A Phoenix of Ash.

By GrahamTheWordWitch.

Disclaimer: I make no claims on the Harry Potter Series, as all rights belong to J. .

Chapter One: The End of the Saviour.

Harry Potter had borne witness to his fair share of silences in his seventeen years of life, but never had he witnessed one such as this. It seemed to cling to all in its path, like a cape of shadow. The very air around him was completely and utterly devoid of sound, as if someone had cast a spell across the very fabric of all existing things: even he felt it to his bones. This silence seemed thick with a dangerous promise: that this was the end, for better or for worse. Harry couldn`t bring it in him to mind, for all he wanted was a conclusion.

Harry was stood facing the man that had played an integral part in irrevocably ruining his life, with his hand curled so tightly around his wand that his knuckles had bled bone white.

Lord Voldemort stared back at the boy whose mere existence threatened all he had worked towards, with his inner circle of Death Eaters standing loyally behind him.

Both stood motionless in scrutiny of each other, surrounded by the desolate ruins of the once majestic and vibrant castle of Hogwarts. There was debris and rubble scattered in erratic patterns across the dead and burnt ground, but no one was left to pay any mind. The sky was blackened by dark and blotted clouds that had merged together in a fusion of bleakness and tension. No one wanted to be the person to pierce this atmosphere but someone had to.

"I honestly didn`t think that you would come, Potter. I find myself pleasantly surprised", Voldemort said. His voice was dry and raspy, like he had sandpaper lodged in his throat. The Dark Lord had almost whispered the words, but they were carried swiftly across the space between the two rivals to Harry's ears: to him it seemed as if the words had been shouted, compared to the previous silence.

Harry treated him to a rueful smile that didn`t quite make it to his dull emerald eyes, "I wouldn`t have before, since I`ve fallen for it enough times, but I am tired now. Everything has changed".

Voldemort`s smile bordered on the edge of cruel, "Ah yes, your little mudblood friend. How could I forget? I have to give credit when it is due though, she really was a bright thing". His thin lips pursed slightly. " Shame about her heritage. What a waste", Voldemort added in a dismissive matter.

Harry`s face darkened. "She was my friend, not that you would know anything about that", he sneered. " Poor little Tom Riddle, forever alone and forever wanting more but never quite getting there".

Voldemort didn`t rise to the bait, as this was a taunt he had endured many times, from various insignificant people. He simply raised a fine, faint eyebrow, "No, I do not suppose I do understand clinging to others for dear life. As for the girl, she did put up a tremendous fight but in the end they all fall. They always do".

Harry snarled, "That includes you as well: you will fall tonight if it is the last thing I do".

"It very well might be", the Dark Lord stated simply. He paused slightly before continuing, "though neither of us have to fall, if you would just stop being so stubborn. I wish that you would see that our beliefs are not all that different, then nothing would stand in our way".

Harry started, as if not expecting such a statement. "Do you really not understand…even having an inkling of why I fight so adamantly against you?"

Voldemort sneered, "Of course I do boy. The difference between you and I is that I am willing to do whatever is takes to fight for what I believe in. You, on the other hand fight for the whims of other people. What do you fight for? A silly little poem from a mad woman that binds you to a fate? The words of a crackpot old fool whose head was full of maggots even before he was put in the ground? The expectations of a group of people that would sooner slice open your neck than reach a hand to you? Think boy, for once in your life think". By the end of his little tirade, the dark lords eyes were as sharp as daggers.

Harry spluttered but soon regained himself. "I fight for the people that you so carelessly cut down, who have done nothing to anyone but be in the wrong place at the wrong time! The people that you claim to want to protect from muggles!".

The Dark Lord huffed, "What is a few lives to save the majority? Is that not what your dear dead headmaster always used to spew about? The greater good, he called it. It is all the same".

Emerald eyes narrowed but soon enough, the pale face cleared, "Enough. I am done talking to you. Lets get this over with, so I can mourn in peace or join my family".

"So, it all comes down to this now, does it?" was the questioning retort.

"I don`t know what else you expected but it ends today. I wish...I had hoped that things might end differently but there is no changing that now. Things might have been different, in another life. After all, all both of us want is to protect what we value. But it was too late when you started to slaughter innocent people, too late when Cedric died and irrevocably too late when you killed that last of the only people I have ever loved" Harry`s voice was encased with exhaustion.

Voldemort slowly raised his wand and Harry followed suit, the legendary Elder Wand pulsing with power in his hand.

"Let us end this then" the Dark Lord sighed softly.

Harry nodded and shifted his stance.

A sharp blur of movement was the only warning Harry received before he was assaulted with spell fire: watched raptly by a crowd of Death Eaters who dared not interfere.

"Avada Kedavra! Confringo! Incendio!"

Harry- rather than trying to raise a shield- dived to the left, rolling forward into a kneeling position before proceeding to retort with his own spells. "Reducto! Diffindo! Evanesco!"

Voldemort raised a solid black shield, which blocked the spells expertly but he quickly had to sidestep, as a wordless whoosh of red roared past him.

"Wordless magic, Potter?" he felt reluctantly impressed but would never dare admit it.

Harry grinned viciously, "I`ve been practicing".

The Dark Lord didn`t give Harry time before he shot off a few cutting curses aimed at the neck, which Harry dodged easily. As another killing curse flew towards him, Harry conjured a thick wall of shimmering black ice which stopped the sickly green spell in its tracks.

Voldemort raised an eyebrow as he moved around the broken grounds, never standing still. "It seems you have been practicing more than wordless spells, Potter. Dark Magic? What would Dumbledore think?"

A grim look was his response, "I don`t suppose that he`d complain, given the circumstances". Not pausing his movement once during his reply, Harry shot three balls of fire the size of basketballs at his foe.

The dark lord managed to dodge the first and block the second but the third smashed into his left calf, causing him to let out an inhuman hiss of pain. He didn`t have time to heal himself, however, before Harry sent a cutting curse to his throat. He had to abruptly cast a shield, which was a little bit more translucent than he would have liked.

Voldemort snarled in frustration, "crucio!". The spell flew at Harry at a ferocious speed and it would have hit its target, had Harry not been expecting his foes utterly predictable response. He dove to the side, missing the spell by the skin of his teeth.

Voldemort swiftly healed his leg while Harry was distracted before throwing another cruciatus to keep him off guard. Harry leapt out of the way with a pant of exertion but couldn't recuperate quickly enough to avoid a flesh-eating curse aimed at his left arm. Harry almost howled with the agony but he settled with a muffled curse and a growled-out spell to stop the progression of the acid to his bone. He could feel the gouged hole where the magic had taken a chunk out of him and every movement made him want to vomit. As he went to cast a healing spell, Voldemort stopped him in his tracks with a Diffindo to the left shoulder- which cause Harry to release the howl he had been holding- and one to his right leg. Voldemort smiled viciously and shot the killing curse at Harry but- despite the agony it caused him- he rolled out of the way. Harry felt his eyes water and hopelessness fill him. He set his mouth in a grim line and gritted his teeth. Now wasn't the time for weakness.

Harry stood as quickly as he could with the amount of pain he was feeling, missing another sickly green curse. He drew in a gusty breath and fired shards of slick black ice at the dark lord. They tore through the air like little arrows and despite the dark lords hastily made shield, they hit their target with great force. Harry smiled as he heard the man swear before jumping to the side as fast as he could in a very undignified manner. The death eaters- silent until this point- let out soft mutters of discontent.

Voldemort managed to avoid a majority of the projectiles but a few lodged deeply in his left side, ripping through his thick black robles and spurting dull red blood all over him. He let out a loud growl of fury and pain, as he snapped his wand aggressively to Harry. Words of a spell had barely started to form on his thin lips when he was interrupted by a thick, red light whizzing past him to hit Harry. The spell cut through his arm like a blade, slashing into the already existing wound and Harrys mouth popped open in surprise and rippling shock.

The source of the spell was a witch Harry recognised as Bellatrix LeStrange and an odd ice filled his veins at the sight of the woman that murdered one of his last connections to his parents.

Her face had been twisted in anger but when her vivid, wild eyes met that of her lord, she visibly cowed and shrank back at the distaste she found in them.

"Did I not say", his voice was as frigid as the ice that was making the left half of his body go numb, "to not intervene in this fight, unless I ask of it?"

While Voldemort was distracted with his wayward servant, Harry took the time to heal his wounds as best as he could, leaving livid red scars behind and hastily made bandages.

Bellatrix bowed her head pitifully, "I am sorry, my lord". She dropped to her knees and started to crawl towards his feet, "I am sorry, I could not bear it when he hurt you, I am sorry, my lord".

"Get back", he sneered, "and stay back. I will deal with you later".

Bellatrix nodded and slunk back to the others, head hung low.

The dark lord suddenly frowned and looked down at his side. He waved his hand and the shards melted, the messy wounds were healed sloppily, leaving thin slits of seeping skin behind. What had taken Harry a few minutes to heal had taken the dark lord seconds wandless. Harry inwardly shivered with fear.

"Avada Kedavra!" was shouted so suddenly than Harry was hard pressed to avoid the spell and the volley of others that followed in the space of the next few minutes.

After a period of relentless spell casting- with Harry dodging valiantly- Voldemort finally had to stop for breath. Harry puffed as he geared up to cast his response. This was it, he thought.

The black shards flew from Harrys very skin as he released them. They roared up above his inky black head and congealed together, melding into form of a large phoenix. Its sharded wings spread out into a wide arc as it let out an explosive battle cry. Awed gasps rend the air as the assembly of death eaters beheld Harrys creation. The bird paid no mind and at its masters command dove at the dark lord, who was staring at the beautiful beast with wide eyes.

Voldemort build a shield with impressive speed-just in time as the mass of shards slammed into the guard. The earth below them shuddered with the force and in a testament to Voldemort's power, the only sign of the strain was a small grunt and a quick recovery from almost losing his footing.

The shield did not deter the mighty bird from its mission and so it rammed into it again and again, until- finally- the cover could take no more. Harry was honestly slightly impressed that his creation had the power to rip apart a shield, as it was meant as a distraction tactic. A deafening crack sounded as a large tear appeared in the fabric of the shield. As if sensing weakness, the bird cawed with glee and reared back to attack again. Voldemort dropped the shield- sensing that it would not survive another assault- and started to chant. Harry recognised the call for fiendfire and paled. He had no idea how his creation would fare against the magic fire and most of his energy was spent, so he couldn`t afford another high taxing spell. He felt a bead of sweat drip down his face, narrowly avoiding his eyes. He swept it away carelessly.

Red, acidic fire snaked out of the yew wand and twisted like a spire, smoothing out into a flat head. The serpent was magnificent, Harry marvelled as it exploded into life. It twisted and hissed until it reached the height of the phoenix and it coiled, ready to strike. The bird twitched its great wings in agitation but seemed so catch itself as it let out an aggressive caw that startled the snake. The sheer heat from the snake of fire burned at Harrys nose and made his skin itch with unease.

The snake sprung into action as it flew for its enemy. Fire licked at its side and spewed from its mighty jaws: it was a terrific sight. Harry did not see this ending well and despaired as he reached for energy that would not come to his call. He was using up so much to continue powering his beast but if he released it, the fiendfire would surely consume him. Hopefully, the phoenix would take the snake down with it.

Against Harrys- as well as Voldemort's- expectations the phoenix did not immediately go up in flames as the beast slammed into it. In fact, it was pushed back with the force of the blow but soon recovered. It seemed not to notice the fire biting at its body and retaliated by snapping its beak at the serpent's head, which had gotten too close to its neck for its liking. The snake backed away slightly but not enough as the phoenix charged towards it. Harry had expected the snake to be solid, with how corporal it looked and the force at which it had struck his creation, but the phoenix flew right through the creature with no resistance. The serpent did not seem to appreciate having another thing inside it, as it thrashed and hissed. The bird paid no mind as it dove the significant length of the snakes body. As it passed through the snake of fire, the fire left in its wake dimmed, leaving the snake looking dull. Its movements seemed to slow in the areas of dullness, as if the life had been taken from it. The phoenix, however, looked a lot livelier and its speed quickened.

Voldemort snarled as he tried to feed more power into the fire but he, like Harry, was nearly spent. Both emerald and blood red eyes were narrowed in concentration, as they kept their creations alive and fighting. The death eaters present felt a quiet reverence for what they were witnessing and even felt a grudging respect for the boy fighting their Lord. Most were shaking with the power soaking the air.

As the bird tore out of the snakes tail, the serpent seemed to curl in on itself in pain. Voldemort, seeing his pet failing, cancelled the enchantment and it bubbled away into the scorched grass. The phoenix twirled in the air, as if shaking off the remains of its prey before regarding the space it had previously occupied with slight confusion. Harry, seeing that his pets work was done, dismissed it. It let out a soft caw before it went quiet. It started to tremble and Harry- knowing what was coming- threw up a shield. Voldemort noticed this and motioned for his followers to follow suit. Most had managed in time but a few death eaters were cut down when the gigantic avian exploded violently, sharps blazing from the air like shrapnel.

Harry signed in relief as he felt the heavy weight of the spell release him but he swayed slightly with the wind, as if he might faint.

When the last shard had fallen, the two foes regarded each other: both breathing heavily. Harry felt like he had ran a 20 mile marathon and then been hit by a bus. He prayed that it would be over soon, as he couldn`t take much more.

"Like my new trick?" Harry smiled sharply.

Voldemort stared at Harry intently for a moment, "In all my travels I have seen nothing of its like".

"You wouldn`t have", Harry said, his voice crackling from the heat that still lingered in the air, "I adapted the spell myself. It was a rare spell in the first place".

The dark lord let out a short, rueful laugh, "I really wish things could have turned out differently".

Harrys reply was a sigh. He readied his wand, his arm visibly trembling with exertion. "Lets finish this".

Voldemort met his eyes and simply nodded.

"Avada Kedavra!" "Avada Kedavra!" were the shouts that echoed across the grounds.

Harrys rose red spell met Voldemort's pale blue and they connected with a soft thrum. Harry widened his stance to keep his balance and he pushed with all of his might. He fused the little magic he had left into the spell and shoved as hard as he could to get the light creeping ever closer to him away. For a moment, the red light pushed forwards by a noticeable amount before the blue shoved it violently back again.

Harry gritted his teeth with so much force that he could hear the gnashing vibrating through his brain. He had to do this. Not for himself. Not for the people of the wizarding world. For the people who had died for this. For him. Because they had believed that he could do this: that he could save them from a tyrant. They had died for this cause. For Cedric. For Sirus. For Remus. For Tonks. For McGonagall. For his parents. For the twins. For Hermione. Heck, even for Regulus Black. Determination filled him. He would not let these sacrifices be in vain. So he pushed. By merlin he pushed. So hard he thought he would die from the pain of it.

So ferocious was his will, that the magical line crackled with power and the red light rushed the dark lord with a speed difficult to see with the naked eye. Blue was obliterated as the red tore along towards the wizard, whose eyes were wide with fear.

The cracking of Voldemort's wand sounded like a gunshot.

Emerald green eyes met red as Harrys world exploded in a burst of light.