Albus Dumbledore vs Lord Voldemort

*** Present

"Tom," Dumbledore said, coldly, "I see you have lowered yourself to attacking my school."

Voldemort replied by throwing himself at the Headmaster of Hogwarts, without a word.

Dumbledore raised his wand, easily falling into a battle stance.

The two wizards clashed.

And what a clash it was.

No wizard on either side could believe how intense the duel between two of the greatest wizards of all time was. All of the forces of both sides combined could not hope to match either one of the two combatants locked in battle.

Lord Voldemort had used the full extent of The Darkness under his control (about twenty-four percent, he reckoned) only a few times, and only to break wards far beyond his own capabilities, so far.

Albus was the first wizard to have the (admittedly dubious) honour to be faced with nearly a quarter of the entire might of The Darkness… not to mention the already legendary skills of Lord Voldemort himself.

Voldemort used himself as a sort of a weapon. His entire body was covered in Darkness, using it as a sort of armour. He flew at Dumbledore at breakneck speeds, his arms turning to blades to try and slash at the Headmaster. He was fought off as the Headmaster raised his wand, which collided with the arm-turned-blade, and managed to hold it at bay. To the disbelief of the Dark Lord, the fifteen-inch long piece of wood did not break or, indeed, even crack at all.

Dumbledore whispered a spell under his breath, and Voldemort was repelled, only flying backwards a single metre, before he was caught by tendrils of Darkness, which held him up, from where he sent bolts of Darkness flying at Albus.

They were countered almost as soon as they were sent at him, by short bursts of fire. Upon contact with the fire, the bolts of Darkness withered and burned away.

Voldemort raised an arm, and a mass of black coalesced over his head. He swung his arm downwards, and the Darkness followed his commands, coming down upon the Headmaster.

With a sweeping gesture, Dumbledore surrounded himself in a globe of fire, which burned away the Darkness. As soon as the Darkness was burnt, Albus expelled the fire directly at Voldemort.

A wall of water rose and doused out the fire as if it had been nothing.

A steady stream of fire continued to be fired at Voldemort, evaporating his water completely, forcing the Dark Lord to apparate away, only to reappear behind Dumbledore.

The Headmaster expected the move completely, whipping around, a whip made out of fire at the tip of his wand, to defend himself with. Unfortunately, he was not quite fast enough to prevent the ram of Darkness from, well, ramming into him at its full speed and intensity.

He grunted as he was thrown away, slowing himself to a halt with an 'arresto momentum!'.

Voldemort did not let up from his opportunity, sending dozens of dark spells flying at Dumbledore. The jets of light were avoided by the old man, who was still extremely agile, despite his age.

None of the vital parts of his body had been crushed in the attack due to his battle robes, but Albus' nose was definitely broken, blood streaming out of it.

Albus apparated right in front of Voldemort, a spell at the tip of his wand, but the Dark Lord apparated away once more. The two wizards began to fully utilise the space which they had to combat in, disappearing and reappearing casually, as easily as they walked and sidestepped stray spells.

With a sound of exertion, Albus began to channel out pure energy, but with far more control than Babajide had in his own fight with the Dark Lord. The energy was tinted blue, as opposed to the pure white of the Nigerian wizard, and it surrounded Dumbledore, as he guided it with his wand.

The old man's eyes glowed an extremely bright blue, like an overkill version of his usual twinkle. His long white hair glowed too, and seemed to be floating. Defying gravity.

The energy surrounded him, and Dumbledore channeled it with his wand, sending thin, concentrated blasts of it at the Dark Lord.

Voldemort simply raised a wall of Darkness, which took the energy head on. Much to the Dark Lord's surprise, portions of the Darkness withered away, not only burnt, but utterly and completely destroyed. While the blast had been stopped, he had lost the portion of Darkness he used to protect himself.

So this was the game Dumbledore was playing.

The Headmaster of Hogwarts continued sending beams of pure energy at the Dark Lord, except this time, Voldemort simply apparated out of the way of the strikes, as quickly as he possibly could, using walls of Darkness only when absolutely necessary to protect his own life.

Dumbledore sent a particularly large beam of pure energy at him. Voldemort apparated once more. With a grunt, and some waving of his wand, the energy suddenly changed direction, as if it were a river being redirected, and went on to strike Voldemort, who did not anticipate this.

The Dark Lord shifted at the last moment, throwing himself ungracefully to the ground, but not before his shoulder was struck, the Darkness protecting it, as well as his skin, withering away completely. Blood poured out of his wound thickly.

Voldemort stared at Albus with disbelief.

"You can't do that!" he accused Albus, "Once you've released energy in its purest form, it cannot be manipulated like that!"

The Dark Lord looked upset that some mystery of magic which yet eluded him seemed to be clear to the Headmaster.

"And yet I just did, Tom," Dumbledore said calmly, before apparating right in front of Voldemort, pure energy on the tip of his wand.

In the split second before Dumbledore sent out the burst of pure energy, time seemed to slow down for the Dark Lord.

Dumbledore's wand was right in front of his eyes.

Despite the urgency of the situation at hand, despite the fact that his entire life's work and accumulation of power might be about to go down the drain, all that Voldemort could think of in that split second was how ornately carved Dumbledore's wand really was. It bore carvings that resembled clusters of some kind of berry running down its length.

Elderberries.

*** End of Chapter