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The Afterlife and Times of Myrtle Potter	By : NormanCharles Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Harry/Hermione Views: 19696 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Okay, okay. I'm NOT JK Rowlings, I do not own Harry Potter. I make no money from writing these stories, I do it because it's fun and other people seem to enjoy what I write - the best of whom write review and tell me when I get it right and

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
Chapter 6: The Battle Ends and Aftermath

Harry Potter was down on the
cold stone deck of the rampart cradling Hermione�s unresponsive head against
his chest rocking back and forth.� With tear filled eyes he looked at Voldemort
and simply said, �Kill me.�

Voldemort smiled and raised his
wand �I said you would beg me for death; and I, being a merciful lord . . .�

Hermione moaned �no.�

Harry froze.

He dared hope for a miracle.

�Hermione?� he murmured.

She whispered, �On three hit
him with a flame hex, ready . . . one, two, three!�

On �three� they rolled away
from each other; she made a slashing movement with her wand and screamed �diffindo!�
as Harry shouted �inflamare!�

Voldemort�s extended arm
dropped to the ground, his fingers curling around his wand just before he burst
into flame.

Screaming he ran toward Harry
and Hermione but was stopped by a physical shield courtesy of Dobby.

�Harry Potter,� the elf said,
�he is healing far too quickly, we are just making him angry!�

To prove the point the flames winked
out and Voldemort�s blackened skin began to flake off revealing the unscarred
parchment white skin beneath.

�He has Lady Ravenclaw�s
healing jewel somewhere on his person� a calm voice said from just behind
Harry.� He spared a glance and saw the ghost of the Grey Lady.

Hermione asked, �how do you
know this, milady?�

�Because child, Lady Grey is
my married name, I was born Rowena Ravenclaw.�

Harry put as much power as he
could into the simple accio spell to retrieve the stone from Voldemort�s
possession.� He was fully prepared to hear tearing cloth or leather, from
whatever was holding the jewel; he did not expect to hear the dork lard
screaming in unholy agony as the stone ripped through the skin just below his
ribcage.� The gem, a fist sized blue sapphire, landed wetly in Harry�s
outstretched hand.�

Voldemort shrieked as he fell
to the stone floor, curled into a fetal ball and pressed both his hands on the
exit wound made from the summoned stone, but without the healing power of the
jewel he could barely staunch the flow.

Harry saw Hermione, bewildered
and disheveled and thought she had never looked as beautiful as she did at that
moment.� He looked at his own tattered robes, at the wand in his right hand and
the jewel in his left.

The jewel, Rowena Ravenclaw�s
healing stone.

The final horcrux.

In his hand.

The Dork Lard had sacrificed
his familiar to give himself an edge in battle and a simple accio had
deprived him of even that.

Something spoke in the back of
his mind �you will have a power that he knows not.�

And Harry finally understood.�
He hadn�t really planned to survive the day, but he was determined to take
Riddle with him.� Harry loved his friends, his Hogwart�s family - the only real
family he�d ever known, more than his own life.� Bottom line, while Harry
wasn�t afraid to die, especially if it meant his loved ones would be able to
live in a Voldemort-free world, Voldemort feared death above all � he
had endured pain and loss and the rending of his soul just so that he wouldn�t
have to die.� But he didn�t love.� He didn�t love life, he didn�t love anyone, point
in fact; he didn�t even love himself.� Fear and loathing were all he had; he
was a living (if you can call it that) construction of nihilistic malevolence,
it was all he was.�

He could feel the malevolence
radiating from the stone, Harry�s first thought was to smash the jewel against
the granite battlements but he was stopped by Lady Ravenclaw Grey.

�You still have the connection
to Voldemort, use it.�

�I don�t understand, milady.�

�The gemstone will do your
bidding, Harry� Hermione explained.

�It can�t be that simple.�

�Then it can�t hurt to try.�

�Finite!�

The evil drained from the
stone like dark oil from a broken vessel.� Harry shook the sapphire to make
sure all of Riddle�s essence emptied out, and then placed it into his pocket.

�So the basilisk�s tooth,
Dumbledore�s ruined arm, the poison filled basin?�

The phantom lady sighed, �All
unnecessary I fear; all that was needed was for Voldemort, or some piece of
him, to want to end the spell.�

The maimed dark lord rasped,
�You may think you�ve won, Potter, but I�m not finished yet!�

The dark lord rolled onto his
knees, still bent in pain, screwed his eyes shut and began to chant.

Harry felt an odd pressure on
his forehead, as if something were trying to flow out of his scar, but was
being held in by the skin of his brow, he reached up and felt a lump, like a
blister forming there.

In the hospital wing Ginevra
Weasley shrieked as the same black bile that had drained from Rowena�s stone
began to bleed from her eyes, ears and nose.� A healer�s assistant quickly
contained the black bile and worked to clear the young girl�s airway of the
residue before she could choke on it.�

�Better for her if I�d just
let her asphyxiate,� the young apprentice healer thought �all she�s got to look
forward to is a lifetime in Azkaban.�

Back on the wall the skin
behind Harry�s scar burst releasing the pressure in a spurt of black ichorous
fluids.�

Through the searing pain he
heard the lady ghost cry �Stop him!�� Her urgency, the near panic in her eyes
made Harry act immediately.

�Reducto!�

The explosive curse impacted
Voldemort blasting him to the wall where the deck of the parapet joined the
vertical stones.� The result looked less like a dark lord and more like an
unnaturally flattened road kill.

The chanting ceased.

Voldemort ceased.

The death eaters in the
courtyard fell to the ground and writhed in agony, clutching their left
forearms.�

The few remaining dementors
hovered in the shadows, waiting for someone to tell them what to do.

Dobby stood before Harry and
said, �It is finished.�

The remaining elves all popped
onto the high wall along with Harry and Hermione.

A very old elf with a beard
that nearly drug the ground stood before the two humans and with great
reverence and dignity intoned, �The debt is paid.�

The elves began to change
before their eyes, large bulbous eyes shrank, and ears began to conform to a
more, if not human, then anthropomorphic shape.� Indeed many of the elves began
to resemble well formed, normally proportioned humans, albeit very short
humans.

Dobby had golden blond hair in
tight curls around his pointed ears, matte skin and well formed limbs.� He
snapped his fingers and charcoal grey cotton breeches and polished black boots
appeared below his jumper, another snap and the pullover was transfigured into
a white linen shirt topped of with a smart forest green vest.� The other elves
followed suit transfiguring their Hogwart�s tea-towels into smart, stylish
clothing.

�Harry Potter�

Harry looked around and saw
the source of the melodious voice was that of the elder elf, looking for all
the world like a miniature version of Albus Dumbledore, complete with elf-sized
wizard�s robes.

�I am Sage� the old elf said,
and bowed.

Harry returned the bow and
asked �what is happening here?�

�We are reverting to our true forms;
re-becoming the people we were before the enslavement deformed us.�

�How can a curse affect an
entire race?�

�Two and a half millennia ago
we elves were as you see us now, we co-existed with the major magical societies
of the day, the Druids of Eyre, the Eastern Mystics as far east as Cathay, and
all around the Mediterranean sea, including the Greeks, Egyptians, Assyrians, and
Babylonians.� But we saw the growing number of human mages as a threat to our
existence.� Indeed the first acts of aggression in the Human-Elf War were
visited upon elves by their human neighbors, something or other about
crystals.� We felt we had no choice but to take up arms against the wizards and
witches of the day.� We used our elfin magic to move unseen among the enemy
killing many thousands in the first few days of the war; indeed, it looked as
though the age of human magic was about to end before it truly began.

�Then a confederation of
powerful human mages cast a geas upon all the elves, forcing us into perpetual
servitude, rendering us incapable of using our magic against a wizard or witch
unless that wizard or witch was a danger to one we were sworn to protect.�

�That is how I was able to
attack the older Malfoy all those years ago� Dobby explained, his natural voice
a pleasing tenor, �and how I was able to attack Voldemort today.�

Sage continued, �We were
forced to serve in this manner until the day that we could redeem ourselves by
saving the world of magical men, we had to be commanded by a powerful light
wizard to overcome a darkness that would threaten to cover the world. �When you
commanded us to attack the dark creatures you gave us the keys to our freedom.�
We are forever in your debt.�

With that all the assembled
elves knelt and bowed their heads to Harry.

�Um, Sage, Dobby, everyone,
please get up.�

�As you command Harry Potter.�

�Is this change happening all
over the world or just here at Hogwarts?�

�It is a universal change,
Harry Potter, just as a few elves were responsible for our twenty five
centuries of enslavement, only a few elves were needed to affect our delivery
from bondage.�

�Sage, Dobby, can you and the
other Hogwart�s elves help us clear away this mess?� I understand you are free
now and no longer bound to serve us, but I for one would be grateful for any
help, and I need to see a healer about this leg.�

Lady Ravenclaw Grey asked
�have you looked at your injuries?�

Harry felt for the cuts on his
face from the shattered stone and found none, he released the magical splint
from his leg and gingerly placed his weight on the leg that had been shattered
not an hour before.� It held his weight perfectly.

�The healing stone� Hermione
explained.

�Sometimes I love magic!�
Harry exclaimed, then he and Hermione looked at their other best friend, who
lay still on the stone parapet and they simultaneously murmured �Ron� hoping
against all hope that the miracle would extend to the youngest male Weasley.�
He drew the stone from hi pocket; knelt down and placed it on Ron�s chest and
prayed.

After a few moments he called softly
�Ron?�

The tall redhead stared
blankly into space, breathing in and out, but that was all.� Sadly Harry stood
and said �I�m so sorry mate, so sorry . . .�

Hermione spun around and hugged
Harry tightly, her face against his chest �he�s gone� she sobbed.

Harry began to assess the
damage: the Creeveys, another Weasley being mourned by the Patil twins and either
Fred or George, Lavender, and the Hufflepuff defenders.� Oddly enough, most of
the casualties in the courtyard were actually death eaters who had been set
upon by the dementors when they fell from the ramparts or were taken down by
spellfire.�

He walked over to the parapet
where he saw that it was George laying on the ground, a vacant expression on
his face.� Parvati and Padma were both clutching the front of his robes,
sobbing inconsolably.

�Merlin help me; what am I
going to tell Molly and Arthur?� Ginny will probably be in Azkaban for the rest
of her life, Ron�s been dementor-kissed and George had been struck by one of
Riddle�s last killing curses.�

�He was going to ask one of us
to marry him� Parvati said, stroking his red hair.

�I know he wasn�t serious�
Padma sobbed, �but I would have said yes in a heartbeat!�

�Set.� The.� Date.� Then . .
.�

The two exotic beauties gasped,
�George?�

�Owie?� he seemed to ask.

Fred was beside himself with
relief, �that was an AK bro!� I saw the green curse hit you!� You should
be with the bleedin� choir invisible!�

�Dunno, m�be he waz weak?�

Padma was startled by her own
realization, �the patronus; it had to pass through a patronus to get to George,
your patronus must have absorbed the worst of the killing curse!�

�S�plains why I�m just slightly
dead� George said through gritted teeth.

�So that makes you only the
second person in history to have survived a killing curse; wicked!� Fred
enthused.

Harry was heartened by the
news, another Weasley would be going home tonight; that would ameliorate some
of Molly�s grief.

What of Ginny?

What of Draco?� As much
as Harry wanted to see the ferret locked up forever, he had passed the
information from Snape that had saved the day.� If not for him, Voldemort would
have won.� He had raped Ginny, countless times to hear her tell it.� Wizard
custom gave rapists to the family of the victim; it would be for the Weasleys
to decide.

He was utterly at a loss as to
how to deal with Ginny.� Was it his fault that she had been taken, in every
sense of the word, by death eaters?� He had sent her along with friends and
family to Grimauld Place because he knew she would be safe there.� It had been his
decision, made in good faith.

Why did that sound familiar?

He had endured ten years of
hell living with the Dursleys because Dumbledore was sure he�d be safe there.�
Dumbledore just assumed family would treat their orphaned nephew like, well family.�
He hadn�t checked up on little Harry once in that ten-year period.

How often had Harry actually
gone to Grimauld Place to check on his guests?� Like Dumbledore before him Harry
had made a serious mistake in judgment and Ginny was now paying for it.

It really sucked to be him
sometimes.

He looked up from his musings
and saw the courtyard was clear of bodies; the injured were still being ferried
to the hospital wing two at a time.� Sage was directing the cleanup efforts
from the parapets.� Harry joined the ancient elf on the battlements.

�Now that you�re all free,
will you be staying with your human families?�

�No Harry Potter, our
enslavement was a curse and far too many of us have had very unpleasant
captivities.� It�s best that we just go away.�

�What will you do now; where
will you all go?�

Sage smiled �We shall build
ships and sail into the sunset.� When we reach the point where the sun meets
the sea we will be in the western lands, the enchanted domain where only elves
may dwell, indeed, it is the place from which the first elves ventured forth to
discover the human world.�

�Um, Sage; you�ll never reach
the point where �the sun meets the sea,� the sun is like a hundred and fifty
million kilometers away from us off in space.�

Sage smiled again, �as with so
many things magical the place of which we speak is metaphorical, we will be
drawn to a certain part of the ocean where we will be transported to the world
of our origins.�

The old elf looked pensive for
a moment, �of course, some humans have been known to find the portal; I believe
it is sometimes known as the �Bermuda Triangle.��

Back in the great hall a
general feeling of optimism began to permeate the air; the dementor effect
seemed to be dissipating.� So it was quite a shock to see a lone dementor
hovering just outside the main doors.

�Now, everyone!� cried Amanda
Stevens, �lumos!�

Two dozen powerful narrow
beams of light struck the dementor, which screeched in pain before flying down
the hall then out an open window to disappear into the darkness.

Neville was taken completely
by surprise, both by the appearance of the single dementor, and by the quick
action of the first years.

�Well done!� Well done all of
you he said to the assembled first years.� I�m going to see to it that you all
get special awards for services to the school!�

�Was Mandy whot done it� said
a small sandy haired boy.

�Twas� the Professor here whot
taught me!�� Amanda countered, looking at Neville with adoring eyes.

�I�m not a professor; I�m just
Neville, Neville Longbottom�

�You�ll always be the
Professor ta� me, Neville.�

Neville smiled and thought
about a group of first years going up against an unspeakable evil, and
remembered some of the stories about Harry and Hermione and Ron in their first
year.� He opened his arms and little Amanda ran to hug him around his middle.�
As he hugged her back he considered the events of the day, the deaths, the
worse than deaths, the endings of some friendships and the beginnings of
others.�

He thought about the odd
behavior of the lone dementor hovering just outside the entrance to the great
hall.

_____ooo000ooo_____

Author�s note: think that
about wraps up this story?� Guess again, remember the title?� Expect a surprise
or two in the next chapter.� N!
- 5
- 6
- 7
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The Afterlife and Times of Myrtle Potter