181 Ch. 181 Battle of the Ministry pt.3

Both old men simultaneously casted at the same time. Tom shooting out a green stream of Magic as Dumbledore did the same with his red. (Tom is almost in his 70's and Dumbledore is in his 100's so two old men.)

Although it annoyed me to see magical battles reduced to that so much during the canon, i know precisely what is happening at this moment.

Since both men are in the same level of power, they are testing to see who has the edge in pure power in order to properly plan out how to fight each other. This also involves some subtle psychological plays as an adversary can purposefully lower his output to catch his foe off guard, leading to experienced combatants never truly trusting the results of the initial clash.

Like in canon, Tom tried to shoot bolts of magic from his clash with the headmaster, something which Albus did actually properly redirect enough in canon so Harry didn't explode. I mean did everyone think it was a coincidence? But this time his little cheap shots were worth shit as my shields just blocked them easily. And with Dumbledore knowing full well Tom wasn't my match, he wasn't even a tiny bit worried about such a weak attack even harming the spectators, this resulted in the old man taking advantage of the situation by focusing some more power and breaking the stalemate.

We could see his red beam gaining ground as Tom realized his mistake in this fight. The noseless man wanted to split Dumbledore's attention by attacking those he saw as people he would protect before himself, too bad this put him on the back foot.

Voldemort's face lost its sadistic smile as he became very serious in his efforts to push back his old teacher's magic. I might have said this was basically a measuring stage, but it is still very deadly to lose such a confrontation of magic. If one gets completely overpowered then it could lead to loss of limb, severe blunt force trauma, sudden death, exploding, or if one is in a strictly non-lethal duel you can maybe get blown away or disarmed. Too bad these two are not holding back. Tom would 'live' without any doubts anyway, so why hold back.

Seeing his growing disadvantage, the Grey fool decided to break off the conflict by deflecting the streams to the side, effectively slicing one of the fireplaces in half with an angered yell.

You could see the anger on his face because of the blow to his ego this is. He, the Dark Lord, lost in a direct confrontation against his 'only real threat besides Harry'. So he was not a happy camper.

With a flick of his bone-like wand, Tom levitated the debris from the fireplace and then transfigured them into spears which shot out towards Dumbledore, who did not just watch has he gathered the water from the racist fountain in the middle of the Atrium in preparation. What was interesting was that the Headmaster had changed the consistency of the water, making it like a gel, resulting in the spears losing their momentum to the point of harmlessness.

During this moment, Tom animated part of the sculpture on the fountain to attack Albus from behind. So to defend himself Dumbledore shot the liquid he controlled towards Tom as a wave, then turned around and instead of destroying the sculpture or removing Tom's spell, he transfigured the thing's joints to make them completely solid again. As a result he forced Voldemort to deal with his distraction and made the statue fall to the ground where it couldn't even move much anymore.

These exchanges were a great show of high level transfiguration and the applicabilities the field has in combat. Too bad it takes too much power to use it a lot in combat and require a lot of studying to bring it to the proper level to be useful.

Harry was watching these exchanges very seriously so far. I've taught him a lot and trained him, but this is his first time seeing two powerful wizards really trying to beat each other, without being involved anyway.

So now we watched as Tom's face became very cold over Dumbledore's continuous success in stopping him. Deciding to kick things up a notched, using some of those robe based Dark spells, sending a stream of darkness towards Dumbledore.

I know the spell he's using from my time bumming off of Quirrell's subscription to V-TV. It is quite a nasty bit of dark magic since it sucks the vitality of whatever it hits until only dust remains.

The Headmaster on the other hand used something which made me smile.

'The old man truly has a genius level intellect to have learned my spells already and use them in battle.' I thought as I watched the man use my variation of Lumos to form a shield against the darkness using the light.

And the more power he pumped into it the larger the range. Plus the spell isn't even difficult to cast since the power requirements are about the same as lumos, just requiring more in the will and intelligence departments.

This spell actually surprised the Dark Lord because he knew the power behind his own spell and seeing repelled so easily with Dumbledore using a 'simple lumos' inwardly shocked him. But seeing his magic being pushed back, he decided to change his approach by gathering the remaining darkness and adding some additional power to create a shockwave which shattered the office windows employees had that oversaw the Atrium.

Unlike canon where he destabilized Dumbledore with that little move, this time he was already dealing with the falling shards of glass by changing it to sand as they fell through the blanket of Magic he had spread over the area.

During this exchange i noticed two things I deemed important.

The first was that Tom had some burns on his hands and head, which I'm not sure he noticed or thought it was because of something else. This confirms my theories on white Magic's effects on Tom's body. His mind, body and soul are all completely made of dark magic at this point with his blood ritual to not die when he touches Harry anymore, his soul being completely mangle and tainted because of his Horcruxes, and him basically giving up every other form of magic besides Transfiguration to master the Dark Arts further. As a result it's like White magic became four time more effective on the asshole.

The second thing I noticed was actually the fact that Dumbledore had to put more effort into casting that spell than the others he's used so far, as a result of the Elder Wand seemingly resisting it. Now that was fascinating to feel once I noticed. Although more testing would be needed, the initial theories would be that this reaction is because of its history, origins or the materials it is made out of. Possibly a mix of the three. The Elder wand's history of death and bloodshed might have had a much bigger impact on the wand than I first thought, the mythical origin of it being death's wand might have actually imbued some properties which clash against the 'life' in white magic, and/or the Thestral parts have an affinity with death which could be rejecting the magic. As a result of one or many reasons above, it diminishes the efficiency and power of white magic.

Kinda of ironic that Dumbledore's wand is helping Voldemort in not getting purified because it doesn't like the magic.

Anyway, out of my thoughts and back to the fight.

After the two old men finished trying to turn the Atrium into an indoor beach, Dumbledore was covered and surrounded by the sand he created from the broken glass, while Voldemort stood amidst the ministry fireplaces soaked to the bone and with his red eyes glowing from the ego slaps he keeps getting today.

Tom deciding he wanted to dry himself most likely, summoned Fiendfyre from his mouth just to show off, letting the curses flame take a shape reminiscent of a basilisk.

Just as the giant fire snake was about to move, Dumbledore burst into action by using his great mastery over fire to start beating down Voldemort's curse. This happened in the form of multiple controlled explosions across the snakes body as Tom struggled to force it to attack through them all, only for it to be beaten back. The finishing touch came when the Headmaster used the Purefyre which was derived from mine and Sol's positive aspects. The blue flame imbedded itself into the Fiendfyre, broke Voldemort's control over it and starts causing it to implode as it basically consumed all the curses fire.

Having one of his most powerful curses dealt so handedly made Tom realize that he was not winning this battle so far, making him look for alternatives like messing with Dumbledore's 'wards' or just escaping before the ministry officials arrived to continue 'not being alive'. But I saw the look he gave Harry.

"Harry if you could smash it now, that would be lovely." I simply said as I watched the bald man with some sadism in my eyes.

I enjoyed messing with the genocidal moron.

"What? Now?" He questioned in surprise over my timing.

"Yes. Voldy wants to mess with us, so we mess with him first." I answered with a mischievous smile which makes my little bro wryly shake his head as he took out the prophecy.

Seeing his prize Tom became more assured in his decision to try and mess with Harry like canon, but then his expression changed into momentary shock and then rage as he noticed Harry swinging his arm in a throwing motion, aimed at the ground, with the prophecy in his hand.

"NOO!!" The grey man yelled out in semi-desperation as he watched it shatter all over the floor and let out some smoke.

Dumbledore decided to not miss that little chance as he blasted a spell at Tom who barely blocked before the Headmaster started showing an impressive fluidity and grace as he whipped out some sweet combos to keep Tommy boy on the defense for once.

"You really shouldn't look away during a duel. Especially when you're getting beat already." I happily 'advised' the magic nazi with a bright smile.

That almost got him nailed by one of Dumbledore's stunners when he almost growled at me who just looked back at him with a mocking grin. But Tom is nothing if not very determined to not lose his body again, so he managed to stabilize the duel by finding Albus' next chain in his combo and quickly countering with his own nasty curses.

This sparked a few rounds of exchanges between the two as they destroyed their immediate surroundings with dodged or deflected spells. They also showed magnificent mastery over apparition as they both used it to dodge and attack from blindspots, dancing through space itself as they both tried to one up each other. The problem was that now the Dark Lord began to feel more pressed for time. Harry had ruined his goal and 'stopped' him once again, he was not even close to killing any of us so far and now the ministry forces could appear at any moment and reveal that he was in fact back.

So he made a decision to try and at least get something out of tonight.

During his next chain of curses, Tom purposefully missed Dumbledore to target the sculpture which laid on the floor behind him, causing it to shatter as the Headmaster was about to take advantage of the 'mistake'. The flying rubble distracted Albus as he did his best to not receive any broken bones from the large chunks of rock flying at him. This moment gave Voldemort the chance he was aiming for, so he gathered the sand Dumbledore had created earlier and used it to obscure himself, disappearing as the small sand twister ceased.

I knew what was going to happen next, so I finally sent the signal for people to start showing up.

And not a moment after I had done that, one hairless blue-man group reject was violently sent flying towards the fountain as he tried to enter the perimeter of my shields.

"Fool thought he could just walk through my spells. Hmph." I snorted as I looked at the mongrel. (Channeling his inner Gilgamesh right now.)

What just happened flabbergasted Harry as his mouth still hung open from seeing the dreaded Voldemort get blasted away like that. Dumbledore on the other hand used this opportunity to approach Tom in the hopes of capturing him now.

And at this moment the Ministry's people started arriving one after another through the fireplaces, just in time to see Albus Dumbledore standing over a struggling and slightly smoldering Voldemort since his arm suffered some severe burns from trying to grab Harry through my shields. It was a really powerful image, all perfectly times by yours truly to maximize the efficiency of what would come next. I even heard the sounds of cameras going off just like I planned.

Can't let the good people of this country not see this pretty epic scene.

"He's back. He's really back." Loudly whispered Fudge in complete horror at the reveal.

He was technically still the Minister, but all his powers were stripped and everyone was just waiting until the election results before he was put on trial for his crimes. It was weird that he couldn't officially be trialed yet because of some weird laws about positions and pureblood nonsense.

Mother on the hand had a very different reaction since she already knew, and that was to order every Auror already present to fire spells without restraint.

But unfortunately Tommy knew when to escape like the slippery coward he truly is. As strong as he believed himself, he knew his limits and this was far beyond them right now. He was getting low on magic from his duel, mentally unbalanced from Dumbledore's handling of him, Harry breaking the prophecy in his face and me mocking, while he also suffered some injuries. So he once again blew sand all over the place and vanished.

The few dozen people who had seen Voldemort personally were simply shellshocked at the moment. None of them moved, blinked or talked, while some of them even forgot to breath like they had just stood in front of their natural predator.

Mother was having none of it.

"What are you all looking at? We have things to do. Pavus and Constantine, you two are managing the Atrium with squads 4 and 7! I want a full sweep, statements and crowd control ASAP! No one leaves before my say so!" She commanded like true commander to a slightly tanned man with short black hair, well groomed facial hair done in the imperial style, a bit cocky in his bearings and an outfit which shows practicality and an understanding of the finer things in life, and a man with short blonde hair, a five o'clock shadow, looking like he drank a lot the night prior and wearing a beige trench-coat over his white button up with a loosely worn tie.

The two might look sloppy or annoying to deal with, but mother had them trained well and they went right to it.

"Hawke I want you to make the bureaucrats to authorize what we'll need and have them bring in the rest of the department!" This time mother ordered a tough looking woman who happened to be her vice-department head, a short black haired woman with some pieces of enchanted armor hidden under her black frock jacket which wasn't buttoned up just to show the leather armor she had under it.

I actually pointed mother to her a few years back and she then began training her up as her the next head Auror since Scrimgeour is almost certainly going to be head of the DMLE after mother becomes Minister. She's tough, skilled, charismatic and a good person. That last one is the hardest to find. But after a few more years to gain experience, she could very well become the Head of the DMLE in the future. The woman was also a very loyal supporter of mother's as they shared many ideals. She immediately went to kick some bureaucrats into action after she received her orders.

(And yes I just wanted to throw in some people for some fun.)

"Squads 1, 2 and 6 are coming with me to the Department of Mysteries! I received word from Moody, Kingsley and Tonks that they captured Death Eaters in the Death Room! Get me some Unspeakables here on the double because I do not want to waste time navigating that damn level! Meanwhile everyone else is to make a complete sweep of the ministry and gather everyone you find for questioning! I want to know what they were doing while damn death eaters and their Lord ran a mock in the Ministry!" Amelia ordered as she finished yelling.

Her orders made her people come to life as they all followed her words and did everything properly. Constantine went to control the crowd and stop any journalists from making through to snoop or bother Dumbledore, Harry and myself, while Pavus came over to get our statements of tonight's events.

The official statement which was from Dumbledore said that Harry was lured by Voldemort in an effort to obtain the prophecy regarding the two. The Dark Lord then set an ambush for and his group which they escaped. They were then helped by senior Aurors who Harry had contacted, and after their arrival they managed to subdue almost all Death Eaters who participated in the ambush. The Voldemort appeared to as they chased down Bellatrix Lestrange who had escaped, saying his prize was the prophecy and Harry's life would make things perfect. Then Albus arrived as he had heard of tonight's happening from a close friend and faced Voldemort in combat, pushing him to the point they had arrived at.

It was a statement to make Harry look more heroic in the people's eyes and make Dumbledore look near saintly from him beating back their worst fear. Meanwhile I get to basically slip under the radar and no one knows I orchestrated the entire nights events.

I am a bit sad I didn't get to go on a rampage and just beat down Tom, Hulk on Loki style, but this way Tommy won't be too desperate and do horrible things to even the playing field. So at least there's a positive.

After our statement was done Dumbledore guided us to nearest fireplace as we ignored the very energetic press and we Floo traveled back to his office so we could get some rest without having to deal with hours of ministry stuff.

I doubt Harry was going to get much sleep after tonight's events, but I had a hot fiancé waiting for me, laying in our bed and wearing close to nothing. So I just called Sol over through our bond and flamed away.

I knew I was going to get a treat when I tell her how I my plans are going to manipulate the entire country again. Making this a very pleasant way to end the Battle of the Ministry in my opinion.