting. Harry had taken that advice to heart, which was why he had instructed the defenders of Hogwarts to use lethal spells and not simply cast stunners at the Death Eaters.
Harry levitated the three Slytherins out of the room while he carefully put the diadem inside the Mokeskin pouch. They quickly walked away, with Ron and Hermione still confused about Harry's behaviour. When they reached the mouth of the corridor leading to the room, they saw Percy and Fred fighting a couple of Death Eaters. Harry, seizing the opportunity, fired Reductor Curses at them from the side. The Death Eaters didn't even have a chance to dodge as the curse tore through their bodies, killing them instantly.
Swiftly moving about, he used the Elder Wand to fire several spells at the enemy, taking down one Death Eater after another. Harry was now the master of the Deathstick, and it showed. He saw, much to his delight, that the defenders of Hogwarts were indeed following his orders as they fired lethal curses at the Death Eaters. As he turned a corner, through the gap in the large window, he saw hundreds of Dementors approaching the grounds. The temperature plummeted and the sky darkened. Even though the Dementors were hundreds of feet away, Harry could hear an echo of his mother's screams.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
Something huge and silvery erupted from the tip of the Elder Wand, but it wasn't a stag. A twelve-foot-tall Hungarian Horntail Patronus took shape as it flew towards the Dementors, pushing them back, with the help of several other Patronuses that joined hands with the dragon. The battle continued. Even though the threat of the soul-sucking creatures had been neutralised, it was only a minor victory. After all, most of them fighting were teenagers, facing an army of adult witches and wizards. The battle was proving to be costly, Harry realised that.
Entering the grounds, Harry fought viciously against Voldemort's forces. He did wonder why the Dark Lord hadn't actively sought him out. Suddenly, there was a massive movement from the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Before he could even contemplate what was going on, a large Acromantula attacked him, pinning him to the ground, ready to bite his neck. Desperately moving his straining arm, Harry pointed the Elder Wand at the creature's underbelly and screamed, "Confringo!"
The Blasting Curse did its job. The spider screeched in pain as it was blasted to bits, pieces of its body flying everywhere, leaving Harry free.
Panting heavily, his clothes torn in several places, with multiple cuts on his body, Harry rotated his wand over his head. Fire erupted all around him, and he used it as a whip, just like Dumbledore had done to drive away the Inferi several months ago. The members of the D.A. and the Order of the Phoenix too cast fire spells, setting the large spiders aflame. The tactic proved to be useful, with many of them banishing the burning creatures towards the Death Eaters.
Unfortunately, their problems were still far from over.
Giants.
The thirty-foot tall giants were coming towards them, swinging their massive clubs, and Harry paled, trembling with terror. These creatures had the potential to completely change the tide of the war if the situation was left to escalate without being put to an end. If the giants were not killed, the casualties would be catastrophic.
Just how do you stop a group of giants? Their hide was resistant to magic, wasn't it?
But were they resistant to Basilisk venom?
Quickly, he rushed inside the castle and up the stairs to the Headmaster's office. The gargoyle stepped aside when it saw him. When he opened the oak door, he saw that all the portraits were asleep. Ignoring them, he walked towards Dumbledore's portrait and yanked it open. It swung forward to reveal a cavity where the real Sword of Gryffindor was hidden. He pulled it out and it gleamed under the lighting charms. He shut the portrait roughly, not looking at the alarmed expression on the face of the painted Albus Dumbledore as he left the room.
"How did he know it was there?" asked Dumbledore's portrait, worriedly. "Did Severus reveal it to him? Does Harry know about the soul-piece in his scar? What is he doing?"