The Dark Lord Voldemort was breathing heavily. Casting the Storm Spell, blasting the roof and turning it into debris to give the wind the deadly shrapnel to shred his enemies in the skies, didn't tax him much. But holding the Fiendfyre consuming his house at bay until Bellatrix had recovered the cup? That had been a draining experience, even with his skill and power.

But now he was attacking, blasting the walls trapping them inside the house, putting out the fire someone had started in the field - no Fiendfyre, that - and his Death Eaters surged forward, passing him on both sides.

Suddenly, a Fire Whip snapped across the first rank of his followers, cutting them in half. He stopped it with a conjured pillar of steel, then looked for the caster. Dumbledore! Snarling, he fired a Killing Curse at his nemesis. The old wizard stopped it with a conjured slab of marble, and the Blasting Curse Voldemort followed up with was deflected by a Shield Charm. At least the mudblood next to Dumbledore was felled by it, his broken body thrown back.

He readied himself to defend against the counter-attack he knew was coming, and when the earth around him rose, changing to blades, he was confident his own Shield Charm would stop them easily. But instead of striking at him, trying to shatter his defenses, the dozens of sharp metal spikes shot away from him, ripping through the ranks of his Death Eaters. And not all of their Shield Charms held up as well as his would have.

Snarling, he started to send curse after curse at Dumbledore, aided by Bellatrix at his side, whose own shield had withstood those attacks easily. His foe dared to ignore him, and attack his lessers? Voldemort would teach the old man the folly of his arrogance! And Dumbledore was giving ground, the sheer mass of dark curses forcing him to dodge and improvise - straight into the path of two of the Blood Inferi!

At the last moment though, his foe stepped to the side and swept his wand in an arc - and the earth beneath the two monsters rose in a huge wave, carrying them and others towards Voldemort. The Dark Lord blew a hole into the earthen wall rushing him at once, but the two parts left kept coming, one of them burying another group of his Death Eaters, crushing them under tons of earth and stone.

That was what Dumbledore wanted, he realised. He wanted to force him to protect his followers, so the old wizard could defeat him!

"Scatter!" he yelled, "Massacre the mudbloods! Leave Dumbledore to me!" When he saw Bellatrix wasn't moving from his side, he added: "You too!"

"Yes, milord!" the dark witch spat out, almost reluctantly, then ran off.

But the command had given Dumbledore enough time to go on the offensive again, and this time Voldemort found himself forced back by spells he wouldn't have expected the old wizard to know, much less use.

Protected by a shield of shining metal, the Dark Lord grinned. His enemy had to be desperate to stoop to such measures. Victory was near!

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Hermione and Dean had managed to join another team and the group had succeeded in driving back the monsters attacking them. Not unscathed though - Violet and Jenny were busy protecting Martin, who had lost his left arm when an abomination had suddenly jumped over another. If not for the storm pushing it to the side while it was in the air, he'd have lost his head.

For the moment though, they were in the clear. Hermione pointed her wand at the ground, and a flick of her wrist transfigured the earth into stone, forming a path safe from underground ambushes to the next group of wands. "Let's move!" she shouted. Her voice barely reached the group over the howling winds. Even walking became difficult in this storm.

"We could form a tunnel!" Violet yelled, steadying Martin. The wizard needed a Healer. Hopefully they would be able to link up with the main force soon.

"Not safe enough!" Hermione yelled back. The monsters would be able to ambush them, or even break through without being spotted. Instead she turned the areas next to the stone path to mud. That would slow them down.

A group of three monsters rushed at them before they reached the other Wands, jumping over the mud area. Bludgeoning Curses from Dean and Jenny slammed into them, pushing two back and into the mud. The third was bisected by Hermione's Cutting Curse. She set the two parts on fire as soon as they hit the ground. Dean and Jenny were destroying the other two monsters. Hermione didn't spot any other monster in the area, but widened the mud anyway.

Turning back, she waved Violet forward. "Come on! We're almost there!"

She saw the Wand grimacing, dragging Martin behind her by his brown robe, and then both disappeared in an explosion. The force of the blast threw them into the transfigured mud Hermione had created and splinters from the stone ground peppered Hermione's Shield Charm. That had been a Blasting Curse!

Hermione whirled around and saw human figures rushing at them. Death Eaters! She raised a wall, just in time to stop the next curse.

"Accio Jenny's robe!" Violet shouted next to her, followed by Dean's "Accio Martin's robe!".

The unconscious body of Jenny flew towards Violet, but Dean's spell only managed to summon the torn and shredded remains of Martin's body, dripping with blood.

Hermione saw the mangled body and winced. The Wand had absorbed the main force of the blast, saving Jenny at the cost of himself. She turned around again, raising another wall, trying to ignore the remains landing next to her.

Death Eaters were going around the wall now, the storm hindering their movements as well, and Dean and Violet took down the first with Reductor Curses, one spell shattering the man's shield, the next blasting his head off his neck.

Hermione turned more earth to mud, and two Death Eaters rushing at them from the other side became stuck in it. She transfigured the mud to pure alcohol, then set it on fire. The two wizards' screams carried over the storm's roar when they vanished in fire.

"Onward!" she shouted, pushing Dean, who was carrying Jenny, on. The other Wands had realised their situation and were moving towards them, but they would take a little while to reach them.

Then her latest wall was smashed to pieces, and Bellatrix Lestrange stepped out of the dust cloud, slinging curses at the four Wands.

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Ron Weasley wiped blood from his face - a cut on his forehead was bleeding, probably from some debris that had caught him during his descent. They had destroyed three of those weird Inferi, Harry almost getting gutted in the process, only a Banishing Charm from Ginny saving him when one abomination had taken a swipe at him from his flank, but they were still isolated. They had to link up with the group of Wands he had seen nearby, before they landed. He hoped Hermione was still…

Harry though had other ideas. "Follow me!" he yelled, and rushed off in another direction.

"What? Wait!" Ron yelled, but he wasn't certain if his friend had heard him in this damned storm. Ginny of course was running after Harry, struggling against the winds. Ron could only follow them. At least his Shield Charm protected him against the full force of the storm's fury, he noted, when rocks and wood fragments pelted the shimmering shield.

"Where are we going?" he yelled as soon as he had caught up to Ginny.

Harry didn't answer. Two more abominations appeared in front of them, and for a moment, Ron feared his friend would charge them. Harry still had enough sense to stop, and set one of the things on fire before cutting its legs off. Ginny and Ron hammered the other with Bludgeoning Curses, stopping its charge, and Harry set it on fire as well.

"Where are we going?" Ron asked again, shouting into Harry's ear.

"The last Horcrux!" Harry yelled back, then he was running again, heedless of the wind that tried to blow the three away.

The three crested a small hill - passing a corpse pulped into an unrecognisable mass of flesh and blood - and came upon a large group of Death Eaters fighting Wands. Half a dozen black-robed bodies were strewn on the ground, but he could see several brown-robed ones as well. And corpses too burned or smashed to tell whose side they belonged to.

"There!" Harry pointed down, at a witch in the center of the battle. Ron recognised Bellatrix Lestrange, the Dark Lord's right hand. Of course she'd have his last horcrux!

Then he recognised the Wands the dark witch and the other Death Eaters were fighting. Or rather, one of them.

"Hermione!"

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Jenny was hit first. A curse struck her, and the Wand doubled over, holding her belly. Then she started to retch, and cough, and blood poured out of her mouth.

"Killing Curses now!" Hermione shouted. "Avada Kedavra!"

Authorisation had been granted in advance for this assault, and the Wands had been trained to cast coordinated Killing Curses for exactly this situation - Malfoy had planned years ahead.

Three Killing Curses flew towards Lestrange, but the dark witch danced to the side, evading all of them. They didn't have the numbers for this tactic, Hermione knew. Jenny was still retching, gasping, coughing. Hermione raised a wall to cover her, far thicker than the one Lestrange had broken through, and Violet sprang to her friend's side, wand waving with counter-spells and healing charms. Dean moved to the edge of the wall, to keep their enemy busy. Hermione was about to reinforce the wall further when a series of explosions shook it, and it toppled over.

Lestrange had blown out the earth the wall had been set on, Hermione realised. Violet jumped up, wand swinging around, but a Killing Curse struck her through her Shield Charm. She fell, in front of Jenny. An instant later the other Wand stopped coughing her innards out, and collapsed on top of her friend.

Hermione sent two Blasting Curses at their murderer, catching a masked Death Eater who had stepped up to the dark witch, but Lestrange was hardly any worse for wear, her Shield Charm holding. Dean tried another Killing Curse, but once again Lestrange sidestepped it, her mouth moving but the storm drowning out her words. The Wand-Leader turned the area behind the dark witch to mud, as she had done before. Dean cast another curse, but this time, the dark witch didn't dodge, but stopped the curse with a summoned piece of the stone path Hermione had created.

More Death Eaters were flanking them, and while Hermione could see Wands charging towards them from the hill they had been moving to, they would have to go through the mass of the Death Eaters to reach Dean and herself. They were on their own.

She set another transfigured patch of mud ablaze, driving the Death Eaters there back, but before she could transfigure more earth to mud, Lestrange struck at Dean, showering him with curses. Dean's Shield Charm took three spells, then a fourth struck his foot, rapidly spreading a dark purple poison from the hit point, and he started screaming. Hermione saw him cut his own leg off below the knee while she tried to drive the dark witch off him. She failed.

Lestrange raised a wall of her own, cutting off Hermione's line of fire, and when the Wand-Leader's spells shattered that wall, Dean was on the ground, unmoving, and Lestrange was turning towards her, smiling widely.

Hermione snarled and started casting curses as fast as she could. She was about to die. She knew it. She was a skilled fighter, trained to the exacting standards of the Corps, but Lestrange had cut through her team in seconds. And now the Wand was facing Bellatrix alone.

Her first two Piercing Curses hit the witch's shield, the third shattered it. She ducked under the witch's Killing Curse, and was about to cast again when the ground near her exploded and she was thrown back several yards.

Spitting blood, she conjured several rocks and a wall behind her to provide cover, and rolled to the side. Another Death Eater was rushing towards her, using the rocks she had conjured as cover. She sent a Cutting Curse at him at knee high, but missed before he dove behind the next rock. And Lestrange was coming at her from the other side.

Then an explosion threw the broken body of the Death Eater into the air, shredded by rock splinters, and she heard a voice dimly over the roaring wind.

"Hermione!"

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Ron Weasley barely noticed where the scum he had just blown up landed. He knew the man was dead, and Hermione needed help. Two more Death Eaters turned to face him, but Harry and Ginny were close on Ron's heels. "Focus on the right!" Ron yelled, casting another Blasting Curse. The dark wizard's Shield protected him from that explosion, but shattered in the process, and Ginny finished him off an instant later, Bludgeoning Curses smashing him against a large rock. The second dark wizard turned to flee, but seemed to get stuck in the earth, and Ron cut him down with two Severing Curses while rushing on.

Hermione was on the ground, behind a rapidly disintegrating rock, curses hitting all around her. Lestrange was casting as if she had gone mad - and from what Ron knew about Horcruxes, that was a distinct possibility. Even Lestrange was forced to react when three wands spewed curses at her from the side. She didn't flee, though, but whipped her wand around, and a Killing Curse followed by some brown curse Ron didn't recognise forced Ginny and Harry to step to the side. Ron charged on, towards Hermione, almost blindly sending a few spells at the dark witch to keep her busy dodging.

He slid behind Hermione's boulder. "Hermione!"

"Ron!" She smiled at him, then gasped. "Keep her busy! I've got a plan!"

Ron stepped out from behind the rock, and barely managed to jump out of the path of a Killing Curse. On the other side of the rock, Hermione crouched low and was aiming her wand at the area far back from Lestrange. He didn't know what she was planning, but he trusted her. And there wasn't much else to do but cast at the dark witch anyway.

Harry had emerged from cover as well, his wand flashing, and Lestrange twirled around, caught in a crossfire. Her Shield Charm deflected Harry's spells, though, and Ron didn't manage to shatter it before the dark witch had raised a wall to hide behind.

"Keep her busy!" Hermione yelled over the storm.

Ron was about to yell back when Lestrange jumped over the wall and sent a Blasting Curse his way. Once more his Shield Charm saved his life, but he was thrown back a yard, and on the ground. He waited a second, until he saw flashes of spellfire from Harry and Ginny, then stepped out again.

Lestrange was dodging back and forth between pillars of stone in a deadly dance with Ron's friend and sister. He added his own curses, and the witch had to take cover again. Behind her, a wall had been steadily growing higher - that had to be Hermione's work! If they could keep the dark witch focused on them for a bit longer…

Lestrange suddenly turned and dodged behind the pillar again. An instant later, curses flew at the wall, blasting it to pieces. Ron was about to curse when he saw a big wave of a clear liquid pour out from the - as he realised now - hollowed wall. Then the liquid ignited, and the wave turned into flames, engulfing Lestrange's position. Ron thought he heard her scream, loud enough to be heard over the storm's roar, but that might have been his imagination.

Hermione stood up, on shaking legs, but her wand was aimed at the inferno. "Stay sharp!" she yelled. "She might still… there!"

And in front of Ron, the dark witch rose up, out of the flames, her robes and hair burning, floating without a broom, her face a mask of hatred and pain. Ron was already casting spell after spell. So was everyone else. The storm battering the dark witch around made most spells miss - most, not all. And there was no cover in the air.

Lestrange was struck again and again, her burned skin cut and pierced, blood pouring from deep gashes in her body. She tried to fly away from the burning inferno, to find cover on the ground probably, but the storm drew up the flames, and the witch with it. Suddenly, she seemed to go limp, and then start to fall down.

"Accio Lestrange's corpse!" Harry yelled, and the remains shot towards him, smashing in the ground next to him. He ripped something from the corpse instead, then turned towards the house where the Fiendfyre was still raging.

"Depulso!"

Something golden flew towards the house, vanishing in the flames. For a moment, Ron thought it was a snitch, then he saw Harry relax, and understood.

Voldemort's last Horcrux had been destroyed.