It was very dark inside. The light from their wands cast eerie, elongated shadows on the walls as they passed. Hermione pointed at the doors at the two extreme ends of the hall. “Maybe we should look into those ---. “Or maybe we should just wait here” Ron interfered, looking positively worried. “Wait for what?” Harry asked sharply. “Voldemort killed my parents I’m going to hunt him down.”
But it wasn’t going to be easy, as Harry soon figured out . Inside each of the doors were spiraling staircases that wound up a long way. “This is insane.” Ron remarked, after they had tried all the staircases that one of the doors in the hall lead to, only to reach more rooms, enclosing more staircases. “This way we’ll never get anywhere” “Looks like Voldemort’s bewitched this House” Harry said, turning to face Hermione and Ron. What he saw slammed the air out of him. Less than six feet away behind Hermione was a tall woman with a pale, skull like face and eyes lit with a fanatical glow, her outstretched hand clutching a wand.
“Stupef---
“Protego!”
A jet of red light had shot out from the end of Bellatrix Lestrange’s wand, but Harry had deflected it, causing her to fall back on the floor. Footsteps were heard and Harry’s old Potions master stepped into the hall.Snape looked at the wand in Harry’s outstretched hand and then at Bellatrix’s form on the floor. It took him only a moment to realize what had happened. “Incarc—he yelled, but Hermione sprang forward. “Impedimen— Snape deflected her spell.
“Don’t waste your energy, Mudblood!” he yelled hysterically “You won’t have magic left in your dirty---“Ron stepped forward, shaking with rage.
“Sectumsemp—“
“Incendio!”
Bellatrix had got up to her feet. Orange light spilled over them just as Harry heard an explosive bang. Ron went into flames. “NO!” Harry and Hermione screamed. “Aguamenti!” Hermione yelled, trying to put out the fire with water. Harry followed suit. As the fire began to die out, Ron’s half-burnt form fell to the floor with a thud. Ron was dead. Harry turned around to face the two Death-eaters, his eyes burning. Bellatrix was laughing with a mad glint in her eye.
“Cruci—
“No unforgivable curses from you Potter!” Snape said, deflecting it. “You don’t have the ability---
“Avada Kedavra!” But it wasn’t Harry. Hermione had directed her wand at Bellatrix,who now lay flat on the ground, dead. “Crucio!” Snape yelled at Hermione, but she ducked. The curse hit one of the doors. “Where is your master, Snivelly ?” Harry spat “He didn’t run away, did he?”
“No I didn’t, Potter” said a cold voice.Tall,thin and black hooded, his snakelike face white and gaunt, his staring slit-pupilled eyes…..Lord Voldemort had appeared behind Snape,who spun around. “Master, I’m very sorry. Bellatrix—he said, his voice quivering.
“Be quiet Severus.You could not even aim a curse properly at Potter’s dirt-veined little friend. I have no use of you” Even as Snape’s face contorted into horror,Voldemort killed him with an Unforgivable Curse, without uttering aloud a single monosyllable. Meanwhile, Harry had somehow persuaded Hermione to temporarily seal herself in one of the rooms, promising he would call for her if necessary. Then, bracing himself for the final duel of his life, he re-entered the hall.
“Ah, Potter!” Voldemort said, as Harry entered with his wand raised. “After all the measures I took…...” “What do you mean?” Harry asked.Voldemort laughed icily. “Hasn’t it passed your thick skull that I lured you here?” Harry’s head reeled.He realized that he had walked right intoVoldemort’s trap.The very thought disgusted him..
“AVADA KEDAVRA!”Harry and Lord Voldemort yelled, at the same time.
The deadly green light emerging from both of their wands interlocked .Harry knew if the light from his wand backed, he’d be as dead as a fossil. “Who’s going to save you now,Potter?”Voldemort asked menacingly. He got his answer sooner than expected. A silver hurricane slowly began to develop around them. As it became more and more pronounced, three misty forms flew out to Harry’s side. They were Ron, Sirius and Dumbledore, who spoke, “Harry, you have bonded yourself in the Deathly Hallow—the holy bond of death, which binds the good and the evil. You have two paths. Either you test Voldemort’s resistance if you are confident he will tire before you----Voldemort laughed hysterically. “..Or you may choose to tilt your wand, so that both of you are killed by the light emerging from the other’s wand”. Just then, Hermione came running. “Harry ,are you---?” she halted midway, staring at the three forms. Harry’s arms were aching and his wand was
slipping from his grip…….. “Say goodbye to Ginny, will you?” He told Hermione, who nodded, tears rolling down her eyes. Then he turned to Voldemort, the person who had made him an orphan, for whom he had had to spend his childhood with the Dursleys, for whom he had lost his Godfather, his mentor, his best friend. His wand tilted. Harry and Voldemort’s bodies exploded into bits. For a moment, an unbearable pain seared across Harry’s forehead, he felt as though his scar was on fire …slowly he felt himself rising…he was lighter than a feather.. Hermione gasped.
Harry turned to Dumbledore. On his crescent-shaped spectacles, he saw the reflection of his face, without the scar that had marked his forehead for sixteen years. “Harry”, Dumbledore said, “You were born to kill Voldemort.Now that your task is complete, you may rightfully unite with—ah! But let Sirius do the honors.”
And for the first time that night, Sirius spoke. “Harry, I think you’ll love this.” Another form flew out from the hurricane. It was Harry’s mother, smiling lovingly. Harry glided to where Ron was comforting Hermione. “Hermione, we’ll meet again, I promise” Ron was telling her. “And thank you so much for everything! Without your help, I would have failed every test!” Harry added, to which she smiled feebly.
“Now this is what Tom never understood” Dumbledore said with a smile. “ There’s something greater than power, and that is—
“Love” Harry finished for him, and proceeded towards his mother, thrilled at the prospect of being with his parents without having to worry about a stupid scar ever again.
