FicWad

Chapter Twenty Four: Clash

Harry and Voldemort stood face to face, staring each other down, bowing ever so slightly to each other, neither taking their eyes off of their opponent.

“Potter, you just had to escape, I was only planning to leave you alive along enough to appreciate the damage I’ve done to your name due to your duplicate and once you’ve realized that your friends have seen you nothing but a cold hearted killer, then I would have killed you quickly” replied Voldemort calmly. “Now, you have forfeited that quick execution and I’ll enjoy finishing you off at my leisure.”

“Shut up and duel,” said Harry shortly as both wizards raised their wand and Voldemort quickly sent a powerful puncturing curse right at Harry. Harry blocked it, before he pivoted around Voldemort to the side, not bothering to attack. Voldemort sent another lethal looking curse that Harry did not quite recognize but Harry once again moved, before he stood in front of Voldemort. Another attempted spell but Harry just casually deflected it back towards Voldemort.

“CRUCIO!” cried Voldemort but a shield appeared in front of Harry, the curse impacting it and Harry casually just moved over to the side, as Voldemort sent another curse, a flesh rotting curse, but Harry avoided the spell. “Potter, stand still and fight me like a wizard.”

Harry stood back and just motioned for Voldemort to take his best shot. Voldemort blasted a pure jet of black light but Harry summoned a pane of glass on a window to the side in front of him. The glass shattered, sending pieces in every which way, right towards Voldemort and Harry stood behind Voldemort. A loud bang and a jagged grey light moved towards Harry, but Harry put up a shield to block the attack. Harry circled Voldemort, holding his wand and Voldemort sent an orange ball of magical fire. Flicking his wrist, a wall of water put out Voldemort’s fire and Harry stepped to face Voldemort, before he motioned for him to come forward.

“AVADA KEDAVRA!” cried Voldemort, and the very familiar green light flew right towards Harry, but Harry calmly deflected it back at Voldemort. Voldemort’s eyes widened, what Potter did should have been impossible and Voldemort threw himself to the ground, the Killing Curse flying over him, impacting the wall behind him. Harry circled around Voldemort, who got to his feet.

“Want to try that again, Riddle?” asked Harry quietly and Voldemort sent a jagged web of magical energy that would have ripped Harry to shreds, but Harry’s shield blocked the impact, before he circled behind Voldemort, Voldemort sent another powerful dark spell that Harry avoided, using even more of his magic, while Harry only used what was necessary to avoid being hit.

“I will force you to fight, you insolent brat!” shouted Voldemort as he attempted to send a bone degeneration curse, but Harry blocked Voldemort’s efforts once again. “Crucio!”

Harry watched the unforgivable come at him, before he deflected it right back at Voldemort and Voldemort shrieked in agony for a few seconds as he was impaled with his own weapon, before he threw off the power. Voldemort stood, hatred etched in his eyes and he flicked his hand, causing the ground underneath them to shake, before Harry staggered back, where he was knocked off of his feet, as he allowed the wand to fly from his hand. Harry pulled himself back to a standing position and Voldemort magically lifted Harry off the ground, before Harry was rammed right into the wall. Voldemort lifted Harry off the ground and violently flung him across the room once again, Harry crashing down with a thud on the ground, as Voldemort stood up for him, before impacting Harry hard again, causing a glassy eyed look to appear in the eyes of the Boy-Who-Lived-Twice.

“Not as ready to defeat me as you would have liked me to believe, Potter,” taunted Voldemort, as he viciously pulled the semi-conscious form of Harry, so they were face to face. “However, if nothing else, you will find that I am a fair man, so tell me what you’ve found out about the imperfection in my body, should it exist of course.”

“You’ll have to pull the truth from my mind Riddle, because I’m not going to tell you anything,” said Harry in a weak voice and Voldemort quickly pushed his way into Harry’s mind, searching for the information.

Voldemort screamed in agony before he pulled out of Harry’s mind, the boy had attempted to destroy his mind with some kind of advanced dark magic, the likes of which even the Dark Lord had never seen. Quickly, Voldemort pointed his right arm, wand in hand, but his arm trembled, the wand dropping to the ground. Angrily, he reached down and picked up his wand, attempting to aim it, but once again his right arm trembled, the wand dropping to the ground.

Harry looked up with a smirk, as while the mind shredding curse did not completely destroy Voldemort’s mind, it did damage it enough to force him to be unable to properly hold a wand and thus eliminated the Unforgivables, the only three curses that could not be done at all without a wand, as they required too much power. The Boy-Who-Lived picked up the wand and stood to face Voldemort, as he watched Voldemort’s attempt to use his left arm to aim his wand also

“What did you do to me Potter?” demanded Voldemort in an angry voice but Harry just responded with a high cold laugh to match Voldemort’s. “Answer me, Potter.”

Voldemort wandlessly blasted dark curse after dark curse after Harry, the loss of the ability to use a wand was the biggest offense one could do against a wizard. Harry calmly deflected each spell, but Voldemort’s attacks raising in intensity with each attack, getting more violent as well. Spinning his arm, a large burst of blue light engulfed the room and dozens of holographic duplicates of Harry surrounded Voldemort. Voldemort flicked his wrist, blasting each of the duplicates with violent dark magic attacks. They burst into flames, but Harry kept out of the way, forcing Voldemort to keep firing off attacks. With each attack, Voldemort’s ire began to raise, as a result, he subconsciously pushed himself to put even more magic into the attacks, and even with the stronger body, Harry suspected that even Voldemort had his own limits.

“Potter, show yourself, stop hiding behind these illusions!” shouted Voldemort, as one of the magical holographic duplicates was ripped to shreds, the destroyed magic flying in every which direction, before Harry dropped them, as he was in perfect position for his first attack

A large burst of gold was blasted right at Voldemort, the same spell that was used to obliterate Mad-Eye Moody. Voldemort shrieked, as while the spell did not reduce him into dust, it did burn off most of his skin. The Dark Lord turned to Harry, rotted, burned skin, clinging to Voldemort’s skeleton. Before Voldemort could attack him, Harry blasted him with another vicious spell, a sharp dagger encased in a bolt of grey magical energy, impacting Voldemort’s chest. Harry fired two more spells at rapid succession at Voldemort, if he hit Voldemort with enough magic, as Flamel had theorized during his futile attempts to create something to destroy Voldemort, he would discharge Voldemort’s spirit from this new body.

The smell of rotted filled Harry’s nostrils as he watched it slowly heal, but Harry quickly sent a wall of fire at Voldemort. A flesh rotting curse was impacted seconds later, as Voldemort was backed off, before Harry aimed. Voldemort slammed hard against the wall and Harry slashed his wrist, impacting Voldemort with a vicious slicing curse. Voldemort stood, attempting to raise his arm, to fight back but Harry impacted Voldemort right in the face with a bone shattering curse. Voldemort’s skin began to heal, but Harry concentrated, drawing all of the magic that he could in to himself.

“SECTUMSEMPRA!” shouted Harry, as Voldemort’s newly healed skin was cut , blood dripping to the floor as Voldemort was enraged to see his own blood. Another blast of gold light cracked against Voldemort, before Harry circled Voldemort quickly, wrapping up his deadly adversary in thick metal cords. Voldemort attempted to pull his way out, but Harry quickly sent a burst of magically created electricity right through the cords. The pain was evident on the face of Voldemort, as he was electrocuted for about a half a minute, before he ripped his way out of the hold, the magical backlash causing Harry to fall back. Fortunately, he rebounded quickly and pulled himself to his feet, to face a burned, bleeding, and quite angry Voldemort.

Voldemort raised his arm and sent the gold light right at Harry. The light impacted Harry and Voldemort watched with glee as Harry evaporated in mid air before his eyes when the curse struck him.

“At last!” hissed Voldemort but his triumph was short lived as he was blasted from behind. Voldemort slowed his movement, before he landed on his feet and turned to see Harry standing behind him, looking unhurt. “How did you survive that, Potter?”

“Like I’d blab all my secrets to you, Riddle,” replied Harry and Voldemort spotted his wand, with the hope that whatever Potter did to him had faded, as he reached for it, picking it up, but in an instant Voldemort dropped it. Angrily, he conjured acid and sprayed it right towards Harry. Harry avoided and acid completely ate through the floor where Harry stood and Voldemort was caught with another disintegration curse, Harry pushing as much power as he could without collapsing exhaustion and the wand seemed to draw latent magic from the air around him.

The gold light lit up Voldemort like a Christmas tree, burning his robes off and his skin mostly removed. A skeletal figure with scattered bits of flesh that was rotting by the second clinging onto his bones, stood to face Harry, waiting for the skin to heal itself back over but nothing. Voldemort gave a loud shriek, somehow, some way, strained his body, forcing to heal itself too many times and this was the result.

“Looks like you met your limit, Riddle,” replied Harry, as he moved in for the kill, but Voldemort quickly and recklessly began to blast Harry with every curse that he could manage. The throne room began to crumble and Harry quickly blasted his way through the wall and exited.

From the outside, Harry watched as the entire room caved in right onto Voldemort’s head. For the briefest second, Harry retained the hope that Voldemort, in a misplaced fit of rage, had killed himself by bringing the entire throne room down on him. Unfortunately, that could not be so easy for Harry, as Voldemort blasted his way back out, coming out of the wreckage. Harry dodged before he shot solid ice from his wand but Voldemort quickly melted it with a fireball. Water dripped to the ground as Voldemort extended his hand forward, tiny bits of flesh hanging off of the bones by the barest of threads. Harry barely deflected a high level blast but this allowed Voldemort to emit a large sonic vibration spell. The ringing took Harry off balance and he quickly put a bubble headed charm on to block it out, but the damage already been down, as it had knocked Harry to the ground. Voldemort jabbed his hand, puncturing the bubble headed charm around Harry’s head, as Harry looked up, before he was blasted, skidding across the ground.

Voldemort stepped forward, staring right down at Harry, charred, rotting bits of his face clinging to his skull, as he looked down at Harry, before the platinum spirals appeared in front of Voldemort. Voldemort turned to put the finishing touches on the Boy-Who-Lived, but his shaking arm had prevented him from properly aiming. The platinum spirals pushed their way towards Voldemort, as he struggled to keep them back.

Harry watched, pulling himself to his feet, blood dripping from his ears, as Voldemort attempted to send the magical disruption spell at him but needless to say, Harry had other ideas.

“Accio, Riddle,” commented Harry and Voldemort was roughly pulled forward, right into the platinum spirals.

A loud, high shriek could be heard from miles around and Voldemort continued to scream, as the botched magical disruption spell caused by the own unique properties Voldemort’s body caused his own magic to inward against him, shredding through his internal organs. His bones burst into thick, black flames as Voldemort attempted reach towards Harry, his flaming hands extended, looking right into Harry’s eyes but Harry stepped backwards, watching Voldemort’s body slam to the ground, ashes flying in every direction, with Voldemort’s skull laying in the pile.

“Finally,” said Harry in a relieved voice but as soon as he said this, high cold laughter echoed through Harry’s ears. The laughter taunted Harry and Harry attempted to put a silencing charm up to block it out, but it continued. This lead Harry to the conclusion that the laughter came from inside his own head. “Riddle, I’m rather amused by the lengths you’ll go to cheat death.”

“Yes,” hissed the voice of Voldemort from inside Harry’s head. “Your body, with a few rituals to strengthen its durability, will be perfect to continue my campaign, as soon as I shut you out for good Harry.”

“I won’t let you take control of my body that easily Riddle, I’m not some weak minded fool that you can easily possess,” thought Harry but a small sigh could be heard from within his mind.

“Actually, this is my body,” commented a younger, but irritated, voice from within Harry’s mind

“Great, who let you out of the box?” thought the older Harry. “You’ve caused me enough trouble, attempting to influence me, prodding me towards these reckless situations, that’s what cost Blaise her life.”

“Oh like you care,” replied the younger version of Harry. “If you had your way, you’d be in a cave somewhere, writing bad poetry about the misfortunes in your past life.”

“Yes, that’s right, he’s the reason that you can’t have a proper relationship with anyone because he’s afraid of the past, afraid of loss, he’s bitter,” commented Voldemort directing his thoughts towards the younger part of Harry. “Together we can cast him out, you can have everything you want, and more.”

“You keep out of this, Riddle!” shouted the older Harry.

“As much as I hate him, he as a point,” said the younger Harry.

“He’s trying to pit us against each other, so he can take control,” argued the thoughts of the older Harry.

“Well I’m against you, so fuck you!” echoed the thoughts of the younger Harry. “And I picked up that little attitude from you, you were a bad influence in every way. And your little mental wounds from what happened in the past time line, you tried to shut me out whenever you could.”

“Because of situations like the one happened to Blaise, I should have found a way to shut you out permanently,” responded the older Harry. “I would have defeated Voldemort a long ago, but I had to deal with childish wants like having friends from you. Friends could have been made after I was finished, but you just had to have your way.”

“No, the problem is you are bitter, you refuse to get over what happened,” said the younger Harry. “You’ve taken over my body and from every minute from then, you attempted to rule my life, well I’m about sick and tired of it. You’ve bullied me for too long, it’s what you want.”

“We can settle this later when we get Voldemort out of my head,” hissed the older Harry and the younger version of the Boy-Who-Lived seemed rather angry of the choice of words used by the older one.

“Yes, see how immature and foolish he is, I must have been foolish to think that he would be worth talking to, he must have been the one that caused to not accept all those offers to join me,” commented Voldemort.

“I’ll get you out of my head for good, Riddle!” echoed the thoughts of the older Harry Potter, as he removed a gun before he pointed it right for his temple, but a small amount of hesitation was evident. “Stop fighting me for control, I’m ending this right now, there’s no reason for me to keep living.”

“No, I’m not going to let you do this,” said the younger Harry. “Stop, think about our friends…”

“They’ll get over it,” responded the older Harry dismissively as he attempted point the gun to his temple but the younger Harry refused to let the older version do the deed. “This has to be done, for the greater good.”

“Okay, Albus,” replied the younger Harry and this caused the gun to drop to the ground. “That’s exactly who you are turning into, you’re nothing but a bitter, manipulative coward, the fact that I could have turned into rather disturbing!”

“Don’t you dare compare me to Dumbledore,” hissed the angry thoughts of the older Harry.

“I will because you’ve turned into him, you only care about the mission, defeating Voldemort at all costs, no matter how many innocents you take out along the way,” said the younger version of Harry.

“I once thought like that and that’s why they were killed,” thought the older Harry bitterly. “Now, I see everything clearly.”

“As do I, you only care about yourself,” responded the younger Harry.

“I cared, but I find that it’s easier to let go when I shut off my emotions,” said the older Harry. “Trust me, you can love someone, but the moment they get ripped away from you, it’s like a part of your body is removed. That’s why it’s just better to not care at all.”

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD, BOTH OF YOU!” thought the younger Harry angrily. “Especially you, you’re the reason I’m so emotionally stunted and I refuse to bend to your will and Riddle, out as well.”

“You aren’t going to get rid of me that easily Potter, either of you!” hissed Voldemort but Harry concentrated as hard as he could, pushing back against Voldemort and a loud angry hiss was heard, as Harry felt the essence of Voldemort being ejected from his body.

Finally, Voldemort had been defeated.

“As for you,” thought the younger Harry, as he directed his thoughts to the older Harry. “I’m showing you the door.”

“No, you can’t, we beat Voldemort,” said the older Harry in a resigned voice, but attempting to reason with himself was a very difficult

“You don’t belong here, you belong in that alternate time stream and maybe now since Voldemort’s been defeated, you can go on to the other side,” responded the thoughts of the younger Harry calmly. “Now, go, I’ve studied all your memories, I know everything you do, there is nothing else I can learn from you and I’d like to be able to make my own decisions without your bitterly influenced input.”

“No, you don’t get it, I’m not leaving, you need me,” responded the older Harry. “Besides, you’ll stuck with me, as I’m pretty certain that if I leave, the magical strain on your body will kill you.”

The younger Harry shifted through his mind, using an advanced, but very difficult, Occlumency technique that had been used in the past to ease young children who had suffered a horrific trauma.

“There, now I can get on with my life and you’re in a small part of my brain, isolated from the rest of it,” said Harry. “I don’t have to deal with you ever again but perhaps you can heal from what happened in that past timeline.”

At that moment, footsteps could be heard and Harry stood calmly, as a small group of Ministry officials flanked with Aurors approached. He had an emergency Portkey on him, but something told Harry that he had to stick around. The group rose and saw Harry standing right behind a pile of ashes.

“POTTER!” yelled Scrimgeour angrily, as he pointed his wand at Harry, but Minister Weaver stepped to the side.

“Auror Scrimgeour, I don’t care how angry you are that Mr. Potter murdered your daughter, proper Ministry Auror protocol must be followed as with any situation,” commented Weaver in a testy voice. “Harry James Potter, you have been officially accused of slaying several students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It would be highly advisable to surrender your wand and not resist, as it might reduce your sentence. Otherwise, we will have to use force to bring you to justice.”

Scrimgeour seemed to wish he was given an excuse to use force, but several other Aurors stepped in front of the Ministry officials just in case Potter began to attack like a cornered rabid animal.

“Might I ask who told you that I was here?”

“We had no idea you were here, in fact we were to come here to surrender the Ministry to You-Know-Who,” remarked Tonks, one of the Aurors on guard, who looked rather disapproving of the entire situation .

“Yes, but since you’re in the league with him, you can tell us where he is,” said one of the Aurors in a tempered voice.

“Well, he’s right in front of me,” commented Harry calmly, as he pointed to the pile of ashes that was once the body of Voldemort.

“You killed him, Mr. Potter?” asked Weaver but Harry shook his head.

“What I fought today died fifteen years ago, but refused to accept his fate by doing everything in his power to cling onto life,” said Harry. “Once again, I had to save your pathetic posteriors, but no need to thank me, it’s not like any of you came close to doing anything about Voldemort, in fact you were about to lay down and hand the Ministry over to him. So in a way, the Ministry of Magic is in my debt.”

“Can it Potter, you murdered countless, you think you’re going to get off for just knocking off He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?” challenged Scrimgeour.

“Most likely Potter wanted more power, so he wiped out his only possible competition,” muttered another Auror, but Harry just calmly withdrew a remote control device that was strapped to his sleeve.

“You will let me go and drop all the charges against me,” replied Harry and several of the Aurors and Ministry Officials looked appalled at the audacity of Harry Potter. “Or the entire wall between the Muggle and Magical Worlds comes crashing down right before your very eyes.”

“There’s no way you can do that to us, Mr. Potter, we’ll erase whatever damage you’ve done, so you have no leverage to stand on,” said one of the Ministry officials in a diplomatic voice, but Harry just raised his eyebrow. While he didn’t agree with his bitter older counterpart with most things, he did share his distaste for the Ministry and the need to constantly put them in their collective places on a constant basis.

“Allow me to explain, before you do something stupid, this remote control device activates a very advanced satellite system that overrides every television and radio signal, that broadcasts undisputed proof that magic exists,” said Harry, as he held the remote, his finger inches away from the button. “Cost me a fair bit of pocket change, I believe several hundred galleons, but it was worth it.”

The Aurors began to point their wands so Harry decided to quickly inform them of another useful feature he had keyed inside the remote.

“And just a fair warning, do something predictable like attempt to destroy the remote with magic the signal automatically gets set off,” warned Harry. “So, I would suggest that you put your wands on the ground and back off or the signal is activated.”

Casually, Harry fired a stunner behind his back to an Auror who attempted to creep behind his back. The Auror dropped to the ground.

“You’re bluffing Potter,” said the Auror known as Dawlish but that just prompted Harry to roll his eyes.

“Go to Azkaban and talk to Bartemius Crouch, to find out whether or not I’m bluffing,” replied Harry, only the voice of “Barone” came out of his mouth and the Aurors looked confused, but a couple of them seemed to be putting the pieces together. “That’s right, one in the same, but you’ll never get to know how, not that most of you would ever understand if I explained in small words. Now drop the wands or I’ll introduce a bigger cataclysm for you than what Voldemort was planning.”

Several wands dropped to the ground, both from the Ministry representatives and Aurors. Scrimgeour retained his wand for a few seconds, before the Minister prompted him to do so, as Harry’s had his finger nearly on the button on the remote. Reluctantly, as he looked at Harry with great distaste etched in his eyes, the Head Auror’s wand dropped to the ground.

“Just answer me one question, Mr. Potter,” said an elderly Ministry official. “Why did you kill all of those students? Surely, you owe the Ministry an explanation, if anything else.”

Harry had a very long day and despite not being as bitter as the older version that resided in his body for almost ten years, he still had his tolerance limits. The fact that the Ministry thought he owed them anything after he saved them from being under Voldemort’s foot had overshot those limits.

“I did not kill them, an evil duplicate created by Voldemort to frame me murdered all those students, I’m sorry all those people died, but you know what, I don’t have to justify anything to anyone in the Ministry!” snapped Harry his eyes blazing with an insane amount of intensity. “You know what, the entire Ministry of Magic can fuck off, the next time there’s a Dark Lord in this country, have fun, because I’m sure is hell not bailing your arses out again. Voldemort’s finished, I don’t owe the Ministry or most of Wizarding Britain for that matter shit, so fuck off and have a nice life!”

With that, Harry activated his Portkey and left without another word, leaving the group of Aurors and Ministry Officials staring at where he once stood, in various states of shock

Bit short, but rather important. One final chapter and A Twisted Timeline will be completed. I’m going to try to get it ready for this weekend, but no promises. And for the record, I really enjoyed writing this chapter, but I just have this feeling that the final chapter might seem to be a bit anti-climatic, but necessary all the same to end the story and bridge towards a potential sequel.