KMC Forums - Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch

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Originally posted by DarkC
He shook his head, and gently cradled the girl's head in his arms.

"Oh, Luna." he said sadly.

Luna was a wonderful person, she truly did not deserve this fate. She had been peculiar, but was very fun to be with and was great of heart. With the bitterness and sorrow that her passing created came hatred and revulsion at the horrible evil that had commited the ultimate crime, of murder.

"Who did this to her?" he asked quietly.

"One of the Death Eaters," Ginny said. Her voice was suddenly very small and was on the verge of breaking. "I recognized him from the Department of Mysteries. Rudolphus Lestrange."

So Harry had one more oath of vengeance to fill out. One against husband and wife. And one against their master.

I'll get him back for you, Luna. Harry thought, staring down into her unseeing eyes. I swear I will.

(the final chapter)-----------

It did not take long to fix Hogwarts up. Dumbledore and the rest of the Order of the Phoenix took no longer than two hours to repair all the damages that the seige inflicted upon the castle.

However, there were other things to be mended. Hearts, emotions; and even some of those would never completely heal.

The Lovegoods arrived the morning following the death of their daughter. At first, McGonagall was a little reluctant to show them her sad little body, but Harry wasted no time in sprinting to the Great Hall, banners repaired and fluttering in the slight breeze. The hourglasses were refilled to their normal volumes.

Luna's body was wrapped in a delicate, elaborately woven silk cloth. She weighed so little, although that might have just been the magical power enchantment upon his armor. Harry had figured out how to make his armour invisible to the eye, but still very much solid.

Feeling the cold dead weight of Luna in his arms brought a lump to his throat. He jogged back to where her parents stood and slowly deposited Luna back into her father's arms, weeping, who gently rocked her back and forth as he no doubt did so long ago. Professor McGonagall sniffed behind them. Mrs. Lovegood seemed to have spent all her tears already.

After a while, both of them turned to Harry. "Thank you, Harry. She told us so much about you and what you have done to her. Thank you so much for making her belong."

Harry nodded, swallowing. "She was a credit to our school." was all he seemed able to say at the moment, his head in a whirl.

At that moment, Professor McGonagall placed a hand upon Harry's shoulder and gently steered him away. However, the moment she departed for her office and he for Gryffindor tower, he took something out of a compartment near his shoulder pauldron, and twirled in reverently.

It was Luna's wand.

He had decided to keep it with him now. Not as a badge of honor, but of the reminder of the ultimate sacrifice she had made. She would not die in vain, Harry would see to that himself. Besides, it would be considerably harder to duel Voldemort if their wands would not do direct battle with one another. He would honor her memory by fighting the ultimate duel with her wand.
He stared at it a moment, stowed it away again, and went off to find Ron and Hermione.

They were sitting in the great hall, which was devoid of any Gryffindors except for them. Everyone else had gone upstairs to their common rooms to pass the time. Ron was fiddling over a piece of toast, his usually enormous appetite sated, and Hermione was staring at the day's Daily Prophet without seeming to see it at all.

Harry sat down and realised how hungry he was. Taking his invisible helmet off, he helped himself to a late breakfast. No one spoke, the silence communicating where words could not.

"Here." Hermione handed him the newspaper. "They seem to have found out about your new role."
"If you're not already a hero, you are now." Ron added.

Harry took the slightly damp newspaper from Hermione, unfolded it, and looked at the front page. There was a moving pencilled-in(no photographs, thankfully)picture of the artist's impression of him, now the Emerald Knight, in full armour and doing battle with seemingly an endless wave of dark creatures.

- THE EMERALD KNIGHT RETURNS -

The general magic community will be delighted to hear that they have a new champion to defend their cause.

The Emerald Knight, normally thought of as nothing but a legend(for details see page 8), has been confirmed by a member of the staff from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, who refuses to have their name revealed. And who else could the Emerald Knight be but the famous Harry Potter?
"Mr. Potter now has the power to cleanse the magical world of Dark forces," the Hogwarts teacher said. "We may only hope that he will be able to uphold this enormous responsibility."
Whether Potter will be willing to take on the role as the wizarding champion remains to be seen, as the hero has not yet been available for questioning or interviews, or even a photograph.
(Continued on page 3)

Harry had read enough; he handed the newspaper back to Hermione, who was determinedly matching his gaze. Ron gazed at Harry with worry.

"It really is a big responsibility, mate. They didn't lie about that." he said tentatively.
Hermione said, "People are going to be looking on you as a symbol of hope, Harry. They're depending on you. I really don't want to have to remind you this, but -"

"I know." Harry said shortly, cutting both of them off with a wave of his hand. Without really thinking about it, he groped around for his helmet and replaced it on his shoulders. It clicked into place with a reassuring sound. "I've been under pressure before. And I know that this is going to be a turning point in the war. Maybe it's just really begun now, that attacks are going to be more frequent. But I know that I will do whatever I can so that no one else suffers."

He paused, thinking, and added: "Either emotionally or physically."

Harry knew that all of them were thinking of the families that were torn asunder because of the acts committed by Voldemort.

Including his own.

*****

The rest of the term passed by in a haze of blazing sunlight. The examinations were cancelled. Normally, Harry and his friends would have been basking by the lake, laughing with other Gryffindors, playing a practise game of Quidditch. But recent occurences had changed all that.

Harry realised how much all three of them had matured over their sixth year. Gone were the mischievious smiles, the childish antics. Their time was spent walking and talking about bygone experiences. The time they went into the Forest for the first time. The basilisk. Sirius. The Triwizard Tournament. Dumbledore's Army.

He realised what all those experiences were for, their purpose. They were to shape him for his ultimate, and probably final, battle.

Harry's two best friends had changed so much in personality that he would have hardly recognized them from another year before. Ron was now more serious than Harry had ever remembered. Ron had a faint aura of instant calm around him. Gone was the happy-go-lucky jovial friend.

Hermione did not act like a girl anymore, but rather like a self-confident woman. It unsettled Harry sometimes, even chilled him, but she was maturing into adulthood. She had always been there for him.

Even with the support of his best friends, now matured, Harry still wondered if he had the power and the resolve to remain champion of the Wizarding Community. If he failed, people would pour scorn and shame onto the burden of his failure itself. If he succeeded, he would be revered as a hero, and never be thought of as a normal wizard again.

Neither possibility seemed too intriguing for him.

But then, he thought of and remembered every person he knew who had suffered from Voldemort's deeds. Luna and her parents. Sirius, the father and brother he never had. Neville and his parents. Bertha Jorkins. And with an uncomfortable clench in his gut, he remembered his own parents, both in Priori Incantatem and the Mirror of Erised.

And he knew without a doubt that he would never rest, never give up effort, until they were avenged and their spirits at peace. He shoved all his doubts about himself deep down inside himself, where they would never interfere with his feirce determination.

Looking back up, he smiled and savoured the moment, enjoying one last golden day of peace with Ron and Hermione.

-THE END-

-Finally!