CHAPTER ONE

THE FINAL BATTLE

"It's got to be here somewhere!" Harry growled in frustration as the room spun to the next door. He ripped the door open impatiently and smiled grimly. This is it. He thought desperately to himself. Harry moved swiftly through the room with the tank of brains and opened the next door. He descended the stairs and crossed to the arch in the middle of the amphitheatre-like room. As he got closer, he could hear the whispers of the people behind the veil just as he had two years ago. He lost someone special that night in this very room and he thought that was devastating. The recent events drove him over the edge far more brutally than he thought possible.

He stepped onto the podium and closed his eyes. With intense concentration he could hear the whispered words of the woman he loved. Tears erupted from his eyes and he looked at the shadowy figures that were milling about behind the silky, thin material of ether that everyone referred to simply as The Veil.

"I'm coming for you, Hermione." He whispered across the dimensional bounds. He waited in vain for a response and after mentally reviewing the plan that had came to him in St. Mungo's he turned and fled the room in quiet determination.

* * *

Graduation: Gryffindor Common Room

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in their favorite couch by the massive fireplace that was the prominent feature of the common room's northern wall. Elation that they had all passed the rigorous N.E.W.T.s tests washed over them in a cascade of cheers, butterbeer, music, and laugher.

Ron had invited his girlfriend of the past year, Luna Lovegood, to the celebration and due to lack of room Luna had perched precariously in his lap.

Harry was surprised at how Luna had filled out in just two years, she'd gone from the smallish girl with a perpetually surprised look to a rather attractive young woman with correctly proportioned eyes, her hair had finally been tamed and she no longer wore the strange combinations of clothes she did when they had met her.

An equal amount of surprise had been levied upon him in the changes of his best friend Ron Weasley. Luna had been the catalyst that brought him from his adolescence into the viably mature man that sat next to his other best friend.

Most of all, Harry had been surprised in the changes that overtook him since his godfather had died. He had gone into severe depression and relegated himself to his dark, small room at the Dursleys' for the majority of the summer. He would eat and sleep and exist but beyond that there was nothing. He was an emotional black hole with such a lack for life that even Aunt Petunia had become worried for his health. The only thing that brought him out of his stupor was Hermione.

Without warning, his bedroom door had opened and a surprisingly calm Aunt Petunia ushered his best friend into the room. She whispered something that made Hermione gasp and then shut the door leaving the two of them alone.

He didn't know what happened over the two weeks that she came to visit him, but when the blur that time had become ended, Harry was out of his depression and held a new outlook on life firmly within his mind. He had fallen for his best friend of five years somewhere during that time but never had the courage to tell her.

It was now the end of their stay at Hogwarts and like every normal student, he was looking forward to what the future would bring. Voldemort had gone into hiding after his plans were foiled for the seventh time last year and Harry's final year at the most prestigious school of witchcraft and wizardry was quiet and devoid of worry. For once in his life, there was nothing stopping him and he had a hope in his heart that he had never before known.

The graduation party went on for what seemed to be hours and didn't really die out until the birds began to sing jovially in the Forbidden Forest. Harry and his two best friends had gone to bed earlier than they had liked because they were all leaving for special training the next day. The threat of Voldemort wasn't over and the trio were going to use the time to learn some new and specialized skills that they could use in their fight against the ever present darkness.

They were ushered into their headmaster's office to take the portkey to the Ministry of Magic where they would start on their careers as Aurors. After each had grasped the discarded television aerial, Harry and his friends were whisked through a familiar swirl of wind and color and found themselves standing in the very room that Harry had been in at the beginning of fifth year. Moody, Tonks, Lupin, and the rest of the Order were waiting patiently for their arrival.

"Wotcha, Harry?!" Tonks said enthusiastically as she crossed the room for a tight hug.

"Hi, Tonks!" Harry said with a smile.

The rest of the group said their hellos in turn and the three friends were soon on their way to a special section of the magical complex that was used specifically for the training of the wizarding world's enforcement service.

Harry had, more than once, glanced at Hermione from the corner of his eye to catch her turn her head from him quickly and he did the same whenever she happened to look his way. He couldn't get over the fact that he felt so strongly for another person but still couldn't summon the courage to talk to her about it.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when they entered the Ministry proper.

"We have to cross through the main lobby to the portal to the training grounds." Moody informed them from the front of their caravan. "Once we get there ..."

Their new mentor was interrupted by an explosion at the front of the building. He whipped out a small mirror and when he looked into it, his face paled.

"Blast it! This is too soon!" He shouted.

Harry caught a glimpse of what had caused such a disconcerting reaction with Moody and paled instantly.

"What is it?" Hermione asked concernedly from his left.

"Voldemort." Harry said simply as he felt the familiar burning sensation enter his skull from his scar. His hand went to it immediately and he pressed against it in a vain attempt to push the pain away but it kept getting worse. He was vaguely aware that he was on his knees and then suddenly jolted to his feet as Lupin and Tonks grabbed his shoulders and dragged him back to the lifts.

"Where's Hermione?" Harry asked quietly as he struggled to erect the barrier that his Occlumency training afforded him. Breathe deeply. Clear my mind. Retreat to the dark recesses of quiet and rational thought.

"She and Ron are with Moody!" Tonks said hurriedly.

The commotion in the main lobby escalated as Aurors apparated on the scene, dropping what they were doing from their various tasks. It was much swifter to bring a strong force into action after Hermione shared the techniques she developed for the D.A. and their magical galleons. As soon as there was trouble, one of a dozen coins could be activated to call a sizeable force to action. It was very successful today.

Harry and his two companions had finally made it to the lift and the crushing pain in Harry's skull had subsided dramatically. Lupin hit the emergency call button and a scant, few, agonizingly seconds later, the car appeared before them.

"Get in, Harry!" Lupin ordered. Harry felt the force of his surrogate godfather's push and then a much more powerful jolt as his entire body slammed into him. Tonks landed face-first on the floor beside them and Harry had to struggle to turn and see what had happened.

He wasn't prepared for the horror that the next few seconds brought him. Lupin's vacant eyes bored into Harry's and his limp body kept him pinned to the floor. Harry fought desperately to control his emotions as he rolled his deceased friend from off of him and scrambled for the controls to the car. He fumbled with the many buttons and in a fit of desperate frustration slammed one randomly. The car doors closed and he sunk to the floor as it made its way to the floor he had chosen.

Harry looked sadly at the limp body of Remus Lupin and with a tremendous force of will reached down and closed his eyes. He checked on Tonks and found that she had suffered a similar fate. As his knees gave out the car came to a sudden stop at his chosen destination. With a silent goodbye and tears roiling from his eyes, he stumbled into the Department of Mysteries.

He didn't have much time to decide on a direction and just as he chose a door, he heard the bell to the car of the second lift chime the new arrival, without looking back, Harry ripped open a door and ran through it in a desperate attempt to escape whoever was emerging from the opening doors of the elevator.

"YOU CAN'T HIDE, POTTER!" Harry heard Voldemort scream with fury from a mere two rooms behind him.

Harry hadn't been in this section of the Department before and he didn't recognize the archway that stood before him. Instead of a dark alcove, a doorway, or even a door, there seemed to be a white, billowing mist that was cascading from the top of the archway to the floor in a perpetual waterfall of clouds. He approached it tentatively and the mist slowly formed into a crystal clear scene. It was a scene that Harry had only seen in his nightmares.

There were footsteps rounding the bend behind him and without a second thought, Harry pulled his wand and stepped into the walled, overgrown garden of what used to be his parents' house in Godric's Hollow. He could have sworn that he heard his arch-nemesis curse when Harry disappeared and he didn't have much time to think.

"DISILLUSION!" Harry said as he tapped his wand on his head and within moments he was virtually invisible to anyone who might look his way. The chameleon effect the spell produced seemed to work the best in a natural setting and Harry settled himself between two bushes that had grown well beyond anything that was tamable. He had barely controlled his breathing when the tall, black-robed presence of Voldemort made itself known.

"I know you're here, Potter!" He spat in his peculiar, high-pitched voice. "Interesting that you fled to the same place that I destroyed your family." He chuckled softly to himself. "Today, you join your dearly departed parents, Harry. Today we're going to end this once and for all."

Voldemort scanned the garden slowly and seemed to look right past his prey. Harry couldn't let the opportunity pass when his enemy looked away.

"CRUCIO!" Harry shouted with all the hate, anger, loss, fear, love, and what seemed to be a million other emotions that had been pent up in his heart and soul for the past seventeen years. Voldemort contorted into a satisfying heap on the ground. Every appendage on the Dark Lord's body bent and twisted in ways that were completely foreign to a Human's normal form and function. The howls of pain and agony spurred Harry into a frenzy of repeated castings of the cruciatus curse.

"Each one, Voldemort, each and every one is for the hurt and pain you've placed upon my friends, family, and me!" Harry said thought gritted teeth. "Today is the day that I finally get to live my life without this damn prophesy molding me into fate's puppet!"

Harry sneered in derision when Voldemort looked at him with fear in his pleading eyes. "Mercy, Harry, grant me mercy, I beg of you! You're better than I am!" He cried with an outstretched hand to The-Boy-Who-Lived.

Harry glared incredulously at the creature panting for breath on the ground. "MERCY?! YOU ASK ME FOR MERCY?" Harry cursed him again. "YOU?! YOU WHO KILL WITHOUT IT! YOU WHO TOOK MY PARENTS, MY LIFE, MY FRIENDS?!"

"H-Harry, please." Voldemort panted desperately. "I-It wasn't me! It was the powers of the dark arts! They consume you with thoughts ..." He paused as he gasped for breath. "The ways of the dark arts overwhelmed me and I couldn't stop their evil ..."

Harry looked with disgust at the thing panting on the ground. What if it was the dark arts and not Riddle? A familiar voice said in his head. What if Riddle is innocent and just a pawn of the evil energies?

"SHUT UP!" Harry howled as he grabbed the sides of his head. He spied the wretched form of Voldemort sneaking closer and closer to his fallen wand. Harry quickly came to himself and summoned the instrument through which this most hated enemy had used on countless occasions to spread sorrow and misery. The core-mate to his wand flew through the air to him before the sickening figure could wrap his disgusting fingers around it again. In one deft move Harry caught, snapped the wand in two and then set the pieces aflame in a magical incineration.

He glared at the now kneeling Dark Lord. "If I show you mercy, Riddle, it'll be the day that I die!" Harry seethed with hatred and lifted his wand one final time.

Voldemort moved so fast it was a blur, he wrapped his arms around Harry and pinned the young man's own to his sides. He brought his legs up and wrapped them around Harry's waist. Voldemort then began to constrict the last Potter like a boa constrictor and smiled evilly.

"You know ssssomething?" He hissed in Harry's ear as if he were indeed reptilian and not a man at all. "Thissss issss the ssssame way that your dear old da went." He laughed with a hiss. The pressure that Voldemort was exerting on Harry began to show its effect.

Harry struggled in vain to break the vice-like grip and howled in bestial pain when he felt his ribs start to break, one by one.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy thissss." Voldemort whispered dangerously close to Harry's ear.

Harry's legs gave out as he struggled for breath. He screamed in mortal agony as he felt his spine start to collapse under the immense pressure.

"Ahh, now issss the time." The one who was once Tom Riddle cried in terrifying ecstacy. "After thissss, I can't wait to ssssee what your young friend Hermione will be like in my armssssssss."

Harry's head snapped up. "Y-you'll not ... touch ... her!" Harry wheezed desperately.

Voldemort laughed his high-pitched inhuman laugh as he felt Harry go limp in his arms. "Oh, and You'll sssstop me?" He hissed in mirth.

Harry smiled grimly and looked Voldemort in the eyes squarely for the last time. "FINITIUM MORTALIS!" He shouted with every bit of energy he could summon forth.

The ensuing explosion caused a small mushroom cloud to form which could be seen for miles in every direction. The last thing Harry could recall was hearing Hermione scream his name before everything went black.