Hogwarts Year 5

Chapter 16

Following a quick breakfast the next morning Harry, Sirius, Bill Weasley, and McGonagall left Hogwarts to go see the parents of one of the Ravenclaw first year muggle-born girls – the father was a pastor of a small, but old, church in northern Scotland. Having McGonagall come along was a good thing as most of the people they met spoke Gaelic, Harry, Bill, and Sirius didn't where, of course, McGonagall did. The minister was reluctant to speak with them at first that is until Harry showed him a letter from his daughter, he was much more agreeable then. Once they explained what they wanted to do the pastor said he would allow this only if he could be present and they had to be discrete. This would cause problems if some of the townsfolk saw the practice of magic, or witchcraft.

Harry made sure to place a repelling charm on the church entrances before they even entered the sanctuary. The pastor spent a good thirty minutes preparing the area by saying many prayers and sprinkling with "Holy Water", just in case. Sirius, Bill, and McGonagall stood ready to cast the containment spell again in case anything looked out of order when Harry released each soul fragment. Everyone was nervous as Harry canceled the first spell, but the fragment just disappeared with a scream. By the time the last fragment was ready most of the group had calmed down somewhat, that is until the fragment gave the loudest scream of all – a scream that shook the room and rattled the windows. Harry commented that maybe that was the one he should have saved for the ritual since it seemed the strongest.

Once all the soul fragments had been released the sanctuary was "blessed" again, just in case, by the pastor. The group from Hogwarts joined the pastor and his wife for lunch before returning to the castle. It was during lunch that Harry asked the question, since the Hogwarts Express only went to London and Hogwarts how would the young girl get home when school was out? The answer was that either she would use the floo or one of the teachers would bring her using side-along apparition until she was old enough to apparate herself at the end of her sixth year. After lunch Harry, Bill, and Sirius took a few minutes to fly discretely around the area to see the lay of the land and to see some of the beautiful scenery.

Upon returning to Hogwarts Harry made a point of looking up the Ravenclaw girl to deliver a letter from her parents that he had brought back with him and to thank her for all of her and her family's help. Harry then learned that there was another girl that might be coming to Hogwarts the next year from the same hamlet. If things went as planned then Harry would make sure the young girl was offered a chance to visit before then and maybe even come to the summer school.

That evening the representatives from France, England, the United States, and a surprise representative from Italy arrived with Amelia Bones would representing England. The French representative turned out to be Madame duBois – used to be DuPrie, the US representative was someone Harry had never seen before and was Rick's boss, while the representative from Italy was another member of the ICW team that had visited Hogwarts previously. After supper McGonagall summoned Harry to tell him that the Italians had another 30 aurors to add to the ones already there if Harry could arrange transport from the same location in France. Once all the new aurors were transported and shown where to sleep, Harry, Rick, and each of the other two commanding officers got together to decide where to place all these men and women the next day.

It was during this meeting that Harry let it be known that 200 Goblin warriors would be joining the party also, Harry didn't mention the elves as those were a surprise for everyone. It was decided to place the aurors in an "U" shape between Hogwarts and the death eaters while the goblins would close the "backdoor" when they arrived. The aurors at the top of the "U" would be the strongest ones from all three countries and the sides would be a mixture of the rest. That gave them 30 people on each side of the proposed route while the goblins would take care of the warding and attack from the rear. Harry made it a point to remind everyone that all portkeys and apparition would be disabled except for the medical portkeys to the hospital wing.

It was almost 11pm when Harry finally got away and went to start the ritual to bind Voldemort's magic and remove him from the family line of Slytherin. Hermione, Bill, Neville, and Rick were allowed to watch and be there in case something went wrong. The ritual took about an hour and when Harry reached the end there was the sound of a gong heard from inside the chamber and a flash of green and silver light seen by all present.

Harry, Hermione, Neville, Susan, and Luna were in the Great Hall just after 7am for breakfast, they were all sitting at the Gryffindor table together. The Weasley twins joined them shortly, closer to 715am and their presence was enough to dissuade any comments by other students. Daphne and Tori both came by to say good morning before they sat down at their house table, the two Greengrass girls would be keeping an eye on the Slytherins, especially Draco and his crew. By 815am all of the "Chamber Group" had finished breakfast and were on their way to their assigned stations. Harry, Hermione, Neville, Susan, Luna, and the twins went to the chamber where they met Bill Weasley who would be the link between Hogwarts and Gringotts' Goblins.

It was 830am when Dobby popped in dressed in his version of US BDUs. Hermione asked where he had gotten the idea for his "uniform" and was told that it was from watching the men and women with Rick from the US. Dobby reported that elf scouts were in place and would let Harry know when the "bad wizards" showed up and where; these elves were hidden all over outside on the immediate grounds of Hogwarts. Fred and George both left as they had a few last minute things to do before it became busy and hectic. Rick came in and said that the aurors were already in place and hidden, all of them were ready for a little action – he just wished that they had had more time to work with the Italians before everything started. The aurors were setup in three man teams, two would attack while the third shielded – they would switch up as needed so everyone had a chance to attack.

It was 1030am when one of the elf scouts popped in to say that Voldemort and his Death Eaters had arrived and they had some strange creatures with them. Bill Weasley port-keyed out to Gringotts, the twins returned and each had several containers plus their Beater's bat and broom. The twins would be doing an aerial assault while keeping themselves invisible. From upstairs an alarm could be heard warning the school that the attack had started, Harry knew that McGonagall intended to use the seventh years to defend the school itself if any Death Eaters got passed the wards.

Everyone left the chamber to go to their assigned place, Harry, Hermione, and Neville would take up positions just outside the gates, Susan and Luna were to take positions on either side of the proposed route. When they were in position Harry could see what the strange creatures were, inferi. These were "walking dead" that did the bidding of the witch or wizard who created them. Inferi didn't like fire so Harry called Firebeard and asked him to deal with them, Blaze soon joined in on the fun as Bill and the goblins arrived.

Voldemort could hardly believe what he saw, someone had called a Fire Elemental – even he had second thoughts about doing that since elementals were very hard to control. Then he felt it, wards had gone up preventing apparition; he tried his portkey and nothing happened. That was when the attack really started as many rocks suddenly appeared and were hitting him and his death eaters. If a Death Eater was knocked down he disappeared within seconds, sometimes there was a loud pop and sometimes there wasn't a sound. Then the Goblins appeared behind the group of Death Eaters, all around them wizards and witches popped up out of nowhere and someone was calling out for Voldemort and his followers to surrender and lay down their wands – the battle was on!

The spell fire was impressive, both in colors and amount. Killing curses were blocked by large rocks, other spells were blocked by shields or deflected. It seemed that everyone against Voldemort had very strong shields and Death Eaters were being knocked down and mysteriously disappearing. Now there were two fire elementals on the field and they were soon joined by two elementals made of air. The earth was rolling all around Voldemort and his forces. When the Dementors arrived, three patroni - a very large bear, a large Hippogriff and a DRAGON - appeared from the front of the gates toward Hogwarts. While other, normal, patroni appeared from all sides driving the Dementors away but the Hippogriff and dragon weren't just driving the Dementors away, they were destroying them! Any Dementor caught by the bear was destroyed also.

"Tom Riddle, it would appear that you believe in that prophecy issued 15 years ago. Too bad I don't believe it. Did you ever hear the rest of it?" Harry shouted as he suddenly materialized between Voldemort and the gate where he proceed retelling the whole prophecy. "If my interpretation is correct, then either you must kill me or I must kill you – just like you killed my parents. But, I really don't like to kill. Oh, did I mention that I have found all of your soul anchors and destroyed them? Lets see there was the book Lucius Malfoy sent to the school my second year, the Gaunt family ring, the Slytherin locket, the Hufflepuff cup, the Ravenclaw diadem, and the piece of yourself you left inside me when you tried to kill me at age 15 months. That leaves only the small piece you still have inside you and once that is gone so are you" Harry continued as he walked towards Voldemort.

Voldemort fired a spell at Harry only to see it knocked aside; he tried another spell and it was blocked by a golden shield. Voldemort sent a killing curse towards Harry but it was intercepted by a large rock out of nowhere. It was then that Voldemort noticed that Harry didn't have his wand out but was walking with a staff in his left hand, nobody used a staff anymore. Two more people appeared behind Harry, one was a girl and the other was another young man – both were using a staff instead of a wand and both were starting to glow. The girl sent a disarming spell that just about knocked Voldemort off his feet, but he managed to retain his wand. The boy sent a spell towards the Death Eaters behind Voldemort and several were heard to scream out in pain.

For the first time in his memory Voldemort was in a bind, he couldn't retreat and he couldn't seem to get the best of the wizard in front of him. Then the strangest thing happened, a gong sounded and Harry started to smile. The next thing Voldemort knew there were green and silver bands wrapped around him and he could feel his magic failing. "Tom, just in case you are curious, I found a way to remove your magic and to bind your core to that just below a squib's. But unlike you I believe in a fair fight so I will put away my staff and wand and meet you in combat with swords" Harry yelled as a gleaming sword appeared in his hand and another sword appeared at Voldemort's feet.

Voldemort tried again to send a spell at Harry but nothing happened, he picked up the sword and saw it had the crest of Slytherin on it – Voldemort smiled. All around the fighting was over and everyone watched as the two faced off and prepared to fight. Voldemort swung a mighty overhead blow only to miss, next he tried a sweeping cut and was blocked with little effort. This kid was good and appeared to have been trained well. When Harry mentioned he had been trained by the goblins in sword play, Voldemort was taken back. The girl stepped forward and shouted that nobody was to interfere and placing the butt of her staff on the ground a golden dome 30 feet in diameter came into being with Harry and Voldemort in the middle.

The two had been fighting for 6 or 7 minutes when Voldemort got lucky and cut Harry's sleeve, but not his skin. Harry just glanced at the tear and smiled. Voldemort was getting tired, very tired, but Harry seemed to be in good shape and wasn't even breathing very hard. Tom Riddle noticed that he was bleeding from many cuts and this added to his fatigue. Tom tried another overhead strike and was blocked but on the down stroke of Harry's sword he was cut into two pieces starting at the left shoulder and ending at the right hip. There was silence all around, the Death Eaters who were still standing couldn't believe their eyes, a boy had defeated the most powerful wizard alive – with a sword. Harry walked up to the body and used the tail of Voldemort's robe to clean his sword, the dome came down and there was shouting from most of the aurors and surrounding onlookers.

Harry placed his sword into the scabbard and picked up the sword that Voldemort had been using and once again used Voldemort's robe to wipe it clean before handing it to Neville. "Salazar has said that he would like this sword placed in the display case for all to see, it served him well in his day. Would you mind making sure it is taken care of for me Neville?" Harry asked.

Ragnok, Sirius, Kingsley, and the commander of both the French and Italian forces each came up to verify that this was indeed the body of Tom Marvolo Riddle, AKA Lord Voldemort, and that he was dead. Harry claimed the wand as a prize of battle, and to prevent anyone else from keeping it hidden again. Dobby appeared and asked what Harry wanted to do with the "bad wizards" the elves had taken, Harry said to place their wands in front of Kingsley and to bring the wizards back so they could be taken to prison. A pile of wands, each one with a white tag on it, appeared in front of Kingsley and then "sleeping" Death Eaters started to appear on the ground. It was at this time that everyone noticed all the elves, wearing the same uniform as Dobby, standing around in groups. Some of them had a different patch on their chests, the patch was the crest of House of Longbottom; but most wore the crest of House of Potter. Then elves wearing the crest of Hogwarts started to appear bringing food and drink for the aurors and students.

It was later when Harry was informed of the casualties, five aurors had been taken to the hospital wing with injuries but no deaths; 20 goblins had been treated by the goblin healers for injuries and only one had died. The Death Eaters weren't as lucky, out of over a hundred Death Eaters 30 had been killed. Amongst the dead was one Lucius Malfoy. He had been killed when he tried to attack an elf and was shoved backwards only to stop when he was impaled on the swords of three goblins. Harry asked that one of the captured Death Eaters be brought to him; placing Voldemort's wand on the "Dark Mark" and saying a silent spell, causing the Death Eater to scream, Harry sent out a summons for any other Death Eaters to come. Four Death Eaters appeared and were stunned and taken into custody.

At supper that night Headmistress McGonagall announced that Voldemort was dead and this time they had the body to prove it and several witnesses who saw his death. There was a fifth table in the great hall and at this table sat all of the aurors who had come to Hogwarts to fight, Madame duBois had provided a potion so that they all spoke and understood each other. There was only one sad face to be found in the hall, that of Draco Malfoy as he had been notified of his father's death.

It was the night of the end of school feast and that feast was interrupted by the entry of Amelia Bones, the Minister of Magic for England, and she was accompanied by Kingsley Shacklebolt, Head of the DMLE. Amelia said she had a few announcements to make to the students and asked for permission to do so. Amelia looked out over the students for a few seconds before starting her announcements.

"First, it is my pleasure to announce that some of your professors have gained their Mastery Certification. These include Headmistress Minerva McGonagall in Transfiguration, Prof. Flitwick in Charms, Prof. Vector in Arithmancy, and Prof. Sprout in Herbology. Secondly, Rubeus Hagrid is restored to his rights as a wizard and has already earned his Mastery of Magical Creatures and is to get his wand back at the Ministry's expense. Now due to the action of several students and faculty during the "Battle of Hogwarts", I have a few awards to present. To Bill, Fred, and George Weasley, and Sirius Black, the Order of Merlin, second class. To Luna Lovegood, Daphne and Astoria Greengrass, and Susan Bones I award the Order of Merlin, second class with clusters. And to Lord Harry James Potter, Lady Hermione Jean Granger (Black), and Lord Neville Longbottom I am pleased to award the Order of Merlin First Class. A special award of merit and appreciation is awarded to Clan Chief Ragnok of Gringotts for the service he and his clansmen gave during the same time. A final award of merit goes to Commander Dobby of the house elves for his contribution in gathering a force of house elves to assist in the battle, would Commander Dobby please present himself" Amelia said.

Dobby popped in at the rear of the room dressed in his BDUs and "marched" up to the front of the room. Amelia knelt down and pinned the award to his chest. "Commander Dobby, this is the first time that I know of where a house elf has been awarded any kind of honor by the Ministry of Magic, and I hope this isn't the last time your people receive such honors" Amelia said as she stood. This ended Amelia's announcements.

As Dobby walked out of the hall a spell came from the Slytherin table directly at him, only to be intercepted by a golden shield cast by Harry. At the Slytherin table Draco Malfoy had a problem, two in fact, in that two wands were pressing into his neck, the wands of Daphne and Tori Greengrass. It was noted that the wands of Hermione, Neville, all of the Weasleys, and Sirius Black were all pointed at Draco. Draco's problems increased when two aurors stepped up beside him and placed magical handcuffs on him.

Once everything had settled down, and Draco had been removed to a cell in the Ministry, McGonagall announced that starting that summer there would be classes offered during the summer for those who wanted, or needed, extra help with their studies and as an orientation for the incoming first years. Classes would start the 1st of July and end July 27th. Student should arrive on June 30th and leave on the 28th of July. The classes would be held at a location away from Hogwarts as there were several renovations and upgrades scheduled during the summer vacation. The instructors would include some of the new, or incoming, instructors for the following term. Any student who wanted to attend needed to pick up an application in their common room and have it back by June 15th. The only courses that would be offered were Charms, Defense, Herbology, and Transfiguration; in addition there would be a course in magical and non-magical etiquette plus the Introduction to Magical Studies being taken by the incoming first years.

When the Hogwarts Express left the next day several students were not on the train, namely Harry, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Susan, and a certain Ravenclaw first year girl. All six students were in northern Scotland making sure the young girl got home safely and quickly, they were also going to meet with the young girl's friend who should be attending Hogwarts the following year.

A/N: Well that ends my version of the Hogwarts Years for Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Luna (Susan Bones still has a couple of years to go). I want to thank all of my readers for their comments and tell you that if I can I will continue the story in After Hogwarts, the next book in this series, when I get around to writing it. The next book will cover the summer of 1996 and the new curriculum at Hogwarts.

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