Chapter 29 of 30
The Ministry of Magic
“So, why is this prophecy so important?” Wyatt asked lazily running a finger through the wood of the shelf.
“Haven’t your parents told you?” came the amused response, “Or hasn’t Dumbledore shared his knowledge with them?”
Wyatt shrugged uncaringly and turned around dangling Excalibur lazily around. The other man looked at it enthralled, “The sword of the king,” he extended his hand as if to touch it but Wyatt brought it up and rested it in his shoulder.
“Na,na,na. That’s mine. That’s not in our deal, Chris is.”
The man looked at Wyatt appraisingly, “Oh, yes. Your brother. Quite a nuisance isn’t he?”
“Can be,” Wyatt shrugged.
“Of course,” the man said, “After I saw him in the graveyard, he looked familiar. I had missed it when he was eleven, he was probably too young then, but at almost fifteen he looks much more like his adult self,” Voldemort smiled. “From there to have my Death Eaters asking around and finding out why was it that your parents faked his death, and why I remembered him defying me when he wasn’t even supposed to be born yet, was quite easy actually. Apparently your brother was quite remembered in the Underworld and with quite an amount of fear attached to him,” he walked to Wyatt. “It must be so frustrating, all those people thinking so little of you. Thinking that your former greatness was because of some trauma and not because you, as I did, saw the truth, that there is no such thing as good and evil, there’s power and those too afraid to seek it.”
“I know,” Wyatt smirked. “But I can’t very well go around saying it now, can I? Thanks to my brother everyone keeps a close eye on me this time around.”
“That’s where this comes into play,” Voldemort said taking an orb from the shelf and shattering it in the floor. It broke and the smoky form of professor Trelawney formed reciting a prophecy.
“Oh, I’ve missed this so much! The excitement, the rush. You know, just counseling the witches can get bori-oh, okay, I’ll shut up,” Prue grumbled at the glare she received. Her companion waved his wand at a lock.
“So, that’s it?” Wyatt asked unimpressed. “Didn’t we already know that?”
Voldemort looked at him and he could swear there was a rush of irritation in that glare. He said nothing though.
“It is of no consequence,” he waved a hand dismissively. “We’ll be done with the boy tonight, and then you may go conquer the United States while I conquer Europe.”
“Sounds good to me,” Wyatt looked excited and stroked Excalibur gently.
“I was about your age when I performed my first kill,” Voldemort said fondly. “Please call your brother. Remember, he needs to believe you’re in pain.”
“Of course,” Wyatt smirked and closed his eyes as Voldemort motioned for a group of dark robed men to be prepared and hide in the shadows.
The sword had swished down and the great beast stood motionless. Prue looked at it and frowned her lips.
“Little anti-climatic, wasn’t it?”
“No,” Snape answered her. “I preferred having no one here.”
She looked around the luxurious manor, “Do you think they have a Jacuzzi?” she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
“Ah, Mr. Potter,” Lucius Malfoy’s voice came from the darkness and walked up to where Chris was standing with Ron and Hermione. “Or should I say Mr. Halliwell. So good of you to join us.”
“Malfoy?” Chris asked shocked. “Where’s Voldemort? Where’s my brother?”
“Oh, they’re waiting for you, my Lord thought the Death Chamber would be more appropriate,” he said smiling.
“If you hurt my brother-“ Chris snarled.
“No worries there boy,” Malfoy said pointing his wand at Chris and motioning for the other Death Eaters to surround the children. “Now, if you’d be so nice as to follow us. It was very nice of you not to warn an adult. My Lord was quite sure you wouldn’t, something about not trusting adults. Oh, and just so you know, we’ve put anti-orbing wards up.”
“Of course,” Chris said through gritted teeth. They were outnumbered and they knew they wouldn’t stand a chance in such closed quarters as the Hall of Prophecies, besides, they needed to find Wyatt. He gave Hermione and Ron a serious nod and walked with them.
“Ah, Harry- oh sorry, Christopher,” Voldemort said invitingly as the Death Eaters pushed the teenagers down the benches and towards Voldemort. Voldemort was standing there with Wyatt who was seated lazily at a podium that had some kind of arch on it with a veil that was slightly billowing back and forth.
“Wyatt!” Chris cried. “Did he hurt you?”
“Of course not,” Voldemort said and as Chris looked at Wyatt and then at Voldemort. Voldemort smiled, “Oh, I love this, the moment of realization. When you realize that I did not kidnap your brother. I approached him with an offer, to kill you, so you wouldn’t be on his way.”
“Wyatt would never-” Chris started saying through gritted teeth.
“Oh, but he would,” Voldemort interrupted him delighted. “And now, we have the perfect opportunity and stage to kill you. To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled about using the Ministry but your brother and Lucius brought up a very good point. Killing you here will not only show you’re powerless but the Ministry is as well.”
“Or,” Wyatt said slowly and Voldemort’s face slackened as he saw Chris smile. “It would make having the Aurors here that much easier,” he finished as his features changed into Piper and with a flick of her wrist she tried to blow Voldemort up. That was enough to make him stagger back and burn his chest, but just that. Apparently the Horcruxes weren’t the only protection Voldemort had cast on himself, but it was enough to make him stumble as Aurors and Order Members came barreling in through the various doors of the chamber and engaging in a fight with the Death Eaters. Hermione and Ron quickly morphed into Paige and Phoebe and from one of the doors the real Wyatt Halliwell came running with Excalibur fighting his way to them.
Curses started flying left and right as the Aurors and Death Eaters battled. Voldemort pointed his wand at Chris and was immediately hit by yet another bursting power, this time coming from Wyatt.
“You can’t kill me!” Voldemort laughed as he staggered again and tried to regain his composure as Wyatt joined Chris, Piper, Page and Phoebe who had huddled together.
“We’ll see about that,” Paige sneered pulling out a piece of paper. They had to be quick, the element of surprise here was their best chance. They started chanting as Voldemort sneered at their spell crying, “A spell won’t stop me!” and once again pointed his wand at them but this time it was Chris who instinctively raised his hand and shot a bright lightning bolt incinerating the wand. Chris looked at his hand surprised but quickly rejoined the chanting of the last line of the spell.
“Vanquish this evil from this life.”
Suddenly the veil in the arch started billowing violently and a wind started roaring inside the chamber. The Halliwells huddled together afraid of the wind that was making the Death Eaters and Voldemort fly, worrying because there was nowhere to hold on, but it was Sirius, who had just been saved from a killing curse by Lucius Malfoy, who noticed that the Death Eaters and Voldemort where the only ones flying around the room and yelled it to the others. And not all Death Eaters where flying either, a couple of them had dropped their wands as soon as the wind began and raised their hands in surrender as they watched their Lord and colleagues be swallowed by the arch and the screaming they were doing die.
“Wasn’t expecting that!” Phoebe nodded as the wind suddenly stopped.
“I guess it only took the Death Eaters that were loyal to him,” Wyatt said as he spotted the three Death Eaters still there. One was Lucius Malfoy and the other two who were being arrested were identified as Avery and Goyle Sr.
As Rufus Scrimgeour came to arrest Lucius Malfoy, Malfoy smirked at Sirius, “Don’t forget to let them know who convinced the Dark Lord to have almost every man here instead of at my manor.”
“You’re a self serving bastard Malfoy,” Sirius grunted.
“Yes, but you’re alive because of me,” he smirked. “I’d like a nice cell while I await release Mr. Scrimgeour,” Malfoy said sweetly to Scrimgeour as the other man pulled him along.
“Where are the others?” Piper asked Sirius as he came close.
“Spread out in case Voldemort ran, we had various groups throughout the Ministry. We didn’t expect the spell would work so…er…I was expecting a little bit more action.”
“Yeah, we had to have some advantage to not using magic for personal gain,” Paige rolled her eyes patting Sirius in the arm. “I guess our spells pack more punch.”
The others laughed and Piper grabbed each son by the arm bringing them close to her and leading them to meet the rest of the Order.
“So, Snape told us that when he found out why my future self had come to the past, Voldemort decided to gang up with Wyatt. That maybe Wyatt could be swayed back to evil and agree to kill me.”
“Bet your parents loved that,” Hermione snorted.
“Mom almost chewed Snape’s head off,” Chris snickered. “Said Wyatt was good and even evil Wyatt had never tried to kill me so Voldemort was nuts. That future Chris had told her that even when he was torturing the whole world Wyatt wouldn’t let anyone touch him. Snape went on about how he was just the messenger. Anyway, that’s when they decided to fake it. Make it look as if Voldemort had done it. Because Voldemort doesn’t understand that kind of love so he would fall for it. So everyone started researching a spell strong enough to get rid of him, because after interpreting the prophecy they figured that a Charmed Vanquish was what was needed, and they thought that Wyatt and I boosting the Power of Three would be enough. So Mom was posing as Wyatt for weeks before someone approached, and then she went to talk to Voldemort and she had to gain his confidence, pretend he was right. Those were a few other weeks. Then finally Voldemort came up with the plan to kill me, but he was adamant about hearing the prophecy first, in case there was something there. So my mom, as Wyatt, gave him the idea of trapping me at the Ministry. That it would be like a statement of his power. So Malfoy convinced him that if they were going to the Ministry they needed all their men there and the best day would be today, Halloween, you know, another statement.”
“And where does Snape enter?” Ron asked.
“Voldemort wanted me to go alone and he needed to believe I had, so Snape was supposed to make the teachers such as McGonagall, Dumbledore and Sirius, you know, the ones I might ask for help, leave.”
“So that was the commotion at the feast?” Hermione asked. Snape had come and whispered something to Dumbledore. Dumbledore had then gotten up and announced that there was an attack in Diagon Alley and they were going to go help. That the students were to go to their dorms. Then he had asked Chris to send his mother and Aunts to Diagon Alley.
“That was in case Voldemort was in touch with one of the Death Eater’s offspring so they’d let him know Snape did do as he was told to. So Snape alerted Voldemort he’d done it and pretended to go with the teachers, they wouldn’t find anything but by then I’d be gone because Wyatt would have tricked me into believing he was being tortured by Voldemort in the Ministry. Except mom can’t communicate with me like that so after the teacher’s left I asked you to hide and went with them and hid in the Ministry till I got word from Snape.”
“And since everyone would be busy you’d go alone,” Hermione nodded.
“Yeah, meanwhile Snape and my Aunt Prue took Gryffindor’s sword that Dumbledore gave them to an almost empty Malfoy Manor, Narcissa Malfoy let them in and they got rid of the last Horcrux, Nagini, Voldemort’s snake, and let me know through a Patronus, so when we met Voldemort he had nothing to keep him from dying and the teachers joined the group that was waiting hidden at the Ministry. They had separated and spread throughout the Ministry in case Voldemort and the Death Eaters tried to escape. Most of them didn’t even enter in the fight such as Dumbledore and Remus because they had been in other parts of the Ministry where the fight never arrived. Dumbledore had been with the team in the atrium, in case they tried to reach the Apparition point.”
“So Voldemort had been staying at Malfoy Manor?” Ron asked.
“Yes, and apparently the Malfoys were not exactly ecstatic about their guest. When I told Shacklebolt about what I felt from Malfoy at the graveyard, that he didn’t want Voldemort back, Snape approached him cautiously.”
“And he was eager to help get rid of Voldemort?” Ron asked dubiously.
“For immunity,” Chris said simply. “He’s also the one who assured Voldemort he’d make sure they could enter the Ministry unnoticed, so Voldemort never suspected the ease in which they entered. He thought Malfoy had greased the right hands.”
“So, he’s gone?” Hermione asked.
“He’s gone,” Chris answered smiling. “Before he had time to regroup and cause any disaster. We avoided the war.”
“Good, ‘cause I didn’t want one,” Ron said simply and a pillow came flying to his head from the direction of one of the other beds. Chris turned around from where he was lying with his stomach on his bead, facing Ron and Hermione who had been mirroring his position, and laughed as Dean, Seamus and Neville, who had been listening to the whole story, rolled their eyes at Ron.
“As if he was the only one!” Seamus cried.
Chris smiled and dropped on the bed, now he’d finally be just a normal boy enjoying his education, no more Dark Lords waiting to kill him.