Chapter 85 Duel Redux

Voldemort conjured a barrier of steel and stone and summoned the closest Death Eater to him, effectively blocking both curses before retaliating in kind with a forceful flick of his wand. Harry stood his ground, as a charge of black built on his right-hand wand before he swished it harshly towards Voldemort. The black bolt separated into four separate spheres of dark magic that fanned out and encircled to strike from four separate directions at once. Voldemort took a step back, muttering under his breath as he tapped himself with his wand.

Both attacks struck their respective targets with near simultaneity, the Dark Lord disappear beneath four separate infernos of ebony and purple flames, as Harry's left-hand wand summoned the ruins of an animated statue. The metal warped, twisted, and then deformed completely and fell to the ground a smoking lump of metal as Voldemort stepped from the inferno, surrounded by a pale sapphire blue shield.

They jabbed their wands at each other as white and blue lightning erupted from both wand tips, streaking towards each other with a brilliant flash of light. The streams met in mid-air and exploded with a blinding flash and thunderclap that rocked back both combatants. The magically charged air crackled around them both as a flicker of surprise washed over Harry's face. Voldemort's smile was more of a cruel leer, "Did you think that I would allow you to use Prior Incantatem against me again Potter?" Another jab and another bolt of red-streaked lightning flashed towards Harry who neatly sidestepped.

The bolt cut through one of the ancient stone pillars, groaning but otherwise remaining upright as harry brandished both wands, sending long tendrils of flame whipping outwards towards Voldemort, who twisted his wand and held it up to meet the strike. Deflected by telekinetic force of untold power, Harry lashed out again, slashing the stone ground around the Dark Lord until there was only molten rock at the Dark Lord's feet.

Harry spun the whips outwards yet again but Voldemort countered with an oily black coil of magic that ensnared the whips and snaked back towards Harry. Breaking off the spell before the energy could reach his wand tips. Yanking back hard to pull the black coil towards him, Harry unleashed a jet of magic that vaporized the very air as it passed through with a shriek as the sound barrier was horribly violated. The Dark Lord intercepted with his own black coil. The ensuing explosion was a violet ball with green and yellow sparks that marred the walls and floor as the Great Hall trembled beneath the assault.

Levitating stone shards with one hand, he transfigured with the other, easily side stepping and then leaping over two bolts of green death. A volley of simple, but crude stone daggers was banished with incredible force. A powerful gust of wind robbed them of momentum as Voldemort literally caught them in mid-flight and banished them back towards Harry.

Harry took a step back and in the blink of an eye, slammed both wands down into the ground, raising a wall of earth and stone. The daggers penetrated his defense and he dodged them by only the narrowest of margins, feeling the stone break against his armor, as several sliced through his cloak on the turn as he regained his feet,

"Dumbledore can see Potter," hissed Voldemort, "Just how far you have fallen. Using not just dark magic, but those fuelled by hate and anger such as the Void Shadow. How far you have fallen, savior of the light?"

"I have looked into the abyss," replied Harry coolly, "It has looked into me." His own dark smile washed over his face, "Dumbledore would be disappointed. He would believe there is some way to save you, to give you a second chance, and to repent for all you have done."

"He was a fool," replied Voldemort as he sent a series of minor, nuisance hexes, and curses towards Harry who batted them aside with equal ease.

"He was," agreed Harry. Voldemort blinked in surprise at the unexpected agreement, "Dumbledore believed that scum like Snape, filth like Draco, and even gue-la animals like Bellatrix deserved a second chance, to repent." He met the eyes of his opponent for the first time, "He was a well-intentioned if blinkered, and manipulative fool. He was still human at least. I'm not sure what you are." He raised both wands, a ten and three quarter inch vinewood with dragon heartstring core wand in one hand, and Dumbledores' own elder wood with thestral hair core wand in the other. "If it's all the same to you, Tom, the warm-up is done with. Let's get on with this."

"Indeed," sneered Voldemort with a bow. Harry merely inclined his head in the direction of his foe. A look of focused concentration overcame both their faces as they mirrored each other in different dueling stances. Combatants on both sides felt waves of pure power emanating from both wizards and everyone knew that this was the proverbial "it" moment.

Voldemort unleashed a spray of killing curses. With no way to sidestep the spellfire, he ran towards them and jumped, his body spun horizontally as carved through the air. A bar of magic slid from the tip of his wand and he slashed towards Voldemort with the pure magical blade. The latter dodged and lashed out with a powerful stinging hex that knocked the wand skyward. Harry took the blow in stride and spun as his offhand came round with another blade of deep sapphire blue with streaks of emerald green crackling along its length. Voldemort merely ducked, feeling the heat of blade against his skin before gliding back some fifteen feet.

"I thought we were skipping the warm-up." Harry dropped into a low sideways crouch, weight evenly spread as one wand was raised overhead, the other held low to guard his sides. Voldermort replied with a shockwave of power that rippled towards Harry. He shielded from it and sidestepped a killing curse before returning one in kind. Voldemort dodged, only to have the ground explode beneath him, and catapult him some twenty feet into the air. Harry moved to capitalize but was knocked back by a gust of wind that blew him off his feet. He spun and lightly landed on his feet.

Seconds before he would have hit the ground, a blue glow enveloped the Dark Lord's form, and a small crater formed beneath his. Voldemort still stood but was breathing heavily. "Impressive Harry. Together we would have ruled not just Britain but also the World in due time." The Dark Lord took a moment to sneer at Harry who merely smiled back.

A wave of stone and earth launched itself towards Harry, who retaliated with Goblin magic, sending bolts of flame and ice towards Voldemort. The former shielded the onslaught as the latter leaped over it, only to get caught with a binding hex in the legs. Slamming to the ruined ground, Harry rolled to avoid a trio of piercing hexes that gouged long furrows into the ground. A wave of his offhand ended the hex as a banishing hex from his main hand struck Voldermort in the chest.

Flying back, the Dark Lord twisted aside to avoid a killing curse and retaliated with a wash of Fiendfyre. Taking the shape of a giant serpent it slithered towards Harry who retreated, waving his wands in an intricate pattern. The Serpent paused and then recoiled before breaking into a half dozen wolves that turned and charged towards Voldemort. Voldemort scowled as unleashed a wave of freezing energy that froze the flames, leaving frozen statues in their wake.

Unleashing a quick six piercing charms, the statues shattered and a kinetic spell caught the still falling ice and banished a half-ton of ice. With deft flicks of his wand, Voldemort dealt with the incoming barrage, deflecting some and melting others, but one cluster of smaller, fist-sized projectiles made it past his defense and despite his effort to dodge, smashed into the side of his face and neck. Voldemort let loose a hiss of angry pain as brackish blood gouted from a wound that ran down the left side of his forehead, down and across the bridge of his nose to end beneath his right eye. The wound would have incapacitated a few but would have killed most. But the pale bone-white flesh rippled and grew back together, leaving a vivid red, ugly scar across his face.

"First blood to me, Tom," said Harry with a cold and vicious smile.

Voldemort's eyes narrowed as he flicked the blood from his hand. Harry smirked. His eyes flared in hatred and rage as a bestial snarl escaped him. Waves of shadowy grey and black magic flickered around him as he raised his wand. Chaotic energy blasted across the gap between the combatants, obliterating a large stone pillar that Harry had prudently taken cover behind. With that, the duel recommenced.

Bolts of green death snapped back and forth between the pair as they snap-apparated, teleported around each other in between conjuring and summoning barriers of stone or metal to deflect the curses the other had cast. Where Voldemort relied on brute power, Harry had been busy and put his stratagem into effect. He rolled in to cover, sweeping both wands to the ground and then up, pointing them towards Voldemort. Every scrap of stone and chunk of metal smaller was swept off the floor towards the Dark Lord.

Casting a shield, the Dark Lord maneuvered it to intercept the first storm. But as the projectiles intensified and began to pummel him like typhoon rains for several directions at once, he was forced to take cover within the powerful dome shield. He had been outmaneuvered he realized, as a single grey bolt of magic struck his shield. It expanded outwards, wrapping around the front lower portion of his shield. Both hands upon his wand, the Dark Lord canceled his shield, but only after the feedback loop of the Goblin Shieldbreaker had shattered the shield, and sent blue and white lightning coursing up into the arms of the Dark Lord. As his desperate effort to contain the feedback loop failed, he thrust his left arm out towards Harry.

Explosive blue and white lightning leaped towards Harry. Caught off guard, the blast caught Harry full-on and blasted him back ten feet, and sent him skidding along the broken floor, tearing a bloody path of his own through the wreckage of the Great Hall of Hogwarts castle. It was not without its price however as the offending limb followed moments later by everything below the elbow vaporizing to throw him nearly the length of the Great Hall.

Between the two battered combatants, Harry was the first back to his feet, a quick series of numbing and healing charms mending his shattered ribs. It still hurt to breathe but giving Voldemort any time was not a good idea, "You're looking a little tired," Harry mocked loud and clear, biting down on his lip to prevent any sound of pain from escaping him, "Would you like to take a five-minute break, Tom?"

Voldermort stared at the stump of his left arm for a long moment. A wave of his wand coiled a metal band of brass from a ruined statue tight. A moment later and the Dark Lord gave a high-pitched hiss of pain as flames cauterized the stump. Levering himself back to his feet, he stared across the ruins of the Great Hall, and felt a moment of gratification at the bedraggled state of his arch-nemesis, " I presume this is where we begin hurling insults at one another like petulant school children upon the shores of the Black Lake?"

"Whatever suits you best, oh high and mighty supposed Dark Lord of Britain," replied Harry as he subvocalized his next series of curses and hexes in preparation.

"These pathetic stalling attempts do little but demean and degrade us both!" hissed Voldemort menacingly as he sent another sickly-green bolt towards Harry, who sidestepped with ease.

"Perhaps," conceded Harry, "But then again Tom, let's not pretend that you don't know how this ends: With your death. There is a prophecy that says so after all."

Voldemort stood still for a long moment. Silence descended before Voldemort laughed, a high-pitched, hissing cackle, "No. Potter, I have heard the prophecy in full. I know how it will end. "Either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives." Today, I will end your life Potter! And I will live forever!"

Harry blinked in surprise, "What the hell do you mean? Live forever?" Now, was the moment, "Horcruxes will not let you live forever."

"Horcru…." Voldemort felt silent and studied Harry for another moment, "What could you possibly know of Horcruxes?"

"A diary, from your days in Hogwarts," replied Harry evenly, as both wands rose and he began to cast simultaneous yet different spell chains. He had practiced this extensively with the wands of his closest friends, but never had the second wand - the borrowed wand served him so well. "The Cup of Hufflepuff." Bolts of flame and ice flew from his wands in an alternating pattern towards his foe.

"The Locket of Slytherin." He continued the list as he banished stone with one wand while volley firing piercing, banishing, and blasting hexes with the other.

Voldemort held his ground deflecting and shielding with ease, "The Diadem of Ravenclaw in the Room of Requirement." A firehose charm blanketed the floor in water as Harry stepped onto a chunk of stone that rose up from amongst the wreckage like a clawing hand. A bolt of elemental lightning electrified the floor beneath them both.

Voldemort responded by taking to the air above the crackling floor. Harry retaliated with a barrage of fireworks before waves of piercing and cutting curses carved up the air. Two slipped past the defenses of the Dark Lord, slashing into his left thigh and calf. "Marvolo Gaunt's ring –Dumbledore destroyed that incidentally."

Voldemort swooped in low, magic blazing from the tip of his wand. Harry abandoned his own spell casting, conjuring the magical blades once again. In the face of Dark Lord's aircraft-like attack run, Harry stood his ground, using his blades to block and deflect the incoming curses, shielding the few he could not deflect, and sidestepping the occasional unforgivable that he could not conjure or summon a barrier to deflect. "I figured I would kill you, and then kill your damn pet snake." concluded Harry evenly as he leveled both wand tips at Voldemort, launching both blades like rockets before diving forward and out of the way, "But the Legion saved me the trouble!"

Voldemort executed a mid-air turn and sprayed a bedazzling array of hexes and curses as Harry dodged, rolled, and sidestepped around the hovering Dark Lord who cackled with near-insane glee. "My Horcruxes are irrelevant Potter!" spat Voldemort, "Hold still and I shall end this duel and let you live only long enough to bear witness to the commencement of my ascension."

"Ascension to what?" retorted Harry as he brought his wands up in an "X" in front of him before slashing down. Twin cutting curses lanced outwards, seemingly defying the laws of physics as they curved around to strike from two different directions.

The Dark Lord dropped to ground level, and gave Harry a stare that bordered on the incredulous, "You don't know?" He laughed, "The great Harry Potter does not know the meaning of the very prophecy that has ensorcelled his life!" Two bludgeoning hexes followed by an entrails' expelling curse, were the lead-in and quickly followed by the malicious cutting charms of Severus Snape.

Harry dodged the first three courses and deflected both Sectumsempra curses out the glasses windows of the Great Hall. "Know what?" spat Harry, "The Prophecy was fulfilled in 1981! I vanquished you as an infant using the power he knows not! I could not have known of my magical powers as an infant!" Harry snap cast a trio of nuisance, schoolyard hexes back to keep Voldemort occupied as he struggled to come up with a strategy that did not play to the magical strengths of the Dark Lord which at this point seemed to be the Dark Arts and Charms meaning that it was time to "pull a McGonagall."

He rolled in to cover and focused his magic. Transfiguration was all about intent and willpower than power. He was not looking for perfection in appearance, but perfect function in this case. With a flourish of his wand, Harry's new army began to take shape and within moments, he sent his transfigured stone minions into battle.

The move seemed to surprise Voldemort who allowed the transfigured mix of eagles, wolves, and bears to cross half the distance that separated the two before countering with a transfigured army of his own, using man-sized serpents against the magical menagerie sent against him.

Both wizards were in the open, as their minions battled for supremacy, alternating between tearing, gouging, and clawing at each other. "Potter, Potter, Potter," Voldemort's tone was one of supreme mockery, "How can you not understand? Let me illuminate you to the truth of the prophecy: "Either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives." It means that the one who kills the other will sacrifice their own Death!" Harry faltered for a moment, stunned by the darkness of Voldemort's revelation, of what it meant for him, for his entire life. "Do you understand Potter?! It means that your death is the price for my immortality!"

The last word was punctuated by a quartet of killing curses launched in a spectacular arc. Still stunned, Harry very nearly failed to defend himself. Only the scream of Fleur, watching the duel from the top of the grand staircase snapped him back into motion. The forward handspring turned into a somersault towards his still airborne enemy, going above the deadly spread of death-filled magic. He crashed into the airborne Voldemort and the force of the collision drove both of them to the ground where Harry grabbed twin handfuls of Voldemort's black robes. "You! Lie!" he screamed, driving his fist into the face of the Dark Lord, "Death! Is! Death!" Each word was punctuated by a hammer blow of a fist driven into the face and chest of Voldemort, "Death does not grant life! That is not the way! It does not grant life! Death closes the circle!"

A blast of magic blew him backward, sending him skidding across the ruins of the Great Hall. He dug in his heels, arresting his backward slide as he dropped to the ground like a sprinter at the starting block. They locked eyes across the expanse and with a sudden ferocity the mind war began.

Harry's body was tired, his mind ached but his anger fuelled him, his desperation at wanting Voldemort's words to be lies empowered his Legilimency as he struck with multiple, varied probes, all of them seeking only the answer to one question: Was it possible that what the Dark Lord spoke was true. Voldemort laughed aloud, cruel sound and simply let Harry have the answer he sought: Yes. The Dark Lord Voldemort believed that Harry's death would grant him immortality, making the Horcruxes nothing more than useless relics once he wins. "You see Harry? There are things worse than death. Especially for you! Death is the only way you can ever see your family! See your parents! Your Mother! Your Father! Your mangy God Father! See your mudblood again!"

With a roar of anguish, Harry pulled back, severing the connection between their minds as the Dark Lord stood and laughed in his face, "My servants will merely resurrect me! So kill me! If you can!"

The two had dueled and fought their way back and forth across the Great Hall of Hogwarts for what felt like hours. But in reality, it had only been a number of minutes. But those were minutes within which the entire scope and shape of the war shifted as a Fire Sprite appeared in a blazing ball of reddish-gold flame, that had crackles of white lightning running across its service. The Fire Sprites, "minor demons" if such a thing existed, long servants of the Goblin Nation, delivered a simple message to Harry. It was a collection of freshly severed heads, taken from the Ministry of Magic in London. Specifically: the Heads of the department of Voldemort's "government."

The demon vanished as quickly as it appeared most likely sensing through its demonic powers that the ruined Great Hall of Hogwarts was not going to be a good place to be in a few short moments. There were long moments of heavy, pregnant silence before Harry dived for cover as Voldemort erupted in a smoking rage, hurling the Killing curse in rapid succession across the Hall in Harry's direction. "What?" Harry chuckled from relative safety, "Did you think the Clans of the Goblin Nation would abandon The Legion?"

The moment Voldemort had marched his forces against Hogwarts, The Goblins had watched and waited, spending ceaseless hours scouting, searching, and trailing the Death Eaters. The Goblins had learned the routes taken by the servants of Darkness to and from their supply caches. Learned and studied the construction of their armories and production centers. They had pinpointed the exact location of every Death Eater infirmary, potion brewery, and apothecary. The Goblins had spent the duration of the Hogwarts Siege planning their own counter strike. And they had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

The Goblins had marched to war in a fashion not seen since the Middle Ages and had unleashed centuries of pent of rage and bloodlust in a twelve-hour orgy of wanton debauchery, that left nothing but the last of the hardcore Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort himself in the grounds of Hogwarts and the Great Hall. Indeed, the Sword Wind Blades had led the lightning assaults that had spilled out of Legion safe houses the length and breadth of Britain to strike down the Death Eaters. The Axe Masters, led by Griphook had begun their own assault, first by coming out of the Forbidden Forest to encircle, and then break the Siege of Hogwarts.

The Goblin's had been kind enough to leave just enough Death Eaters alive to testify that they had been destroyed before adding them to the steadily growing piles of corpses. As the dozens of Patronus messengers began to descend into the Great Hall to deliver the devastating news of total defeat to the Dark Lord. Harry cracked a smile as the screaming and cries of denial echoed towards him. Harry started to laugh, almost silently to himself as he heard the message, recorded weeks ago was broadcast throughout the Castle.

The message itself was short and brief. It simply stated that the Death Eaters had been destroyed. Every bearer of the Dark Mark eradicated. Every building and home that bore their taint turned to rubble and cleansed with fire. It stated that the final battle was to be fought at Hogwarts itself, and called upon the wizarding population of Britain to rise up against their oppressors and take back their nation, "Courage! Duty! Honor!" Harry's voice was carried from one end of the country to the other, "The Legion has bled and many have died for this nation! Citizens of Magical Britain: Rise and reclaim your homeland! Rise and reclaim your birthright! The Legion stands! Now is the time! Stand with us! Earn your place! And stand forever against the Darkness!"

The Legion gathered on the overhead balconies, many of them with wands raised and aimed as they gathered their full strength. Hundreds of wands were aimed at the gathered Death Eaters below who numbered only a paltry hundred. They had all heard, they all knew that there would be no prisoners taken, no mercy granted, and no quarter given. To their rear, the Goblins had arrived, marching in heavy lockstep, shields glowing with magic energy, and a forest of spears and blades poised to cut off their retreat.

Harry stepped out from behind cover, "Those that surrender will find death quick and painless. Those that resist," Harry's cold sneering smile would have made Snape proud, "will find death violent, bloody, and painful in the extreme."

"Hades takes your soul Potter!" snarled one of the Death Eaters, "Avada Kedevra!"

Harry ducked and retaliated with twin whips of flame that neatly severed the offenders' wand hand at the wrist. Moments later, the second whip coiled itself around its neck and the head of the offending Death Eater bounced once before rolling across the floor.

The remaining Death Eaters formed a series of rings around their master, overlapping shields and barriers as curses and hexes rained down upon them from every direction imaginable. Harry merely stood back and let the massed spell fire cut down the Death Eaters until only a handful remained.

Harry held up a clenched fist and the hail of spells ceased almost immediately, leaving Voldemort standing with a half dozen badly wounded Death Eaters. "Voldemort, surrender or die," said Harry.

The silence stretched between both sides until the Dark Lord took a solitary step forward, "If I chose the latter, would you finish me yourself? Or have your lackeys end me? Harry Potter? Or would you face me to the death of one of us?"

Harry grinned, and cast a sonorous charm, "I call a blood feud to the death against the House of Riddle. I challenge the half-blood bastard Tom Marvolo Riddle as the last of his line to a duel to the Death. As the challenger: I enforce my right to choose the time and place: The Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! Now!"

Voldemort's smile was Cheshire cat-like, as he nodded, "I did not think that you would follow the old forms."

"I can respect a culture I was not brought up in, without trampling it," replied Harry coolly.

Voldemort raised his wand to his throat, "I Tom Marvolo Riddle, the challenged, answer the challenge laid down by Harry James Potter of the House of Potter: I accept. I enforce my right to choose the weapon: Wands."

Both leaders of their respective factions moved out into the open, eyes locked without blinking as they adopted their preferred dueling stances. Voldemort has his wand outstretched whereas Harry held his mismatched wands, low at his side and high overhead, as he spread his weight evenly and watched his opponent.

Both exploded into movement at the same moment, Voldemort unleashing a spray of deadly cutting, bone-crushing, entrails expelling, and skinning hexes. Harry raised both his wands into an "X" in front of him and charged forward, closing the gap, drawing upon every ounce of strength and magic at his disposal to power the shield in front of him as he closed the distance until less than ten feet separated them.

A momentary break in Voldemort's offensive casting was all Harry needed as he subvocalized the incantation and with a snarl of rage, drew back both wands as blades of pure magic extended outwards from the tips of both wands.

"Wands Voldemort?" snarled Harry, as he slashed horizontally from left to right with his right hand. The blade of magic smashed against a hasty shield, a nimbus of blue energy flaring outward with a loud gong-like sound.

Harry's left blade made an uppercut slash that also ricocheted off the shield as well. Undeterred Harry took to the air, executing a full circle clockwise spin, bringing both blades across in a powerful left to right horizontal slash, cracking the shield beneath the furious assault, "You should have said," his feet touched the floor for only a moment before he exploded forward to continue his assault.

He deflected a series of rapidly cast curses he could not identify, ducking below another killing curse before taking to the air with a magic assisted leap that brought him six feet into the air. He descended in another full circle spin, but counter-clockwise, his momentum causing a barrage of spells to miss wide as he slashed from right to left, this team breaking the shield, and removing the last barrier between Harry and Voldemort, "Wands only, no contact!"

A crescent spin and Harry brought both blades up and then in a vicious down and upward X-slash with both blades that slashed the robes of the Dark Lord, drawing blood as Voldemort sacrificed the rest of left arm to avoid certain death at the hands of the whirling, bladed juggernaut before him.

Harry was a blur of rage, anger, and adrenalin. From the moment he had raised both wands to form his shield, he had tapped into the same primal anger that he had only reached and found once before in desperation, when he had faced Voldemort two years ago, in Little Haggleton, in the graveyard… where his Hermione had died. He used it now, sending his blades in opposite-directional slashes, left blade going down and to the left as the right slashed up and right.

Voldemort blasted Harry back with a kinetic spell of some kind, buying himself several precious seconds. A volley of piercing hexes followed up and Harry deflected them with near ridiculous ease, except for the one that punched through the meat of his calf as the last grazed the flesh of his left arm. Voldemort smiled, as he broke Harry's momentum and raised his wand, "Avada Kedevra!"

Harry scissor-stepped, dropping low to the ground like a cat about to pounce as the curse sailed overhead. He reversed his grip on both blades before exploding off the rubble-strewn floor. The first blade missed as Voldemort leaned back, but off-balance, there was nothing the Dark Lord could do as the second stabbed through the meat of his thigh before it was torn clear in a gout of blood.

Voldemort snarled in pain as he stumbled and suddenly realized that he was wide open. At that moment, everyone who saw it would be hard-pressed to describe exactly what they saw as they saw a flurry of blows that included a "corkscrew" or "whirlwind" like attack followed by a downward double-bladed X-slash. An upward X-slash flowed into a leap and mid-air spin that terminated with a horizontal right to left slash. Not wasting the momentum, the right blade cut a downward vertical slash.

Voldemort screamed in agony as his already wounded remaining arm took debilitating injury as first the hand was cut off neatly at the wrist, moments before the arm was chopped off just below the elbow and then again at the shoulder. Blood sprayed for only a moment as the passage of the magic blade seared the wound shut.

The smell of burnt blood and crisped flesh filled the air as Harry pressed his brutal assault, executing a left uppercut slash in conjunction with a right downward vertical slash. One strike drew a shallow cut across the ribs of the Dark Lord who was clearly being cut to pieces. The follow-up attacks were driven by brute strength as Harry pivoted low, adding momentum to his strike as the twinned blades cut through the right leg of Lord Voldemort at mid-calf and mid-thigh.

"The power he knows not?" Harry roared as he regained his footing, "Swordplay!" He took a step back and thrust forward with both blades. Gravity and momentum were all that spared Voldemort from being speared through the head and heart, one blade slicing into his left lung, the right cutting through where his liver and stomach would be.

"The one with the power," stage whispered Harry, "to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches," Voldemort felt pain, was feeling pain, the likes of which he had only felt once before in 1981 when he was dispossessed of his body by an infant. He was Voldemort! Lord Voldemort! The Prophecy was his key to immortality! Potter would not pay such a price. No mere human would pay such a price. Only one such as he, who had traveled widely and studied the Dark Arts would dare!

"Born to those who have thrice defined him," Voldemorts' wand flashed as dark magic and power was channeled through his wand as he speedily rebuilt his ruined leg. It would serve its purpose as he rose to his feet, as Harry Potter stalked him. A trio of Killing Curses was cast only to be blocked by summoned stone and metal barriers, "Born as the seventh month dies!" snarled Harry

"And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal," Conjured silver daggers were banished towards Harry, who sniggered and waved his left wand. The Daggers seemed to rot and then disintegrate in mid-air. With a grunt of effort, Voldemort banished enough stone to recreate the Fountain of Magical Brethren. With his blades, Harry slashed his way through stone like a hot knife through butter, "But he will have the power the Dark Lord knows not."

"Equal?" hissed Voldemort as he staggered back another step, "You have never been my equal Potter! Albus Dumbledore could never match my knowledge! Merlin himself was not equal to my power! You will never, ever be as strong as me! I will forever be far greater than you will ever be!" The Dark Lord's nostrils were flaring as he ignored the revolting smell of his own blood.

"And either must die at the hand of the other," Harry stalked forward his normally emerald eyes were matte black tunnels of darkness. Voldemort stared into the face of the one he had marked his equal, his eyes traveling to the lightning bolt-shaped scar upon the forehead of Harry Potter, "For neither can live," he swiped his wand, and a corporeal shield of silver and green warped into existence, hovering scant inches in front of him, and began to thicken, "while the other survives."

Harry brought his wands to bear, the magical blade in his left hand carving through the still-forming shield. Bringing the wand of Hermione Granger to bear, the wand he had claimed as his own two years ago, he pressed the tip of it against the pasty white skin of the Dark Lord's chest, directly where a human would have his heart, "Crucio Maximus!" snarled Harry.

Fear, then agony raced through Voldemort's body and mind as he gave a high-pitched, ear-splitting scream of pain. Dark blood spurted from between his lipless mouth and drooled down his chin. His hand shook convulsively and his thirteen-and-a-half-inch yew wand with phoenix tail feather core slipped from between bloody fingers, rolling across the broken ground.

His crimson eyes widened with shock as he slumped to his knees before the boy who lived. For a split second, Tom Marvolo Riddle lay battered and broken, reduced to trembling, partly in fear, partly in the agonizing aftereffects of the Cruciatus Curse and Harry James Potter stared at the pitiful wretch before him.

Struggling, Lord Voldemort found his voice, "Live alone forever Potter?" he choked around a mouthful of blood, "You have defeated me here, but the price of victory is not one you will pay! No mere mortal would pay it!"

Images flashed before Harry's eyes at the words of the Dark Lord. He saw them all: Xenophilius Lovegood. Ginny. Neville tortured by grief. Luna now left without her Colin. He saw the garden of Godric's Hollow where his parents had made their sacrifice. His daughter: Aimee Delacour Potter who had never lived laid to rest alongside his parents. He thought of all those who had suffered under the wand of the… thing before him. All those broken by torture, all who died like heroes, and as martyrs. Those that simply vanished. Twenty years. The corruption. The ineptitude of their "government." A populace of sheep. Two different wars.

So much blood and pain and death and violence caused by the creature at his feet. Harry mustered the last of his hatred as he stared down, his now once again emerald eyes meeting the ruby eyes of his nemesis, "I pay it gladly."

Voldemort's eyes widened a fraction in true, genuine fear.

"Avada Kedevra!"

A titanic flash of green light that was somehow as dark as it was bright burst from the tip of the wand of Harry James Potter. It radiated decay as it delivered death and struck Lord Voldemort, the Darkest of the Dark Lords and would-be ruler of Magical Britain.