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Spell lights flared and blurred around him as Harry ran through the fight after Voldemort.
“A little slow, Harry.” Voldemort laughed eerily as he vanished around another corner.
Harry cursed under his breath and desperately tried to catch up. He had to get to Voldemort and stop him before he turned his wand on anyone else. He was mortal now, all his horcruxes were gone, the one in Harry’s scar included, but the blasted monster was a slippery as an eel and fucking fast too.
“I thought you wanted to duel me?!” Harry called after him. Hoping that would at least make him pause, to give Harry a chance to catch up.
“Ah, but why would I give my prophesied enemy a chance to kill me.” Voldemort did indeed stop for a moment and Harry finally caught up. “Especially when said enemy has already proven to be resistant to death.” His snake face suddenly contorted as he snarled. “Why is it that you have managed to stumble across immortality so easily?”
“Diffindo!” Harry didn’t bother to reply and just shot a cutting spell, aiming for the pale neck. He was past using non lethal spells. This was war and he was against a much older and capable adversary.
Voldemort batted away the spell as if it was a tennis ball thrown by a weak child. “Attacking while I’m distracted? Not very light of you, Harry.”
“Actually it's called being smart.” A new voice, belonging to someone that Harry only vaguely recognises but is sure he doesn’t know, interrupts them.
“Avada-” Voldemort starts to curse but Harry is quicker due to past instances of Voldemort AKing anyone who interrupts him.
“Expelliamus!”
Voldemort doesn't lose his wand but it did enough to distract him and end the spell before it could really begin. Voldemort snarls again but takes advantage of the distraction to run again. The coward.
Harry turns his attention to the newcomer. He should be running after Voldemort but couldn’t help but want to have a second look at him. He was tall, taller than Harry at least but that is no surprise. He was also older, like a proper adult kind of age, maybe around Remus’ age? Or a bit older, he had some white hair like Remus did but Harry was sure that the white hair on Remus’ head was caused by premature aging due to being a werewolf. He wondered if this bloke was one too. He was dressed in robes but was also wearing a business suit underneath them with a tie. Certainly not clothes one would wear to a battle, Harry thought as he eyed the man. Not that he looked as if he had been in the battle at all actually. He looked decidedly unruffled.
“Show me your left arm.” He demanded of the man. He needed to know if he was on the same side as him or a death eater. Maybe he had deliberately distracted Harry so that Voldemort could get away.
“Alright.” The man gave him an odd look but did roll up his left hand sleeve to reveal a pale and unmarked arm. “I’m Percival, can you tell me where I am and what is going on?”
What? Harry looked at him oddly and wondered how anyone magical in the country not know what was going on, especially when one was in the middle of the battle. Then again his accent was clearly American so maybe he truly didn’t know. Harry opened his mouth to explain but before he could, spells started flying in their direction again. Voldemort must have gotten both mad and bored when he realised that Harry was no longer chasing him.
Harry fired spells back in the direction that they came from.
“What's going on?” The man demanded again as he cast Protego again and again.
“The snake face guy? He is a dark lord that wants to kill everyone." Harry explained while ducking a sickly yellow spell that would have made his insides become outsides.
“You had me at dark lord.” Percival instantly joins in the fight.
They caught up to Voldemort who honestly wasn’t that far away. Harry started to rapidly cast curses, jinxes and any defensive spells that he could think of and all the while Percival, the man who somehow didn’t know anything about the battle, focused on protecting and deflecting any spells that came their way.
“Couldn’t fight me by yourself, chosen one?” Voldemort mocked him while slightly out of breath, dodging a Diffindo that was once more aimed at his neck. “Vicious aren’t you. I wonder what your beloved Dumbledore would say if he could see you now? Oh wait he can’t because he’s dead.” He grinned and fired an Avada Kedavra that was quickly blocked by a slab of stone summoned into its path by Percival.
Harry took advantage of the moment and cast Sectumsempra, it was a dark curse yes but it was almost impossible to heal unless you knew the counter and if Voldemort did know it, and he probably did, it would distract him long enough for Harry to finish him off.
However, Harry seemed to have put a little too much magic behind the spell and Voldemort was too busy trying to curse Percival for blocking his AK that he didn’t see the spell coming.
Voldemort’s head separated cleanly from his shoulders and bounced on the ground twice behind his still standing body.
The world seemed to freeze for a moment. Voldemort’s body stood still, his head on the ground contorted with rage…and then the world started up again and the body fell.
“He’s dead.” Harry stared somewhat unable to believe it. After everything, after fighting against for practically his whole life, Voldemort was dead. They had won!
“Sonorous.” Harry cast quickly on himself. He had to announce this, had to let everyone know that the Dark Lord was dead, that they had lost and the light had won. “VOLDEMORT IS DEAD.” Harry’s voice echoed throughout the battle. Through the ruins and through the still standing parts of the castle. Throughout all of Hogsmeade and possibly a bit further still. “VOLDEMORT IS DEAD.” He repeated. “ALL DEATH EATERS ARE TO SURRENDER.” He repeated himself over and over until his voice felt hoarse and a crowd started to form around him.
“It's okay, I think everyone knows now.” Percival, who Harry had forgotten about gently touched his shoulder.
Harry cancelled the spell and a cheer went up from the survivors on the light side. He was then tackled by his two best friends in a hug
Everything that happened next is sort of a blur for Harry. There’s a lot of hugging and crying and everything smells of spell fire and soot and he feels so relieved that it's over but kind of empty because of it too. He’s happy but sad and it's all just so confusing. So when he can, he pulls away from the celebration and mourning. Instead he goes to find Percival, the strange man that Harry had never met before but looked a little familiar and who had appeared untouched by everything in the middle of the battle. And who, if Harry is honest with himself, he couldn’t have defeated Voldemort without. He protected Harry against Voldemort’s spells so he could focus on offense and he had been an excellent distraction giving Harry a chance to cast the spell that ended that monster once and for all.
He found Percival outside, staring at the castle’s crumbling walls.
“We didn’t get a chance for proper introductions.” Harry said as he approached.
“I’m quite sure I told you my name.” Percival replied blandly.
“I’m Harry Potter.” He told him instead of responding and was pleasantly surprised when he wasn’t met with the usual fawning. “And I don’t think you’re from around here.”
“What gave me away?” Percival smirked a little.
“The fact you didn’t know what was going on? How you appeared untouched in the middle of the battle and,” Harry paused dramatically because honestly why not.
“And?” Percival prompted.
“You didn’t know who I was.”
“What?”
“I’m rather famous in these parts.” Harry told him without bragging. “An unfortunate side effect of my parents being murdered by Snake face and when he tried to kill me as well when I was only one. I somehow survived and he didn’t.”
“That’s absurd."
“But true and unfortunately it's meant that everyone has known my name for the past seventeen years, so you not knowing…” Harry trailed off.
“I fell out of a mirror.” Percival told him abruptly.
Harry did not know how to respond to that.
“I was captured by the Dark Lord Grindlewald and shoved into a mirror by a spell I don’t recognise. I have no idea how much time has passed but I know that I am clearly in a different country seeing as you all have British accents.”
“He was defeated in the forties, I think.” Harry winced. He regretted that their history classes were so shit that he knew barely anything about the previous Dark Lord. “It's Nineteen Ninety Eight.”
“I was captured in Nineteen Twenty Six.” Percival’s voice was empty and his expression blank as he processed that so much time had passed since he first was shoved into a mirror.
“I’m sorry.” Harry didn’t know what else to say.
They stood in silence for a while before Harry spoke again.
“Look, I don’t know if you can go back, or if you even want to but I can help you get sorted in this time. I know the bloke who I’m pretty sure is going to be the next Minister of Magic and I know the smartest witch of our age. And you helped defeat Voldemort so people are going to fight over each other to help you.”
“Thanks.” Percival gave him a small smile. “I’m Percival Graves, former Head Auror at MACUSA, prisoner of Grindelwald and apparently a time traveller.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Harry Potter, the boy- who-lived and who will probably get another stupid hyphenated title when everything settles down.” Harry shook his hand. “Come on, I'll take you to meet everyone. And no offence but they could use a distraction and you’re a pretty good one.”
“No offence taken.”
The end.