Chapter 1
A black cloud of ash seeped from the greying skin of Voldemort. His hands withered and shrivelled as the blackness spread through and out of him, skin and robes flaking off and into the gentle air. He crumpled, and before he hit the ground, his body was gone.
Voldemort was dead.
Harry dropped to his knees. He sucked in air, eyes unseeing as they fixated on the stone beneath him, body numb and feeling like his organs were collapsing in on themself at the same time.
It was over. It was finally over.
Harry's eyes flickered to the wand crushed between the stone of the Viaduct Courtyard and his trembling palm. The wood dark and sturdy, and reliable.
Harry dragged himself to his feet, weary bones protesting, clutching the wand in his right hand and shuffled over to the Elder Wand lying metres away from him. He picked it up and pocketed it, ignoring the burning feeling of it boring a hole into him. He turned and slowly headed to the Great Hall.
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He wasn't there. Harry didn't enter the Hall; he stood at the entrance, eyes skimming over smiling, crying, beaten and broken faces. And he could see that he wasn't there.
Harry spotted his loved ones, alive and as well as they could be. And that was enough for him. He turned and left.
He walked out of the ruins of Hogwarts, feet crunching against the debris and stones falling into the broken soles of his trainers. He lugged his dead weight across the bridge and sat at the edge, between a crumbled spot of the barrier and legs dangling over the bottomless drop. He laid his broken wand beside him and pulled out the Elder Wand to successfully fix it.
He then snapped the Elder Wand in half and threw it over the edge. It disappeared into the fog below him.
Harry pulled his feet back and hauled himself up with a groan and bones creaking. He hadn't stopped shaking yet. He walked in the direction he last saw them leave.
He had to give the wand back. Make sure they're ok.
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Harry stood in the grass, scanning the treeline and the path leading out the grounds. Maybe they already left.
A shout.
Harry whipped his head towards the Forbidden Forest and darted towards the echoing sound within the trees, his legs flying and numb to the exhaustion.
A flash of green light. Another shout.
All things considered, Harry didn't expect to be running towards flashes of green light so soon. But that's where his legs took him.
A flash of red. Then another.
Harry wove between trees and foliage shrouded in darkness, the canopy of branches and leaves blocking out the light of the sky. He staggered, whipping his head around and darted his eyes between the trunks of trees to find Merlin knows who.
He skidded to a stop when it drew quiet. He pivoted to glance around him.
A snap of a twig.
Harry threw himself behind a fallen log, crashing to the ground and barrelling down a slope as a whiz of green light shot out above him.
"FILTHY BLOOD TRAITOR!"
Once he stopped rolling, Harry landed on his stomach with a heavy thud and quickly leapt up from the black soil to sprint deeper into the forest, muck clinging to his torn clothes and sweaty, grazed skin. He glanced over his shoulder to see a stray Death Eater with a familiar face emerge above the slope he fell down.
"It's him! IT'S HARRY POTTER!" the Death Eater shrieked out into the forest with surprise.
"Kill him too!" another voice rang out from somewhere further behind. "I'll find the Malfoys!"
Harry didn't stop running. He needed to get to the Malfoys first.
Curse after curse flew his way, gouging out chunks of bark, snapping branches and upending mounds of dirt at his feet.
"Expulso!" Harry sent the blue light soaring behind him, blasting a boulder apart with rock fragments tearing through the air in every direction.
Good to know that his wand worked.
But the Death Eater was too far to the left, and a "protego" had him easily barging through the rock flinging towards him.
Harry really wished his trainers weren't broken so that it was easier to run without stones and dirt jabbing at his socked feet.
"Draco!" Harry called out into the forest wildly, eyes flicking rapidly through the darkness. "Narcissa!"
Harry was thrown off balance and stumbled to the side, crashing into the trunk of a tree as the ground beside him exploded like a land mine with a curse. Dirt and rocks washed over him, but he righted himself, covering his eyes and head with his forearms as he ran through the mist of dirt blinding his vision of his surroundings. Another explosion of dirt at the heels of his feet, surging him forward forcefully.
"POTTER!"
Merlin, bless that damn snarl.
Harry fluttered his eyes open, squinting against the mist of tiny grains of dirt to see a flash of red lighting up Draco's dark figure running in front of him with his arm stretched out to catch Harry as he stumbled into him.
"Potter, you idiot! " Draco hissed as he gripped the scruff of Harry's collar to drag him along.
"Draco! Harry!" Narcissa yelled in relief as she ran up beside them, her dark robes and two-toned hair billowing behind her dishevelled yet still somehow graceful form.
"Confringo!" Draco shouted as he whipped around to blindly cast at the Death Eater hot on their trail, ripping a tree in half with a heavy branch flying off.
The Death Eater screamed in agony as the branch collided with him with shards of bark impaling the body on the ground.
"Sorry, uncle," Draco sneered back with satisfaction.
"That was your uncle?" Harry wheezed out, panting as his legs drove him further and pushing away the urge to collapse.
"Rodolphus. The other wanker's his brother," Draco gasped back with a scowl.
Said wanker caught up to replace the other's position.
"Come on, boys! Quickly!" Narcissa roared beside them.
"Stupefy!" Harry cast behind him, just missing Rabastan by an inch.
A curse was said. And Harry dropped to the ground.
"POTTER!" Draco skidded through the soil to a halt, landing on his side before he scrambled back to the fallen boy.
Narcissa caught up to the boys on the ground to fend them from Rabastan's attacks.
"Potter," Draco called out softly as he fell to his knees to turn Harry's limp body over so that he laid on his back with a groan of searing pain.
A large, deep cut shredded through Harry's clothes and into his flesh on his right side, blood seeping out profusely over himself and over Draco's hands.
"SECTUMSEMPRA!" Draco screamed to Rabastan, sending the Death Eater flying back, ripped open and bleeding out like Harry on the other side.
"Draco, Rodolphus is coming! Hurry!" Narcissa cried as she spun around to face the two on the floor and clutched her son's shoulders fearfully.
"We can't move him! There's nowhere to even go!" Draco cried back in panic, bloody hands flailing around. Harry's eyes were clenched shut with tears flowing down his cheeks and half-unconscious grunts of pain.
Narcissa frowned with concern, sharp eyes darting over Harry's helpless body with contemplation before they caught sight of Harry's wand. She sucked in a breath, hoping not to regret this decision.
Narcissa grabbed Harry's wand from the ground and stuffed it in her inner robe's pocket.
"Quickly, hold on tight to me and Harry," she rushed out, gripping both her son and Harry's arm as she glanced back at the limping form of a mauled Rodolphus raising his wand.
"AVADA KADAVRA!"
With a crack, the green light of the killing curse hit the empty space of where the Malfoys and Potter once were.