A Pillow is Used Well

Sunday, 13th August, 3:07 a.m

19 hours after the start of Harry's trial A corridor in Malfoy Manor

Harry, Hermione, Sirius and Remus just had been elf-popped into Malfoy Manor. Specifically, they were in a corridor, lit by torches, whose walls were painted green and silver. Ahead of them was a gold-painted door.

Nobody else in the manor house seemed to be awake.

Goldy pointed to the gold door. He whispered, "That where Ugly Red-Eyes sleep now. He have two sets of his detection-wards set up: one round his bed, and one out here in the corridor, two feet in fronts of us."

Sirius looked at Harry and said lowly, "Pup, I'm older than you and theoretically wiser, but I'll take orders from you here. You're Lord Malfoy, so this is your house; now you're more magically powerful than I am; and besides, when word of this gets out, you'll be the one who catches the shit. So as far as I'm concerned, you're in charge."

"Same here," said Remus.

Hermione nodded; but then added, "Don't mess up." Harry smiled. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, folks."

Harry drew his wand, pointed it at the ceiling, and quietly said, "I, Lord Malfoy, command this: Dispel all personal wards in Malfoy Manor, erected before this hour, no matter who put them up. So mote it be."

Sirius, who could see auras, said, "The detection-wards in the corridor now are gone." Goldy and the other Malfoy house-elf both nodded.

Harry crept to the gold door, and slowly opened it a bit. He beckoned the others to come forwards.

Harry saw that the Dark Lord was lying on his back on a huge bed, in a huge room. Voldemort was snoring.

Harry whispered in Sirius's ear, "Personal detection-wards inside the room?" Sirius whispered back, "Gone."

Harry asked Goldy and Hunky, "Where is Voldemort's snake? I don't see it."

Goldy answered, "She is in a corner of the dining room. She bited and swallowed a young follower who him angered Ugly Red-Eyes."

Harry quietly shut the door. Then he looked at the nearby wizards, witch and house-elves and said, "If Voldemort's snake is not in the room with him, this makes our job much easier. In fact—"

Harry looked at Hermione and Remus. "Hermione, bring me a pillow from a different bedroom—hopefully a pillow that isn't in use."

Hermione's eyebrows shot up. She whispered, "A pillow?"

Harry nodded. "Remus, go with her, in case she needs to steal the pillow out from under someone's head. Stun Narcissa or Draco, but kill anyone else." Harry pretended not to notice the looks of shock on the three other human faces; the house-elves smiled cruelly. Harry then said to Remus and Hermione, "However you get the pillow, do it silently."

Hermione and Remus disappeared through a bedroom door. Not quite a minute later, they returned. Hermione was holding a pillow with one hand, and putting her wand in a pocket with her other hand. Hermione's eyes were wide with shock.

Remus murmured, "Hermione, when we get back, you'll need to clear your wand." Wide- eyed Hermione nodded.

Harry took the pillow from Hermione. He did not draw his own wand, but quietly ordered the others, "Wands out."

Then Harry whispered to the others, "Sirius and Hermione, with me. Once we get inside the room, Remus, Goldy and Hunky, your job is to kill anyone who tries to come through the door."

This time, the looks that Harry got back were surprise, not shock. Sirius, Remus and Hermione all nodded.

Harry opened the gold door again. Voldemort still was snoring. "Let's go," Harry said. He opened the door wider.

****

When everyone was inside, Harry quietly shut the door. Harry whispered to Sirius, "Any warning magic, defensive magic or attack magic inside the room?"

"None."

"Showtime," Harry whispered to the others.

Harry grabbed an end of the stolen pillow with each hand. As quietly as Harry could walk, he moved to stand by the head of the bed.

When Harry moved next, it was with catch-the-Snitch swiftness. Harry made sure that the centre of the stolen pillow covered Voldemort's mouth, nostrils and eyes, then Harry pressed

down with his hands and arms. Harry leant forward so that the force of more weight pushed the stolen pillow down harder.

Harry wandlessly cast "§Go down§" on the stolen pillow. Harry's intent was that an invisible hydraulic press was, slowly but irresistibly, forcing the pillow down to the floor. In response, the head of the bed creaked from the extra downwards force.

Harry felt a moment's surge of Voldemort's opposing magic, trying to force the stolen pillow upwards, but this did not work.

Part of the reason Voldemort's push-upwards magic did not work was because Harry had been expecting this, and magically shoved the stolen pillow down all the harder.

But the main reason that Voldemort did not stop Harry from suffocating him with the pillow was because—

"Diffindo," Hermione incanted. "Lancia! Lancia!" Sirius said.

—whilst the Dark Lord was distracted and blinded by the stolen pillow that was pressed down on his face, Sirius magically shot him twice in the heart with Piercing Hexes, whilst Hermione beheaded him.

Black smoke poured out from the "bullet holes" and from the severed neck. The smoke rose up and formed a face with red eyes, which glared at Harry.

"Harry Pot—"

Harry's wand now was pointed at Wraithmort. Harry hissed, with an imperious expression on his own face: "§Begone from this house and this land. I, Lord Malfoy, command it.§"

Wraithmort screamed in impotent anger, then flew up through the ceiling and disappeared. "§Pillow normal§," Harry said, to stop the magical hydraulic-press effect.

Harry looked about.

Both pillows' pillowcases were splattered with blood, and wet blood was making the sheets red-shiny underneath Voldemort's chest and under his severed neck. Harry could not see Voldemort's expression in death, because the stolen pillow still covered his face, though now Harry no longer was touching the stolen pillow.

The Malfoy house-elves were wearing expressions of savage glee. Hermione looked like she was trying not to be sick. Sirius looked gobsmacked, perhaps thinking, Did I really help kill Voldemort?

Remus started chuckling. "Merlin, Harry. If someone had asked me to imagine the final battle between You-Know-Who and you, I'd imagine it taking place in the Ministry Atrium, or in the Hogwarts Great Hall. I'd imagine spells of every colour, and incantations in every

language. Everyone nearby—Death Eaters, Aurors, Order of the Phoenix members, the Minister for Magic, Hogwarts professors and Hogwarts students, including Hermione—all would watch this epic battle in openmouthed, silent amazement. But Harry James Potter, what did you actually do, when you faced You Know Who for the last time? You smothered him with a pillow. What a letdown."

Harry replied, "I didn't do even that much. Tommy didn't die of suffocation."

Nonchalantly, Harry pulled a tiny black-plastic bag from his pocket and (wandlessly and wordlessly) enlarged it. Harry hit Riddle's severed head with a Stasis Charm, put the severed head inside the black-plastic bag, drew the drawstrings tight and tied the drawstrings together, shrank the black-plastic bag (and the head inside the bag) down to tiny size, and put the shrunken bag back in his pocket.

Meanwhile, Harry was saying to Remus, "I merely blinded Tommy, and gave him a distraction he couldn't ignore. It was Hermione and Sirius who actually killed him."

Hermione said, "I don't want to spoil the party, but the goblins think Voldemort made other horcruxes. He can come back from the dead."

Harry shrugged. "But the goblins are hunting those other horcruxes. And Wraithmort can't return to solid form without the help of his Death Eaters. Speaking of whom, it's time to work tonight's black op, Part Two."

Harry said to Sirius, Remus, and Hermione, "Everyone grab onto Goldy or Hunky. House- elves, take us to Malfoy Manor's top floor, please."

Pop. Pop.

****

Harry had told the others, including Hermione, that in the Malfoy Manor dungeons was a torture victim, a Muggle teenage girl. What Harry did not tell anyone was the shocking news that Goldy had told him: that Lucius Malfoy had tracked down this particular girl for his tortures because she was Hermione's cousin.

Now Harry and the other Gryffindors stood in a green-and-silver-painted corridor, on the fourth floor of Malfoy Manor. Harry ordered Goldy, "Go to the prisoner Muggle girl, Narcissa, and Draco, put them in stasis, and elf-pop them outside into the back garden. Tell the third house-elf...?"

"Raspy," Goldy prompted.

"—tell Raspy to get out of the house, and Hunky, once you leave the house, you also stay out of the manor house. Goldy, you come back to here just long enough to tell me that my orders all have been obeyed, then you leave the manor house too."

Pop-pop. Goldy and Hunky vanished. Less than ten seconds later, Goldy appeared with a

pop, alone. "Muggle girl, Lady Narcy, and Brat Draco are stasissed and are outside back.

Hunky and Raspy are outside. I go now." Pop.

Harry cast the Tempus Charm. The time was 3:28 a.m. Malfoy Manor was quiet.

Harry drew his wand, and pointed it at the ceiling. "Lord Malfoy commands that Malfoy Manor be sealed. Nobody inside can leave by any physical means—windows are unbreakable, walls are indestructible, and exterior doors are indestructible and cannot be unlocked. Nobody inside can leave by magical means—travel by Floo, by Portkey and by Apparation is denied. For the next hour, the Malfoy wards are deadly to everyone outside the grounds who tries to enter the house or grounds to rescue anyone inside the house. So mote it be."

The other three did not react, but Harry felt the magic of Malfoy Manor change.

Sirius's smile was cruel. "The only people in here now, besides us, are the Death Eaters, whose favourite trick is to seal people in so they're helpless to escape, then kill them."

Hermione said, "To seal Muggles and Muggle-borns in, so they're helpless to escape."

Harry said, "It's not enough for the Death Eaters to kill their victims by fire, which I'm told is the most painful way to die. Nooo. First, they make their victims feel the fear and despair that comes from knowing they will certainly die, they will die soon, and their deaths will be agonising. So why give these Death Eaters quick, easy deaths with the AK?"

Sirius tried for a joke: "You don't want to burn down Malfoy Manor? This is the second corridor we've been in, and they've both been painted Slytherin colours."

Hermione said, "Harry, we're procrastinating. I don't want to do this, but let's get it done."

Harry Parseltongue-transfigured the clothing of himself and the other three to be almost like an orange Hazardous Materials suit, with a wide, clear-plastic visor in front, and three hours' worth of oxygen strapped to each person's back. The palm of each glove was made of thirty layers of acromantula silk, which together was impermeable to nonmagical gasses but permeable to magic.

Now Harry, Hermione, Sirius and Remus each were holding their wand in a glove-covered hand.

Harry said, "You lot, if you see Voldemort's snake, don't be a hero. Get behind me. I'm magically stronger than all of you, and none of you can talk to snakes. Sirius, do you hear me? Don't act stupid."

Hermione agreed quickly. Remus agreed with the order more slowly. Sirius grumbled before he finally agreed.

Harry pointed his wand at the ceiling again: "I, Lord Malfoy, command it: Every interior door in Malfoy Manor be unlocked, and open twenty degrees. So mote it be."

The sound of forty doors unlocking and opening, throughout the manor house, easily could be heard in the quiet. Still, the sound was not loud, and Harry hoped that none of the sleeping

Death Eaters awakened from the sound.

On the other hand, a minute from now, it would not matter whether any Death Eaters had been awakened by the sound or not.

Harry's voice was slightly distorted by the HazMat suit he was wearing. "Okay, who wants to go first?"

Hermione said, "Gryffindors charge ahead." Then she pointed her wand straight ahead and incanted, "Transfigure oxygen gas to chlorine gas."

The clear air in front of Hermione's wand turned lime green; then the lime-green gas dropped to the floor and rushed away. Where the lime-green gas found an open door, the gas rushed in that door. Continually the air in front of Hermione's wand turned lime-green, sank to the floor, and rushed away along the floor.

Sirius spoke second (with words he was speaking phonetically; he had no idea what he was saying): "Transfigure oxygen gas to chlorine gas."

Again a continuous process happened: lime-green gas formed in front of Sirius's wand, fell to the floor, then rushed away, along the floor of the corridor.

Remus spoke third, and he had not needed coaching: "Transfigure oxygen gas to chlorine gas."

Harry spoke last, in Parseltongue: "§Transfigure oxygen gas to chlorine gas§."

Within seconds, lime-green gas was rushing away from the foursome, in a rushing torrent of lime-green air, along the forest-green-carpeted floor of the corridor. Then, once the lime- green tint had reached the far ends of the corridor, the lime-green tint began flowing down the stairs, like a waterfall.

A wizard opened one of the fourth-floor bedroom doors and ran out into the corridor. His expression, when he saw the four Gryffindors in orange HazMat suits, was one of surprise. Even as the Death Eater faced the foursome and he raised his wand, he was coughing nonstop. Harry hit the wizard with a wandless, wordless Tripping Hex—which put the bloke flat on his back, on the corridor carpet. In ordinary circumstances, this would be only an annoyance for this Death Eater.

The concentration of chlorine gas was strongest, close to the floor. The knocked-down wizard did not fire any attack spells, and soon quit coughing.

By then the screaming and (other) coughing had started— Screams of other wizards dying (on the fourth floor).

Screams of confused wizards—the gas had a strange colour and odour, it hugged the floor and flowed down stairs, and it was deadly, so why did Finite Incantatem not get rid of it?

"THE AIR IS FRESHEST ON THE GROUND FLOOR!" a relieved male voice yelled. These words were followed by the sound of many feet running down stairs.

The foursome heard loud debates whether the Dark Lord should be awakened to help battle the killer gas—with every Death Eater understanding that the Dark Lord would likely AK the person to awaken him, then Crucio everyone he saw till he had drunk his morning tea.

After ten minutes of this "debate"—accompanied by more and more coughs and death- screams—a voice yelled in panic, "THE DARK LORD IS DEAD! HE'S BEEN MURDERED!"

This started the Bombarda explosions, as Death Eaters tried to make a way out of the house, when the manor house would not give them a way out. But previous Lords Malfoy had ensured that prisoners in the dungeon could not escape the manor house, so Death Eaters in 1995 were just as stymied.

Meanwhile, in only a few minutes, the fourth floor had a lime-green tint from floor to ceiling

—and coughing and screaming on the fourth floor had stopped.

Now the four Gryffindors, with Harry in the lead, stepped round the dead Death Eater who was lying on the corridor carpet, walked to stairs at the end of the corridor, then walked down the stairs to the third floor.

There on the third flour, the foursome began the chlorine-ising of the third floor.

Tom Riddle had used a pool of Purebloods to carry out his murderous wishes. Now Harry and his team continued to chlorinate the pool.

****

By the time the four Gryffindors had reached the ground floor of Malfoy Manor, the place was as quiet as—well, a tomb. The foursome had been prepared for a pitched magical battle, from the moment they had entered Malfoy Manor, but no such battle had happened. When the foursome still had been on the fourth floor, all the Death Eaters on the fourth floor had suffocated; whilst the Death Eaters on lower floors had run down to the ground floor to escape the deadly lime-green gas—not knowing that chlorine gas, like shit, rolls downhill.

By the time the foursome in their HazMat suits reached the ground floor, every cubic inch of every room on the ground floor was filled with chlorine gas. Harry saw a lime-green tint everywhere he looked; nothing he looked at, did he see in its correct colour.

The foursome found thirty or so black-robed corpses on the ground floor. Each Death Eater had died with an agonised expression on his face.

One of the dead Death Eaters was Peter Pettigrew. Hermione said to Sirius, "If these HazMat suits weren't in the way, I'd hug you right now."

Remus said, "And I'd be patting you on the back, Padfoot."

Looking away from the dead Death Eaters, the foursome saw scorch-marks everywhere on the manor house's ground floor. Every piece of furniture on the ground floor now was nothing but broken wooden pieces, under the uncracked, unbroken windows.

The foursome found Voldemort's giant snake in the dining room. About a foot behind the snake's mouth began a disturbing six-feet-long, man-sized bulge in the snake's body.

Like the Death Eaters in the manor house, the snake had died from chlorine-gas poisoning. Sirius said that there was a residue of dark magic in the dead snake; and this residue had the same colour of aura as did the wraith of Voldemort that the foursome had seen an hour ago.

But not everyone in Malfoy Manor was dead. When the foursome was in the dining room, they heard an explosion in the kitchen, followed by a man's voice yelling, "OPEN, GODDAMN YOU!"

To Harry, that voice sounded quite familiar. Behind Harry, Remus growled.

****

In Malfoy Manor's kitchen

A tall, thin, black-robed man was shooting destructive Bombarda spells at the back door—all of which hit a forest-green shield that came out of nowhere, an inch in front of the back door. The green shield was present just long enough to absorb the effects of the spell that had been cast at the door, then the green shield disappeared again.

Harry could not see the wizard's face, because his back was to the foursome, but through the man's Bubble-Head Charm, Harry saw that the man had long, black, greasy hair.

"Accio Snape's wand," Harry called out. When the wand flew round Snape and towards Harry, Harry caught it easily. Since Harry's orange HazMat suit did not have pockets, Harry settled for holding Snape's wand loosely in his left hand.

By now, Snape had spun round and was facing the foursome. For the first time since Harry had known the man, Snape's face was not wearing a sneer. Bubble-Head-Charmed Snape looked at the four Gryffindors in orange HazMat suits, and knew that his hour had come.

Snape said, "Black. Lupin. Potter. Granger. Which one of you killed the Dark Lord?" But oddly, Snape was staring at Harry when he asked the question.

Harry replied, "I distracted Tommy, Sirius shot him and Hermione beheaded him." "And the chlorine gas, whose idea was that?"

"Hermione's," Harry answered. "Remus and I were trying to figure out where we could find a poison-gas weapon and how we could steal it, when Hermione said, 'Actually, I see an easier way.' "

Hermione muttered, "That's one 'Hermione the genius' credit I could live without."

Harry looked at Snape and said, "Any final words?"

Snape straightened his shoulders. "I regret calling your mother that word. Ask those two what happened; they were there. I unwittingly caused the death of your mother, which grievously saddens me, even now."

"You regret Lily Potter's death, but not your cruelty to me, Lily's son?"

The sneer was back. "You are also James Potter's son. You show his face and you bear his name. Second only to my father, James Potter made my life a misery. I don't regret how I treated James Potter's son."

"And yet, in his will, my father specified you to be one of my guardians. Not Dumbledore— Dad named you. My father outgrew acting like a git." Harry lifted his left arm, pointed Snape's own wand at Snape, and incanted, "Diffindo."

Snape's headless body fell to the left, spurting blood. Snape's head rolled on the floor towards the foursome. Snape's face, when his head stopped rolling, looked surprised.

Harry tossed Snape's wand to land near the beheaded body. "Let's go," Harry said to the others.

****

It took an hour to transfigure the chlorine gas back into oxygen gas. There were many little pockets of chlorine gas in the manor house that the foursome had to hunt for and transfigure. Hermione realised that the corpses would have chlorine gas in their lungs, and realised that the chlorine gas in their lungs had to be transfigured as well, before the corpses could safely be transported.

At 5:26 a.m, Harry, Hermione and Remus finally agreed that Malfoy Manor no longer would be dangerous for Narcissa and Draco when they reentered.

Harry murmured, "Gryffindors charge ahead," then wandlessly Parseltongue-transfigured the HazMat suits back into the foursome's previous clothing.

Hermione was the first to take a deep breath with unprotected lungs. "Ugh. It smells like a sewage-treatment plant in here."

Harry drew his wand and pointed it at the ceiling. "I speak now as Lord Malfoy. All open interior doors will shut but not lock now, but a room's occupant may lock the door later. I unseal Malfoy Manor—walls, windows and exterior doors no longer are indestructible; the exterior doors may be unlocked; and flooing, Apparation and Portkeys work like they did at midnight. The external wards are no more deadly than they were at midnight. So mote it be."

****

The foursome walked back into the kitchen. Harry looked down at Snape's two-part corpse, but said nothing. Instead, Harry said, "One of you, please see if you can open the back door."

What Snape had not been able to achieve, even with repeated Bombardas, Remus now achieved easily, with Alohomora.

Harry opened the back door and called out, "Malfoy elves, please come here."

P-p-pop. Goldy, Hunky and Raspy stood in front of Harry.

Harry said, "House-elves, inside the house, you will find the Dark Lord Voldemort, dead and headless, and thirty-two dead Death Eaters."

The three sweet and docile Malfoy house-elves now were grinning like the most murderous of goblins.

Harry continued, "Take the Death Eaters and their wands to the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic; if you have to do the work in shifts, put the corpses under a Notice-Me-Not Charm till all thirty-two are there in the Atrium. Peter Pettigrew—the one with the silver hand—bring him last, and put him on top of the pile. As for Voldemort's corpse, vanish it completely; I don't want it to be that even a finger can be buried someday. Likewise, vanish the pillowcases, the sheets, and possibly the pillows, mattress and coverlet—anything and everything that has the Dark Lord's blood on it."

Pop. Pop. Pop. Snape's body, head and wand all disappeared immediately.

Harry looked at the others. "Remus, you part is done. You can leave now if you want. Thank you for your help. Sirius, I'd like you to be there when I talk to Narcissa and Draco. Knowing Draco like I do, Sirius, please have your wand in your hand. Hermione, I'll need you with me when I talk to Lucius's prisoner. After all, the girl is your cousin or something like that."

Hermione said, "WHAT?"

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