"I know that you are preparing to fight. Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood. Give me Harry Potter, and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight." —Lord Voldemort's ultimatum[src]

The Battle of Hogwarts was the final conflict of the Second Wizarding War. It took place in the early hours of 2 May, 1998, within the castle and on the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the mountainous region of Scotland.[2]

When the Dark Wizard Lord Voldemort learned that his archenemy Harry Potter had secretly ventured into the castle to locate and destroy one of his final Horcruxes, he ordered every single Death Eater and dark creature that had ever pledged loyalty to him to launch a massive attack on the school. Dumbledore's Army then communicated the need to fight to the Order of the Phoenix and their other allies within the British Ministry of Magic, leading to a large-scale battle. Voldemort led his forces from the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade; while Harry Potter, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Minerva McGonagall led the defenders of Hogwarts. Voldemort also announced that he wanted Harry Potter to surrender himself by midnight.[3]

The battle ended with a decisive victory for the Order and the D.A., with many Death Eaters and Voldemort himself dead. It was the most devastating battle of the war, with casualties including: Lord Voldemort, Bellatrix Lestrange, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Severus Snape, Fred Weasley, Colin Creevey, Lavender Brown, and at least fifty more who fought against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.[4] It is also assumed to be the final conflict in which the Elder Wand took part, due to it being resealed in Albus Dumbledore's tomb after the battle.[5]

Contents show]

History

Background information

Snape's reign at Hogwarts

"Well, it's not really like Hogwarts any more." —Neville about the situation in to Harry[src]

On 1 August, 1997, Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour was secretly captured by Voldemort and interrogated for the whereabouts of Harry Potter. However, in one last brave act for Harry, Scrimgeour told Voldemort nothing, and was murdered by the Dark Lord as a result. This easily placed the Ministry of Magic under the secret influential control of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, who quickly replaced Scrimgeour with Pius Thicknesse, a corrupt politician under the Imperius Curse and a puppet of Voldemort. Hogwarts also quickly fell under Voldemort's influence, and he appointed Severus Snape as the new Headmaster (interestingly, Snape had killed the previous headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, just a month before).[6] The Carrow siblings, Amycus and Alecto, were also appointed as Deputy Headmaster-Deputy Headmistress, and also became teachers. Amycus Carrow became Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts and Alecto Carrow became Professor of Muggle Studies.

Two school subjects were revised at Voldemort's will; Defence Against the Dark Arts was more or less taught simply as Dark Arts, and Muggle Studies became a compulsory class for indoctrinating hatred against Muggles and Muggle-borns, rather than opt for peace with them. Snape and the Carrows enforced Voldemort's agenda brutally at Hogwarts. Students given detention for any wrongdoing were subjected to the Cruciatus Curse by either of the Carrows— as well as by other students on the Carrows' orders; particularly Slytherin students. As a result of this, a band of students began to fight back very early on in the 1997-1998 school year, led by seventh year Neville Longbottom and sixth years Ginny Weasley, Cormac McLaggen and Luna Lovegood. This group stood as the successor to the original Dumbledore's Army, founded by Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger in 1995.[7]

Search for Horcruxes

Main article: Horcrux hunt

At the climax of the Battle of the Astronomy Tower the previous year, Albus Dumbledore was killed by then-Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Snape.[8] Dumbledore, however, had secretly planned his death with Snape; and unknown to anyone; his spirit continued to aid Harry by giving Snape special orders through Dumbledore's portrait in the Headmaster's Office. Dumbledore then left Harry Potter with a final task; to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes that Voldemort created at different points in his life to ensure his immortality. Over several months, Harry, Ron, and Hermione tried to locate the Horcruxes; their efforts included infiltrating the Ministry to acquire Salazar Slytherin's locket[9] (which was later destroyed by Ron Weasley in December of 1997).[10]

Furthermore, the day before the battle, the trio succeeded in breaking into the vault belonging to Bellatrix Lestrange within Gringotts in Diagon Alley to obtain Helga Hufflepuff's Cup, another Horcrux.[11] Two other Horcruxes had also been destroyed prior to Dumbledore's death: Voldemort's old diary from his school years at Hogwarts was destroyed in 1993 by Harry Potter,[12] and a ring which had belonged to Voldemort's grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt, was destroyed by Dumbledore sometime in July,1996.[13] Harry then returned to Hogwarts to search for another of Voldemort's Horcruxes, an object he believed had something to do with Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, both which are Hogwarts Houses.[14]

Arrival in Hogsmeade

Hermione Granger: "But how are we going to get in?" Harry Potter: "We'll go to Hogsmeade, and try to work something out once we see what the protection around the school's like." — The trio planning to get into Hogwarts[src]

Harry, Ron, and Hermione, all wearing Harry's Cloak of Invisibility, apparated into the main street of Hogsmeade. However, they immediately triggered a Caterwauling Charm, and a dozen cloaked and hooded Death Eaters dashed into the street from the Three Broomsticks. One of the Death Eaters tried to summon the Cloak, but the Summoning Charm did not work on it because it was secretly the cloak of legend, one of the fabled Deathly Hallows.[14]

Harry, Ron, and Hermione backed quickly down the nearest side street. Harry informed the others that the Death Eaters must have set up the Caterwauling Charm to alert them to the trio's presence, and they likely had done something to trap them there. At that moment, one Death Eater suggested releasing the Dementors, pointing out that the Dementors wouldn't kill Harry. Voldemort wanted Harry's life, not his soul, and he would be easier to kill if he had been subjected by the Dementor's Kiss first.[14]

Hermione suggested that they disapparate, but as they tried, the air through which they needed to move seemed to become solid. They could not Disapparate due to an Anti-Disapparation Jinx placed by the Death Eaters. Ten or more Dementors closed in on them, and Harry raised his wand to cast a Patronus, causing the silver stag to burst from his wand and charge. The Dementors scattered and there was a triumphant yell from the Death Eaters.[14]

Suddenly, a door near the trio opened and the three of them were hustled inside the Hog's Head Inn. They ran up the stairs into a room with a single large oil painting of a blonde girl. Outside, the inn's proprietor pulled out his wand and cast a goat Patronus; he insisted that the Death Eaters had mistaken his Patronus for a stag and that he had set off the alarm when he let out his cat. Reluctantly convinced, the Death Eaters strode back toward the High Street. Hermione came out from under the Cloak and sat down on a chair. Harry drew the curtains shut, then pulled the Cloak off himself and Ron. They could hear the man down below, rebolting the door of the bar, then climbing the stairs.[14]

The Hog's Head Inn

I knew my brother, Potter. He learned secrecy at our mother's knee. Secrets and lies, that's how we grew up, and Albus...he was a natural." —Aberforth describing his brother[src]

Harry's attention was caught by Sirius Black's half of his two-way mirror on the mantelpiece. He realised it was the man's eye he had been seeing in the mirror, and that this must mean that the man had sent Dobby to rescue them during the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor. From his resemblance to his late brother, Harry deduced that the man was Aberforth Dumbledore: the younger brother of the late Albus Dumbledore.[14]

Realising that the trio was hungry, Aberforth went out of the room and reappeared with bread, cheese, and a pewter jug of mead. Aberforth told them to wait for daybreak when the curfew would lift. Then they could get out of Hogsmeade, up into the mountains, and disapparated. Harry, however, refused and claimed that they needed to get into Hogwarts to complete the task Albus Dumbledore set them. Aberforth said that people had a habit of getting hurt when Albus was carrying out his grand plans.[14]

Aberforth told the young wizards to get away from the school, out of the country if they could; forget Dumbledore and his clever schemes. Harry pointed out that Aberforth was fighting as well, as he was part of the Order of the Phoenix, but Aberforth retorted that the Order was finished, that Voldemort had won, and that those still left serving in the Order fought a lost cause. Aberforth then said that Dumbledore was a natural at secrets and lies, a trait he learned from their father, Percival Dumbledore. Hermione timidly asked if the picture on the mantelpiece was of his sister, Ariana Dumbledore, and Aberforth confirmed this.[14]

Hermione said that Professor Dumbledore cared about Harry, very much, but Aberforth said that many of the people his brother genuinely cared about very much ended up in a worse state than if he had left them alone. When Hermione asked if Aberforth was talking about his sister, he burst into speech. He told them that when Ariana was six years old, the Dumbledore Family lived in Godric's Hollow; and she was attacked by three Muggle teenage boys, who tried to forcibly rape her; and that afterwards her magic turned inward and drove her mad, exploding out of her because she couldn't control it. Aberforth revealed this to his father Percival, who furiously went after the boys that harmed his daughter, attacking them all with the Cruciatus Curse; and was locked up in Azkaban for it by the Ministry Of Magic, when the family's neighbour Bathilda Bagshot witnessed the event and alerted the Ministry.[14]

The rest of the family was moved out by Aberforth's mother, Kendra Dumbledore, and Percival died in Azkaban. Albus was often too busy for Ariana, so she liked Aberforth best. Aberforth could get her to eat when she refused, and he could calm her down when she was in one of her mental rages. Then, when Ariana was fourteen, she accidentally killed her mother. Kendra's death resulted in Albus having to put aside his dreams and settle down as head of the family.[14]

Aberforth said Albus did all right for a few weeks- until Gellert Grindelwald, Bathilda Bagshot's nephew, arrived. Here was someone almost as bright and talented as Albus was; and so Albus and Gellert instantly became best friends; in particular, due to their shared obsession for magical equality concerning wizards and muggles. Ariana was neglected as the two of them planned a new secret wizarding order, wanting to end the International Statute Of Wizarding Secrecy and create a global monarchy where both worlds' lived together in permanent harmony. After a few weeks of this, Aberforth confronted the two of them about their treatment of his sister, which made Grindelwald angry. There was an argument, and Grindelwald subjected Aberforth to the Cruciatus Curse. Albus tried to stop Grindelwald, and the three boys began to duel fiercely. When the curses stopped, Ariana lay dead by an unknown hand.[14]

Aberforth then again told Harry to hide, but Harry knew that in war, sometimes you have to think about the greater good. Harry told Aberforth that Albus had taught him how to finish You-Know-Who, and he was going to keep going until he succeeded, or died. He also told Aberforth that no matter what Albus had done or been in the past, he wasn't that during the time Harry knew him. Harry said he wasn't interested in what happened between Albus and Aberforth, that he loved Albus with all his heart and spirit, and he also berated Aberforth for abandoning hope when it was most needed. Rejuvenated and inspired by Harry's bravery, Aberforth approached the portrait of Ariana and said "You know what to do." She smiled and walked along what seemed to be a long tunnel painted behind her. Aberforth said that there was only one safe way into Hogwarts left that was unknown to the Death Eaters.[14]

A tiny white dot suddenly appeared at the end of the painted tunnel, and now Ariana was walking back toward them, growing bigger and bigger as she came, with somebody else limping along beside her. The two figures grew larger until the painting swung forward on the wall like a door, and the entrance to a real tunnel was revealed. Out of the tunnel and onto the mantelpiece came a badly bruised and beaten Neville Longbottom, who gave a roar of enthusiasm upon seeing Harry and stated that he knew Harry would come, as it was only a matter of time. Neville proceeded to tell the trio that Hogwarts has changed greatly under the new evil regime.[7]

Entering the castle

" HARRY! It's Potter, it's POTTER!" —The Trio entering the Room of Requirement, being greeted by the D.A.[src]

Neville then led Harry, Hermione and Ron around a corner and up a steep flight of stairs that led to a door. As Harry followed, he heard Neville call out to unseen people, announcing Harry's arrival, and he, Ron, and Hermione were soon engulfed, hugged, pounded on the back, by what seemed to be more than twenty people.[7]

Neville told everyone to calm down, and Harry saw that they were in an enormous room with many multicoloured hammocks strung from the ceiling. The walls were covered with bright tapestry hangings: the gold Gryffindor lion, emblazoned on scarlet; the black badger of Hufflepuff, set against yellow; and the bronze eagle of Ravenclaw, on blue. There were bulging bookcases, a few broomsticks propped against the walls, and in the corner, large wooden-cased wireless. Neville revealed that they were in the Room of Requirement, which had expanded as more of Dumbledore's Army arrived. Seamus Finnigan told the trio that the DA had been hiding out there for nearly two weeks, as neither Headmaster Snape nor the Carrows could get in. The passage to the pub had appeared as the students got hungry, as the food was one of the few things the room could not provide. The room just kept making more hammocks as they were needed. Harry recognised Lavender Brown, both Patil twins, Terry Boot, Ernie Macmillan, Anthony Goldstein, and Michael Corner.[7]

Neville, who had become the leader of the group, said that he had used the Galleons that Hermione had bewitched in their fifth year to recall all of the D.A., and sure enough, past D.A. members such as the Weasley twins started arriving through the tunnel from the Hog's Head.[7]

Neville had informed a number of them that it was time to return to Hogwarts to fight and help Harry find whatever it was that he needed. When Harry realised how loyal they were being to him, he accepted help, telling them that Voldemort was on his way to Hogwarts and that he, Harry, needed to find something in the castle. When he asked about artefacts associated with Rowena Ravenclaw, Harry was told about her lost diadem, and he decided that it was almost certainly what Voldemort would have used for his Horcrux.[7]

Luna Lovegood took Harry to the Ravenclaw Common Room to see a statue of Rowena wearing the diadem so that he would know what to look for. They were caught thereby Alecto Carrow, who summoned Voldemort by way of the Dark Mark on her arm before being stunned by Luna. Amycus Carrow and Professor McGonagall then arrived in the room. Amycus decided that he would blame Alecto's (seemingly unnecessary) summoning of Voldemort on the students. McGonagall refused to allow him to put her students in danger, causing him to spit in her face in anger. Harry, outraged, used the Cruciatus Curse on him, revealing himself to McGonagall.[3]

Ousting of Severus Snape

Main article: Ousting of Severus Snape

"No! You'll do no more murder at Hogwarts!" —Filius Flitwick as he joins the duel[src]

McGonagall sent three Patronus cat messengers to summon the other Heads of House and started for the Great Hall with Harry and Luna following closely behind her. As they walked down from Ravenclaw Tower, they encountered Headmaster Snape in the hall. He continually darted his eyes about, perhaps suspecting that Harry was nearby. When asked what she was doing there, McGonagall claimed she heard a disturbance. She was evasive when asked about Harry, then slashed her wand through the air. Snape, faster, deflected her charm. She then waved her wand at a torch on the wall, making it fly off its bracket.[3]

The flames became a ring of fire that filled the corridor and flew like a lasso at Snape. Snape turned the descending flames into a great black snake that McGonagall blasted to smoke and turned into a swarm of daggers, which she directed towards him. The Headmaster pulled a suit of armour in front of him, which the daggers sank into with echoing clangs.[3]

Filius Flitwick and Pomona Sprout came running to McGonagall's aid with a huffing Slughorn lagging behind. Flitwick raised his wand, bewitching the suit of armour to attack Snape by crushing him. Outnumbered, Snape sent the suit of armour flying back against his attackers and dashed into a deserted classroom, where a loud crash was heard. Pursuing, McGonagall screamed, "Coward!" Uncloaked, Harry and Luna rushed inside to find that Snape had fled by leaping out the window in the form of a jet black stream of smoke.[3]

Harry thought that Snape was surely dead, but McGonagall bitterly commented that, unlike Dumbledore, Snape had a wand and had learned a few tricks from his master, Voldemort. Harry saw a large, bat-like figure soaring across the school grounds. Harry slid into Voldemort's mind again and saw an Inferi-filled lake. Voldemort leapt from the boat in a murderous rage, headed for Hogwarts.[3]

Preparations for battle

"Hogwarts is threatened! Man the boundaries, protect us, do your duty to our school!" —Minerva McGonagall commanding the suits of armour to protect the school[src]

McGonagall then ordered the students to be brought to the Great Hall. There, McGonagall and Kingsley Shacklebolt announced that the students old enough to fight could stay if they wanted, while younger students would be evacuated by Poppy Pomfrey and Argus Filch by way of the passage through the Hog's Head Inn. The professors set defensive charms and spell around Hogwarts to fend off Voldemort, although they all knew that no matter what protection they gave, Voldemort would eventually penetrate it. As Hogwarts Castle was being fortified, Harry asked Flitwick about Ravenclaw's diadem, but Flitwick informed him that it had not been seen "in living memory." Meanwhile, McGonagall enchanted the school's statues and suits of armour to help defend the castle and ordered Filch to summon Peeves the Poltergeist to aid in the defence.[3]

When Harry and Luna returned to the Room of Requirement, they found that even more people had arrived, including: Kingsley Shacklebolt, Remus Lupin, Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Bill Weasley, Fleur Delacour, Arthur Weasley, and Molly Weasley. Fred Weasley had alerted Dumbledore's Army, and they, in turn, summoned the Order of the Phoenix. As younger students were being evacuated, an argument broke out about underage Ginny Weasley, who wanted to help fight. Her mother eventually relented to the point of allowing Ginny to stay at Hogwarts if she stayed in the Room of Requirement. The Weasleys' estranged son Percy suddenly arrived, and loudly apologised to his family for not supporting them; the Weasleys immediately forgave him. Looking around, Harry wondered where Ron and Hermione were. Ginny told him they were attending to something having to do with a bathroom, leaving Harry puzzled.[3]

The Order of the Phoenix and the professors have agreed upon a battle plan and begin dividing into groups. As tension mounts over the approaching battle, Harry anxiously searches the room for Ron and Hermione, who were still missing.[3]

First half of the battle

Voldemort's ultimatum

"I know that you are preparing to fight. Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood. Give me Harry Potter, and they shall not be harmed. Give me Harry Potter and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight." —Lord Voldemort's ultimatum, leading to the Battle of Hogwarts[src]

Suddenly, Voldemort's magically amplified voice rang through the hall and heard throughout all of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. Voldemort informed the school that if they surrendered Harry to him by midnight, nobody in the school would be hurt. Pansy Parkinson, spotting Harry, stood and shrieked for someone to grab him; all of Gryffindor House rose in a mass, almost immediately followed by all of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, and as one drew their wands, indicating their willingness to fight for Harry. Professor McGonagall announced that all of Slytherin house would be evacuated, followed by the other Houses, through the passage through the Hog's Head Inn, though those of age were welcome to stay if they wished; though no Slytherins remained, a number of older Ravenclaws, a quarter of Hufflepuff and half of Gryffindor remained to fight. Prompted by Professor McGonagall, Harry set out again in search of the Horcrux. Heading down an empty corridor, he began to panic — he has no idea where to search for the Horcrux or where Ron and Hermione were. Although all those underaged were to be evacuated, two known students, Colin Creevey and Ginny Weasley, both of whom aged 16, sneaked back into the battlefield, directly defying the ordered evacuation.[3]

As the defenders of Hogwarts prepared to hold off Voldemort so that Harry could finish his search for the object of Ravenclaw's, the Death Eaters launched attacks on the castle but were kept from entering. The Hogwarts defenders were able to fend off the Death Eaters using an array of tactics: Professor Sprout and Neville planned to use dangerous plants from the greenhouses against the Death Eaters, such as lobbying mandrakes over the walls, Devil's Snare, Venomous Tentaculas and Snargaluff pods, as well as the bewitched suits of armour and wand duels. The whole castle shook with the force of the Death Eaters' sinister enchantments, and Harry met up with Aberforth Dumbledore and Rubeus Hagrid, his boarhound Fang, and his giant half-brother, Grawp, as they joined in defending the castle against Death Eaters. During the duels, portraits on the walls, including that of Sir Cadogan, rushed between their canvases screaming news from other parts of the castle or giving encouragements to the fighters.[2]

Skirmish at the Wooden Bridge

Main article: Skirmish at the Wooden Bridge

"Yeah, you and whose army?" —Neville Longbottom taunts Snatchers[src]

After Scabior tested if it was safe to cross the now-broken protections, the Snatchers charged into the Wooden Bridge. As Neville ran for the Clock Tower Courtyard, he briefly duelled Scabior before casting a spell that rebounded into the wooden beams producing a large explosion on the Sundial Garden-side of the Wooden Bridge.[15]

As the Snatchers fell into the ravine below, Neville threw himself onto the un-exploded part of the bridge, holding to the intact wooden beams, as Ginny Weasley, Seamus Finnigan, Cho Chang, Ernie Macmillan, Leanne, Padma Patil, and Nigel Wolpert managed to help him up.[15]

Onslaught at the Viaduct

Main article: Onslaught at the Viaduct

" GET INSIDE! Take cover! TAKE COVER!" —The protection surrounding the castle is broken[src]

As the giants made their way into the Viaduct the Viaduct Courtyard came under fire of the Death Eaters' curses, exploding much of the cloister. The suits of armour struggled against the giants on the Viaduct, managing to floor one, but they too came under Death Eater fire.[15]

Two giants died during this onslaught, one throttled by Devil's Snare vines placed by Professor Sprout and the other felled by the suits of armour.[15]

Skirmish at the quad battlements

Main article: Skirmish at the Quad battlements

While the giants struggled with the betwitched suits of armour in the Viaduct , the Death Eaters started casting curses at the Viaduct Courtyard and at the battlements around the Quad.

As part of the battlements shattered, a Death Eater managed to Apparate into the set of catwalks on which Order of the Phoenix members aimed spells. The Death Eater shot a Killing Curse, killing a wizard, and then fired another at Arthur Weasley, who responded with a red spell of his own which locked the two in battle.[15]

As another bald Death Eater (possibly being Jugson) tried to Apparate through one of the windows, he was spotted by Kingsley Shacklebolt, who hit him with a momentum-reversing spell which stopped him dead then sent him flying right back out to his death.[15]

Search for the diadem

"I stole the diadem. I sought to make myself cleverer, more important than my mother. I ran away with it. My mother, they say, never admitted that the diadem was gone, but pretended that she had it still. She concealed her loss, my dreadful betrayal, even from the other founders of Hogwarts." —Helena Ravenclaw recounting her past[src]

While the battle raged on, Harry thought about possible locations of the Ravenclaw-related Horcrux. All anyone seemed to associate with Ravenclaw was the Lost Diadem, but no one had seen the diadem in living memory. At this thought, Harry decided to ask a ghost, as they had been around much longer than anyone else. Harry found Nearly Headless Nick, and asked him where he might find the Ravenclaw house ghost. Somewhat miffed that Harry did not want his help, Nick pointed out the Grey Lady, and Harry eventually chased her down and asked if she knew anything about the diadem. After gaining her trust, she revealed that, during her life, she was Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter, Helena, and she stole the diadem from her mother to make herself cleverer.[2]

She revealed that she hid the diadem in a hollow tree in a forest in Albania, and she also ashamedly admitted to having told one other student about it, many years before. Harry privately thought that the Grey Lady was only one of many who had been hoodwinked by Tom Riddle's charms. Harry put together that Voldemort found the diadem in Albania, and brought it back to Hogwarts to hide it the night he asked Dumbledore for the Defence Against the Dark Arts job. Harry then remembered that Voldemort operated alone and may have been arrogant enough to think that he alone discovered Hogwarts secret of the Room of Requirement. Harry knew immediately that Voldemort had hidden the Lost Diadem there.[2]

Returning to the Room of Requirement, Harry found Ron and Hermione there. They informed him that Ron had opened the Chamber of Secrets by mimicking the Parseltongue language Harry had made to open the Locket Horcrux, and Hermione had recovered several Basilisk fangs, using one of them to destroy Helga Hufflepuff's Cup, one of the Horcruxes and recovering the others to destroy any future Horcruxes that they found. Reunited, the trio went to the Room of Requirement to search for the Horcrux.[2]

Ginny was inside, along with Tonks, and Mrs Longbottom (Neville's grandmother) who had sealed off the tunnel to the Hog's Head Inn. The three women soon left to join the battle, in order for the trio to change the setting of the Room of Requirement. When Ron said that he wanted to warn the house-elves, an overjoyed Hermione flung herself into Ron's arms, kissing him. He kissed her back, their unspoken feelings finally shared. The trio then entered the Room of Requirement, which Harry had re-opened as the junk storage warehouse where Voldemort had placed the diadem.[2]

Room of Requirement

Main article: Skirmish at the Room of Requirement

It was not normal fire; Crabbe had used a curse of which Harry had no knowledge: As they turned a corner the flames chased them as though they were alive, sentient, intent upon killing them. Now the fire was mutating, forming a gigantic pack of fiery beasts: Flaming serpents, chimaeras, and dragons rose and fell and rose again, and the detritus of centuries on which they were feeding was thrown up in the air into their fanged mouths, tossed high on clawed feet, before being consumed by the inferno." —Description of the Fiendfyre conjured by Vincent Crabbe[src]

Harry, Ron, and Hermione split up to search for the diadem within the mounds of hidden objects. As Harry found it, however, he was cornered by Draco Malfoy and his sidekicks, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. A fierce duel erupted; Hermione found Harry and his enemies and fired a Stunning Spell at Crabbe, which would have hit him had Malfoy not pulled him out of the way, and Crabbe responded with a Killing Curse which Hermione dodged. Infuriated that Crabbe had actually attempted murder, Harry fired a Stunning Spell at Crabbe, who inadvertently knocked Malfoy's wand out of his hand before firing a second Killing Curse at Ron, who pursued in rage while Goyle was Disarmed by Harry and Stunned by Hermione. Attempting to destroy them, Crabbe unleashed Fiendfyre, setting the room ablaze. The flames began to burn the multiple objects in the room.[2]

As the cursed fire consumed the whole room, Crabbe was lost amongst the flames, now looking terrified as he had no control over the flames. Harry spotted some old broomsticks and in order to escape from the conflagration, mounted them to escape. As they left, though, Harry saw Malfoy and the still unconscious Goyle and rescued them. He then saw the diadem being thrown about by the Fiendfyre and grabbed it as well, then he made for the door. They narrowly missed being killed by the inferno, and upon getting out of the room they collapsed on the hallway floor. As they flew out into the corridor, the door slammed shut behind them and vanished. Now landed, Harry watched as the diadem emitted a thin shriek and then fell apart in his hand. Hermione then mentioned that Fiendfyre was one of the few things capable of destroying Horcruxes.[2]

Harry realised that it was midnight, and Voldemort's forces had penetrated the castle's boundaries. Death Eaters, based on the Forbidden Forest, came streaming out in great numbers. Curses, hexes jinxes flew in every direction, lighting up the sky in green and red. Draco and Goyle disappeared into the battle, and the trio encountered multiple duelling witches and wizards.[2]

The trio was joined by Fred Weasley and Percy Weasley, each of them duelling a separate Death Eater. The hood of the Death Eater duelled by Percy slipped, revealing the opponent to be Pius Thicknesse, the Minister for Magic under the Imperius Curse by the Death Eaters, and Percy hit him with a sea urchin jinx, telling him to consider it his resignation, while Fred's opponent collapsed under three separate Stunning Spells. The moment when danger seemed at bay, however, ended when a massive explosion shattered the wall, blowing apart a side of the castle. As Harry and Hermione struggled through the rubble to see what happened, they realised with horror that Fred was dead. Seeking to protect Fred's body from further harm or desecration, Harry and Percy stuffed his body inside a crevice, and Percy left them into the battle, chasing after the Death Eater Augustus Rookwood.[4]

Reaching the Shrieking Shack

Hermione Granger: "Listen to me — LISTEN RON!'" Ron Weasley: "I wanna help — I wanna kill Death Eaters —" Hermione Granger: "Ron, we're the only ones who can end it! Please — Ron — we need the snake, we've got to kill the snake! [...] We will fight! We'll have to, to reach the snake! But let's not lose sight now of what we're supposed to be d-doing! We're the only ones who can end it!" — Hermione urging Ron not to forget the trio's mission[src]

As the trio and Percy stood in horror at the prospect of Fred being killed, more curses flew in at them from the darkness after a body fell past the hole blown into the side of the school. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione tried to get Percy to stop clutching to his dead brother so they could get out of danger, an Acromantula (one of Aragog's descendants) was trying to climb through the huge hole in the wall, but Ron and Harry blasted it backwards with a combined spell. However, more spiders were climbing the side of the building, driven out of the Forbidden Forest by the Death Eaters, who decided to use it as a base.[4]

Harry looked inside Voldemort's mind on Hermione's instruction to see where he and Nagini were. Harry subsequently discovered that he was in the Shrieking Shack, not even fighting, and had ordered Lucius Malfoy to find Severus Snape and bring him to the shack.[4]

Pulling back out of Voldemort's mind, Harry informed the other two what he saw and the two decided who should go to the Shack to kill Nagini. Before they came to an arrangement, the tapestry on the top of the staircase on which they stood was ripped open by two masked Death Eaters. Hermione shouted Glisseo, causing the stairs to flatten into a chute. Harry, Ron, and Hermione hurtled down it, went through the tapestry at the bottom, and hit the opposite wall. As the Death Eaters sped down the slide after them, Hermione cast the Hardening Charm, causing the tapestry to turn to stone and the Death Eaters crumpled as they hit it. They turned and saw Professor McGonagall leading a group of enchanted desks to gallop past them into the fray, ordering into battle with a cry of "CHARGE!". The three of them put on the Invisibility Cloak and ran down the next staircase.[4]

The trio, invisible, found themselves in a corridor full of duelers, masked and unmasked Death Eaters fighting students and teachers. Dean Thomas was face-to-face with Antonin Dolohov, while Parvati Patil was fighting Travers. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood braced, ready to help, Peeves zoomed over them dropping Snargaluff pods on the Death Eaters, whose heads were engulfed in wriggling green tubers. However, some of the slimy green roots hit the Cloak over Ron's head, and seeing the tubers suspended in midair, a Death Eater informed his fellows that there was an invisible person. Using the temporary distraction, Dean shot a Stunning Spell at the Death Eater and Dolohov had a Body-Bind Curse shot at him by Parvati before he could react.[4]

Pelting through the fighters, Harry, Ron, and Hermione viewed Draco Malfoy on the upper landing pleading with a Death Eater that he was on their side. Harry Stunned the Death Eater and Ron punched Draco from under the Cloak, commenting that it was the second time they saved him that evening. There were more duelers all over the stairs and in the entrance hall: Yaxley was close to the front doors in combat with Filius Flitwick, and a masked Death Eater duelling Kingsley Shacklebolt right beside them. Harry directed a Stunning Spell at the masked Death Eater, but it missed and almost hit Neville Longbottom, who emerged with armfuls of Venomous Tentacula, which happily began to attack the Death Eaters.[4]

As Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran down the marble staircase, the hourglass used to record Slytherin's house points was shattered and spilt its emeralds everywhere. At this moment, two bodies fell from the balcony overhead, and Fenrir Greyback sped toward one of the fallen to sink his teeth in. Hermione threw him backwards from Lavender Brown, and as he struggled to get up he was hit on the head with a crystal ball thrown by Professor Trelawney, who threw another through a window with a tennis serve-like movement.[4]

At that moment, the front doors burst open and the gigantic spiders forced their way in. Panicking at the sight of the massive arachnids, the duellists broke combat and, temporary allies, fired spells both lethal and non-lethal into the mass of spiders. Hagrid went to the spiders shouting for people not to hurt them, and he vanished into their midst as the spiders swarmed away from the onslaught of spells being fired at them. As Harry ran after him, a monumental foot almost crushed Harry. Looking up, he saw it belonged to a twenty-foot high giant, which proceeded to smash a fist through an upper window. Grawp came lurching around the corner, and the two giants launched themselves at each other savagely.[4]

The trio ran away from the giants, and as they were halfway toward the forest, A hundred Dementors glided toward them, sucking the happiness from Harry as they advanced; Hermione and Ron's Patronuses flickered and died. Filled with despair the last nine months had brought them along with the loss of Fred, Harry almost welcomed oblivion that would come with a Dementor's Kiss, but a silver hare, a boar, and fox soared past and impeded the Dementors' approach. Luna Lovegood, Ernie Macmillan, and Seamus Finnigan had arrived to save them. With the greatest effort it had ever cost him, Harry managed to conjure his stag Patronus, and the Dementors scattered in earnest.[4]

The trio sprinted to the Whomping Willow, the entrance to the Shack, knowing that destroying the snake and defeating Voldemort was the only way to end it. Panting and gasping over their sprint, the trio reached the tree and tried to find the single knot in the back that would paralyse the branches. Ron wondered where Crookshanks was when they could have used his help but Hermione reminded him that he is a wizard. So he used a Levitation Charm to cause a twig to fly up and jab the place near the roots, stopping the writhing branches instantly. Though Harry had second thoughts about leading Ron and Hermione exactly where Voldemort expected him to go, he realised that the only way forward was to kill the snake, the trio crawled along the underground secret passage that led to the Shrieking Shack.[4]

Snape's death

"The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Severus, because I am not its true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. You killed Albus Dumbledore. While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot truly be mine." —Voldemort shortly before killing Snape[src]

Before reaching the end of the tunnel, Harry put on the Invisibility Cloak and extinguished his lit wand. He then heard voices coming from the room directly ahead of him, muffled by a crate blocking the tunnel. Harry saw through the tiny gap between the crate and wall Nagini, swirling and coiling in her protective, floating enchanted sphere, and a long-fingered white hand toying with a wand.[4]

Snape, inches away from where Harry crouched, hidden, told Voldemort that the castle's resistance was crumbling, and Voldemort told Snape that there was no need for Snape to return to the fray. Snape offered to bring Potter to Voldemort in the Shrieking Shack, but Voldemort declined, changing the subject by saying that the Elder Wand has only performed his usual magic, that it had not revealed the legendary and extraordinary powers it was said to possess. Snape then begged Voldemort to let him return to the battle and find Potter, but Voldemort declined again, saying that the boy would come to him, as he would hate watching his friends die for him when handing himself over was the only way to stop it. Voldemort said his instructions to his Death Eaters had been perfectly clear: capture Potter alive. While they could kill as many of his friends as they wanted, they must not kill the boy.[4]

Snape protested, wishing to return and bring Voldemort the boy, but Voldemort angrily declined once again and asked Snape why both wands he used, his own wand and Lucius Malfoy's wand, failed when ordered to kill Harry. Voldemort told Snape that after both of the wands failed he sought the Elder Wand, the Deathstick, Wand of Destiny; he took it from the grave of Albus Dumbledore. Snape pleaded again to go to the boy, but Voldemort ignored him and told Snape that he had been wondering why the Elder Wand refused to be what it ought to be, and that believed he now had the answer.[4]

Voldemort told Snape that he had been a valuable and faithful servant and that he regretted what he had to do. Voldemort told Snape that the Elder Wand could not serve him properly because he was not the wand's true master, that the wand belonged to the wizard who killed its last owner. Mistakenly believing Snape to have won the wand's allegiance upon killing Albus Dumbledore, Voldemort surmised that while Snape lived, the Elder Wand would never truly belong to him. Thus, Voldemort believed that Snape had to die so that Voldemort could become the Elder Wand's true master.[4]

Snape tried to explain the situation, but Voldemort swiped the air with the Elder Wand before he could finish, and Nagini's cage began to roll through the air. Snape yelled as the protective sphere encased his head and shoulders. With no remorse, Voldemort ordered Nagini to kill Snape in Parseltongue. Snape screamed while Nagini's fangs pierced his neck. Believing that the wand would now truly do his full bidding, he pointed it at the starry cage holding the snake and caused it to drift upward, off Snape, who fell sideways onto the floor with blood gushing from the wounds in his neck. Without a backward glance, Voldemort swept from the room with the great serpent floating after him in its large protective sphere.[4]



After Voldemort left the shack with Nagini, Harry pointed his wand at the crate blocking his view, making it lift an inch into the air and drift sideways. Harry entered the room, not knowing why he was approaching the dying man, not knowing what to feel as he saw Snape's white face and as Snape tried to staunch the bloody wound at his neck. Harry took off the Invisibility Cloak and looked at the man who he hated, and Snape's black eyes widened upon seeing Harry and tried to speak. As Harry bent over him, Snape seized the front of Harry's robes and pulled him close.[4]

Snape, barely alive, told Harry to "Take it", and as he did so, silvery-blue wisps, neither gas nor liquid, were gushing from his mouth, ears, and eyes. Hermione conjured a crystal flask out of thin air, and Harry lifted the silvery substance into the flask with his wand. When the flask was full, Snape's grip on Harry's robes slackened and he asked to look into Harry's green eyes. Harry's green eyes looked into Snape's black eyes for a moment, before something in Snape's eyes vanished, the hand holding Harry's robes fell to the floor, and Snape's life ebbed away.[4]

One-hour armistice

"You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured. " —Voldemort calls an armistice[src]

Shortly after Snape's death, Lord Voldemort's magically amplified voice rang once more throughout the castle, speaking to everyone at Hogwarts, in Hogsmeade village, and specifically to Harry Potter, giving him one hour to surrender and threatened to kill everyone if he failed to comply. Subsequently, the defenders regrouped and the many wounded and dead lay in the Great Hall;[16] Professor Trelawney sobbed over the body of a deceased colleague, while Madam Poppy Pomfrey and Nurse Wainscott tended to the wounded.[15] Harry saw Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, and Nymphadora Tonks among the deceased. The Trio arrived on this miserable scene through a tunnel.[16]

Snape's Memories

"To escape into someone else's head would be a blessed relief. Nothing that even Snape had left him could be worse than his own thoughts." —Moments before Harry sees flashbacks of Snape's past.[src]

Unable to bear the sight and ashamed at the damage he had caused, Harry ran to the Headmaster's office, where all the portraits stood empty, and found Dumbledore's Pensieve. Harry poured Snape's memories into the Pensieve, and hoping to briefly escape his own mind, entered the basin. He found himself in a playground. A young, small boy, whom Harry recognised as Snape, was watching two girls, Petunia and Lily Evans, from behind a small bush. After Lily shows some strange tricks to her older sister, unaware she is performing magic, Snape emerges and informs Lily that she is a witch and derides Petunia as a Muggle. Insulted at being called a witch, Lily follows her indignant sister away, leaving Snape bitterly disappointed. It is apparent he was planning this for a while and it didn't go the way he wanted it to.[16]

The scene dissolved and reformed into a new one: Snape telling Lily about Hogwarts and magic, including Azkaban and the Dementors. When Lily inquired about Snape's parents, he said that they are still arguing, revealing Snape's unhappy home life. When Petunia appeared and insulted Snape, a tree branch above broke and fell on her. Accusing Snape of breaking the branch, Lily goes away, leaving him miserable and confused. The scene reformed again into a different memory. Snape was standing on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters next to a thin, sour-looking woman whom Harry recognised as Snape's mother. Snape was staring at Lily's family. Petunia and Lily were arguing. Petunia called Lily a freak for being a witch, and Lily retorted that Petunia had not thought so when she wrote to Professor Dumbledore, asking for admission to attend Hogwarts. An embarrassed Petunia realised that Lily and Snape went through her room and read her letter. She proceeded to insult them and they parted on bad terms and stayed on bad terms.[16]

The scene reformed once more, and inside the Hogwarts Express, Snape finds a compartment with Lily and two boys. She was upset over her sister's hurtful words. Snape began to say that she is only a Muggle but instead grandly announced that they finally were going off to Hogwarts. When he mentions she had better be in Slytherin, one of the boys, the young James Potter, scornfully remarks to his friend, Sirius Black, that he would rather leave than be in Slytherin, and preferred Gryffindor. Snape engaged in an argument with Sirius and James, until an indignant Lily asked Snape to follow her to a different compartment. The scene dissolved again into the Hogwarts' Great Hall during the House sorting ceremony. Lily was sorted into Gryffindor, much to Snape's dismay. Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and James Potter are also sorted into Gryffindor, joining Sirius Black. Finally, Snape is sorted into Slytherin. At the Slytherin table, he receives a pat on the back from a Prefect, Lucius Malfoy.[16]

The scene changed to Lily and Snape arguing. Lily said they were still friends, though she detests whom Snape hangs out with, naming Avery and Mulciber specifically. Snape counters by mentioning the trouble James Potter and his friends cause and hints that Lupin is a Werewolf too. The fight is resolved when Snape is satisfied when Lily criticises James as an "arrogant toerag." The scene switches for the sixth time and is the same memory Harry saw before when he peeked into Snape's Pensieve during their Occlumency lessons in his fifth year. Harry keeps his distance somewhat, not caring to witness this memory again. It ends when he hears Snape shouting "Mudblood" at Lily. The scene changes to night time in front of the Gryffindor Tower. Snape was remorseful for calling Lily a Mudblood and had threatened to sleep outside the entrance had she not come to see him. Despite his deep, desperate apologies, the angry Lily is fed up with Snape and will not forgive him, and disapproves of him having friends with Death Eater ambitions. She leaves him and the scene dissolves.[16]

Harry then learnt that Snape had revealed the prophecy made by Sybill Trelawney (not knowing, at first, that it was referring to Lily and her family) to Voldemort, prompting the Dark Lord to attack the Potters in an attempt to prevent its fulfilment. Though he asked Voldemort to spare Lily, Snape, still fearing for her safety, went to Dumbledore and begged him to protect the Potters. Dumbledore agreed and ensured that they were placed under the Fidelius Charm. In return, Snape became a re-doubled agent for the Order of the Phoenix against Voldemort, using his powers of Occlumency to hide his betrayal from his master. Even with his efforts to protect her, Snape felt responsible for Lily's death when the Potters were betrayed by their Secret-Keeper, Peter Pettigrew.[16]

The scene switched to Dumbledore's office. Snape, grief-stricken, was slumped in a chair with a grim-looking Dumbledore standing over him. Snape asked why Dumbledore failed to keep Lily and her family safe, Dumbledore replied that they put their faith in the wrong person, much like himself when he trusted Voldemort to spare Lily's life. He said that her son, Harry, survived. Snape wished he were dead with Lily, and Dumbledore told him that if he truly loved Lily, he would help protect Harry when Voldemort returned. Snape reluctantly agreed, making Dumbledore promise never to tell anyone that he was protecting James Potter's son, ever.[16]

In Snape's memories, Harry found that Snape, always loyal to Dumbledore because of a promise he had made out of his unrequited love for Harry's mother, had been playing a dangerous double game, protecting Harry and feeding Dumbledore information from the Death Eaters while pretending to be Voldemort's most loyal lieutenant all his life by feeding information to Voldemort that Dumbledore instructed him to. Snape demanded of Dumbledore, however, that his deep love for Lily (his reason for switching sides) be kept a secret. Dumbledore agreed and he kept the secret for the rest of his life.[16]

Snape's memories then revealed that Dumbledore had been afflicted by a powerful curse cast on Marvolo Gaunt's ring, one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, prior to the start of Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts. Although Snape's knowledge of the Dark Arts enabled him to slow the spread of the curse, the curse would have ultimately killed Dumbledore within a year. Dumbledore, aware that Voldemort had ordered Draco to kill him, asked Snape to kill him instead as a way of sparing the boy's soul and of preventing his own otherwise slow, painful death. Although Snape was reluctant, even asking about the impact of such an action on his own soul, Dumbledore implied that this kind of coup de grâce would not damage a human's soul in the same way murder would; mercifully ending a life is different. Snape eventually agreed to do as the Headmaster requested and a plan was formed.[16]

The memory showed Albus Dumbledore telling Snape that, if there is ever a time when Voldemort kept Nagini magically protected and always in his sight, Snape must then tell Harry that he is a seventh Horcrux, inadvertently created by Voldemort and that Harry must die in order for Voldemort to be killed. Snape felt tricked, upset that Dumbledore made him protect Lily's son only to have him die. Dumbledore asked if Snape had grown to care for Harry, but Snape spurned that possibility and produced his Patronus, a silver-white doe. Dumbledore asked Snape, "After all this time?", to which Snape replied, "Always."[16]

Many other details of Snape's behaviour were revealed in these memories as well: the scenes also showed Dumbledore's portrait telling Snape that he must give Voldemort the correct date of Harry's departure if Voldemort was to trust Snape. Snape was also to suggest the Potter decoys using Polyjuice Potion to Mundungus Fletcher so that Harry was indeed safe. It was then revealed that Snape, face-to-face with Mundungus in a tavern, used a Confundus Charm on Mundungus so that he would suggest using multiple Potters, and to forget seeing Snape or that he got the idea from him.[16]

The scene shifted yet again, to Snape gliding on a broomstick at night during the Battle of the Seven Potters. Up ahead are Lupin and George Weasley, disguised as Harry. Snape cast Sectumsempra at a Death Eater to prevent him from cursing Lupin, but the spell missed and hit George instead, severing his ear. The scene shifted again to Sirius's room at 12 Grimmauld Place. Snape wept as he read Lily's letter to Sirius. He took the second page containing Lily's signature, and tore out her image from the picture of her and Harry, then left.[16]

The scene shifted again and showed Snape in the headmaster's office. Phineas Nigellus' portrait said Hermione and Harry were in the Forest of Dean, and Dumbledore's portrait, appearing happy, told Snape to plant the sword of Gryffindor there without being seen. Snape said he had a plan, removed the real Sword from behind Dumbledore's portrait, and left. Harry returned to himself from the Pensieve, lying on the carpet in the same room he just saw Snape leaving.[16]

Thus, the memories Harry saw showed that the reason Snape was begging for Voldemort to let him find the boy shortly before his death when he saw Nagini in her protective sphere. While he made it seem to Voldemort that he was offering to bring Harry to him so that Voldemort could kill him. Snape truly wanted to find Harry to tell him the crucial information found in this memory. Voldemort killed Snape, believing that it would make him the true master of the Elder Wand, before Snape could tell Harry the information Dumbledore instructed him to, but luckily Harry witnessed Snape's death in the Shrieking Shack and Snape was able to deliver the memories and information to Harry as his final act.[2]

Harry's sacrifice

Finally, the truth. Lying with his face pressed into the dusty carpet of the office where he had once thought he was learning the secrets of victory, Harry understood at last that he was not supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into Death's welcoming arms. Along the way, he was to dispose of Voldemort's remaining links to life, so that when at last he flung himself across Voldemort's path and did not raise a wand to defend himself, the end would be clean, and the job that out to have been done in Godric's Hollow would be finished: Neither would live, neither could survive." —Harry coming to terms with the realisation that he must die[src]

Harry surfaced from the Pensieve and finally knew the truth; he was not meant to survive. His job had been to dispose of Voldemort's Horcruxes and then walk calmly to his death. As he lay on the floor of the Headmaster's office, Harry felt terror and fear at the knowledge that he had to die. He understood that Dumbledore had always planned for him to die, in order to defeat Voldemort.[17]

However, Harry realised that Dumbledore had overestimated him and that Nagini, the last Horcrux, remained to bind Voldemort to the Earth even after Harry had been killed. He knew that Ron and Hermione would have to carry out killing the snake after Harry was killed. Not wanting to waste time with goodbyes, Harry put on the Invisibility Cloak and went down the floors and saw Neville carrying a body in from the grounds with Oliver Wood, Harry recognised the body as Colin Creevey — he had sneaked back into the castle to fight despite being underage.[17]

Harry took one glance back at the entrance of the Great Hall, where people were kneeling beside the dead and comforting another, but he could not see Hermione, Ron, Ginny, the other Weasleys, or Luna. To make absolutely sure that Nagini was killed, he spoke to Neville, saying that just in case Neville got the chance, he must kill the snake. Now, like Dumbledore, Harry made sure that there were backups to carry on when he was dead, and that there would still be three people in on the Horcrux secret. Neville would take Harry's place.[17]

Harry swung the Cloak over himself and continued walking, but he stopped when he saw Ginny comforting a girl who was whispering for her mother. Harry wanted to shout out to Ginny, but he passed Ginny kneeling beside the injured girl without speaking. As he saw Hagrid's hut looming out of the darkness, dark and empty, he emotionally remembered all his trips there, particularly the rock cakes, Ron vomiting slugs, and Norbert. When he reached the edge of the forest, he felt the chill of a swarm of dementors. He had no strength left for a Patronus. He felt like he could not go on, but he knew that he must, the game was over, the Snitch had been caught. At this, he pulled out of the Snitch he had inherited from Dumbledore, the first Snitch he had ever caught, and understanding was coming to him quickly.[17]

Understanding inscription on the Snitch, I open at the close,. Harry pressed the golden metal to his lips and whispered, "I am about to die". The metal shell broke open, and Harry lit Draco's wand beneath the Cloak. He saw the black stone with the jagged crack running down the centre sitting in the two halves of the Snitch. The Resurrection Stone had cracked down the vertical line representing the Elder Wand. , Harry closed his eyes and turned the stone over in his hand three times.[17]

Harry opened his eyes and saw the shades of James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Lily Evans. Lily told Harry how brave he had been, and Sirius told him that death does not hurt at all. Harry, mostly addressing Lupin, told them all that he had not wanted any of them to die, especially because Lupin will never know his son, but Lupin said that he hoped his son would understand that he died to have the boy live a happier life. James told Harry that they would stay with him until the very end, and Sirius informed him that the others would not be able to see them, as they were a part of Harry and invisible to everyone else.[17]

They set off, and the Dementor's chill did not overcome him; his companions acted like Patronuses, and Harry continued deeper in the forest to find Voldemort. He heard a thud and a whisper, and Yaxley and Dolohov emerged from behind a nearby tree, with Yaxley saying he heard something and suggested that Harry was under his Invisibility Cloak. Deciding it must have been an animal, the two decided Harry's time to come was over and that they would return to the other Death Eaters to await orders.[17]

Harry followed them, knowing that they would lead him to Voldemort, and his mother and his father smiled in encouragement. In mere minutes, Harry saw Yaxley and Dolohov step into the clearing that once belonged to the monstrous Aragog. A fire burned in the middle of the clearing, and there was a crowd of Death Eaters around it. Two giants sat on the outskirts of the group. Harry noticed Lucius Malfoy looking defeated and terrified, while Narcissa had sunken eyes full of apprehension. Voldemort looked up at Dolohov and Yaxley, and they informed him that there was no sign of the boy. Voldemort told the Death Eaters that he expected Harry to come and that it appeared he was mistaken. Harry contradicted Voldemort as loudly as he could, while the Resurrection Stone slipped between his fingers. His parents, Sirius, and Lupin vanished. [17] Voldemort stood up and observed Harry. Harry did not attempt to attack Nagini, knowing she was too well protected. To the open view of the Death Eaters, Voldemort struck Harry with the Killing Curse, seemingly killing him.[17]

Limbo

Harry Potter: "But you're dead." Albus Dumbledore: "Oh yes." Harry Potter: "Then...I'm dead too?" Albus Dumbledore: "Ah. That is the question, isn't it? Oh the whole, dear boy, I think not." — Harry meeting Dumbledore[src]

Harry found himself laying face-down in a strange room. Not knowing the nature of this place, or its physical laws, he realised he was naked. As soon as he was aware of this, clothes appeared to him. Harry was concerned at a strange whimpering noise he could hear.[18]

Looking more closely at his surroundings, Harry saw a great domed glass roof glittering high above him, and he thought perhaps he was in a palace. Turning slowly on the spot, his surroundings invented themselves before his eyes; a wide-open space Harry recoiled as he spotted the thing making the noises. It had the form of a small, naked child curled on the ground, with raw and rough skin, flayed looking and shuddering under a seat where it had been left unwanted, struggling for breath. Harry was afraid of it, feeling both pity and revulsion. At that moment, a voice told Harry he could not help it, and he turned to see Albus Dumbledore striding towards him in sweeping robes of midnight blue; both his hands were white and undamaged.[18]

Dumbledore led Harry away to some seats away from the flayed child. The two sat down, and Harry looked at Dumbledore and saw everything he remembered about him. But, knowing Dumbledore was dead, Harry asked if he was dead as well. Dumbledore says this was not the case, and the fact that Harry willingly sacrificed himself would have made all the difference. With Dumbledore prompting him, Harry concluded that, because Harry let himself be killed by Voldemort, the part of Voldemort's soul that was in Harry had now gone. Harry's soul was whole and completely his own. Asking Dumbledore what the small, maimed creature trembling under the chair was, Dumbledore replied that it was something beyond either of their help. Harry asked how he could be alive when Voldemort used the Killing Curse and no one died for him this time, and Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort, in his ignorance, in his greed and his cruelty, used Harry's blood to rebuild his living body in 1995 in the graveyard of Little Hangleton. Thus, Harry's blood being in Voldemort's veins, Lily's protection was inside both of them, making it so Voldemort tethered Harry to life while he lived.[18]

Explaining further, Dumbledore revealed that Harry was the seventh Horcrux, a Horcrux that Voldemort did not mean to make. When Voldemort tried to kill Harry, his soul broke apart, and Voldemort left more than his body behind: a piece of his soul latched to Harry, his would-be victim. Voldemort remained ignorant of some forms of magic, and he thus took Harry's blood in an attempt to strengthen himself by taking into his body a tiny part of the enchantment that Lily laid upon Harry upon her death. Voldemort's body kept her sacrifice alive, and while that enchantment survived, so did Harry and so did Voldemort's one last hope for himself.[18]

Harry then asked why his wand broke the wand that Voldemort borrowed. Dumbledore told him that Voldemort, having doubled the bond between them when he returned to human form ( thinking to strengthen himself, he took part of Harry's mother's sacrifice into himself) proceeded to attack Harry with a wand that shared Harry's wand's core. The cores reacted in Priori Incantatem, something Voldemort, who never knew that his wand and Harry's shared the same core, had never expected. That night, when Harry accepted, even embraced the possibility of death, Harry's wand overpowered Voldemort's, and something happened between the wands that echoed the relationship between their masters. Dumbledore believed that Harry's wand imbibed some of the power and qualities of Voldemort's wand that night, that it contained a little of Voldemort himself.[18]

During the Battle of the Seven Potters, Harry's wand recognised Voldemort when the Dark Lord pursued Harry, and it regurgitated some of Voldemort's own magic against him, magic much more powerful than anything Lucius's wand had ever performed; Lucius's wand had no chance against the combined power of Harry's enormous courage against Voldemort's own deadly skill. Dumbledore explains that Harry's wand's remarkable effects were directed only at Voldemort, who had tampered with the deepest laws of magic, and otherwise it was a wand like any other and so Hermione was able to break it.[18]

Dumbledore told Harry that they could agree that Harry was not dead, and then Harry asked Dumbledore where they were. Dumbledore asked Harry the same question, to which Harry replied that it looked somewhat like King's Cross Station except cleaner and empty, and without any trains. Dumbledore chuckled at this suggestion, and when Harry asked what Dumbledore thought it looked like, Dumbledore replied with an infuriatingly unhelpful response. Harry then brought up the subject of the Deathly Hallows, which wiped the smile from Dumbledore's face. Dumbledore asked Harry to forgive him for not telling Harry, that Dumbledore feared that Harry would failed as he had failed, and make Dumbledore's mistakes. Dumbledore says that Harry is the better man, and with tears in his eyes he says that the Hallows are a desperate man's dream and lure for fools, and that Dumbledore was one such fool. Dumbledore tells Harry that he, too, sought a way to conquer death, and so he was not better, ultimately, than Voldemort, to which Harry protests, saying that Dumbledore tried to master death using the Hallows, whereas Voldemort tried to conquer death with the use of Horcruxes, by murdering.[18]

Dumbledore told Harry that above all, the Deathly Hallows were the objects that drew him and Grindelwald together; two clever, arrogant boys with a shared obsession. The Hallows were the reason Grindelwald wanted to come to Godric's Hollow to explore the place where Ignotus Peverell, the third brother, had died. Dumbledore reveals that the Peverell brothers were in fact the three brothers of the tale, but that it is more likely that they were simply gifted, dangerous wizards who succeeded in creating the powerful objects rather than them being Death's own Hallows, that this was the sort of legend that would have sprung up around the creations. The Cloak of Invisibility travelled down through the ages to Ignotus's last living descendant, who was born, like Ignotus, in Godric's Hollow: Harry. Dumbledore revealed that the Cloak was in his possession the night Harry's parents died because James had shown it to him a few days previously, and while Dumbledore had long since given up his dream of uniting the Hallows, he still wished to examine it, as it was a Cloak that matched the description of the tale perfectly.[18]

Dumbledore told Harry that he gave up on his search for the Hallows because of what happened, and that Harry cannot despise him as much as he despised himself. He told Harry that he resented the responsibility of his sister's poor health, and that his father died in Azkaban and his mother giving up her own life to care for Ariana. He revealed that he was gifted, brilliant, he wanted to escape, to shine, to have glory, and while he loved his brother and sister and parents, he disliked having the responsibility of a damaged sister and a wayward brother; he felt like his talent was trapped and wasted. Then Grindelwald came, with his ideas of Muggles forced into subservience and wizards triumphant, Grindelwald and Dumbledore being the leaders of the revolution. Dumbledore revealed that he had scruples, but he assuaged his conscience with empty words about it being for the greater good and any harm done would be repaid in benefits for wizards. Dumbledore closed his eyes to what Grindewald truly was, because if their plans came to fruition all of Dumbledore's dreams would come true.[18]

At the heart of Dumbledore and Grindewald's schemes were the Deathly Hallows. Dumbledore told Harry how interested they were in the fascinating objects: the unbeatable wand that would lead them to power, the Resurrection Stone—to Grindewald it meant an army of Inferi and to Dumbledore it meant the resurrection of his parents and the lifting of all responsibility from his shoulders. Dumbledore told Harry that he and Grindelwald never discussed the Cloak much. Both of them could conceal themselves perfectly fine without the Cloak, and Dumbledore thought it might be useful in hiding Ariana, but mostly they were interested in the Cloak because it completed the trio, which would make them Master of Death, which they took to mean "invincible". After the two months of scheming and neglect of the two family members left to him, Dumbledore was forced to face reality with his brother, Aberforth, telling him the truth that he could not seek the Hallows with an unstable sister. The argument became a fight, and Ariana lay dead on the floor. At this, Dumbledore began to cry in earnest, and then said that Grindelwald fled while Dumbledore was left to bury his sister and live with his guilt and grief, the price of his shame.[18]

Dumbledore then said that he was offered the post of Minister for Magic while rumours about Grindewald procuring a wand of immense power flew about. Harry told Dumbledore that he would have been a much better Minister than Fudge or Scrimgeour, but Dumbledore said that he had learned at a young age that he was not to be trusted with power, that it was his weakness and his temptation, and that those who are best suited to power are perhaps those who have leadership thrust upon them and have never sought it.[18]

While Dumbledore was at Hogwarts as a teacher, where he believed he was safer, Grindewald was raising an army, and that some said he feared Dumbledore, but not as much as Dumbledore feared him. It was not what Grindelwald could do to him magically (as Dumbledore knew that they were about evenly matched) that Dumbledore feared, rather Dumbledore was afraid of truth; which one of them had cast the curse that killed Ariana during that last horrific fight. Dumbledore dreaded beyond all things the knowledge that it had been him who had brought about Ariana's death, not just through his arrogance and stupidity but that he actually struck the blow that killed her. Dumbledore delayed facing Grindelwald until it became shameful. People were dying, and Dumbledore did what he had to do. He won the duel and won the Elder Wand's allegiance.[18]

Harry did not ask whether Dumbledore had ever found out who struck Ariana dead, and at last he knew what Dumbledore would have seen when he look in the Mirror of Erised. After a long silence, during which the whimperings of the creature behind them barely disturbed Harry anymore, Harry told Dumbledore that Grindelwald had tried to stop Voldemort from going after the wand by lying and pretending he never had it. Dumbledore nodded, and said that Grindelwald was said to have shown remorse in later years, alone in his cell at Nurmengard, and that perhaps that lie to Voldemort was his attempt to make amends, to stop Voldemort from taking the Hallow, or (as Harry suggested) to stop Voldemort from breaking into Dumbledore's tomb.[18]

After another short pause, Harry brought up that Dumbledore had tried to used the Resurrection Stone, to which Dumbledore nodded. He said that when he discovered it, after all those years buried in the abandoned home of the Gaunts, he lost his head and quite forgot that it was now a Horcrux and that the ring was sure to carry a curse. He picked it up, put it on, and for a second Dumbledore imagined that he was able to see Ariana and his parents again, and to apologise, but instead he suffered from the curse placed on the Horcrux ring. Dumbledore said that this was final proof that he was unworthy to unite the Hallows, that after all those years he had learned nothing. Harry defended him, saying that it was only natural for him to want to see his family again, but Dumbledore said that he was only fit to possess the Elder Wand, and only to use it to protect others from it. The Cloak, Dumbledore said, he had taken out of a vain curiosity, and so it would never have worked for him like it worked for Harry, its true master. Dumbledore said that he would have used the stone to drag back those who are at peace, rather than to enable his self-sacrifice, as Harry did. At this, Dumbledore said that Harry was the worthy possessor of the Hallows.[18]

Harry asked Dumbledore why he had to make it all so difficult, and Dumbledore smiled as he admitted he counted on Hermione Granger to slow Harry up. Dumbledore said he was afraid that Harry's hot head might dominate his good heart, and that Dumbledore feared that, if presented outright with the facts about the tempting objects, Harry might have tried to seize the Hallows like Dumbledore did, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. If Harry laid hands on them, Dumbledore wanted him to possess them safely. Dumbledore said that Harry was the true master of death because the true master does not seek to run away from death, but instead accepts that he must die and understands that there are worse things in the living world than dying.[18]

When Harry asked if Voldemort ever knew about the existence of the Hallows, Dumbledore said that he did not believe so. He did not recognise the Resurrection Stone he turned into a Horcrux, but even if he had known about them, Dumbledore doubted that Voldemort would have been interested in any except the Elder Wand, as Voldemort would not think he needed the Cloak, and whom would be want to bring back from the dead with the stone, as he fears the dead and does not love. Despite this, Dumbledore did believe that Voldemort would go after the wand ever since Harry's beat Voldemort's own during the duel in Little Hangleton. At first, Voldemort was afraid that Harry had conquered him by superior skill. However, after kidnapping Ollivander, he discovered the existence of the twin cores, and he thought that a borrowed wand would solve the issue. Yet the borrowed wand did no better against Harry's, and so Voldemort went after the Elder Wand, a wand that was said to beat any other. Dumbledore said that he did indeed intend for Severus Snape to end up with the Elder Wand by planning Snape to kill him, but Harry and Dumbledore both agree that that particular plan did not work out in the end.[18]

Harry and Dumbledore sat without talking for the longest time yet, while the creature behind them jerked and moaned. The realisation of what would happen next gradually settled on Harry, and he asked Dumbledore if he had to go back. Dumbledore replied that Harry had a choice, and that if they were in King's Cross Harry had the decision to go back, or to board a train and go "on". Harry mentioned that Voldemort has the Elder Wand, and while Dumbledore confirmed this, he said that if Harry chose to return there was a strong chance that Voldemort would be finished for good.[18]

Dumbledore said he could not promise this, but that Harry had less to fear from returning where they were than Voldemort did. Harry glanced at the raw-looking thing that trembled and choked in the shadow beneath the distant chair, but Dumbledore told Harry not to pity the dead, but instead to pity the living, especially those who live without love. He told Harry that by returning, Harry could ensure that fewer souls were injured and fewer families torn apart, as Harry had a strong possibility of being able to defeat Voldemort once and for all.[18]

Dumbledore said that if that seemed like a worthy goal, they would part for the time being. Harry nodded and sighed, knowing that leaving this place would not be as difficult as walking into the forest, but it was warm and light and peaceful and he knew that he would be going back to pain and the fear of more loss. Harry stood up, as did Dumbledore, and they looked at each other. Harry then asked if this was all real, or whether it had simply been happening inside his head. Dumbledore smiled, and as the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure, his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry's ears as he told Harry that it was definitely happening inside Harry's head, but by no means should that mean it was not real.[18]

Second half of the battle

Procession from the forest

Lord Voldemort: "You... Examine him. Tell me whether he is dead." Narcissa Malfoy: "He is dead!" — Narcissa announces that Harry is supposedly dead[src]

Harry found himself lying face down on the hard ground again, with the smell of the forest in his nostrils and the hinge of his glasses, which were knocked sideways when he fell, cutting into his temple. He was aching, and the place where the Killing Curse hit him felt like the bruise of a painful punch, but he feigned death by remaining exactly where he had fallen with his left arm bent out at an awkward angle and his mouth open. Harry expected to hear cheers of triumph and jubilation at his death, but instead he heard hurried footsteps, whispers, and solicitous murmurs filling the air.[5]

He then heard Bellatrix's voice, speaking as if to a lover as she addressed Voldemort. Harry, not daring to open his eyes, allowed his other senses to explore his situation, and he found that his wand was stowed beneath his robes and due to a slight cushioning effect around his stomach, he knew that the Invisibility Cloak was also there. Bellatrix addressed Voldemort again, but he cut her off. Harry heard more footsteps, and several people backed away from the same spot. Opening his eyes a millimetre, Harry saw that Voldemort seemed to be getting to his feet with various Death Eaters hurrying away from him, with only Bellatrix remaining kneeled beside him.[5]

Harry closed his eyes and considered what he saw. The Death Eaters had been huddled around Voldemort, who seemed to have fallen to the ground; perhaps Voldemort had also collapsed when he hit Harry with the Killing Curse. Both of them had fallen briefly unconscious and both of them had now returned. Voldemort declined Bellatrix's offer of assistance coldly, and asked if the boy was dead. There was complete silence in the clearing as no one approached Harry, and with a bang and a small shriek of pain Voldemort ordered someone to examine Harry and then tell him whether the boy was dead.[5]

Voldemort himself was wary of approaching him, as he suspected not everything had gone according to plan. Harry felt a woman's hands touch his face, pull back an eyelid, creep beneath his shirt, down to his chest, and feel his heart.[5]

Harry's fear intensified, knowing that she could feel the steady pounding of his heartbeat against his ribs. In a barely audible whisper, with her lips an inch from Harry's ear and her long hair shielding his face from the onlookers, the woman asked if Draco was alive and in the castle. Harry breathed back a "yes". Getting to her feet, Narcissa Malfoy falsely announced to the watchers that the boy was indeed dead.[5]

Now the Death Eaters shouted, yelling in triumph and stamping their feet, and Harry saw through his eyelids bursts of red and silver light shoot into the air in celebration. Still feigning death on the ground, Harry understood that Narcissa no longer cared whether Voldemort won, and so she lied to the Dark Lord knowing that the only way she would be permitted to enter Hogwarts, and find her son, was as part of the conquering army. Screeching over the tumult, Voldemort announced that now, with Harry Potter dead by his hand, no man could ever threaten him. Voldemort then cast the Cruciatus Curse on Harry's body, believing that his body must not be allowed to remain unsullied upon the floor but must be subjected to humiliation to prove Voldemort's victory. Harry was lifted into the air, and he tried as hard as he could to remain limp, yet the pain he expected from the Torture Curse did not come. He was thrown three times into the air, and his glasses fell off while his wand slid a little beneath his robes, and he kept himself floppy and lifeless. When he fell to the ground for the last time, the clearing was still echoing with jeers and shrieks of laughter.[5]

Voldemort then announced that they would go to the castle to display the defenders of Hogwarts what had become of Harry. Voldemort decided that Hagrid should carry Harry's body, as the boy would be nice and visible in Hagrid's arms, and Harry felt his glasses slammed onto his face with deliberate force when Voldemort ordered that he wear the glasses to be recognisable. The enormous hands that lifted Harry up were exceedingly gentle, and Harry could feel Hagrid's arms trembling with the force of his sobs; great tears splashed down upon him as Hagrid cradled Harry in his arms, but Harry did not dare to tell Hagrid that all was not, yet, lost. Voldemort commanded Hagrid to move, and Hagrid stumbled forward as he forced his way through the close-growing trees back through the forest. Branches caught at Harry's hair and robes, but he continued to feign death with his mouth lolling open and his eyes shut and in the darkness, with the Death Eaters crowing all around them and Hagrid still sobbing, no one looked to see if a pulse beat in Harry's exposed neck.[5]

Two giants crashed along behind the Death Eaters, and Harry could hear trees creaking and falling as they passed. The giants made so much noise that the birds rose shrieking into the sky, and even the jeers of the Death Eaters were drowned. The victorious procession continued to march on toward the open ground, and Harry could tell, after a while, by the lightening of the darkness through his closed eyelids, that the trees were beginning to thin. Then, Hagrid unexpectedly bellowed at Bane and the other centaurs for not fighting, asking them if they were happy that Harry was dead, but he broke down in fresh tears and couldn't finish. Harry could not tell how many centaurs watched their procession pass, and he heard of some Death Eaters calling insults at the centaurs as they left them behind. A little later, Harry sensed, by a freshening of the air, that they had reached the edge of the forest, and Voldemort commanded Hagrid to stop and due to Hagrid's lurch, Harry suspected that the gamekeeper had been forced to obey. A chill began to settle over them, and Harry heard the rasping breath of dementors that patrolled the outer trees. However, the fact of his own survival burned inside of him, acting like a Patronus in his heart.[5]

Announcing Harry Potter's alleged death

"Harry Potter is dead. He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him. 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 well every member of their family. Come out of the castle now, kneel before him, 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." —Voldemort announcing Harry's supposed death to the inhabitants of Hogwarts[src]

Voldemort, his voice magically magnified, announced that Harry was dead and that he was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself. He told the defenders of Hogwarts that his Death Eaters outnumbered them and the Boy Who Lived was finished. Calling for no more war, Voldemort threatened that anyone who continued to resist would be killed, but that those who came out and knelt before him would be forgiven and spared.He then claimed that there must be no more conflict, offering the survivors the chance to join the Death Eaters and help the Dark Lord build a New World Order together. Voldemort strode in front of the procession, followed by a weeping Hagrid carrying Harry's supposed dead body, and wearing Nagini, now free of her enchanted cage, around his shoulders. Hagrid continued to sob, and Harry strained his ears to distinguish above the gleeful voice of the Death Eaters and their footsteps any sign of life from those within the castle.[5]

The Death Eaters came to a halt, and Harry could see through his closed lids light streaming upon him from the Entrance Hall. Harry waited for the moment when the people for whom he had tried to die would see him, lying apparently dead, in Hagrid's arms. The first of the resistance to see Harry was Professor McGonagall, whose scream of anger, despair and denial was all the more terrible to Harry's ears because he had never imagined her capable of such a noise. The mocking laughter of another woman nearby was heard, and he knew it was Bellatrix glorying in McGonagall's despair. Harry squinted again for a single second and saw the open doorway filling with people, as the survivors of the battle came out onto the front steps to face the Death Eaters and see the truth of Harry's death for himself.[5]

Harry saw Voldemort standing a little in front of him, stroking Nagini's head with a single white finger. He then heard Ron, Hermione and Ginny's shouts of horror, even worse than McGonagall's, but Harry forced himself to remain lying silent. Their cries acted like a trigger, and the rest of the survivors began screaming and yelling abuse at the Death Eaters until Voldemort cried for silence and with a bang and flash of bright light, silence was forced upon them all.[5]

Voldemort ordered Harry to be lowered down and set at his feet, and he proclaimed to the survivors that Harry Potter was nothing but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him. Ron then yelled and cursed at Voldemort, claiming that Harry was always better than him, and the charm broke and the defenders of Hogwarts were shouting and screaming again until another bang extinguished their voices once more. Voldemort lied once more that Harry was killed when trying to sneak out of the castle grounds, but he was interrupted by a scuffle and a shout, then a bang, a flash of light, and a grunt of pain. Opening his eyes slightly, Harry saw that someone had broken free of the crowd and charged at Voldemort, but hit the ground, disarmed, and Voldemort laughed as he threw the challenger's wand aside.

Voldemort asked the crowd who had stepped forth to show what happened to people who continued to fight when the battle was lost. Laughing delightedly, Bellatrix answered that it was Neville Longbottom, the student in particular who had been giving the Carrows so much trouble, and son of the Aurors, Frank and Alice Longbottom. Voldemort turned back to a defenceless Neville, who was standing between the survivors and Death Eaters. Impressed by Neville's bravery, Voldemort claimed that Neville would be a very valuable Death Eater; but the latter instantly refused and showed his full allegiance to Dumbledore's Army, and there was an answering cheer from the crowd, whom Voldemort's wand bangs seemed unable to hold. Voldemort answered in a dangerous, silky voice that, if that was Neville's choice, they would revert to the original plan.[5]

Still watching through his lashes, Harry saw Voldemort wave his wand, and out of one of the castle's windows came the ragged Sorting Hat. Voldemort announced that there would be no more Sorting at Hogwarts; Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw would be no more. In his mind, the colours of Salazar Slytherin would suffice for everyone. He pointed his wand at Neville, who grew rigid and still as Voldemort cast a Full Body-Bind Curse on him, then Voldemort forced the hat onto Neville's head. There were movements from the watching crowd, but the Death Eaters raised their wands as one and held the fighters of Hogwarts at bay. With a flick of his wand, Voldemort caused the Sorting Hat on Neville's head to burst into flames.[5]

Inside the Great Hall

Main article: Skirmish at the Great Hall

"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 seemed to draw every eye. With a single stroke Neville sliced 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 as open in a scream of fury that nobody could hear, and the snake's body thudded to the ground at his feet —" —Neville beheading Nagini[src]

There was screaming as Neville, aflame, stood rooted to the spot and unable to move, and just as Harry planned to act, several things happened simultaneously. There was an uproar from the distant boundary of the school as what sounded like hundreds of people came swarming over the out-of-sight walls and pelted toward the castle with loud war cries. At the same time, Grawp came around the side of the castle, and when he saw that his brother Hagrid was captured; he furiously yelled "HAGGER!", and Voldemort's giants roared in return and ran at Grawp like bull elephants, making the ground tremble beneath them. Grawp, showing no fear despite actually being a young giant himself; flung himself at the oncoming giants and began to pummel and floor them. There was then the sound of hooves and the twangs of bows as the centaurs, ending their neutrality, joined the fray. Arrows began falling amongst the Death Eaters, who broke ranks shouting in surprise.[5]

Harry pulled the Invisibility Cloak from inside his robes, swung it over himself, and sprang to his feet while Neville moved at the same time. In one swift, fluid motion, Neville broke free of the Body-Bind curse placed upon him, and the flaming hat fell from his head and he drew from inside it something silver, with a glittering, rubied handle: the Sword of Godric Gryffindor, once more brought into the fray to assist the good. The slash of the silver blade could not be heard over sounds of battle; the clashing giants and the stampeding centaurs, though it seemed to draw every eye. With a single stroke Neville sliced off Nagini's head, which flew spinning into the air and as Voldemort let out of a scream of fury that no one could hear, the snake's body thudded to the ground.[5]

Still hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, Harry cast a Shield Charm between Neville and Voldemort before the latter could try to attack the boy. Then, over the screams and the roars and the thunderous stamps of the battling giants, Hagrid yelled for Harry, asking where Harry was. There was chaos as the charging centaurs scattered the Death Eaters and everyone fled from the giants' stamping feet, and nearer and nearer thundered the reinforcements. Harry saw great winged creatures soaring around the heads of Voldemort's giants, thestrals and Buckbeak the hippogriff scratching at their eyes while Grawp punched and pummelled them. Both defenders of Hogwarts and Death Eaters were being forced back into the castle, and Harry was shooting jinxes, hexes and curses at any Death Eater he could see, and they crumped without knowing who or what had hit them, while their bodies were trampled by the retreating crowd. Hidden beneath the Cloak, Harry was buffeted into the entrance hall. He saw Voldemort across the room firing spells from his wand as he backed into the Great Hall while screaming instructions to his followers as he sent curses everywhere, while Harry cast more Shield Charms while Voldemort's would-be victims, Seamus Finnigan and Hannah Abbott, ran past him into the Great Hall and joined the fight inside.[5]

There were even more people storming up the front steps, and Harry saw Charlie Weasley overtaking Horace Slughorn, who was still wearing his emerald pyjamas, leading what looked like the families and friends of every Hogwarts student who remained to fight, along with the shopkeepers and homewoners of Hogsmeade. The centaurs Bane, Ronan, and Magorian burst into the hall with clattering hooves, as behind Harry the door that led to the kitchens was blasted off its hinges; the house-elves of Hogwarts swarmed into the entrance hall screaming and waving carving knives and cleavers. At their head, with locket of Regulus Black bouncing on his chest, was Kreacher, yelling at his compatriots to fight the Dark Lord in the name of his master's sacrifice. The house-elves were hacking and stabbing at the ankles and shins of Death Eaters with their tiny faces alive with malice, and everywhere Harry looked the Death Eaters were folding under sheer weight of numbers, overcome by spells, dragging arrows from wounds, stabbed in the leg by elves, or else simply attempted to escape but swallowed by the charging army.[5]

The death of Bellatrix Lestrange

Main article: Duel between Molly Weasley and Bellatrix Lestrange

Harry sped between duellists, past struggling prisoners, and into the Great Hall, where he saw Voldemort in the centre of the battle striking and smiting all within reach. Harry could not get a clear shot of him, but he fought his way closer, still invisible, and the Great Hall became more and more crowded as everyone who could walk forced their way inside. Harry watched as the Death Eaters, outnumbered by the defenders and allies of Hogwarts, were taken down one by one: Yaxley was slammed to the floor by George Weasley and Lee Jordan, and, screaming in pain, Dolohov fell to the floor at Flitwick's hands. Having recognised him from Buckbeak's trial, Hagrid threw Walden Macnair across the room. He hit the wall and slid unconscious to the ground. Ron and Neville brought down Fenrir Greyback, Aberforth hit Rookwood with a Stunning Spell, and Arthur and Percy floored Thicknesse. During the chaos, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy ran through the crowd, not even attempting to fight, screaming for their son Draco Malfoy.[5]

Eventually, all the Death Eaters were either killed or defeated with only Voldemort and Bellatrix left standing. Voldemort was now duelling McGonagall, Slughorn, and Kingsley simultaneously, and there was cold hatred in his face as they wove and ducked around him, putting up a good fight but unable to finish him. Bellatrix was still fighting as well, fifty yards away from Voldemort, and like her master she duelled three at once: Hermione, Ginny, and Luna, each of the three girls battling their hardest but Bellatrix, battling fiercely, was equal in power to the three of them. Almost to Voldemort, Harry's attention was diverted as Bellatrix fired a Killing Curse that shot so close to Ginny that she missed death by an inch, and he changed course, running after Bellatrix rather than Voldemort. Before he had gone a few steps, he was knocked sideways as an enraged Molly Weasley, throwing off her cloak to free her arms, ran at Bellatrix, furious at the Death Eater's attempted murder of her daughter.[5]

Bellatrix roared with laughter at the sight of her new challenger, and Molly ordered the girls to step aside. With a swipe of her wand she began to duel. Harry watched as Molly Weasley's wand slashed and twirled, and Bellatrix Lestrange's smile faltered and became a snarl. Jets of light flew from both wands, the floor around their feet became hot and cracked, both witches were fighting to kill. As a few students ran forward, trying to come to her aid, Mrs Weasley shouted for them to get back and leave Bellatrix to her. Hundreds of people now lined the walls, watching the two fights: Voldemort and his three opponents, Bellatrix and Molly, while Harry stood invisible, torn between both, wanting to attack and yet to protect, unable to be sure that he would not hit the innocent.[5]

As Bellatrix, as mad as her master, taunted Molly about the death of Fred Weasley even as Molly's curses came within inches of her, Molly screamed that Bellatrix would never touch her children again. Bellatrix laughed, the same exhilarated laugh that her cousin Sirius had given as he toppled backward through the veil, and Harry suddenly knew what was going to happen before it did. Molly's well-aimed curse soared beneath Bellatrix's outscretched arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart. Bellatrix's gloating smile froze, her eyes seemed to bulge; for a split second she knew what had happened, and then she toppled, the watching crowd roared, and Voldemort screamed.[5]

Harry felt as though he turned in slow motion. He saw McGonagall, Kingsley, and Slughorn blasted backward, flailing and writhing through the air, as Voldemort's fury at the fall of his last, best lieutenant exploded with the force of a bomb. Voldemort raised his wand and directed it at Molly Weasley, but Harry roared Protego and the Shield Charm expanded in the middle of the Hall, and Voldemort stared around for the source as Harry pulled off the Invisibility Cloak at last.[5]

Endgame

Harry Potter: "I don't want anyone else to try to help. It's got to be like this. It's got to be me." Lord Voldemort: "Potter doesn't mean that. That isn't how he works, is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter?" Harry Potter: "Nobody. 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 [...] " — Harry talking to Voldemort before their final duel[src]

The yells of shock, cheers, and screams of delight at Harry's appearance were stifled, and silence fell abruptly and completely as Voldemort and Harry stared at each other and began to circle each other, like prowling lions sizing each other up. Harry called to the crowd that he didn't want anyone else to help, that it had to just be him and Voldemort, though Voldemort hissed that Harry truly wanted someone to use a shield, to sacrifice themselves for him. Harry replied that there were no more Horcruxes, that it was just him and Voldemort: neither could live while the other survived, and one of them was going to leave for good. Voldemort jeered at the proposal that Harry would survive, the boy who survived by accident and because Dumbledore was pulling the strings.[5]

Harry then asked if it was accident when his mother died to save him, accident when he decided to fight in the graveyard, if it was an accident when he didn't defend himself that night, still survived, and returned to fight again. Voldemort screamed that these were accidents, but he still did not strike, will the hundreds watching in the Hall were frozen as if Petrified. Voldemort proclaimed that it was accident and chance, and that Harry crouched and snivelled behind the skirts of greater men and women and permitted Voldemort to kill them for Harry to save himself. Harry replied that Voldemort wouldn't be killing anyone else, as they stared into each other's eyes, green into red. Harry said that Voldemort wouldn't be able to kill any of them ever again, because Harry was ready to die to stop him from hurting them, and that thus he did what his mother did to him. He gave the defenders of Hogwarts sacrificial protection, and which was why none of the spells Voldemort put on them were binding: Voldemort couldn't torture them, or touch them, and Harry ended by calling Voldemort "Tom" and telling him he never learnt from his mistakes.[5]

Harry told Voldemort that he knew lots of important things that 'Riddle' didn't, and offered to tell him some of them before he made another big mistake. Voldemort did not speak but continued prowling in a circle, and Harry knew that he had kept him temporarily at bay and mesmerised, held back by the possibility that Harry might indeed know a final secret. His snake's face jeering, Voldemort suggested that the secret was love, Dumbledore's favourite solution that he claimed conquered death, but Voldemort said that love did not stop him from killing Harry's mother, or Dumbledore falling from the top of the Astronomy Tower, and that nobody seemed to love Harry enough to run forward and take Voldemort's curse. Voldemort then asked, if nobody sacrificed themself for Harry, what would stop Harry from dying when he struck.[5]

As they circled each other, wrapped in each other, held apart by nothing but the last secret, Voldemort suggested that, if it wasn't love that would save Harry, Harry must believe he possessed magic tha