The expression on Lord Voldemort's face as a black bat swooped down from the rafters of the Great Hall and transformed into Headmaster Severus Snape -- a hale, hearty and handsome Severus Snape, mind you -- could only be described in Muggle terms: shocked Pikachu. "You?! But Nagini --" "Played her part to perfection and is no doubt being thoroughly spoiled by a certain pair of house elves belonging to my mate. She never was your familiar, though to give you credit, you did try. It simply didn't stick." A satisfied smirk as the vampire Prince added. "She also isn't your Horcrux ... and you have none of those left, by the way." "It matters not. The Prophecy has failed." Thin, scaly, bloodless lips curled into a derisive sneer. Brandishing the Elder Wand -- Snape's wand but now his or so the monster thought -- he crowed triumphantly. "Your champion, Precious Potter, is dead!" Whatever reaction the Dark Lord or any of his lackies might have been expecting, laughter was nowhere on the list. "Harry?" "Yes, Dear?" Cue shocked Pikachu again, this time from the entire assembly. "The clans are gathering at Papa Vlad's for Samhain this year and he will be most disappointed if we are late. Do hurry up and have done with this idiot so that we can be on our way." With of all things, an "Expelliarmus!" followed by a perfectly controlled lightning bolt that incinerated the noseless walking corpse, Harry Potter-Snape did exactly that. Then he kissed his Beloved, transformed into a smaller black bat and off they both flew into the night. That was the real ending of the Second Great Magical War. Of course the human wizards, particularly their Ministry, will tell you a different tale. One so utterly ridiculous that even the most gullible Muggles have trouble believing it. But the wixen of the Blood Clans, of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Houses of Slytherin, Peverell, Tepes and Drakul ... We know the truth. ******* PRODUCTION NOTES: Mixed media fanart made with Poser, Photoshop CS2, Corel Paintshop Pro and Playground AI. The Poser part is an old render of a magic ritual room I threw together using Daz props -- The Wizard's Tower, I think the set's called; this was at least ten years ago and I don't have the .pz3 just my renders. You can see it in use here: https://www.renderosity.com/gallery/items/2278660/the-hallows-ritual if you're interested. Anyway, I took it into Playground for some updating and this is just one of many interesting results. From there it went through Photoshop and Paintshop Pro, where I painted some things out, painted other things in, fiddled around with adjustment layers and filters and well, you get the picture. Pun very much intended. ;-) Happy Halloween! *** CREDITS: Daz 3D for the Poser props, models and textures that were used in the original render. Obsidian Dawn @ obsidiandawn.com for their excellent photoshop eye reflection brushes and Ron Deviney, also at Daz 3D for his amazing .psd & .png layers kit, "Ron's Impressions" which I put to good use in spell crafting. DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fan art from which I make no profit. Any and all persons depicted herein are intended to represent purely fictional characters, not the very talented actors who portray them. The story I have written about said characters is equally fictitious and bears only the most remote, if indeed any, resemblance to Official Potterverse Canon. My purpose here is solely to amuse and entertain, for which I hope to be forgiven any perceived trespass. tl;dr: Not mine, no money, don't sue. **********