Harry was also waiting. The weather was turning soggier and the rain pouring down reached into the "pocket" and drenched the captives. Some were starting to shiver. Harry wasn't sure if it was from the cold or from fear. Maybe both. The wards were also starting to absorb magic, just slightly, slowly enough to not become evident too soon.
When he thought that he waited long enough, he cast his modified sonorus to talk to the captives. "Hi, this is Harry Potter talking. As you can clearly notice, I've anticipated your actions and took countermeasures. You and your Lord are currently at my mercy."
"Don't kill us!" one of the captives cried desperately.
"Where are you? Come show yourself!" Voldemort demanded.
Harry disregarded the demand. "Actually, judged by your deeds, you all deserve death sentences many times over. That's what any truthful judge would have told you. But I am not a judge nor a jury. Still, with nobody else to trust with your punishment, I'll act as one."
"Please have mercy on us!"
"Don't kill us. We have children."
"Where are you? Come show yourself!" Voldemort demanded again.
Harry chuckled coldly. "Mercy? Do you even know what that is? Have you shown mercy to the muggles you killed? Have you shown mercy to the magical folks you killed? Have you thought about their children, aside from killing them too? Why should I show you any mercy in return?"
"Don't kill us!" it sounded desperate.
"Oh, don't worry. I won't kill you. That is too easy a sentence for you. You despise muggles and squibs, don't you? I'm going to remove your magic and make you muggles. Actually, less than muggles, since they still have minute amounts of magic in them. You'll have to live the rest of your lives without magic. You won't even be able to get your money from Gringotts, if you have any, since you will not be able to go there, unable to even see the Leaky Cauldron."
"Then kill me outright!" one shouted.
"I could," Harry replied, "but why should I? This is a much worse punishment than death, for the lot of you, more deserving of your crimes."
Voldemort was still repeating, "Where are you? Come show yourself!" in a demanding tone.
Harry decided to turn to him. "I'm here, at Hogwarts. If you look around attentively, you may be able to discern me on top of one of the towers. I don't intend to go out, though. The weather is really awful."
His words were emphasised by a rumble of loud thunder, followed by another out-pour of rain. Nobody could see where he was in such rain and his voice seemed to come from all the directions at once.
"You know," Harry continued conversationally, "I thought I'd wait here for the duel. Had you decided to come alone and face me honestly, all these victims could have been spared. But I knew you wouldn't act honestly, so I had my friends prepare a few nice surprises for you, like these wards. You see, they've been sucking magic from all of you since your master joined you. By now, you probably have only slightly more than half the power you had this morning. When I release you from the wards, you'll have none. You won't even be able to see Hogwarts or Hogsmeade, for that matter. You'll have to walk in the wilderness until you find a place to hide from the cold, get some food and begin a search for a way to earn a living, if you even survive that long. It looks like the weather is getting colder. I suspect we may have some snow before nightfall."
He returned his attention back to Voldemort. "As for you, the one who flees from death – we know all about your not so illustrious ancestry. You were born to a weak and ugly witch who needed love potions to attract the local muggle sire's son, who was quite handsome. As expected, he left her the moment she stopped feeding him the potion. Later, as a handsome youth, you did very well at Hogwarts, but your evil made you delve into dark magic, that eventually destroyed your looks.
"You tried to cheat death. It worked for a while, but that trick could never succeed in the end. How many pharaohs have you seen running around lately? And your secrets are secret no more. They were all destroyed, making you as mortal as anyone else. Well, not exactly. While the others may be able to live without magic, I doubt your body would even exist, once the magic is taken away from it."
Voldemort seemed to first get angry and then frightened. He could no longer hide his fear with cruelty, having no wand. For too many years he was relying on his magic only, but most of it was useless without a wand and he had no alternative. "You can't do that!" he blurted.
"Can't I? I'm sure you could do a wandless Lumos. Why don't you try it now?"
Voldemort lifted his arm and looked at his index finger. It started glowing so faintly that it would have been unnoticeable on a brighter day. It only lasted a brief moment and then faded completely. Voldemort looked really frightened now.
Harry resumed talking. "So, Tom – since that is your given name – do you believe me now? Your magic is being sucked away as we speak, adding itself to the Hogwarts magic. You may be glad that it isn't completely wasted. Unfortunately, I don't believe your body will hold when you reach below a third of your magic. It would be a pity, since all these minions of yours will see you destroyed."
Harry tweaked the wards to make them absorb magic faster. Judging by Tom's expression, he felt the change. Harry had no more to say to that person. "Goodbye, Tom. I hope you go to a hell appropriate for your deeds."
Hermione made sure to have a few film cameras, both stills and movies, recording the event as proof. Despite not wanting to watch the last moments of the self-proclaimed Dark Lord, Harry continued watching, as if glued to his place.
Voldemort knew he was doomed. He no longer had any safety net. Without his wand, he couldn't even access his followers' magic, although that was also dwindling quickly. He had no way to suck the life force from others. Once his body died, he would be dead, completely and utterly dead. As he felt his body starting to break apart he managed to sound a shrill and desperate cry before his body ceased functioning.
His followers were watching the scene with horrified fascination. Their Lord and master was clearly dying, his promises, as little as they were worth, dying with him.
Their attention then turned to themselves. With no other distraction, they could feel their magic leaving them. Hogwarts was becoming a blur and then looked like some remains of an old, destroyed castle. And then, as the warming charms failed them, they started to feel the cold.
Harry released the outer wards. The regular muggle repelling charms on the area were making sure to drive the hundred or so new muggles away. They all looked lost and desperate, not even able to talk to each other. As they started walking away, the rain and the sleet hid them from view. He was sure that not many would survive to see the next day.
\/\/\/
Despite the clear victory, nobody seemed inclined to celebrate. Everybody blamed the weather for that feeling, but they all knew it was the least to blame. As Harry put it, "It's difficult to feel elated enough to celebrate when you see the cost. Too many people died, no matter on which side they fought, and too many lost their magic, even if it was fully justified. Had we been able to redeem them, it would have been much better."
He then changed the subject. "I think that the Ministry is almost empty now. Time to retake control of it and start rebuilding our magical community. We should contact whoever can help."
He released the Floo to be used for calls. They first contacted Shell Cottage, informing Bill and advising Arthur to return to the Ministry and help the order resume control. They next contacted Kingsley Shackelbolt and some other ex-Aurors to take control of that department. Ted returned to Potter Manor to inform the others and start making arrangements for helping the unexpected guests return home and resume their lives as much as possible.
Harry contacted Minerva at her home and told her in person of Voldemort's demise. She promised to come the next morning and prepare the school for the coming term, also looking for proper teachers for defence and for muggle studies. Harry suggested Remus (with Dora as a backup for once a month) and Ted. He felt sure that she would offer and they would accept.
Finally, he set the wards to their new normal setting, which wouldn't allow any dark artefact to be brought to school, nor allow Trolls and other such creatures in. He also changed the werewolf definition from Dark Creatures to People Suffering Illness, who are normally allowed in, except when contagious.
With that done, he felt they deserved some rest. He left a few of the older guards at school, just to keep it safe, and the rest went back to the Manor with him. They all deserved some rest as well as emotional and mental recuperation. One can't fight a war without suffering some consequences.
\/\/\/
The Potters spent the whole afternoon cuddling on a sofa in the parlour, surrounded by friends. Luna and Dean were occupying another sofa as did Remus and Dora. The Tonks spent the time in their room, to allow the younger generation to stay undisturbed.
Yet their bodies needed attention too, not only their souls.
Twinkle came to the parlour and told them, "Dinner is ready. After such an eventful day, your body needs nourishment and then you need to sleep."
Harry lifted his head, which was buried between Hermione's breasts, and smiled approvingly. "We'll go wash our hands and faces and then come to the dining room."
A few minutes later, when the group arrived at the dining room, they found more people at the table than expected. Aside from Andy and Ted, they also found the Weasley twins and their father, as well as the tall, dark Auror – Kingsley Shackelbolt.
"Why are you here? How were you even able to come?" Harry asked.
Shack answered. "I don't know where 'here' is, although I assume it's Potter Manor. This still doesn't give me a location. Bill said that only your house-elves would be able to bring us here and called for Dobby, who then consulted with Twinkle and finally agreed to bring us to his 'Great Master Harry Potter Sir and His Grangy.' Is there a story hiding there?"
That made both teens blush, but Shack continued, "As for the 'why' – about a year ago, Dumbledore told the Order that he wanted you to be its next leader after you reach maturity. He asked Moody to lead in case he died before you were of age. He also informed us that Snape was assigned the task to kill him under certain circumstances. He didn't explain them."
Harry grimaced. Did the old man control his life even from the grave? Well, not exactly. He could now make his own choices. "What if I don't want to be a leader?" he asked.
Shack chuckled. "Most true leaders don't choose their position. They just are. Haven't you noticed that you were becoming a leader even before you started the DA, that you led very well? Didn't you lead a group of fighters to Hogwarts and prepared them for battle? The whole magical population is now looking up to you the way it was looking at Dumbledore. You are a leader, whether you like it or not."
Harry sighed. A few years earlier, he would have considered it an honour to be compared to Dumbledore, but at that moment… Still, people were looking up to him to lead and he could lead them to a better future. Wasn't it his obligation to do that?
Hermione seemed to sense his mood. "Harry, I think we should show them the way to build a better magical society, but it's up to the people to change and support our ideas. Besides, we need to finish our education, now that school can properly resume, and we also have a family to make."
"Will you help me?" he pleaded.
"Don't I always?"
Harry straightened up. "Alright, I'll try to do it for a bit longer, until we return to school. What do you have to report?"
Shack waved his hand at Arthur, who took a deep breath before talking. "The Ministry is in shambles. About two-thirds of the low-level workers were muggle-born. They were arrested, went into hiding, or fled the country. Many of their superiors were half-bloods. Most of them are also out of job and probably fled or are hiding. Of the purebloods, who held the higher positions, many were Death Eaters or their supporters. They will not be back. The Ministry can't function this way."
Harry gave it a thought. This was a chance to perform some long-needed reforms. "You'll have to restructure the Ministry. I'm sure that many positions were redundant, created solely for the benefit of some pureblood families. By eliminating such jobs and redefining the workflow, the Ministry can be made much more efficient while also saving money. Do you know Dirk Cresswell? He's also here. According to his word, he's good at organization and knows the Ministry well. He could help you."
"Dirk is well? That's a relief. Yes, he would be invaluable at rebuilding the Ministry," Arthur said.
Shack took over. "I only found five Aurors stationed at the Ministry, all quite new and none from dark families. They were considered unreliable by the Death Eaters but were left in post since they are purebloods and were needed for the paperwork that nobody else knew. They are now guarding the Ministry, along with some of the retired Aurors that I called back."
He turned to Dora. "Will you be able to assist us with the paperwork? You're clearly unfit for field work at your condition, but we need someone competent to start put some order in the bureaucratic chaos left by the Dark Lord's regime."
"Are you sure I'm the right person to keep order? I'm not so sure. You may ask Remus how disorderly I am," she said.
"You know what should be done and you can instruct others. I don't expect you to do it as a full-time job, and I know you'll need a few days off every month, but if you can move the operation on track, others can continue. It will also free one of the other experienced Aurors for investigations," Shack explained.
She looked at her husband, who smiled back. "I'll accept, at least until the baby comes."
"Are there any more Death Eaters at the Ministry?" Hermione asked.
Shack shook his head. "He summoned them all to come to Hogwarts. There are still many unmarked supporters, though. It would be harder to weed them out."
"It can't be done in a day," Hermione agreed. "I suggest you start introducing some modernization at the Ministry. It would then spread to the rest of the population. For example, you may use pen and paper instead of quill and parchment; use bound notebooks instead of rolls; introduce a dress code that's similar enough to the muggle way to not stand out in public. I'd also like to introduce telephones, television and computers, but that may take a bit longer."
Harry took over. "The main point we'd like to emphasise, though, is that one's ancestry is no reason for discrimination. All the positions should be open to magic users of all ancestries and filled by the best and most fitting candidate, regardless of ancestry. We may later see what can be done about the Wizengamot. It should, ideally, become a representative institute, with elected members and no seats passed by family, but that may take some time."
"About that," Shack noted, "We need to have an emergency Wizengamot meeting tomorrow morning. Since you currently hold at least two seats – Black and Potter, you should be present there. Your influence may be all we need to start introducing changes."
"I thought there was a minimum age requirement," Hermione noted.
"Normally, there is, and it's twenty-eight, but since many seat holders died during the war, this limit was revoked for two years, to allow those families to keep their influences. It now allows you to vote," Shack explained. "I suggest you first visit Gringotts and do the inheritance test. You may find some more positions you can claim, increasing your influence even further."
Harry sighed. "I really don't like politics."
It was Hermione who responded. "Politics is the other part of the war. You must do it, or you may lose all you've gained on the battlefield. Without introducing a political change, the pureblood dogmas will not be abolished, preparing the ground for another dark lord and more discrimination. We have no choice, but to handle this too."
"If you say so…" he sighed again.
The twins had some more cheerful news. "We informed the shop owners in Diagon Alley about the victory, those who hadn't joined the Dark Lord. They're all working on cleaning and preparing the shops to reopen tomorrow. We let the employees of the shops owned by Death Eaters decide for themselves. Most decided to open since they were handling the stores by themselves anyway, only passing the profits to the owners. Fortesque and his family are busy preparing new batches of ice cream for the grand reopening."
With thoughts about tasty ice cream, the impromptu meeting ended, yet everybody had something to do in preparation for the next day.