Summary:

Harry Potter / Star Wars-over. While leading the final charge against a retreating Dark Lord, Harry is thrown through a destabilized Demon Portal, landing on a strange world in a galaxy far far away.

Disclaimer

I don't own Harry Potter in any way. JKR has those rights... Also, Star Wars is owned by Lucasfilm/George Lucas, etc etc.

*Author's Note *

Inspirations: Sword and Magic by bluminous8 (both versions)

Not sure if the original inspiration(s) of this will ever be continued. I really loved the concept and thought I would take my own crack at things. I mean seriously, Aayla Secura, a blue woman with tentacles on her head. How can you resist?

I started this story literally 15 months ago. I made good progress for a while, then job stuff got in the way, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I get lots of questions about it, so I figure I'll at least start posting a chapter or two every few months of it.

Chapter First Published: 2013-03-03

Chapter Last Update:

Chapter 1 – The Big One

"This is it," he heard George Weasley quietly speak a few feet over to Harry's right.

There was a slight pause before a sultry feminine voice continued, "The Big One."

He heard the smile in the voice of George's wife Angelina Weasley as she repeated their oft-remembered secret mantra.

Harry simply smiled and shook his head in spite of himself. He could feel both of their eyes upon him as they enjoyed his subtle reaction to their words, which was their motivation the whole time. There had been precious few reasons to smile for a long time, and one could always count on George and Angelina to get Harry out of whatever funk he was in at any given moment. A sigh escaped Harry's mouth as he gave in.

"The one we've all been waiting for," Harry said while continued to shake his head. There was triumph clearly heard in the laughter from George and Angelina. Meanwhile Harry could clearly see confused looks upon the dozens of other faces in range who heard the conversation.

The confusion would never be explained to those who heard, because the attention of Harry, George, and Angelina immediately returned to the scene of nightmares in front of them.

This was it. Before them lay hopefully the last battle of the war which had plagued Earth for the last decade. He was twenty-nine years old and was a veteran of one wizard war, and one all-encompassing World War.

Two years after the fall of Voldemort, the next Dark Lord arose in Eastern Europe. Within months, the new Dark Lord had shattered the Statute of Secrecy through his brazen creation of dozens of Demonic Summoning Portals across the planet. The demons were uncontrollable unless the Dark Wizard that summoned them actually stayed nearby. Otherwise they roamed the land and did whatever they wanted. It was debatable which was worse: an enthralled or a rogue demon. The carnage either created was always terrible.

The world's militaries mobilized almost overnight, and the threat and fear of the previously hidden wizard society was quickly overshadowed by the general populace's need to have any means available to save their world.

Hogwarts had been leveled to the ground during the first wave of the summonings. A portal opened on the high-street of Hogsmeade, which spilled out hundreds of fire-breathing elephant sized demons, which promptly made short work of the historic school and the entire surrounding countryside.

Harry had leapt into the fray and offered his services. He was renowned for being among the first people in the world to bring down a demon, was also infamous for being among the first to nearly die from the after effects. The corpses of demons gave off a staggering amount of heat. The bodies of the most powerful baked the surrounding area for weeks afterwards. The temperature was so high that unprotected cloth left exposed at a distance of fifty feet could easily spontaneously combust into flame in some cases. Whole cities were leveled in the conflagrations caused by muggle weapons taking out larger demons rampaging in cities, only to leave the cities in flames after their death throes subsided.

Hermione Granger led a team of Unspeakables in runic array development that would absorb the heat and turn that energy into a shield to protect the surrounding area. The hotter the flame, the stronger the shield got with no theoretical limit in sight to how strong the shield could get. Numerous teams trained and deployed across the world whose sole purpose was to arrive at the scene of battles and set up containment and isolation areas around the corpses of still hot demons.

These runic arrays were taught to every soldier in the world, both magical and non-magical, and all were required to perform maintenance on shields even if the magical soldiers were the only ones who could empower them. The main benefit for Harry was that, in learning to maintain his own equipment, he continued to learn as much as he could about runes and wards. It was a fascinating subject to him that he wished he had pursues sooner, and one that he felt would aid him the rest of his life.

Harry eventually went on to claim more kills over demons than any other person on the planet. Now that he had become comfortable with his magic, his power was staggering. He easily became one of the most efficient demon killing machines the world had ever known. When he was not on missions, he constantly tried to expand his horizons and abilities. This pushed him to learn more about runes, wards, and curse breaking since the magic produced by these three areas had become so vital to the continued existence and protection of the world.

However, none of these areas were his true love. After years of injuries, he developed a borderline hatred and phobia of his stays in infirmaries. To avoid this, he slowly became a self-taught battlefield medic. It did not keep him out of the infirmary entirely, but it allowed him to heal many of his wounds just as well as the incredibly distracted Medi-Wizards could, and allowed him to recognize when he truly needed expert help.

Seeing positive results on himself, he gained the courage to utilize simple spells upon wounded allies he knew would not reach help in time. After numerous battles occurred where more and more casualties lived due to the quick actions of Harry, the Auror High-Command ordered Harry to spend his free time becoming a competent Medi-Wizard. Their reasons weren't entirely magnanimous. They realized Harry was frustrated with his role in the war, and learning medicine was a constructive distraction for him to pursue between battles.

Afterwards, the attrition reduction in Harry's battalion over time could be placed squarely at his feet and all elements of the command staff quickly took notice. He began to spend more and more of his time in hospitals, where his knowledge quickly approached expert levels in healing. The benefits of his assistance during post-battle healing assignments was never more apparent when the magical stamina he possessed allowed him to continue on with his healing duties long after other Medi-Witches and Wizards succumbed to exhaustion.

However…

…that did not explain why Harry and two of his three last living friends from Hogwarts stood on the edge of a mile-wide crater that looked down upon the largest demonic portal he had ever seen. Harry's battalion was known far and wide as the most successful demon hunting division in the world, but this portal was something even they had never seen before.

Recently, the forces that protected Earth had managed their most amazing feat yet. In the previous weeks, they had launched near simultaneous strikes upon over ninety percent of the Dark Lord's minions around the world. Their efforts dismantled nearly the entire infrastructure that supported his war machine in one fell swoop, which left the Dark Lord in full retreat.

…and their pursuit of that retreat led to the creation of the largest standing army the world had ever seen

The crater before them seemed to overflow with demons; more demons than Harry or anyone else had ever seen at one time. Harry's division sat at the south end of the crater and they all looked due north at the most direct approach to the portal. The armed forces of Earth surrounded the mile-wide crater on all sides and were comprised of dozens of divisions of wizards and muggles. Over five hundred thousand troops had been deployed to the area, placing anti-apparition and portkey wards up, and making it impossible for the Dark Lord to escape.

And yet escape was still his plan. Harry could see the Dark Wanker from where he currently stood alone in a clearing directly in front of the portal. He was in the process of creating something Harry had heard of before, but had never actually seen. In the past ten years, Harry and everyone around him had seen hundreds of demon-summoning portals. Their size always varied, as did the human sacrifices required to bring forth certain demons, but they all typically looked the same.

The ever present red swirling pool of energy was there, backed by the palpable aura of fear and panic that always emanated and would seem to somehow dirty one's soul if you allowed your eyes to stare at them too long. The evil and sense of hopelessness that emanated from the demon's home world could actually travel through the portals to Earth. The portals could only be brought down through the death of the portal's primary caster or the destruction of the human remains that provided power to keep the portal open.

Yes, Harry had seen his fair share of demon portals before. But he had never actually seen the kind of portal in front of him now.

An outbound portal.

The Dark Idiot was actually trying to escape Earth to a demon universe through a portal. Technically, Harry had no problem with this since it was highly likely the Dark Lord would step through and instantly be eviscerated by some insanely powerful demon that would not even dream of listening to a fleshbag wizard. But it would be just his luck for the idiot to somehow enthrall the demons on the other side and then bring them all back to Earth to start the war all over again.

So this needed to end today, regardless of the consequences.

Harry looked around. Everything seemed to be set. He just waited for the arrival and conclusion of non-magical airstrikes to launch his first spell. Harry was the only officially recognized Battle Mage on the planet, and the first documented one in centuries. A Battle Mage's specialty was large-scale siege warfare. Often a battalion of troops would have one mega-caster and it was the job of every other troop present to protect that caster. Harry's contribution to the fight was so important to the coming battle's strategy, there were a half-dozen battalions assigned solely to protect Harry's battalion as they took out their specified targets below.

They never knew the real names or types of the demons he saw in front of them. They just knew the relative sizes and came up with nicknames for them. 'Destroyers' for the monstrous half dinosaur demons that could take out skyscrapers with a single swing of a fist. An entire battalion plus Harry could take down a Destroyer, but it often took more time than they had to give. Muggle weaponry was the preferred choice here if the option was available.

The other demon's nicknames tended to not matter much to Harry overall. There were dozens, and though he technically knew their capabilities, strengths and weaknesses by sight, he found he no longer cared. He simply overpowered them with broad-scoped siege spells and moved on. His focus was often the battle as a whole. His attention usually focused upon his attempts to ascertain where he could launch a siege strike to take out the maximum number of enemies and limit the amount of friendly fire incurred.

That was another reason Harry's battalion was so loved and feared at the same time. If someone went to battle at Harry's side, they usually found it to be the safest place to be on the battlefield. Friendly fire had claimed numerous friends and allies, but Harry was always just as focused upon the survival of his allies as he was the death of his enemies.

Every battle Harry participated in had priority targets, and usually his entire focus was upon the location of the Masterminds. They were the leaders of the enemy's forces, and the ones most often directly controlled and influenced by the Dark Lord. Their species within the demon ranks were always different, which is why they were always so hard to target and kill. No two were ever the same within the same battlefield. But the identification of the enemy's leaders had slowly become Harry's specialty. He just instinctually knew where the other demons turned to for guidance and orders.

And this is where he always struck first.

Even now, as he silently waited for the airstrikes to begin on the wards and five destroyers in the crater, he could identify the Masterminds. He could see at least a dozen below easily. Mentally he planned his strike order to create as much additional damage as possible. The removal of the Masterminds from the chain of command always left the rest of the demons confused and saved countless lives. His orders today were to identify and take out as many Masterminds as soon as possible, then proceed to the portal and subdue to the Dark Lord.

If only it would be that easy.

He looked at the men and women that surrounded him. Harry handpicked each over the past half-decade as the best of the best. Not from reports or other sources which could be biased, but from Harry's own eyes. He always watched the other surrounding companies during battles in his pensieve. Who looked out for their fellow comrades? Who fired first at an unexpected enemy? Finally, and most important to Harry, who were the ones that did all these things without turning into loudmouth braggarts when the battalions went on leave and hit the bars?

His people knew they were good, but they didn't care. All they cared about was living to the next mission, and that their squad mates lived to see that day too. There was loyalty and camaraderie here that you just couldn't find anywhere else.

But, It would all end today, for better or for worse. He would hopefully never have to walk into battle with any of these people ever again, but in a sense he now finally had a family. He could see himself surrounded by any of these people on Saturday afternoons with beers in their hands at any point for the rest of his life.

A very familiar sound roared over their heads. The muggle fighters unleashed the first wave of ward-buster payloads, causing the wards themselves to become visible under the strain. The protective dome of wards had to be shattered before any of them could move forward. Stealth did not exist in a fight like this. The only option available to them was to use muggle bombs to knock on the front door and then tear it down with a battering ram. It would take about a minute for the massive collection of bombs to breach the initial wards so the troops could move in.

The demons settled into defensive positions quickly at the sound of the first explosion.

The plan was to charge the crater after the boundary wards fell and annihilate the Masterminds as quickly as possible. The air support teams would quickly work to take out the Destroyers, while simultaneously not losing too many people in the process. Destroyers often decimated armies not properly positioned as they died. The normal battalions would deal with the cannon fodder demons that normally littered the battlefield, while they tried to clear the way for Harry and his support forces to charge the portal itself.

It was risky and daring plan. There was the strong risk his battalion would be cut off from their own forces since they were ordered to advance so quickly. But if it wanted end this war permanently, and finally bring Dark Lord Achenar to justice, it would be worth the price.

The wards fell with a mighty tearing sound that would have burst his ear drums had he not have protective enchantments in his helmet to deaden the noise. His battalion and supporting troops moved forward without hesitation as their spells flew out as they moved into the rift.

Harry however, had not yet taken a single step forward. For the last ten minutes, even as George and Angelina's joked with him, he had slowly gathered magic from the Earth itself to him. In the past, on rare occasions, he had reached deep within the planet itself to fuel his larger spells so he would not exhaust himself, yet he had never gathered this much magic in the past to fuel just one spell. He felt giddy and was astonished at the power he had pulled, and absent-mindedly wondered why he had never attempted spells on this scale before.

The ancient spell he collected the magic for was on his lips within moments of the sound of the first cascade collapse of the wards. Fifteen seconds later, the spell launched and seemed to disappear into nothingness in the air in front of him. Everyone within half a mile felt the power rush as it left his wand, yet lesser experienced wizards would have thought he had flubbed the spell for the lack of direct effect. But Harry knew exactly where the spell had gone. It simply had left this plane of existence and called forth an elemental of a higher dimension of Earth.

Suddenly, a fifty-story water elemental burst out burst from the ground amidst the demons halfway between the portal and the wall of humans. Harry had often summoned water elementals into fights, but he had saved this particular one for an occasion where the shock value of its entrance would both inspire his troops and demoralize his enemies.

And without a shadow of a doubt, he succeeded.

For one shining, beautiful moment, everything on the battlefield stood still and gaped at a full-fledged Lord of the Elemental Planes who Harry dragged out of its natural home. As the creature gave an inhuman growl of rage that sounded like the crashing of a wave, it produced a sword and proceeded to decimate the first things it saw: the demonic troops that surrounded it.

Harry hadn't paid attention to any of this. The Masterminds were now his target. He knew the Elemental Lord would wreck havoc upon the battlefield, yet would eventually succumb to the demonic onslaught thrown against it. It would tie up the enemy's forces and deny them the opportunity to kill wizards and humans. In addition, it would place a large amount of super cooled magical water within the battlefield, which would reduce the accumulated heat as the demons met their end. Besides, if he wanted to gape at the spectacle, he could always view the fight again in his pensieve later.

'After all, real men don't need to stare at the explosions they create,' thought Harry with a bit of dry humor.

The Masterminds surrounded themselves with as many grunts as possible to delay their unavoidable end. Harry called forth his arsenal of siege spells and launched the magical equivalent of aerial bombs with as much of the land's magic he still had left within him. He wanted to use up all the freely given magic of the Earth he could before he delved into his own admittedly large magical reserves.

One; two; three; four; five Masterminds fell within twice as many seconds, which left seven more to kill on the battlefield before he could join his battalion. Harry performed a quick check of the local area for problems. He saw a few fallen comrades already, so he summoned and pulled the twenty or so injured and maimed bodies towards him, which landed upon a cushioned and warded patch of land behind him that Harry established before the battle began. Two flicks of the wrist later after they had landed had all twenty victims of the demons under stasis charms that would last forty-eight hours.

He changed his focus back to the battlefield and realized the situation had definitely shifted towards their forces, but the remaining Masterminds had long since gone to ground as he expected they would after his initial salvos. They predictably surrounded themselves with so many allies that it would be almost impossible to target them directly anymore. He was happy with what he accomplished though. Almost half the Masterminds gone in ten seconds due to his efforts alone was certainly nothing to be ashamed of.

He charged into the crater and leapt off the edge of the near 200 meter drop that was before him. He spotted one more Mastermind on the way down, and another quickly cast siege spell brought his total up to six down. He judged it a good use of the last of the gathered magical energies he had collected.

The Water Lord, despite being insanely powerful, had already been taken down by the demons. Its short visit to Harry's plane of existence however had wiped out at least one eighth of the demon's overall army. As he fell, he saw the way forward had been cleared by his troops, and a quick apparition placed him amidst the main body of his troops. The loud crack was purposefully done to alert everyone to his presence, and they responded immediately. The column split straight down the middle, which allowed Harry a clear shot directly forward with his spells without the danger of Harry hitting his own troops.

A wash of heat enveloped him a second later, as he witnessed the nearest and last of the destroyers fall. The runes in his clothes and transparent helmet absorbed the heat almost instantaneously. It placed an almost invisible shield around his body that steadily grew in strength the more heat was absorbed.

His battalion made good time towards their goal. The supporting troops around them executed their duties perfectly, which allowed Harry's group to rush forward. Within minutes, and with almost no casualties, they had reached the inner wards that surrounded the portal itself.

The portal was a deep purple that actually made his stomach roll when he merely glanced at it. If a demon portal felt merely strange to be around, this monstrosity felt entirely unnatural. He began firing Ward Hammers at the wall with half of his battlegroup, and the other half designated to watch their backs in case enemies approached.

While he fired Hammers at the wall, he scanned the area in front of him. It was odd. There was no one present within the inner wards beyond the Dark Lord Achenar. The bastard channeled power in an almost oblivious manner towards both the portal and the dozens of sacrificed former humans used to tear the fabric of reality to kick start the ritual.

He began to get a feeling. It was a thought that did not bode well for him and his troops. He could not shake it even as he tried to give an automatic denial the conclusions he drew. The more he looked around at mass of demonic troops behind him and the lone solitary figure before them; he could only draw one logical conclusion.

This was a trap.

The whole situation did not feel right, and when Harry's instincts spoke, he listened. And right now they screamed at him to make sure that he was the only person to go through this dome when it was time.

He gave his orders. "George! Angelina! Get over here."

The couple ceased their spell casts and instantly appeared at his side. "What's up boss?" said George. Jokes would never find their way onto the lips of George mid-battle, not since he was feet from Fred as he joked with Percy and died all those years ago.

"Guys, this just screams trap to me," said Harry, straight to the point, as he gestured towards the portal.

George looked around for a few moments, his eyes narrowed just slightly, before he slowly nodded in agreement. "What do you want to do, Harry?"

"I'm going to spring the trap. I want to be the only one to go through the initial breach. I want you to activate the battlegroup's portkeys the moment there is even a hint of something going wrong. Make sure the ward weavers are watching out for anti-port and anti-app wards out here. I don't want us getting caught with our pants down if this guy has one last present for us."

George looked at his friend of seventeen years. Harry could see he wanted to object, wanted to be there right at Harry's back like every Weasley that had died in the past decade had been. But he knew this time it was different. Too much currently rode upon Harry having someone trustworthy with their finger on the recall portkeys. He nodded his head, turned and saw Angelina nod as well before they turned and restarted their Hammer throws at the wards again.

The bad feeling Harry had returned full-force with the attention of George and Angelina back on the shimmering wall in front of them. It was almost a numbness, an omen, that something was about to happen. He didn't quite understand the premonition, whether it was good or that it was truly bad. Just that everything was going to change.

Harry laughed out loud to himself, 'When the hell did I become as batty as Trelawny and start seeing the future?'

He sat down on the ground and entered the near-meditative state required to collect magic to him. Anything at all would be helpful in the duel he knew was about to come. It did not hurt that, while within this state, he could feel the wards as they fell. In fact, they would be down in moments. He focused his thoughts upon the weaves directly in front of him. He wanted a hole to appear in the failing wards feet in front of him so he could get in front of everyone and take the first shot at Achenar.

The Dark Lord just stood there, straight ahead. He seemed to be deep in concentration while he regulated and pushed his power into the portal. Harry knew it could not be much longer before the portal stabilized and Achenar would likely break into a dead-run to escape.

It would be a race.

He felt the first tremor of the wards fall, and with it, Harry was already on the move. His intentions, while he manipulated the ward's weave, were for the spot directly in front of him to be the weakest place in the entire dome. The effort was rewarded when a ten foot high hole appeared right in front of him as he ran through it. His first spell was already on his lips as he passed the breach; a wide-area jungle brush dark cutter, overpowered beyond belief.

Almost every time he cast it, Harry wished he had known this spell during the war with Voldemort. All those times he had saw stupid Death Eaters lined up in a straight line. A spell like this would've easily cleaved dozens of the inbred twits in half at the stomach or neck and saved countless lives.

He used the cutter because, in a situation like this, there was no use firing blasting hexes or anything similar that would throw up debris. All it would do is block Harry's line of sight on his enemy since the target's goal was to retreat away from Harry.

To Harry's shock, the cutting curse passed right through Achenar without doing a bit of damage. Instinctively, Harry leapt to the side the moment this registered in his mind, as he figured out that this was part of the trap. His paranoia was rewarded when he felt the ground shake as he landed and a spray of dirt and sand hit his face. A two-meter wide crater was now found in the spot he had just vacated.

Achenar had appeared from where he had invisibly waited, rage in his eyes for having missed. He had stupidly dropped his disillusionment to gloat over Harry's body. The anger only clouded his thoughts for a moment before he opened fire again. Harry rolled to the side and attempted to apparate while on the ground before he realized there was a separate set of containment wards inside the dome. It was good his troops hadn't followed, as they would be trapped as well. He vaguely noticed the wards had strengthened as well. They suddenly had become twice as powerful as they were before his battalion had begun there assault

It was all a trap designed to catch Harry and his men, but it looks like the only fish Achenar had caught was Harry.

"What's wrong old man, missing a few people inside your little trap?" shouted Harry. An angry Dark Lord was dangerous. A furious and enraged Dark Lord would make mistakes, and that's exactly what Harry needed right now.

"You'll never leave here alive, Potter! Even if you do defeat me, nothing inside this dome will be left. You'll need to go through the Portal to escape my trap alive," screamed Achenar. His red eyes were livid with malice and the sweat of insanity gleamed upon his bald, tattooed head.

'You're a bloody moron. Another failure at evil villain school,' thought Harry to himself.

In fact, Harry felt a twinge of disappoint. In the end, Achenar just revealed himself as a moustache twirling baddie prone to speeches and theatrics worthy of any Muggle blockbuster movie. He had just told Harry that the dome would likely kill everyone inside. Even Achenar knew Harry's battalion carried synchronized emergency portkeys. If Harry activated his, even behind a ward preventing its use, all linked portkeys would instantly fire and evacuate Harry's men and women.

"So you expect me to stand by here and graciously allow you to kill me while my friends watch. You really are an idiot." Harry dodged a killing curse and responded with a bonebreaker chain which managed to connect on almost every other spell. One of the successful spells was a banisher, which threw Achenar back to slam against the solid wall of the wards.

"Ferula!" Achenar shouted while he pointed his wand at the bone that protruded through his tailored black pants.

"You got lucky there, Potter. But I don't see y—" Achenar was cut off as another chain of Entrail-expelling and acid-based metal-bulkhead cleaning spells flew at his head and lead along a path that assumed Achenar would dodge to the right.

Unfortunately for Harry, Achenar dodged left and would've had a clean shot at Harry if he wasn't already on the move himself. Harry was slowly worked his way to the portal in an attempt to figure out a way to disrupt it somehow to prevent Achenar's escape. He swore as he felt the sacrificial empowerments protected by a third set of wards, so Harry knew there was no way to obliterate that quickly enough to shut down the wards. The only way to possibly survive this was to kill Achenar and hope whatever trap he had sprung would not be linked directly to Achenar's death.

A volley of killing curses was sent again towards Harry as he pondered this, which were easily avoided and blocked with random debris in the field. A messy field was a dueler's dream. He would've thought Achenar would've been smart enough to not leave large sized chunks of rock lying around, but Harry apparently overestimated his opponent's preparedness for this encounter. Achenar seemed to have gambled everything on a doomsday trap that had unbelievably alluded to aloud. Harry had never had the opportunity for a one on one duel with the Bad Man who had started this war a decade earlier.

So far… he was not that impressed.

Harry responded to the killing curse volley with one of his favorite and simplest strategies. He purposefully flung spells to Achenar's right along with a silent and wandless 'Acio' at a rock directly behind Achenar. The simple trick worked when Achenar again dodged left directly into the path of the oncoming projectile. It collided with the back of his skull with a sickening crack, which sent him flying forward. Harry immediately summoned the Dark Lord's wand and launched piecing hex after cutting curse at the temporarily stunned Dark Lord. Achenar was smart enough to move even after he was concussed with a fifty pound rock, but his dodges were way too slow. The result was three piecing hex's to the dead center of his chest and one arm and leg cleanly removed.

The Dark Lord Achenar was dead before he even stopped moving. A small blast of controlled Fiendfyre ensured the body would never be reconstituted or used in some future dark ritual.

Afterwards, Harry was alert for whatever madness Achenar had hinted was coming next. The wards that protected the Portal's power source looked untouched. Those that surrounded the inner crater had come under an even more massive onslaught, as the victorious Earth's army continued to batter them down in their hopes to get to Harry.

He saw their silent cheers through the wards, and the Ward Hammers briefly let up. To warn them of likely danger, Harry sent up purple colored sparks.

Purple Smoke and Sparks were the universally agreed upon signal for an imminent trap. Immediately Harry could see his forces begin to Apparate out except for his own battalion, who were relentlessly tried to bring down the wards to get Harry to safety. They were almost there in fact. Just a bit more and the wards would fall again. Harry still had no clue what the trap could possibly be.

That's when it hit him. The trap was obviously not tied to the pile of ashes now known formerly as the Dark Lord Achenar. Whatever traps present were tied to the wards themselves. He tried to wave off the Weasleys, and threw more and more purple sparks into the air. He grabbed his portkey and activated it in the vain hope it would at least send his battalion away, but some of them had proactively thrown their portkeys on the ground. Their desire to help Harry after he had done so much to help them had outweighed their own sense of survival.

Harry looked around in desperation with the knowledge he still had to find a way to save himself from this trap. What could the Dark Lord possibly inflict upon him where Harry's only choice would be to head into a portal as an escape? Explosions? Poisonous gas? More demons? Draco Malfoy clones souped-up on Love Potions?

Whatever it was, he turned his thoughts towards his own escape. The portal was obviously connected to some demon realm currently, and that was the last place he ever wanted to visit on a one-way permanent vacation. He knew portal disruption spells, he wondered if they could be used to point the portal somewhere else… anywhere else.

He began launching overpowered disrupter charms at the portal, pouring all his magic into his hope that it would be enough to destabilize and change the location the portal was currently aimed at. The spells quickly had a visible effect. The unnatural aura of the portal changed to one that was almost welcoming. The color of the swirling event horizon shifted from that sickening purple to a swirl of light green and brown earth tones. The magic the portal radiated now seemed almost warm and friendly. There was darkness that was easily identifiable, but the light clearly out shown the dark. And if Harry didn't know better, the magic almost seemed to plead to some base instinct of Harry's for help.

His thoughts about the portal's new destination abruptly halted when he felt the inner crater's wards fall completely. Suddenly, the entire outer ring of the crater burst into a spontaneous conflagration of Fiendfyre.

It was massive. A ring of fire a thousand feet across that grew in size the more it consumed. Magic was rampant in the air after the wards fell, giving the cursed fire all the fuel it needed to quickly envelop everything nearby.

'At least most of them portkeyed out,' were the only thoughts Harry could spare time to devote towards the hundreds of troops he knew at that very moment experienced painful immolated deaths unless they had the presence of mind to teleport out.

Harry again tried to apparate and portkey again, with no luck. He even switched to his Phoenix's animagus form and tried to flame out and was met with a solid wall which seemed to freeze his insides. He experienced pain throughout his body as anti-animagus wards tried to exact their punishments upon him. He wouldn't even have the opportunity to fly out under his own power as a phoenix.

He even called his house elf Kreacher to him, but didn't get a response.

He transformed back to his normal form, and backed slowly away towards the portal. Desperate thoughts of escape crossed his mind, but nothing came to mind that didn't involve a jump into a portal that would take him to another universe. Harry holstered his wand as he drew within ten meters of the edge of the portal as he realized it might truly be his only means of escape.

If he had more time, he could pull a broom out of either of his shrunken trunks, but that would take precious seconds he did not have to waste since his brooms were not in the initial expanded spaces of the trunks. More than likely, he would only get to the trunk's third or fourth compartment before his goose would be cooked by the wall of fire. To add insult to injury, he had no clue if the Dark Wanker had put up anti-broom wards to make the entire idea useless anyway.

He looked back at the wall of fire. It was huge and edged nearer. His personal shield looked almost solid from the amount of heat it had absorbed, but there was no way for it to survive Fiendfyre. Cursed flames fed off Magic and not oxygen for fuel. When these flames connected with Harry's shield, it would violently burst into magical flames with the force of a small bomb. There was no point to stay around long enough for that to even be an option.

He looked straight up. If only he had ever taken the time to learn how to fly under his own power like Riddle and Snape had done all those years ago. That could've saved him here. They had flown magically right through Hogwarts' wards, and that would have been a nice crutch for times when anti-animagus wards killed his phoenix form's usefulness.

He couldn't see a way out.

In the end, the choice was made for Harry. The wall of flames hit the sacrificial power source of the portal, which created a shock wave as the magical backlash lifted Harry into the air and flung him straight through the center of the portal. His last conscious thoughts while on the planet of his birth were of the clear sky above and whether, if he died in another realm, he would still be able to see his parents in the afterlife.