Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter!

Rated M: Mature, Violence, Language, Character Deaths (a lot in this chapter!)

Updated: 05/25/09

Harry De Vie

Chapter 1: The End

The countdown to his seventeenth birthday has begun. One more minute, and he'll be a legal adult wizard. Tomorrow morning he can leave Privet Drive for the rest of his life. It still seemed like a dream and everything was happening too fast. Only several weeks ago, the Headmaster was killed leaving the wizarding world in total peril. Attacks by Voldemort and his Death Eaters had become nightly occurrences since that fateful day in late June when Harry and Dumbledore returned from the Horcrux hunt to find Death Eaters inside the ancient school. Without the Great Albus Dumbledore, the populace was in full blown panic, the school, the Ministry, and the Order all without leadership in the growing face of danger.

Harry had spent these few weeks doing what little he could to prepare himself, since he still couldn't do magic, but had been trying to exercise a bit and read. He also spent a good deal of time going through the Pensieve memories that Dumbledore left him in his will along with the beautifully rune engraved stone bowl itself. They were almost exclusively details about Tom Riddle's life, and the many encounters and battles the Headmaster had with the up and coming Dark Lord. Apparently the duo had fought over a dozen times throughout the years starting from a small attack on Hogsmead shortly after denying Tom the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts, where Dumbledore believed the current DADA curse originated from.

Their battles steadily grew more impressive, as the two powerful wizards continued pushing one another, through attacks on the elder Potter's, McKinnon's, Prewett's, Bones', and Meadow's families. Unfortunately each battle between the two wizards occurred after Voldemort had already eliminated the original targets and showed fewer Order members and more Death Eaters as they covered the late half of the seventies and into the beginning of the eighties before they stopped all together and skipped ahead to their most recent battle in the atrium of the Ministry at the end of Harry's fifth year.

Harry may have been a pretty brilliant wizard, but even he knew that he was no match for the Dark Lord after watching the many duels with his now deceased mentor and Headmaster. He wondered how Dumbledore really thought that he was capable of defeating Tom when he had primarily just escaped him by luck so far, and now with the wizarding world in practical shambles, how would Harry ever be prepared to face his destiny. Unless something truly remarkable happened when you turned seventeen that nobody has yet to tell him, then the world was for all intents and purposes …doomed.

Ten more seconds and he'll find out…five, four, three, two, one …BOOM!

An explosion of sound and magic ripped through the ordinary house at number four Privet Drive, destroying most of the windows and smaller accessories throughout. Harry Potter, newly turned seventeen year old wizard however was not the cause of the disturbance, and immediately was on his feet with his wand at the ready searching for the source. He could here a distant rumbling of noise that seemed to grow louder as he determined it was the sound of many voices that were approaching his relative's house in Surrey.

He grabbed his already packed school trunk in one swift motion before shrinking it and stuffing it his jeans pocket knowing this wasn't Ron and Hermione coming to pick him up as planned. Thankfully he had already managed to clear out everything of his since he had never planned to return and knew he had to leave soon. He began to focus on apparating out when he felt a heavy weight settle over him and the house causing him to scream in frustration at the presence of anti-apparition wards coming up meaning that his house was definitely under attack and he needed to get and find out what was happening as he raced out of his tiny bedroom. He was at the top of the stairs, when another closer and louder explosion rocked the very foundation of the house.

One whole wall and parts of another were blown to pieces, the debris knocking Harry back and causing cuts and bruises to penetrate every inch of his body. Struggling to sit up as he pushed off a piece of wall covering his legs, Harry had a clear view of the outside as two walls and the ceiling no longer existed leaving the dark semi-moonlit sky visible overhead. About fifty yards ahead of him, Harry could see a group of black cloaked wizards, and most prominent among them was the tall thin figure in the front. Even from this distance, Harry would recognize the waxy bone white skin and burning red eyes anywhere, Voldemort.

"Ah…the Boy-Who-Lived," spoke Voldemort clearly and sarcastically when he spotted the moving figure of Harry amongst the debris. "There's nowhere to run Potter, and nobody to save you" he spat with venom, "we have your house, or what's left of it, surrounded. Come and fight me like the brave and stupid Gryffindor that you are. It ends tonight, Potter."

Harry was frozen in fear, he could see the circle of Death Eaters spacing themselves out around the rubble that still remained. He was outnumbered almost eighty to one, and he made a silent prayer for the Order or aurors to show up quick, while he tried to control the rising panic in his chest. He slowly and painfully climbed back to his feet, and after a quick glance at the enclosing circle of Death Eaters, he returned his gaze and wand on the Dark Lord Voldemort.

"The brave Gryffindor wants to die," sneered Voldemort to the growing chuckles of his servants as he eyed the young teenager with great contempt.

In a moment of pure confidence and bravery, or maybe utter egotistical stupidity, Harry replied with a power in his voice that betrayed his own rising fears. "If I die today Tom, I'll be taking you with me."

"You arrogant fool…crucio," he spat as he sent the curse at the slightly staggering teenage wizard who was only now starting to regain control of his senses after the explosion and slight buzzing he felt throughout his body.

Harry dove into a roll to avoid the curse and jumped back to his feet immediately sending the most powerful reducto blast he could at the ground in front of Voldemort. Almost instantly close to fifty different curses came hurtling towards him from every direction. Harry jumped to the ground among the debris from his Uncle Vernon's obliterated favorite recliner to avoid the majority of them, but still got caught with quite a few cutting hexes on his arms, legs, and back, and a wicked burn hex that hit his shoulder painfully and the remnants of the remaining two walls and ceiling falling down upon him in pieces.

"Stop you fools, HE'S MINE!" screamed Lord Voldemort into the now deathly quiet night. "Potter …tonight …you will DIE," he yelled as he made his way slowly closer to the boy lying amidst the wreckage of number four Privet Drive.

A series of pops in the near distance signified the arrival of twenty plus members of the Order of Phoenix and almost ten aurors to a spot just outside the enclosing circle of Death Eaters. Instantly, a full on battle erupted as spells flew back and forth between the Order and Death Eaters. Despite their desperation and determination in the side of Light, within ten minutes almost every Order member and auror had fallen dead at the hands of the overwhelming numbers of Death Eaters who were wasting no time playing with their victims tonight.

Harry had managed to find some cover among the debris when the fighting began to help regain his ragged and slowed breathing as he ignored the pain he felt now pulsing through his body he guessed was from the spell fire he was hit by. He stood from within the house's wreckage and then quickly began launching cutting hexes and reducto blasts into the mix of Death Eaters, knowing he couldn't afford them to be revived by their comrades. He watched as Hermione and all the remaining Weasley's were killed off one by one, as well as Tonks, Flitwick, and McGonagall the last Headmistress of Hogwarts. Only Shaklebolt, Moody, and Lupin were still standing from the arriving Order members, who made up the entirety of the forces of Light which were quickly dwindling and easily outnumbered as they were being surrounded by over forty Death Eaters and fading quickly.

Harry noticed that two Death Eaters in the back of the group were systematically taking out their own as they made their way to helping the remaining Order members. Harry could tell from their body movements that one of them was Severus Snape; the man Harry thought betrayed the Order and Headmaster when he killed him over a month ago. The other was definitely a woman based on her size and how she moved and was doing twice the damage of the potions master. Harry was broken out of his reverie by a strangled howl, as he watched the last of the true Marauders, and his former Defense professor and the resident werewolf, Remus Lupin fall to the ground in a lifeless heap.

"NOOOO!" screamed Harry as he watched Lupin fall. He needed to help him, to be by him, he was all Harry had left and he needed to be with Remus….CRACK.

Harry opened his eyes to a few collective gasps as he appeared on his knees next to the fallen body of Remus Lupin, amidst the worst of the fight. His arrival had thrown back the immediate attackers in Remus' area as he realized the last friend of his parents and person he respected and looked to as a father figure was now gone, and somebody would have to pay dearly.

"The apparition wards must have fallen, quick Lucius, recast them," ordered the Dark Lord whose duel with Mad-Eye Moody had paused at the sound of Harry's loud crack shattering through the anti-apparition wards.

Lucius Malfoy recast the wards, only to be rewarded at the conclusion by having his head severed by his sword wielding sister-in-law Bellatrix, who apparently was the female making her way through Voldemort's ranks with ease. Harry however, paid no attention to anything around him as he arrived next to Lupin's fallen body. He had known immediately that his friend and recently appointed guardian was dead, and let out a roaring yell of anger as a rush of magical energy exploded around him, sending everyone scattered throughout the yards in front of what used to be Number Four Privet Drive.

When everyone slowly returned to their feet, the found themselves covered in cuts and bruises with torn garments and dirt covering their sore bodies. Harry remained unmoved standing over the dead body of his fallen teacher and friend, the last link he had to his parents and Sirius, a raging wind ripping around him. He could only stare around in shock as he noticed the dead bodies of his friends from earlier scattered around him as the Death Eaters had been thrown further away from the young pissed off wizard.

Voldemort was the first to come around, and shook off the shock at the power with which everyone just got hit by the boy-who-lived. He saw most of his followers still scattered around the area and his current opponent Mad-Eye Moody still trying to regain his bearings and began to press his advantage. As he began to strike at his fallen adversary and last remaining leader of the light, the two Death Eaters turned blood-traitors that had been helping him and the last Order members attacked the Dark Lord simultaneously. Harry could hardly believe it as he heard Severus Snape and Bellatrix Lestrange throwing curses at the Dark Lord from a position between him and Tom, and was amazed that those two, of all people where actually trying to help him in the end. The sectumsempra and the severed Achilles curses slammed into Voldemort from behind just as he finished off the old retired auror, and current paranoid leader and last living member of the Order of Phoenix.

"Harry, get out of here, we can't hold him for long," spoke Bellatrix quickly as the Dark Lord whipped around furiously, the two dark curses doing nothing more than irritating him as she grabbed Harry and steered him away from an oncoming returned killing curse.

Harry's intense and incredulous green eyes met the most pain filled dark blue eyes filling with tears of sorrow and regret, their eyes met for only a second, and Harry saw her every emotion, pain, and desire in that one look before she was hit with another sickly green light that was aimed at him, causing her to fall dead to the ground at his feet. Harry couldn't believe it, Bellatrix's remorse and pain was so intense, apologizing to him, helping him, sacrificing herself for him all in that one look. His whole world was spinning as his heart began to fill with a burning feeling, until he saw Lord Voldemort standing over a doubled over Severus Snape, with a dead Alastor Moody beneath him, the end in sight.

"Ssseverusss you fool …you risssk yourself and a place of honor at my ssside for thisss pathetic boy …I will enjoy killing you …AVADA KEDAVRA," screamed Voldemort as the accursed Potions master and Dumbledore's spy crumpled dead at his feet.

Harry was shaking in a combination of helplessness and rage, as he stood face to face only three meters apart from his mortal enemy as the words of the prophecy he heard over a year before came back hauntingly into his mind. Either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives. He knew this was it; there were still a handful of Death Eaters that were slowly starting get back to their feet and began making a wide circle around Voldemort and Harry. Every Light witch or wizard was now dead, the remnants of the Order of Phoenix and any hope for the light destroyed in a single half hour, and Harry was now completely alone facing his greatest enemy.

"It'sss time for you to die, POTTER," hissed Voldemort.

"I told you Tom …I WILL take you with me," replied Harry in an absolute rage at the one responsible for killing everyone he ever knew or loved or ever loved him.

A soft white glow seemed to slowly take shape around Harry's body as he prepared himself to give the Dark Lord everything he could, knowing this was his last chance. Voldemort's eyes widened for a split second as he noticed the forming aura and couldn't believe his eyes nor did he want to admit Potter's growing power, before he cast what he hoped was the final curse in his quest to eradicating the Light and taking over the world, "AVADA KEDAVRA."

Harry gasped as he saw the familiar sickly green light forming around Voldemort's wand in slow motion slowly coming towards him as he heard the all too familiar high pitched laughter of the evil Dark Lord echoing through his head. The killing curse was only inches away from him as he reached out with his hands and screamed "NOOOO!" before the sickly green light crushed into his chest at the same time that the brightest-whitest light erupted from Harry's glowing body. The light encompassed the whole world in that fraction of a second as Harry felt his chest exploded in pain before the whole world went black and he sunk into darkness.

A/N: I am finally able to get this story out and going, one of several I am now working on since finishing Never Ending Summer. The chapters will probably get longer, but not too much since I'd like to not take forever getting chapters out to you my faithful readers. Read my profile for an idea where this story might be going …that's the only hint you get. Hope you enjoy!