The room atop the circular staircase of the Headmaster's office had become, in the span of one hour, less a study and more a war chamber.
Maps of the Ministry of Magic floated in the air, layered, rotating, marked with glowing points of light. Red sparks denoted known Death Eater signatures identified by surveillance charms. Blue marks represented Auror teams already in covert motion. Gold runes circled the Hall of Prophecy like tightening rings.
Albus Dumbledore stood at the center of it all with sleeves rolled back, spectacles glinting in candlelight.
Harry had never seen him look older.
Nor had he ever seen him look more dangerous.
Around the room stood Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, Severus Snape, Pomona Sprout, Amelia Bones, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Elira Vael, Alastor Moody, and several ICW operatives in travelling robes marked with silver sigils.
Ron sat beside Hermione near the wall, one hand rubbing the back of his neck where Harry had struck him.
"You enjoyed that too much," Hermione muttered.
Ron grinned weakly. "Worth it."
Harry barely heard them.
His eyes remained fixed on the Ministry map.
The corridor from his vision glowed in pale green.
The Department of Mysteries.
Voldemort had baited him there.
And now they would turn the trap around.
The Plan
"Eliminate panic," Amelia said crisply. "Contain exits. Arrest all masked parties. Protect civilians. Confirm Dark Lord presence."
"Alive if possible," said Dumbledore.
"Preferably breathing," Moody growled, tapping his wooden leg. "But I'm flexible."
A few grim smiles passed.
Elira Vael stepped forward. "The ICW has approved temporary emergency deployment of foreign specialists. Apparition wards around the Atrium have been subtly altered. If they attempt mass escape, we can redirect them into containment cells."
Snape's eyes narrowed. "And if the Dark Lord notices?"
"He won't," Vael said coolly. "Unless your estimate of his arrogance is mistaken."
That silenced the room.
Dumbledore turned to Harry.
"You are central to this, but not bait."
Harry folded his arms. "He wants me."
"He wants what he believes he can control," Dumbledore replied. "That is not the same thing."
Harry thought of Frieza.
Of Voldemort.
Of tyrants who mistook obsession for ownership.
"What do you need from me?"
Dumbledore pointed his wand. A side chamber opened.
Inside stood stacks of Ministry robes, masks, and crates.
"Speed," said Dumbledore. "Power. Precision. And restraint, if possible."
Harry snorted softly.
"No promises."
Infiltration
They entered in waves.
The first team, Aurors disguised as maintenance staff, used floo entries staggered over twenty minutes.
The second, ICW operatives under invisibility cloaks, descended through emergency apparition channels hidden since the Grindelwald era.
The third wave waited with Harry in an abandoned records room one floor above the Atrium.
He could sense everything.
Ki signatures burned in the dark like candles.
Ron beside him, nervous and bright.
Hermione, controlled but sharp.
Ginny, fierce and steady.
Neville, trembling but rooted.
Luna, oddly serene.
Behind them, Sirius and Remus.
"You're humming," Sirius whispered.
Harry blinked.
He was.
Some old Saiyan battle rhythm.
"Sorry."
"Don't be," Sirius said, baring teeth. "Makes me nostalgic for things I've never experienced."
A whisper came through enchanted mirrors.
"They're here."
Harry's spine straightened.
Below them, black-robed figures entered the Hall of Prophecy.
Lucius Malfoy.
Bellatrix Lestrange.
Rookwood.
Dolohov.
Yaxley.
Others.
And among them,
A colder presence.
Not yet visible.
Watching.
Waiting.
Voldemort.
The Department of Mysteries erupted into war in a single heartbeat.
"NOW!" roared Moody.
Walls burst open.
Aurors stormed from concealed passages.
Chains of blue light lashed through the air.
Death Eaters spun in shock.
Harry dropped from the balcony like a meteor.
He landed amid two masked men, shockwave cracking black tiles.
Before either could speak, he struck one with an open palm that sent the man skidding unconscious into shelves of prophecy orbs.
The second raised a curse.
Harry vanished.
Reappeared behind him.
Chopped once.
Down.
All around him chaos bloomed.
Kingsley dueled three at once, curses moving like liquid geometry.
Tonks transfigured floor tiles into grasping iron hands.
Flitwick moved with terrifying speed, tiny and lethal, blasting masks from faces before stunning their wearers.
McGonagall animated entire rows of cabinets into charging stone beasts.
Neville, face pale with effort, sent a cutting curse that severed Dolohov's wand arm sleeve and disarmed him.
Ron and Hermione fought back-to-back, combining shield charms and red stunners with surprising rhythm.
Harry smiled despite himself.
They had learned.
Then Bellatrix laughed.
"Black!" she screamed.
Sirius turned.
Their duel split the chamber.
Purple curses.
Silver knives.
Exploding shelves.
For one moment Harry's senses tugged toward her but Lucius came first, firing a serpent curse.
Harry caught the conjured snake by the throat and hurled it back into Lucius's chest.
Malfoy collapsed under coils.
Then the room shook.
A wave of cold magic.
Voldemort had entered.
Several fighters staggered instinctively.
Even veterans blanched.
Harry looked up.
At the far end of the chamber, pale and red-eyed, stood Tom Riddle.
Smiling.
"Ah," Voldemort said softly. "There you are."
Sirius Falls, Almost.
Bellatrix, shrieking with manic joy, drove Sirius backward toward the Veil Chamber.
Ancient stone steps spiraled around the great archway where the veil fluttered in eternal silence.
"Sirius!" Harry shouted.
Bellatrix fired a stunning curse point-blank.
It struck Sirius in the chest.
He reeled backward, body tipping toward the black curtain.
Remus Lupin launched himself like a wolf.
He caught Sirius by the wrist inches from the veil and slammed both of them hard against the platform.
Bellatrix cackled and fled upward.
Harry moved before thought.
"I'll get her!"
He launched skyward in a burst of ki, smashing through floating benches and racing after her through shattered corridors.
Behind him he heard Sirius coughing and Remus swearing furiously.
Alive.
Good.
Bellatrix ran, she ran through the Atrium, robes torn, hair wild.
"Come then, little monster!" she cried.
Harry landed ahead of her.
The marble floor cracked.
Bellatrix skidded to a halt.
For the first time, uncertainty crossed her face.
"You hurt my family," Harry said.
She laughed too loudly. "Which one?"
Harry's aura flared.
Blue-white.
The fountain statues behind him trembled.
Bellatrix fired six curses in rapid succession.
Harry stepped through them.
One hand caught her wand wrist.
The other struck her sternum.
Not enough to kill.
Enough to launch her across the Atrium into a pillar that splintered like timber.
She slumped unconscious.
Harry bound her with conjured stone and turned.
The air screamed.
Voldemort waited near the golden fountain.
Everyone else had been driven back.
The second battle began.
Harry Potter vs Lord Voldemort
The Atrium emptied in instinctive terror.
Even Aurors retreated to the perimeter.
The fountain of magical brethren lay shattered between them.
Water ran across marble like blood.
Voldemort's voice was silk over knives.
"You have become troublesome."
Harry walked forward slowly.
"You keep trying to kill children."
"Children become corpses."
Harry stopped.
"No," he said quietly. "Monsters do."
Voldemort struck first.
A killing curse tore the hall apart.
Harry sidestepped and answered with a beam of condensed ki that vaporised the floor where Voldemort had stood.
Riddle apparated behind him.
Harry spun, tail whipping free instinctively and blocked a slicing curse with his forearm hardened by reinforcement magic.
The curse shattered.
Voldemort's eyes narrowed.
"What are you?"
Harry smiled without warmth.
"Everything you should have feared."
He transformed.
Na'vi first.
Blue skin lengthening, body surging taller, ears sharpening.
The hall gasped.
Harry moved low and fast, launching forward on all fours. He struck Voldemort with a shoulder charge that blasted the Dark Lord through three marble columns.
Before Voldemort could rise, roots burst from the shattered floor, Pandoran instinct blended with earth control, wrapping his limbs.
Green fire severed them instantly.
Voldemort rose snarling.
"So many masks."
Harry's form blurred again.
Lion shape.
Golden mane blazing.
He roared.
The sound alone shattered every window in the Atrium.
Voldemort staggered one pace.
Harry pounced.
Claws raked across enchanted robes, drawing blackened blood.
Riddle retaliated with serpents of cursed flame.
Harry became human mid-roll, palm thrusting outward.
A wall of water rose from the fountain remains and swallowed the flames.
Steam engulfed everything.
Then power exploded outward.
Harry's hair lifted.
Golden light erupted around him.
Super Saiyan.
The entire Ministry shook.
People screamed.
Even hardened Aurors shielded their eyes.
Voldemort stared in naked disbelief.
Harry vanished.
Appeared in front of him.
One punch.
Voldemort flew the length of the Atrium, smashing through the Minister's dais.
He tried to stand.
Harry was already above him.
A heel drop cratered stone.
Voldemort coughed blood.
Impossible.
Harry knew that expression.
He had seen it on Frieza.
On Cell.
On Jiren, in different form.
The disbelief of those who thought themselves absolute.
"You're mortal," Harry said.
Voldemort hissed and unleashed a storm of curses so dense the air blackened.
Harry raised one hand.
A translucent shield of ki absorbed the barrage.
Then he answered with elemental fury.
Fire spirals.
Ice lances.
Lightning arcs.
Earth pillars.
Air blades.
Voldemort countered with monstrous skill, but each spell cost him more ground.
Harry advanced like a storm front.
At last Voldemort screamed and cast Avada Kedavra with both hands.
Harry's aura surged red over gold.
Limit Breaker.
He caught the green curse between his palms.
The hall froze.
Then Harry twisted and hurled the killing curse upward where it detonated harmlessly through the enchanted ceiling.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Voldemort took one involuntary step back.
Harry saw fear.
Real fear.
Then the fire place's burst with green flames.
Witnesses
Cornelius Fudge stumbled into the Atrium surrounded by reporters, Department Heads, and bodyguards.
Rita Skeeter.
Percy Weasley.
Clerks.
Witches in dressing gowns dragged from beds.
They had expected scandal.
They found Lord Voldemort bloodied before Harry Potter glowing like a fallen star.
Fudge's bowler hat dropped from numb fingers.
"N-no…"
Voldemort turned.
For one fatal second his composure cracked.
Recognition swept the room.
Gasps.
Shrieks.
Pens scratching madly.
Rita Skeeter nearly fainted with delight.
Amelia Bones entered behind them with fresh Aurors.
"Wands up!"
Voldemort snarled.
"You fools."
Harry lunged.
Their final exchange shattered statues and tore banners from walls.
Harry shifted through forms in rapid succession, Saiyan speed, Na'vi reach, lion ferocity, human precision.
Voldemort was driven backward step by step.
At last Harry seized him by the throat and slammed him through the fountain base.
Cracks spiderwebbed outward.
But shadows swarmed.
Death Eaters hurled smoke bombs and curses from hidden alcoves.
Wormtail dragged his master free.
"Retreat!"
Harry fired a beam of fire that scorched across Voldemort's chest, burning robes and flesh.
The Dark Lord screamed.
Then vanished with his followers in violent apparition bursts.
The Atrium fell still.
Smoke drifted.
Broken marble steamed.
Fudge stood trembling.
He had seen.
Everyone had seen.
There would be no denial left to hide behind.
Harry swayed once.
Power drained.
Sirius caught him from one side.
Remus from the other.
"Easy," Remus said quietly.
"You look awful," Sirius added.
Harry laughed weakly. "You always know what to say."
Amelia strode forward, face pale but composed.
"Secure prisoners. Memory teams for muggles above ground. Healers to the injured. Full lockdown."
She looked at Harry.
Then at the crater where Voldemort had stood.
Then back.
"Well fought, Mr Potter."
Fudge opened his mouth.
No sound came.
Vael arrived moments later through international portkey flame, surveyed the room once, and said to no one in particular:
"Oh dear."
The Prophet's Tomorrow
As Harry was led from the Atrium, exhausted but standing, voices followed him.
"He's back."
"Did you see Potter?"
"He turned golden,"
"Merlin preserve us,"
"Fudge lied."
"Voldemort is alive."
Harry did not look back.
He was too tired.
Too old.
Too aware that tonight had ended one war of lies and begun another of truth.
Beside him Sirius squeezed his shoulder.
"You were brilliant."
Harry glanced at him.
"You nearly fell through the veil."
Sirius winced. "Yes, well, no need to focus on every detail."
Remus snorted.
Ahead, Dumbledore waited at the broken doors.
Moonlight silvered his beard.
Pride and sorrow lived together in his gaze.
"It begins," the old wizard said softly.
Harry looked toward the night sky above London.
"No," he answered.
"It already did."