Chapter Thirteen: The End of the Riddles

Lord Voldemort lie cold, pale and lifeless on the ground in front of his own mansion. With his death brought the end of the Riddles. Killed by his archenemy, he was defeated, and lie in the grass, where his daughter had lain, minutes before. Harry Potter pocketed his wand and held Ashlyn Riddle's in his hand, wondering what he should do with it. He held it tight and then went into the forest to properly bury Ashlyn. He remembered the exact spot where she was, because he had dreaded taking the path he had taken to get there. Not because of the forest, or anything in it, but because of the dead girl in his arms that he was moving.

When he got back to her body, it felt so strange to be looking at, lying there dead, when he had just seen her come out of her own wand. He slowly began to pile the dirt out of the ground with a large rock he found, and in two hours, he had finally dug a big enough hole, for Ashlyn to lie in. He gently picked her up in his arms and looked at her face one more time before slowly and carefully lowering her into the freshly dug hole. He put her wand in her hand and clasped the lifeless fingers around the piece of wood. Tears fell down his face as he used his own wand to levitate the dirt and place it over her.

After the dirt was firmly packed over in a little mound, signaling the place where the last Riddle lay, he stood up, his knees aching from kneeling down for so long. He stared at the mound for a few more seconds before turning in place and Disapparating away from the place. He appeared in front of the visitor's entrance to the Ministry of Magic and he slipped in. He racked his brains for the numbers to get in and quickly punched them in. The cool female voice rang out and asked him what his purpose for visiting the ministry was.

"Harry Potter, I am here to deliver news to the Minister of Magic." He said, loudly. A pin issued out with the words: Harry Potter, News Delivery. Harry hastily put it on, and wished the telephone booth would hurry up and go down. As it slowly began to descend, he began to breathe easily.

He soon entered into the Atrium and had no time to be amazed this time. He hurried to the wizard at the desk and handed him his wand. The man checked it, and handed it back to Harry.

"Do you know where I could find the Minister? I have some very important news to tell him."

The wizard raised an eyebrow at Harry, "He's in his office, fourth floor."

Harry thanked him and rushed over to the lifts. He was thankful that they were not crowded as he stepped into one. He waited as it stopped at each floor picking up some people and letting others off. When they finally reached the fourth floor, Harry was the only one who got off. He hurried down the hall, looking for the door to the Minister's office. It was all the way down at the end of the hall; it was very large and dark brown, and had a large golden doorknob. Harry knocked on it, now quite unsure why he didn't just send an owl.

"Enter." Came a deep voice from within.

Harry ran a hand through his hair and slowly opened the door. Rufus Scrimgeor looked worse for wear. He looked even more tired, and his hair looked like it had been run through with a hand one too many times. He glanced up when Harry entered, then looked back down at his papers. Then quickly looked up again, as if just registering that it was Harry Potter in his office.

"And to what do I owe this pleasure?" he said sarcastically, for Harry and Scrimgeor's last meeting was not on friendly terms.

Harry got straight to the point, "Lord Voldemort is dead. He lies on the ground in front of his mansion."

Scrimgeor stared at him blankly for a few moments, then stood up, carefully, "Are you quite sure?"

"Definitely, because I killed him."

Now Scrimgeor's eyebrows met his hairline, "You? You, a seventeen year-old boy, killed the evil wizard that has been terrorizing us all?"

Harry crossed his arms over his chest, "You sound surprised, Minister. Did you not know that it was me that was destined to kill him? Me, the enemy he chose himself."

Now the minister's eyebrows were almost lost in his mane of hair, "Potter, you can not be serious?"

"Here, check my wand. The last two spells I cast were killing spells. One to kill his snake, and the other to kill him."

Scrimgeor stuck out a shaky hand and Harry set his wand in it.

"Prior Incantato." Scrimgeor pointed his wand at Harry's and a shadowy figure of Voldemort, though much smaller, appeared and stood on Scrimgeor's desk. The Minister's face paled and he quickly made the figure disappear. He handed the wand back to Harry, "So, the spell was done with your wand, how do I know it was you who cast it?"

"You can't know unless you trust me. I can tell you where to go to find him. Though I'm not sure the exact location." He told the Minister of his suspicions of where he was quite sure the mansions resided.

Scrimgeor nodded and looked over at Potter, "You do realize that there will be a big celebration; many people will think of you as a hero."

Harry nodded, "But it is going to take a long time to clean up the mess he made. And right now, all I want to do is go back to school, and finish out my seventh year. As a normally seventeen-year old. The celebration can wait a few months."

Scrimgeor nodded, "Myself and a few Aurors will go to the location you gave me and we will dispose of him. Then we will devote our time to catching the rest of his Death Eaters, because once they find out that he is truly dead, they will go on a killing spree."

"You don't need to remind me. Good luck, Minister." Harry stuck out his hand.

"Good job, Potter." Scrimgeor shook Harry's hand.

Harry left the office and went back to the Atrium to take one of the Floo Networks back to Hogwarts. He decided to come back in McGonagall's fireplace, so she would be the first to know. She looked up immediately as he began to swirl into her fireplace. Harry stepped out of the ashes and went over to the Headmistress.

"Professor." He said.

"Potter?" she said it as a question, wondering if his mission was a victory, and why he came back alone.

"Voldemort is dead. He will not terrorize us anymore." Harry sat down and rubbed his eyes, "The only problem is, that so he could die, his daughter also had to die."

"His daughter? Potter, Lord Voldemort did not have a daughter."

"Yes, he did. He left her for thirteen years, and when he finally came back to her, he planned to have her bring me to him. But, she met Dumbledore and Regulus Black, and they convinced her to switch sides," McGonagall looked about to interrupt, so Harry quickly added, "Regulus had to pretend he was dead to keep himself out of Voldemort's wrath. But now he is dead, only to help destroy Voldemort."

"So, who is Voldemort's daughter?"

Harry looked up at her, tears in his eyes, "Ashlyn."

"Ashlyn? The girl that went with you? Ashlyn Richardson?"

"Yes. She wanted to change her last name, so no one got any suspicions. She wanted nothing to do with her father. I guess it runs in the family." Both the student and the headmistress grinned very small.

"So, she went with you on your mission, why?"

"To help me destroy the last two parts of Voldemort's soul."

"He had Horcruxes?"

"Yes. Dumbledore helped me to learn what most of them were, and I destroyed one, Dumbledore destroyed another, Ashlyn and Regulus destroyed one, and then I destroyed two, which took the life of Ashlyn."

"Why did it take her life?"

Harry took a deep breath and explained to her how to destroy the Horcruxes, "And Ashlyn had to kill Regulus because he told her to, because he had touched the Horcrux. And Ashlyn asked me to kill her because she had held two of the Horcruxes in her hands. I had to do it. Professor, I had no choice." Tears ran down his cheeks and he looked up at McGonagall.

Her face softened and she circled the desk over to him, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Harry, it's all right. You did what you had to do. She understood this."

He nodded, "I know. It was harder than anything I ever had to do. Even harder than killing her father."

"Does the ministry know?" McGonagall asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Yes. And they are preparing to search for his Death Eaters."

"Good. Now, Potter, you have three very anxious friends awaiting your return in the Gryffindor common room. You should go see them, and put them out of their agony."

Harry smiled sadly, and nodded. Then he left the office and hurried back to the common room. When he got there he stood in front of the Fat Lady, taking a deep breath and wiping his eyes. He said the password and she swung open, letting him in. As soon as he stepped into the room, three people attacked him with hugs. Hermione got their first; she had a lot of practice at this, then Ginny got there and latched onto him around Hermione. Then Ron got there and wrapped all three of them in his long arms. Harry smiled, he finally felt at peace, with his three friends around him, hugging him.

He gently pulled away and looked all three of them in the eye. Hermione saw that something was wrong and she immediately asked, "Harry, what happened?"

He led them all to the seats in front of the fire, and Harry realized with a pain, that just this morning Ashlyn had sat in one of those, knowing that she was going to die. He now knew that she had known for a while. And that is what had worried her so much. He sat his friends down and told them the whole story of his mission, he had to explain to Ginny what Horcruxes were, but after that and telling them all that Ashlyn was Voldemort's daughter; the story went by quickly. The girls were in tears by the end of the story, and Ron's jaw was locked tight. He looked up at the three of them and they looked at him, sorry that he had to go through all of that. Ginny placed her hand on his and looked into his eyes.

"Harry. You were very brave. It takes a great deal of courage to kill your enemies, but even more so to kill your friends for the good cause."

Harry nodded and lay his head on her shoulder, just wanting to rest and block out the day. She lay her head on top of his and smiled sadly. Ron and Hermione watched the two of them, silently apologize and make up, and become friends again. Harry then looked at his three friends, the three people, that no matter how hard it got, stuck with him and always believed in him. And even though he lost Ashlyn, the girl he loved, he knew, that just maybe, because of her sacrifice and her encouragement, he could live the rest of his life normally.

Well, as normal as Harry Potter's life could get.

A/N: I hope you guys liked this story. I worked hard on it, and as much as I enjoyed writing it, I'm kind of glad it's over, so I'm not leaving any of you guys in cliffhangers. ahaha. Anywho, please let me know what you think, and leave your thoughts on what you think was good about it! Let me know what you think of how Voldemort died. Let me know what you think of Ashlyn. Let me know about what you think about Harry and Ashlyn. Just let me know what you think! ahaha. R&R, please!

love you guys!

-Jacki :)