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Chapter 47: Something Wicked This Way Comes

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It was an hour after dawn when the rescue effort began. The site’s protection spells were overcome quietly by the Ministry’s best enchantresses and sorcerers who made pathways through the layers of deadly curses surrounding the old ruins of the castle. Speed was essential once they were through the barriers. Powerful Reducto curses blasted through stone walls and into Voldemort’s lair at three points simultaneously. Through these points poured in combined forces made of Aurors and Inquisitor strike teams, the first time these had really acted in unison under the combined command of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

The teams all entered ready for a pitched battle, but within minutes the truth was evident, the trap was empty. Appearances were that the Death Eaters must have left only a couple of hours earlier with the intent of returning to the hideout later. That wouldn’t happen now though. It took about ten minutes of searching before they found the old dungeons and the bodies of the five missing Ministry officers. They were disapparated to St. Mungo’s for an autopsy.

The Coroner’s examination of the bodies of Moody and Bartleby showed that they had been severely tortured, and there were a number of post-mortem trauma injuries. Someone had vented considerable rage on the dead bodies. When the examination revealed the presence of poison in their mouths it was apparent why there had been such rage, the prisoners had killed themselves before their tormenters had everything they wanted from them.

“But how much did they tell before they died is what I wonder,” said Kingsley Shacklebolt to Hooch and Balzhoff.

“Harry is already warned,” said Balzhoff. “We have to assume they got something from them. No one could have withstood what they went through. Snape probably did the mindscan; the bastard is brutal but effective, even with the likes of Moody and Bartleby.”

“I still can’t believe Moody had poison injected into his balls to make suicide pills with,” said a crying Hooch. “I knew the old son of a bitch was crazy, but I didn’t know he was that crazy.”

“What’s even crazier is that he actually ended up using them,” added Kingsley.

Returning to the Ministry building, Shacklebolt and Hooch made their report to the Minister in person. The Minister had been one of the optimistic hopefuls that Voldemort had quit the country, and the war was over. The disillusionment resulting from today’s salvo was written on his face.

“Apparently we are indebted to Mistress Balzhoff for sharing her informant with us, if only we had known a little earlier it might have provided more benefit. Anyway, we must assume that You-know-who intends to attack the Ministry here, why else take the Inquisitor General, and Moody.”

“Sir,” said Hooch, now acting Inquisitor General, “we believe that Voldemort is still focused on finding and killing Harry Potter. He believes Potter to be the chief threat to his control of the Ministry.”

“Nonsense,” replied Scrimgeour, “Potter is barely of significance to him, Potter has embarrassed him on occasion and he wants revenge, but that is all. No, he tortured Moody and Erinyes for information on our defenses here, how to breach our spells so that he can get to me. I am the key to his defeat, if he can unseat me then he wins, but he’ll not do it. I want all available forces located here to protect the Ministry building and my office. I shall defy the bastard.”

“What a twit!” exclaimed Kingsley as he and Hooch went down the hallway outside Scrimgeour’s office. “When do you think something will happen?”

“No way to tell unless we know what was leaked, but it could be soon, maybe tonight.”

“What is Pansy’s status?”

“She hasn’t been recalled yet, we’ve also located young Crabbe and Goyle. They are staying incognito in a muggle flat that is owned by the Malfoy family. That ties Narcissa into the plot. They are just sitting around eating and watching the muggle telly.”

“Are you going to pull her from her cover?”

“I warned her that she might be exposed if Bartleby talked, and if a sudden recall came to not go back. But she’s a brave girl; she said if she can she’s willing to keep trying. She was very loyal to Erinyes, and loved her like a second mum. She’ll want some payback.”

“Good for her then,” said Kingsley. “I’m going to put extra guards around the building on the off chance Scrimgeour is having his one-in-a-million chance of being right come true. I’ll leave every available Auror I can on reserve; if you can throw in some troops to help they’ll be appreciated.”

Hooch just nodded as she walked along side him. She had been up all yesterday and all last night, it would be dark in about three hours, with all the work she had to do she wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight either. She just wished she knew what Voldemort was up to.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Voldemort glared at Bellatrix and Snape as they stood before with heads bowed. They had told him what had been learned from the prisoners, and it startled even him. Potter knew he was the Heir of Merlin, the wave of power that he had felt three months ago had indeed come from Potter trying out his new strength. He was extremely wealthy, and owned the Golden Unicorn, its elves, and a luxurious palace in Godric’s Hollow.

For Voldemort, to hold such wealth and opulence would cement his control over the Ministry apparatus, and control of the bordello would give him a way to reward loyalty. If the line of Merlin were truly extinguished then he could bring the elves under his command by force. This opportunity had been entirely unexpected. Equally astonishing was the fact that the line of Gryffindor was not extinct, that Dumbledore had fathered daughters, and now they were joined with Potter. One of these was even carrying his child, an heir to both Merlin and Gryffindor.

The only causes for disappointment was that the prisoners had been carelessly allowed to die without their deepest thoughts revealed, and he wondered what vital information had been lost because of that failure. Then there was the raiding of his hideout of the past three months by the Ministry within hours of his abandonment of it. How they had located the position he did not know, but it was worrisome at the moment.

Under normal conditions, Voldemort would have punished Bellatrix and the Carrows for their failure to properly secure the prisoners, but there was no time and he needed them ready to fight. The moment of victory or defeat was upon them. Voldemort now surveyed his diminished band of followers; he had recalled only his most senior Death Eaters to the caverns where he now prepared them for tonight. If Snape was correct, and there was an informant in his ranks, then the fewer involved in the strike the lesser the chance of being betrayed.

“My friends, we have labored long and hard in our cause, now the moment is here to make our final strike. We seek victory or death, no half measures will do now. Severus and we have busied ourselves with our final reserves that wait in the cavern room without. Long ago, we began preparation for such an event as this. Within these caverns is an ancient lake of preservative powers. Within we placed the bodies of muggles, witches, and wizards we killed and made into Inferi. They have served us for quite some time and, so we thought, protected something of great value to us. We now know that the item has been stolen, but our servants have remained.”

“My Lord,” asked an amazed Bellatrix, “how many Inferi are there?”

“We have accumulated about two thousand such servants, they feel no pain, no fear, and are immune to most defensive spells known to the average wizard, even Aurors. We had to wait until the freezing cold temperatures had passed before we could employ them in the open. Severus and we have prepared them into company and battalion groups, we have prepared port keys that may be remote activated by our command to beacons that will be set in place by you shortly. From there they will attack their targets and practice death and destruction upon them with an utter ruthlessness. We and you will support the attack, add to the destruction and confusion, as well as pick off enemy security forces as they respond.”

“My Lord, two thousand Inferi?” asked Jugson. “What is our target, the Ministry?”

“No, it is Godric’s Hollow. We shall destroy it to draw out Potter, his coven, and his sword of Gryffindor to defend the multitudes who will be ripped to pieces by my living corpses. As he tries heroically to save them, we shall destroy him. The Ministry will collapse without Godric’s Hollow; the Goblin’s will deal with us to get their precious cashflow resumed. We shall absorb Potter’s assets and use them to buy whatever we can not take outright.”

“When do we attack them, my Lord?” asked Alecto Carrow, quite excited at the thought of such mayhem and death.

“We attack tonight, by morning’s light we are all victorious or dead,” Voldemort said calmly, surveying his minions carefully for signs of weakness. The faces of those around him were grim, but showed a determination not to veer off this close to the goal of power they all sought. “Severus and Wormtail will brief you on your assignments. Once the assault begins, we shall place anti-disapparation charms at key areas to prevent the escape of civilians. The Ministry will be able to collapse them with little effort once they arrive, but the damage should have already been done by that point. Those who do escape will only spread the panic further with their tales.”

Then Voldemort dismissed all his followers to the outer cavern to prepare themselves for their night’s mission. Only Severus Snape hesitated to leave.

“A final question, my Lord,” asked Snape. “What shall we do when Potter and his coven arrive? If he is a true warlock how shall we overcome him?”

“Leave the boy warlock, the blood heir of Merlin, to us, Severus. We know a thing or two about blood and bloodlines that he doesn’t. We knew who he really was when we sought his destruction all those years ago. We thought his survival was evidence of his bloodline then, we did not think of his mother’s sacrifice as the cause. Upon our return, we anticipated he might use this ability again against us even without knowing of it. So we took a very prudent precaution, it was not for vanity’s sake that we insisted upon Potter’s blood to be used in our reconstitution. There is a weakness in his situation that Potter knows not of, and we shall exploit it tonight. Our dear Mr. Potter is going to get a nasty shock when he tries to bring his warlock’s power to bear on one who is a more powerful wizard, and who shares his blood. Now let us to our work begin.”

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

It had been a tense day for Harry, Hermione had brought Hooch’s warning the morning before, and since then Harry had helped with checking the defenses at the Unicorn, his own and the Delacour’s villa, and Grimmauld Place. Last night the Unicorn had been closed, as had much of the hill, as people were frightened by the kidnappings. It had been odd to look out and see the streets nearly deserted on a Friday night, but now it was Saturday night and the jitters had worn off a bit. The hill would be pretty much back up to full blast as most were still wanting to consider this an isolated event, or an act of retribution aimed solely at the security chiefs in the Ministry.

The city council had asked Desiree to reopen the Unicorn for tonight, citing that additional security would be made available in the streets. Harry had no doubt that the Goblins were behind the requests to business owners. The bastards operated on percentages and were scared they might miss out on an extra Galleon of two if the shops stayed closed for too long. Harry had managed a few hours sleep in the early afternoon in the flat bedroom. Ginny had stopped by to see if he needed any comforting, but Harry had been too tired to do anything but sleep.

Now as it grew full dark the fears returned. The crowds of party goers started to appear and it was like usual, except that there were more security wardens out and about, staying in the open and clearly visible to everyone. Harry had decided that he would stay in the flat tonight. Most of the Order members had moved back into the Garden of Delights from Grimmauld Place. Fleur had night duty at the Unicorn and was in the office watching the operations. Desiree and Gabrielle were at the Delacour villa. They were as ready for trouble as they could be.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Deputy Security Warden Penelope Clearwater was tired and upset. This was supposed to have been her weekend off, and she still had two free visits to the Golden Unicorn left from the bribe she had received last October. She had planned on using one of them tonight. She had this little ongoing fantasy with an amazing elf named Slitmuncher, where he became Adonis and she was the goddess Venus. It was wild sex and very, very satisfying. That elf knew what he was doing when his toga hit the floor.

However, since the kidnapping yesterday she had been on constant call, everyone was. She had gotten maybe four hours of sleep early this morning, and then went through loads of tedious situation report meetings. What a manky job this had turned out to be. She had imagined things going so much differently in school. She would marry well and live in luxury with her husband, and children. Instead, the bastard she had spent nearly two years putting out for found another pretty little witch he hadn’t stuck his nob in yet, and dumped her less than four months after graduation from Hogwarts. So here she was, working for a living. She’d only taken this job so she could live here and maybe meet another wealthy wizard, but if her expectations kept dropping she might even make do with a rich muggle. She knew plenty of witches who had married muggle money. It would beat doing this shit for a living.

For now, she had security sector command of the entranceway from the village to the hill, including the DeShay park area, which everyone called ‘the Shag.’ That’s where the wierdos liked to hang out. There was always some weird shit going on in that park at night, Penelope usually tried to stay clear of it after dark. She was out of luck on that count right now; she had duty until the 5 AM closing time; three more hours and she could get some sleep.

As she patrolled towards the gate, she could hear the drunken crowds in the streets on the other side of the park, as well as laughing from the park. Everybody was having a good time getting drunk, and laid, everyone except her. There was a mist in the air, which brought out the weirdness in some people too. Walking along she saw a group of people walking up the main road towards her in the night fog. They were walking funny, like they were already drunk. Magi were not supposed to be partying in the village where they might show off in front of a muggle, and they didn’t need to be wandering in the road. Penelope decided to go deal with them.

Using her wand to light the way in front of her, she called out to them. The group immediately picked up their staggering pace and closed in on her. As they closed to within twenty yards of her, Penelope started to get really worried, they were naked. She hadn’t forgotten what had happened the last time she saw a naked guy running towards her in the park. This time it was a group of men and women, all naked and pale, in fact, they were deathly white. As they got to within ten yards of her, and still closing fast, Penelope was horrified to realize that they were magically animated corpses called Inferi. She turned to run and saw that more were coming from the sides at her, grasping for her. The only escape was over the rail fence and to run through The Shag.

She ran through the bushes as fast as she could, but they were coming after her. Penelope tried to disapparate to the station house, but she couldn’t, something was blocking her ability to focus on the landing point. At that moment, a cold slimy pale hand grabbed her shoulder and nearly pulled her off her feet. With a twist and a lunge forward, she broke the hold and took off running for her life. She knew she should use her wand to send up a signal alert, or send a warning patronus, but was just too damned scared to care about anything but running right now. Up ahead of her, towards the hill she now heard frightened screams of terror, there must be more of them up there too.

As she ran between the next set of bushes her legs were suddenly cut out from under her. She hit the ground stunned. She saw a flashing light as she tried to get to her feet, but she couldn’t get her balance. Then she felt hands on her, rolling her over. They had her, she was going to die, she started screaming.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Oliver Wood was having a fairly decent night so far. He was part of a legation of Scottish wizards attending a conference on the hill concerning next year’s Quidditch World Cup tournament scheduling. His uncle owned the Edinburgh Dragonhearts, and his patronage had allowed Oliver to obtain an assistant coaching position with the team after he retired from professional play due to an injury. The meetings were as boring as old Binn’s classes back at Hogwarts, but the action afterwards in the clubs was hot.

Oliver made the pubs starting about eleven that night wearing his team jacket, which made it look like he was a real Quidditcher, instead of a sideline functionary. It was a genuine pussy magnet, better than any charm you could buy in Knockturn Alley. Tonight Oliver had found him a cute and voluptuous little redhead named Juliet something-or-the-other who loved the Dragonhearts, and who was already mostly drunk. It didn’t take but a few more drinks and a little Quidditcher bullshit to complete the process. Oliver figured there was no need to pay for a room for this one, it was strictly to be a cheap shag; and so he talked her into taking a stroll through the park and finding a likely place for a quickie.

After finding a secluded place, Oliver transfigured a team beach blanket between the bushes and settled in between Juliet’s legs for a bit of bliss. A few minutes later, Juliet seemed to be enjoying the ride and Oliver was close to starting his short strokes and finishing the deal when he heard a crashing noise coming through the bushes towards them. He figured it was drunken pranksters, and he put his arse in high gear to pop his load in Juliet before they interrupted him. He nearly made it before a dark figure ran full till into him, and knocked him sprawling off Juliet, the running figure flying through the air and hitting the ground hard.

“What the bloody hell is wrong with you?” yelled Oliver as he grabbed with one hand at the dazed and now screaming figure, while pulling his trousers up from around his ankles with the other.

“LUMOS!” said a disheveled Juliet as she lit the scene with her wand. “What is going on here?”

In the glare of the wand light, Oliver and Penelope recognized each other.

“Oliver?”

“Penny?”

“Quick you two,” Penelope shouted, remembering why she had been running, “run for you lives.”

“What are you playing at, bitch, I’ll —,” Juliet screamed, but her threat was cut short as several pale white arms emerged from the bushes and grabbed her, in an instant she was gone and her wand hit the ground. The bushes began thrashing as Juliet was torn apart by the Inferi while the hapless girl shrieked in terror and pain.

“Run damn it,” said Penelope as she got to her feet then began to collapse again. The fall had twisted her ankle, she couldn’t run. She struggled to get to her feet, then she felt warm hands hold her up and start moving towards the hill with her.

“I got you, Penny,” said Oliver. “What is that behind us?”

“Inferi,” said Penelope painfully as each step sent jabbing pains through her leg. “There are bunches of them back there, they’re attacking the hill. You can’t disapparate out, it’s blocked. This has got to be You-know-who’s work.”

As the couple retreated back to the hill, a ring of the undead was slowly closing in from all sides, supported by Death Eaters. Slowly at first, realization dawned on those in the outer ring of shops and houses of the attack. There was a panic that ensued in which a number of people were trampled, others tried to barricade themselves inside their homes, but flaming spheres launched by the Death Eaters soon set the buildings on fire forcing the occupants out into the now waiting arms of the Inferi to literally be torn limb from limb.

Theodore Nott, one of the Death Eaters assigned to support the attack, carefully worked his way through the park towards the Hill watching the panic stricken inhabitants being herded before the Inferi attack. With him were his girlfriend, Tracey Davis, and his best mate Adrian Pucey. They were all in their camouflage Ministry cloaks, courtesy of Umbridge and Fudge. The Dark Lord had promised them victory tonight, and so far all was going well. They watched in amusement as the townsfolk ran for their lives in terror. They were protected from the Inferi by their Dark Marks. Their assignment was to join others infiltrating into the park and pick off anyone who attempted to resist the Inferi using the Cruciatus curse, and leave them lying helpless for the Inferi to finish off.

A number of witches and wizards tried to defend themselves at first with standard spells only to discover they didn’t work on the dead. Only by trial and error under attack was it discovered that the creatures were frightened somewhat of fire. Several attempts at beating back the hordes of the living dead were made by impromptu stands of magi that allowed some of the trapped to escape and fall back on the hill. These were all soon broken up by Nott and his group, along with other Death Eaters teams from the cover of the park. A round of Cruciatus spells from them caused the resisting magi to crumple and then be taken by the Inferi. Elsewhere, resistance soon collapsed in the outlying areas as the terrified survivors fled in panic. The Inferi moved on towards the focus of the attack, the Golden Unicorn.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

“Wake up, Harry,” yelled Fleur, “we’ve got trouble outside.”

Harry gave a slight start as he realized he had nodded off sitting at the kitchen table. Jumping up, he ran to the veranda to look out over the hill and he saw the edges were on fire and streaming crowds moving into the center of the hill, towards the Unicorn. The village area of Godric’s Hollow was also aflame, and the sounds of screams resonated from it as the helpless muggles living there were under attack.

The sounds of running feet pounded in the hallway and a line of elves led by Bustanut entered Harry’s flat, breathing hard and bowing low.

“Good Master, you is in danger, they is coming here from all sides, we can not get you out, you must go into the darkness.”

“Who is coming for me, what’s out there?” asked Harry.

“The dead are walking tonight; the dark wizard has risen them from their sleep and sent them to kill you. We can’t apparate, he is blocking us, his power is centered on here, this is where he is coming.”

“Walking dead?” mused Fleur. “He means Inferi, Voldemort has sent in Inferi as shock troops. He wants to force you into the open.” Harry shuddered involuntarily as he remembered the creatures in the cavern lake that had tried to pull him into the water and drown him last year. They had almost as bad an effect on him as Dementors.

“Yes. Well I guess that answers the question of whether or not Bartleby broke and told them anything or not,” said Harry to Fleur. “Thank goodness neither Bartleby or Moody knew about Excalibur or the Horcruxes we’ve got salted away. We might shake his confidence a bit.”

“What do we do, Harry?” Fleur asked.

“You use the void to collect the coven, I’ll get Excalibur and the Horcruxes,” said Harry.

“There are a lot of people dying out there, Harry, what about them?”

“We can’t save them by going out there half arsed and getting ourselves killed. That’s what the bastard wants us to do; those fireballs aren’t coming from Inferi. There are Death Eaters out there with them helping create a panic. When we attack the Inferi they’ll attack us from all sides.”

“Harry, we have to do something to help them, there are whole families out there.”

Harry turned to the elf, “Bustanut, open the doors to the first floor, let everybody in seeking shelter. Order all the elves to become security guards to control the crowd. Shut everything else down in the building. We have the best protection spells on the hill I’ve been told. We will make a stand here. If that fails then one of us has to open the void from inside the Unicorn and prop it open, there’s no reason we can’t let the crowd go in there and come out someplace safe is there?”

“I don’t see why not, kind of like a private floo network?”

“Exactly, let’s get going. Get everyone out of the villa and have them rendezvous on the third floor. We’ll start the fight from there.”

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

“Something is dreadfully wrong out there, Minister, there were numerous calls for help then silence, we are receiving news that a number of conversations with people out there were cut off in mid word,” said Kingsley Shacklebolt to the Minister of Magic.

“That’s the muggle magic for you, their ‘tecknergee’ as they call it, it fails all the time,” said Rufus Scrimgeour. “That’s why I’ve insisted on staying with good old dependable owls instead of the mobile things the muggles harp on about.”

“The muggle technology doesn’t fail like this on its own, this had help. We had an agent who tried to apparate to the central police station with orders to report back immediately, he’s been gone for over fifteen minutes and no sign of him. None of our own communication works now, the Floo network and everything, muggle and magical failed at the same moment. That can’t be coincidence, Minister?”

Rolanda Hooch marched into the Minister’s office without knocking, “We have confirmation now, Minister. One of our agents working a case in a neighboring district was sent by me to check the site by broom. She got close enough to see numerous fires ringing the area, and nearly flew into a barrier that would have incinerated her. I’m afraid your man is almost certainly dead, Kingsley.”

“But we need more confirmation than that, maybe it’s a natural disaster, a forest fire or something. Maybe … maybe it’s just a decoy, like before at Hogwarts. The Death Eaters started a ruckus at Godric’s Hollow prior to launching their real attack. They are simply doing it again. I won’t be fooled this time. Or maybe it’s just Potter, you said he was responsible for the last panic attack they had out there. We need all our available forces protecting me … I mean the Ministry, which I embody.”

“Minister,” said Kingsley patiently, “if this were a decoy they would want us to know what’s going on there ….”

“You-know-who is very clever,” said Scrimgeour with his jowls shaking in denial. “This is a feint, a trick to get the Ministry building abandoned. I’m not falling for it.”

“Very well, Minister, I guess that is the most prudent course, but may we send a reconnaissance team to evaluate if the threat is real or not?” asked Hooch. “We would need an escort from the Aurors to protect the party while it investigated.”

“Well … I guess that would be all right,” said the Minister.

“How many agents are you sending with your reconnaissance party, Roe?” asked Kingsley once they were out of Scrimgeour’s office and earshot of him.

“Every goddamned thing I have ready, all my striketeams first, and then combat trained agents on followup,” she replied. “I’m going to drop them in front of this shielding spell and let them break through from the sides. If it’s this large it can’t be too powerful. You in with us?”

“Yes,” said Kingsley. “I’ll send in my advance teams with yours. By the way, you told the Minister in there that this was a reconnaissance?”

“It is. You never heard of a reconnaissance in force?”

“You would have made a good Slytherin,” said Kingsley with a smile.

“Shut your mouth!”

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

“This is the shit job to end all shit jobs,” thought Cho Chang as she prepared to go home after a long day. With Hogwarts a ruin, she had gone to work at the Godric’s Hollow branch of ‘Madam Malkin’s Robes for all Occasions’ thinking it would be an opportunity to pursue her interest in clothing design. However, she soon found that Madam Malkin had no interest in fashion or style, only in keeping the status quo alive in robes that dated to the Renaissance. All she did was copy the existing patterns and transfigure decorations to fit the pompousness of the wearer.

It was no wonder that more and more young magi avoided robes in favor of the muggle styles. Magi traditional clothing sucked arse, it was hot, bulky, made you look like a weirdo when out in public around muggles. “No wonder they used to burn us at the stake,” she thought, “it was probably the fugly clothes we were wearing.” Cho had ideas for styles based on traditional magi wear that could make a fashion statement, and even blend in with muggle society, but she had no opportunity to produce them. Nobody was interested in backing her.

She had started work on a portfolio of her designs, but had to do it on her own time after the shop closed. So it wasn’t unusual for her to be there working on her designs till the wee hours. Then she would hit the pubs for a bit before returning to her flat. Working late fit in with her present lifestyle, she didn’t have the money to drink all night, and most of the wizards who were just looking to get laid had already scored with a slut by now. She could get drunk in relative peace and wake up alone in a familiar bed midmorning tomorrow.

She turned out the lights and made her way to the front door. As she got there she heard a banging on the door. There were some drunken gits knocking on it. She had no time for them; she was headed up on the hill to her favorite pub to get shitfaced.

“GO AWAY,” she yelled through the door. “We’re closed.”

This only caused the knocking to increase, threatening to break the door. Angry now, Cho brought out her wand and threw open the door.

“Listen you arseholes, I said to …,” started Cho, and then the figures surged toward her into the light of the shop. It quickly dawned on Cho that the things grasping for her weren’t customers. “OH SHIT!” she screamed as she hurried to distance herself from them.

At least a half dozen of the creatures stumbled into the shop, Cho soon figured out that there were Inferi, and she knew what would happen to her if she got caught. She ran to the backroom and used her wand to unlock the door to the rear alley. Then, remembering her portfolio, she returned and grabbed it before running back to the door. Dashing outside she saw that more Inferi were already in the alley blocking escape at both ends. Seeing her, they started to converge on her. There was no way around them; the only hope was through them. Running as fast as high heel pumps would let her, Cho pointed her wand at the group of three Inferi blocking her way towards the hill.

“EXPECTO PATRONUM!” she yelled hoping she could focus on a happy enough memory when she was this frightened. From the end of her wand a silver swan flew out and immediately attacked the Inferi by slapping its large wings in their faces. The befuddled creatures grasped at the swan, this distracted them enough that Cho slipped past them and into the open. Emerging from the alley she saw that there were hordes of Inferi all over the place. There were flames now licking at the nearby structures as fireball spells seemed to be coming from nowhere and igniting them. She could probably out run the lumbering Inferi if she was wearing proper shoes, but not in four inch heels. Looking at the loose rock and broken glass all over the place she knew that trying to run barefoot would leave her feet in bloody shreds.

Then she remembered that she was a witch, she had taken transfiguration. Sitting on the ground she pointed her wand at each shoe, and in a flash, leather Manolo pumps became rubber-soled trainers. Jumping up she recalled her patronus and started hauling arse towards the Hill. A minute or so later she had reached the curve in the road by the park when two running figures emerged through the hedge in front of her. She raised her wand to call her patronus again.

“CHO DON’T!” yelled the closest figure, “It’s Penelope and Oliver Wood.”

“What do you think you’re doing jumping out like that?” asked Cho breathing hard.

“We’re running for our lives,” gasped Oliver, “and if you want to live you’ll join us, let’s go.” He set off up the road with Penelope in tow and Cho quickly following as she heard the sounds of the Inferi coming through the park towards them. They reached the top of the Hill amid a crowd of terrified magi moving towards the Golden Unicorn.

“We’re being herded here like sheep to the slaughter,” said Penelope between painful gasps for air. A horrified sweep of the surrounding landscape showed a circle of flames moving towards them, the area below was filled with screams of terror and pain as witches and wizards, many of them drunk, were caught by the Inferi and ripped to pieces. Those who tried to slow the creature’s advance were felled by spells from unseen wands.

“I know,” answered Cho, also gasping. “But there’s nothing else I know to do. Let’s keep going on back to the Unicorn, the Ministry has to know about this by now, settle in and hope help arrives. It worked for us at Hogwarts last Halloween.”

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Inside the void, Harry went to the mirror of Erised; entering the mirror he recovered Excalibur and the three Horcruxes. Coming out of the mirror, he found the five girls of his coven waiting for him with Ministry protective cloaks on. They were frightened, this was the real thing, they were going into a life or death fight against Voldemort. But they had confidence in Harry and in each other.

“Here is your cloak, Harry,” said Ginny as she handed Harry his protective cloak.

“We are with you, Harry," said Hermione. “Tell us what to do.”

“Let’s go back to the Unicorn first, and get with the rest of the crew,” said Harry. Exiting the void back to the third floor office, he found the rest of his group there waiting.

“What’s our strategy, Harry?” asked Remus.

“We’re letting the people outside have sanctuary in here, that will draw the Inferi into a tight group around the Unicorn. We’ll sortie out and destroy them in groups, and use their bodies to block flank or rear attacks from the Death Eaters.”

“What spells do we need to use on them, Harry, they’re already dead and unfeeling?” asked Hermione.

“True, Inferi are bewitched corpses, so normal spells don’t work on them,” came the answer back. “Our Patronus and fire spells should be able to drive them back, but to stop them we have to destroy the body by burning it to ash, or reducing it to dust.”

“So we’ll use the Fiendfyre, and the Petrifius Corpus curses to take them out,” said Balzhoff.

“Correct,” said Harry. “The coven will stay close by me, you stay under cover of the hood, Ginny, remember, you and Neville are still supposed to be dead. Fleur you have your sword, hang back behind the coven a bit and guard our rear. Remus, you and Ripa are flankers. I’ll go in front with Excalibur and try to focus sweeps on the Inferi in groups.

The group made their way to the first floor where the elves had all turned into security goons and were shepherding in the terrified crowd into the building. They made their way outside and stayed close to the building wall to allow the camouflage to blend in with the stone. Few of those running past even noticed them standing there.

Harry walked out to the stone steps that he had fallen down on his first visit to the Unicorn; there he placed the three Horcruxes on a step. He raised Excalibur and brought it down on the cup of Helga Hufflepuff, the tiara of Rowena Ravenclaw, and the locket of Salizar Slytherin in quick succession. Each gave off a loud pop and a small amount of smoke as it fractured, and what sounded eerily like a scream.

Harry knew instantly that something had happened, his head hurt like it had back in his fifth year when Voldemort was pissed off. If doing this had affected Harry this way, he figured it had affected Voldemort a great deal more.

“Harry,” shouted Remus. “Look at the Inferi; they stopped when you destroyed the Horcruxes.”

“They are just standing there like they don’t know what to do anymore,” added Ripa Balzhoff. “You’ve staggered the bastard with that.”

For several minutes the Inferi simply stood there staring blankly in front of themselves while Harry did his best to thin them out. They no longer had the driving force of Voldemort’s will behind them. They simply stood there as their corpses were consumed in flame, or simply collapsed into dust before Harry and the sword. The momentum of the attack stalled; buying those fleeing the Inferi time to reach safety. The Death Eaters escorting the Inferi froze in place too; they knew something had gone wrong. A few wondered to themselves if this was going to be another Hogwarts fiasco. Then the Inferi straightened themselves and resolutely took up the advance again. Voldemort had sufficiently recovered to resume the attack, but the initial advantage had been lost.

Harry saw the game was now in full play, with all the remaining living quarry having taken refuge in the Golden Unicorn all the Inferi now began concentrating on a movement there. As their ranks thickened, they blocked the Death Eaters hidden in the park from supporting their advance. Harry and the others could see quick flashes of movement in the bushes around the park and knew that the Death Eaters in there were repositioning themselves to attack them. The time to stop them was now before they got set, and it had to be settled quickly before the Inferi over ran the Hill. Harry remembered having watched a muggle film where someone was plagued by snipers hiding in the brush, and how he had handled it. If he focused his mind and swirled the sword in a circle as he moved it this just might work.

Harry went to the base of the steps while calling to the coven to follow him. Lifting Excalibur, he drew energy into himself from the coven, it felt good. Harry focused on an old spell to make it rain fire that was mostly used in the old days to show off. However, if you intensify the fire, and make it roll then you might have something definitely useful here.

“FIENDFYRE!” shouted Harry while he focused on the park area across from him. A thick stream of animated belligerent fire poured forth from the sword and engulfed the area across from the entrance. A wall of fire and smoke arose as the rolling wave of enchanted fire ignited the brush forming a deadly inferno as it sought out victims to consume.

Inside the bushes Pucey, Nott, and Davis were almost in position, they could see Potter and the others near the entrance. They were now pinned between them and the Inferi. They watched in confusion as they saw Potter point something their way, a sword or something; but curiosity quickly turned to horror as they saw a stream of fire pour from the tip and hit the ground to their right. The fire rose till it was a good twenty feet above the ground and the swirling flames took on the appearance of a death mask looking all about in the brush. The dark hollow eyes of the skull figure in the mass of flames locked upon the trio and quickly rolled towards them like an unstoppable wave of destruction incinerating everything in its path. The young Death Eaters gave a chorus of terrified shrieks and tried to run but the wave quickly engulfed them. The shrieks of fear became screams of pain as the Death Eaters found out that camouflage cloaks didn’t protect against the cursed flames. The last sight of this world that Theodore Nott had was as the burning flesh dripped from his hands, and then the searing heat caused his eyeballs to explode. Despite this, he was still on his feet screaming.

“I love the smell of Fiendfyre in the morning,” mused Harry, observing the chaos he had created in the enemy’s ranks. In the sea of red flame, a few darker figures could be seen writhing. Hermione raised her wand to send a killing curse at one of the shrieking figures that appeared to be a young witch, but Ginny batted her hand down.

“LET ‘EM BURN!” screamed Ginny. The others looked at Harry for confirmation; Harry in turn looked at Ginny. He saw the intense hatred in her eyes and knew she was owed. She shifted her gaze to Harry, who nodded back to her.

“Let those fuckers die screaming,” confirmed Harry. Ginny smiled at him. Harry knew she was definitely not the same sweet little Ginny he had known last summer.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Alicia Spinnet looked on in admiration as her boyfriend of the last two and a half months, Gabe MacMillian, led the way into Godric’s Hollow on point for the strike team. Gabe was the epitome of a proper Auror; he was intelligent, brave, and resourceful. He was also good looking, decently hung, and damn good in bed. The Death Eater’s anti-apparition shield had been breached by Ministry forces at several points in a fairly short time, and the teams were now making their way in on foot from several sides as quickly as they could. The problem was the terrain; the shield had extended out to the marshy lowlands surrounding the highground where Godric’s Hollow was. It was covered with muddy bogs and with shallow pools of water. The intertangled brush and trees impeded their progress as well. It was the perfect place for a Death Eater ambush.

Gabe and Christopher Madley scouted ahead of the team using muggle magic called infrared goggles to look for enemies lying in wait. Everyone had their protective cloaks on as well. The glow of the flames from the town was visible to them and they could hear loud screams from the hill. The Team Leader, Roger Davies, urged them forward with all due speed. As they reached the middle of a shallow pool of dark, foul smelling water, Alicia heard a splash as someone, probably one of the Inquisition people, fell into the water. Roger quickly spoke a warning to be quiet to the group, but then there were two more splashes in quick succession. These splashes were accompanied by screams of pain.

“There’s Inferi in the water!” came a shout from off to Alicia’s left as more splashes were heard. Then she looked down and saw them, there were human arms, pale human arms rising out of the shallow water and mud, grasping blindly for her legs. She jumped to avoid one pair of arms only to be snared by another and pulled down into the cold water. She barely managed a breath as her head went under, she kicked at the figures lying there as they tried to wrap their slimy white arms around her head and drown her.

She pushed up with her arms to try and get her head above water, to draw a fresh breath, but the mud gave beneath her, and the pull of the Inferi was unrelenting. She saw spots forming in her eyes and there was a loud buzzing in her head as her oxygen gave out. She felt a splashing around her and her head cleared the surface, she breathed deeply of the cool air, it had never tasted this good before.

“Sectumsempra!” shouted Gabe, using his wand to sever the arms of the corpse that had Alicia in its grasp. “Are you all right, Alicia?”

Alicia could only numbly nod in response as she got back to her feet. Her wand was gone, lost in the water. She bent down again to try and find it. Gabe told her to leave it and pulled her forward out of the pool. Inferi were now rising up from the places they had lain in wait like an animated minefield, there were dozens of them. Most of the team members were already down and struggling for their life with one or more of the loathsome creatures.

“Stay here,” shouted Gabe as he headed back into the water. “I’m going to try and help the others.”

Alicia shouted for him to come back, but to no avail. Gabe headed directly towards Roger Davies who was wrestling with two Inferi. Roger was dragged below the surface and held there by another Inferi perched on his back. Gabe used the Sectumsempra spell to decapitate the Inferi, but it had no effect on the enchanted corpse. Gabe then tried to push the Inferi off Roger, but failed to notice a third Inferi rise up behind him and grasp his head.

Alicia could only scream in terror as the Inferi twisted Gabe’s head in its hands and broke his neck with a loud snap. Gabe’s dead body fell with a splash across the legs of the now drowned corpse of Roger Davies. Hands grabbed at her and Alicia turned to see two of the Inquisition agents had made it out of the pool, only one of them still had his wand, and the other, a woman, had a broken forearm with the bone exposed through the skin.

“The others are all dead, we can’t help them; and we can’t go back the way we came in,” he said. “Only thing left is to go on.”

Alicia looked again across the deadly pool; in less than two minutes, a team of twelve highly trained Ministry agents had been reduced to just three, and one of them wounded. She wondered if the other teams had been similarly attacked, would anyone make it to the hill able to fight? The remaining Inferi were now coming towards the three of them; she gave Gabe’s body one last look and helped get the wounded agent out of there towards the only way open to them, forward towards the embattled Godric’s Hollow.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

“My Lord, what happened to you?” asked a very concerned Severus Snape. “You suddenly collapsed.”

“It was Potter,” gasped Voldemort. “He had some of us prisoner, and executed us. We felt the loss of our being. It staggered us, but we are essentially unharmed.”

“What do you mean he executed you?” babbled Snape. “Shall we call off the attack?”

“Absolutely not, this is what we have desired,” said Voldemort. “This means that Potter is about to counter attack, we have drawn him out of his keep. Now the fight begins in earnest. Did our servants capture a goodly number of the muggles inhabiting the lower town area as I ordered?”

“Yes, my Lord,” answered Snape. “They are about fifty under guard by the Inferi, mostly women and children. They are all quite terrified.”

“And the Ministry counterattack?”

“They have all either retreated back to the shield line or been decimated. Only a ragged handful appears to have made it through.”

“Excellent, maintain the pressure, and begin moving the hostages towards the hill. Our sentimental Mr. Potter will foolishly negotiate with us to save them. We are victorious or dead by dawn.”

“It is too dangerous for you to risk yourself, my Lord, allow me to go in your place.”

“No, Severus,” said Voldemort. “This is something that we must do, only we can do. We must get as close to Potter as we can at the moment of decision, preferably standing nose to nose.”

“But why is that, my Lord?” asked Snape.

“Because we were reconstituted using Potter’s blood,” answered Voldemort. “The blood of Merlin is in us as well. Magic has a hard time distinguishing between us, both ours and his. When he calls to his coven to deliver up their power to their Master to destroy us, we shall be standing right beside him. As the more powerful wizard with the blood of Merlin, the old magic will prefer me as its intended receiver. We shall hijack the power of the coven and release it back upon the warlock. This time it will be Potter who miscalculates the power of the old magic. Keep up the attack for now, never mind the losses. I want to meet Potter as the eastern sky begins to lighten.”

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

As the crowd of survivors coming to the Unicorn thinned, Harry and his coven kept the Inferi at bay. Using his sword and the Petrifius Corpus spell Harry turned nearly a score of Inferi into a cloud of dust within seconds; but it was still just a drop in the bucket. On they came with no fear, the next wave walked over the dust and ashes of their destroyed fellows. The napalm strike on the park area had surprised the Death Eaters waiting there and they had retreated leaving the Inferi unsupported. Inferi were difficult to kill, but once you knew how to do it, they made it easy for you to do it.

Staying close to the building Harry and the coven burned away the covering brush around the Unicorn, and concentrated on the compact groups of Inferi. Balzhoff, Remus, and others from the local security force now rallied around Harry and started picking off individual Inferi using the same spells as Harry. After over two hours of this there was a pause, some hoped the attack had been broken, but that was soon disproved.

New waves of Inferi came from the surrounding woodlands. Their pale bodies were covered with mud and dripping wet. Now they took up the attack. Harry knew that he was getting tired, and so was the coven, but he had to expend his energy destroying the Inferi, or let the citizens of the town die. Harry realized that this was exactly what Voldemort was waiting for. He wanted Harry to exhaust himself and his coven destroying his expendable Inferi. Then he and the Death Eaters would attack. It was a damn good plan, thought Harry.

Pushed ahead of the new waves of Inferi were the remains of the Ministry forces that had attempted to relieve the town, now they sought refuge there to join with those already fighting and make a stand. The survivors were who made it to the hill were too few to turn back the attacks moving in from all sides. Harry and his group were forced to move from quarter to quarter to drive back the Inferi, but they couldn’t be everywhere. Slowly, but surely the noose was tightening centered on the Golden Unicorn.

“Well now I know how General Custer must have felt,” thought Harry as he saw the Inferi closing in on all sides to within several hundred yards of the Unicorn’s outer walls.

Inside the building, the assembled crowds sat on the floor. The initial panic had subsided somewhat but there was still the sounds of crying from those that had lost family members. The elves did their best to keep order and calm. Desiree and Poppy did their best to help the injured, but some of the very badly wounded were beyond saving. Cho Chang came over to them and offered her help, which was gratefully accepted.

Joan Brennan was another one of those who had just barely made it through the ambushes. She had been in the grasp of an Inferi who pulled her down into the cold water and mud of a bog they had advanced through. By some deft wand work, she had severed the arms of the corpse from the body and then the head. It still moved but couldn’t find or grasp her. Katie Bell had pulled her out of the mud back to the safety of dry ground. Of a team of eight Aurors and eight Inquisition agents she had led in, only six had made in to the hill alive, and two of those were injured. The rest were suffocated in the mud, drowned in the low water, or had their necks broken. If it hadn’t been for Harry and his group, Joan reflected, this would have been a total massacre.

Taking her group back into the fight, Joan had positioned herself a little ways out from the Golden Unicorn on the road that led to the now brightly burning Black Cauldron Hotel. Alicia Spinet had obtained a wand, and along with Katie Bell, they took the other side of the road opposite Joan. The three were taking down stragglers when they saw another large group of Inferi approaching up the road from the town, but this group was different. In the center was a large knot of living people who cried out for help. Joan and the other two girls retreated back to where Harry and his coven were catching their breath.

Joan told Harry about the group of hostages. Harry decided to move forward towards them to investigate, telling the coven to stay back. The Inferi were closely intermingled with the terrified muggles, Harry knew he could not destroy the Inferi guards without harming the human prisoners. They reached a point about 100 paces from Harry, and then stopped. They were waiting for something. Harry was about to order the coven back to the shelter of the Golden Unicorn when he heard a harsh ringing of laughter from the shadows in front of him. He knew that laugh, he had heard it before.

Around the besieged hill area, the attacking Inferi stopped their advance and just stood still, waiting like the others. “This is it,” thought Harry, “he’s here now to settle this.”

The dim light of gray dawn was waxing the eastern horizon, but the fires from the burning hotel and shops lit the street brightly. A shadow stepped out from the side street and walked into the light, behind the shadow there were other shadows that formed a skirmish line about 25 yards behind him. It was Lord Voldemort, Tom Riddle; and his Death Eaters, they were there to kill him.

So the moment of truth had finally arrived, there in front of Harry stood the one he had waited to meet. Voldemort stepped forward while making a show of having no wand in his hand. He slowly advanced towards Harry, the same evil smirk on his face that had been there when he had tried to kill Harry in the Riddle family graveyard three years earlier. Harry figured that it was probably the same smirk he had worn when he killed his mum and dad. He felt Excalibur begin to draw energy from him.

“We meet again, as we both knew we would,” he said almost politely as he closed the distance with Harry. “So many have already died, so many more could die yet. Harry, this fight is really between you and me isn’t it? Why don’t we end this, Harry? Face me here and now, and I’ll let these muggle hostages go free, otherwise they die quite horribly. Your choice.”

“As if I can trust you?” asked Harry skeptically.

Voldemort turned to the remaining ranks of Inferi holding the terrified muggles and even a few magi hostages. He raised his hands and commanded the Inferi to release the prisoners and allow them to pass. The Inferi obeyed the command and the remnants of the Aurors and Inquisitors called the released hostages to them and funneled them back up the street towards the Golden Unicorn. Harry saw that his coven was about 30 yards behind him now, everyone was tense and ready, and he could feel their presence in their mind.

“My Lord, are you certain of this action?” said Snape cautiously from behind Voldemort. “That is not the Sword of Godric Gryffindor he carries.”

“What have we told you about questioning our actions, Severus?” asked Voldemort harshly, as he motioned for him to return to the others standing behind him. “We know what it is, that is the fabled sword of power that we tried in vain to pry out of old Merlin years ago. He quite wisely denied it to us, but he has bestowed it upon his legacy. We’re correct, aren’t we, Harry?”

“Yes,” said Harry flatly, “this is Excalibur. Merlin gave it to me to destroy you with.”

“And you have assembled a coven of beauties that even your ancient progenitor would be proud to fornicate with,” said Voldemort smoothly as he closed to within twenty feet of Harry. “Rumor has it that some of them already have a bun in the oven. You’ve been a busy little warlock over the winter, haven’t you?”

“Not too busy to prepare myself to kill you,” said Harry as he saw a group of people coming out of the Golden Unicorn to watch the two face off down the street. He looked briefly over his shoulder at the coven, they were frightened. He wanted to have a reassuring glance at Ginny, but she still had the hood in place so no one could see her face. Harry was scared, but this needed to end now.

“We’re sure you have expended considerable effort on your quest to become a warlock. However, being a warlock at your tender age is quite difficult. Oh, you’ve probably performed a few tricks on inanimate objects, but you’re not all that experienced yet. Not for a true duel with a wizard of our powers.”

“I’ve heard enough of your bullshit, lets end this,” said Harry.

“Very well then, lets,” replied Voldemort as he took another two steps towards Harry, and reached slowly into his robes to retrieve his wand. “Ready when you are, Harry.”

Harry had waited too long for this moment to linger over it, he drew upon his power and called to his coven for their power, then he lifted Excalibur and pointed it at Voldemort’s heart. It would be tricky, but he had to will the remaining Horcrux in him back into Voldemort as he died. “AVADA KADAVRA!” he yelled and saw a green glow emanate from the tip of the blade. Harry then tried to force the Horcrux out, but he couldn’t manage. The power draw from his coven surged, and then started to fizzle. The killing curse wasn’t nearly as powerful as it should have been.

As Harry sent his curse towards him, Voldemort quickly closed the gap between them till he was only a few feet away. He pointed his wand at Harry’s chest. “AVADA KADAVRA!” he incanted loudly and a stream of bright green light left his wand. The two combatants were so close that the beams met almost instantly. Harry’s inexplicably weak curse splintered into shards of light as Voldemort’s curse overwhelmed it. Voldemort’s curse lost much some of its power overcoming Harry’s, but it continued on and struck Harry’s protective cloak. Harry was immediately propelled backward screaming in pain.

As Harry fell to the ground, the entire coven felt a shock ripple through them as though they had been struck by a bludger. They all crumpled to the ground stunned. They looked on dazed and helpless as Voldemort quickly strode forward to stand over Harry and tear open the front of his cloak, leaving his body unprotected.

“Not quite as smart as you thought you were, are you boy?” he yelled down. “Seems we’re not the only one who forgot about the protections afforded by blood?”

Harry panicked, he was badly hurt, his heart was beating wildly, he could barely draw breath. He knew escape was not possible, but if he could kill Voldemort at least the coven and his children would be safe. Harry tried to lift Excalibur, but Voldemort stepped on his wrist, pinning it to the ground.

“No one to save you now, boy, is there? Not your mummy, not your house elf, not even dear old Professor Dumbledore, it’s just you and us now, so your sweet little arse is ours! Oh, by the way, thanks for getting us the sword, Harry. AVADA KADAVRA!”

Then came a flash of green light, just like he remembered in his dreams of the night his mother died. The light struck him in the center of his chest; he felt a momentary lurch as his heart was frozen in place. The pain was intense as a massive heart attack was induced almost instantly. However, the pain was fleeting as the spell acted quickly upon its prey. The darkness descended upon him rapidly as he felt his soul ripped from his body, Harry was dying. His last sight of the world was the leering face of Voldemort as he relished his triumph. Then the black veil of death slipped over him and then there was nothing.

However, Lord Voldemort intended to take no more chances with Harry Potter. As his enemy fell still, Voldemort was upon him. The sword of power was wrested from Harry’s limp hands and the tip was plunged repeatedly into Harry’s chest. Then the blade was used to hack Harry’s head from his gory torso. Picking the severed head up by the hair, Voldemort showed it to the stunned crowd.

“HERE IS YOUR PRECIOUS CHOSEN ONE!” he screamed waving the sword in the air. “AND THE SWORD OF POWER IS OURS BY RIGHT OF CONQUEST!”

The small group of magi who had witnessed the confrontation recoiled in horror. Potter had lost, and He-who-must-not-be-named had Excalibur to wield. Few had ever dared face the Dark Lord when he was armed only with a wand, now he had an artifact of the ancients at his command to enforce his will. His power would be multiplied several times over by that alone.

“WHICH ONE OF YOU WANTS TO TAKE POTTER’S PLACE NOW?” Voldemort screamed at the crowd.

Slowly, in stunned disbelief the coven members got to their feet, Harry was dead, he was really dead. This was no trick, his blood still poured from the shredded torso; his sightless eyes gazed at them from his severed head. Harry Potter was dead.