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SIYE Time:10:23 on 28th March 2024
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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: 167847; Chapter Total: 3980







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Chapter Thirty-Six
The Endgame


Someone grabbed his arms and forcibly pulled him away from the forest. Harry strained to escape them and sprint for the trees, but the hands were stronger than he was.

“Let go!” he shouted. “Let me go! I have to go get her!”

“We must make a plan!”

“No! I have to go after her!”

“I cannot let you go,” his captor grunted. “Stop fighting me!”

Harry turned back to hex whoever was holding him and saw Professor McGonagall’s face. He faltered.

“Professor?” he mumbled.

McGonagall pulled him to her; she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly. “We need to think,” she said softly.

Harry wished that he hadn’t turned around to hex her, then he could have done it without feeling guilty. His teacher and Head of House was stronger than he had expected, and he couldn’t tear himself out of her arms.

“There is no plan,” he growled. “I have to go after her.”

McGonagall shook his shoulders. “No, you need a plan. I will not allow you to run blindly into a trap, because that is what it is. We will be as quick as possible, but we need a plan.”

Harry could not meet her gaze. “I have a plan,” he said.

“What, then?”

“Go after her.”

McGonagall shook her head. “That isn’t enough, Harry.”

He glared at her. “Let me go.”

She shook her head. “If I do that, you’ll run off without any help.”

He nodded. “I don’t need help,” he growled, “I will rescue her, I will kill Voldemort, and he will regret messing with her.”

McGonagall looked suddenly frightened by him. Her grip on his arms slackened. Harry suddenly ripped his arms from her grasp and took off towards the forest. After a moment’s running, he found himself no longer moving. He looked down, and found that he was levitating.

“Let me go!” he shouted, spinning around to face whoever was stopping him. Janu was standing beside Professor McGonagall with her hand held out, holding him still.

“Your teacher is correct,” Janu said sharply. “You need a strategy.”

“Here’s my strategy,” Harry snarled, “find Voldemort and rip him limb from limb!”

Janu did not look amused. “He requested you go alone, so you will.”

Harry faltered. “Then why are you stopping me?”

“You will enter the forest alone, but you will be tailed via the air by my storm warriors.”

Harry stopped fighting the wind. “They can do that?”

“Yes,” the Storm King said. “When Voldemort’s forces turn on you, they will descend from the sky and back you up. Given that you are already furious and your magical energy is exploding, I expect that when you enter the trap you will be able to take out at least half of them by simply releasing your anger. And adding to that, I expect that your match will quickly attack everyone around her and disable the Death Eaters further.”

“I will ask that my fire demons be carried in to assist by those of your force that can fly,” Fraya called as she ran from the castle steps.

“Of course,” Janu responded. “All of them can fly. I will personally carry you, if you wish.”

Fraya slowed to a stop beside the Storm King and bowed to her. “Thank you, Janu.”

“Enough!” Harry shouted. “You have one minute to finish strategizing before I break out of this and go after Voldemort.”

Janu pursed her lips at him. “I am finished. Fraya, would you like to add anything?”

The fire demon shook her flaming head. Janu nodded curtly. “Good; then WARRIORS, ASSEMBLE!”

There was an instant rumbling of the earth as every demon warrior flocked to Janu’s call. After a minute, they were all present.

“We are going to attack Voldemort on his terms,” Janu called. “Mr. Potter is going to enter the forest on foot, alone, while we fly above the trees behind him. We will follow him to Voldemort’s hiding place and attack on his signal. In particular, we want to leave Voldemort and his second self, known as Tom, alive so that Mr. Potter may kill them both in the presence of a Judge and there is a large snake known as Nagini that must be killed before Voldemort himself may be killed. Harry, killing the snake would make a good signal.”

Harry nodded. He’d kill the snake with that release of anger Janu was talking about.

“Are you ready, Harry?”

“Yes!” he shouted in exasperation.

“Are we ready?”

The demons shouted in agreement. Janu lowered Harry to the ground. He nodded to them, then turned on his heel and took off into the forest.

The wall of vines pulled back at his approach; he jumped through a gap in them and kept running. He passed no creature or human as he ran, but he expected that. The Death Eaters would have turned tail and run back to Voldemort the moment his announcement was made and the creatures of the forest would have retreated out of the way. He wondered where the spiders were and if he could convince them to help him take out Voldemort.

He kept running. He supposed that his body should have been protesting and his speed should have weakened, but a combination of adrenaline and stubborn refusal to slow kept himself from losing pace. He did not let the fact that Ginny had probably lost her mind completely now that she had left him slow him. He did not consider that fear was likely running rampant in her mind now. He refused to think of that. The edges of his vision were tinted red and the beat of his heart drowned out all other sounds. If a branch or plant appeared in his way he would jump over it or blast it out of the way with one of his wands. He couldn’t remember which wand was in which hand, but both acted when he commanded them without a word. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a little voice that sounded an awful lot like Hermione’s was freaking out over his ease at using both wands wordlessly. Using two wands at once was supposed to be difficult, but at that moment he did not care.

What he cared about was getting his love back and finally ending the monster that had created so much trouble for him.

When he had been running for maybe ten minutes, he spotted two robed figures walking towards the east. He cast a silent spell with each wand and they both collapsed. He jumped over the larger of the two as he turned east and towards what he hoped was Voldemort.

Another five minutes went by. He hadn’t seen anyone else, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t seen him. He slowed to a walk, figuring that they were going to ambush him at any moment. He didn’t want to make it difficult for them.

He heard a twig snap. Harry gripped his wands more tightly, then slipped one into his sleeve. Another way to surprise the bastard, he supposed. Leaves crunched and Harry turned to see three hooded Death Eaters step into view. He glanced over his shoulders and saw four more.

“The Dark Lord is expecting you,” said the voice of Bellatrix Lestrange. Harry gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

“I’m expecting him,” Harry growled. “Where is he?”

Bellatrix beckoned a finger. He strode forward to follow her; two of the Death Eaters stepped close and blocked him.

“Your wand,” Bellatrix said. “Give it to them.”

Harry raised an eyebrow. “Your master wishes me disarmed?”

Bellatrix was grinning evilly behind her mask, he was sure of it. “You’ll get it back, eventually. You do want to save your precious widdle Ginny, don’t you?”

Harry let out a sound akin to a growl, but handed his wand to the Death Eater on his left. As he did, he noticed that it was his wand rather than Dumbledore’s. At least he still had that trick up his sleeve.

The Death Eater handed the wand to Bellatrix, then gripped Harry’s arm. He resisted the urge to wrench it away. The two burly men led Harry forward. Bellatrix turned, and they marched off towards the north.

After a minute’s marching, they entered a clearing Harry recognized, and he was not glad to do so. It was the spiders’ hollow, but it was devoid of all arachnids; rather it was filled with the Death Eaters. Where were the giant beasts when you needed them?

The two gripping Harry’s arms let go and shoved him forward. Harry tried not to stumble, but his foot caught a tree root and he fell. Laughter rang throughout the hollow.

“Harry Potter.”

Harry pushed himself up and took a step forward. Bellatrix and her six henchmen strode around him to join the ranks of Voldemort’s followers. He scanned the line, but he didn’t see Ginny anywhere. He did see, however, the object of his anger.

Voldemort sat in a wooden throne with Nagini curled around his shoulders. His younger incarnation stood at the shoulder of his throne, his handsome face gaunt. Voldemort was fingering Harry’s wand and staring at Harry like he was a piece of meat that he desired to eat raw.

“You do love her,” Voldemort said. His voice was soft, however it carried through the hollow easily.

“Where is she?” Harry demanded.

Voldemort lazily waved a hand, and two Death Eaters came forward dragging a limp body. They lifted her up and one thrust back her head; Ginny’s face was white but her chest was rising and falling with her lungs’ actions. Yet, there was something wrong. He didn’t know how he knew, but something in her mind had gone seriously wrong.

“Alive,” Voldemort told him. “I would not allow them to kill her just yet.”

A mad smile broke his face. He raised a hand to his face, trying to stifle snickers. Voldemort frowned at him.

“Why do you laugh?” he asked. “Do you find the idea of her death amusing?”

Harry shook his head slowly. “No, no, not that.” He lowered his hand and fixed his eyes on Voldemort’s red ones. “I find the idea that any of your Death Eaters could kill her amusing.”

Voldemort scowled. “This girl is no trouble,” he said.

Harry did laugh now, but there was pain in it. “Don’t bluff, Tom,” he spat out the name and Voldemort glared, “Ginny is insane. She’s too insane to be afraid of you or your Death Eaters, and too insane to let you hurt her. It’s lucky you Stunned her before she killed all of you. The King of Demons himself swore to drive away her sanity and she defeated him; how could you stand a chance?”

The younger Tom moved forward, but Voldemort raised a hand. “The Demon King is invincible,” Voldemort said. “All-powerful even from prison.”

“Well, he might have been a week ago, but he’s not now,” Harry said matter-of-factly. “Ginny bested him and drained him of all his power. He’s useless now.”

Voldemort finally looked angry. “This matters not,” he spat. “I have killed you once, Harry Potter, and I will kill you again, but not until I kill her. I will kill her slowly and excruciatingly, and I will make you watch.”

Harry shook his head. “No, you’re not going to kill either of us.”

Voldemort’s anger turned to confusion. “What makes you say that?”

Harry stepped forward again. There was rage and pain and fear in his chest, but the largest of those was rage. Ginny had fought fiercely before they managed to Stun her; she had disabled a fourth of the Death Eaters. He knew both because he could see twice the amount of injured wizards behind the line of able-bodied men and women than they had taken out in the initial fight and because he could feel, even though she was unconscious, that she was insane. The last straw had fallen.

“Ginny is gone,” he said quietly. Voldemort narrowed his eyes. “She has fought the seed of insanity so hard… but she’s gone. And it is your fault.”

Voldemort had mastered his features into a calm expression, but his Death Eaters could not. There was fear in the eyes of every man and woman backing the Dark Lord; fear because Harry Potter had come back from the dead, and a thunderstorm was brewing in the clearing. Literally.

Lightning struck the ground at Harry’s feet. He took another step forward and it struck again a few feet from the line of Death Eaters. “She is completely insane,” he said, and they heard him over the thunder that had just cracked the air even though he had not raised his voice. “But I can save her, if I kill you. You and your resurrected Horcrux. Oh, don’t try to say I can’t kill you, because there is only one viable Horcrux left.” Something flashed through Voldemort’s eyes but it was quickly gone. Harry stepped forward again; the wind rose and howled through the clearing, it whipped the robes of the Death Eaters around their legs and blew off their masks. It pushed back Harry’s hair and made his scar clearly visible. “We killed all the rest, so only that snake is left. I will kill it, then you and Tom, and I will get her back. Any Death Eater that would like to not get hurt can run away now, though you’ll probably be caught later by the Aurors and sent to Azkaban.”

The Death Eaters stirred and looked at each other nervously. Even the younger Tom looked worried.

Harry glanced at the Death Eaters. “Run,” he said. Thunder boomed above them, and half the Death Eaters fled.

“Cowards!” he heard Bellatrix shout. The two men who had been holding Ginny let go of her and ran as fast as they could away from the Harry and the lightning; Ginny collapsed, her body fell against the ground with a dull thud. Voldemort jumped to his feet and Nagini fell back onto the throne. The snake slithered off the seat and onto the ground; it moved across the ground and lifted itself onto Ginny’s body. Harry raised a hand and another miniature tornado formed right next to the snake; it grabbed Nagini up and the python let out an audible hiss. Voldemort spun around and Harry brought the tornado to him with a flick of his wrist. The snake was dumped at his feet, and he placed his foot on its head.

“No!” Voldemort shouted. Harry raised a hand and lightning hit the snake in the middle. Instantly, Nagini went limp.

Harry kicked aside the limp body and stepped towards Voldemort and Tom. By then, there were only a few Death Eaters left as they had all run away in fear of him. There was electricity running up and down his body, through his hair, cracking in his eyes, and it terrified them.

“I am not afraid of you,” Harry growled. He raised his hand and both Voldemort and Tom were lifted into the air by the wind. “Are you afraid of me?”

Voldemort slashed his wand through the air and a jet of blue light came from it; Harry snatched Dumbledore’s wand from his sleeve and blocked it easily. Voldemort looked truly astonished.

“I have your wand!” he cried. “How?”

“Dumbledore gave me his,” Harry said. “After he died. By the way, I’ll have mine back now.” He snapped his fingers and his wand as well as Voldemort’s and Tom’s shot into Harry’s palm.

“What if we surrender?” the younger Tom asked hastily. Voldemort looked livid.

“I’m going to kill you anyway,” Harry said. “I made a deal with the Judges. You know of the Demon King, so I assume you know them? I give them your souls, and they heal Ginny.”

Tom looked actually scared. Harry had never realized it was possible for the Dark Lord to be frightened, but then again, this was the twenty year old Dark Lord as apposed to, well, however old the current Voldemort was.

Harry looked around and found that only ten or twelve Death Eaters were left. He looked up to the sky and raised an eyebrow.

“Are you coming, Janu?” he called.

A moment later, the storm demons touched down carrying fire demons on their backs. The sight of the demons scared off a few of the remaining Death Eaters, but the rest drew their wands. The storm demons immediately created tornadoes and bubbles to imprison the last few. Bellatrix in particular got her own tornado. The three giants that Ginny had befriended during Harry’s stay in the Waiting Realm appeared from the trees. Janu lowered herself to the ground with her arms wrapped around Fraya’s middle. Ginny’s fire twin rushed around Harry to Ginny, who was still lying on the ground. Harry felt instantly guilty that he hadn’t done so once Voldemort and Tom were disarmed, even though he knew that if he had woken her up, she wouldn’t have recognized him. Not then.

“I thought you had it under control,” Janu said calmly. “You are handling the situation quite well.”

Harry nodded curtly at her; his eyes were fixed on Fraya and Ginny.

“This is wrong,” Fraya muttered. Her hand was pressed to Ginny’s temple, and a frown was etched into her face. “Something is very wrong.”

“She’s gone,” Harry said.

Fraya looked sharply up at him. “What? How do you know?”

“I just do. She’s gone. She’s insane.”

Fraya looked frightened. “The Judges can still heal her, thought, right Dreamkeeper?”

Dreamkeeper pushed past the wind bubble that was holding Voldemort and Tom. She knelt and touched Ginny’s head.

“I am not sure,” she whispered. Harry’s heart skipped a beat.

“But they promised,” he said. “They promised they would heal her!”

Dreamkeeper looked up at Harry with sorrow in her eyes. “Not all wounds can be healed, Harry. Not even by Time.”

Thunder cracked again, this time louder than ever before. “No, no they have to be able to!”

Romancer walked up behind him and touched his shoulder. “Maybe they’ll be able to, Harry. Let’s call them and give them the two Tom Riddles, all right?”

Harry nodded vaguely. He couldn’t take his eyes off of Ginny’s pale face. What if they weren’t able to heal her? What if she was incurable and had be locked away like Abhor? Would he be able to survive living like Amor had to?

Dreamkeeper and Storyteller joined hands and closed their eyes. Harry glanced back at Voldemort and Tom and clenched his fists; they had started all of this. The wind responded to his anger and lifted them higher into the air, whipping their robes into tangles and throwing younger Tom’s hair into his eyes.

“Harry.”

He glanced over his shoulder at Dreamkeeper. She had a pensive expression upon her face. Slowly, she stepped forward and touched his arm. “You need to release your anger,” she said.

“I’m releasing it,” Harry growled. He snapped his fingers and the oxygen within Voldemort and Tom’s bubble thinned.

“No, you are expressing it. You must let go.”

“Why?” Harry snarled. “That monster has destroyed countless lives, ruined families and friendships… He’s the reason she’s insane!”

Dreamkeeper took his hands and covered them with hers. “The mark of a great man is not his victories but those he showed mercy.”

“They don’t deserve mercy.”

“In all honesty, no one deserves it. In this case, it is not their worthiness but yours. Let go.”

Harry gritted his teeth, but the wind calmed and the oxygen replenished. Both Toms sucked in the now plentiful air.

“I am still going to kill them,” he said; his voice was shaking and he could not control it. “I have to.”

“But you do not want to.”

Harry looked at her. “Of course I do! They’re — they’re evil, they deserve it.”

“But in your heart, you do not want to kill them.”

Harry opened his mouth, closed it, swallowed, and nodded. “No.”

Dreamkeeper squeezed his hands. “You are a great man, Harry.”

“He is weak!”

Harry glanced up at Voldemort; wandless, trapped in a wind bubble, abandoned by his followers and about to be killed and judged.

“Really?” he said. “Now? You’re beat, Tom. Just stop trying.”

Voldemort’s eyes flashed. “I will rise again! I am immortal!”

Harry shook his head. “No you aren’t. I killed all of your Horcruxes; I just killed the last one two minutes ago! I’m going to kill you and you’re going to stay dead, got it?”

Voldemort looked finally pained. “Why can’t you just stay dead, Potter? I killed you! How did you not stay dead?!”

Harry glanced at Ginny. “The very same power you claim is worthless.”

“Love?!” Voldemort shouted. “Love has failed you! You have lost your true love, Potter!”

Harry tried not to thin the oxygen again. “I will get her back. The Judges are going to heal her.”

“But how did you come back?”

“Ginny,” Harry said. “She brought me back so I could defeat you.”

The defeated Dark Lord opened his mouth to try and retort when a white vortex opened behind him. Out stepped black robed figures with white skin and white hair. There were seven of them, three hooded and four not. Harry recognized the male in the lead as the one who had promised Ginny sanity in exchange for the copied souls.

The seven Judges stepped around the air bubble and examined Voldemort and his reincarnated Horcrux.

“Yes, indeed these two souls are the same,” said one.

“The ramifications upon this realm have been great,” said another.

“It is good that Mr. Potter was here to save the day, then,” said the lead Judge. They turned to face Harry with identical, blank expressions.

“We are grateful for your capture of this soul,” the tallest of the seven said. “We understand that you arranged for a trade; this soul and a blessing of sanity?”

“Yes,” Harry said. “My match, Ginny. She was driven insane by the Demon King.”

“She is also the mortal who commanded Messiah to defeat the Demon King,” the tallest Judge said. His tone was controlled, but Harry heard a trace of gratitude in it. “We are glad to bless her with sanity. Where is she?”

Dreamkeeper pointed to Ginny, lying on the ground unconscious. “Tom Riddle’s supporters captured and stunned her. She is alive, but the last of her mind has been lost.”

The Judge raised one eyebrow. “She is lost? Completely?”

“Yes,” Dreamkeeper replied.

The Judge moved to Ginny’s side; he bent and touched her forehead. “I see,” he said finally.

“You can heal her, though?” Harry asked.

The Judge rose. “It is possible,” he said. “First, we ask you release this soul and its copy to us.”

Harry nodded. “I have to kill them?”

“Yes. A mortal soul cannot be taken to our realm without having been released from its body.”

Harry nodded, clenching his jaw again. He looked back to Voldemort, and inhaled deeply. He raised his hands and sucked the air from their bubble. Both Voldemort and Tom began to choke. Harry shut his eyes and tried to drown out the sound. His hands shook.

The sound stopped. Harry looked up to see the two gasping for breath again. The Judge looked confused.

“Kill them,” he said.

“I — I can’t,” Harry whispered.

Voldemort, clutching his chest and dragging in long breaths, smirked at Harry. “Weak,” he rasped.

Someone snapped their fingers. Tom and Voldemort froze. Slowly, their eyes rolled upward, and they collapsed.

Harry glanced around. Storyteller was lowering his outstretched fingers.

The Judge looked furious. “The boy was meant to release them!”

Storyteller looked back stonily. “I would not force any mortal to rip their soul with the killing of another, even when it is justified.”

The Judge’s lips pressed together to form a thin line. “Very well,” he said. “Tom Riddle’s soul is gathered in the Waiting Realm. We will reassemble his soul and judge him after we have determined whether we can heal this girl or not.”

Harry met Storyteller’s eyes and smiled faintly. The giant nodded his head with a small smile as well.

The Judge turned back to Ginny’s body and snapped his fingers; her body lifted into the air. Her head fell back, her limbs loose at her side, and the seven Judges gathered around her.

They bowed their heads and joined hands. They began to pray in a language Harry did not recognize. Vague whispers echoed around the hollow, vibrating in Harry’s ears. His heart pounded in his chest.

Whether the ritual took moments or hours, Harry could not tell. The air was charged with electricity, though he did not realize that it was because his emotions were still creating lightning and it was running over his skin. The demon warriors all knelt and prayed along with the Judges; Fraya and Janu joined hands as they prayed.

Finally, the Judges raised their heads and released their hands. They turned back to Harry with the same blank expressions.

“We have done all we can,” the tallest Judge said in his solemn voice.

Harry’s heart stopped.
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