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After
By Senator of Sorcery

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Category: Alternate Universe, Asylum Challenge (2013-3), Asylum Challenge (2013-3)
Characters:Albus Dumbledore, All, Draco Malfoy, Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Lily Potter, Luna Lovegood, Minerva McGonagall, Other, Ron Weasley
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Romance
Warnings: Dark Fiction, Death, Disturbing Imagery, Violence
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 105
Summary: *** Winner of Best Overall, Best Drama and the People’s Choice Award in the Asylum Challenge ***
*Nominated for 2014 April/May and November/December DSTA for Best Romance and Best Drama* *Nominated for 2016 January/February DSTA for Best Drama and Best Completed*

Ginny's plans for the weekend were just perfect: a day out in Hogsmeade with her girlfriends. Spend the morning window shopping and wishing, then lunch at the Three Broomsticks, and then to the local theater for a production of the Scottish Play (Macbeth).


Unfortunately, the bad luck of the Scottish Play strikes before it even starts. The village is invaded by Death Eaters, Dementors, and a man she had hoped to never see again in her life.


And in the middle of the battle, Ginny sees something she'd never thought she'd see. Voldemort and one of her greatest friends dueling; Harry Potter and Voldemort fighting so fiercely, she lost focus on her own battle. Harry Potter, crying out, falling, and hitting the ground. Dead.

And then, someone she never expected to help her saves her from Voldemort’s wrath.
Hitcount: Story Total: 167861; Chapter Total: 4061







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Chapter Thirty-Two
Split Soul


Harry grabbed Ginny’s hand and ran to the window, looking around desperately for signs of the pending attack. The lights of wands and fire were still deep in the forest. Harry

“Crap,” he muttered. “They’re coming, and there’s still three Horcruxes left!”

“We know where two are,” Ginny assured him. “The snake is with him and the locket is at Grimmald Place. We still have time.”

Harry nodded vaguely, then someone shouted his name. He looked over and spotted Bill Weasley moving through a mass exodus of students. Teachers were leading them through the secret passages off the grounds, where they would be able to Portkey to safety.

“Everyone able to fight is gathering in the Great Hall,” Bill said, almost out of breath. “We should hurry.”

“Right,” Harry said, as Bill turned away again and led them against the flow of students towards the ground floor.

They reached the tail end of the exodus by the first floor and were able to move more quickly. Bill pushed open the doors to the Great Hall and let Harry and Ginny pass him. McGonagall spotted him and waved them forward, Bill ushered them towards the top of the hall.

“Everyone listen closely,” McGonagall called, her voice, amplified by magic, echoed through the hall. “The Death Eaters have decided to attack us before we attack them. We estimate that they will be here within two hours. Before they can get here, I wand every wand working on setting traps. Professor Flitwick has already taken several of the best charm-casters we have to go and strengthen the wards, and there is a platoon of Aurors coming as well several other civilians willing to fight. The Floo Network has been closed, so they will be coming by Portkey to the castle.”

Professor McGonagall glanced at Harry, then turned back to the hall. “We discussed several different traps at the meeting earlier, but unfortunately many of those cannot be implemented at last minute. We have called several people who excel at such things as traps and pranking to aid us in laying out the booby traps, including Fred and George Weasley and several Aurors. If any of you believe you will be beneficial to trapping the grounds, please step forward.”

After a minute, a handful of people emerged from the crowd. Harry did not recognize many of them, only Remus, two seventh year Ravenclaws, and two other seventh years wearing Slytherin colors. Ginny squeezed his hand gently; Harry glanced at her and she smiled reassuringly.

“Thank you,” McGonagall said. “Please step off to the side and wait further instructions.”

They did, and McGonagall waved to Moody and Kingsley. The two Aurors stepped forward and Kinglsey cleared his throat.

“All of Hogsmeade has been emptied, which makes at least fifty Death Eaters headed for us,” Moody said gruffly. “We’re to assume that each of them will be shooting to kill.”

Unease rippled through the crowd. Kingsley gestured for quiet. “That does not mean we will use Unforgivables, however. We don’t want to stoop to their level, but if you find yourself in a situation where there is no choice but to kill, then you have Ministry pardon to use the Killing Curse at your discretion. Please, we want to capture as many of them alive as possible.”

“The only one we’re not capturing alive is You-Know-Who himself,” Moody said. “If you see him, feel free to hit him in the back with a few Severing Charms or Blasting Curses, or whatever you would use when cutting out a particularly frustrating weed.”

The unease changed to nervous laughter, and even Harry smiled at the image of attacking Voldemort with a pair of gardening shears.

Moody and Kingsley spoke on defending the castle for a minute longer, then turned to Harry.

“Anything you want to add, boss?” Moody asked. Harry glanced at Ginny, then released her hand and stepped forward.

“With Voldemort,” Harry began, carefully choosing his words, “there is a Death Eater that is not… normal. Voldemort somehow created another version of himself, but younger. Tom Riddle, he’s called, and he was there when they attacked Hogsmeade. Tom Riddle is Voldemort, essentially, so please, be overly-cautious if you see him, and at any opportunity, I’m afraid he has to be killed as well. If you can manage it, take him out. He is just as vulnerable as any mortal man.”

“We will keep our eyes open,” Kingsley said.

Harry nodded, then stepped back again. “You can start organizing the troops now,” he said to Moody. The older Auror nodded as well, then began to bark out orders.

Harry walked back to Ginny, took her hand, then moved towards where Bill was standing at the edge of the raised platform.

“We’ve got something that has to be done before I can kill Voldemort,” Harry said. “And part of it involves getting into a Gringotts vault.”

Bill blinked. “You need to what now?”

“We need to break into a vault,” Harry repeated. “The Lestrange vault specifically. There’s something in there that I need to defeat Voldemort.”

Bill opened his mouth, closed it, and frowned. “How the hell do you expect to do that in just two hours?”

“I don’t,” Harry said. “It needs to be done in one hour. Besides, we’ve got half an hour to think while we go get a different thing. Are you in?”

Bill looked confused, resigned, and pained at the same time. “I haven’t got a choice, do I?”

“Not really,” Ginny said. Bill rubbed his forehead with a hand.

“Break into Gringotts before the Dark Lord comes to destroy Hogwarts in about two hours,” he muttered. “Piece of cake, right?”

Harry opened his mouth to reply, when several screams ripped the air. He whipped out his wand and Dumbledore’s, turned, stepped in front of Ginny and raised both wands to attack.

“Greetings, mortals!” said the ten foot tall figure closest to Harry. “We’ve come to assist you!”

“Romancer?” Ginny said, stepping out from behind Harry. Harry glanced at her, then at the ten or so men and women who had appeared out of nowhere at the foot of the raised platform.

“Yes, indeed,” the Romancer said, bowing low to Ginny. “And others, of course. Dreamy, Bard, Wild, Lady, and a whole lot of Nature Demons!”

“I would not call the King of Storms a mere Nature Demon,” said a blue skinned man behind Romancer.

“Nor the Queen of Fires,” added a man with literally flaming hair.

“Don’t call me Bard!”

“Yes, yes, well, to this lot we’re all unreal, awe-inspiring, and completely unknown,” Romancer said with a shrug of his massive shoulders. Harry turned to Ginny with an expression of absolute befuddlement, which was very similar to every other expression in the hall.

Ginny glanced at Harry, then at the giants, then sighed. “Am I going to have to be the interpreter?”

“Well, I thought we were speaking modern English, but if you want, have at it.”

Ginny rolled her eyes purposefully, then stepped forward and started pushing the group of giants towards the raised platform. Harry hesitated for a second, unsure of how to react, then followed Ginny.

Ginny started pulling the giants into a line, all facing the shell-shocked crowd. The giants all looked a little bit surprised at her actions, but went along. When she had arranged them the way she wanted, she moved to the end of the line and clapped a hand to the giant’s arm, as she could not reach his shoulder.

“This is the Storyteller,” she shouted out to the crowd. “He is an Unknown being of the, er, Untamed Realms?”

“Actually you would call our realms the Farther Realms,” the Storyteller said.

“Oh. Okay, he’s from the Farther Realms. He does stuff with story-telling, as the name implies.” Ginny moved to the next giant.

“This is the Lady, from the Farther Realms. I don’t actually know what she does, but she’s cool! Anyway, his is the Romancer, another Unknown being from the Farther Realms. He’s sort of like Cupid, but nicer. Actually, no, he’s not like Cupid. Cupid is evil.”

Harry blinked, then remembered that Cupid was another name for Eros, who was the king of evil demons. Ginny kept going.

“This is the Dreamkeeper, once more from the Farther Realms. You know, let’s just assume they’re all from the Farther Realms.”

“I’m not,” said one of the shorter giants.

“I’ll get to you in a second,” Ginny shot back. “Right, keeper of any and all dreams this one is. Here is, um, the Punisher…”

Ginny paused, standing with her gaze warily shifting between the Dreamkeeper and the Punisher. “She’s not mad at me at all?” Ginny asked softly.

“You returned my husband to his right mind and to me,” Punisher said. “Why would that anger me?”

“Right, of course, yes. Yes, the Punisher is nicer than she looks!” Ginny awkwardly patted the Punisher’s arm, then stepped up to the next giant.

“This is Frost! He works for the Storm Queen.”

“King,” Frost corrected. Ginny nodded.

“Right. And this is… um…”

“I am the Storm King,” said the pale, blue-haired woman beside Frost. Ginny turned pink.

“Oh! Uh, hi, Mrs. Lovegood,” she said, slightly uncomfortably. “I mean Your Majesty. Er…”

Harry waved awkwardly to Luna’s mother, the King of Storms. He was unsure why she was called a king when she was a woman, but he didn’t feel like getting into demon politics.

“Right,” Ginny moved to the giant beside Mrs. Lovegood the King of Storms, who Harry remembered distinctly from fighting Echidna. The man had coal black skin and was at least twelve feet tall. “This is Wild, he is from the Untamed Realms. Right?”

“Yes,” Wild affirmed. His voice was even deeper than Kingsley’s.

“Yup, he’s cool. This is Fraya, and those two are her brother and sister Donte and Fayore, right?”

“Yes,” said the man with flaming hair. Ginny nodded and moved to the last of the flaming giants, two women in long fiery robes.

“I don’t actually know you,” she said.

The first of the women fixed Ginny with a haughty gaze. “I am one of Fire Queen’s grand viziers, Jasalin. This is the Fire Queen’s sister, Saliran.”

“Oh, lovely!” Ginny said. “We’ve got all kinds of demonic royalty here, don’t we?”

“Demonic?” spluttered McGonagall. She was the first to speak other than Harry or Ginny since the giants had appeared so suddenly in the middle of the hall.

“Oh, uh, demons aren’t all evil,” Ginny said. “They’re just a certain kind of spirit, right?”

“Demons are specifically beings fueled by either gray or black energy,” Storyteller said. “The most common kind of demon is an elemental one, and elemental demons are usually very noble.”

“Oh,” McGonagall said. “Of course.”

“Uh, I hate to interrupt,” Harry said, “but what are all of you doing here?”

“The Tamed and Judges explicitly forbade involvement in your final battle,” said Mrs. Lovegood. Then she smiled. “So, naturally, we hurried to aid your plight.”

“Final battle?” Harry repeated. “You mean this is it?”

“Yes, the winner will be decided in this fight,” the Dreamkeeper said. “For better or for worse, this is the last battle of this war.”

“Unfortunately, we are not the only ones who came to help,” Fraya told them. “This Voldemort we will fight has aid from several shadow spirits and Night-felled and even a few demons. No fire demons, however.”

“Nor are there storm demons helping him,” Mrs. Lovegood added.

“Excuse me, what are Night-felled?” Ginny asked.

“Spirits fed off the blackest energy,” the Lady answered. “The spirits of nightmares.”

“I thought you dealt with nightmares,” Ginny said to the Dreamkeeper.

“I do, and by right the Night-felled should be under my command, and I am sure that I will be able to sway some of them to our side, however when white energy became rarer some of the Night-felled allied with darker forces and revoked their loyalty to me,” Dreamkeeper replied.

“Oh, lovely,” Ginny said. “Do any more of you have minions who can help?”

“Oh, I have called some of my warriors to aid you as well,” Mrs. Lovegood. “A few dozen, to be safe.”

“And several dozen of the fire militia will be helping,” Jasalin said. “Though we took as few as possible, as the Judges will wish to lay blame wherever they can.”

“Several dozen?” Harry said, a grin spreading over his face. “But that will lay waste to the Death Eaters within minutes!”

“Yes, if they didn’t have an army of shadow spirits and Night-felled,” the Romancer said. “We’ve got a few superheroes and several great fighters, verses about a hundred dark spirits.”

Harry’s grin vanished. “Hundred?”

“Give or take.”

Ginny and Harry exchanged worried glances. The wizards and witches in the hall began to mutter again. Four or five dozen storm and fire demons to help fight against one hundred evil spirits. Great.

“I brought many of the Night-felled still loyal to me,” Dreamkeeper said. “And many of my Night-silent, spirits of good dreams.”

“We were already outnumbered against the Death Eaters!” shouted someone from the crowd. “Now we’ve got to fight effing demons?”

“There are more demons fighting for you than against you,” Fraya shouted back. “Be grateful any came at all!”

“Please, everyone be calm,” Harry called. “The otherworldly beings are here to help us.”

“How do we know they’re pretending?” someone else asked. “How do we know they’re not spies?”

“I vouch for them,” Ginny shouted back. “So shut up.”

“How can we trust you? You’re nuts!”

“Shut up!” Harry yelled.

“Everyone just calm down,” Kingsley called. He glanced at Harry then at the giants, then back to the crowd. “Potter says we should trust them, so I’ll trust them. We can use all the help we can get to be honest.”

The unease in the hall rippled and died down. Harry scowled still, but turned to face the giants once more as Ginny stepped to his side and gripped his hand again.

“We are grateful that you came to help,” Harry said. “Please, consider yourselves to be generals with McGonagall, Moody, Kingsley, and Flitwick.”

Storyteller bowed to Harry, and then the others followed his lead. The Fire Queen vizier lady inclined her head, Romancer fell in a deep sweeping bow, Frost and the Storm King bent at the waist gracefully. Harry bit his cheek, almost worried for what he was doing, then he turned to Moody and inhaled deeply.

“Let’s get the defenses re-enforced and the traps set,” he said. “I’ve, uh, I’ve got to find something before the battle, something that will help. Like I said, you and McGonagall, Flitwick and Kingsley are the generals, along with the, er, our allies from the other realms.”

Moody nodded jerkily and turned to the crowd again. The giants stepped back from the front of the platform so Moody could address the crowd. Three of the giants, the Romancer, the Storyteller, and the Dreamkeeper all approached Harry.

“You’re looking for the final Horcruxes,” the Dreamkeeper said shortly. Harry nodded, a little startled.

“We can help you get to them,” Romancer said.

“Wait, what are Horcruxes?” Bill asked.

“I can’t really tell you,” Harry said. “But they’ll help me kill Voldemort.”

Bill looked disgruntled, but he fell silent again. Harry glanced around, saw many people still watching them, and gestured for the others to follow him. He stepped off the platform and crossed the hall, moving quickly around the edges of the crowd. Ron and Hermione came out from it and followed them until he exited the hall and stood in the now empty Entrance Hall.

He turned back to face the giants, his two best friends, Ginny and Bill.

“There are four Horcruxes left,” Harry said, holding up a hand and ticking them off on his fingers. “Hufflepuff’s cup, Slytherin’s Locket, Nagini, and Tom.”

“Wait, Tom? Tom who?” Bill asked.

“Tom Riddle,” Harry said. “The person I mentioned earlier.”

“Did you explain that you need to capture him?” the Dreamkeeper asked. Harry frowned.

“Uh, no?”

“To complete the trade for Ginny’s healing you need to kill Tom and Voldemort at the same time in the presence of a Judge,” Dreamkeeper explained. “We’ll deal with summoning a Judge, you just need to get them both in the same place and kill them together.”

Harry’s shoulders sank. “I told the Order they could kill Tom if they saw him.”

“Romancer, go explain to the other generals the change in plans,” Dreamkeeper ordered. Romancer nodded and turned away, striding back into the Great Hall.

Harry sucked in a breath again. “Okay then, I’ll do my best to get them at the same time. You get the Judge. First, though, before I can actually kill Voldemort, I need to kill Nagini, the cup and the locket.”

“But you said they would help?” Bill asked.

“They help by getting destroyed,” Harry corrected. “The cup is in Gringotts, Nagini is with Voldemort, and the locket is at Grimmald Place.”

“Grimmald Place, you own that house, yes?” the Storyteller asked.

“Yes, so it will be the easiest to get to.”

“How do you know where they are?” Hermione asked Harry.

“Uh, a Untamed person told me,” he answered. Ron and Hermione exchanged glances.

“Would we have your permission to bypass its wards?” Dreamkeeper asked.

“Uh, yes?”

The Dreamkeeper closed her eyes and held up her hands. The Storyteller took her hands and closed his eyes as well. A second later, white light flashed from between their palms and Storyteller pulled back his hands.

The little gold locket sat in the Dreamkeeper’s palm, twitching.

“Wicked!” Ron said.

“How did you do that?” Hermione asked.

“Untamed magic,” the Dreamkeeper said. “Which means I can’t teach it to you.”

Hermione looked crestfallen. The Dreamkeeper held out her palm to Harry, and he lifted the locket from her hand with two fingers.

The locket twitched slightly as he held it up. “We’ll destroy this in a second. Could you do that for Nagini and the cup as well?”

“I’m afraid I would need the permission of the warder to take it,” the Dreamkeeper said. “So whoever’s vault the cup is in would have to give me permission to go through the wards, and to take a living creature I would need to have the creature’s permission.”

Harry frowned. “Great. Well, can you get us into Gringotts so we can get the cup?”

“Yes, but we should destroy the locket first.”

Harry nodded, then glanced to Ron and Hermione. “How are you feeling, Ron? Are you up to fighting?”

Ron shrugged. “I figure I can do whatever I can behind the battle lines, since Hermione has forbidden me from actually going out there.”

Harry nodded. “I thought as much. I don’t really want you out on the front either, fact I don’t want any of you out there, but I guess we have to.”

“We should move to a place where we can destroy the locket without civilians in the way,” Storyteller said.

“The Chamber would work well for that,” Hermione suggested.

“Right then, everyone hold hands,” Dreamkeeper stated, dropping the locket into her pocket and holding out her hands.

“Uh, why?” Ron asked.

“Fastest way to get downstairs,” Dreamkeeper answered. Ron looked skeptical, as did Hermione, but they complied with the Dreamkeeper and linked hands. Harry gripped Ginny’s hand on his left and Bill’s on his right, a circle was formed, then Harry blinked and the Entrance Hall was gone and they stood in the damp and cold Chamber.

Ron jumped back and swore loudly. Hermione looked very startled; she stared around in shock. Bill looked mildly resigned to the fact that he understood nothing. Harry supposed his face matched Bill’s.

Dreamkeeper pulled the gold locket from her pocket and bent, placing it upon the stone floor. “Back away, everyone. To destroy a shard of soul requires a great deal of unnatural force, and if said unnatural force comes in contact with any of your souls, the end result would not be pretty.”

Harry took a step back. Ron took two more steps away. Bill, Hermione, and Ginny stepped away from the locket, Ginny pulling Harry along with her. The Storyteller and the Dreamkeeper took up stances facing each other with the locket lying between them. Harry’s eyes focused on the twitching metal.

“Harry, if you would be our conduit,” the Dreamkeeper said.

Harry looked up at her. “Conduit?”

“We will generate the energy needed to destroy the locket, but we won’t be able to direct it. You will have to do that,” Storyteller explained.

“Oh, right.” Harry squeezed Ginny’s hand before stepping forward to complete a triangle with the Dreamkeeper and Storyteller.

“Copy our movements,” Dreamkeeper said. She and the Storyteller raised their arms and held them out, elbows bent in right angles and palms up. Harry hastily copied them. Dreamkeeper closed her eyes and began mouthing something, but Harry did not recognize the patterns her lips made. Storyteller stayed still, his eyes open, so Harry did too. Then Dreamkeeper suddenly moved her arms to form an X over her chest with her palms facing each other; Harry and the Storyteller followed suit.

“Contrium speculum et in frusta animarum,” Dreamkeeper said.

“Contrium speculum et in frusta animarum,” Storyteller repeated. Harry opened his mouth, but Storyteller shook his head quickly.

“Ubi est caelum terra occurrat et infernum est aperi ad omnes,” continued Dreamkeeper. Again, the Storyteller echoed her. “Obscurent eum tenebrae cecidiums et splendor neco omnes malum.”

As the Storyteller repeated her words, a faint glow came from between their palms. The Dreamkeeper started again, the Storyteller echoing each sentence; other, fainter voices joined in, whispering the Latin words. As they did, the glow grew stronger and stronger until Harry was squinting at its brightness.

“Obscurent eum tenebrae cecidums et splendor neco omnes malum,” the Storyteller finished.

Then, both giants turned to face Harry and uncrossed their arms. The glow shot from their fingertips right towards him. Harry started, then the glow was caught between his palms.

“Aim and shoot, Harry,” the Dreamkeeper said.

Harry did as they had and uncrossed his arms; his hands came to rest one on top of the other, and the glow shot away again, to the now quivering violently locket.

The brightness encased the gold locket, and a sudden shriek of anger and pain ripped through the air. Harry clapped his hands to cover his ears, the scream got louder and louder, then the glow exploded even brighter and the sound vanished.

Harry blinked spots from his eyes, slowly lowering his hands. The Chamber was silent now, eerily so with the absence of the whispered Latin and the scream.

“Is it gone?” Hermione’s voice broke the quiet.

Harry squeezed his eyes shut to get rid of the last splotches in his vision, then looked down at the locket.

Before blasting it with white light, the locket had a green tinge to its chain, the hinges, and the surface of the locket itself. The emeralds set in an S on the front had been fogged over, all their luster gone. Now, having been blasted, the green tinge was gone and the gems gleamed in the low lights of the Chamber.

“It has been purged,” the Dreamkeeper said.
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