Harry Potter & the True Power

Chapter 23: The Battle of Mensors

Not many people in the world believed that Lord Voldemort was back. Despite all the claims by Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter, People did not want to believe it. These people included many of the aurors.

Those who did believe only believed in the abstract vision of power hungry, vicious and the most powerful wizard in the world. He had been feared so much that people had stopped taking his name. During his last rein, the very presence of the green sign of the dark lord reeked havoc and despair in the mind of that wizard. He knew that when he entered, he would not only see his family & loved ones dead but also see in what horrible way, had the death come to them. The women deprived of all their dignity and men left in forms that they weren't even recognizable. It was pure hell for the said wizard, a pure personal hell.

The event during the Quidditch world cup was not so long ago and had created an atmosphere of hysteria. Now, seeing the new avatar of the Dark Lord, the snake like face and even more power and ruthlessness than before, people were way beyond afraid. If the truth be said, they were petrified of the image which had just come in front of them. He was even more terrible than before. It had gone so silent that the only sound coming was the raspy breath by the dark lord himself.

Then, pandemonium broke.

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Many of the younger aurors, who had never seen the sight, started to run away. Several shrieks were heard from numerous throats. The dark lord smiled. The fear was back. He decided to leave a few mementos behind. He had just taken grip of his wand when the door to the manor opened and somebody spoke, in an almost carefree manner, "How was your trip, Tom? I hope you weren't too bored!"

The dark lord turned, and in an instant faced the green eyes which had been his downfall the last time, he faced his nemesis. The dark lord came face to face with Harry Potter.

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A minute ago, as Harry was just watching the death eater he had marked with a locator spell, fly into the air and then disappear, he felt a breach in the wards. Somebody more powerful than him had come through. As Dumbledore was still sleeping, it could only mean one thing, the snake face was here.

Taking an instant decision, he disillusioned himself and moved to where he knew Tonks to be. There he found two old friends, Mad-Eye and Kingsley. Tonks, it seemed had just been portkeyed to St. Mungo's.

"Professor!" Harry whispered to Mad-Eye. An instant later, he felt a wand at his throat. Had he wanted, he could have broken the wand in two pieces before it reached his throat. But he wanted allies not enemies at the moment. Nobody had noticed the arrival of the dark lord as yet.

"It's me Harry. Voldemort is here." The look of panic that appeared on Kingsley's face was almost comic if the situation was not such serious.

Before mad-eye could ask him to verify his identity he said, "Ask Mr. Zabini. He would vouch for me. Then start to get everybody in a group. If we want to beat him at the moment, we have to stand together."

Very uncharacteristically, mad eye nodded. But before he could say a thing, some body saw the bellowing cloak of the dark lord and a few seconds later, the pandemonium broke out. Harry, a second later, moved back to inside the manner and decided to announce himself. This might give extra time to others enabling them to leave safely.

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Rita was working with Luna in the office and trying to make several drafts of what they knew would occur. The pictures from the several enchanted cameras had started to come to them. Every camera could take a hundred snaps and after that, each was programmed to portkey itself automatically to the daily prophet's office. This had been Luna's idea which Harry had worked upon for a few moments.

As they saw the latest photos, they saw that everything was clear. Rita decided to apparate to the manor and started to get an exclusive. She was in the news business after all. Picking up her bags, a few seconds later, she apparated to the Zabini member.

She was terrified out of her wits as she saw the dark lord moving towards Harry.

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"Hello Potter! I see you have grown up a bit. Thank you and the visit was, let's just say, quite invigorating." Lord Voldemort replied just as calmly. As far as he was concerned, nobody else mattered. Like the time at the cemetery, he waved his wand and a barrier encircled both of them.

Today was supposed to be the day when he would take the fear against his name to a newer level. What better way to celebrate that day by getting rid of his arch nemesis, Harry Potter. The fates were being kind to him today.

Harry saw the ward that had been used and had he wished, he could have broken through it instantaneously. But, at the moment, the ward was working in his favor. He could see all the unnecessary people being either port-keyed out or apparating out. Many aurors had started to pop in. all was going according to plan if he could just beat the dark lord this time. He knew that in terms of power, Voldemort was a little more powerful. The power that had been trapped in Harry had returned to him. After Merlin checked him up, he was sure that there was not much of a difference between them.

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"So Potter, still intend to fight for the bastards who have made your life a living hell. I have told you earlier, we two are very much alike. So why don't you join me. We can rule the world together, side by side. You could be my heir."

Voldemort waited for a response. The last time he had made an offer, he hadn't gotten so far. He could see Harry's magical aura. It was very powerful. He knew he had far more experience and wisdom, not to mention the willingness to use the dark magic, but this young man (he could no longer be called a boy with his magic) was nothing to be trifled with. He knew that he would win a fight to death, but why loose such an asset. They both harbored great disappointments towards their elders as well as peers. Both of them had never been loved and didn't have any true friends.

He could see that Harry was going to say something. Then he saw Harry smile.

"There you are mistaken Tom. We may have had similar lives but we are not similar. My choices are not the choices you have made. On the contrary, I would say that our choices have been totally opposite. So, in the end, we will always be like this, on the opposite side of the fence. Unless,"

The whole group of aurors, hit-wizards and others who were on the outside of the shield, held their breadths. What was going on? Was the boy who lived going to join you-know-who? They had already received a shock when they saw this very powerful wizard turn out to be none other than the boy who lived but if they joined, there would be no more hope left for the Wizarding world.

Harry Potter smiled a particularly sly smile, "Unless, of course you would like to join my side of the fence. If you stop all your games and promise to mend your ways, I think we can come up with a way to come to an agreeable solution."

Lord Voldemort smiled his own smile. "Well, no harm in trying but I guess we will always be like this, on opposite sides of the fence. I hope you have bidden your good byes. Let us end this."

"Silencio," Voldemort muttered and bright yellow colored beam flew towards Harry.

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Harry, who had expected something more like the usual 'crucio' was amazed and tried to change his shield. He had set his shield for the unforgivables. Unfortunately, that allowed the standard, non-combative curses to pass through. He had just half changed the shield when he was hit by the curse. He couldn't speak. Still, he smiled. To do magic, one didn't need to speak. Magic is just not about words. If it were, there would be the same spell for one thing all over. It was about thoughts and feelings.

Even before Voldemort had chance to gloat, Harry sent a silent spell and turned Voldemort into a goat. Everybody was smiling. That is all except the dark lord. He was enraged. He was beyond being enraged. Instantaneously, he turned back into his form. Huge amount of magical energy began to flow off him. The shield which he had erected started to form ripples. The dark lord was no more playing.

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Instead of trying the usual unforgivables, he turned to the new magic he had been studying for the last few days. The mensor magic was an ancient branch of magic which used raw magic governed by pure emotions. It hadn't been used in more than a millennia. Moreover, even the founders weren't powerful enough to use it. He summoned almost all his magic and he started to glow, a sort of sickly blackish glow. Soon, he was like a black hole, taking in all the light from around him. A strong breeze began to blow and all the trees around began to sway. There were loud screeches coming from the trees. It sounded like a herd of banshees.

Then, the dark lord let go of all the energy and a beam of pure black energy moved straight towards Harry.

Harry had seen what Voldemort was doing. During his training, Merlin had shown him mensor magic. It used all your magical energy and gave it the shape of your subconscious. The spectrum ranged from pure black to pure white. To counter a pure black energy, you had to have a pure white energy. His was nearly pure white with a few freckles of black. Merlin said the black was due to rage he had in his heart. It was very draining.

Almost at the same instant, he too began the building up of his defenses. The one peculiar thing about mensor attack is that it doesn't miss its target. It's governed by emotions and the target is emotionally set. It's not like the normal aim and fire spells. The second is that if you stop someone while he is gathering up the energy to throw the spell, you have to be very careful.

Whatever energy which has already been summoned will be released and result in a huge magical explosion as it has not been directed as yet. If you are alone and are powerful enough to throw up a mensor shield, it is fine. But if there are other people involved and you care about their safety, the whole ballgame changes.

Harry cared and could not interrupt the spell. So he did the only thing he could, he began to energize his own spell. Exactly two seconds later, a lifetime in battle, two beams, at last six inches in diameter flew towards both the standing wizards.

Nearly in the center, approximately five meters from both of them, the beams identified each other and hit head on.

There was no sound coming anymore except for the loud whine of the energy which was being put into the attack.

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Voldemort was draining fast but Harry was draining even faster. Voldemort had had a split second extra to prepare the attack and had launched a balanced attack. Harry however hadn't had the time to maximize his counter attack and was sweating profusely, trying to maintain the energy. Three seconds later, there was a huge explosion when a very small beam got through Harry's counter attack and leapt towards his chest.

Voldemort laughed a huge laugh as he saw his attack succeeding and then it was followed by a smaller explosion which led to total collapse of the boy who lived.

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Everybody was scared witless. Nobody had ever seen a display of such raw power. You-know-who was even more powerful than before. Even after such an extreme use of magical energy, he was standing. Although in a weakened state, nobody had the guts to try their luck.

Voldemort turned to all the aurors and laughed. His voice carried straight into the heart of each and every one involved.

"Now you see the fate of your messiah of hope. He is lying there, dead. I will not kill any one of you today. You have seven days to acknowledge me as your king. If you don't, there is nobody who can spare you the death I am promising all of you, right here, right now."

The entire population was now silent. Due to the disturbance caused by such huge amount of magic, many residents had come to see. It was a very exclusive neighborhood, comprising of only Wizarding nabobs.

None of the aurors were in a condition to refuse them. They themselves were totally rapt in all the proceedings.

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During all this, nobody saw the boy who lived. A few seconds ago, he got up, picked the ashes from the ground and magically transferred it into his private room. Not even the house-elves were allowed in there.

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A few minutes earlier.

Xarobian alias Salazar was getting bored. Godric had gone to Dumbledore to look after him and Merlin had to go to the phoenix realm. He had put the responsibility of Harry's safety in his hands. After waiting, doing nothing for a few hours, he decided to look up his charge.

Using phoenix magic, he found himself on a tree branch at the Zabini manor. Harry had just turned his heir into a goat. Xarobian smiled at Harry. He had come to like the young man. If he were to be honest with himself, he had also come to respect him. It was very rare for him to respect. He had liked some people and trusted a few. But he had only respected one person, himself. But this young man was worthy of respect.

However, as he saw mensor magic being used, he grew worried. Had it been him, he would have interrupted the build up of magic and tried to save as many as possible from the blow up. He would have lost a few, but he himself would have survived. But he saw Voldemort's attack overpower Harry's and moved to strike him dead. He saw Harry as he was ready to die for others, and the respect for him which was somewhere in his undercurrents, flared up. A bond was formed and he flashed before the attack and immediately burst into flames. Harry was spared. He was alive.

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However, now as he put the ashes in safety, Harry decided to enter the scene again.

"Tom. Why are you always in a hurry to perform eulogies?" Harry said, a tired smile on his face.

Voldemort was scared now. How could the potter boy survive the mensor attack? It's supposed to be impossible. Even he knew that he wouldn't survive one. But appearances had to be kept.

"Well, Well, Well Potter. Your resilience has surprised even me. But let's end it for once and for all. Voldemort collected all his energy and summoned up enough for one Avada Kedavra. He overlooked the fact that in summoning all his energy, he had weakened the shield he had placed. Several aurors including moody and Kingsley had been trying to break it when a small hole appeared in front of mad-eye. Showing that constant-vigilance was just not a mantra he preached, but practiced as well, his wand released a quick Avada Kedavra at the dark lord.

Even in his thus weakened state, Voldemort felt, more than saw the spell coming at him. An instant later, a split second before the spell would have fully hit him, he disapparated.

Harry, who had been holding himself by nothing more than his will power, collapsed.

Author's Notes

This is the end of part one of my book. ... the first chapter of part two will be on by monday/tuesday. i had built this much of my book in my mind. i will be making the part two in my mind during the time.

I have also started a new story. it is a tribute to my most favorite novel. The Count of Azkaban based on The Count of Monte Cristo.

See if you like it as well

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