Battle of Hogwarts

"I know that you are preparing to fight. Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood. Give me Harry Potter, and they shall not be harmed. Give me Harry Potter and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight."

- Lord Voldemort's ultimatum, leading to the Battle of Hogwarts.

The Battle of Hogwarts, also known as the Final Battle of Hogwarts, was a conflict that signified the end of the Second Wizarding War. It took place on 2 May, 1998, within the castle and on the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Lord Voldemort learned that Harry Potter was in the castle to locate and destroy one of his final Horcruxes, he ordered every Death Eater and creature that had pledged loyalty to him to attack the school. Dumbledore's Army communicated the need to fight to the Order of the Phoenix and their other allies, leading to a large-scale battle.

Lord Voldemort led his forces from the Shrieking Shack while Kingsley Shacklebolt and Minerva McGonagall led the defenders of Hogwarts. The battle ended with a decisive victory for the Order and the D.A., with many Death Eaters and Voldemort himself dead. It was the most devastating battle of the war, with casualties including Lord Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange, but also Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Severus Snape, Fred Weasley, Colin Creevey and at least fifty more who fought against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. It is also assumed to be the final conflict in which the Elder Wand took part.

Search for Horcruxes
At the climax of the Battle of the Astronomy Tower the previous year, Albus Dumbledore was killed by then-Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Severus Snape. Dumbledore, however, had left Harry Potter with a final task: to find, and destroy the remaining Horcruxes that Voldemort created at different points in his life. Over several months, the trio tried to locate the Horcruxes; this included infiltrated in the Ministry to acquire Salazar Slytherin's locket (which was later destroyed by Ron Weasley in December of 1997) and breaking into the vault belonging to Bellatrix Lestrange within Gringotts Wizarding Bank to get Helga Hufflepuff's cup the day before the battle.

Two other Horcruxes had also been destroyed already: Voldemort's old diary that he had during his school years at Hogwarts was destroyed in 1993 by Harry Potter, and Marvolo Gaunt's ring, which belonged to Voldemort's grandfather, was destroyed by Dumbledore sometime in July, 1996. After being alerted to the Gringotts Break-in and learning that what Harry took was one of his Horcruxes, Voldemort became aware that his Horcruxes were being systematically hunted down and destroyed. He decided to revisit each of his hiding places for his Horcruxes to check on their safety and redouble their protection. Harry returned to Hogwarts Castle to find one of the last of Voldemort's Horcruxes, an object he believed had something to do with Rowena Ravenclaw, but he was found by Alecto Carrow in Ravenclaw Tower, who alerted the Dark Lord that Harry was in the castle. At this, Voldemort decided to go the castle and launch a massive attack, intent on killing anyone who tried to keep Harry from him.

Snape's reign at Hogwarts
"Well, it's not really like Hogwarts any more,"

- Neville about the situation in to Harry

On the First of August, 1997, the current Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, and the Head of the Auror Office was captured by Voldemort and interrogated for the whereabouts of Harry Potter. However, in one last brave act for Harry, Rufus Scrimgeour told Voldemort nothing, and was subsequently killed. This placed the Ministry of Magic under the control of Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry also fell under Voldemort's influence, and he appointed Severus Snape as new headmaster (interestingly, Snape had killed the previous headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, just a few months before). The Carrow siblings were also appointed as teachers. Many school subjects were revised at Voldemort's will; Defence Against the Dark Arts was more or less taught as a Dark Arts class, and Muggle Studies became a compulsory class for indoctrinating hatred against Muggles and Muggle-borns. Snape and the Carrows enforced Voldemort's agenda brutally at Hogwarts. Students given detention were subjected to the Cruciatus Curse - sometimes by other students. As a result of this, a band of students began to fight back very early on in the 1997–1998 school year, led by seventh year Neville Longbottom and sixth years Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood. This group stood as the successor to the original Dumbledore's Army, found by Harry, Ron, and Hermione in 1995.

Arrival in Hogsmeade
Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger apparated into the main street of the village of Hogsmeade while wearing Harry's Invisibility Cloak and were immediately detected by a group of Death Eaters due to the fact that they had triggered a Cauterwauling Charm. They all tried to Disapparate but they had been trapped because they had been bound by an Anti-Disapparation Jinx. The Death Eaters tried to reveal their whereabouts by Summoning the Invisibility Cloak, the cloak however refused to be moved due to the fact that it was the Cloak of Legend from The Tale of the Three Brothers.

The Death Eaters then sent Dementors to locate Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They agreed that sending Dementors would be a successful capture, as Harry would be given to Voldemort soul-less. Harry repelled them with his Patronus to send them away. They were then pulled into the Hog's Head by Aberforth Dumbledore. He told the Death Eaters that he had produced the Patronus and showed it was a goat, not a stag, and had set off the Cauterwauling Charm by letting his cat out.

Aberforth fed Harry, Ron, and Hermione and explained that he had been watching them all throughout their journey hunting Horcruxes by Sirius Black's two-way mirror, purchased from Mundungus Fletcher. Aberforth explained many things to the trio, including Albus's involvement with Grindelwald, Ariana, and Ariana's tragic death due to the three-way duel Aberforth, Albus, and Grindelwald fought. Aberforth then led Harry, Ron and Hermione to a secret passage (guarded by a portrait of Ariana) from his pub to the Room of Requirement where members of Dumbledore's Army had been hiding during the previous few weeks. Neville Longbottom greeted them enthusiastically, and then led Harry, Ron, and Hermione into Hogwarts.

Entering the castle


Harry, Neville, Hermione and Ron arrived in the Room of Requirement and were greeted by many members of Dumbledore's Army who were forced into hiding from the Carrows and Severus Snape, in order to continue with their program of guerrilla warfare against the current administration. Neville, who had become the leader of the group, says that he had used the Galleons that Hermione had bewitched earlier to recall all of the DA, and sure enough, past DA members start arriving through the tunnel from the Hog's Head. Neville had informed a number of them to return to Hogwarts to fight and help Harry find whatever it was that he needed. When Harry realised how loyal they were being to him and after Ron's reminder that he didn't need to do everything alone, he accepted help, telling them that Voldemort was on his way to Hogwarts and that he, Harry, needed to find something in the castle. Asking about missing artifacts of Rowena Ravenclaw, Harry is told about her lost diadem, and decides that this is almost certainly what Voldemort would have used for his Horcrux.

Luna Lovegood takes Harry to the Ravenclaw Common Room, to see a statue of Rowena with the diadem so that he knows what to look for. He is caught there by a Death Eater, Alecto Carrow, who summons Voldemort by way of the Dark Mark on her arm, and is then Stunned by Luna. Amycus Carrow and Professor McGonagall then arrive in the room. When Amycus decides that he will blame Alecto's summoning of Voldemort on the students, McGonagall refuses to put her students in danger, whereupon Amycus spits at her. Harry, outraged, uses the Cruciatus Curse on him. Revealing himself to McGonagall, Harry says that he is hunting something in Hogwarts, at Dumbledore's request, and that Voldemort is on his way to stop him.

Ousting of Severus Snape
Harry and Luna hide under the Invisibility Cloak as McGonagall casts three cat Patronuses to summon the other Heads of House. As they are walking down from Ravenclaw Tower, they run into Snape in the hall. He continually darts his eyes about, perhaps suspecting Harry is there. When asked what she is doing there, McGonagall claims she heard a disturbance. She is evasive when asked about Harry, then slashes her wand. Snape, quicker, deflects her charm.



They duel fiercely, magic so quick Harry has never seen the like. She then brandished her wand to a torch on the wall, making it fly off its bracket. The flames became a ring of fire that filled the corridor and flew like a lasso at Snape. Snape then turned the descending flames into a great black snake that McGonagall blasted to smoke and turned into a swarm of daggers, which she directed towards him. The Headmaster forced the suit of armour in front of him, thus avoiding the flying daggers that sank into it with echoing clangs.

"No! You'll do no more murder at Hogwarts!"

- Filius Flitwick as he joins the duel Professor Flitwick and Pomona Sprout come running to McGonagall's aid with a huffing Slughorn lagging behind. Flitwick raised his wand bewitching the suit of armour to attack Snape by crushing him. Outnumbered, Snape sent the suit of armour flying back against his attackers, and it smashed into the wall and shattered and dashed into a deserted classroom where a loud crash was heard. Pursuing, McGonagall screams, "Coward!" Uncloaked, Harry and Luna rush inside, startling the other professors. Snape has leaped out the window. Harry thinks he must be dead, but McGonagall bitterly comments that, unlike Dumbledore, Snape had a wand and has learned a few tricks from "You-Know-Who". Harry sees a large, bat-like figure soaring across the school grounds. Slughorn finally enters, and McGonagall informs him that Snape is taking a leave of absence. Harry slides into Voldemort's mind again and sees an Inferi-filled lake. Voldemort leaps from the boat in a murderous rage — he is headed for Hogwarts.

Preparations for battle


"Hogwarts is threatened! Man the boundaries, protect us, do your duty to our school!"

- Minerva McGonagall commanding the suits of armour to protect the school, after bewitching them to life. McGonagall orders students to be sent to the Great Hall, where thee students old enough to fight would stay and younger students were to be evacuated by Poppy Pomfrey and Argus Filch by way of the passage through the Hog's Head Inn, and she then tells Slughorn the time has come for Slytherin to choose sides. The professors set defensive charms and spells around Hogwarts to fend off Voldemort, although they all knew that no matter what protection they gave, Voldemort would eventually penetrate it. As Hogwarts Castle was being fortified with protective enchantments, Harry asked Flitwick if he might know where Ravenclaw's Diadem is, but Flitwick said no one in living memory had seen it. McGonagall bewitched enchants the school's statues and suits of armour to help defend the castle and orders Filch, who is ranting about students being out of bed, to summon Peeves the Poltergeist.

When Harry and Luna return to the Room of Requirement, Harry is shocked and dismayed that even more people have arrived, including Lupin, Kingsley, Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Bill and Fleur, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Fred alerted Dumbledore's Army, and they in turn summoned the Order of the Phoenix. As younger students are being evacuated, Ginny, who wants to fight, is arguing with her parents to stay. Percy suddenly arrives and loudly apologizes to his family for being a deluded idiot and Ministry pawn; the Weasleys immediately forgive him. Looking around, Harry wonders where Ron and Hermione are. Ginny, who has been ordered to stay inside the room during the battle, says they are attending to something having to do with a bathroom, leaving Harry puzzled. His scar sears again, and he is gazing at Hogwarts through huge iron gates. Nagini is draped around his shoulders. Voldemort has arrived.

Voldemort's ultimatum
"I know that you are preparing to fight. Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood. Give me Harry Potter, and they shall not be harmed. Give me Harry Potter and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight."

- Lord Voldemort's ultimatum, leading to the Battle of Hogwarts.

The enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall was dark with twinkling stars; the students were sitting below, clothed in their dressing gowns or traveling cloaks. Every Hogwarts being, living or dead, listened to Professor McGonagall: students will be evacuated before the battle begins, though the older students can remain and fight. The Order of the Phoenix and the professors have agreed upon a battle plan and begin dividing into groups. As tension mounts over the approaching battle, Harry anxiously searches the room for Ron and Hermione, who were still missing.

At that moment, Voldemort magically amplified his voice so that it was heard throughout Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, and demanded that, to save the school, Harry Potter must surrender by midnight. Pointing at Harry, Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin, yelled for someone to grab him. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw students leap up, aiming their wands at Slytherin's table. McGonagall then orders all Slytherins to leave, followed by the other Houses to be evacuated through the Hog's Head Inn, though many older students from the other three Houses remain behind. McGonagall reminds Harry that he is supposed to be looking for something. Swept up the marble staircase with the defenders, Harry breaks away, heading down an empty corridor. He is beginning to panic—he has no idea where to search for the Horcrux.



As the defenders of Hogwarts prepared to hold off Voldemort so that Harry could finish his search for the object of Ravenclaw's, the Death Eaters launched attacks on the castle but were kept from entering. The Hogwarts defenders were able to fend off the Death Eaters using an array of tactics, including lobbing mandrakes over the walls, bewitched suits of armour, and wand duels. The whole castle shook with the force of the Death Eater's sinister enchantments, and Harry met up with Aberforth Dumbledore and Rubeus Hagrid (thrown in through a window to reach the higher floors by Grawp) as they joined in defending the castle against Death Eaters. During the duels, portraits on the walls, including that of Sir Cadogan, rushed between their canvases screaming news from other parts of the castle or giving encouragments to the fighters.

Search for the diadem


"I stole the diadem. I sought to make myself cleverer, more important than my mother. I ran away with it. My mother, they say, never admitted that the diadem was gone, but pretended that she had it still. She concealed her loss, my dreadful betrayal, even from the other founders of Hogwarts."

- Helena Ravenclaw While the battle raged on, Harry was thinking about possible locations of the Ravenclaw-related Horcrux. All anyone seemed to associate an object of Ravenclaw to was the Lost Diadem, but no one had seen the diadem in living memory. At this, Harry decided to ask the ghost of Ravenclaw Tower, the Gray Lady, if she knew anything about the diadem. He found her, and after gaining her trust she revealed that she was, during her life, Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter Helena, and she stole the diadem from her mother to make herself cleverer.

She reveals that she hid it in a hollow tree in Albania, but also she she confided in another student this information: Tom Riddle. Harry puts together that Voldemort found the diadem in Albania, and brought it back to Hogwarts to hide it the night he asked Dumbledore for the Defense Against the Dark Arts job.



As Harry was walking, the bust of a exploded gargoyle reminded him of the bust of an ugly old warlock in the Room of Requirement he had seen when he hid his Potions textbook, atop of which he himself had placed battered old tiara; with this sudden realisation, Harry knew where the diadem was hidden: inside the Room of Requirement, during its transformation into the Room of Hidden Things. Harry then met up with Ron and Hermione Granger, who informed him that they had tavelled down into the Chamber of Secrets to obtain basilisk venom filled fangs in order to destroy Helga Hufflepuff's Cup and any future Horcruxes that are found.

Room of Requirement


Reunited, the trio went to the Room of Requirement to search for the Horcrux. Ginny is inside, along with Tonks, and Mrs. Longbottom, Neville's grandmother, who has sealed off the tunnel to the inn. Tonks and Mrs. Longbottom leave to join the battle. Harry asks Ginny to step outside, but to come back inside later. When Ron says he wants to warn the House-elves, an overjoyed Hermione flings herself into Ron's arms, kissing him. He kisses her back, their unspoken feelings finally shared. Harry has everyone step into the corridor, then thinks hard to himself: I need the place where everything is hidden. An entrance appears. Inside the large labyrinthine room, they search for the Diadem.

After searching through mountains of contraband items, Harry spots the diadem, but Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, and Vincent Crabbe suddenly arrive, and a fierce duel erupts: Crabbe tried to kill Ron and Hermione with Killing Curses, while Goyle was Disarmed by Harry and Stunned by Hermione. In the confusion, Malfoy drops his borrowed wand and Crabbe unleashes an uncontrollable fire, setting the room ablaze. The flames began to burn all the mountains of random objects, but it was also a mutating fire that took the shape of serpents, dragons, chimaeras, and other ferocious, fiery beasts.

"It was not normal fire; Crabbe had used a curse of which Harry had no knowledge: As they turned a corner the flames chased them as though they were alive, sentient, intent upon killing them. Now the fire was mutating, forming a gigantic pack of fiery beasts: Flaming serpents, chimaeras, and dragons rose and fell and rose again, and the detritus of centuries on which they were feeding was thrown up in the air into their fanged mouths, tossed high on clawed feet, before being consumed by the inferno."

- Description of the Fiendfyre conjured by Vincent Crabbe



As the cursed fire consumed the whole room, Crabbe was lost amongst the flames. In order to escape from the conflagration, Harry, Ron, Hermione mounted broomsticks and then turned around to save Malfoy and and the still unconscious Goyle. Harry, seeing the Diadem being tossed about by the fire, grabs it, then makes for the door. They narrowly missed being killed by the inferno, and upon getting out of the room they collapse on the hallway floor. The diadem emits a thin shriek and falls apart in Harry's hand. Hermione says Crabbe must have conjured Fiendfyre: one of the few things that is capable enough to destroy a Horcrux.



The moments peace after fleeing the Fiendfyre ended as pairs of duelling witches and wizards entered the corridor: the Death Eaters had penetrated Hogwarts' defences. The trio are joined by Fred Weasley and Percy Weasley, each of them duelling a separate Death Eater. The hood of the Death Eater duelled by Percy slipped, revealing the opponent to be Pius Thicknesse, the Minister for Magic under the Imperius Curse by the Death Eaters, and Percy hits him with a sea urchin jinx, telling him to consider it his resignation, and Fred hit his opponent with a Stunning Spell.



"The air exploded [...] Harry felt himself flying through the air [...] And then the world resolved itself into pain and semidarkness: He was half buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a terrible attack [...] Then he heard a terrible cry that pulled at his insides, that expressed agony of a kind neither flame nor curse could cause, and he stood up, swaying, more frightened than he had been that day, more frightened, perhaps than he had been in his life.... 'No – no – no!' someone was shouting. 'No! Fred! No!' And Percy was shaking his brother, and Ron was kneeling beside them, and Fred’s eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face."

- Description of Fred Weasley's death during the battle. The moment when danger seemed at bay, however, was ended when an explosion blowing the side of the castle apart rent threw the corridor. As Harry and Hermione struggle through the rubble to see what happened, they realise with horror that Percy and Ron are kneeling over Fred's dead body.

Reaching the Shrieking Shack
As the trio and Percy stood in horror at the prospect of Fred being killed, more curses flew in at them from the darkness after a body fell past the hole blown into the side of the school. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione tried to get Percy to stop clutching to his dead brother so they could get out of danger, an Acromantula (one of Aragog's enormous spider descendents) was trying to climb through the huge hole in the wall, but Ron and Harry blasted it backwards with a combined spell. However, more spiders were climbing the side of the buildings, driven out of the Forbidden Forest by the Death Eaters which decided to use it as a base.



Ron, Harry, and Percy seized Fred's body and hid it in a niche where a suit of armour once stood, crouching low to avoid the flying curses, and Percy sprinted off in the direction of Augustus Rookwood with a roar. Harry joined Ron and Hermione behind a tapestry, and Hermione instructed Harry to look inside Voldemort's mind to figure out whether Nagini, the final Horcrux, was with him. Closing his eyes, Harry found himself looking through Voldemort's eyes in the Shrieking Shack, rolling the Elder Wand over in his hands and thinking that the diadem was surely safe. Lucius Malfoy, also in the shack, pleaded with Voldemort to call off the battle so that he could discover what had become of his son, but Voldemort mercilessly refused and instructed Lucius to fetch Snape. By entering Voldemort's mind Harry also discovered that Nagini was in some sort of a magical protection orb that looked like an enchanted glittering sphere.

Pulling back out of Voldemort's mind, Harry informed the other two what he saw and the two decided who should go to the Shack to kill Nagini. Before they came to an arrangement, the tapestry on the top of the staircase on which they stood was ripped open by two masked Death Eaters. Hermione shouted Glisseo, causing the stairs to flatten into a chute. Harry, Ron, and Hermione hurtled down it, went through the tapestry at the bottom, and hit the opposite wall. As the Death Eaters sped down the slide after them, Hermione cast Duro, causing the tapestry to turn to stone and the Death Eaters crumpled as they hit it. They turned and saw Professor McGonagall leading a group of enchanted desks to gallop past them into the fray. The three of them put on the Invisibility Cloak and ran down the next staircase.



The trio, invisible, found themselves in a corridor full of duelers, masked and unmasked Death Eaters fighting students and teachers. Dean Thomas was face-to-face with Antonin Dolohov, while Parvati Patil was fighting Travers. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood braced, read to help, Peeves zoomed over them dropping Snargaluff pods on the Death Eaters, whose heads were engulfed in wriggling green tubers. However, some of the slimy green roots hit the Cloak over Ron's head, and seeing the tubers suspended in midair on the Death Eaters called to his fellows that someone was invisible there. Using the temporary distraction, Dean shot a Stunning Spell at the Death Eater and Dolohov had a Body-Bind Curse shot at him by Parvati before he could react.



Pelting through the fighters, Harry, Ron, and Hermione viewed Draco Malfoy on the upper landing pleading with a Death Eater that he was on their side. Harry Stunned the Death Eater and Ron punched him from under the Cloak, commenting that it was the second time they saved him that evening. There were more duelers all over the stairs and in the entrance hall: Yaxley was close to the front doors in combat with Filius Flitwick, and a masked Death Eater dueling Kingsley Shacklebolt right beside them. Harry directed a Stunning Spell at the masked Death Eater, but it missed and almost hit Neville Longbottom, who emerged with armfuls of Venomous Tentacula, which reeled in the nearest Death Eater.

As Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran down the marble staircase, the hourglass used to record Slytherin's house points was shattered and spilled its emeralds everywhere. At this moment, two bodies fell from the balcony overhead, and Fenrir Greyback sped toward one of the fallen to sink its teeth in. Hermione threw him backwards from Lavender Brown, and as he struggled to get up he was hit on the head with a crystal ball thrown by Professor Trelawney, who threw another though a window with a tennis serve-like movement. At that moment, the front doors burst open and the gigantic spiders forced there way in. Hagrid went to the spiders shouting for people not to hurt them, and he vanished into their midst as the spiders swarmed away with their prey. As Harry ran after him, a monumental foot almost crushed Harry. Looking up, he saw it belonged to a twenty-foot high giant, which proceeded to smash a fist through an upper window. Grawp came lurchign around the corner, and the two giants launched themselves at each other savagely.



The trio ran away from the giants, and as they were halfway toward the forest, the air froze and swirling creatures of concentrated blackness with hooded faces, drawing rattling breaths, closed in on them: Dementors. A hundred of them glided toward them, sucking the happiness from Harry as they advanced; Hermione and Ron's Patronuses flickered and died. Filled with despair at the loss of Fred, possibly Hagrid, and who knew how many others, Harry almost welcomed an oblivion that would come with a Dementor's Kiss, but a silver hare, a boar, and fox soared past and impeded the dementors' approach: Luna Lovegood, Ernie Macmillan, and Seamus Finnigan had cast Patronuses to save them. With the greatest effor it had ever cost him, Harry managed to conjure his stag Patronus, and the dementors scattered in earnest. However, at this moment, another giant came lurching out the darkness from the forest with a large club. The trio scattered, and the giant's foot fell where they had been standing.



The trio sprinted to the Whomping Willow, the entrance to the Shack, knowing that destroyed the snake and defeating Voldemort was the only way to end it. Panting and gasping over their sprint, the trio reached the tree and tried to find the single knot in the back that would paralyze its whiplike, slashing branches. Ron used a Hover Charm to cause a twig to fly up and jab the place near the roots, stopping the writhing branches instantly. Though Harry had second thoughts about leading Ron and Hermione exactly where Voldemort expected him to go, he realized that the only way forward was the kill the snake, the trio continued along underground secret passage that led to the Shrieking Shack.

Snape's demise


After crawling for a long while, the trio found that the tunnel began to slope upward, and Harry put on the Invisibility Cloak. Harry extinguished his lit wand, and then heard voices coming froming from theroom directly ahead of him, muffled by an old crate blocking the tunnel. Harry saw through the tiny gap between crate and wall Nagini, swirling and coiling in her protective, floating enchanted sphere, and a long-fingered white hand toying with a wand.

When Snape spoke, Harry realised them an was inches away from where he crouched, hidden. Snape told Voldemort that the castle's resistance was crumbling, and Voldemort told Snape that there was no need for Snape to return to the fray. Snape offered to bring Voldemort to Potter, but Voldemort declined. amd asked Snape why the Elder Wand wasn't working for him, to which Snape didn't have an answer. Voldemort tells Snape that he has only performed his usual magic with the wand, and that it has no revaled the legendary and extraordinary powers to him it was said to possess. Snape then begged Voldemort to let him return to the battle and find Potter, but Voldemort declined again, saying that the boy will come to him, as he will hate watching his friends struck down around him when handing himself over is the only way to stop it. Voldemort said his instructions to his Death Eaters have been perfectly clear: capture Potter alive, while they can kill as many of his friends as they want they must not kill the boy.

Snape protested, wishing to return and bring Voldemort the boy, but Voldemort angrily declined once more and asked Snape why both wand he used, his own and Lucius Malfoy's wand, failed when directed at Harry. Voldemort told Snape that after both the wands failed that he sought the Elder Wand, the Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny; he took it from the grave of Albus Dumbledore. Snape pleaded again to go to the boy, but Voldemort ignored him and told Snape that he had been wondering why the Elder Wand refused to be what it ought to be, and that believed he now had the answer.

Voldemort asked if Snape already knew the answer Voldemort's Elder Wand problem, telling him that Snape had been a valuable and faithful servant and that he regretted what he must do. Voldemort told Snape that the Elder Wand could not serve him properly because he was not the wand's true master, that the wand belonged to the wizard who killed its last owner. Believing Snape to have won the wand's allegience upon killing Albus Dumbledore, Voldemort believed that while Snape lived, the Elder Wand would never truly belong to him. Thus, Snape had to die so that Voldemort could become the Elder Wand's true master.



"There was a terrible scream. Harry saw Snape's face losing the little color it had left; it whitened as his black eyes widened, as the snake's fangs pierced his neck, as he failed to push the enchanted cage off himself, as his knees gave way and he fell to the floor."

- Description of Snape being killed.

Voldemort swiped the air with the Elder Wand, and Nagini's cage began to roll through the air. Before Snape could do anything but yell, the protective sphere encased his head and shoulders. With no remorse Voldemort ordered Nagini to kill Snape in Parseltongue. Snape screamed, Nagini's fangs pierced the man's neck. Believing that the wand would now truly do his full bidding, he pointed it at the starry cage holding the snake and caused it to drift upward, off Snape, who fell sideways onto the floor with blood gushing from the wounds in his neck. Without a backward glance, Voldemort swept from the room with the great serpent floating after him in its large protective sphere.



"A terrible rasping, gurgling noise issued from Snape's throat. 'Take...it....Take...it....' Something more than blood was leaking from Snape. Silvery blue, neither gas nor liquid, it gushed from his mouth and his ears and his eyes, and Harry knew what it was, but did not know what to do -- A flask, conjured from thin air, was thrust into his shaking hands by Hermione. Harry lifted the silvery substance into it with his wand. When the flask was full to the brim, and Snape looked as though there was no blood left in him, his grip on Harry's robes slackened. 'Look...at...me....' he whispered. The green eyes found the black, but after a second, something in the depths of the dark pair seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, bank, and empty. The hand holding Harry thudded to the floor, and Snape moved no more."

- Description of Snape giving Harry has memories before dying.

After Voldemort left the shack with Nagini, Harry pointed his wand at the crate blocking his view, making it lift an inch into the air and drift sideways. Harry entered the room, not knowing why he was approaching the dying man, not knowing what to feel as he saw Snape's white face and as Snape tried to staunch the bloody wound at the man's neck. Harry took off the Invisibility Cloak and looked at the man who he hated, and Snape's black eyes widened upon seeing Harry and tried to speak. As Harry bent over him, Snape seized the front of Harry's robes and pulled him close.

Snape, barely alive, told Harry to "Take . . . it . . . Take . . . it.", and as he did so, silvery-blue wisps, neither gas nor liquid, were gushing from his mouth, ears, and eyes. Hermione conjures a crystal flask out of thin air, and Harry lifted the silvery substance into the flask with his wand. When the flask was completely full, Snape's grip on Harry's robes slackened and he asked to look into Harry's green eyes. Harry's green eyes looked into Snape's black eyes for a moment, before something in Snape's eyes vanished, the hand holding Harry's robes fell to the floor, and Snape's life ebbed away.

One-hour armistice


"If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste... I command my forces to retreat immediately. You have one hour... I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you... I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."

- Voldemort orders the one-hour ceasefire and retreat

After witnessing Severus Snape's death, Harry hears Lord Voldemort's magically amplified voice, speaking to everyone at Hogwarts and the surrounding area, and specifically to Harry, giving him one hour to surrender and threatening to kill everyone if he fails to comply. Harry, Ron, and Hermione return to Hogwarts through the tunnel, and Ron and Hermione enter the Great Hall, where the defenders are regrouping and the many wounded and dead lie. Harry sees Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, and Nymphadora Tonks among the deceased. Unable to bear the sight and ashamed at the damage he has caused, Harry runs to the Headmaster's office, where all the portraits stand empty, and finds Dumbledore's Pensieve.



From these memories, Harry learned where Snape's true loyalties had always lain. In this vision, Harry found out that Snape befriended Lily as a child when they lived near each other. Upon their arrival at Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat placed Snape and Lily into Slytherin and Gryffindor Houses, respectively. They remained friends for the next few years until they were driven apart by James Potter, a frequent bully of Snape, and Snape's interest in the Dark Arts; the friendship finally ended following the bullying episode that Harry had briefly seen in his fifth year, in which Snape called Lily "Mudblood". Despite this separation and Snape's hatred of Lily's eventual husband James Potter, Snape remained in love with Lily, for the rest of his life.

Harry then learns that Snape had revealed the prophecy made by Sybill Trelawney (not knowing, at first, that it was referring to Lily and her family) to Voldemort, prompting the Dark Lord to attack the Potters in an attempt to prevent its fulfilment. Though he asked Voldemort to spare Lily, Snape, still fearing for her safety, went to Dumbledore and begged him to protect the Potters. Dumbledore agreed and ensured that they were placed under the Fidelius Charm. In return, Snape became a re-doubled agent for the Order of the Phoenix against Voldemort, using his powers of Occlumency to hide his betrayal from his master. Even with his efforts to protect her, Snape felt responsible for Lily's death when the Potters were betrayed by their Secret-Keeper, Peter Pettigrew.



After Voldemort killed the one he loved, Snape was never loyal to Voldemort since and worked with Dumbledore to play a dangerous double game: protecting Harry and feeding Dumbledore information from the Death Eaters while pretending to be Voldemort's most loyal lieutenant all his life by feeding information to Voldemort that Dumbledore instructed him to. Snape demanded of Dumbledore, however, that his deep love for Lily (his reason for switching sides) be kept a secret. Dumbledore agreed and he kept the secret for the rest of his life.

Snape's memories then revealed that Dumbledore had been afflicted by a powerful curse cast on Marvolo Gaunt's ring, one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, prior to the start of Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts. Although Snape's knowledge of the Dark Arts enabled him to slow the spread of the curse, the curse would have ultimately killed Dumbledore within a year. Dumbledore, aware that Voldemort had ordered Draco to kill him, asked Snape to kill him instead as a way of sparing the boy's soul and of preventing his own otherwise slow, painful death.



Although Snape was reluctant, even asking about the impact of such an action on his own soul, Dumbledore implied that this kind of coup de grâce would not damage a human's soul in the same way murder would. Snape agreed to do as the Headmaster requested. Snape's memories also provide Harry with the information he needs to ensure Voldemort's final defeat, in the form of conversations Snape had with Dumbledore. The meemory showed Albus Dumbledore telling Snape about Harry himself being a Horcrux (although Snape didn't understand it), and that Harry must die in order for Voldemort to be defeated.

Dumbledore had asked Snape to pass that along to Harry when the time was right, specifically when Voldemort began to fear for the life of Nagini, and that is why Snape was begging for Voldemort to let him find the boy shortly before his death when he saw Nagini in her protective sphere. While he made it seem to Voldemort that he was offering to bring Harry so that Voldemort could kill him, Snape truly wanted to find Harry to tell him the crucial information found in this memory. Voldemort killed Snape, believing that it would make the Dark Lord the true master of the Elder Wand, before Snape could tell Harry the information Dumbledore instructed him to, but luckily Harry witnessed Snape's death in the Shrieking Shack and Snape was able to deliver the memories to Harry as his final act.

Harry's sacrifice


"Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived. Come to die"

- Lord Voldemort about to kill Harry Knowing that he must die, Harry now leaves the headmaster's office and heads for the Forbidden Forest. Passing Neville on the grounds, he tells Neville that if he does not return from where he is going, that Voldemort's snake must be killed. Finding the Resurrection Stone inside the Golden Snitch that Dumbledore had left, Harry summons the shades of his father, mother, Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black. They protect him from the Dementors as he walks through the forest. Reaching the Death Eaters' campsite, Harry drops the Resurrection Stone, and the shades vanish. Voldemort, spotting Harry, attempts to kill him.



Harry finds himself in a place that looks like King's Cross Station. There Harry spoke to the spirit of Albus Dumbledore in Limbo, who explained that the bit of Voldemort's soul inside of Harry was gone, and he could choose to go back to the world of the living or go on into the world of the dead. Dumbledore also explains that, due to Voldemort's use of Harry's blood in the process of creating himself a new body in 1995 in the graveyard of Little Hangleton, Harry survived the Killing Curse from Voldemort, although he was briefly knocked unconscious. As an additional result of this, Harry's sacrifice put a protection on the defenders of Hogwarts from Voldemort like his mother had once done for him. Harry chooses to go back, in the hopes of finally defeating Voldemort. Harry accepted the choice to return, and feigned death while Voldemort's forces cheered in assumed victory.

Fall of the Dark Lord
Returning to the Forbidden Forest, Harry plays dead. From what he hears, it seems that Voldemort has apparently also fallen unconscious, but is now reviving. He orders Narcissa Malfoy to examine Harry, to see if he is dead. Narcissa, hearing from Harry that Draco is still alive and in the school, and knowing that the only way to go to him is to end the war, lies to Voldemort, saying that Harry is dead. Voldemort forces Hagrid to carry Harry out of the forest and back to the school, where Voldemort announced Harry's 'death' to the defenders of Hogwarts.

The defenders came out of the castle and upon seeing Harry dead they screamed and shouted at the Death Eaters in anger. Neville Longbottom charged forth and attempted to attack Voldemort, but was quickly subdued. Voldemort then asked Neville to join the Death Eaters since he was of pure blood, but Neville refused. In response to Neville's defiance, the Dark Lord placed a Full Body-Bind Curse on Neville, freezing him to the spot. He then placed the Sorting Hat atop his head and set it aflame. Voldemort then declared an abolishment of all the House of Hogwarts, excluding Slytherin.

The centaurs and Grawp then attacked the Death Eaters, giving Harry time to disappear under his Invisibility Cloak in the confusion. Neville broke free of Voldemort's curse, because of Harry's sacrifice, and pulled Godric Gryffindor's Sword from the Sorting Hat. In one stroke, Neville used the blade to behead Nagini, thus destroying the last of Voldemort's Horcruxes and rendering him mortal. Voldemort, alongside his now weakened army, forced his way into Hogwarts.

Additional Hogwarts allies arrived at this time: legions of knife and cleaver-wielding house-elves led by Kreacher; the residents of Hogsmeade, some of the Slytherin students who had previously departed, and the friends and families of every remaining student, all led by Charlie Weasley and Professor Slughorn. A flock of Thestrals led by Buckbeak, and the Centaurs also threw themselves into the battle.

In the midst of all the chaos, Harry, hidden under the Invisibility Cloak, was buffeted into the Great Hall. Outnumbered by the defenders and allies of Hogwarts, the Death Eaters are defeated one-by-one. Yaxley is defeated by George Weasley and Lee Jordan. Dolohov is defeated by Flitwick. Walden Macnair is defeated by Hagrid. Greyback is defeated by Neville and Ron. Rookwood is defeated by Aberforth. Thicknesse is defeated by Arthur and Percy. The Malfoys just ran through the battle looking for their son. The rest are stabbed by house-elves, shot with arrows by the centaurs, brought down by spells, or trampled by the charging army until only Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort remained.

Whilst the Dark Lord simultaneously duelled Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Horace Slughorn and became furious at his inability to defeat them, Bellatrix also dueled three opponents; Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, and Ginny Weasley. Equal in power to all three, Bellatrix dueled fiercely, before sending a Killing Curse that missed Ginny by a scant inch. Furious at Bellatrix's attempted murder of her daughter, Molly Weasley forced the three girls to step aside and dueled Bellatrix herself; refusing all aid. Bellatrix's refusal to take her opponent seriously ultimately proved her undoing; whilst laughing at Molly, she was hit over the heart by a well aimed curse, killing her. Voldemort was furious at the loss of his best and last lieutenant, and after blasting his three opponents aside, directed his wand at Molly. Fortunately, Harry cast a Shield Charm between Molly Weasley and Voldemort before the latter could raise his wand. Harry then revealed himself to the survivors, giving them hope again. The cheering crowd retreated to the walls of the hall and watched then as the two great nemeses, Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter, bantered and circled each other. Harry revealed to Voldemort that Snape had always been a spy for Dumbledore, ever since Voldemort threatened Lily Potter's life. Harry also revealed that Snape was never the true master of the Elder Wand. It had been Draco Malfoy that was the rightful master, and that Harry had defeated Malfoy weeks ago, thereby gaining the allegiance of the Elder Wand.

{C}Harry suggested that Voldemort try to feel remorse, mentioning that he would become less than human if he did not, at which Voldemort was shocked. Moments later, Voldemort cast a Killing Curse with the Elder Wand at Harry, who simultaneously cast his own Disarming Charm using Draco Malfoy's wand. However, because the Elder Wand rightfully belonged to Harry, the Killing Curse rebounded at Voldemort and ended his life once and for all. The Second Wizarding War had ended with a decisive victory for the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army.

Aftermath
"We did it! We bashed them, wee Potter's the one! And Voldy's gone moldy, so now let's have fun!"

- Peeves the Poltergeist sings a victory song after the battle is over.

Fatalities
"...Fred, Tonks, Lupin, Colin Creevey, and fifty others who had died fighting him."

- After the battle.



The first casualties were three Snatchers who inadvertently crossed the protective enchantments around the Castle moments before midnight on 1 May. Arguably, these deaths may not be considered battle casualties per se, although it is known that the first deaths were indeed those of Scabior and some of his Snatcher gang, who fell to their deaths when the Covered Bridge collapsed.

Vincent Crabbe tried to use the Fiendfyre curse on Harry Potter, only to have it backfire and kill him. Fred Weasley was killed in an explosion caused by an unknown spell that was possibly cast by Augustus Rookwood. Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks were killed by Antonin Dolohov and Bellatrix Lestrange, respectively. Colin Creevey was found dead during a lull in the fighting by Neville Longbottom and Oliver Wood, though it is unknown how he died or who killed him. Severus Snape was killed by Nagini on Voldemort's orders.

When the battle erupted into its final stage, more people died on Voldemort's side, since Harry's sacrifice protected everybody who was protecting Hogwarts. Neville Longbottom beheaded Nagini with Godric Gryffindor's Sword. Bellatrix Lestrange died at the hands of Molly Weasley after Bellatrix nearly killed Ginny. The final duel saw Harry battle with Lord Voldemort and kill him. There were at least fifty lives mentioned to have been lost on both sides.

Behind the scenes

 * Unlike the novel in which they survived, Pius Thicknesse and Fenrir Greyback died during the battle in the film. The book makes no references to the deaths of Scabior and Lavender Brown, but they are shown in the film.
 * In the film adaption of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows there are some differences between novel and film. One of the more major differences is the fact that Gregory Goyle died in the Room of Requirement instead of Vincent Crabbe.
 * The Battle of Hogwarts was nominated for the Fight Scene' of the Year Award at the 2011 Scream Awards The Room of Requirement fight was also nominated for the Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year Award.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
 * Harry Potter LEGO Sets

Notes and references
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