Chapter 178: Snake’s Den
24th January 1995, Hogwarts Earth 2
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
Harry looked pensive, “I choose to live. I choose myself for the first time. I want to grow old with Sirius, have a family, have friends and kids. I want to learn magic. I want to live with Sirius outside Grimmauld Place. I want to be happy.”
Finally, I gave the boy a warm and honest smile, “Then I guess it’s time for me to kill a dark lord, don’t you think?”
Harry sighed in relief, “You’re really going to kill him? Just like that.”
I snort, “Kiddo, you have no idea how powerful I am. Killing him was never a problem, how to go home was. I needed to carefully manipulate the strands of fate, so that the cosmic energy slowly starts to build up and will be released when I kill him. Before I go, since this is the last time we will speak to each other, do you have anything you want to say to me?”
Harry spoke hesitantly, “Yeah, thank you.”
I smile warmly at him, “Alright, I didn’t make an official will or anything, because the Ministry will probably try to confiscate anything they could, because of what I’ll probably do today, so I’m leaving you things manually. I put the map for the Sayre mansion in your Gringotts vault along with the key which. will help you add yourself to the wards. Inside, you’ll find the library, Sirius’ documents, and an underground vault with the gold I was able to accumulate in my stay here. I faked my death in the muggle world with a homunculus and left everything in your name but froze every asset and bank account until your eighteenth birthday, so that your relatives don’t access anything I left you. The last thing I wanted to tell you was to live your life as you see fit. You’ll be free to do whatever you want from now. This is the last time we’re seeing each other, Harry Potter. Farewell.”
I teleport out of the castle, and into Hogsmeade, where a veritable army awaited me. There were dementors floating around in the sky waiting to feed, like Voldemort had probably promised. There was an entire legion of werewolves, ready to attack at a moment’s notice, and around a hundred or so wizards, Death Eaters, including his inner circle. I had no doubts that there were more followers and sympathizers that just weren’t included in the attack, because it was on such a short notice. There also didn’t seem to be any giants or vampires, probably still haven’t arrived from the continent.
Standing in the middle, was a pale bald man with sinister red eyes and snake slits instead of a nose. Oh, how Tom Riddle has fallen, to lose his humanity in that respect.
The man noticed my arrival, “Ah, Professor Sayre, it’s quite nice to meet you. I believe that I made my demands clear and yet, I see no trace of Harry Potter with you.”
I snort, “I’m not here to send one of my students for slaughter. I heard you were around, and I had to see you. Are you seriously supposed to be the great Lord Voldemort? What a disappointment. Is this all you can do, threaten a castle with less than twelve adults, with an army of bloodthirsty wizards and werewolves? Is this how you’re showing your superiority? By killing children, who barely know how to cast a shield charm. What a joke. And people are actually afraid of you.”
My dismissal seemed to anger him deeply, “Do not speak, woman or I will silence you myself.”
I return his answer with a smug smirk, “Struck a nerve, did I? Although, Dumbledore was right, you never grew up past being an angsty teenager, throwing tantrums when things don’t go your way.”
“And yet, he died by my hand.”
“Perhaps, but I think that the ring had more to do with his death than an epic duel like you’re alluding.”
This seemed to freeze him, “How…?”
“Who do you think sent him to his death, knowing how tempted he would be for the ring, what it represented, not that you actually knew what the ring really was, other than it being an ugly trinket passed down from the Gaunt line.”
“You! You’re the one he spoke of, the one who had planned his death.”
I chuckled, “so, he did realize, in the end. Funny, I sent Dumbledore to his death, because it would lead you here, tonight. I didn’t think that you’d bring a party this big, though, just your inner circle at best. I guess you’re further along your recruitment than I thought. It doesn’t matter anyway; tonight, will be the day Lord Voldemort perishes.”
The man actually burst into laughter at this, his minions following him swiftly. He really had no idea what was coming for him. Although, with an army here, I wouldn’t mind stretching for a bit. It’s been a while since I fought a magical army, even if this one is made from barely more than a few hundred wizards.
“Many have tried before you, girl, and no one succeeded. Why would you prove to be any different?”
I answered back, “because, you’re not dealing with an ineffectual old man, who’s a pacifist at heart, nor are you dealing with someone who could be bought or intimidated by you. I’m something you’ve never seen before.”
“Enough of that,” he pointed at me, “kill her.”
The werewolf army started to run towards me and sending spell after spell at me. I raised my wand and created a shield that deflected every spell they cast at me, around me. A few sent killing curses at me, and I pointed my wand to the ground and the earth rose up into a wall, protecting me. I followed that up by animating the wall into a wave that propagated into the army sending everyone flying back. With another wave of my wand the wave exploded, and I transfigured the pieces of earth into steel spikes than rained from the sky.
In that single attack, more than half of the werewolves were immediately impaled by the rain of steel. In a few seconds, I had killed hundreds of people. They did follow a mad man into attacking a school of all things, so they weren’t nice people to begin with. Although a few of them were simply followers or were so desperate against the discrimination of the Ministry that they did the mistake of joining a monster. I did pity a few of them, but this wasn’t my world; I didn’t really care, and I was leaving soon anyway. I stifled a chuckle when I tried to imagine how chaotic magical Britain will be tomorrow, with both Voldemort, along with his army, which included a lot of influential people, and Dumbledore, dying on a single night.
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Now, back to the fight, the remaining werewolves were the ones who had the mind to shield against the projectiles. The few who tried to apparate died, not knowing that I warded the area against any type of spatial manipulation, including portkeys and apparition. The truth was, that this fight was just plain unfair even if I was a normal witch; werewolves did not have the luxury of a standard magical education, and thus they were mostly taught with word of mouth, or by other werewolves. They were not the most magically savvy people around, so most of them knew nothing about magic other than blasting things.
I ruthlessly killed the survivors with a giant wave of fire that I conjured. In seconds, Voldemort’s fearsome army of werewolves was destroyed.
I looked at the Dark Lord and smirked, “do I have your attention now?”
With a snarl, the Dark Lord cast some Fiendfyre at me. In return, I created an orb of light magic and sent it at the incoming flaming basilisk. The orb of light magic, seemed to absorb the summoned fire from hell, and contain it, until nothing remained. I tried not to burst into laughter at Voldemort’s gaping face and instead, I manipulated the orb into turning into a giant beam of fire and light that flew towards the sky, illuminating it in a fiery explosion that made it seem like it was noon for a second.
Confused by my seemingly ineffectual attack, the Dark Lord looked up and watched as a series of black cloaks slowly fell from the sky. I think it took a few seconds for it to register. These were dementor cloaks, the amortal magical creatures that wizards and witches have spent centuries trying to kill even a single one, with no success and I had just destroyed every single dementor that followed him, which was pretty much every single dementor in Britain, outside of a few rogue ones who chose to stay in Azkaban.
He could not accept the fact that I just technically committed genocide. But a few seconds after accepting what just happened, his red eyes started to glow in his anger.
I, though, smirked at him, “Now, that’s two armies down, only one left to go.”
I could practically feel his fear of me. He really was just realizing what he’s dealing with. But he could not look weak in front of his followers, so he snarled and sent a beam of darkness at me. I chuckled, using dark magic against me was just suicide.
To protect myself, I summoned an absorbing shield that, well, absorbed the entire spell, with no issues. When the spell was over, I used the dark magic I accumulated to destroy any spell the Death Eaters were firing my way, and then shaped it into a scythe that cleaved two dozen of them in two. I kept shielding and redirecting curse after curse, redirecting them into their own allies. But by the time a minute had passed, there were less than twenty Death Eaters alive, and Voldemort.
Speaking of the Dark Lord, he sent a giant bolt of lightning my way, and I was able to jump forward towards the middle of the Death Eaters and dodge it. I conjured a giant lightning rod which absorbed the spell, and, with a wave of my wand, I manipulated it, to send out a giant explosion of lightning around it, which hit pretty much every single Death Eater left, frying them completely.
The only ones who were left were the inner circle members, who had a lot more experience dueling, either through their time as Death Eaters, or through their own efforts before joining Riddle’s band of sycophants. They surrounded me, like a pack of wolves hunting sheep. Too bad they got the animals the wrong way round.
Surprisingly, the first one to attack me was Pettigrew of all people. He sent a cutting curse at me, that I redirected towards Voldemort who just shielded against it. I’m actually surprised that he survived the lightning attack. Maybe, he did actually learn a spell or two from his Marauder friends, before betraying them.
This time, I dodged a blood boiler courtesy of Bellatrix, and after I dodged it, I hit it with a piercing hex in a way that redirected Bellatrix's spell towards Lucius Malfoy and mine towards Rabastan Lestrange. The Lestrange boy was hit in the gut, and I finished him off with an air cutter to his throat. Lucius Malfoy was screaming from Bellatrix’s blood boiler, but before I could finish him off, I sensed a spear of darkness coming my way from Voldemort, I countered with a light powered air slash that split the spear in two, each one coming around me, and I hit each of them with a disarming charm which redirected them towards two Death Eaters, Crabbe and Goyle who died instantly.
While Voldemort shielded against my air slash, I finished off Lucius Malfoy with a piercing hex to the forehead, killing him. An enraged Bellatrix started sending spell after spell at me, and I kept redirecting them towards other Death Eaters who kept shielding against the onslaught.
That woman had definitely learnt some formal dueling, considering the spell chains that she was using. She started one of the spell chains that I recognized and instead of directly repelling them, I sent a single disarming charm at them. The organ destroying curse was redirected towards Dolohov, who was, in his surprise, hit by his ally’s spell. After hitting the organ destroying curse, the disarming charm continued, repelling another cutting curse towards Rodolphus Lestrange, hitting him exactly in the neck, decapitating him.
The spell continued, zig zagging between the spells of Bellatrix’s spell chain, killing Travers and the Carrow twins, before hitting the final curse which had barely gotten out of her wand, a blasting curse, redirecting it towards her hand, destroying it, leaving a bleeding stump in its stead.
The woman screamed in pain, and I silenced her with a piercing hex to her throat, killing her. With another wave of my wand, I sent a fire air slash that cut off and cauterized Pettigrew’s metallic hand. I wanted to kill him, but he would be useful for Sirius’ trial later with Harry. Instead, I hit him with a Stunner and a portkey to the magical dungeons I made in the manor. He won’t be able to escape from there.
My musings were interrupted by Voldemort yelling the incantation of the killing curse. Instead of dodging, this time, I used a bit of soul magic to redirect the spell towards the last Death Eater, Macnair, I think.
With that done, Voldemort had run out of Death Eaters. The Dark Lord though, looked at me with disbelief, “Impossible!”
I smirk at him, “Honey, you have no idea what’s possible.”
Before he could cast anything, I pointed my wand back and sent a bolt of darkness at the leaping snake, Nagini, who had tried to kill me from behind. The venom wouldn’t have worked anyway, but the opportunity to destroy the last Horcrux presented himself.
“Who are you? Why are you doing this? Why not join me? We could take over the world together.”
I smile at him, “I’m just a woman who wants to go home and you’re my ticket.”
The man looked confused, and I chuckled, “Don’t worry you little head about it, Riddle, I doubt you would understand even if I told you.”
The man sneered at me and kept sending killing curses after killing curses at me. A few I just dodged, the others I redirected to the side, while walking forward until I was barely a few feet in front of him. While he was trying to send another spell, I just grabbed the end of his wand and broke it in half.
The man looked at his trusty yew wand in disbelief, and before he could do anything, I said, “Goodbye, Tom.”
With that said, I cut of the man’s head with an air slash, killing him.
Suddenly, I start feeling cosmic energy welling up from this act, there was an actual shift in the world, like something had fundamentally changed. And that was true, because someone had broken a prophecy. Immediately, my world was enveloped with a bright white light, and I knew I succeeded in my efforts. Fate finally noticed my interference. Now, comes the hard part, convincing her to send me home.