Unknown POV
A man in a shadowed cloak walked through the Ministry atrium as if he owned the place. He had been ordered not to draw attention to himself, but he knew no other way to walk. There were no people about, since it was the middle of the night. He marched to the sleeping guard, at the visitor's desk, and killed him. No warning, no threat, just fired off an AK and walked by. He went to the elevator and hit the floor for the Department of Mysteries. His Master told him to find the prophecy, or he'd be punished. He knew where to go, he had been there many times. It was just getting the right door that mattered.
He left the lift and stood in the middle of the circle of doors. It would take awhile to find the correct door, but he had all night, so he wasn't concerned.
In his head he heard his master telling him to hurry. They needed to get this done now, so the Dark Lord could rise again. The prophecy would tell them if his master needed to be concerned over the impudent child that had thwarted his last attempt. The still unidentified man wondered how the boy did that, but his master wasn't inclined to share at the moment.
One by one, he opened the doors until he found the correct one. He was so busy that he didn't see the doxy in up in the rafters. Not that he cared about an insignificant bug.
Amelia's POV
Amelia was fast asleep, it had been a long few weeks, and she was closer every day to finding the last few horcruxes. Her team had dug up so much on You-Know-Who that she could write a book and it would be a best seller. And she was seriously contemplating on doing just that. Her family would be set for life. She share the dividends with the rookies, since they did the leg work. Even put their names as cowriters. She'd have to talk to them about that. She only wondered why the department hadn't done this during the first war. The information was there if only one looked hard enough. Lazy bunch of bureaucrats.
Her dreams of being a famous writer were interrupted by a house elf telling her there was someone on the Floo. She hurried to put on a robe, because anyone calling this time of night didn't have good news. Down the stairs she flew to see who needed her now. When she got there, there was a shrouded man's head in her fireplace. She recognized the red uniform of one of the Unspeakables.
"What on earth do you need this time of night, sir," she asked, pulling her robe closed against the chill.
"We caught a visitor, and we need to contact Harry Potter. We know you know how to do that. Come to the Ministry and help us close the case of Voldemort," the man said, bluntly.
"Vo… Voldemort?" she questioned, very concerned that the famed Dark Lord was being held at the Ministry. "You have You-Know-Who at there? How are you even holding him?"
"I will not discuss this over the Floo. Come at once," the man said and disappeared.
"Blasted Unspeakables," she muttered as she went to get dressed. "Worse than Moody, they are."
When she arrived at the Ministry, a doxy beckoned her. She went to the wall where he was and heard what he had to say about a shadowy man lurking in the Halls. How he went to the Hall of Prophecies, and how he got caught by the Unspeakables. How the Unspeakables had questioned him and that they told the Dark Lord that they had one of his soul containers, and they were threatening him with its destruction if he didn't corporate. They were trying to get the man to tell them if there were more, and she wondered how the destruction of one, would do that. Then again, she never delved into the mind of an Unspeakable. Therein lay chaos and headaches. However, they always seemed to get the job done, if they put their minds to it. Which wasn't often.
To say she was pissed that Potter had given one of the horcruxes to them, was putting it mildly. She'd have words with that boy when this was done.
She noted what the doxy said, and said she'd pay him in a fine silk handkerchief later that day. She then hurried to the DoM and got their report, which was vastly different than the doxy's. Oh, how thankful she was for her new spies. These men never once mentioned the horcrux, and they didn't give the identity of the man they caught. Only saying that he was possessed and not in his right mind. Well, she knew different, and if they didn't stop treating her like some rooky, she was going to start showing them why that was a bad idea.
They didn't, and she did, getting whole story in a matter of an hour.
Neville's POV
The same night, a few days before Christmas Eve, the gang was getting set up for the big prank. Harry had snuck in and was giving them a hand, since he had the most power. They needed it. Silently they crept through the castle, starting at the top and working their way down. The whole of Hogwarts would have a new look in a few days. They just hoped that the new Headmaster would be happy with it. He should be, he seemed like a reasonable guy.
The Board of Governors couldn't get anyone they wanted in the position, so they had to outsource. Because of the contract they signed for the money Harry and 'Reggie' gave them they had to do it right. The man they hired was an Irish man, Ossian Murphy. He was a portly man, that didn't come off as fat, just healthy. He had a head of grey hair, that was cropped short, and a short beard to match. His blue eyes were always watchful and the smile he bore rarely left his face. He had been the Headmaster of a smaller school in Ireland, one that the students that couldn't attend Hogwarts, for some reason or another, tended. He laughed with the students on harmless pranks, but he took the bullying ward very seriously.
Malfoy, along with being embarrassed, had to spend a lot of time being lectured by Binns on the school charter. Then he was tested. He had to repeat the detention for every time he failed. It had been three days, and he was still trying. Ron started tomorrow, and they were betting on how long it took him, since he tended to fall asleep the moment Binns started talking.
Since the hiring of Murphy there were many changes at Hogwarts. New people hired and some on the verge of being fired. Binns was reassigned to overseeing detention, and Trelawney was on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Filch and Finch were on tenterhooks, both were under severe observation, one more remark to the children that the castle didn't like, and they would be booted.
McGonagall was bitter, because after her tea with Albus she knew that he was cursed. The problem was that she didn't know how, but she was sure she knew who. Harry Potter. With his permission she cast every spell she knew on Albus to find out what had happened. They all came back negative. There was nothing wrong with the man, except he could not talk about Harry Potter. She tried for over an hour to find out what the blasted boy had done but could only get that he somehow had Albus' wand. It was starting to distract her in class and she had been chided by the new headmaster for a minor mishap of Ron Weasley's hand turning into a pincushion while she was not paying attention. She, who had been teaching for over 35 years, had been reprimanded like a child. Maybe she would look into retirement, after all. With Dumbledore gone, the castle was not the same anyway. She had saved up a good amount of money, plus there was a good pension with the end of her tenure.
The rest of the staff was doing well. After the first meeting during the beginning of the Winter Holiday, they understood where they stood.
Murphy also hired a curse-breaker for the DADA class, and hired an alumnus for the job, Willie Gillies. Gillies was a Ravenclaw in 1966, and had nine OWLs, a masters in Defense, and had been applying for the job for years. He was a fair, but strict teacher, and everyone felt hopeful for the future, should war break out. Fifth and seventh years had been worried about the tests, now were not.
Shaking himself out of his thoughts the sandy-haired boy got back to work. Neville's job was to charm the halls. It was a huge task, since he had to go floor to floor and cast his part on every wall. There was a trigger that would be set off Christmas Eve morning. He was very tired by the end of the night and was more than willing to sleep till noon. Happy to know that they were doing something epic.
Harry's POV
Right when he was done charming the castle for the night, Harry got a mirror call from Sirius. They were needed at the Ministry as soon as they could get there. So, they met at the Shack and Harry poofed them to the atrium. Madam Bones was waiting for them, with a man they really couldn't see.
"Thank Merlin, you're here," Amelia said, grabbing Harry's robe and hurrying him to the elevators.
"What's up?" the teen replied, not fighting her in the least.
"The Unspeakables were alerted to someone sneaking into the Department of Mysteries. They captured him and found Lucius Malfoy being possessed by You-Know-Who. Since the prophecy says he must die at your hand, we want you to be the one to push him through the Death Veil." She dragged him out of the elevator, and to the Death Room. "We're going to have a talk about trust issues when this is done," she snapped at him as she thrust him in the room.
"What did I do?" the confused teen asked. He trusted her, she was one of the few that he did trust.
"Later, for now do what you're told. We want to get this done before the workers start showing up," she insisted, pointing to the people in the room.
Harry looked where she was pointing and had to laugh. There were five men in red, holding wands to a bald Malfoy Senior in front of an arch with a billowing cloth. The man was chained so bad he couldn't even talk. That didn't stop the face on the back of his head from screaming that he was going to win, and that he had done things that no one had ever done to gain immortality.
"Voldy, nice to see you again, arsehole. I thought you would have died with that pitiful man you had try to bring you back, pity," Harry said cheerfully, waving at the face. He looked to the Veil and got a niggling at the back of his head.
"Fool, you will never win against me," Voldemort snarled around the chains blocking his face.
"I don't plan to kill you," the teen wizard said brightly, coming up with an idea out of nowhere. His crew started scrambling to see if it was viable. Scenario after scenario were run to see if they could pull it off. Using everything they knew about blackholes as a template. The Veil should be the same, right? "I'll even let you live forever," he confessed, making the room around him gasp. A few wands even pointed in his direction. He threw a wink to Bones and continued. "Well, maybe not live, per se, but you will exist." He had no idea where this idea was coming from, but he liked it.
"Potter, you don't have the power to grant such a boon. If you do then you should join me, and we'll take over and rule these weak wizards," the face tried to cajole. He could use someone who could grant him immortality on his side. Thoughts were racing through his head on how he could manipulate the boy to doing what he wanted. "I could give you your parents," he offered. "No one has studied death more than me. Not even these pitiful wizards here in the DoM."
"Do you take me for an idiot? Never mind, don't answer that," he said as he dug Dumbledore's wand out of his TARDIS bag, which he had had with him at Hogwarts to help with the prank. For some reason it just felt like this was the wand to use for this event. "Anyway, hold on just a second and I'll grant your desire." He conferred with his crew and came up with the magic he would need to get this done. He hit himself in the head for not thinking of it sooner, but then again, he hadn't really cared before. It was up to the adults in this world to take down the bad guy, not his.
Still, here he was with ole Voldy right in front of him and now he could end it all. So, he stood next to the Veil and pointed his wand to the prisoner. "Soul join," he incanted simply and waited.
A few moments later, two wisps of smoke came floating through the walls and slammed into Malfoy, making him jerk with impact. Voldemort screamed as his soul pieces fused with his wraith. He tried to leave, but the chains were magic nulling. He cursed his follower for not being more careful and threatened dire things to the man's family. Lucius paled at the thought that his son and wife would suffer for his arrogance. Everyone could hear him begging for forgiveness even though his voice was muffled.
"Eject," the dark-haired teen smirked and painfully pulled the spirit out of Malfoy through the chains that bound him. He made sure to put the spirit in one of his ghost bubbles, just like the one he had used on the Bloody Baron. Once more causing Voldemort to think this boy would be useful. "There you go," our hero said to the specter, "all joined together. Feels funny, doesn't it? Missing more than half your soul. Well, you should be used to it by now, but here's the deal. I'm going to give you an overwhelming desire to search for the rest of your soul for all of eternity. You'll never find it, of course. It's gone, but you'll still look."
Without his knowledge, the Cloak of Invisibility and the Resurrection Ring appeared on his body and hand. His voice took on an unnerving tone, echoing throughout the room, causing everyone there to shiver. The Cloak blackened his face and his form thinned, painfully so. He grew several feet, towering over everyone in the room. The Ring shone like a reflective ruby, only the light didn't touch it. "Tom Marvolo Riddle, you will forever be damned to wander my domain in the void. Forever searching for what you will never find," the scraping voice said, pointing the Elder Wand at the frightened Dark Lord. And with a flick the wraith flew before the Veil. "You sought to flee from me, now you will forever fear that you will never die. You will forever ache to end what you will now incur. Tom Marvolo Riddle, welcome to Hell."
The being laughed a frightening laugh, the kind that woke you up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat and fearing that the world had ended. The wraith screamed and begged, fighting with every bit of will it had. But no one ran from death, and soon enough it was gone. To forever float in the void beyond the Veil.
"Um, Harry?" Sirius asked tentatively. Hoping this wasn't a permanent thing.
"Harry James Potter is fine. He will return momentarily. First, I must finish here," the being that was once Harry said, looking around the room. He was a deity of immense power, and he knew that if he left these fools to realize what the boy held they would never let him be. That could not happen, he might need the child later. So, he raised his wand and empty hand to the roof and a cloud of mist drifted down from the ceiling. It covered the whole room and the desire to run and hide was enormous. Outside it shrouded the entire earth. People would wake up in the morning not remembering the Hallows. The tale of the Three Brothers would not be taken seriously. Research would stop, and an old man would feel like he had wasted his entire life searching for fool's gold.
One by one the people in the room drifted away dazed and confused. They didn't know what they were doing in the Death Room. They would go home and sleep, never remembering what just happened. They would wonder in the morning what happened to the horcrux but would soon forget that as well.
Soon enough, only Malfoy, Bones and Black were there. Amelia was shaking her head, the night fuzzy, but there. Lucius was standing asleep, he would remember coming to get the prophecy for his master, but he would not remember after the Unspeakables captured him. He was still wrapped in chains, and he would be arrested for criminal trespass, and murder of the guard, when Bones was done here.
"Now what?" Sirius asked as politely as he could. He remembered everything. He wouldn't find out until later that he was the only one.
"Now I will return to my domain and you will live the rest of your life," Death answered succinctly. Harry's body started shrinking and filling out.
"And Harry? Will he remember?"
"No, and you would do well not to mention this to him. He will only remember that he was the one to throw Tom Marvolo Riddle into the Veil. That is all you will tell him."
"Yup, yup, sure, no problem," the dogman answered quickly.
Without further ado the deity was gone, and so were the Cloak, Ring and Wand. They would be used again, when needed, but only Harry could call them, and he wouldn't even know he was. The poor boy was now a puppet to Death here on earth. Not that the deity would abuse it, but if needed the champion would be called. When he passed, the Hallows would appear again and another quest would be mounted to find them. Ah the wonders of myths, causing the adventurous to forever seek what as mostly unattainable.
Harry slumped a moment, shook his head and smiled that carefree smile of his. "Well, that's done. I'm knackered. Ready to go home?" he asked his dazed godfather. The crew in his head were celebrating a job well done. All but Data, he knew but was unsure if he should say anything. He'd have to watch and see if there were any side effects.
"Yeah, sure, I could use a drink," the man answered.
"Oh, I think a whole bottle is in order," Bones said shakenly. She took hold of Lucius, woke him up and dragged him away. The other two followed.
"Quite a show, huh?" the teen asked, bouncing along after Sirius. He was stoked, he had vanquished Voldy from the world, and they wouldn't even know. There would be no hero worshipping and he could live his life knowing the man was gone. He had no doubt that the Unspeakables would keep this silent, and Bones had no need to search anymore, so she'd be happy. Or so he thought. He did wonder why the two adults were so shaken. It's not like he was Death or anything.
"Oh, Harry, you have no idea how right you are," the man answered, thinking this was one night that would keep him awake for years. And he couldn't even tell anyone about it.