Lendoren

The characters belong to Jo, the story to kelokelo, the translation to septentrion, and the betaing to Hermeres.

Chapter 37. The Final Face To Face, part two

The Dictator decided to give up this way of fighting since the results weren’t satisfying; the couple was too much united for him to even consider hurting them. Besides, he couldn’t go through their shield, which prevented him from using his favourite weapons. He found this very frustrating.

When his Dementors shattered the windows of the Great Hall, it was as if the signal for the physical fight had been given. Harry attacked Voldemort with Dumbledore’s support. The Death Eaters went wild and attacked the Order members, the teachers and the Lendoren. They had given up the idea of attacking Hermione and Severus: those who’d tried it were dead and lying on the floor. They tried to find Ginny to affect Harry, but she remained hidden under the Invisibility Cloak.

The Patroni were flying toward the always more numerous Dementors. Hermione didn’t try anything against them, she was waiting for the Dictator to lose patience and to launch himself fully into the battle.

“Harass him,” she said suddenly to Erwin. “I want him to explode out of anger and frustration. I want him to go wild.”

Severus swallowed with difficulty, but concentrated to mock every failed attempt of the Dictator.

“Poor Sheetaz, how can you resist Hermione with all your pathetic attempts? And to think she still haven’t shown everything that she’s learned. What, this? Another miss?” An orange bolt of lightning had just brushed them, but Hermione hadn’t spent too much magical energy to deflect it, she’d just stepped aside. They were acting in such an osmosis that Severus had sidestepped the curse too. “Hermione, that’s not kind of you to make fun of an old man.”

In front of and behind them, more and more bodies lay on the floor. But Hermione only counter-attacked when she felt Hogwarts foundations react to the Black Magic of the Dictator. Two unicorns appeared in the Hall. They weren’t white, but red, and their horn was golden. Shadows emerged out of the floor. They froze all those who found themselves in their way, first the part of their body that had touched them, and then, the curse spread to the whole body. But the shadows couldn’t resist the unicorns and melted with the heat the conjured beasts were emitting.

The fighters realised that they had to dodge both the shadows and the unicorns. Hermione and Severus couldn’t see everything and avoid all their friends, even if the unicorns took down more Death Eaters than Order members or Lendoren.

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The fight between Voldemort on one hand, and Harry and Dumbledore on the other hand, was balanced. Voldemort’s Dark powers, increased by the Dictator’s presence, were counterbalanced by Dumbledore, who was using every counter-curses he knew. Harry, on his part, was harassing Voldemort to prevent him to concentrate too much on Dumbledore. He was relentless, casting Disarming Charms upon Disarming Charms, Summoning Charms, Stunning Charms on the red-eyed tyrant, which gave respite to Dumbledore. But the latter was more and more tired, Harry could feel it. Indeed, the fight had been tough. As he saw that Dumbledore had barely dodged one of Voldemort’s jinxes, and that Voldemort’s face sported a wicked rictus, Harry thought he saw an Expelliarmus come out of nowhere, or rather come from the tip of a wand hanging in the air. Voldemort was too late by a fraction of second, he was too busy savouring his coming victory upon Dumbledore.

Harry summoned his determination and yelled at the tyrant, “Avada Kedavra!” A jet of green light burst forth and reached the Dark wizard, whose face showed an intense stupefaction at the sight of the jet of light hitting him. Harry saw him slowly fall backward, as if time were suspended. If he’d been playing chess with Ron at this moment, he’d been tempted to say, “Check.”

To see his tool being defeated unleashed the Dictator, but discouraged the Death Eaters. After all, they were Voldemort’s followers, not the Dictator’s. Maybe it was time to … leave? Some of them had already started to escape, but some others persevered in fighting. Now that their reason to live was dead, they didn’t want to die without taking as many as they could with them.

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It was getting harder for Hermione to keep up. There was so much to do: the unicorns which were fighting the shadows, the earth which was keeping Hogwarts from sinking in the ground and in the world of the non-Dead. She was entirely leaning against Severus physically and using magic only. She was beginning to despair, when she heard Erwin’s tender voice say to her, “Now, my dear, you can do it. You’re going to do it, for both our sake, so that our love will live without the rot in front of you. Who are you, Hermione? What’s your name?”

She realised that she knew her Lendoren name. She had had to think of herself as Hermione Granger until now. She wasn’t Hermione Granger anymore, she was, “Lumina. I am Lumina.”

“Lumina. Now, my love, act like Lumina. You’re the light, you can adapt, you are changeable. He’s darkness, he’s unchanging. Where there is light, darkness moves back, my dear. Every one fears darkness, except for you, for you are the light.”

His words had come through their link, and Severus had no idea of how. They’d been provoked by her name, which had resounded like a promise for him, and much more: Lumina. She was the light of his life. She now had to transcend herself to become the light of white magic which would vanquish the dark magic, or at least make it step back for a long time.

They were both getting weaker. The fight was going on near them, and the Death Eaters were taking fresh heart at the sight of the growing weakness they couldn’t hide. The Dictator came closer to them. Soon, very soon, he’d be able to pierce their shield, and they’d be finished.

As that foul face was coming near her, a grimace set on its features, Hermione was concentrating. She was the light. Darkness would step back if the light was strong. She didn’t have a lot of energy anymore, but she felt she could release everything against the Dictator to make him move back. In fact, more than make him move back. Love would form an alliance with light. He’d detested the love they’d sent to him earlier; they’d sent him a hundred times more.

The shield was slowly and regularly weakening. Severus urged her to put it back. She refused, he gave in. She was the one who gave the orders. Her eyes didn’t leave the Dictator. She wanted him to believe their shield was weakening out of lack of energy. It wasn’t entirely false, but not entirely true either. She was imagining something in her head, something she’d never experimented. No one had tried it yet, because no one had ever been as powerful as she was, so close with Severus.

The Dictator felt the shield breaking up, he held them at his mercy.

Hermione whispered to Severus through their link, “Don’t move. He’ll know that I’ve learnt something from the Slytherins.”

“You’re finished,” the Dictator told them. “I’m stronger and I’m going to …”

“Finished?” Hermione interrupted him in a unctuous voice. “Because we don’t have a shield anymore? You’re forgetting a detail, Sheetaz. Earlier, you’ve made the mistake to believe that a Gryffindor and a Slytherin couldn’t be allied, you’ve made the mistake to underestimate the intensity of the love between two companions, and you’ve omitted to ask what my name …”

“What’s your name to do with this, Hermione Granger?”

“You’ve made the mistake not to ask what my Lendoren name is, Sheetaz. This will be your last mistake. My name is … Lumina!”

She’d yelled her name, and the room was filled with a white light, so much brighter than the sun when it poured through the windows into the Great Hall in a beautiful Summer day. It was three a.m., and the Great Hall was better lit than ever. The light grew brighter, and the Dictator moaned and stepped back. He was protecting his eyes and his face from it. It was unbearable for him. Hermione had dropped all the shields, and the waves of love from the couple that were thrown at him were affecting him: he couldn’t concentrate. Soon, all of the people present in the Hall were screwing their eyes shut. The Dictator was howling and keeping up with protecting himself. Only Severus and Hermione kept being indifferent to the light. They were gazing at the Dictator, whose substance was crumbling. They would hold on together, at any cost, at the cost of their life if need be. They were companions, they would live or die together.

The people in the Hall had to cover their eyes in front of this white, harsh light. They could hear the Dictator’s howl. The light was for him like the Cruciatus Curse. His howls lessened with the light that filtered through his closed eyelids.

Hermione felt her heart start to give out when she couldn’t feel Erwin in their link anymore. She’d asked of him more than he could give, she was alone. Tears appeared at the corner of her eyes, but the light grew with her determination. Her companion wouldn’t die for nothing, the Dictator would go with her or her name wasn’t Hermione Granger! She was a Gryffindor, after all.

The light was beginning to burn their eyes when an inhuman howl resounded in the Great Hall. One second later, it was as if some one had switched the light off. Harry thought that everything was over, whether it was for the better or not, like a chess game. “Check, mate.”


Answer to reviews

catysmom: Thank you. I'm glad to be able to update weekly again.


firewall: thank you very much for your constant support. Here is the end of the battle.
about the beta thing, I've found some one who volunteered, but I don't mind having a second beta. It would allow to divide the work between several persons.


sheedy: more now. I know it's still a short chapter, but I hope you like it all the same.

snapescat: thanks for your encouragement.

Citten: thank you for your nice comment.

CrystalRayne: I'm glad you like this story, though in this instance, I'm only the translator.