44. The Battle Of Hogwarts

The enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall was dark and scattered with stars, and below it the four long House tables were lined with disheveled students, some in traveling cloaks, others in dressing gowns. Here and there shone the pearly white figures of the school ghosts. Every eye, living and dead, was fixed upon Professor McGonagall, who was speaking from the raised platform at the top of the Hall. Behind her stood the remaining teachers, including the palomino centaur, Firenze, and the members of the Order of the Phoenix who had arrived to fight.

"...evacuation will be overseen by Mr. Filch and Madam Pomfrey. Prefects, when I give the word, you will organize your House and take your charges, in an orderly fashion, to the evacuation point."Many of the students looked petrified. However, as you and the Weasley boys skirted the walls, Ernie Macmillan stood up at the Hufflepuff table and shouted, "And what if we want to stay and fight?"

There was a smattering of applause.

"If you are of age, you may stay," said Professor McGonagall.

"What about our things?" called a girl at the Ravenclaw table. "Our trunks, our owls?"

"We have no time to collect possessions," said Professor McGonagall. "The important thing is to get you out of here safely.""Where’s Professor Snape?" shouted a girl from the Slytherin table.

"He has, to use the common phrase, done a bunk," replied Professor McGonagall, and a great cheer erupted from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws.

As you passed, faces turned in Harry's direction, and a great deal of whispering broke out in his wake.

"We have already placed protection around the castle," Professor McGonagall was saying, "but it is unlikely to hold for very long unless we reinforce it. I must ask you, therefore, to move quickly and calmly, and do as your prefects —"

But her final words were drowned as a different voice echoed throughout the Hall. It was high, cold, and clear: There was no telling from where it came; it seemed to issue from the walls themselves. Like the monster it had once commanded, it might have lain dormant there for centuries.

"I know that you are preparing to fight."There were screams amongst the students, some of whom clutched each other, looking around in terror for the source of the sound. "Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood."

There was silence in the Hall now, the kind of silence that presses against the eardrums, that seems too huge to be contained by walls.

"Give me Harry Potter," said Voldemort’s voice, "and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight."

The silence swallowed them all again. Every head turned, every eye in the place seemed to have found Harry, to hold him frozen in the glare of thousands of invisible beams. Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table and you recognized Pansy Parkinson as she raised a shaking arm and screamed,

"But he’s there! Potter’s there! Someone grab him!"

Before Harry could speak, there was a massive movement. The Gryffindors in front of him had risen and stood facing, not Harry, but the Slytherins. Then the Hufflepuffs stood, and almost at the same moment, the Ravenclaws, all of them with their backs to Harry, all of them looking toward Pansy instead, and Harry, awestruck and overwhelmed, saw wands emerging everywhere, pulled from beneath cloaks and from under sleeves.

"Thank you, Miss Parkinson," said Professor McGonagall in a clipped voice. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If the rest of your House could follow."

You heard the grinding of benches and then the sound of the Slytherins trooping out on the other side of the Hall.

"Ravenclaws, follow on!" cried Professor McGonagall.

Slowly the four tables emptied. The Slytherin table was completely deserted, but a number of older Ravenclaws remained seated while their fellows filed out; even more Hufflepuffs stayed behind, and half of Gryffindor remained in their seats, necessitating Professor McGonagall’s descent from the teachers’ platform to chivvy the underage on their way.

"Absolutely not, Creevey, go! And you, Peakes!"

You hurried over to the Weasleys, all sitting together at the Gryffindor table.

"Where are Ron and Hermione?"

"Haven’t you found — ?" began Mr. Weasley, looking worried.

But he broke off as Kingsley had stepped forward on the raised platform to address those who had remained behind.

"We’ve only got half an hour until midnight, so we need to act fast! A battle plan has been agreed between the teachers of Hogwarts and the Order of the Phoenix. Professors Flitwick, Sprout, and McGonagall are going to take groups of fighters up to the three highest towers — Ravenclaw, Astronomy, and Gryffindor — where they’ll have a good overview, excellent positions from which to work spells. Meanwhile Remus" — he indicated Remus — "Arthur" — he pointed toward Mr. Weasley, sitting at the Gryffindor table — “and I will take groups into the grounds. We’ll need somebody to organize defense of the entrances of the passageways into the school —"

"Sounds like a job for us," called Fred, indicating himself, you and George, and Kingsley nodded his approval.

"All right, leaders up here and we’ll divide up the troops!"

You hurtled around a corner and found Fred and a small knot of students, including Lee Jordan and Hannah Abbott, standing beside another empty plinth, whose statue had concealed a secret passageway. Their wands were drawn and they were listening at the concealed hole.

"Nice night for it!" Fred shouted as the castle quaked again, and Harry sprinted by, elated and terrified in equal measure.

———

Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran forward to help: Jets of light flew in every direction and the man dueling Percy backed off, fast: Then his hood slipped and you saw a high forehead and streaked hair —

"Hello, Minister!" bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. "Did I mention I’m resigning?""You’re joking, Perce!" shouted Fred as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee.

"You actually are joking, Perce...I don’t think I’ve heard you joke since you were —"

The air exploded. You had been grouped together, you, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and Percy, the two Death Eaters at their feet, one Stunned, the other Transfigured.

You felt yourself not thinking at all and pushing Fred out of your way, taking his place; and in that fragment of a moment, when danger seemed temporarily at bay, the world was rent apart. Everyone felt themselves flying through the air, and all they could do was hold as tightly as possible to that thin stick of wood that was his one and only weapon, and shield his head in his arms: They heard the screams and yells of his companions without a hope of knowing what had happened to them —And then the world resolved itself into pain and semidarkness: You were half buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a terrible attack. Cold air told them that the side of the castle had been blown away, and hot stickiness on their cheeks told them that you were bleeding copiously. Then theyheard a terrible cry that pulled at everyone's insides, that expressed agony of a kind neither flame nor curse could cause, and Harry stood up, swaying, more frightened than he had been that day, more frightened, perhaps, than he had been in his life...

And Hermione was struggling to her feet in the wreckage, and three redheaded men were grouped on the ground where the wall had blasted apart.

Harry grabbed Hermione’s hand as they staggered and stumbled over stone and wood.

"No — no — no!" someone was shouting. "No! (Y/n)! No!"

And Percy and Fred were shaking your body, and Ron was kneeling beside them, and your eyes stared without seeing.

The world had ended, so why had the battle not ceased, the castle fallen silent in horror, and every combatant laid down their arms? Fred's mind was in free fall, spinning out of control, unable to grasp the impossibility, because (Y/n) Black could not be dead, the evidence of all his senses must be lying —

And then a body fell past the hole blown into the side of the school, and curses flew in at them from the darkness, hitting the wall behind their heads.

"Get down!" Harry shouted, as more curses flew through the night: He and Ron had both grabbed Hermione and pulled her to the floor, but Fred lay across your body, shielding it from further harm, and when Harry shouted,

"Fred, come on, we’ve got to move!" he shook his head.

"Percy!" Harry saw tear tracks streaking the grime coating Ron’s face as he seized his elder brother’s shoulders and pulled, but Fred would not budge.

"Fred, you can’t do anything for him! We’re going to —"

"I CAN'T LEAVE HER!" Cried Fred, the body of the love of his life laying in front of him. He didn't want to believe it. It wasn't real. It was all a nightmare.

Percy without a thought helped Fred carry your body in the Great Hall, where all the Weasleys were.

"Fred! Percy!" Shouted Mrs. Weasley, George, Bill, Ginny and Mr. Weasley on her side. "What are you—" her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

The moment the Weasley family saw your dead body was what killed them inside. Percy and Fred kneeled and placed you down. Everyone was crying, especially Fred and Mrs. Weasley. If they could turn back to the time you were little, they would do it immediately. They couldn't understand why.

Fred felt more guilty than ever. It was supposed to be him, not you. He wished that wall had hit him, that you wouldn't have pushed him out of the way, that he wouldn't see your corpse on the grown underneath all that mass. Why was it you and not him?

———

I know y'all hate me for this but it's not over yeeet!!