Voldermort and the Death Eaters were too busy watching Fred writhe about on the floor in agony to see him approach. Harry came to a halt, lifted his wand, and used it to break the curse holding Fred. The deafening screaming stopped. There was a moment of confusion around the clearing until everyone’s eyes came to rest on Harry. He looked awesome, standing resolute, radiating so much magical energy it made Ron and Hermione’s bodies tingle and pulse. His face remained impassive, but they could sense his determination.
‘I’ve come for my friends,’ Harry calmly called to the crowd no more than fifteen feet away.
‘So, Malfoy hadn’t been charmed after all. When he returned muttering about seeing you, I thought one of your friends had confused him with a spell. I was obviously mistaken.’
‘Obviously.’
‘So you want your friends? What if I don’t want to give them to you? What if I like torturing them?’
Harry stared unflinchingly back at Voldermort’s gleaming red eyes, ‘I’m prepared to take them.’
‘Oooh, big words from a boy who ran away rather than face me. That is what you did I take it, rather than come back from the dead?’
‘I left because I knew I wasn’t strong enough to defeat you. It took Dumbledore many hours of persuasion to make me see sense, to make me understand that my death benefited nobody but you.’
‘You’re right about one thing: you weren’t strong enough to beat me, you still aren’t, but your death benefited thousands of fools who all thought you would be their saviour. With you gone, they lost hope, and became much easier to turn, or kill.’
Hermione and Ron could see no change in Harry’s expression, but he scrunched his free hand into a tight fist.
‘Now, as entertaining as this reunion has been, I’m getting bored of it.’
He looked at the Death Eater closest to Harry on either side, then said, ‘kill him.’
The two Death Eaters started to advance on Harry but before they had gone barely a yard Harry responded. In what seemed the blink of an eye, two blurs had shot from Harry’s wand, one at each Death Eater. Both of them fell to the floor, bound head to toe, and started writhing around. Harry had returned to his original position before either of them had hit the ground.
‘I’m no longer the little boy you liked to scare, safe in the knowledge that I couldn’t overpower you. I’m here to finish this Voldermort, today this ends, today you die.’
With that Harry waved his wand and muttered a spell.
‘Attack him,’ he commanded.
Suddenly all the Death Eaters turned from their positions, looked at Voldermort, drew their wands, and started to advance on him. Voldermort didn’t know what was going on, the first spells were being launched at him before he regained his composure. He managed to break the spell controlling them.
Once sure they were free of it, he yelled: ‘Not me you fools, kill him.’
His hand shot straight at Harry. The Death Eaters turned and started toward Harry, their wands raised once more.
‘Get down you two, and cover your eyes,’ he yelled over his shoulder.
Ron and Hermione dropped to the floor, their eyes welded shut. Harry raised his wand, covered his eyes with his hand, and softly spoke a curse. There was a blinding flash that started as a small point on the end of Harry’s wand but grew and grew, slowly the ball of blinding white light spread and engulfed everything within a fifty-metre radius. Suddenly, it was gone.
‘You can open them now,’ said Harry.
Ron and Hermione slowly opened their eyes and got to their feet. As they looked around the Death Eaters were stationary, still upright, but frozen. They looked closer, and saw that they were stone. Harry had turned them to stone. It took several seconds to realise that Voldermort wasn’t grey like the rest of them. Harry seemed unperturbed. Harry focused his attentions on Voldermort, and called over his shoulder to the others.
‘One of you go left, the other right, we can’t let him escape.’
Then he started to advance. Ron and Hermione knew what they had to do and moved to it. Ron went left, Hermione went right. Voldermort had just finished looking at all his servants, cast in stone, when he saw them approach. He raised his own wand, and pointed it straight at Harry.
‘Avada Kedavra’
Harry responded almost before it was cast with a shielding charm. The curse simply glanced off the invisible wall before him. He kept on coming.
‘Impossible,’ muttered Voldermort.
‘My shield charm is strong enough to block anything… including those supposedly impossible to block,’ said Harry, a small smile appearing on his face.
A sudden look of fear appeared on Voldermort’s face. He started casting and recasting a spell with his wand.
Harry recognised what he was trying to do.
‘You won’t be able to Apparate, I took the liberty of placing a few inhibition spells around the area.’
Real fear took hold of Voldermort now, something he hadn’t felt since he had been blown from his body 24 years earlier as he faced the infant Potter. He turned to try and run, but he was faced with Ron, wand raised, looking mad as hell. He turned the other way to see Hermione looking equally as displeased.
‘Petrificus Totalus,’ called Harry.
Voldermort went as stiff as a board, and fell backwards onto the floor.
The three of them were on him in a flash.
‘Now what do we do?’ asked Ron.
‘We kill him,’ replied Harry.
‘How?’ blurted Hermione.
Harry stuck his left hand inside his robes, pulling out a small vial.
‘With this,’ Harry showed them the vial.
‘What is it?’ asked Hermione.
‘It’s a potion that has taken me, and many others, years to perfect. All it needs now is one last ingredient.’
He put his wand into his robes and removed a small knife instead. He slowly drew it across his wrist. Beads of blood erupted in its wake. He put the knife down and took the vial from his left hand. Twisting his arm and moving the vial he caught several drops of blood. He slowly swirled the vial to mix in the blood. He talked to Voldermort as he did so.
‘Ironic really, that the thing which brought you back to life, is the very thing to kill you. And I’d never have known about it except you told me what was in the stew that brought you back. “My fathers bone” you said, and while we were searching for the right ingredients, it occurred to me.’
He finished stirring the vial. He leaned close to Voldermort’s face.
‘Now Voldermort, it is time for you to realise that you are not invincible, as no man is, and that you will pay for the crimes you have committed. The day you killed my parents was the biggest mistake you ever made.’
Harry poured the potion into Voldermort’s open mouth.
‘This isn’t just for my parents, it’s for all the innocent people you’ve slaughtered in your quest for power.’
Harry stood up.
‘Bone of the father, to break the chain; Flesh of an innocent, willingly given; Blood of the enemy, taken by his own hand.’
Voldermort began to shake; smoke began to rise from his body; he began to writhe about. Suddenly he let out an ear-piercing scream; then he seemed to just melt into the ground, leaving a large damp patch with a whisp of steam rising from it. All this time, Harry had kept his eyes firmly on Voldermort, transfixed, his face showing no sign of emotion.
‘It is done,’ he muttered.
‘That’s it, he’s dead?’ asked Hermione.
Harry nodded slowly.
Ron exploded: ‘Yes!’
He threw his hands in the air.
‘He’s dead at last. Harry killed Voldermort.’
A huge smile appeared on Hermione’s face and she started to cry as Ron flew over to her and threw his arms about her. They kissed. Harry didn’t move, still staring at the ground. Ron and Hermione looked over at Harry.
‘What the matter?’ asked Ron.
‘Nothing,’ replied Harry.
A look of realisation sprung upon Hermione’s face.
‘What about the others? They’ve been turned to stone.’
‘It’s a simple spell to turn them back.’
‘Well then lets get on with it, we’ve got to tell everyone he’s dead. Oh they’ll be celebrations tonight,’ cried Ron.
He dragged Hermione over to Harry with him and threw an arm around Harry’s shoulders. They started to walk back toward the others.
‘Maybe,‘ Harry thought, ‘but there’ll be someone else, willing to do anything to hold ultimate power in their hands, ready to replace Voldermort.‘
He wondered how long it would be before they showed themselves.

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