Between Fine Lines

Thirty-one

"Harry Potter is dead!"

The courtyard that once held study groups, reading adventures, homework sessions, laughter and smiles was now a desolate field of rubble. Voldemort stood with his followers along the half destroyed bridge that normally led down to Hogsmeade.

There was a piercing scream from Ginny as she tried to push her way toward the front of the group composed of students, teachers, magical creatures, Aurors and Order members.   Ron grabbed for his sister, pulling her back, his arms locked firmly around her waist as she sobbed at the sight of her boyfriend.

Harry Potter's "dead" body hung lightly in the air, just about two feet off of the ground, still motionless as the magic that came from Narcissa Malfoy's wand kept him floating.  He could feel the gentleness of her magic as his body was lowered to the ground, off to the side of what was left of Voldemort's army.

"Give me that!" Bellatrix sneered, snatching Narccisa's wand from her the moment Harry was on the ground.  The Dark Lord had been very specific, the body was to come back with them unharmed in order to show everybody that it clearly was Harry and that Voldemort had defeated him.

"The wizarding world is mine to rule! I will give one last opportunity, to any of you-" Voldemort paused where he stood a little ahead of his death eaters, motioning behind them. "Join us now, become a part of my ranks, and your life will be spared as we take over this world and the non-magical one. Stand in our way and we will not hesitate to kill you."

There were murmurs throughout the crowd, but nobody made a move.

"Draco," Lucius hissed, his eyes searching the crowd across the way for his son. " Draco, come here."

"Ah yes..." Voldemort held a wicked smirk on his face. "Come, Draco- we forgive you... come back to your family," he coaxed, reaching a hand out for the young blonde.

Draco stood, slightly in the middle of the group of students, a death grip on Theo's hand, panic setting into his chest as he looked from Voldemort, to his father, to his mother.

"Come now, Draco, you don't want to disappoint The Dark Lord," Bellatrix called out, but there was no mistaking the malice underlying her tone. Draco knew the second his aunt could get him alone, she would murder him given the opportunity.

Regulus  and Hermione stepped around Draco and Theo, putting themselves in front of both of them and the wicked grin upon Voldemort's face only grew.

"Regulus Black, what a pleasure."

Bellatrix's eyes shot from her master to her cousin, her eyes widening in disbelief.  Regulus was alive? The memories in the mind of the mudblood had been real, not trickery?  She could feel her blood boiling, her thoughts flashing back to what she had seen in Hermione's head, the affection between the brunette and Regulus made her seethe.

"Traitor!" Bellatrix called out. "Filthy mudblood loving scum! Disgusting blood traitor! Fraternizing with poor excuses for witches and wizards!" Her voice shook with rage as she made to shove past Narcissa and Lucius, but Voldemort held up his hand, not bothering to look backwards at Bellatrix.

"Hush, Bella..." his tone was firm and warning, he would not allow his death eaters to act out, especially without any direct orders from him.

"Tom," Regulus smirked. "I would say it's nice to see you, but I respect myself too much to give a lowly lie such as that." His hand reached for Hermione's, wrapping his fingers tightly between hers. "We have no interest in joining you."

Voldemort's eyes trailed from Regulus to Hermione, giving a 'tsk tsk tsk'. "Severus once stood where you did, begging me for mercy, to save a mudblood he loved too...We see how that ended up for him."  His eyes trailed over the crowd, taking a small, but meaningful moment on each person's face, already picturing how their dead bodies would decorate the courtyard.

"Harry Potter is dead, you have no savior, no protector, resisting is useless."

It was at that moment that Neville Longbottom stepped forward, clothes torn, limping, dirty and exhausted.  He had the sorting hat gripped in his hands and Voldemort eyed him with curiosity.

"And what is your name, son?" he questioned, tilting his head slightly.

"Neville... Neville Longbottom."

There was a chorus of laughter from the death eaters, Bella's shrieking laugh was particularly deafening among them.

"And have you come to join us, Neville... Longbottom?" Voldemort questioned.  Nagini peered out from behind her master, hissing as she began to slink through the rubble slowly, making her way toward Neville.

"I came to tell you that you're wrong.  Harry's not dead. He's still with us, in here!" Neville patted his chest. "All of them, anybody who died fighting, they're all with us! They're here to help us defeat you! They won't be forgotten, they won't have died in vain!"

"A beautiful speech, Neville Longbottom-" Voldemort paused, chuckling. "Truly, but tell me, how do you plan on avenging your fallen?"

Neville smirked, his eyes never leaving Voldemort's face as he slowly began to drop the sorting hat, the sword of Gryffindor sliding out, holding the hilt in his hand.

"By killing the snake."

The next moment almost felt like it was in slow motion, Nagini was already up in the air, her fangs heading straight for Neville. He moved to the side, swinging both arms, fists tightly enclosed around the base of the sword, slicing her head clean from her body and successfully killing Voldemort's final horcrux.

Voldemort let out a shout that barely sounded human as he felt another piece of his soul rip away from the world, hunching over as the pain coursed through his body, stumbling to the side a bit, his death eaters all scrambling to move out of his way in fear.

As he stood up straight, he was not met with the brown eyes of Neville Longbottom, but the green eyes of Harry Potter. The gasps of surprise that chorused behind the two could not be missed as people shouted that The Boy Who Lived was still alive.

"Harry Potter!" Voldemort scowled out, trying to weakly grab for the teenage boy. Harry sidestepped him, summoning his wand from the dainty hand of Narcissa Malfoy, who was unable to hide the trademark smug Malfoy smirk from her face.

"Death asked me to deliver you to him personally- Come on, Tom. Let's finish this the way we started, together!" Harry grabbed the older man, pushing him toward the gaping opening behind them.

Harry and Voldemort disappeared off the side of the bridge and chaos erupted between the two groups once more.