Harry stood at the forest’s edge without moving. He was thinking to leave, when a flurry of movement within caught his attention. Peering at the massive shape he could see, he realized too late that it was a wolf. He jumped out of the way, and the chó sói, sói landed where he had been a một giây before. He looked down at it. The wolf, which had reddish-brown fur, growled up at him. Impulsively Harry withdrew his wand from his jeans pocket.
The chó sói, sói stopped growling when it caught sight of the raised wand. It transformed into a man, and Harry backed up, astonishment on his face. The wolf-man spoke. “Hey, I’m Jacob from Twilight. I’m sure you’ve heard of me.”
Harry nodded, and said, “So what are bạn doing here?”
Jacob replied “Well, me and my Những người bạn have heard of bạn and your sách popularity, so we’ve come to challenge bạn to a fight. I mean,” he pressed on when he caught sight of Harry’s expression, “we both have the skills, we’ve been in battles before and we have unique powers.” Jacob smiled, thinking he won.
It was Harry’s turn, and he spoke up. “Never,” he said, “I have been in too many battles and experienced too much death. I don’t want more.”
When Jacob heard this, he used, to his advantage, friends. “Why don’t bạn discuss it with your friends?” he said. “Get their ideas, and come back here and tell me what they think. Come back here in 5 days.”
Harry reluctantly agreed, and so the matter was settled. Harry Apparated near his house, and entered. “Hey,” he called through the house. Ginny appeared at the door of the phòng bếp, nhà bếp with Lily.
“Come in, the table’s ready,” she said, and they proceeded through to the dining table. As Harry sat down, Ginny asked him how the outing went.
Harry answered with a sigh. “I’ll tell bạn later,” he said, then asked his children how school went.
“It was great!” đã đưa ý kiến Albus excitedly. “I got great marks and made tons of friends. And I’m a Gryffindor!” he added.
His parents smiled at each other. Albus had been saying that ever since he got back.
“And how about you, James?” asked Harry to his eldest son. “What’s the latest trouble you’ve gotten into?”
James grinned. “Ohhhh, nothing,” He đã đưa ý kiến slyly.
“James,” đã đưa ý kiến his mother. “What did bạn do?”
“Just…. Let loose some garroting gas in front of the History of Magic classroom,” he said.
Harry rolled his eyes and Ginny shook her head. Later that night, Harry thought of what it would mean to have a last battle. He thought of the Battle of Hogwarts, of Fred, Lupin, and Tonks, of Sirius, Dumbledore, and Snape, of Voldemort and his Horcruxes, of the Death Eaters, and of Cedric Diggory. No, thought Harry, no, I have gone through too much already. He was never going to have a final battle.
That morning, they all went to Ron and Hermione’s house. Since it was right tiếp theo to their house, they never had to go far. Chattering all the way there, they rang the doorbell and Hermione appeared. “Come in,” she said, smiling, and they all went inside. While the children played Quidditch, Harry told Ron, Hermione, and Ginny what Jacob had said.
After some silence, Hermione finally said, “It was cruel of them to ask bạn for that. I don’t even think they know how much you’ve been through. However,” she continued, “This might be our only chance to eliminate them all at once.”
Harry stared at her, and Ron spoke up. “I agree with Hermione. We’ve been through so much, but come on mate; a final battle wouldn’t be too bad.
Ginny also took the fighting side. “A last battle – at least it would be over.”
Harry stared at them all, trying to contain the feelings of đắng, cay đắng disappointment. “What about Sirius, Tonks, Lupin, and Dumbledore?” he said.
Ron and Hermione looked troubled, Ginny even thêm so. Then Ginny said, in battles good and bad people die. “But,” she added, “This is a battle to see who is stronger, so deaths could be avoidable. I’m sure everyone will agree.”
Indeed, when they alerted the wizards, they were all for it. With such a big army, maybe we’ll win thought Harry. In the five days that Jacob had given, the army of wizards was reaching in numbers to over 7000.
As the fifth ngày came, Harry went to meet Jacob. He remembered how it had begun: he had received a note asking him to go to the forests end and wait. If only he hadn’t followed the note, then perhaps none of this would have happened. He waited tensely at the forests edge. As he waited, he heard a bark of a dog, and a huge black dog came into view.
Tears swelled in Harry’s eyes. He wiped them away and petted the dog. As he did, he noticed the dog as wild, because it had no collar. Harry decided to keep it. He thought of his godfather, and of his father. “Padfoot and Prongs,” he whispered.
At that moment, Jacob came into view, as a human and accompanied bởi two others. The sounds of the footsteps and the loud talking scared the dog, and he bolted and ran away. “No!” yelled Harry. He started to run after the dog, but now Jacob called to him, and Harry stayed where he was.
He turned toward the trio that was in front of him, and Jacob explained the details of the battle. No deaths on purpose, because it was just to see who was stronger. Harry nodded numbly.
As he walked back he remembered all the times he had spent with Sirius.
He knew that Sirius would tình yêu to have a final battle, so it was set. Turning around, he yelled to Jacob and his companions, “Battle is in 20 days!”
He turned around and ran. Sirius. Sirius. Black. Sirius Black. His godfather. He remembered too well, the look of shock on his godfather’s face as he toppled through the veil. He remembered how he had yelled and fought Lupin’s hold on him to see Sirius.
Lupin. Remus Lupin. Another of his father’s friends. He remembered, also, seeing Lupin’s body laid aside in the Battle of Hogwarts. He remembered seeing Lupin from the Resurrection Stone as he had gone to give himself up.
Caught in all these memories, he realized that he was at his house a few phút later. Exhausted, he went up to his giường and fell asleep immediately. His dreams that night were very troubled.
Sirius, Lupin, and Dumbledore wove in and out of them. He dreamed he was seeing Sirius falling through the veil, Lupin getting hit bởi the Killing Curse, and Dumbledore being blasted of the Astronomy Tower.
He awoke the tiếp theo morning feeling distinctly unrested, though he tried to hide it. He ate a breakfast of bánh xèo, bánh kếp and then went to tell the Wizarding World Media when the battle would take place.
As he entered the Studio, he was bombarded with so many các câu hỏi he wished he could disappear. He managed to make himself heard over the noise and yelled, “Battle in 20 days!”
Then he left. Today he went to the Forest’s edge even though there wasn’t any reason to do so. Staring at the trees inside the forest, he remembered when, at the age of 17, he had camped out there so much in tìm kiếm of Horcruxes. He also remembered burying Mad-Eye Moody’s magical eye at the woods near the World Cup.
He sighed and decided to get home. It was starting to rain. Instead of walking, he apparated to his house. He entered and immediately hollered “Hello!” through the house. Walking over to the living room, he turned on the T.V set and flicked to WWN. It showed him yelling the ngày of the battle. He turned the TV off. Useless Muggle stuff.
He trudged upstairs to bed. Tomorrow he would start training for the battle. He yawned, turned off the lamp, and fell asleep.
Tomorrow he woke up early, and headed outside with Ginny for dueling practice. After a while of disarming, stunning, and protecting, they took a break.
“Like we need to perfect this anyways,” đã đưa ý kiến Ginny, as they sat in the shade of their táo, apple tree.
“Yes,” đã đưa ý kiến Harry, “But it’s good to revise.” Ginny made no response, and after a few phút they dueled again.
Ron and Hermione were also perfecting their skills, and they all practiced together. Within 5 days, their style was perfected, and their moves planned out. A ngày later, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny, with all their children, visited Godric’s Hollow. Harry went to his house there, and remembered when he and Hermione had come there, and when Voldemort had almost gotten them. Evidently Hermione was thinking the same, because she whispered to him “It hasn’t changed.”
Harry went to his parents’ grave. He laid a bouquet of hoa there and whispered “Rest well.”
As he was doing so, he felt a pain in his scar. His hand immediately jumped to it, and he was quite alarmed. However after a while he decided he had imagined the pain, thinking about Voldemort.
Finally, the last ngày was here. Tomorrow would be the battle. “At least we’re getting it over with,” he đã đưa ý kiến to Ginny.
She smiled at him “That’s the spirit,” she đã đưa ý kiến jokingly. He grinned.
Today, they were going to Ron and Hermione’s house for lunch, and pre-battle party.
At the party, which consisted of him, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, he đã đưa ý kiến to them all, “We HAVE to win this. We wizards are the best. Let’s go over the plan once more.”
Hermione recited it for them. “Meet, shake hands, start, battle, win.”
That night, harry felt energized, too much to sleep, so he got himself a glass of milk. After, he fell asleep.