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 Gellert 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 inside, along with Tonks, and Mrs. Longbottom, Neville's grandmother, who has sealed off the tunnel to the inn. Tonks and Mrs. Longbottom then left the room 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. Hogwarts, lost so many innocent lives including: Fred, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks and Colin creevy.

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 the room 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 his 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", and as he did so, silvery-blue wisps, neither gas nor liquid, were gushing from his mouth, ears, and eyes. Hermione conjured 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
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
"Finally, the truth. Lying with his face pressed into the dusty carpet of the office where he had once thought he was learning the secrets of victory, Harry understood at last that he was not supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into Death's welcoming arms. Along the way, he was to dispose of Voldemort's remaining links to life, so that when at last he flung himself across Voldemort's path, and did not raise a wand to defend himself, the end would be clean, and the job that out to have been done in Godric's Hollow would be finished: Neither would live, neither could survive."

- Harry coming to terms with the realisation that he must die.

Harry surfaced from the Pensieve and finally knew the truth: he was not meant to survive; his job had been to dispose of Voldemort's Horcruxes and then walk calmly to his death. As he lay on the floor of the Headmaster's office, Harry felt terror and fear at the knowledge that he had to die, and he wished he could have died quickly, like Hedwig, so that he didn't know it was coming, or like his parents, launching himself in front of someone he loved. Harry sat up slowly, more aware of his living body than ever before, and though about Dumbledore's bigger plan, that Dumbledore had always planned for him to die as one step close to defeating Voldemort. It was clear that Harry's life span had always been determined by how long it took to get rid of the Horcruxes, and that it was an elegant plan not to waste any more lives but to give the tasks to the boy who had already been marked for death, and whose death would not be tragic but simply another blow against Voldemort.

However, Harry realized that Dumbledore had overestimated him, and that Nagini, the last Horcrux, remained to bind Voldemort to the earth even after Harry had been killed. He knew that Ron and Hermione would have to carry out killing the snake after Harry was killed, and Harry knew that good-byes and explanations, and Ron and Hermione's attempts to stop him, would waste valuable time. Thus, in order not to meet anyone, Harry put on the Invisibility Cloak and went down the floors, and then he nearly avoided being walked into by Neville. Neville was carrying a body in from the grounds with Oliver Wood, and with a dull blow to his stomach Harry saw that it was Colin Creevey, who had sneaked back into the castle to fight despite being underage.

Harry took one glance back at the entrance of the Great Hall, where people were kneeling beside the dead and comforting another, but he couldn't see Hermione, Ron, Ginny, the other Weasleys, or Luna. However, he had an idea to make absolutely sure that Horcrux of Nagini was killed, and so he spoke to Neville. Lying about not handing himself over, Harry told Neville that just in case Neville got the chance, he must kill the snake. Now, like Dumbledore, Harry made sure that there were backups to carry on when he was dead, and that there was still be three people in on the Horcrux secret: Neville would take Harry's place.

Harry swung the Cloak over himself and continued walking, but he stopped when he saw Ginny comforting a girl who was whispering for her mother. Harry wanted to shout out to Ginny, to be stopped, to be dragged back; he almost wished she could have sensed him, but under the Invisibility Cloak, this was as impossible as ever, he was doing what he had to do to defeat Voldemort once and for all. Harry passed Ginny kneeling beside the injured girl, and as he saw Hagrid's hut looming out of the darkness, dark and empty, he emotionally remembered all his trips there, particularly the rock cakes, Ron vomiting slugs, and Norbert. When he reached the edge of the forest, he felt the chill of a swarm of dementors. He had no strength left for a Patronus, as he was clinging to each second, and though he felt like he couldn't go on he knew that he must, that the game was over, that the Snitch had been caught. At this, he pulled out of the Snitch he had inherited from Dumbledore, the first Snitch he had ever caught, and understanding was coming to him quickly.

The inscription on the Snitch, I open at the close, finally made sense to him: this was the close. Harry pressed the golden metal to his lips and whispered, "I am about to die". The metal shell broke open, and Harry lit Draco's wand beneath the Cloak. He saw the black stone with the jagged crack running down the center sitting in the two halves of the Snitch. The Resurrection Stone had cracked down the vertical line representing the Elder Wand, and the triangle and circle representing the Cloak and stone were also visible. Knowing that it wasn't really like bringing them back for he was going to join them, Harry closed his eyes and turned the stone over in his hand three times.



Hearing slight movements like the movement of frail bodies on the earthy, twig-strewn ground, Harry opened his eyes and saw figures less substantial than living bodies but much more than ghosts moving toward him with loving smiles on their faces: the shades of James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and, with the widest smile of all, Lily Evans. Lily tells Harry on how brave he's been, and Sirius tells him that dying doesn't hurt at all. Harry, mostly addressing Lupin, tells them all that he didn't want any of them to die, especially because Lupin will never know his son, but Lupin says that he hopes his son will understand that he died to have the boy live a happier live. James tells Harry that they'll stay with him until the very end, and Sirius informed him that the others wouldn't be able to see them, as they were a part of Harry and invisible to everyone else.



They set off, and the dementor's chill did not overcome him; his companions acted like Patronuses, and Harry continued deeper in the forest not knowing where Voldemort was but certain of finding him. The presence of James, Sirius, Lupin, and Lily gave him courage, and his mind and body felt oddly disconnected, as if his limbs worked without conscious instruction and that he was a passenger, not driver, in the body he was about to leave. Suddenly, he heard a thud and a whisper, and Yaxley and Dolohov emerged from behind a nearby tree, with Yaxley saying he heard something and that perhaps Harry was under the Invisibility Cloak. Deciding it must have been an animal, the two decided Harry has had his time to come and that they would return to the other Death Eaters to await orders.



Harry followed them, knowing that they would lead him to Voldemort, and his mother smiled and his father smiled in encouragment. In mere minutes, Harry saw light ahead, and Yaxley and Dolohov stepped into the clearing that once belonged to the monstrous Aragog; the remnants of the vast web remained, but Aragog's descendants had been driven out by the Death Eaters to fight for their cause. A fire burned in the middle of the clearing, and there was a crowd of watchful, silent Death Eaters around it. Two giants sat on the outskirts of the group, and Harry saw Fenrir chewing his long nails, Rowle dabbing at a bleeding lip, and Lucius Malfoy looking defeated and terrified, while Narcissa had sunken eyes full of apprehension.



Voldemort stood with his head bowed, his white hands folded over the Elder Wand in front of him as in in prayer or counting silently in his mind. Behind his head, Nagini floating in her glittering, enchanted cage. Voldemort looked up at Dolohov and Yaxley's approach, and they informed him that there was no sign of the boy. Voldemort told the Death Eaters that he expected Harry to come, and that it appears he was mistaken. Harry contradicts Voldemort as loudly as he could, while the Resurrection Stone slipped between his fingers; his parents, Sirius, and Lupin vanished.

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

- Lord Voldemort about to kill Harry As he stepped into the clearing, with nothing but the fire between him and Voldemort, the giants roared and the Death Eaters rose together, there were cries, gasps, and even laughter. Voldemort had frozen, and his red eyes stared as Harry moved toward him with nothing but the fire between them. At that moment, a voice yelled "HARRY! NO!", and Harry saw that Hagrid was bound and trusssed, tied to a nearby tree. As Hagrid shouts to stop Harry, Rowle caused Hagrid to be silent with a flick of his wand. Bellatrix leapt to her feet, looking eagly from Voldemort to Harry, her breat heaving, and the only things that moved were the flames and snake, coiling and uncoling in midair in the glittering cage.



"Voldemort had raised his wand. His head was still tilted to one side, like a curious child, wondering what would happen if he proceeded. Harry looked back into the red eyes, and wanted it to happen now, quickly, while he could still stand, before he lost control, before he betrayed fear -- He saw the mouth move and a flash of green light, and everything was gone."

- Voldemort casting the Avada Kedavra Curse on Harry.

Harry made no atttempt to draw his wand, he knew that the snake was too well protected, and even if he managed to point the wand at Nagini, fifty curses would hit him first. Voldemort looked Harry with his head tilted a little to the side, and a mirthless smiled curled his lipless mouth. Very softy, Voldemort said, "Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived". None of the waiting Death Eaters moved, Hagrid was struggling, Bellatrix was panting, and Harry thought of Ginny, her blazing look, and the feel of her lips on his. Voldemort raised his wand, with his head still tilted to one side, and Harry looked into the red eyes and wanted it to happen quickly, before he displayed any fear; he saw Voldemort's mouth move and flash of green light, and everything was gone.

Limbo with Albus Dumbledore
Harry found himself laying facedown in silence, comletely alone. He soon realised that he must exist, because he was definitely lying on some surface, and thus he had a sense of touch. Soon after this conclusion, he discovered he was naked. He was intrigued at this, but not concerned because he was sure of his solitude. He wondered whether he would be able to see as well as touch, and discovered that he could. He was in a bright mist, but rather than his surroudnings being hidden bya cloudly vapor it was is the cloudy vapor had not yet formed into surroundings. The floor on which he lay seemed white and flat, neither warm nor could. As he sat up, he realised he was not wearing glasses anymore. At that moment, Harry heard a noise: the small soft thumpings of something that was flailing and struggling. The noise was pitiful, but also slightly indecent, and Harry felt he was eavesdropping on something furtive and shameful. He wished he were clothed, and at that moment robes appearaed a short distance away.

Looking more closely at his surroundings, Harry saw a great domed glass roof glittering high above him, and Harry thought perhaps he was in a palace. Turning slowly on the spot, his surrroundings invented themselves before his eyes: a wide-open space, a hall much larger than the Great Hall. Harry recoiled as he spotted the thing making the noises: it had the form of a small, naked child curled on the ground, with raw and rough skin, flayed looking and shuddering under a seat where it had been left unwanted, struggling for breath. Harry was afraid of it, it repulsed him, and did not want to approach it even though it was small, fragile, and wounded. At that moment, a voice told Harry he couldn't help it, and he turned to see Albus Dumbledore striding towards him in sweeping robes of midnight blue; both his hands were white and undamaged.



Dumbledore led Harry away from where the flayed child lay whimpering to two seats set some distance away. The two sat down, and Harry looked at Dumbledore and saw everything he remembered about him; but, knowing Dumbledore is dead, Harry asks if he is dead as well. Dumbledore says this is not the case, and the fact that Harry willingly sacrificed himself will have made all the difference. With Dumbledore prompting him, Harry puts together that, because Harry let himself be killed by Voldemort, the part of Voldemort's soul that was in Harry has now gone; Harry's soul is whole and completely his own. Asking Dumbledore what the small, maimed creature trembling under the chair was, Dumbledore replied that it was something beyond either of their help. Harry asks how he can be alive when Voldemort used the Killing Curse and no one died for him this time, and Dumbledore explains that it was because Voldemort, in his ignorance, in his greed and his cruelty, used Harry blood to rebuild his living body in 1995 in the graveyard of Little Hangleton. Thus, Harry's blood being in Voldemort's veins, Lily's protection was inside both of them, making it so Voldemort tethered Harry to life while he lived.

"...His knowledge remained woefully incomplete, Harry! That which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to comprehend. Of house-elves and children's tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped."

- Albus Dumbledore

Explaining further, Dumbledore reveals that Harry was the seventh Horcrux, a Horcrux that Voldemort did not mean to make. When Voldemort committed the unspeakble acts of murdering Harry's parents and the attempted murder of the child, his soul broke apart, and Voldemort left more than his body behind: he left part of himself latched to Harry, his would-be victim. But Voldemort remained ignorant of some forms of magic, and he thus took Harry's blood in an attempt to strengthen himself by taking into his body a tiny part of the enchantment that Lily laid upon Harry upon her death. Voldemort's body keeps her sacrifice alive, and while that enchantment survives, so did Harry and so did Voldemort's one last hope for himself.

"Without meaning to, as you now know, Voldemort doubled the bond between you when he returned to a human form. A part of his soul was still attached to yours, and, thinking to strenghten himself, he took ap art of your mother's sacrifice into himself. If he could only have understood the precise and terrible power of that sacrifice, he would not, perhaps have dared to touch your blood....But then, if he had been able to understand, he could not be Lord Voldemort, and might never have murdered at all."

- Albus Dumbledore

Harry then asked why his wand broke the wand that Voldemort borrowed, Dumbledore told him that Voldemort, having doubled the bond between them when he returned to human form (a part of his soul was latched to Harry, and then, thinking to strengthen himself, he took part of Harry's mother's sacrifice into himself) proceeded to attack Harry with a wand that shared Harry's wand's core. The cores reacted in Priori Incantatem, something Voldemort, who never knew that his wand and Harry's shared the same core, had never expected. That night, when Harry accepted, even embraced the possiblity of death, Harry's wand overpowered Voldemort's, and something happened between the wands that echoed the relationship between their masters. Dumbledore believed that Harry's wand imbibed some of the power and qualities of Voldemort's wand that night, that it contained a little of Voldemort himself.



"...Your wand recognized him when he pursued you, recognized a man who was both kin and mortal enemy, and it regurgitated some of his own magic agaisnt him, magic much more powerful than Anything Lucius's wand had ever performed. Your wand now contained the power of your enormous courage and of Voldemort's own deadly skill: What chance did that poor stick of Lucius Malfoy's stand?"

- Dumbledore on how Harry's wand acted during the Battle of the Seven Potters.

During the Battle of the Seven Potters, Harry's wand recognized Voldemort when the Dark Lord pursued Harry, and it regurgitated some of Voldemort's own magic against him, magic much more powerful than anything Lucius's wand had ever performed: Lucius's wand had no chance against the combined power of Harry's enormous courage against Voldemort's own deadly skill. Dumbledore explains that Harry's wand's remarkable effects were directed only at Voldemort, who had tampered with the deepest laws of magic, and otherwise it was a wand like any other and so Hermione was able to break it.

Dumbledore told Harry that they could agree that Harry was not dead, and then Harry asked Dumbledore where they were. Dumbledore asked Harry the same question, to which Harry replied that it looked somewhat like King's Cross Station except cleaner and empty, and without any trains. Dumbledore chuckled at this suggestion, and when Harry asked what Dumbledore thought it looked like, Dumbledore replied with an infuriatingly unhelpful response. Harry then brought up the subject of the Deathly Hallows, which wiped the smile from Dumbledore's face. Dumbledore asked Harry to forgive him for not trusting him to forgive him for not telling Harry, that Dumbledore feared that Harry would failed as he had failed, and make Dumbledore's mistakes. Dumbledore says that Harry is the better man, and with tears in his eyes he says that the Hallows are a desperate man's dream and lure for fools, and that Dumbledore was one such fool. Dumbledore tells Harry that he took sought a way to conquer death, and so he wasn't better ultimately than Voldemort, to which Harry protests, saying that Dumbledore tried to master death using the Hallows, whereas Voldemort tried to conquer death with the use of Horcruxes, by murdering.



Dumbledore tells Harry that above all, the Deathly Hallows were the objects that drew he and Grindelwald together: two clever, arrogant boys with a shared obsession. The Hallows were the reason Grindelwald wanted to come to Godric's Hollow to explore the place where Ignotus Peverell, the third brother, had died. Dumbledore reaveals that the Peverell brothers were in fact the three brothers of the tale, but that it is more likely that they were simply gifted, dangerous wizards who succeeded in creating the powerful objects rather then them being Death's own Hallows, that this was the sort of legend that would have sprung up around the creations. The Cloak of Invisibility traveled down through the ages to Ignotus's last living descendant, who was born, like Ignotus, in Godric's Hollow: Harry. Dumbledore revealed that the Cloak was in his possession the night Harry's parents died because James had shown it to him a few days previously, and while Dumbledore had long since given up his dream of uniting the Hallows, he still wished to examine it, as it was a Cloak that matched the description of the tale perfectly.

"You know the secret of my sister's ill health, what those Muggles did, what she became. You know how my poor father sought revenge, and paid the price, died in Azkaban. You know how my mother gave up her own life to care for Ariana. I resented it, Harry. I was gifted, I was brilliant. I wanted to escape. I wanted to shine. I wanted glory. Do not misunderstand me, I loved them. I loved my parents, I loved my brother and my sister, but I was selfish, Harry, more selfish than you, who are a remarkably selfless person, could possibly imagine."

- Dumbledore explaining how he felt about his family to Harry. Dumbledore told Harry that he gave up on his search for the Hallows because of what happened, and that Harry can't despise him as much as he despised himself. He told Harry that he resented the responsibility of his sister's poor health, and that his father died in Azkaban and his mother giving up her own life to care for Ariana. He revaled that he was gifted, brilliant, he wanted to escape, to shine, to have glory, and while he loved his brother and sister and parents, he disliked having the responsibility of a damaged sister and a wayward brother; he felt like his talent was trapped and wasted. Then, Grindelwald came, with his ideas of Muggles forced into subservience and wizards triumphant, Grindelwald and Dumbledore being the leaders of the revolution. Dumbledore revealed that he had scruples, but he assauged his consience with empty words about it being for the greater good and any harm done would be repaid in benefits for wizards. Dumbledore closed his eyes to what Grindewald truly was, because if their plans came to fruition all of Dumbledore's dreams would come true.

"Invincible masters of death, Grindelwald and Dumbledore! Two months of insantiy, of cruel dreams, and neglect of the only two members of my family left to me. And then...you know what happened. Reality returned in the form of my rough, unlettered, and infintely more admirable brother. I did not want to hear the truths he shouted at me. I did not want to hear that I could not set forth to seek Hallows with a fragile and unstable sister in tow. The arguement became a fight. Grindelwald lost control. That which I had always sensed in him, though I pretended not to, now sprang into terrible being. And Ariana...after all my mother's care and caution...lay dead upon the floor."

- Dumbledore discussing with Harry the duel between him, Grindelwald, and Aberforth. At the heart of Dumbledore and Grindewald's schemes were the Deathly Hallows. Dumbledore told Harry how interested they were in the fascinating objects: the unbeatable wand that would leave them to power, the Resurrection Stone -- to Grindewald it meant an army of Inferi and to Dumbledore it meant the resurrection of his parents and the lifting of all responsibility from his shoulders. Dumbledore told Harry that he and Grindelwald never discussed the Cloak much; both of them could conceal themselves perfectly fine without the Cloak, and Dumbledore thought it might be useful in hiding Ariana, but mostly they were interested in the Cloak because it completed the trio, which would make them master of death, which they took to mean "invincible". After the two months of scheming and neglect of the two family members left to him, Dumbledore was forced to face reality with his brother, Aberforth, telling him the truth that he couldn't seek the Hallows with an unstable sister. The arguement became a fight, and Ariana lay dead on the floor. At this, Dumbledore began to cry in earnest, and then said that Grindelwald fled while Dumbledore was left to bury his sister and live with his gulilt and grief, the price of his shame.



"I had proven, as a very young man, that power was my weakness and my temptation. It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well."

- Albus Dumbledore

Dumbledore then said that he was offered the post of Minister for Magic while rumors about Grindewald procuring a wand of immense power flew about. Harry told Dumbledore that he would have been a much better Minister than Fudge or Scrimgeour, but Dumbledore said that he had learned at a young age that he was not to be trusted with power, that it was his weakness and his temptation, and that those who are best suited to power are perhaps those who have leadership thrust upon them and have never sought it.

While Dumbledore was at Hogwarts as a teacher, where he believed he was safer, Grindewald was raising an army, and that some said he feared Dumbledore, but not as much as Dumbledore feared him. It was not what Grindelwald could do to him magically (as Dumbledore knew that they were about evenly matched) that Dumbledore feared, rather Dumbledore was afraid of truth: which one of them had cast the curse that killed Ariana during that last horrific fight. Dumbledore dreaded beyond all things the knowledge that it had been him who had brought about Ariana's death, not just through his arrogance and stupidity but that he actually struck the blow that killed her. Dumbledore delayed facing Grindelwald until it became shameful; people were dying, and Dumbledore did what he had to do: he won the duel and won the Elder Wand's allegience.

Harry did not ask whether Dumbledore had ever found out who struck Ariana dead, and at last he knew what Dumbledore would have seen when he look in the Mirror of Erised. After a long silence, during which the whimperings of the creature behind them barely disturbed Harry anymore, Harry told Dumbledore that Grindelwald had tried to stop Voldemort from going after the wand by lying and pretending he never had it. Dumbledore nodded, and said that Grindelwald was said to have showed remorse in later years, alone in his cell at Nurmengard, and that perhaps that lile to Voldemort was his attempt to make amends, to stop Voldemort from taking the Hallow, or (as Harry suggested) to stop Voldemort from breaking into the Dumbledore's tomb.

"Maybe a man in a million could unite the Hallows, Harry. I was fit only to possess the meanest of them, the least extraordinary. I was fit to own the Elder Wand, and not to boast of it, and not to kill with it. I was permitted to tame and to use it, because I took it, not for gain, but to save others from it."

- Dumbledore on his possession of the Elder Wand.

After another short pause, Harry brought up that Dumbledore had tried to used the Resurrection Stone, to which Dumbledore nodded. He said that when he discovered it, after all those years buried in the abandoned home of the Gaunts, he lost his head and quite forgot that it was now a Horcrux and that the ring was sure to carry a curse. He picked it up, put it on, and for a second Dumbledore imagined that he was able to see Ariana and his parents again, and to apologize, but instead he suffered from the curse placed on the Horcrux ring. Dumbledore said that this was final proof that he was unworthy to unite the Hallows, tha after all those years he had learned nothing. Harry defended him, saying that it was only natural for him to want to see his family again, but Dumbledore said that he was only fit to possess the Elder Wand, and only to use it to protect others from it. The Cloak, Dumbledore said, he had taken out of a vain curiousity, and so it would never have worked for him like it worked for Harry, its true master. Dumbledore said that he would have used the stone to drag back those who are at peace, rather than to enable his self-sacrifice, as Harry did. At this, Dumbledore said that Harry was the worthy possessor of the Hallows.

Harry asked Dumbledore why he had to make it all so difficult, and Dumbledore smiled as he admitted he counted on Miss Granger to slow Harry up. Dumbledore said he was afraid that Harry's hot head might dominate his good heart, and that Dumbledore feared that, if presented outright with the facts about the tempting objects, Harry might have tried to seize the Hallows like Dumbledore did, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. If Harry laid hands on them, Dumbledore wanted him to possess them safely. Dumbledore said that Harry was the true master of death because the true master does not seek to run away from Death, but instead accepts that he must die and understands that there are worse things in the living world than dying.

When Harry asked if Voldemort ever knew about the existence of the Hallows, Dumbledore said that he did not believe so; he did not recognize the Resurrection Stone he turned into a Horcrux, but even if he had known about them, Dumbledore doubted that Voldemort would have been interested in any except the Elder Wand, as Voldemort would not think he needed the Cloak, and whom would be want to bring back from the dead with the stone, as he fears and the dead and does not love. Despite this, Dumbledore did believe that Voldemort would go after the wand ever since Harry's beat Voldemort's own during the Duel in Little Hangleton. At first, Voldemort was afraid that Harry had conquered him by superior skill. However, after kidnapping Ollivander, he discovered the exitence of the twin cores, and he thought that a borrowed wand would solve the issue. Yet the borrowed wand did not better against Harry's, and so Voldemort wnet after the Elder Wand, a wand that was said to beat any other. Dumbledore said that he did indeed intend for Severus Snape to end up with the Elder Wand by planning Snape to kill him, but Harry and Dumbledore both agree that that particular plan did not work out in the end.

Harry and Dumbledore sat without talking for the longest time yet, while the creature behind them jerked and moaned. The realisation of what would happen next gradually settled on Harry, and he asked Dumbledore if he had to go back. Dumbledore replied that Harry had a choice, and that if they were in King's Cross Harry had the decision to go back, or to board a train and go "on". Harry mentioned that Voldemort has the Elder Wand, and while Dumbledore confirmed this, he said that if Harry chose to return there was a strong chance that Voldemort would be finished for good. Dumbledore said he cannot promise this, but that Harry had less to fear from returning where they were than Voldemort did. Harry glanced at the raw-looking thing that trembled and choked in the shadow beneath the distant chair, but Dumbledore told Harry not to pity the dead, but instead to pity the living, espeically those who live without love. He told Harry that by returning, Harry could ensure that fewer souls were injured and fewer families torn apart, as Harry had a strong possibility of being able to defeat Voldemort once and for all.

Dumbledore said that if that seemed like a worthy goal, they would part for the time being. Harry nodded and sighed, knowing that leaving this place would not be as difficult as walking into the forest, but it was warm and light and peaceful and he knew that he would be going back to pain and the fear of more loss. Harry stood up, as did Dumbledore, and they looked at each other. Harry then asked if this was all real, or whether it had simply been happening inside his head. Dumbledore smiled, and as the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure, his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry's ears as he told Harry that it was definitely happening inside Harry's head, but by no means should that mean it wasn't real.

Procession from the Forest
"He was lying facedown on the ground again. The smell of the forest filled his nostrils. He could feel the cold hard ground beneath his cheek, and the hinge of his glasses, which had been knocked sideways by the fall, cutting into his temple. Every inch of him ached, and the place where the Killing Curse had hit him felt like the bruise of an iron-clad punch. He did not stir, but remained exactly where he had fallen, with his left arm bent out at an awkward angle and his mouth gaping."

- Harry returning to the forest after being unconscious.

Harry found himself flying facedown on the hard ground again, with the smell of the forest in his nostrils and the hinge of his glasses, which were knocked sideways when he fell, cutting into his temple. He was aching, and the place where the Killing Curse hit him felt like the bruise of a painful punch, but he feigned death by remaining exactly where he had fallen with his left arm bent out at an awkward angle and his mouth open. Harry expected to hear cheers of triumph and jubilation at his death, but instead he heard hurried footsteps, whispers, and solicitous murmurs filling the air.

He then heard Bellatrix's voice, speaking as if to a lover as she addressed Voldemort. Harry, not daring to open his eyes, allowed his other senses to explore his situation, and he found that his wand was stowed beneath his robes and, due to a slight cushioning effect around his stomach, he knew that the Invisibility Cloak was also there. Bellatrix addressed Voldemort again, but he cut her off. Harry heard more footsteps, and several people backed away from the same spot. Opening his eyes a millimeter, Harry saw that Voldemort seemed to be getting to his feet with various Death Eaters hurrying away from him, with only Bellatrix remaining kneeled beside him.

Harry closed his eyes and considered what he saw: the Death Eaters had been huddled around Voldemort, who seemed to have fallen to the ground; perhaps Voldemort had also collapsed when he hit Harry with the Killing Curse. Both of them had fallen briefly unconscious and both of them had now returned. Voldemort declined Bellatrix's offer of assistance coldly, and asked if the boy was dead. There was complete silence in the clearing as no one approached Harry, and with a bang and a small shriek of pain Voldemort ordered someone to examine Harry and then tell him whether the boy was dead.



Not knowing who had been sent to verify, Harry lay with his heart thumping inside his chest waiting to be examined, but at the same time noted that Voldemort was wary of approaching him, that Voldemort suspected not everything had gone according to plan. Harry felt hands, softer than he expected, touch his face, pull back an eyelid, creep beneath his shirt, down to his chest, and feel his heart.

Harry could hear the woman's fast breathing, and her long hair tickled his face and he knew that she could feel the steady pounding of his heartbeat against his ribs. In a barely audible whisper, with her lips an inch from Harry's ear and her long hair shielding his face from the onlookers, the woman asked if Draco was alive and in the castle. Harry breathed back a "yes", and he felt the hand on his chest contract, her nails piercing him, and then felt it withdrawn. She had sat up, and Narcissa Malfoy announced to the watchers that the boy was indeed dead.

Now the Death Eaters shouted, yelling in triumph and stamping their feet, and Harry saw through his eyelids bursts of red and silver light shoot into the air in celebration. Still feigning death on the ground, Harry understood that Narcissa no longer cared whether Voldemort won, and so she lied to the Dark Lord knowing that the only way she would be permitted to enter Hogwarts, and find her son, was as part of the conquering army. Screeching over the tumult, Voldemort announced that now, with Harry Potter dead by his hand, no man could ever threaten him. Voldemort then cast the Cruciatus Curse on Harry's body, which Harry expected: he knew that his body would not be allowed to remain unsullied upon the floor but must be subjected to humiliated to prove Voldemort's victory. Harry was lifted into the air, and he tried as hard as he could to remain limp, yet the pain he expected from the Torture Curse did not come. He was thrown three times into the air, and his glasses fell off while his wand slid a little beneath his robes, and he kept himself floppy and lifeless. When he fell to the ground for the last time, the clearing was still echoing with jeers and shrieks of laughter.

"Now, we go to the castle, and show them what has become of their hero. Who shall drag the body? No -- Wait -- You carry him. He will be nice and visible in your arms, will he not? Pick up your little friend, Hagrid. And the glasses -- put on the glasses -- he must be recognizable --"

- Voldemort ordering Hagrid to carry Harry to the castle. Voldemort then announced that they would go to the castle to display the defenders of Hogwarts what had become of Harry. Voldemort decided that Hagrid should carry Harry's body, as the boy would be nice and visible in Hagrid's arms, and Harry felt his glasses slammed onto his face with deliberate force when Voldemort ordered that he wear the glasses to be recognizable. The enormous hands that lifted Harry up were exceedingly gentle, and Harry could feel Hagrid's arms trembling with the force of his sobs; great tears splashed down upon him as Hagrid cradled Harry in his arms, but Harry did not dare to tell Hagrid that all was not, yet, lost. Voldemort commanded Hagrid to move, and Hagrid stumbled forward as he forced his way through the close-growing trees back through the forest. Branches caught at Harry's hair and robes, but he continued to feign death with his mouth lolling open and his eyes shut and in the darkness, with the Death Eaters crowing all around them and Hagrid still sobbing, no one looked to see if a pulse beat in Harry's exposed neck.

Two giants crashed along behind the Death Eaters, and Harry could hear trees creaking and falling as they passed. The giants made so much noise that the birds rose shrieking into the sky, and even the jeers of the Death Eaters were drowned. The victorious procession continued to march on toward the open grand, and Harry could tell, after a while, by the lightening of the darkness through his closed eyelids, that the trees were beginning to thin. Then, Hagrid unexpectedly bellowed at Bane and the other centaurs for not fighting, asking them if they were happy that Harry was dead, but he broke down in fresh tears and couldn't finish. Harry could not tell how many centaurs watched their procession pass, and he heard of some Death Eaters calling insults at the centaurs as they left them behind. A little later, Harry sensed, by a freshening of the air, that they had reached the edge of the forest, and Voldemort commanded Hagrid to stop and, due to Hagrid's lurch, Harry suspected that the gamekeeper had been forced to obey. A chill began to settle over them, and Harry heard the rasping breath of dementors that patrolled the outer trees. However, the fact of his own survival burned inside of him, acting like a Patronus in his heart.

Annoucing Harry's "Death"
"Harry Potter is dead. He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him. We bring you his body as proof that your hero is gone. The battle is won. You have lost half of your fighters. My Death Eaters outnumber you, and the Boy Who Lived is finished. There must be no more war. Anyone who continues to resist, man, woman or child, will be slaughtered, as well every member of their family. Come out of the castle now, kneel before him, and you shall be spared. Your parents and children, your brothers and sisters will live and be forgiven, and you will join me in the new world we shall build together."

- Voldemort announcing Harry's death to the inhabitants of Hogwarts. Voldemort than spoke with his voice magically magnified, announcing that Harry was dead and that he was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself. He said that he would bring Harry's body as proof that the hero of the defenders of Hogwarts was gone, and he told them that his Death Eaters outnumbered them and the Boy Who Lived was finished. He called for no more war, and that anyone who continued to resist would be killed, as well as everyone in their family. He then ordered that those who came out of the castle and knelt before him would be spared, and join him in creating a new world. There was silence in the grounds and from the castle, and Voldemort then forced Hagrid to follow him. Harry opened his eyes a fraction, and saw Voldemort striding in front of them wearing the great snake Nagini around his shoulders, now free of her enchanted cage, but Harry had no chance of extracting the wand concealed under his robes without being noticed by the Death Eaters marching on either of side through the slowly lightening darkness. Hagrid continued to sob and say Harry's name, and Harry shut his eyes again and, knowing that they were near the castle, strained his ears to distinguish above the gleeful voice of the Death Eaters and their trampling footsteps any sign of life from those within.



The Death Eaters came to a halt, and Harry heard them spreading out in a line facing the open front doors of the school. He could see through his closed lids that the reddish glow meant light streaming upon him from the Entrance Hall, and Harry waited for the moment when the people for whom he had tried to die would see him, lying apparently dead, in Hagrid's arm. Professor McGonagall screamed, and it was all the more terrible because Harry never thought McGonagall could make such a noise. Harry heard another woman laughing nearby, and he knew it was Bellatrix glorying in McGongall's despair. Harry squinted again for a single second and saw the open doorway filling with people, as the survivors of the battle came out onto the front steps to face the Death Eaters and see the truth of Harry's death for himself.

Harry saw Voldemort standing a little in front of him, stroking Nagini's head with a single white finger. He then heard Ron, Hermione and Ginny's shouts of horror, even worse than McGonagall's, but Harry forced himself to remain lying silent. Their cries acted like a trigger, and the rest of the survivors began screaming and yelling abuse at the Death Eaters until Voldemort cried for silence and, with a bang and flash of bright light, silence was forced upon them all. Voldemort ordered Harry to be lowered down and set at his feet, and he proclaimed to the survivors that Harry Potter was nothing but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him. Ron yelled at Voldemort, and the charm broke and the defenders of Hogwarts were shouting and screaming again until another bang extinguished their voices once more. Voldemort, with relish in his voice, lied once more that Harry was killed when trying to sneak out of the castle grounds, but he was interrupted by a scuffle and a shout, then a bang, a flash of light, and a grunt of pain. Opening his eyes slightly, Harry saw that someone had broken free of the crowd and charged at Voldemort: Harry saw the figure hit the ground, disarmed, and Voldemort threw the challenger's wand aside, laughing.



In a soft snake's hiss, Voldemort asked the crowd who had stepped force to show what happened to people who continued to fight when the battle was lost. Laughing delightedly, Bellatrix answered that it was Neville Longbottom, the boy who had been giving the Carrows so much trouble, and son of the Aurors, Frank and Alice Longbottom. Voldemort turned back to Neville, who was struggling to his feet, disarmed and unprotected, standing between the survivors and Death Eaters. When Voldemort offered that Neville, who was pure-blood and showed bravery and courage, join the ranks of the Death Eaters, Neville bravely refused and called Dumbledore's Army, and there was an answering cheer from the crowd, whom Voldemort's Silencing Charms seemed unable to hold. Voldemort answered in a dangerous, silky voice that, if that was Neville's choice, they would revert to the original plan.

Still watching through his lashes, Harry saw Voldemort wave his wand, and out of one of the castle's shattered windows something that looked like a mishapen bird flew through the half light and landed in Voldemort's hand. He sook the mildewed object by its pointed end and it dangled, empty and ragged: the Sorting Hat. He announced that there would be no more Sorting at Hogwarts, no more Houses, and that the emblem, shield, and colors of Voldemort's ancestor Salazar Slytherin would suffice for everyone. He pointed his wand at Neville, who grew rigid and still as Voldemort cast a Full Body-Bind Curse on him, then Voldemort forced the hat onto Neville's head, so that it slipped down below his eyes. There were movements from the watching crowd, but the Death Eaters raised their wands as one and held the fighters of Hogwarts at bay. With a flick of his wand, Voldemort caused the Sorting Hat on Neville's head to burst into flames.

Battle recommences
Screams split the dawn as Neville was aflame, rooted to the spot and unable to move, and just as Harry planned to act, there was an uproar from the distant boundary of the school as what sounded like hundreds of people came swarming over the out-of-sight walls and pelted toward the castle with loud war cries. At the same time, Grawp came around the side of the castle yelling "HAGGER!", and Voldemort's giants roared in return and ran at Grawp like bull elephants, making the ground tremble. Then there were hooves and the twangs of bows, and arrows were falling amongst the Death Eaters, who broke ranks shouting in surprise.



"The slash of the silver blade could not be heard over the roar of the oncoming crowd or the sounds of the clashing giants or of the stampeding centaurs, and yet it seemed to draw every eye. With a single stroke Neville sliced off the great snake's head, which spun high into the air, gleaming in the light flooding from the entrance hall, and Voldemort's mouth as open in a scream of fury that nobody could hear, and the snake's body thudded to the ground at his feet--"

- Neville beheading Nagini.

Harry pulled the Invisibility Cloak from inside his robes, swung it over himself, and sprang to his feet while Neville moved at the same time. In one swift, fluid motion, Neville broke free of the Body-Bind curse placed upon him, and the flaming hat fell from his head and he drew from inside it something silver, with a glittering, rubied handle: the Sword of Godric Gryffindor. The slash of the silver blade could not be heard over sounds of battle; the clashing giants and the stampeding centaurs, though it seemed to draw every eye. With a single stroke Neville sliced off Nagini's head, which flew spinning into the air and, as Voldemort let out of a scream of fury that no one could hear, the snake's body thudded to the ground.

Still hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, Harry cast a Shield Charm between Neville and Voldemort before the latter could try an attack the boy. Then, over the screams and the roars and the thunderous stamps of the battling giants, Hagrid was yelling for Harry, asking where Harry was. There was chaos as the charging centaurs scattered the Death Eaters and everyone fled from the giants' stamping feet, and nearer and neared thundered the reinforcements: Harry saw great winged creatures soaring around the heads of Voldemort's giants, thestrals and Buckbeak the hippogriff scratching at their eyes while Grawp punched and pummeled themm. Both defenders of Hogwarts and Death Eaters were being forced back into the castle, and Harry was shooting jinxes and curses at any Death Eater he could see, and they crumped without nothing who or what had hit them, while their bodies were trampled by the retreating crowd. Hidden beneath the Cloak, Harry was buffeted into the entrance hall; he saw Voldemort across the room firing spells from his wand as he backed into the Great Hall while screaming instructions to his followers as he sent curses everywhere, while Harry cast more Shield Charms while Voldemort's would-be victims, Seamus Finnigan and Hannah Abbott, ran past him into the Great Hall and joined the fight inside.

There were even more people storming up the front steps, and Harry saw Charlie Weasley overtaking Horace Slughorn, who was still wearing his emerald pajamas, leading what looked like the families and friends of every Hogwarts student who remained to fight, along with the shopkeepers and homewoners of Hogsmeade. The centaurs Bane, Ronan, and Magorian burst into the hall with clattering hooves, as behind Harry the door that led to the kitchens was blasted off its hinges: the house-elves of Hogwarts swarmed into the entrance hall screaming and waving carving knives and cleavers. At their head, with locket of Regulus Black bouncing on his chest, was Kreacher, urging the house-elves to fight the Dark Lord in the name of brave Regulus, his Master, defender of house-elves. The house-elves hacked and stabbed at the ankles and shins of Death Eaters with their tiny faces alive with malic, and everywhere Harry looked the Death Eaters were folding under sheer weight of numbers, overcome by spells, dragging arrows from wounds, stabbed in the leg by elves, or else simply attempted to escape but swallowed by the charing army.

Harry sped between duelers, past struggling prisoners, and into the Great Hall, where he saw Voldemort in the center of the battle striking and smiting all within reach. Harry could not get a clear shot of him, but he fought his way closers, still invisibile, and the Great Hall became more and more crowded as everyone who could walk forced their way inside. Harry watched as the Death Eaters, outnumbered by the defenders and allies of Hogwarts, were taken down one by one: Harry saw Yaxley slammed to the floor by George Weasley and Lee Jordan, Dolohov fall with a scream at Flitwick's hands, Walden Macnair thrown across the room by Hagrid, hit the stone wall oppposite, and slide unconscious to the ground. He saw Ron and Neville bringing down Fenrir Greyback, Aberforth hitting Rookwood with a Stunning Spell, Arthur and Percy flooring Thicknesse, and Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy running through the crowd, not even attempting to fight, screaming for their son.



"NOT MY DAUGHER, YOU BITCH!"

- Mrs. Weasley charing after Bellatrix.

Voldemort was now dueling McGonagall, Slughorn, and Kingsley simultaneously, and there was cold hatred in his face as they wove and ducked around him, unable to finish him. Bellatrix was still fighting as well, fifty yards away from Voldemort, and like her master she dueled three at once: Hermione, Ginny, and Luna, each of the three girls' battling their hardest but Bellatrix, battling fiercly, was equal in power to the three of them. Harry's attention was diverted as a Killing Curse shot so close to Ginny that she missed death by an inch, and he changed course, running after Bellatrix rather than Voldemort. Before he had gone a few steps, he was knocked sideways as Molly Weasley, throwing off her cloak to free her arms, ran at Bellatrix, furious at the Death Eater's attempted murder of her daughter.



Bellatrix roared with laughter at the sight of her new challenger, and Molly ordered the girls to step aside; with a swipe of her wand she began to duel. Harry watched as Molly Weasley's wand slashed and twirled, and Bellatrix Lestrange's smile faltered and became a snarl. Jets of light flew from both wands, the floor around their feet became hot and cracked, both witches were fighting to kill. As a few students ran forward, trying to come to her aid, Mrs. Weasley shouted for them to get back and leave Bellatrix to her. Hundreds of people now lined the walls, watching the two fights: Voldemort and his three opponents, Bellatrix and Molly, while Harry stood invisible, torn between both, wanting to attack and yet to protect, unable to be sure that he would not hit the innocent.

As Bellatrix, as mad her her master, taunted Molly about the death of Fred Weasley, Molly screamed that Bellatrix would never touch her children again. Bellatrix laughed, the same exhilarated laugh that her cousin Sirius had given as he toppled backward through the veil, and Harry suddenly knew what was going to happen before it did. Molly's well-aimed curse soared beneath Bellatrix's outscretched arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart. Bellatrix's gloating smile froze, her eyes seemed to bulge: for a split second she knew what had happened, and then she toppled, the watching crowd roared, and Voldemort screamed.

Harry felt as though he turned in slow motion; he saw McGoangall, Kingsley, and Slughorn blasted backward, flailing and writhing through the air, as Voldemort's fury at the fall of his last, best lieutenant exploded with the force of a bomb. Voldemort raised his wanted and directed it at Molly Weasley, but Harry roared Protego and the Shield Charm expanded in the middle of the Hall, and Voldemort stared around for the source as Harry pulled off the Invisibility Cloak at last.

Final Duel between Harry and Voldemort


The yells of shock, the cheers, the screams on every side of delight at Harry's appearance were stifled at once. The crowd was afraid, and silence fell abruptly and completely as Voldemort and Harry stared at each other and began to circle each other. Harry called to the crowd that he didn't want anyone else to help, that it had to just be him and Voldemort, though Voldemort hissed that Harry truly wanted someone to use a shield, to sacrifice themselves for him. Harry replied that there were no more Horcruxes, that it was just him and Voldemort; neither could live while the other survived, and one of them was going to leave for good. Voldemort jeered at the proposal that Harry would survive, the boy who survived by accident and because Dumbldore was pulling the strings.

Harry then asked if it was accident when his mother died to save him, accident when he decided to fight in the graveyard, if it was an accident when he didn't defend himself that night, still survived, and returned to fight again. Voldemort screamed that these were accidents, but he still did not strike, will the hundreds watching in the Hall were frozen as if Petrified. Voldemort proclaimed that it was accident and chance, and that Harry crouched and sniveled behind the skirts of greater men and women and permitted Voldemort to kill them for Harry to save himself. Harry replied that Voldemort wouldn't be killing anyone else, as they stared into each other's eyes, green into red. Harry said that Voldemort wouldn't be able to kill any of them ever again, because Harry was ready to die to stop him from hurting them, and that thus he did what his mother did to him. He gave the defenders of Hogwarts sacrificial protection, and that's why none of the spells Voldemort put on them were binding; Voldemort couldn't torture them, or touch them, and Harry ended by calling Voldemort "Riddle" and telling him he never learnt from his mistakes.

Harry told Voldemort that he knew lots of important things that Riddle didn't, and offered to tell him some of them before he made another big mistake. Voldemort did not speak but continued prowling in a circle, and Harry knew that he had kept him temporarily at bay and mesmerized, held back by the possibility that Harry might indeed know a final secret. His snake's face jeering, Voldemort suggested that the secret was love, Dumbledore's favourite solution that he claimed conquered death, but Voldemort said that love did not stop him from killing Harry's mother, or Dumbledore falling from the top of the Astronomy Tower, and that nobody seemed to love Harry enough to run forward and take Voldemort's curse. Voldemort then asked, if nobody sacrificed themself for Harry, what would stop Harry from dying when he struck.

As they circled each other, wrapped in each other, held apart by nothing but the last secret, Voldemort suggested that, if it wasn't love that would save Harry, Harry must believe he possessed magic that Voldemort didn't, or a weapon more powerful than Voldemort's. When Harry said he believed both, shock flitted across the snakelike face, but it was instantly dispelled as Voldemort began to laugh at the possibility that Harry knew more magic than he did, than Lord Voldemort, the wizard who performed magic Dumbledore himself never dreamed of. The laugh was humorless and insane, a sound more frightening than his screams, which echoed around the silent Hall. Harry contradicted this, saying that Dumbledore did indeed dream of it, but that he knew more than Voldemort, he knew enough not to do what Voldemort had done. Voldemort screamed that this meant Dumbledore was weak, too weak to dare, to weak to take what might have been his, and what would soon be Voldemort's. Harry again disagreed, saying that Dumbledore was cleverer than Voldemort; a better wizard and a better man.



Voldemort said that he brought about the death of Albus Dumbledore, but Harry told Voldemort that he was wrong. At this, for the first time, the watching crowd stirred as the hundreds of people around the walls drew breath as one. Voldemort hurled the words that Dumbledore was dead at Harry as though they would cause him unendurable pain, and added that his body was decaying in the marble tomb on the Hogwarts grounds, never to return. Harry calmy agreed that Dumbledore was dead, but that Voldemort didn't have him killed. Harry told him that Dumbledore chose his own manner of dying, chose it months before he died, that he arranged the whole thing with the man Voldemort thought was his servant. Voldemort said that this was a childish dream, but he still did not strike, and his red eyes did not waver from Harry's.

Harry said that Severus Snape was never Voldemort's, that he was Dumbledore's from the moment Voldemort had started hunting down Lily Evans. Harry added that Voldemort never realised this because of the thing he can't understand. Harry asked Voldemort if he had ever seen Snape cast a Patronus, and Voldemort did not answer as they continued to circle each other like wolves about to tear each other apart. Harry revealed that Snape's Patronus was a doe, the same as Lily's, because he loved her for nearly all of his life, from the time when they were children. When Harry asked Voldemort if Snape asked him to spare Lily's life, Voldemort sneered that Snape had only desired her, and that when she had gone he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him. Harry said that of course Snape would have told Voldemort that, but that in reality Snape was Dumbledore's spy from the moment Lily was threatened, he had been working against Voldemort ever since, and that Dumbledore was already dying when Snape finished him.

Voldemort had followed every word with rapt attention, but now let out a cackle of mad laughter as he said that none of this mattered. It didn't matter whether Snape was his or Dumbledore's, or what petty obstacles they had tired to put in his math. Voldemort said that he crushed them, crushed them as he had crushed Harry's mother, Snape's supposed great love. Voldemort then said that it all made sense, in ways that Harry didn't understand. Voldemort then mentioned that Dumbledore was trying to keep the Elder Wand from him, that Dumbledore had intended for Snape to be the true master of the wand. Voldemort then said that he had gotten there ahead of Harry, that he had reached the wand before Harry could get his hands on it, understood the truth before Harry had caught up. Voldemort then said that he had killed Snape three hours ago, and the Elder Wand, the Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny, was truly his.



Voldemort said that Dumbledore's last plan went wrong, which Harry agreed with, but he advised Voldemort to think about what Voldemort had done. Harry told him to try for some remorse, and of all the things Harry had said to him, beyond any revelation or taunt, nothing had shocked Voldemort more than this. Voldemort's pupils contracted to thin slits, and the skin around his eyes whitened. Harry said that trying for remorse was Voldemort's last chance, that he had seen what Voldemort would be otherwise, that trying to feel remorse was all Voldemort had left. Voldemort was furious at this, and Harry revealed that Dumbledore's last plan hadn't backfired on him at all, that it had backfired on Voldemort, whose hand was trmbling on the Elder Wand. Harry gripped Draco's wand very tightly, knowing the moment was seconds away. Harry told Voldemort that the wand was still not working properly for Voldemort because Voldemort murdered the wrong person: Snape was never the true master of the Elder Wand, that he had never defeated Dumbledore.

Voldemort began to disagree, but Harry once again said that Snape didn't defeat Dumbledore because their death was planned between them. Dumbledore had intended to die undefeated, the wand's last true master, and that if all had gone as planned, the wand's power would have died with him, because it had never been won from him. Voldemort said that this meant Dumbledore as good as gave him the wand, because Voldemort stole it from its last master's tomb, removed it against its last master's wishes, and that the wand's power was his. Harry contradicted this, saying that Riddle still didn't understand that possesing the wand wasn't enough, that holding and using it didn't really make it yours. Harry revealed that the Elder Wand recognized a new master before Dumbledore had died, someone who never even laid a hand on it. The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never realising exactly what he had done, or that he had attained the allegience of the world's most dangerous wand. Voldemort chest rose and fell rapidly, and Harry could feel the curse coming, building inside the wand Voldemort had in his wand.

"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it? Does the wand in your hand know its laster master was Disarmed? Because if it does...I am the true master of the Elder Wand."

- Harry Potter instants before he and Voldemort cast their spells.

Harry then said that the true master of the Elder Wand was, in fact, Draco Malfoy, who had Disarmed Dumbledore and won the wand's allegience shortly before Snape killed him. Black showed on Voldemort's face for a moment at this news, but then it was gone as Voldemort said that this didn't matter, that even if Harry was right it made no different to them. Harry no longer had the phoenix wand, and so they would duel on skill alone, and Voldemort said that after he had killed Harry he would attend to Draco Malfoy. Harry then said that Voldemort was too late, that he had missed his chance, because Harry had overpowered Draco weeks ago and took the hawthorn wand from him. Harry twitched this wand, and he felt the eyes of everyone in the Hall upon it. Harry then whispered that it all came down to this, whether or not the Elder Wand knew it last master was Disarmed, because if it did, then that meant that Harry was the Elder Wand's true master.



"The bang was like a cannon blast, and the golden flames that erupted between them, at the dead center of the circle they had been treading, marked the point where the spells collided. Harry saw Voldemort's green jet meet his own spell, saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling like the head of Nagini, spinning through the air toward the master it would not kill, who had come to take full possession of it at last. And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand in his free hand as Voldemort fell backward, arms splayed, the slit puils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward. Tom Riddle hit the floor with mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hand's empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and Harry stood with two wands in his hand, staring down at his enemy's shell."

- The death of Lord Voldemort.

A red-gold glow burst suddenly across the enchanted sky above as the dazzling sun appeared over the sill of the nearest window, and the light hit both of their faces at the same time sot tht Voldemort's was suddenly a flaming blur. Harry heard the high voice shriek "Avada Kedavra" as he too yelled his best hope to the heavens, "Expelliarmus", as he pointed Draco's wand. There was a bang like a cannon blast, and golden flames erupted between them at the dead center of the circle they had been treading, marking the point where the spells collided.

Voldemort's green jet of light met Harry's spell, and Harry saw the Elder Wand fly high and spin across the ceiling like Nagini's head toward the master it refused to kill. Harry, with the skill of a Seeker, caugt the wand in his free hand as Voldemort fell backward, arms splayed and the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward. Voldemort hit the ground, his body feeble and shrunken, his white hands empty and his snakelike face vacant and unknowing. Voldemort was dead by his own rebounding curse, and Harry looked down at his enemy's shell with the two wands in his wand.

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.

There was one shivering second of silence, the shock of the moment suspended, and then tumult broke around the Great Hall as the screams and cheers and roars of the watchers rent the air. The fierce new sun dazzled the windows as they thundered toward Harry, and the first to reach him were Ron and Hermione, whose arms wrapped around him, their incomprehensible shouts that deafened him. Ginny, Neville, Luna soon came to him, as they were followed by the Weasleys, Hagrid, Kingsley, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout, and Harry could not hear a word that anyone was shouting nor tell whose hands were seizing and pulling him, trying to hug some part of him. Hundreds of people pressed in on him, all of them determined to touch the Boy Who Lived, the reason it was over at last.

As the sun rose over Hogwarts, the Great Hall blazed with life and light, and Harry was an indispensable part of the grief and celebration. Everyone wanted him there with them, their leader and their symbol. He must speak to the bereaved and witness their sadness, and hear the news that the Imperiused all over the nation had come back to normal, the Death Eaters were fleeing or else captured, the innocent in Azkaban were being released, and Kingsley Shacklebolt had been named temporary Minister of Magic. Voldemort's body was laid in a chamber off the Hall, away from the bodies of Fred, Tonks, Lupin, Colin Creevey, and fifty others who had died fighting him. McGonagall had replaced the House tables, though noboby was sitting according to House anymore, as everyone was jumgled together: teachers and pupils, ghosts and parents, centaurs and house-elves, Firenze lay recovering in the corner, and Grawp peered in through a smashed window while people threw food into his laughing mouth.

Exhausted and drained, Harry found himself sitting on a bench next ot Luna, who distracted everyone by calling their attention to a Blibbering Humdinger so Harry could escape underneath the Cloak. Now invisible, he spotted Ginny two tables away with her head on her mother's shoulders, and he knew that there would be maybe years in which to talk to her. He saw Neville with the sword of Gryffindor lying beside his plate as he ate, surrounded by fervent admirers, and he also spotted the three Malfoys, huddled together as though unsure whether or not they were supposed to be there, but nobody paid them any attention. Everywhere he looked he saw families reunited, and then he found the two whose company he craved most: Ron and Hermione. The three of them left the Great Hall to see great chunks missing from the marble staircase, part of the balustrade gone, and rubble and bloodstains every few steps. In the distance they could her Peeves singing a victory song of his own composition, the irreverent lyrics of which, Ron said, really gave a feeling for the scope and tragedy of the event.

Harry was exhausted, the pain of losing Fred and Lupin and Tonks pierced him like a physical wound every few steps, and most of all he felt stupdendous relief and a longing for sleep. He knew he owed an explanation to Ron and Hermione, who had stuck with him for so long, and who deserved the truth. Painstakingly he recounted what he had seen in the Pensieve and what had happened in the forest, and they had not even begun to express all their shock and amazement when at last they arrived at the place to which they had been walking, though none of them had mentioned their destination: the headmaster's office. Since they had last seen it, the gargoyle guarding the entrance to the study had been knocked aside, it stood lopsided looking a little punch drunk, and Harry didn't know if it would be able to distinguish passwords anmymore. When they asked it if they could go up, the gargoyle groaned in assent.

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

 * 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. 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 death of Scabior
 * 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)
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
 * Harry Potter LEGO Sets

Notes and references
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