Someone told me that love would all save us.
But how can that be?
Look what love gave us.
A world full of killing, and blood-spilling,
That world never came.

And they say that a hero can save us.
I'm not gonna stand here and wait.

-Chad Kroeger, "Hero"

----

It was too much...too much for anyone, much less a sad army of school age children, not yet graduated, most not even of age. A few dozen Aurors had show up, but even with them, it had seemed hopeless from the beginning.

The sky had gone dark hours ago...or was it minutes? He couldn’t tell anymore. All he knew was the darkness and the crying sounds of death and anguish all around him. He shivered as they seemed to pierce him to the bone. He couldn’t tell the difference between a friend and foe anymore...it was too hopeless.

He wasn’t even sure if he was at Hogwarts anymore...who knew how far the battle had taken him? Who knew how long it would be before it took him away for good? So many had already felt that blessed release. He thought bitterly of his friends who had already fallen, their bodies strew across the once beautiful and green fields surrounding his childhood school.

His hand flew out vainly in front of him as he tried to work his way through the haze of darkness, so thick that he couldn’t see two feet in front of him. He vaguely noticed the shapes of looming trees and brush, surrounding him on all sides.

The Forbidden Forest...

He had half a mind to just wait there. Figure out how to climb a tree and try to just stay alive...it was more than anyone else was doing at this point...

No...no it wasn’t more. It was so much less. He should be the one fighting, not them. He should already be dead on that field. He should have fought harder to stay in the eye of the battle.

He stumbled on a fallen tree, his hands vainly trying to protect him from his head slamming into the darkness. Glancing up, he finally saw the clearing, the only amount of light that he had seen in quite some time. His eyes squinted as he tried to see what was happening.

This was where he had been...it had started here, and as far as he could tell, it was still here. Most of the bodies that lay on the ground looked too small to be the death eaters. He almost cried out in anguish as he saw a flash of red hair among them, the sight piercing him through, trying to see which of the family had fallen.

There were more spells being shot across then people to fire them: Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore, Remus, Moody, Tonks, Kingsley...

They flashed across his vision, too quick for him too make out their physical state. He rubbed the weariness out of his eyes, forcing himself to stand up again, to go into the battle and help.

The only reason he was not there...

He stopped short, thinking of Dumbledore’s earlier words, when he had blocked a spell from hitting Harry and immediately sent him into the woods for cover. He had argued.

“They’re here for me! The bloody prophesy was told to them and they’re here for me!”

Dumbledore’s firm voice overruled his.

“Exactly, Harry. Stay alive.”

Four words. Four simple words that had made him feel sick and frightened more than anything else.

What would happen if he died?

“Simple,” Dumbledore had told him. “The darkness would win...”

Let the darkness come...he thought bitterly to himself. I don’t give a care...

He stepped into the clearing, already sporting a twisted ankle but it hardly seemed to phase him as he tried in vain to rack his brain for ideas.

He spotted the tuft of red hair again, and, abandoning all further thoughts, rushed over to the fallen body.

Ginny lay spread eagle on the ground, her eyes opened wide and scared. It was obvious that the killing curse had hit her. Harry had seen its effects more times in the last two years than he would ever wish upon anyone. He knelt down by her tears finally streaming down his face as he reached over to hold her dead weight to him.

“No...Ginny...no...” He repeated the mantra over and over to himself, startled out of it only by a cold voice calling out a hex towards him.

He immediately released Ginny, his training helping him roll away from the curse and in the same movement, pulling his wand out and firing it in the direction the curse had come from. He thought he heard it hit, but didn’t see anyone there.

The darkness seemed to be closing in on him as he stood, trying to ignore Ginny’s body on the ground next to him. He whipped around as he heard someone come up behind him, and only slightly relaxed when he saw it was Dumbledore.

“He’s coming,” the old Wizard told him needlessly.

“I know.”

Dumbledore laid a hand on his shoulder. He felt the pure power of the man next to him and the absolute determination to stop the evil...to stop the darkness...he wouldn’t mind doing either, especially since the darkness around him seemed thicker than ever.

“Ron? Hermione?” It probably wasn’t the best time to ask, but he couldn’t hold it off any longer.

“Who’s to say?”

He had been expecting a response like that, but at least it wasn’t a firm answer that they had already died. It at least gave him hope.

His hand flew up to the accursed scar on his forehead as it started to burn in him. He should have been used to it by now, but Dumbledore assured him that, like evil, it was something that was not good to get used to.

“Remember love, Harry. Remember it always...” Dumbledore spoke to him shortly before rushing back into the darkness. He knew why Dumbledore had left. It was his fight and his alone...no one else could help him.

For some reason, those words from long ago seemed to float back into his head.

“If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love...It was your heart that saved you...But he will have a power the Dark Lord knows not...”

He choked on his rising tears. His mother’s sacrifice burned so clearly in his mind, the dementors had made sure of that. The hate in his heart seemed at odds with the protection that his mother had given him.

The death and destruction that had been raging on for the past years had not been a product of love...it had been a product of hate, greed, malice...

Where was it? Where was the love? Where was the power that he had, the undeniable strength that would allow him to defeat the darkest wizard in the world?

Like the painful day at the end of is fifth year, the world seemed to crash down on Harry, landing on his shoulder’s as he fought to come up with some kind of magic to perform the duty he was born to do.

He stayed in the darkness for a moment, watching him. He knew he was there and he knew that he was watching...

Lord Voldemort stepped into his vision, looking as chilling as always, his red eyes giving a hazy glow to the surroundings as he looked towards him.

“Harry James Potter,” he flinched as the creature said his name, “We meet once again.”

He stayed silent, his hand gripping his wand tightly as he bit down his urge to release his fury on this man...no this...thing. This was the reason the world was in darkness. This was the reason his life had been a living hell from age one. This was the reason Ginny was lying dead on the ground behind him.

And Harry was the only one who could stop him...

Harry jutted his head up, glaring down Voldemort, determined not to let the darkness overcome him again. He thought of his father unfailing courage, his mother’s love, his friends loyalty, his godfather’s sacrifice, his mentor’s wisdom...

He vaguely felt Voldemort trying to read his mind as he stood there with an evil smirk on his face and his phoenix core wand in his hand. Harry matched his position, his own smirk coming and his own phoenix core wand gripped tightly in his hand. Though Harry was still slightly shorter than Voldemort, he was no longer a boy. He was a 17 year old almost-fully trained wizard who had already fought this monster seven times and survived through them all.

“It’s just you and me now, Tom,” he told Voldemort, provoking him with his old name. “Are you going to die for good this time or keep coming back for more?”

Voldemort sneered at his name furiously and shot a killing curse toward Harry who dodged it easily.

“You’re powers have improved, I’m sure, Potter,” Voldemort said without a hint of surprise. “How unfortunate that you didn’t just give me the prophesy earlier so we could be done with this by now.”

Harry almost rolled his eyes at the mocking statements and cried, “STUPIFY!”

Simultaneously, Voldemort shouted “AVADA KADAVRA!”

It was no surprise when the wands connected, though Harry now knew he would not have the luxury of seeing his parent’s again. The wand had claimed too many victims since then, and Harry knew what he needed to do had to be done fast.

The jet of bright light connected their wands and almost instantly, Harry yanked the connection away, rolling to the side, deeper into the shadows.

“A game of hide-and-seek, Harry? Come, you’re father would not be proud of you running-“

Harry shot up aiming another stunning curse at Voldemort, his blood raging from the taunts of his parents that he knew would be coming.

“Determined, much like your mother,” Voldemort said, as he easily dodged the curse. “Notice how it didn’t help her either...”

The hate boiled up in Harry so much and his scar began to burn with such fever that he could scarcely stand.

“Remember love, Harry, remember it always...”

Dumbledore’s words tried to push back the anger and pain as Voldemort laughed.

The images burst into his mind before he could scarcely take a breath. His mother and father, laughing and playing with him, Sirius tossing him up in the air...Ron and Hermione coming to see him in the hospital, Mrs. Weasley giving him a hug, Remus crying, telling him how proud his parent would be of him, Ginny...Ginny, through her tears, begging him to not die...Ginny, telling him that she loved him...

A surge of power flew outward from his body and he felt a large gust of wind that seemed to come directly from him. The pain in his scar stopped and he felt himself rising easily to his feet, glancing at a very surprised Voldemort.

“You are just a boy. How could you hope to stand in my way?” Voldemort sneered at him.

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies” Harry began walking towards Voldemort as he spoke the words of the prophesy, a strange feeling of power coming over him as he advanced on the dark wizard. “And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...” he raised his wand, almost in astonishment as Voldemort appeared to be backing away from him. Harry could feel the magic coursing through his veins. He bathed in the feelings of love that he had experienced through his life. His wand seemed to sparkle with nervous energy as Harry continued walking forward. “And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...”

“Stop it! AVADA KEDAVRA!” Voldemort sent the killing curse at a point blank range towards him and Harry panicked for the tiniest fraction of a second and stopped walking. Then, without thinking, his hand reached up, intersecting the green stream of light, but instead of swallowing it, it bounced off.

Once again, the killing curse rebounded.

It did not strike Voldemort, merely flew off into the ground, but Harry could see that Voldemort was now growing anxious.

Harry stared straight into Voldemort’s eyes, and, for the first time, a feeling of hate an anger did not well up inside him. He took all his strength to focus on those whom he loved.

“It was your heart that saved you...”

He lifted his wand to Voldemort, concentrating on the most powerful type of magic in the world.

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...”

As Voldemort once again raised his wand to Harry, he felt a burst of energy spiral out from his heart, conforming into a bean of white light that shot out of his wand, straight into Voldemort’s chest.

Shell shocked, they both were frozen for a half a moment before the white light expanded instantly, covering them both in its blinding power and sweeping over the top of them.

Harry felt his legs go limp and he fell to the ground, his wand still glowing with the intense light that he tried to close his eyes to shut out. But it was no use; the light engulfed him into bliss.

----

He blinked a few times before fully opening his eyes again, his head strangely clear, but his body aching all over.

“Harry! Harry!!!”

A shaking hand rested on his back, helping him sit up and for an instant, Harry had forgotten everything. Only when his eyes flew open and he stared into the eyes of Remus Lupin did he feel the pit almost fall out of his stomach.

“Voldemort...he...he...”

“He’s gone, Harry,” Remus told him through tear-filled eyes. “You did it.”

Harry’s eyes searched over the ground in front of him and saw Voldemort’s body lying there. His heart skipped a beat as he saw that Voldemort was truly death. He seemed to almost have been burned from the inside out. His body was smoking and there seemed to be a pile of ash by his right hand where his wand had apparently been. His eyes were hollow and his face looked more like a skull than ever.

Harry turned back to Remus, tears filling his eyes at the reality of the situation. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a jumble of arms, reaching for him at his side.

He turned, crying as he held onto Hermione and Ron, both of them, alive and well by his side. Their tears mixed with his and he took great shuddering breaths as he finally drew back, trying this best to give them a decent smile.

He turned to Remus. “Dumbledore?”

Remus’ face dropped and Harry felt his heart fall farther down as more of the reality hit him. Tears filled his eyes and Remus reached forward instantly, pulling Harry into a crushing hug.

Harry clung tightly to Remus, his tears changing into sobs as he cried. Cried for his dad, for his mum, for Sirius, for Ginny...

To that list was added Mrs. Weasley, Dean Thomas, Cho Chang, Professor McGonagall...so many...so many that Harry couldn’t save...

He pulled back as he remembered. “Peter?...Remus?”

His old professor nodded, almost with a smile on his face, but then, things like this were not the best things to smile about. “I found him...he’s gone.”

A click seemed to fall into place and Harry’s body seemed to relax almost completely at those words.

He could almost see them...standing there, crying and rejoicing with him...

Cedric...

Mrs. Weasley...

James...

Lily...

Sirius...

Ginny...

He shuddered and Remus pulled him to his feet, Ron and Hermione coming around to help him. He suddenly felt very weak and lightheaded, almost trying to convince himself that it wasn’t all real, that none of this had happened.

I’m just asleep in my cupboard...I’ll wake up to Aunt Petunia tapping on it, Dudley stomping around upstairs...

His heart was pounding so fast and he was so out of it that he almost didn’t realize when Ron stopped short, turning towards the ground.

Harry followed his gaze and saw that Ron was looking at Ginny’s lifeless body. Harry felt bile rush into his throat but fought it down. He did not fight the tears though. They came instantly, a mirror image of Ron’s face. Harry managed to lay a hand on his shoulder, and before he knew it, he had brought Ron into a tight hug, both of them with tears streaming down their faces and their hearts breaking in two. Hermione wrapped her arms around both of them, sobbing.

Remus managed to lead the three of them back to the castle, its gloomy walls, damaged or destroyed in some cases.

They climbed the stairs to the hospital wing, slowly. The load that seemed to be lifted from Voldemort’s death was now replaced with the load of the dead...one that would probably never go away, but, in time, they would be able to make lighter once again.

Harry spoke a quiet wish before entering the infirmary.

“Let the light in...”