Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 121: Too Late
Sirius glanced at the strange body with disgust. "You mean he had these demons from the beginning? He could have used them to infiltrate our group, don't you think?"
"Let's not go that way, Sirius." Tonks said. "We can't start distrusting each other now."
"That's not what I meant…huh?" Sirius glanced over at Hermione, who was furiously tapping at the keys. "Does she know what she is doing?"
"Miss Granger?" Shacklebolt got closer. "What is it that you are doing exactly?"
"Oh no…no…" Hermione kept muttering while tapping on the computer. The screens kept changing, showing different tables that displayed a large number of digits.
"Hermione." Tonks tried to sound calm. "Please, tell us what you found out."
"It's too late!" The girl pointed at the demon's corpse. "He must have used them for this. I bet he did…"
"Girl, you are not making much sense." Sirius commented.
"Yes, you'd better be clearer." Voldemort frowned. "My patience is limited."
"Hermione…" Tonks placed a hand on her shoulder. "Could you please—"
She stopped when she saw tears falling down the girl's face.
Hermione pointed at the screens. "Don't you see? Most of them have already been launched…it's too late."
"Wait…you mean the bombs?" Sirius glanced at the screens. There was too much information displayed to make any sense of it.
"Yes." Hermione responded. "United States, Russia, England, China, India…Harry must have infiltrated their nuclear bases and activated the bombs. Over ten thousand of them are already on the way to their targets."
"T–Ten thousand?!" Tonks exclaimed.
"Is it as bad as it sounds?" Hagrid asked, not having much idea of what those things could do.
"The muggles used two of them during their last big war." Tonks said with a trembling voice. "I believe a single one of those bombs is enough to decimate a large city."
"What?! The muggles did that?" Wormtail exclaimed.
"Those were the first models, from the forties. I'm sure the modern ones are much more potent than that." Hermione pointed out.
"And you say he managed to launch ten thousand of them? That can't be right…" Sirius said. "I mean…wouldn't that just destroy the entire world?"
"It will do that for sure." Hermione answered.
"That's what he always intended…" Voldemort realized. Harry had no desire to conquer or control others, he just wanted to kill everyone. "But there has to be something else…I'm sure he didn't intend to die himself."
"Shouldn't we get out of here at least?" Wormtail asked.
Sirius agreed with Wormtail for once. "Yeah, can you see where the bombs are aimed? Maybe we can avoid th—"
"They are aimed everywhere! Everywhere in the world!" Hermione screamed. "There is no place that will be safe. Even if you could survive the explosion, the radiation that follows will certainly kill you."
"No, I don't believe that." Shacklebolt said. "At the very least, we should be safe at Hogwarts."
"Yes! Let's apparate back to the school. We can hide in there until all this is over." Wormtail suggested.
"Okay, yes, let's do that." Tonks went to grab Hermione. "Come on. The most important thing right now is to survive."
"There is something wrong…" Voldemort muttered as he checked his wand.
"I can't apparate!" Wormtail exclaimed. "Why is this happening?"
"An anti-apparition ward?" Shacklebolt suggested. "But…I'm sure there were no wards whatsoever when we came here. And it made sense, since they would interfere with the electronics."
"Hey! I just saw something from the window. It was small and flying away." Hagrid said. "I don't think it was a bird."
"That bastard…he got us."
They turned to look at Voldemort, who now had a smile on his face. It was not a smile of happiness though.
"Could there have been a demon nearby? One of those blue ones? They are probably smart enough to activate a ward on command." Tonks suggested.
"This was all a trap from the beginning," Voldemort said. "We never had a chance to stop this from happening. The bombs were already launched. This cabin and that fake thing," He said while pointing at the dead demon. "Were nothing more than bait that Potter left behind for us, in case we showed up…"
"No…no!" Wormtail rushed down the stairs and transformed into his animagus form as he escaped at full speed.
Voldemort pointed at the screens. "I bet one of those bombs is coming directly at us right now."
"Harry…" Sirius clenched his fists, lamenting his fate. "James, Lily, I'm sorry…I have failed you."
Hermione closed her eyes and accepted her fate.
"No! We can still run." Tonks said. "We can still—"
All of a sudden, they all heard a loud sound approaching and immediately knew what it was.
It all happened extremely quickly, but it somehow felt like everything was moving in slow motion.
Through the window, they saw the flying object hit the ground right in front of the house. This was followed by a blinding light and a wave of fire that covered everything in a several-mile radius.
One moment, they were all inside the house, thinking about what to do next and how to stop Harry, and the next one…they were gone, as was everything else in its surroundings.
Many miles away, the castle of Hogwarts received the first impact.
The ancient castle wards did their best to shield its inhabitants from the damage, but the following explosion shattered its protections, and the resulting heat was enough to kill almost everyone.
The few that managed to survive would soon come to lament their fate, as the deadly radiation was now enveloping the entirety of Hogwarts fields, as well as Hogsmeade.
A battered and mangled janitor was walking through the basement of the castle. A moment before, he had been cleaning the corridor leading to the Slytherin rooms.
Mister Filch only managed ten steps before collapsing on the floor, wondering what had happened while his organs dissolved, causing him excruciating pain and making him wish for it to end already.