Chapter Text
“Confringo!” Harry cast sending a burst of fire towards Nagini, the last of the remaining Horcruxes. Nagini was protected by Voldemort's dark magic and so the flames simply bounced off her and hit the nearby Death eaters. Seeing both Severus and Harry, who had supposedly perished at the hands of Voldemort, alive and fighting, it was no surprise many Death eaters chose that moment to flee.
“Come back!” Bellatrix demanded the fleeing Death Eaters “Come back!” though their forces were dwindling, there were still enough to make a stand against those who fought for the Light. The final battle was upon them.
Harry bolted back towards the castle with the Dark Lord bombarding him with dark magic as he ran. Severus apparated at the door as the staff and students retreated back inside where Hermione all but leapt in his arms nearly in tears with relief. She then smacked him across the face. “Don’t ever do that to me again!”
“We need to lure him into the castle” Harry proclaimed “We have to kill the snake”
“You’ll need this” Hermione said about to hand him the sword. Instead, Neville kept hold of it and bravely charged towards the oncoming wave of Death Eaters. Voldemort responded by blasting Neville and sword back into the Great Hall, knocking him out when he hit the floor. The Dark Lord brought Nagini to him and apparated out of sight.
Emily pulled Draco by the arm “Everybody inside, now!” she cried narrowly missing a spell aimed at her head.
The group ended up splitting apart in the ensuing madness. Draco managed to end up separated from everyone else, forced to fight against Dath Eaters he had come to know and fellow Slytherin students who had once been his friends. Someone was crying somewhere in the chaos of the Great Hall. So loud that even Draco could hear them from across the hall. He dispatched an attacking Death Eater before glancing over his shoulder to spot the source of the crying.
There, standing in the middle of it all, was a small boy. Draco recognised him in an instant. Though he’d only seen the face in pictures, Draco broke into a sprint to reach the sobbing child. “Michael!” he bellowed, sweeping the boy into his arms and out the Hall. He found a spot away from the fighting and looked at the boy in his arms. “What the – Where the hell did you come from?!”
Michael sniffed “Emily said Hogwarts was safe”
“Oh Merlin...” Draco racked his brain to think of his next move. Finding Emily was his first thought, but he needed to keep the defenceless boy in his arms safe. The boy didn’t even have a wand yet. Thinking on his feet, Draco decided to head up the many staircases to the headmaster’s office. It was the only place Draco could think of that could protect them. As for Emily, she had a score to settle with on Bellatrix Lestrange.
--
As Harry faced off against Voldemort leading the Dark Wizard higher and higher up the castle, the others struggled to stay alive. Ron stuck beside Hermione and Severus, frantic with worry about what might become of Harry. The trio desperately searched for Nagini, yet it seemed the snake was nowhere in sight. That is until it lunged at Severus once again, this time from behind.
Unfortunately for Nagini, Hermione was faster and used a felled wooden slat to whack the snake away from them “Don’t touch him!”
Ron with basilisk fang in hand attempted to stab the snake while it was disorientated but Nagini was quick to form and almost bit Ron in the process. Causing the redhead to lose the fang in surprise.
Back in the Great Hall, Neville awoke to madness all around and the sword lying right beside him.
Meanwhile, Bellatrix was having a grand old time as she killed one wizard after another. She gleefully laughed when her spell nearly killed the lone Weasley sister. Molly Weasley, who had already lost one child that night, refused to lose another “Not my daughter, you bitch” she sneered causing Bellatrix to laugh even harder. The two women, formidable witches in their own right, duelled ferociously against one another. Curses and spells flew, and all the while Bellatrix continued to laugh and laugh and laugh. Neville gingerly got to his feet only for a girl with blonde hair to snatch the sword out of his hand as she ran past.
Suddenly, Bellatrix’s laugh morphed into a scream of agony. Her left leg crumpled underneath her. She glanced down and felt her stomach sink into the floor. Her leg had nearly been sliced clean off. In her shock she looked up, seeing Emily with a bloody sword and a satisfied smile. “Now we’re even” she muttered giving the sword back to Neville “All yours, Molly”
“Gladly,” the redheaded mother said with a glint in her eye. Molly spared no mercy for the woman who had caused such heartache for so many. Bellatrix never stood a chance against the grieving mother.
Meanwhile, Harry kept luring Voldemort away from the fighting, using himself as bait in the hope that his friends would have a chance to kill Nagini. The two fought viciously against the other until Harry had led him to the roof of the main building. “How dare you” Voldemort sneered slapping Harry across the face “How did the traitor survive? Tell me!”
“The wand will never belong to you. No matter what, it will always obey its true Master”
“I killed Snape!” Voldemort declared despite seeing the exact opposite come to be
Harry lured him to the edge of the roof “What if the wand never belonged to Snape? What if it belonged to someone different? Come on Tom, let's finish this how we started. Together!” Harry wrapped his arms around Voldemort’s neck and threw them both off the roof.
Back downstairs, Ron, Hermione, and Severus were running as fast as they could from Nagini. With the fang gone, they had nothing else that could kill her. Severus tried in vain to speak to Nagini through Parselmouth, but the snake was deaf to all their plights. The trio ran down the staircase with the snake hot on their heels.
“Hermione, I need to tell you something”
Looking back at the living Horcrux slithering at speed after them, Hermione shook her head “You can tell me after we survive this” she said defiantly “Not while we’re being chased by a bloody Horcrux” outside in the courtyard, surrounded by death and destruction, The Boy Who Lived made his final stand.
Each Wizard cast against the other, red meeting green. Their magic collided sending shockwaves throughout the area. Draco glanced down the staircases and saw dozens of Death Eaters chasing after him, bellowing shouts that he was a traitor. Hogwarts granted the teen and the little boy mercy, opening up the Headmaster’s office. That’s where Draco tossed Micheal inside and forced the entrance to close once more. He then took a defensive stance in front of the phoenix statue. He’d protect Micheal with his life. He owed Emily that much.
“Get away from our son!” he heard Lucius shout
Cornered, Ron and Hermione fell on a pile of rubble in their mad dash to escape. Severus bravely put himself between them and the snake, pelting the snake with a killing curse yet the snake was impervious. Hermione pulled him down to their level. If they were going to die, she would die in the arms of the man she loved. When all seemed lost, Neville stuck.
He let out a cry of power as he sliced through the snake. The snake burst into a cloud of black and darkness, the final Horcrux destroyed. Harry and Voldemort felt it almost instantly. The loss of Nagini gave Harry all the strength he needed to finish Voldemort once and for all. With a renewed sense of purpose, Harry fired his spell once more. This time, Voldemort was unable to fight back. In the end, Harry Potter disarmed the Dark Lord taking the Elder Wand as his own.
And Voldemort? The once scourge of the Wizarding world second only to Grindelwald? He collapsed to the floor and let out one last breath. His power gone and his magic no longer able to sustain his ageing body. And then, it was over. The remaining Death Eaters still alive took to the skies the moment they realised Voldemort was no more. They scattered to the wind in an act of self-preservation. Harry watched them fly with their tails between their legs. Almost finding it humorous seeing them now so pitifully scared.
“Harry...” he heard Ron call for him. Harry looked back at the castle, seeing Ron waiting for him. The two met mid-way, embracing each other as tight as they could. I knew you could do it” he whispered
--
A strange sense of calmness swept through the survivors. They had lived through a battle like no other. One that would no doubt go down in history. And yet, most of them were still just kids. Kids swept up in a war that never should have happened. But they had fought. And they had survived.
Emily sat quietly beside the Weasleys holding an icepack to her head. After helping take down Bellatrix, she had taken a blow to the head which had rendered her unconscious thus missing the rest of the battle. She was just glad to be alive.
“Emily?” one of her friends from Gryffindor came up to her, a surprisingly cheerful smile on her face “There’s someone who wants to see you”
Emily peered past her friend to look. The icepack fell from her grasp out of shock. “... Micheal?”
“Emily!” Micheal cried, launching himself out of Draco's arms. In a state of utter disbelief, Emily rose to her now shaky feet. Suddenly, Emily broke into a sprint to reach her little brother. She gathered him in her arms sweeping him off his feet. Then, she fell to her knees and sobbed. It was both relief and sadness, joy and terror, happiness and grief. The hall echoed with her sobs. Draco watched from a distance, smiling.
Walking into the Great Hall, hand in hand, Hermione and Severus witnessed the reunion with matching looks of happiness for the teen and her brother. “How on earth did he find this place?” Severus asked somewhat bewildered
Hermione shrugged “Somebody was looking out for him”
Later, Harry asked Hermione and Ron to speak in private. On the bridge connecting to Hogwarts, he told them about the Elder Wand’s true Master. Himself. Because he had disarmed Draco and Draco had disarmed Dumbledore, the wand now belonged to him. Harry then made a show of snapping the all-powerful wand, ensuring that no one would hold such power again. It was the right thing to do of course, but Ron still joked that Harry could have kept it.
“It’s going to be alright now, isn’t it?” Hermione asked smiling
Harry nodded taking Ron’s hand in his “Yeah. I think it will be”
--
Days later, Hermione walked towards Carrela's café wearing her favourite red dress. Emily had aided her in her make-up and hair, ensuring she would look as beautiful as ever. This time though, someone was waiting for her at the café.
“Hi,” she greeted taking a seat across from him
The dark-haired wizard smiled back “Hello”
