CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR:
( the fall of the montagues )

▂✫⌒*･ﾟ

SPENCER ALWAYS DISLIKED SILENCE. She used to claim it was one of her greatest enemies along with her own mind. They would team up against her and create a moment of isolation where she felt like if she was being suffocated. Isn't it odd how that only stopping occurring a few weeks ago? She still does not like absolute silence— especially now when everyone is waiting. Then again, perhaps she should have enjoyed the quietness because then the next thing that she— that everyone hears is the snake-like voice returning even louder and present with the claim:

"Harry Potter is dead," Voldemort's voice is audible for everyone alive to hear as if it is a complexity beyond gratefulness. Spencer hears people beside her gasp in horror. "He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him," the noseless man continues. Spencer grips tightly onto Blaise's hand knowing that is anything but true. "We bring you his body as proof that your hero is gone. The battle is won. You have lost half of your fighters. My Death Eaters outnumber you, and the Boy Who Lived is finished. There must be no more war. Anyone who continues to resist, man, woman, or child, will be slaughtered, as will every member of their family. Come out of the castle now, kneel before me, and you shall be spared. Your parents and children, your brothers and sisters will live and be forgiven, and you will join me in the new world we shall build together."

No one speaks from the grounds nor from the castle. Spencer sees nothing but red. How dare he? She never understood how completely stupid Tom Riddle turned out to be. Has he learned nothing? Does he think they are just going to let their loved ones die in vain? Completely foolish. She raises her wand when she hears countless of footsteps approaching the castle. In that moment, she does not care that if she dies trying to cast a spell.

And yet, the doors from the entrance hall opens and nothing comes out of her mouth. Her arms lower and she places her hand onto her mouth when she spots Harry lying on Hagrid's arms— dead. Something inaudible comes out of her lips and she feels herself wanting to collapse. Blaise tightens his hold around her waist when he realizes she is about to drop to the floor and break. How could she not? That is one of her best friends. Someone she sees as a brother. Her family. Her real family. He helped her run away, he comforted her even when he was broken himself. Harry Potter cared more for others than he did to himself. He cannot be dead— please.

Spencer hears the first person scream in distraught. It comes from Professor McGonagall; she yells in despair for someone she has grown to see as her own child. Spencer pulls back her arms trying to get through so she can be beside Harry's body, but Blaise and Theodore hold her back and she is forced to cry out instead, "NO!"

She does not know what the worst part is. That her voice has gone hoarse meaning it can barely be distinguished to what she said, or the fact that she is completely numb. As if all the tears in her system has dried up and she cannot grieve for her friend because her mind does not let her. It does not accept the fact that Harry is on Hagrid's arms completely still. Spencer does not know how to explain what she is feeling. It almost seems like she is drowning... No, more like she is pass the drowning part. Where a part of her is already dying while the pain starts to disintegrate and Death is reaching her soul. She is not dead, but for a moment, she feels like she might as well be.

It was impossible not to lose a part of yourself when all in one day, they have lost fifty students and the addition of elves, creatures, residents from elsewhere. They lost the war, but she'll rather die than live in a world where everyone is forced to become a slave to Voldemort.

The stages of grief are different to each kind. However, it seems that Spencer confirmed her own that denial is always her first instinct. She cannot accept a loss of a friend because accepting means it is true and despite the fact that Spencer has always admired knowing the truth, she cannot accept this. And then, as quick as the denial comes— then appears the anger. For the first time, the thought of using the Killing Curse comes to mind. It pops up onto her head begging her to say those words and just attack. Though, perhaps it is finally her common sense trying to keep her alive (or maybe she is just tired) that all she does is stare soullessly at the crowd before them.

It takes her a while to realize she has not been the only one screaming for what happened to Harry. The students still want to fight because he was their friend and they cannot let their classmates die in vain. At least, until Voldemort cries out, "SILENCE!" Spencer steps back on someone's shoe as there is a flash of bright light shining onto all of them and silence is forced upon. Spencer tries to open to speak, but she cannot. "It is over! Set him down, Hagrid, at my feet, where he belongs!"

Hagrid lowers Harry onto the grass. Spencer glances away not wanting to see how Voldemort is filled with successfulness. She does not like it one bit. "You see?" Voldemort motions to the body, and he starts striding backward and forward right beside the place where Harry lays. "Harry Potter is dead! Do you understand now, deluded ones? He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!"

"He beat you!" Ron yells from beside her, and the charm breaks, and the defenders of Hogwarts are shouting and screaming again until a second, more powerful bang extinguishes their voices once more.

"He was killed while trying to sneak out of the castle grounds," Voldemort continues, and there is relish in his voice for the lie (Harry would never leave the ones he loves behind and it angers her that Voldemort would say otherwise), "killed while trying to save himself—"

But Voldemort breaks off. Spencer widens her eyes in surprise when she spots Neville getting through the crowd of them and went on to try and attack Voldemort himself. Unfortunately, as she suspected would happen, there is another bang and flash of light— Neville hits the ground with a grunt of pain. Spencer closes her eyes knowing that Neville Longbottom has become one of the most bravest man she has come to meet. She grips onto her wand, but keeps it down not wanting to face the same fate as him. Voldemort throws Neville's wand aside and laughs.

"And who is this?" He questions in his soft snake's hiss. "Who has volunteered to demonstrate what happens to those who continue to fight when the battle is lost?"

Bellatrix— that bloody horrid witch lets out a delighted laugh. "It is Neville Longbottom, my Lord! The boy who has been giving the Carrows so much trouble! The son of the Aurors, remember?"

"Ah, yes, I remember," Voldemort states, looking down at Neville, who is struggling back to his feet, unarmed and unprotected, standing in the no-man's-land between the survivors and the Death Eaters. "But you are a pureblood, aren't you, my brave boy?" Voldemort asks Neville, who stands facing him, his empty hands curled in fists.

"So what if I am?" Neville scoffs loudly.

"You show spirit and bravery, and you come of noble stock. You will make a very valuable Death Eater. We need your kind, Neville Longbottom," Voldemort suggests, staring over the Gryffindor boy with interest. Spencer is about to head on and go in front of Neville but Theodore pulls her back.

"I'll join you when hell freezes over," Neville claims. "Dumbledore's Army!" he shouts, and this time Spencer shouts along with everyone else. Voldemort's Silencing Charms seems unable to hold.

"Very well," Voldemort tilts his head threateningly, and Spencer can hear more danger in the silkiness of his voice than in the most powerful curse. "If that is your choice, Longbottom, we revert to the original plan. On your head," he murmurs quietly, "be it."

Spencer narrows her eyes before she snaps her head toward one of the castle's shattered windows. And then comes something that looks like a misshapen bird flying through the half light and lands on Voldemort's arm. She furrows her brows in confusion when she notices the Sorting Hat right on his hand.

"There will be no more Sorting at Hogwarts School," Voldemort announces. "There will be no more Houses. The emblem, shield, and colors of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice for everyone. Won't they, Neville Longbottom?"

He points his wand at Neville, who grows rigid and still, then forces the hat onto Neville's head, so that it slips down below his eyes. Despite the two boys holding her back, Spencer raises her wand against the Death Eaters. She eyes them carefully before her eyes instantly notice two familiar figures. Her eyes glisten with anger as she spots her parents. The Death Eaters seem to notice that Spencer raising her wand has caused those around her to do the same. Slowly, the crowd of survivors follow along. And because of that, the Death Eaters raise their own.

"Neville here is now going to demonstrate what happens to anyone foolish enough to continue to oppose me," Voldemort utters, and with a flick of his wand, he causes the Sorting Hat to burst into flames. This time— Spencer does not stop herself; she simply points her wand at the Sorting Hat and a single gold jet of light reaches its form before the flames vanish from sight.

And then the battle restarts. Voldemort's red eyes scans the crowd toward the caster and immediately has his eyes fall upon her. Just as quick, all of her own family projects the Shielding Charm to the point where it has created a bubble of protection. However, before Voldemort can try to take it out, all of them hear an uproar from the distant boundary of the school as what sounds like hundreds of people come swarming over the walls and pelt toward the castle with loud war cries.

At the same time, Grawp comes lumbering around the side of the castle and yells, "HAGGER!" His cry is answered by roars from Voldemort's giants: They run at Grawp like bull elephants, making the earth quake. Then comes hooves and the twangs of bows, and arrows are suddenly falling amongst the Death Eaters, who break ranks, shouting their surprise. Spencer shares a look with Daniel from behind before the two of them run off together toward their parents. By then, Neville has broken free of the Body-Bind Curse upon him; the burnt hat falls off him and he draws from its depths something silver, with a glittering, rubied handle—

The slash of the silver blade could not be heard over the roar of the oncoming crowd or the sounds of the clashing giants or of the stampeding centaurs, and yet it seems to draw every eye. With a single strike, Neville slices off the great snake's head, which spun high into the air, gleaming in the light flooding from the entrance hall, and Voldemort's mouth is open in a scream of fury that nobody could hear, and the snake's body thuds to the ground at his feet — Spencer whoops loudly in excitement knowing by now they are almost done. Harry gave up his life for them and so now they must finish Voldemort off.

Against all odds. Spencer returns to her adrenaline as much as she could when she defends a couple of her own housemates from her parents. She stands in front of Glorious and Oliver. Daniel appears right beside her and their eyes flash with fury. Spencer smirks at them knowing they did not expect to see their lost forgotten son. "Not exactly the best family reunion, is it? I do reckon it is better with me being in my own body rather than on Adrina Castlenor," Spencer mocks, her eyes mimicking their own rage when she spots their surprise.

She can hear Daniel sigh beside her clearly unamused with her decision to anger their parents. Everyone slightly pauses when out of nowhere they hear Hagrid shout, "HARRY! HARRY — WHERE'S HARRY?"

Spencer scrunches her eyebrows and turns in surprise. Did Hagrid just lose Harry's body? She does not have time to wonder as she realizes her mother had struck first and she barely dodges a red light. Parents of the years, Spencer rolls her eyes before sending one of her own. Daniel grabs her arm and switches their places so she can face her father instead. The older man tilts his head back in surprise before trying to stun her. Spencer waves the spell away and feels the anger go through her wand.

"You didn't care about us," Spencer cries with a grunt. Oliver sends another spell her way. "You still don't!"

"Keep your mouth quiet," Oliver hisses toward her and tries to use the Silencing Charm on her. Spencer counters it.

"Have you even wondered where Morgana is?" Spencer shouts, pushing away any other students passing their way. "She's dead because you and mother did not bother to—" she bends down to dodge a spell "— raise us! We were never your children! Just your stupid objects!"

From beside her, she can hear Daniel's broken voice trying to stop himself from crying, "YOU JUST WATCHED HER DIE!" and she immediately knows he is referring to his first love. Right after that, Daniel casts a powerful Stunning Spell that causes Glorious to fall down unconscious. Without a second to waste, Daniel ropes her up and sends her against the wall, her whole body tied up with strong spider webs.

Meanwhile, Spencer never realized how exactly strong her own father is. He stays with his back straightened up and continues to shout spells one after the other. At one point, he makes an explosion nearby and she is thrown against the wall. Spencer cushions her back and despite her exhaustion, she tries to get up. All around them are giants, thestrals, a hippogriff. She even swears she sees some dragons flying overhead.

All of time seems to stop when she spots that Ricky has challenged her father. Her eyes widen in fear when she spots her father's disgust and his hand gripping onto his wand with a deadly expression on his face. Spencer sprints faster than she has ever done. At the same moment, her father lets a jet of green light flash from his wand. Just in time, Spencer places herself in front of her best friend, noticing horror striking onto his beautiful scarred face when he has realized what she has done. Spencer closes her eyes awaiting for the spell to reach her back and for her breath to be her last.

However, with her arms wrapped around Ricky and the sensation of still being alive— Spencer glances up and notices a powerful Shield Charm just barely covering the two of them up. A shield that reminds her of Harry's own strong magic. She glances to see where it had come from and yet no one visible has their shield up toward them.

Spencer grips onto Ricky before pointing her wand at her father with a deadly glare. Unfortunately, it appears that he was already taken care of. Her eyes wander toward Daniel and Blaise, both having their wand raised against him. Oliver Montague has his knees onto the ground, cuts all over his body, but still very much alive. His wand is raised with pure fury. Before Spencer can give her own spell in disgust for what he was about to do to her best friend— the one she would willingly give her life for— she spots a thestral coming down, slamming right at her father making him fly straight into a wall. With a loud crack being heard and his body limply falling onto the ground, Spencer knows his fate before she can actually see him. Oliver Montague is dead. Spencer stares at the body wide-eyed, and she does not know if what she is feeling is pure disgust or sadness. Maybe both for the loss of a father she never had.

She widens her eyes in surprise when the thestral raises his head in accomplishment and bends down in front of her. Spencer holds out her hand and once she starts petting it, she knows it is the same thestral from her fifth-year. Noticing what he was trying to tell her, Spencer latches herself up onto its back and makes Ricky follow along.

"BLOODY WOMAN," Ricky starts to shout in anger toward her, "IF YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN—"

"I WASN'T ABOUT TO LET MY FATHER KILL YOU!" Spencer yells back, noticing how the thestral has now decided to fly up midway to the sky to allow her to help her friends. Maybe she should name him. Sephtis? It does mean eternal death in Persian. He is more than a horse of the death, though. Night? Space? "YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND!"

"AND THAT IS WHY I WAS WILLING TO TAKE IT FOR YOU!" Ricky shouts louder and then angrily curses another Death Eater from afar. Spencer huffs in annoyance before noticing the chaos all around them. She spots Blaise fighting alongside Theodore and his own mother. Daniel has just hexed someone who was about to attack Charlie Weasley (who barely just stormed up the front steps). Spencer instantly connects that the dragons has come from him as reinforcements. She motions for the thestral— Space?— to lower down and jumps off just in time to get Malfoy out of the way from being shot by some random Death Eater.

Malfoy grunts in surprise and fear before realizing it is her. "Montague," he gasps out in relief. Spencer pulls him up and shoots another spell at a Death Eater behind him.

"Where the hell is your wand, Malfoy?" Spencer scowls when she realizes he has been running from his life with no wand visible. Knowing he will not be able to protect himself, she motions for Ricky to help her cover him up. "These Death Eaters are going against their own!"

"I'm sorry!" The blond yells with fear in his system, squeaking as he barely dodges a spell. Spencer has a feeling he was not talking about this particular moment but rather what happened weeks ago.

"Malfoy— shut up!" Ricky demands at once, stunning a Death Eater at the same time Spencer did. The two Ravenclaw grin madly at each other in success. Three centaurs bursts into the hall with a great clatter of hooves and the door that leads to the kitchens is blasted off its hinges. The house-elves of Hogwarts swarms into the entrance hall, screaming and waving carving knives and cleavers, and at their head, the locket of Regulus Black bouncing on his chest, is Kreacher, his bullfrog's voice audible even above this din: "Fight! Fight! Fight for my Master, defender of house-elves! Fight the Dark Lord, in the name of brave Regulus! Fight!"

Spencer raises her eyebrows proudly and when they pass through the elves she encourages, "Go on, Kreacher!"

"Have you seen my parents?" Malfoy questions over the loud yells of everyone. Spencer makes him duck just in time and places the Confundus Charm to their attacker. "Malfoy, I don't even know where my brother is—"

"You have a brother?!"

His question is left unanswered as she is forced to bend down on her knees; someone having cast the Imperius Curse on her. Before the Death Eater can do anything else, Malfoy punches the attacker and steals his wand just to hex him. Spencer snaps herself out of the curse, her eyes widening in surprise before grinning up at him. "Glad you've finally chosen a side, dimwit," the young Montague mentions.

"Yeah, well, your boyfriend will kill me if I allow anything to happen to you," Malfoy mutters, and then under his breath, "again."

Ricky shouts to her that he is going to help Theodore fight off one of the Rosier males leaving Malfoy and Spencer to themselves. She grips his wrist tight before remembering that he now has a wand. Either way, she motions for him to follow as she finds Blaise fighting Rodolphus Lestrange.

"Bombarda!" Spencer surprises the two duelers and instantly heads beside Blaise's side. She shares a knowing look with her boyfriend and his (former?) best friend before all three of them cast in the order of Malfoy, Spencer, Blaise:

"Colloshoo!"

"Diminuendo!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Rodolphus Lestrange gets stuck on the ground by his feet at the same time that he is being shrunk and immobilized. At the same time as that occurs, Spencer turns to see that his wife, Bellatrix Lestrange is being dueled by Molly with the Weasley woman yelling, "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"

Mrs. Weasley throws off her cloak as she runs, freeing her arms. Bellatrix spins on the spot, roaring with laughter at the sight of her new challenger. "OUT OF MY WAY!" shouts Mrs. Weasley to the three girls, and with a swipe of her wand she begins to duel. Spencer watches in amazement and terror as Molly Weasley's wand slashes and twirls— Bellatrix's smile falters and becomes a snarl. Jets of light flies from both wands, the floor around the witches' feet became hot and cracked; both women are fighting to kill.

"No!" Mrs. Weasley cries as a few students run forward, trying to come to her aid. "Get back! Get back! She is mine!"

Hundreds of people now line the walls, watching the two fights, Voldemort and his three opponents, Bellatrix and Molly. Blaise brings her in close to his chest while giving a gratitude nod toward Malfoy. The blond Slytherin awkwardly returns it before their attention falls back to them.

"What will happen to your children when I've killed you?" taunts Bellatrix, as mad as her master, capering as Molly's curses dances around her. "When Mummy's gone the same way as Freddie?"

Fred Weasley isn't dead you stupid bi—

"You — will — never — touch — our — children — again!" screams Mrs. Weasley. Bellatrix laughs, the same exhilarated laugh her cousin Sirius had given as he topples backward through the veil, and suddenly Spencer knows what is going to happen before it did. Molly's curse soars beneath Bellatrix's outstretched arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart. Bellatrix's gloating smile froze, her eyes seems to bulge: For the tiniest space of time she knows what had happened, and then she topples, and the watching crowd roars, and Voldemort screams.

Spencer's proud smile falls off her face when she notices Professor McGonagall, Professor Slughorn, and Kingsley being blasted backward, flailing and writhing through the air as Voldemort's fury at the fall of his last, best lieutenant explodes with the force of a bomb. Voldemort raises his wand and directs it at Molly Weasley.

And then, as if a ghost has come back to life, her attention heads to a familiar voice that had saved her from dying, yelling, "Protego!"

The Shield Charm expands in the middle of the Hall, and Voldemort stares around for the source as Harry James Potter pulls off the Invisibility Cloak at last. Spencer feels her mouth open in shock and relief and she lets out a cheer, "THERE HE IS!"

The crowd falls silent abruptly when Voldemort and Harry look at each other, and begins, at the same moment, to circle each other. Harry keeps his eyes on his enemy, but he tells everyone on the crowd loudly, "I don't want anyone else to try to help," His voice— Merlin, his beautiful voice that she thought she would never hear again— carries like a trumpet call. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me."

Voldemort hisses. "Potter doesn't mean that," he utters, his red eyes wide. "That isn't how he works, is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter? Is it that Ravenclaw Montague? Or the Gryffindor boy?"

"Nobody," Harry answers simply. "There are no more Horcruxes. It's just you and me. Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good..."

"One of us?" jeers Voldemort, and his whole body is taut and his red eyes stares, a snake that is about to strike. "You think it will be you, do you, the boy who has survived by accident, and because Dumbledore was pulling the strings?"

"Accident, was it, when my mother died to save me?" Harry asks tauntingly. They are still moving sideways, both of them, in that perfect circle, maintaining the same distance from each other, and for Harry no face existed but Voldemort's. Spencer grips onto Blaise's hand, and he squeezes it in comfort knowing she is once again worried for that scarred friend of hers. "Accident, when I decided to fight in that graveyard? Accident, that I didn't defend myself tonight, and still survived, and returned to fight again?"

"Accidents!" screams Voldemort, but still he does not strike, and the watching crowd is frozen as if Petrified (or at least that is how Spencer feels), and of the hundreds in the Hall, nobody seems to breathe but them two. "Accident and chance and the fact that you crouched and sniveled behind the skirts of greater men and women, and permitted me to kill them for you!"

"You won't be killing anyone else tonight," Harry announces determinedly as they circled, and stare into each other's eyes, green into red. "You won't be able to kill any of them ever again. Don't you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people—"

"But you did not!"

"— I meant to, and that's what did it. I've done what my mother did. They're protected from you. Haven't you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can't torture them. You can't touch them. You don't learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?" Harry reveals at last, and Spencer widens her eyes in surprise. He truly is one of a kind, Harry Potter.

"You dare —"

"Yes, I dare," Harry interrupts coldly. "I know things you don't know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things that you don't. Want to hear some, before you make another big mistake?"

Voldemort does not speak, but prowls in a circle. "Is it love again?" Voldemort sneers, his snake's face jeering. "Dumbledore's favorite solution, love, which he claimed conquered death, though love did not stop him falling from the tower and breaking like an old waxwork? Love, which did not prevent me stamping out your Mudblood mother like a cockroach, Potter — and nobody seems to love you enough to run forward this time and take my curse. So what will stop you dying now when I strike?"

"Just one thing," Harry adds in with mischief, and still they circle each other, wrapped in each other, held apart by nothing but the last secret.

"If it is not love that will save you this time," Voldemort counters, "you must believe that you have magic that I do not, or else a weapon more powerful than mine?"

"I believe both," Harry announces, and they all see shock flit across the snakelike face, though it is instantly dispelled; Voldemort begins to laugh, and the sound is more frightening than his screams; humorless and insane, it echoes around the silent hall.

"You think you know more magic than I do?" He questions. "Than I, than Lord Voldemort, who has performed magic that Dumbledore himself never dreamed of?"

"Oh, he dreamed of it," Harry supplies in as if he talking to an old friend. Again, Spencer realizes, her friend is an absolute badass but also an idiot. "But he knew more than you, knew enough not to do what you've done."

"You mean he was weak!" screams Voldemort. "Too weak to dare, too weak to take what might have been his, what will be mine!"

"No, he was cleverer than you," said Harry, "a better wizard, a better man."

"I brought on the death of Albus Dumbledore!"

Spencer makes a face and crosses her arms. She leans toward her boyfriend and whispers, "He sounds like a child." Despite the timing, Blaise finds himself snorting in amusement.

"You thought you did," Harry corrects, "but you were wrong."

The young Montague furrows her eyebrows in confusion. For the first time, the watching crowd stirs as the hundreds of people around the walls draws breath as one.

"Dumbledore is dead!" Voldemort hurls the words at Harry as though they would cause him unendurable pain. "His body decays in the marble tomb in the grounds of this castle, I have seen it, Potter, and he will not return!"

"Yes, Dumbledore's dead," Harry repeats calmly, "but you didn't have him killed. He chose his own manner of dying, chose it months before he died, arranged the whole thing with the man you thought was your servant."

"What childish dream is this?" Voldemort hisses, but still he does not strike, and his red eyes do not waver from Harry's.

"Severus Snape wasn't yours," Harry reveals. "Snape was Dumbledore's, Dumbledore's from the moment you started hunting down my mother. And you never realized it, because of the thing you can't understand. You never saw Snape cast a Patronus, did you, Riddle?"

A realization hits Spencer as she thinks back to the way... the Patronus that her three figurative brothers had told her and Hermione— that was Snape?

Voldemort does not answer. They continue to circle each other like wolves about to tear each other apart. "Snape's Patronus was a doe," Harry continues, "the same as my mother's, because he 'loved' her for nearly all of his life, from the time when they were children. You should have realized," he tells him, "he asked you to spare her life, didn't he?"

"He desired her, that was all," sneers Voldemort, "but when she had gone, he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him —"

Holy shit, Spencer grimaces, Tom Riddle is absolutely brainless.

"Of course he told you that," Harry scoffs, "but he was Dumbledore's spy from the moment you threatened her, and he's been working against you ever since! Dumbledore was already dying when Snape finished him!"

"It matters not!" shrieks Voldemort, who had followed every word with rapt attention, but now lets out a cackle of mad laughter. "It matters not whether Snape was mine or Dumbledore's, or what petty obstacles they tried to put in my path! I crushed them as I crushed your mother, Snape's supposed great love! Oh, but it all makes sense, Potter, and in ways that you do not understand! Dumbledore was trying to keep the Elder Wand from me! He intended that Snape should be the true master of the wand! But I got there ahead of you, little boy — I reached the wand before you could get your hands on it, I understood the truth before you caught up. I killed Severus Snape three hours ago, and the Elder Wand, the Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny is truly mine! Dumbledore's last plan went wrong, Harry Potter!"

"Yeah, it did," Harry nods. "You're right. But before you try to kill me, I'd advise you to think about what you've done... Think, and try for some remorse, Riddle..."

Blaise shifts in surprise. "Bloody hell, Harry's practically the male version of you—" her boyfriend figures out of nowhere. Spencer sends him a small glare knowing what he is referring to.

"What is this?" Of all the things that Harry had said to him, beyond any revelation or taunt, nothing had shocked Voldemort like this.

"It's your one last chance," Harry continues. For a moment, Spencer remembers her own sister and she frowns. "It's all you've got left... I've seen what you'll be otherwise... Be a man... try... Try for some remorse..."

"You dare —?" Voldemort tries to ask in surprise.

"Yes, I dare," Harry interrupts, "because Dumbledore's last plan hasn't backfired on me at all. It's backfired on you, Riddle."

Voldemort's hand is trembling on the Elder Wand, and Harry grips Draco's very tightly. "That wand still isn't working properly for you because you murdered the wrong person. Severus Snape was never the true master of the Elder Wand. He never defeated Dumbledore."

"He killed —"

"Aren't you listening? Snape never beat Dumbledore! Dumbledore's death was planned between them! Dumbledore intended to die undefeated, the wand's last true master! If all had gone as planned, the wand's power would have died with him, because it had never been won from him!"

"But then, Potter, Dumbledore as good as gave me the wand!" Voldemort's voice shakes with malicious pleasure. "I stole the wand from its last master's tomb! I removed it against its last master's wishes! Its power is mine!"

"You still don't get it, Riddle, do you? Possessing the wand isn't enough! Holding it, using it, doesn't make it really yours. Didn't you listen to Ollivander? The wand chooses the wizard... The Elder Wand recognized a new master before Dumbledore died, someone who never even laid a hand on it. The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never realizing exactly what he had done, or that the world's most dangerous wand had given him its allegiance..."

Voldemort's chest rises and falls rapidly. Spencer tightens her hold on her friend, suddenly becoming aware that this is nearing to an end.

"The true master of the Elder Wand was Draco Malfoy," Harry at last confesses. The boy beside her widens his eyes in surprise and he takes a step back. Spencer, despite all he has put her through, reaches for his hand and holds it. Draco's eyes gazes down at her hand before silently squeezing it, his face even paler than before. While the touch is small, Spencer has a feeling it is bringing him some comfort to realize that he is not alone. At least, not anymore.

"But what does it matter?" Voldemort sneers softly. "Even if you are right, Potter, it makes no difference to you and me. You no longer have the phoenix wand: We duel on skill alone... and after I have killed you, I can attend to Draco Malfoy..."

"But you're too late," Harry interrupts again. Either way, Spencer can feel Draco trembling. She frowns slightly before pulling him closer, her thumb quietly caressing his own. One can see it as intimate, but she does not know how else to comfort him. Blaise eyes them momentarily before he sends Draco a calm reassuring look. Draco, on the other hand, only focuses at the stand off between Harry and Voldemort. "You've missed your chance. I got there first. I overpowered Draco weeks ago. I took this wand from him."

Harry twitches the hawthorn wand. Spencer raises an eyebrow impressed with his tone of voice and obvious confidence. She still fears for his life, but something is telling her to have faith on her friend.

"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" whispers Harry. "Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does... I am the true master of the Elder Wand."

A red-gold glow bursts suddenly across the enchanted sky above them as an edge of dazzling sun appears over the sill of the nearest window. The light hits both of their faces at the same time, so that Voldemort's is suddenly a flaming blur. Spencer grips even tighter to the hands she is holding when she hears:

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Expelliarmus!"

The bang is like a cannon blast, and the golden flames that erupts between them marks the point where the spells collide. Spencer fears for her friend's life as the two spells meet. Then, she spots the Elder Wand fly high, Dark against the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling like the head of Nagini, spinning through the air toward the master it would not kill, who had come to take full possession of it at last. And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, catches the wand in his free hand as Voldemort falls backward, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward.

Tom Riddle hits the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing. Spencer gapes at the scene wide-eyed and a breath wanting to escape her when she realizes something at last. Voldemort is dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and Harry is standing with two wands in his hand, staring down at his enemy's shell.

As soon as this hits her mind, Spencer tugs her boyfriend's arms and immediately runs toward Harry without a second to waste. She feels Blaise and Draco slowly release their grip on her hand (and Merlin, she forgot she was holding onto Draco as well!) when she throws herself at Harry. The Gryffindor boy grunts in surprise before pulling her in as well. Right after, Spencer can feel three more figures arrive into their hug and she knows instantly that it is Hermione, Ron, and Ricky. Screams, cheers, and roars are all around them, but at the moment it is just the five who have travelled together for so long it feels as if they are connected more than anything else.

Then Ginny, Neville, and Luna are there, and then all the Weasleys and Hagrid, and Kingsley and McGonagall and Flitwick and Sprout, and Blaise and Theodore join in along at last. Spencer is smiling widely knowing that at last... the war has finished.

The young Montague is twirled toward someone's arms and she is immediately kissed on her lips. Passion, love, warmth all wrapped in one amount of sensation as Blaise cups her cheeks and kisses her deeply. She can taste the metallic of his bloodied lips and dirt mixed together, but nothing matters at this point. It has possibly become the moment they have all longed for since the end of their fourth year when Cedric Diggory died.

Spencer once claimed that nothing would turn out alright until his killers were captured or dead. That moment is now. Death Eaters still roam around the school, but they are nothing compared to Voldemort. They are stoppable, foolish, pure dimwits who will get what they deserve.

Her kiss with Blaise is interrupted by Theodore practically pulling the two away from each other and immediately wrapping Spencer in a hug. Blaise glares at his housemate, but he envelopes his mother in a hug before awkwardly doing the same toward Ricky. After Theodore lets go, Ricky lunges at Spencer and they stand there for the longest, none of the two wanting to let the other go. At least, they did not until Daniel reaches toward them.

He stares at Spencer with adoration and Spencer just knows what it is meant to represent. They are the last two Montagues left— their mother will be sent to Azkaban and their father killed (by a thestral!). The longline of wickedness and misery ends on this day for it is the fall of the tormented Montagues and the rise of the virtuous Montagues. Daniel wraps Spencer into a tight hug; two siblings that actually love one another and not just one-sided at all.

All in the morning coming up, the Imperiused have come back to themselves, the Death Eaters are fleeing or else being captured— though, Glorious Montague had been caught since her son had made sure of it. The innocent of Azkaban continued being released while Kingsley Shacklebolt has been named temporary Minister of Magic.

Harry had approached to his four long companions before telling them absolutely everything. No lies, no secrets, just pure truths. The houses of Hogwarts reunite by the loss of their housemates. The supposed Resurrection Stone is lost in the forest hopefully to never be found, Harry will continue staying with the Invisibility Cloak, and the Elder Wand...? Well, Spencer has a great choice of friends and she has always known that. It did not surprise her at all when Harry told Dumbledore's portrait that he would not keep the wand but instead bury it back with the former Headmaster and make sure no one else will be in charge of it; Harry Potter will be its last master.

Afterwards, she reunited with her family. Well, after Madam Pomfrey checked her out and began to heal her and give her some potions. Fred is sitting up from his place, his eyes shining with light and soul while George is beside him. Remus and Tonks are wrapped together clearly surprised to be alive and having a chance to raise their metamorphmagus son. Daniel— and perhaps this is the best part— is kissing Charlie. His hand is clutching onto the redhead's collar and the young man is clearly surprised, but definitely not against it at all with the obvious droopy grin on his lips. Spencer squeals just in time for her to sit beside the Weasleys, Ricky, Theodore, Fleur, Hermione, Blaise, and Harry.

"HA!" Fred shouts in glee, pumping up his hand in the air while the other is holding it out towards his brother. "That makes it about 275 days since we claimed they would get together faster than Blaise and Spencer— I mean, it was obvious the two began liking each other during their fifth-year and then they began to date until the second half of their sixth-year," Fred starts to make calculations.

Spencer furrows her eyebrows. "Wait— that is wrong—"

"No, no, I agree with Fred," Ricky nods his head in agreement. Spencer narrows her eyes at him. "Is he the one with eidetic memory?"

Ron grins widely from aside. "No, but we reckon we noticed the tension first than the two of you," he snickers along with Harry.

Blaise, who has his arms wrapped around Spencer, stares at them in confusion. He has his eyes narrowed thoughtfully before he slowly adds, "All of you are the weirdest person I've ever met."

George claps his hands and pats his shoulder. "Look at that, guys! He's finally opening up... becoming part of the family already," he embarrasses the two of them, a look of mischief in his eyes when he spots their blushing.

"More like becoming less annoying," Theodore mumbles under his breath. He sends a smirk toward Blaise and the taller boy simply rolls his eyes, one reaching his own.

And so they lost and won at the same time. So many lives now gone, over fifty of them being Hogwarts students and the rest residents, adults, or creatures of magic. Voldemort is now long dead and his Death Eaters are nothing without him. Yet, they still lost a part of themselves. Spencer knows she will never forget all the pain, the trauma, the deaths that happened in front of her, but for this moment in time, she allowed herself to be devoured in those she calls her family; she knows damn well she at least deserves a break from reality before the cold aftermath of the war comes crashing down to them.

(Then again, she will not be handling it alone, now is she?)

▂✫⌒*･ﾟ

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
so... thoughts? also, the battle had many
different outcomes, but i didn't wanna ruin
you so this path was chosen 😁

anyway, fun fact!! the only reason the killing
curse did not work on spencer & ricky is bc
when harry died he gave the same protection
that lily gave to him and it's also the reason why
no one else was killed on harry's side afterwards.
harry mentioned this in the books (but since
he was not sure, i made him cast the shield charm)