43. Returning to Hogwarts

It was time. To return for the final battle

"Minerva!" said a squeaky voice, and looking behind you, shielding yourself from the flying spells Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape sent to each other, you saw Professors Flitwick and Sprout sprinting up the corridor toward them in their nightclothes, with the enormous Professor Slughorn panting along at the rear.

"No!" squealed Flitwick, raising his wand. "You’ll do no more murder at Hogwarts!"

Flitwick’s spell hit the suit of armor behind which Snape had taken shelter:  With a clatter it came to life. Snape struggled free of the crushing arms and sent it flying back toward his attackers: you had to dive sideways to avoid it as it smashed into the wall and shattered. When you looked up again, Snape was in full flight, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout all thundering after him: you hurtled through a classroom door and, moments later, you heard McGonagall cry, "Coward! COWARD!"

"Minerva, do please explain...Severus...what...?" Asked Slughorn panting.

"Our headmaster is taking a short break," said Professor McGonagall, pointing at the Snape-shaped hole in the window.

"Professor!" Harry shouted from afar, his hands at his forehead. "Professor, we’ve got to barricade the school, he’s coming now!"

"Very well. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is coming," she told the other teachers. Sprout and Flitwick gasped; Slughorn let out a low groan. "Potter has work to do in the castle on Dumbledore’s orders. We need to put in place every protection of which we are capable while Potter does what he needs to do."

"You realize, of course, that nothing we do will be able to keep out You-Know-Who indefinitely?" squeaked Flitwick.

"But we can hold him up," said Professor Sprout.

"Thank you, Pomona," said Professor McGonagall, and between the two witches there passed a look of grim understanding. "I suggest we establish basic protection around the place, then gather our students and meet in the Great Hall. Most must be evacuated, though if any of those who are over age wish to stay and fight, I think they ought to be given the chance."

"Agreed," said Professor Sprout, already hurrying toward the door. "I shall meet you in the Great Hall in twenty minutes with my House."

And as she jogged out of sight, they could hear her muttering, "Tentacula. Devil’s Snare. And Snargaluff pods... yes, I’d like to see the Death Eaters fighting those."

"I can act from here," said Flitwick, and although he could barely see out of it, he pointed his wand through the smashed window and started muttering incantations of great complexity. You heard a weird rushing noise, as though Flitwick had unleashed the power of the wind into the grounds.

"Professor," Harry said, approaching the little Charms master, "Professor, I’m sorry to interrupt, but this is important. Have you got any idea where the diadem of Ravenclaw is?"

"— Protego Horribilis — the diadem of Ravenclaw?" squeaked Flitwick. "A little extra wisdom never goes amiss, Potter, but I hardly think it would be much use in this situation!"

"I only meant — do you know where it is? Have you ever seen it?"

"Seen it? Nobody has seen it in living memory! Long since lost, boy!"

"Harry, it's fine, let's just..." You said at Harry "go."

Harry felt a mixture of desperate disappointment and panic. What, then, was the Horcrux?

"We shall meet you and your Ravenclaws in the Great Hall, Filius!” said Professor McGonagall, beckoning to Harry and you to follow her.

You had just reached the door when Slughorn rumbled into speech.

"My word," he puffed, pale and sweaty, his walrus mustache aquiver. "What a to-do! I’m not at all sure whether this is wise, Minerva. He is bound to find a way in, you know, and anyone who has tried to delay him will be inmost grievous peril —"

"I shall expect you and the Slytherins in the Great Hall in twenty minutes, also," said Professor McGonagall. "If you wish to leave with your students, we shall not stop you. But if any of you attempt to sabotage our resistance or take up arms against us within this castle, then, Horace, we duel to kill."

"Minerva!" he said, aghast.

"The time has come for Slytherin House to decide upon its loyalties," interrupted Professor McGonagall. "Go and wake your students, Horace."

You did not stay to watch Slughorn splutter: you and Harry ran after Professor McGonagall, who had taken up a position in the middle of the corridor and raised her wand.

"Piertotum — oh, for heaven’s sake, Filch, not now —"

The aged caretaker had just come hobbling into view, shouting, "Students out of bed! Students in the corridors!"

"They’re supposed to be, you blithering idiot!" shouted McGonagall. "Now go and do something constructive! Find Peeves!""P-Peeves?" stammered Filch as though he had never heard the name before.

"Yes, Peeves, you fool, Peeves! Haven’t you been complaining about him for a quarter of a century? Go and fetch him, at once!"

Filch evidently thought Professor McGonagall had taken leave of her senses, but hobbled away, hunch-shouldered, muttering under his breath.

"And now — Piertotum Locomotor!" cried Professor McGonagall.

And all along the corridor the statues and suits of armor jumped down from their plinths, and from the echoing crashes from the floors above and below, you knew that their fellows throughout the castle had done the same.

"Hogwarts is threatened!" shouted Professor McGonagall. "Man the boundaries, protect us, do your duty to our school!" She turned slightly towards you, "I've always wanted to use that spell!" You smiled at her enthusiasm.

"Excuse us, Professor, but we have to go." Without waiting for a word of her, you and Harry left her, running and not looking back.

Clattering and yelling, the horde of moving statues stampeded past you and Harry: some of them smaller, others larger, than life. There were animals too, and the clanking suits of armor brandished swords and spiked balls on chains.

As the room came into view, you slipped down a few stairs in shock. It was packed, far more crowded than when he had last been in there. Kingsley and Remus were looking up at you and Harry, as were Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, Bill and Fleur, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

"Harry, what’s happening?" said Remus, meeting you both at the foot of the stairs.

"Voldemort’s on his way, they’re barricading the school — Snape’s run for it — What are you doing here? How did you know?"

"We sent messages to the rest of Dumbledore’s Army," Fred explained. "You couldn’t expect everyone to miss the fun, Harry, and the D.A. let the Order of the Phoenix know, and it all kind of snowballed." Fred came to your side and side hugged you, holding you tightly.

"What first, Harry?" called George.

"What’s going on?"

"They’re evacuating the younger kids and everyone’s meeting in the Great Hall to get organized," you said. "We’re fighting."

There was a great roar and a surge toward the foot of the stairs; he was pressed back against the wall as you all ran past him, the mingled members of the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore’s Army, and Harry’s old Quidditch team, all with their wands drawn, heading up into the main castle.

The crowd was thinning: Only a little knot of people remained below in the Room of Requirement, and Harry joined you. Mrs. Weasley was struggling with Ginny. Around them stood you, Remus, Fred, George, Bill, and Fleur.

"You’re underage!" Mrs. Weasley shouted at her daughter as Harry approached. "I won’t permit it! The boys, yes, but you, you’ve got to go home!"

"I won’t!" Ginny’s hair flew as she pulled her arm out of her mother’s grip. "I’m in Dumbledore’s Army —"

"A teenagers’ gang!"

"A teenagers’ gang that’s about to take him on, which no one else has dared to do!" said Fred.

"She’s sixteen!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "She’s not old enough! What you two were thinking, bringing her with you —"

Fred and George looked slightly ashamed of themselves. You couldn't speak, your breath hitched in the back of your throat.

"Mum’s right, Ginny," said Bill gently. "You can’t do this. Everyone underage will have to leave, it’s only right."

"I can’t go home!" Ginny shouted, angry tears sparkling in her eyes. "My whole family’s here, I can’t stand waiting there alone and not knowing and—"

There was a scuffling and a great thump: Someone else had clambered out of the tunnel, overbalanced slightly, and fallen. He pulled himself up on the nearest chair, looked around through lopsided horn-rimmed glasses, and said,

"Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found out, so I — I —" Percy spluttered into silence. Evidently he had not expected to run into most of his family. There was a long moment of astonishment, broken by Fleur turning to Remus and saying, in a wildly transparent attempt to break the tension, "So — ’ow eez leetle Teddy?"

Remus blinked at her, startled. The silence between the Weasleys seemed to be solidifying, like ice.

"I — oh yes — he’s fine!" Remus said loudly. "Yes, Tonks is with him — at her mother’s —"

Percy and the other Weasleys were still staring at one another, frozen.

"Here, I’ve got a picture!" Remus shouted, pulling a photograph from inside his jacket and showing it to Fleur and you, who saw a tiny baby with a tuft of bright turquoise hair, waving fat fists at the camera.

"I was a fool!" Percy roared, so loudly that Remus nearly dropped his photograph. "I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a — a —"

"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron," said Fred.

Percy swallowed. "Yes, I was!"

"Well, you can’t say fairer than that," said Fred, holding out his hand to Percy.

Mrs. Weasley burst into tears. She ran forward, pushed Fred aside, and pulled Percy into a strangling hug, while he patted her on the back, his eyes on his father.

"I’m sorry, Dad," Percy said.

Mr. Weasley blinked rather rapidly, then he too hurried to hug his son.

"What made you see sense, Perce?" inquired George.

"It’s been coming on for a while," said Percy, mopping his eyes under his glasses with a corner of his traveling cloak. "But I had to find a way out and it’s not so easy at the Ministry, they’re imprisoning traitors all the time. I managed to make contact with Aberforth and he tipped me off ten minutes ago that Hogwarts was going to make a fight of it, so here I am.""Well, we do look to our prefects to take a lead at times such as these," said George in a good imitation of Percy’s most pompous manner. "Now let’s get upstairs and fight, or all the good Death Eaters’ll be taken."

Percy nodded, turning towards you. Your vision was blurry from the tears, "You? (Y/n)? Do you forgive me for my foolishness?"

You chuckled slightly and smiled at him. You pulled him into a hug, your hands around his neck and his on your back.

"You're family, Perce." You smiled, letting a few tears run down your face. "You'll always be forgiven." You pulled away, smiling at each other.

"So, you’re my sister-in-law now?"said Percy, shaking hands with Fleur as they hurried off toward the staircase with you, Bill, Fred, and George.

You stopped midway, Fred stopping with you. "Are you alright, my love?" He asked concerned.

"Just, whatever happens tonight—"

"Don't say that!" Said Fred, wide-eyed.

"—I love you, Fred Weasley. I always have and I always will." You cupped his cheek, slowly bringing yourself closer to him. You both leaned in and kissed each other passionately before running off to meet Percy, Bill and George, who were waiting for you.

"I guess you'll be our next sister-in-law?" Asked Percy jokingly.

You smiled, "I will." You turned to Fred, squeezing his hand, "I'll make sure of it."