INNOVATOR; Ch 41: The Battle of Hogwarts

Author's Note: Hello there, this is chapter 41 of INNOVATOR. I really hope you will like it.

Also, many thanks and congratulations to our seven holders of the Guildmaster tier: Camo, I am Lord Dems, StormFox, RyanMK666, Lyrical, Tyler and PenguGoesVroom! 😇🥰

Now, without any further ado....Let's begin!

Author Out!

“I am Talking.” 

‘I am Thinking’

Spells

"The Damned talking."

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There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.

~Robert A. Heinlein
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INNOVATOR

-Dev Sagittarius Black

~~Chapter 41: The Battle of Hogwarts~~

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“Why are you smiling, Potter?” Voldemort asked in confusion, “You are trapped; you know you cannot escape it, and you know that the last thing you will see tonight is your brother’s death. I have only kept that foolish pig alive so that you could watch his death with your own eyes and feel the uselessness of your existence as I kill you after that.” He added, “I want to see you mad, Potter, primal with rage and yet unable to do anything.”  

“You do…” Harry smirked, “Do you?”  

The Dark Lord was shocked at the unexpected response from the trapped innovator. He had expected emotions like fear or even anger to roll off of the boy in waves; instead, the boy started to actually laugh out loud, ‘Has he already succumbed to madness? Can he not see the situation he is in?’ he thought, tightening the hold on his wand as he asked the question once more.  

Harry only shook his head, patting his hand on Karkaroff's body as the boy chuckled in merriment, “You really went all out, didn’t you, Tom?” He asked, enjoying the way Voldemort sneered at his former name. “I am actually surprised that not only you managed to bring Alan but also myself and then successfully trap both of us in this…” He languidly waved his hand towards the glowing set of runes around them, “....arduous circuit of yours.” 

“Tell me, Tom, how long did it take you to plan all this?” He asked, smiling. “Tell..oh please do tell me, how long did the big bad Dark Lord wait to finally see two teenage boys trapped and helpless in front of him?” The innovator laughed more, his tone clearly mocking the elder mage.  

“You have been a…thorn in my side, Harry Potter, and I must admit that you have given me—a person who has long surpassed the frivolous troubles of existence—quite a run for thoughts, but you overestimate your abilities, and of course your usefulness.” Tom smirked, “You, Potter, are suffering from hubris, which has deluded your sense of reality because even if you managed to thwart me a few times in the past, you are but a mortal; an insignificant fool with blind arrogance being your only quality.” 

Harry smiled once more, “Quite ironic coming from you of all people.” He shook his head and slowly sat up over Karkaroff’s lying body, completely ignoring the Highmaster’s grunt of pain and discomfort as the man couldn’t move at all. “The last time we fought, I remember you saying that only you could achieve being the best, am I right?” He smirked, “Then why, oh why, do you use my own creation against me? Not to mention, you made a mistake in using this circuit, a big one, which means it won’t work as intended.” 

The Dark Lord ignored the mocking tone in the jape and instead focused on more important matters, “A mistake?” He frowned. “No, you are bluffing, Potter; I have already researched it multiple times and even checked everything thrice.” He told the boy, “This is an absolute trap. You used it against that old fool, and we both know that no one inside it can ever escape the thing unless it’s switched off from the primary cluster. You know you are caught, and you are uselessly trying to spend more of our time.” 

“Yes-yes, absolute trap and all that; don’t forget that I was the original creator of this 'Absolute trap’ of yours, alright? Although we had a difference, you know.” He grinned merrily, “I never made that mistake, but you did, a really huge one, actually, and I…” He rubbed his eyes. “...and I don’t think you have realised it yet, so maybe I should tell you that it is indeed a blunder, and a really huge one at that.” 

“What is it?”  

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you there’s one thing you never put in a trap? If you’re smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there’s one thing you never, ever put in a trap.” 

“And what would that be?”  

Deep inside Harry magic lashed out as his emerald pools started to glow once more and his face split into a feral grin that promised nothing more than absolute pain and misery for his enemy, and with that he immediately shot up in the sky, hovering six feet above the ground as he looked down at everyone’s flabbergasted faces, enjoying the instantaneous change of emotions on the Dark Lord’s visage as the boy raised both of his hands in the air and exclaimed, “Me!” 

“What the—” Alan looked up at his brother, and within moments he came to the same realisation as the other two when he saw that his brother had been free all this time, waiting for Voldemort to feel the joy of finally winning before he squashed it like a pesky bug.  

“Potter!” The Dark Lord screamed, appalled at how effortlessly the innovator had dismantled the very thing he was gloating about. “How did this—” he looked back at the bound form of the Durmstrang Highmaster—the man could barely move at all—and slowly his mind came to the realisation as to what might have actually happened. 

“I have been told that you were a genius kid, Tommy boy, and I hope that age hasn't diminished your mental prowess.” Harry taunted once more, “The ‘Absolute trap’, as you put it, had only two flaws: the person has to be on the ground when the trap activates, and second..” The boy grinned once more, “It only traps one person at a time, in this case your precious fool.” He pointed at the highmaster, who was glaring at him. 

Mr. Snakeface couldn’t believe that even in his wildest dreams he would end up fucking the entire trap because of two simple things like that. Even more so when he had diligently dismantled the entire setup and then studied all the runes, as well as the chains that were in it, only to realise that he was being played by Potter all this time. The mockery of the fact made him livid with rage.  

“I want to give you an easy death, Karkaroff,” said Harry as he looked down at the tied man from above. “But a rotten creature like you deserves nothing but pain and suffering for what you did to Petrovia and many others before her who were unfortunate enough to meet a deluded criminal like you; therefore…” he pointed his wand down and said, “Infernum Putredo.”  

The Highmaster’s blue eyes widened in fear as he could only watch in despair the greenish-brown curse that had leaped off Potter’s wand and struck him in the chest. He looked back at his Master, the man whom he had served till the end of his life, and found the man glaring at him, and with that last thought he felt a surge of panic inside him as he could actually feel himself decaying from inside. It was as if he were a corpse, watching from afar as his body started to decay with pain roving around his soul.  

The last thing Igor Karkaroff looked at was the grim face of his gallower as the boy’s emerald pools glared at him. Finally he closed his eyes and felt the cold claws of Death slowly reach for his faintly beating heart that would stop any moment now.  

Voldemort clenched his wand, his black eyes dripping with anger and hatred as he saw the debacle in front of him. Karkaroff’s loss wasn’t actually a loss because the man was useless and would have been nothing more than a hindrance in the battle that was about to happen. The idiot had been foolish enough to fumble with the plans that had caused him his life. If he was being honest, it was actually an easy death compared to what he would have given to that troglodyte. 

The Dark Lord’s eyes fell on the actually trapped boy-who-lived, and with a fluid motion he pointed his wand at the redhead, “Avada Kedavra!.”  

“Really smart of you, Tommy.” Harry mocked as he flicked his wand and conjured a thick slab of granite, which was blasted when the unforgivable touched it, “Ventus Maxima.” He pushed the debris towards his nemesis, silently sending a bombarding hex to blast the Dark Lord’s own metal shield.  

“Priori Incantatem.” The innovator dismantled the primary cluster of Alan’s circuit and created the draconian fire shield to protect both of them from the volley of dark curses that came their way. 

“Hey, you, I cannot take you back to Hogwarts right now, so just stay alive, alright?” He asked Alan, who nodded. "DUCK!" 

The Potters ducked as Harry dropped his shield and dodged a flock of dead birds with glowing green eyes who then turned once more to attack them.  

“Serpensortia!” The Dark Lord shot three large anacondas at them, hissing the command to kill the boys as soon as possible.  

“I can handle the snakes; I have done that before.” Alan told him and pointed at the birds, “Your job.”  

The elder one gave a nod and began pooling his magic in the tip of his wand. He turned back to look at the dark wanker and noticed that the man hadn’t been idle as he was continuously flinging organ expellers, eye-gouging curses, and asphyxia inducers at them. Immediately, Harry summoned the first Hallow in his left hand and directed half of his magic to create a mage shield around them while his original wand began to heat up. 

 “Inspiratione Flammarum!”  

Within moments, his wand became a flamethrower as a huge wave of scorching hot flames began pouring out of its tip, burning the transformed birds to crisps as they went headfirst into it; their painful squawks became the last sound that they gave before the magic ran out and they vanished.  

Harry looked back at Tom, and he came to the swift conclusion that, for some reason, not only did the Dark Lord look far scarier than before, but even the small battle they just had didn’t seem to tire him even a little. The innovator wasn’t stupid enough to think that the surprise trap was the only thing that the delusional freak had in his arsenal, and that meant there was something else that gave the foolish man a burst of confidence in his abilities regarding them. 

All he could do was wait and pull Voldemort enough to use the tricks he had so that he could finish this entire thing as quickly as possible. 

⁂ 

Bellatrix LeStrange was having the time of her life as she watched the world burn beneath her. She cackled in merriment as she watched the unfortunate crowd of Hogwarts beg for mercy. A smile graced her lips when the painful screams of the hapless reached her ears, crying for help and mercy from their predators, who were tearing them apart. 

Her eyes took in the utter devastation that had been caused by her fellows who were fighting for freedom. A large part of her army, including herself, was still outside the gates, trying to break the castle’s defences from outside the protective barrier that had been activated by Albus Dumbledore when he realised that Hogwarts was being attacked by the Dark Lord.  

The eldest mage had activated a complete lockdown, which included the barrier around the castle that protected them from aerial as well as most of the ground attackers. That thing had prevented the lethifolds, giants, and trolls, as well as almost seventy percent of the army, from infiltrating Hogwarts and had rendered them to the explicit use of the tanks of their army—Giants and Trolls—who took up the front lines to destroy the dome while others, including the wizards, helped them from behind. 

It took them about fifteen minutes of continuous hammering to open a small crack in the ward structure; unfortunately, for the Hogwarts populace, that small crack was all they needed to infiltrate the cocooned castle.  

Since then, all they had done was blast out the entire thing, burning their way through hordes of trees and other creatures that inhabited the castle’s grounds. 

Still, not all had been merry for the attackers, as Hogwarts itself was hosting a plethora of celebrities, not only from Britain but also from other nations like France, the USA, Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, China, India, and Australia. These were the prestigious nations who had sent their dignitaries to encourage international bonding through the usage of games—like the Triwizard—and connectivity among the mighty magical nations.  

And with each of the luminaries came their own auror and hitwizard squadrons that were given the task to protect their chief.  

At that moment, Hogwarts was probably the safest place on earth with the vast amounts of aurors, hitwizards, UFOs, and other special organizations who had taken temporary residence under the castle’s walls. 

Due to complete lockdown of the castle, portkeys, apparitions, and other modes of travel had been cancelled out, which meant that the luminaries had to be protected inside the castle itself. Hogwarts had ensured that they would always be protected behind its thick walls, and, in return, the important men had promised complete support of their nation's forces to assist the castle so that the walls don’t fall.  

Dumbledore, too, looked ahead from his position in the grounds at the vast amount of monsters that were pouring through the small crack in the dome. His blue eyes scanned the courtyard and other premises as the stone knights of Hogwarts battled the giants who were attacking the wizards.  

He looked back at the showball screen, and his lips twitched a bit at the way Harry flew off from the trap. It was common knowledge to never trap the creator inside the trap he made, and it seemed like Tom would learn about it the hard way.  

‘At least the Potters will be safe now,’ the old Headmaster thought with a soft sigh and turned around to focus his attention on the war that was going on in front of his eyes.  

He found his deputy, and his excellent charms master engaged in a battle with Mulciber and Avery while two squadrons of British aurors were fighting the army of forty trolls on two different fronts. They were struggling a bit, but he could clearly notice that his professors were on the winning end, going as far as to help the aurors sometimes.  

Then there was the large fight going near the forbidden forest, where Hagrid had teamed up with the acromantulas and the centaurs from the forest to fight the inferi army controlled by the Rosier and Yaxley. Not to mention that some of the acromantulas were going toe-to-toe against the ones that were trying to enter through the main gates under the leadership of the Carrows, who were fighting the combined attack of the three divas—Fleur Delacour, Daphne Greengrass, and Angelique Beaufort.  

It was truly a sight to behold as the three beautiful yet clearly dangerous girls stood united against the combined threat of the Acromantulas as well as the Carrows. There was also the fact that most of the Acromantulas were still divided amongst the siblings and the leadership of Selwyn, who was battling a squadron of Bulgarian hitwizards alongside Viktor Krum and the brightest witch of her age: Hermione Granger.  

The entire landscape had been turned into a battleground; wherever Dumbledore looked, the warlock could clearly notice the inescapable presence of Death, calmly waiting for the fallen to help them reach their own next great adventures.  

“What should we do, Albus?” The voice of Kingsley broke his thoughts. “They are attacking us from everywhere; the wards wouldn’t stay for long, and we are lacking capable wands that would be able to fight for us.” The old Headmaster sighed as he watched another of the many werewolves fall at the hands of his old friend Alastor Moody, who was battling the feral beasts as well as Antonin Dolohov with a mixed group of Indian, French, and Chinese guards.  

Unfortunately, for them, it seemed like the alpha of the pack, Fenrir Greyback, had finally managed to make his way into the fight, which meant that Moody and other aurors needed help to contain the incoming forces.  

“For now, I think it would be wise of you to help Alastor and others who are fighting there,” he told Kingsley. “Take down Greyback, and don’t interrupt Alastor; he is working well against young Antonin.” 

Shacklebolt’s eyes widened in shock before he hurried to do the bidding, thankfully catching the transformed form of Greyback right before he was about to tear apart one of the aurors who was fighting another werewolf.  

‘We are safe for now, Kingsley,’ Dumbledore thought as he witnessed the stone guardians of Hogwarts take on the army of trolls and giants that were blasting the protective barrier. ‘But I am sure that soon enough we would need more wands to fight the incoming forces.’  

All of a sudden there was a booming roar from the outside of the protective dome, and every eye inside it was attracted to the point of its origin as they witnessed the largest and the fiercest of all the giants, Golgomath, point at the protective barrier around the castle. 

“IT’S CRUMBLING!” He hollered, “ALL TOGETHER!!” The command was all they needed as all the giants and the trolls raised their clubs together while the wizards who were outside the barrier raised their wands at the magical shield. The newly appointed gurg of the largest of the species gave a feral grin, his beady black eyes glinting with power as he dashed towards the barrier with his huge club raised high in the air. “NOW!!!” He screamed before slamming it against the shield alongside all the other clubs and destructive spells that were shot at it all at the same time. 

'BOOOM!!!' 

Everyone inside immediately fell to their knees and protected themselves with their hands as the shield over them broke with a thunderous blast of magic that made them tremble as the very runestone of the tetra-leylined castle shook under the assault of all the creatures.  

“The shield is down!” Screamed the purple-eyed woman who was flying in the air with a horde of lethifolds behind her. “IT’S TIME TO ATTACK! DON’T STOP!” Her voice, amplified by the usage of the Sonorous, seemed to pump more vigour into them as finally, after a continuous struggle against the barrier, the creatures, as one, screamed for blood before rushing towards the unprotected wrought iron gates of the magical school. 

On the other end of the ongoing battle, Dumbledore too raised his wand in the air; power seemed to thrum around the chief warlock of the British Isles as a blinding white aura oozed around his very being. Everyone, even the monsters around him, retreated from the angry mage as he glared at the incoming horde of creatures pouring on the castle’s grounds.  

“PARMA INFERNUM!”  

The monster who had infiltrated the castle grounds…the bloodthirsty creatures, who wanted nothing more than to feast on humans and cause as much mayhem around them as they could, together, screamed in agony. 

⁂

“Fulgur impulsus.”  

The boy shot up sixty feet in the air, smoothly dodging the balls of blinding white lightning shot at him as he pointed both of his wands at his opponent, “Ventus Maxima, Ignis Flagellum.” 

A powerful burst of wind from the deathstick seemed to immensely liberate the flame whip that was expelled from his primary ward, reaching down towards the Dark Lord, who quickly conjured a layered wall of water and stone to take on the combined effect of the two spells. 

“You have learnt some neat tricks, Potter; I must say that you fought better than I had  expected." Thin parched lips stretched out in a gruesome display of smile, revealing the rotten teeth behind them. “But I think we both know you are not going to leave this battle alive.”  

“That depends on when you actually plan on getting serious for once, Tom.” Harry shrugged. “These pesky fires, lightning arrows, and repeated curses from a Hogwarts book are too easy to dodge or shield from. If these party tricks are all you can do, then I am surprised that even a single person bent his knee for a con man like you, much less the army that you boast about.”  

“My army is not made of something that a mere idiot like you could ever realise, boy.” Voldemort grinned; his black eyes fell on the redhead mage, who was hiding himself behind a draconian fire shield. “People like you might just survive the attack, but those like him?!” He pointed at the hidden Potter, who had been defending Harry from afar. “They will die tonight.”  

The innovator frowned at that; he knew that the Dark Lord had been a delusional guy—he had witnessed the trace of madness when they had first crossed wands in the Battle of Hogsmeade—but even those baseless dreams of ‘conquering the world’ and ‘punishing the undeserved’ were made on a long-term basis where the time duration was unspecified for both the parties involved in it.  

Hence this newfound confidence—no matter how unfounded—of ‘They will die tonight' made him halt his barbs as he mulled over the words of the deluded personification of stupidity. Unfortunately, all he could come to guess from his sentences was that Tom’s desire for the night was to kill him and his brother, take their bodies, and then attack Hogwarts with this so-called army of his.  

But that didn’t settle well with Voldemort’s former statement in which he mentioned that people like Harry would survive the attack, because if that was the case then either he was bluffing and actually didn’t expect anyone to literally survive tonight, or…the attack was something else altogether. 

For now, the only way to really assess the madman’s plans was to ask him straight away or just push him enough so that the idiot would reveal the entire thing himself.  

“Harry! Dodge!” Alan screamed from behind the wall of flickering flames that Harry had erected to both protect him and prevent him from getting involved in the fight, which was clearly out of his calibre, and if, by some miracle, Alan managed to participate in it then all of them knew he wouldn’t come out unscathed.  

The innovator looked down in the direction of his opponent; his eyes widened when he noticed that the multiple organ expellers were just a few feet away from him. With a quick influx of his magic, he apparated down towards the ground before proceeding to assault the Dark Lord with a volley of cutting hexes, shield breakers, and conjuring a variety of feral beasts, which he used as a distraction to beat his nemesis. 

“You should maintain your focus in our fight, Potter,” Tom chuckled as he burnt the last of the creatures. "Because, like I had said before, you are good, but you are not the best, and certainly not strong enough to fight me with half your focus.” 

“Half my focus?” Harry spat, panting a bit because of the expense of his magic. “Trust me, Tom, you are not worthy of even a single percent of my actual attention.” The boy gave a smug smile when he noticed his nemesis bristle at the taunt. “All I was thinking about was that army of yours, the one about which you have been boasting for the past forty-five minutes. I was wondering where they were or how they would react when they find out that you died tonight.”  

“This faux confidence of yours makes me happy, because I would love to see the fear in your eyes, the way your cocky voice would sound once you’re begging to be spared soon.” Voldemort glared. 

“I would still point it out to you that you didn’t mention anything regarding your army,” Harry grinned. “To me, that sounds like you know you are caught and that you cannot run anywhere from the verbal trap.”  

“Only cowards run away from the truth, Potter, cowards and ignorant fools.” Voldemort spat and shot a few bombardas at the boy’s foot before pushing all the dirt on him. “And I am neither of those.” He growled. “You think my army is a joke? Think that I am making a jape to make you smile for a few moments? It’s such a shame that the Saviour thinks that the lives of thousands of his believers is nothing but a joke while they die thinking of ways to survive the attack right now.” 

Harry frowned once more. The Dark Lord’s body was getting worse, his eyes were spreading more, and black flakes started to fall from his rotten skin. “What do you mean?” He asked, “They are under an attack by…” 

“Me? Yes!” Voldemort cried out, “Yes, Potter! Yes!” He screamed. “After that fool, Karkaroff, had brought the two of you here, Bella had been told to attack Hogwarts with the full power of my army. No one was to be spared tonight, Potter! Absolutely no one!” He grinned, his smile stretching further than his own lips with madness oozing from the demented Dark Lord.  

Harry, on the other hand, started to tremble a bit; he looked back at his brother and then at the laughing Dark Lord before he clenched his fists. “You are lying.” He growled, and power started to accumulate inside him. “You are lying, Thomas Riddle; there is no way that this stupid army of yours, guided by your equally mad follower, would ever be able to breach Hogwarts successfully with all the protection it has at the moment.” 

“Ignorance is bliss, little saviour.” He muttered, “Unfortunately, for you, there is no way to confirm it, and for me, I know what to expect once I am done with the two of you here and go to Hogwarts to witness the art of chaos and destruction that would have been painted by my little artists in blood.”  

Harry gritted his teeth; it was true. There was no way that Voldemort would allow him to leave just like that to check upon Hogwarts populace, not while his brother is unprotected. Also, if the two of them somehow managed to escape this weird place and actually returned to the school, then he would know where they went and would immediately follow them back.” 

It was a mess, and he didn’t know how to pull himself out of it. That fantastic brain of his started to work on an overdrive, trying to think of ways that would not only give him the knowledge of what was going on in Hogwarts but also protect the school without making him leave his brother alone with the ugly creature that was slowly reeking of death.  

All of a sudden, an image of an entirely different kind of monster flashed in his mind. It was not a thing that he had seen—or even thought of—for at least a few years, and it seemed like now was the perfect time to use it. He tried to think of something else, anything that would compensate for the monster that his mind had conjured, but there was nothing at that moment that could successfully replace something like that. 

“Now…” The mad man whispered, “Shall we continue? I have a rather large grave to visit and a country to conquer tonight.” He waved his hand and conjured a pack of hounds. “Busy day, I hope you will understand.” And with that, he released the hounds towards the eldest Potter, who was glaring back at him. 

Finally, the boy made up his mind; he flicked both of his wands at once, “Fodre foraminis!” His primary wand opened a deep trench in the ground, tearing away the little vegetation and the layers of earth so that it would swallow the incoming pack of mutated hounds. 

At the same time, his other wand began collecting the broken pieces of dust and dirt from around him, accumulating them into four neat piles as the stone heads of golems began to form from them. 

“You think I would let you do that?” Voldemort, too, shot up into the sky only to find that, just like the last time they had fought in Hogsmeade, half of his robe had been transfigured to stone, which made him crash back on the ground, which had been turned to quicksand.  

Tom snapped his fingers and turned his robe to normal once more. He glared back at the Potter heir only to find that he was slowly sinking into the quicksand with four golems that were coming his way. He knew that this wasn’t a good enough trap to keep him at bay for even a single minute, which meant that the eldest Potter was planning something big and that was not something he wanted. 

Harry released a deep breath when the last of the four golems started to move towards the momentarily trapped Dark Lord. He then waved the deathstick and cancelled the fiery protection around Alan. “You have to make sure that he remains busy till I am done with what I am going to do, alright?” He asked his brother, “And, yes, do not look back at me. Just focus on Voldemort; he’s trapped right now, but he’ll be out soon.” 

Alan nodded and rushed to accomplish what his brother had told him to do while Harry closed his eyes and finally released another deep breath, slowly forcing his mind to go inside his mindscape where he could feel the latent power of Death, which was waiting for him to be used once more. It took him a few seconds to locate the particular creature that he had been looking for, but he found it nonetheless and immediately commanded the divine thing to finally come out and help him in the battle. 

‘The divine weapon of mass ruination, the name of terror and demolition, incarnation of unadulterated destruction…I summon you, the third most powerful weapon of mortality…’ He thought, ‘I summon you, the ultimate weapon of infinite destruction…..COME FORTH AND FIGHT….AATANK!!’  

The moment his summoning had been completed, the ground on which they stood started to tremble; the dust, little stones, and scraps from their fights started to levitate in the air as thunder crackled in the heavens above them. 

Voldemort frowned as his blasting curse shattered the last of the golems; he could feel the change of magic in the atmosphere. It seemed that Potter was actually doing something big, something that was giving him a being who had long surpassed the emotions of fear and chills regarding what was to come.  

Most of all, he was shocked when he felt the little critter inside his brain tremble as if the thing was scared of whatever it was that Potter was doing. The thing had repeatedly called him a fool, taunted him almost every time he opened his mouth, and had said that there was nothing in the mortal world that could stop him or his army, and yet here it was shivering inside his brain. 

‘What is it with you now?’ Tom asked him, ‘Can’t you stay quietly? I am busy with this other brat, and he is almost going to die. Just rest for a few more—’  

“You fool! You can never understand the gravity of what Potter is doing. Stop him before he completes it, or else everyone is doomed!” The voice of Herpo the foul shouted in his mind. 

The moment he pointed his wand at the innovator, a flash of bright light came from his front, and he saw the boy who lived smirking at him.

“For now, your opponent is the younger Potter, Tommy boy.” Alan taunted, “You can always try your meddle against the big boss later.” And with that, he launched a plethora of curses that he had studied under Harry’s tutelage, making sure to keep his opponent fixated on him at all times. 

“What are you doing?!” Herpo shouted in his mind, “You have to stop Harry Potter, not engage in a childish duel with a brat like that!”  

‘You think I don’t know that?’ Voldemort thought back at him. ‘This brat is somehow more capable than we were told; I can see some of the elder one’s fighting style in him. He’s probably trained by his brother.’  

“I don’t care about that! You have to stop Harry Potter at all costs before he successfully summons it!”  

‘What is it?!’ The Dark Lord asked in annoyance, ‘You used to say that you don’t fear anything, that you will help me kill the eldest Potter because you are a far greater wizard than any who are alive, and here you are trembling in fear from whatever tricks that boy is playing on you?’  

“Tricks? TRICKS? Is that what you think he is doing? TRICKING YOU?” Herpo sneered, “You daft man, you don’t know anything! That boy is no mere mortal! I had assumed that Dramox would have trained him in worldly tricks…tricks and techniques that I created and preached for years before I was killed, but I was wrong. This boy knows far more than what I had presumed.”  

‘Instead of explaining this, it would be better if you told me what it is that he is doing; then it is possible I could start a counter curse, which would stop him immediately.’ Tom thought back as he dodged a trail of barbed wires and flame whips mixed with cutting curses while flinging back a wide area of rotting curse.  

Harry groaned loudly. His skin started to glow with a faint black aura as liquid golden veins branched all over his body, burning him from inside as he felt the power of Aatank being pulled out from his core. It felt as if a part of his very being was getting ripped off him, and all he could do was push it to get it done faster. 

“You-you cannot do anything…” Herpo mumbled, “It's here, I can see it—no, I can feel it. Can you not? You can feel it too, right? RIGHT TOM?” The critter trembled when he heard Potter’s scream, which turned into a monstrous roar by the end. “It…it’s here! It is here! Thomas! Thomas hide! You cannot fight it! You are not immortal anymore; you have to hide! I can feel it! Oh, how I wish they would come already! MY ARMY!!” he cried. “Come as soon as you can!” 

Voldemort, on the other hand, had completely stopped listening to the critter, and instead was completely focused on the black aura that was leaking off of his enemy; his attention was being pulled by both the Potters, and all he could do was watch as a blinding golden light encased the entire landscape before it slowly vanished, leaving traces of momentary blindness in his eyes. 

Harry panted as he felt the last vestiges of Aatank leave him, and he fell on his knees. He looked up at the bubbling ball of golden and black that was floating just a few metres away from him and smiled because the weapon was here. Finally he was going to use the first divine weapon of Death which was waiting for his command. 

“Go to Hogwarts; kill all the creatures who are evil at their heart, those who want to destroy for the sake of destruction.” He commanded, slowly standing upright. “Go and blast every single organism who is fighting against the castle and its inhabitants, and protect all those who are innocent and are trapped in a war far beyond their expectations or capabilities.”  

The bubbling ball of light bobbed twice, as if bidding adieu to the one person with whom it had spent a considerable amount of time, telling him that it was time for them to part and hopefully never meet in the near or distant future. Finally, once done, the weapon of destruction vanished without a sound as it rushed to complete the orders of its latest master. 

‘What happened?’ Voldemort asked Herpo, ‘Potter did something, yes, but then the thing vanished….what was that? A failure?' 

“That…was the third most powerful weapon that a mortal could ever wield in any of the universes….” Herpo mumbled, “And, I think, that Potter had just used the weapon at Hogwarts so that it could annihilate your entire army.” 

‘You think it could go against an army like that?’ The Dark Lord smirked. ‘My army contains creatures that would defeat this thing completely.’ 

“That is the point, Tom Riddle….the name of this weapon is ‘Aatank’, or as it is also known: The incarnation of terror and destruction.” The critter sighed in despondence. “There is nothing in this or any of the mortal worlds that could stop a divine weapon of Death from completing its task.” 

‘Is there anything that we can do?’  

Voldemort watched as Harry slowly started to float in the air before he descended next to his brother, declaring the fact that the innovator was ready for another round of spellfire. 

“We wait…for now only one army can save us.” The voice slowly started to diminish once more as it retreated back to its resting place. “And I can feel the gates starting to open….just wait for a few more minutes for the Army of Damnation is waiting impatiently to trespass through the crevice in creation.”

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Ending note: There you have it fellas, chapter Forty-one of Innovator, hope you liked it.

I am really sorry for the late update but you can see the amount of work I am putting in the chapters to make the ending as deserving of the story as possible. 

Liked it? Loved it? Needs some changes? Please, do tell.

I am waiting for all your comments. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.

Thank you for reading and your comments,

With regards,
Dev Black