Final Showdown

David went down to the floo point and contacted the shadow dragons to apprise them of the situation. As they got ready to help he contacted Albus to tell him the plan but asked him to keep the Order out of it. "We know the Order is likely to have been compromised," explained David. "Even though it was Dobby who provided the polyjuice ingredients, I'm wary of another spy. I can't do this without knowing that those at my back are one hundred percent behind me, and I won't call on Sirius, Severus or the Weasleys after today; they'll be exhausted."

"I believe it likely that the party is still going on," commented Albus. "I left the young people to it not long after your own departure. It is your task and I can't fault your reasoning, but I'll stand by my right to join you since you're taking the other shadow dragons."

It was a taskforce of seven who met a half an hour later in the ancient armoury of Lions' Den. David presented them with a map he had retrieved from his Quirinus Cella that would show the user where they were. "I was playing around with this the other day," he explained, "and I found something interesting." He placed his hand on the map and it produced two separate dots instead of the one they expected. "Voldemort and I are connected," he said. "His failed AK connected our minds and gave me some of his powers, he used my blood to come back the first time, and the blood of my father the second time. I have invaded his mind and he had invaded mine. The map is confused by this and shows both of us."

"So we know where he is," commented Arthur Penn the leader of the shadow dragons. "Do we know who is with him?"

"My last vision showed Bellatrix Lestrange and her sister Narcissa Malfoy, as well as of course the muggle Prime Minister Tony Blair. If we let him assassinate the PM tomorrow as he stated he would the impact on muggle-wizard relations will be disastrous."

"It is a trap," stated Albus, "but you know this."

"Yes," agreed David. "But there are things Old Voldie doesn't know. He doesn't know that he only has one horcrux left. He doesn't know that we know where he is and he thinks we can't do anything until he sends me the vision he promised me of Blair's torture and death which will show us where they are. He wants us to prepare and he wants us to go after him, but he doesn't expect it yet. He now knows that I am Harry Potter, but I don't see how he can know about the amount of training I have done for this exact opportunity."

The debate shifted onto attack plans and a muggle savvy shadow dragon used the computer David had set up in his library and shielded to work despite the magical fields around, to look up satellite photographs of the area on the internet. They used these to work out the terrain they would be dealing with. As their plans progressed the shadow dragons who had been sceptical that this David was the same as the one they had met before began to appreciate how knowledgeable he was. This led to the question of how he had received his training since the former dragonmaster's influence was obvious. David simply said that he had been very lucky.

"Who would have thought that You-Know-Who would hide out in a muggle tourist location?" commented computer operator in disbelief at her findings. "According to the website the castle has been open to visitors for a couple of weeks but there's nothing about anyone noticing something odd."

"I imagine he felt that it would be the last place anyone would look for him," said Arthur. "As you said, who would have thought it? I believe there's still a muggle family living in the castle – their presence could be a complication."

At two in the morning the seven warriors, one for each part Voldemort's soul had been split into, left the wards of Lions' Den and apparated away to St Michael's Mount off the Cornish coast. The antiapparition wards caused them to arrive at Marazion on the mainland rather than the island itself.

"Looks like we're walking on water," announced Arthur. "We forgot to look up the times of the tides, but I reckon high tide either was or will be in a couple of hours from now. The causeway is impassable. It's a good thing we're wizards, or at least magic users," he corrected looking towards the zia. "Where's the lad gone?"

"I imagine he made it through the wards," commented Albus calmly. "He makes a habit of that." He started off down the beach. "Come on, we can't let him have all the fun!"

David had arrived in the castle gardens and found that he was alone. Reckoning that the rest of his taskforce would be joining him shortly he decided to scout out the location of their targets while he waited. He carefully traced the magic of his connection to Voldemort back to its source hoping that he would determine where the dark lord was without his own presence being detected. As far as he could tell he was successful. Voldemort appeared to be sleeping in one of the rooms in the castle. He hoped that Nagini would be close to her master.

As the shadow dragons drew closer to the island the telepathy spell they had performed allowed David to become aware of their presence and he left his hiding place to join them and begin the infiltration of the castle. Many alohomoras and a lot of creeping around later they neared the area of the castle that David had specified. Given the time it was not surprising that their quarry were asleep, and it certainly made things easier. The group rescued the prisoners first and the witch who had used the computer earlier portkeyed away with the St Aubyn family and Tony Blair. To them the whole experience would become nothing more than a bad dream once they had been debriefed.

The group then split up. Albus and David headed towards the room they had identified as Voldemort's and had confirmed that Nagini was with him, and the other four took the rooms that they now knew contained several Death Eaters who had escaped from Azkaban, as well as Narcissa Malfoy.

David went first and silently apparated into his nemesis's room and cast a stunning charm on him before he could notice the intrusion. By the time Albus had received the all clear and entered via the door it was pretty much all over. What remained was to kill Nagini in such a way as to destroy the horcrux. Here their compassion was almost their undoing as David revived the snake to explain what they had to do and apologise for its necessity. Nagini was loyal to the core and as cunning as her master and almost had David convinced that she was harmless enough to grant a final request to die on the beach before Albus broke the hypnotic spell that the parseltongue had over him and they killed the snake.

After what had happened with Nagini Albus flatly refused to allow David to revive Voldemort so that he could be brought to trial as technically he should be since he was already subdued and they were not killing him in active self defence. After his experience with the justice system being bypassed and taking into account his oath to pursue justice David found it very difficult to serve as judge, jury and executioner, even to Voldemort, but he was convinced of the necessity. After a long examination of the dark lord's body and absolute proof that it was him and not an impostor or some poor prisoner who had been disguised as a bluff, David broke his neck with his own hands in a direct fulfilment of the prophesy that 'either will die at the hand of the other' more out of prudence than any real thought that it made a difference. Albus watched carefully both with his eyes and with his magical senses to ensure no revivable spirit remained. With the lengths Voldemort had gone to in order to remain in this world it was not surprising that his ghost remained.

David kept the ghost busy by returning its insults and allowing it to rave at him while Albus thoughtfully sent a message to Zachias Hobbs who was rounding up the Death Eaters. Hobbs had worked for the Spirit Division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures before Albus had personally recruited him to the shadow dragons. Hobbs was able to supply David telepathically with the knowledge he needed to control the ghost and force it to accompany them back to the Ministry for sending through the veil into the realm of the dead.

The taskforce regrouped at the Ministry where the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had already been notified of their activities by their colleague when she had arrived with the muggles. Amelia Bones, the department head, had turned up herself in her dressing gown to ensure that she did not miss anything. Upon the recognition that the ghost being brought in was that of You-Know-Who she fast tracked the whole process and personally debriefed the task force on their activities while a couple of her assistants recorded the whole meeting for prosperity.

One of the spotty assistants insinuated that David should be arrested because he did not have permission to kill anyone, and even if he had been acting as a shadow dragon he did not follow the correct procedure for dealing with a subdued suspect. Bones immediately quashed this idea in a no-nonsense way and pointed out that it would have been highly irresponsible to invite You-Know-Who to the Ministry for a chat over coffee and cakes.

It was six in the morning by the time everything had been cleared up to Bones's satisfaction. She was very thorough and as she signed the last document she assured David that there was no way anyone could turn his actions against him, and glared at her soon to be ex-assistant who had suggested such a thing. It was suggested that David stay at the Ministry to take part in the press conference but he declined.

"I'm technically on my honeymoon," he pointed out. "And as pleased as I am that Old Voldie is finally gone, I did kind of drug my spouse so that he would not come along on the trip and I need to go and make a contrite apology. I think it will be easier if I'm there when he wakes up rather than leaving him to wonder what's happened."

"If he doesn't immediately forgive you send him to me," Bones told him her eyes glinting. "Not that I approve of you treating him that way, but I can't say I'm sorry that you did."

As David left he heard her say to Albus, "Well now that you've got proof you were right all those years ago your reinstatement as chief warlock should finally go through. Things are better now that the Minister doesn't personally 'oversee' all the trials but we could do with a leader of the Wizengamot who actually knows something about the law. You'd never have allowed that new teacher you've got to get away with saying that full disclosure of his names would leave him in contempt of court and so he couldn't be forced to do so. Though I have to say that defence was quite amusing and young Weasley needed pulling down a few pegs."

Remus awoke slowly at about ten o'clock and found that he was alone. The events of the previous evening came back to him and his initial anger was soon replaced by alarm that David had not returned as he had promised. He had promised that he would be there when Remus awoke, that everything would be over by then. Remus swung his legs carefully over the side of the bed still a bit groggy from the sleeping draft and pulled on his dressing gown before checking that David was not in the bathroom. He was not; nor could Remus work out where he was from the bond. In fact he could not feel anything from the bond, other than that it was still active so David was not dead.

"Simba?" Remus called.

"Sire Remus," said the house elf as she popped into the room. "Oh Sire Remus, Simba is so sorry."

Remus paled and his agitation grew. "What's happened Simba?" he asked urgently.

"Lord David's left sir," said the distraught house elf. "Lord David is upset. He needs his Sire sir but he is leaving and he is forbidding the house elves from looking for him. He is giving Simba this letter for Sire Remus." She held out the letter which was closed with the official Crimson Lord's seal.

Remus took it thinking the decoration oddly formal and started to read. He sank down onto the bed as he did so. No, this could not be happening. The news that Voldemort was gone forever was wonderful but what followed was terrible. 'It has happened again. I told you I could not cope if it happened again. I have to leave. Do not look for me.' The rest of the letter was full of instructions on how to run the affairs of the Crimson House and where to find the equipment and records to help him do so. It was completely formal apart from those few sentences whose brevity was the only indication of the emotions they portrayed.

"At least he appears to still have most of his marbles," thought Remus as he collapsed backwards curled up on the bed trying to contain his own emotional devastation.

"Sire?" asked Simba. "Sire Remus is there anything Simba is doing to help Sire?"

"Sirius," croaked Remus. "Please get Sirius."

THE END (to be continued in the sequel)

Author's Note

Thanks everyone for reading so far. Sorry to those of you who had chapter 19 twice instead of a chapter 18 - the problem is now fixed.

This story is the first novel length thing I have written since I was 15 and also my first Harry Potter fanfiction. I have written lots of bits which then got scrapped - for instance Harry was called Romulus initially and was deaged to appear as an eleven year old first year at Hogwarts (no romance in that one). Eleven chapters in I hit on the concept of the zia houses and everything changed. The cut I made that I am least happy with was to this chapter, so I am asking for opionions. Originally it included the conversation with Simba which prompts David's departure. I felt this was giving too much of the sequel away and cut the scene. Without it I feel the ending is a bit too abrupt and leaves the reader feeling a bit dissatisfied.

So your thoughts please - let me know if you want that scene or not. Part of the reason for David's departure is obvious from the first chapter of the sequel - but should it be explained at the end of this story too? I hope to make a decision either way within the week.

Jananda

13 Dec

Okay, I haven't had many requests for the missing scene and those who have read it agree that while it is nice to know WHY, the story works better without it being explained at this stage - so I'm not going to post the missing piece. But again, if you want it let me know and I'll email it.

JS