Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ unbreakableBOND ❯ Johnny, Get Your Gun ( Chapter 20 )

A/N: I don't own Harry Potter.

OI!!!: Chapter title is taken from the song `Over There' a WWI patriotic song sung by the Americans.

unbreakableBOND

Chapter 19: Johnny, Get Your Gun

“Blood Pops, Lemon Drops, Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, Cockroach Clusters, Ch-,” Minerva McGonagall stopped short as the gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office began shifting to life and revealing the staircase. She hurried onto the top step, tapping her foot impatiently at the speed in which the staircase was moving, willing it to go faster. The harried professor almost fell to her death in her haste to get off the staircase, narrowly missing the ground in which she leaped for from the moving staircase.

“Minerva?” Dumbledore stood upon seeing the woman enter. “Is everything all right?”

“No!” She shouted back, turning to Severus who was also in the room. “The Slytherins, they're gone! You were supposed to watch them and now they're gone!”

“What do you mean?” Snape asked dangerously.

“I mean that our children are gone, they are no longer in their common room or beds and neither are they in this castle.”

“Are any other children missing?” Dumbledore asked quickly. “Are all the Slytherins gone?”

“No, about 60%, Albus. I haven't had time to check the other houses, I came straight here.”

“Severus, this is not your fault,” Dumbledore said softly, before standing and crouching in front of his fireplace with a handful of Floo powder. “Sirius?” He called into the soft green flames.

“Yea?” The animagus answered.

“Are there any children missing from the Gryffindor tower?”

“Let me check, I just did rounds, but I'll inspect more thoroughly this time,” Sirius answered. Dumbledore nodded and Sirius's head disappeared in the flames. Dumbledore grabbed another handful and called to Remus, asking him the same question.

“Thank God, you just called, Professor,” Remus answered. “I just did rounds again and twelve are missing, ten fourth years, two seventh years.”

“Stay where you are, use a patronus to try and follow if possible,” Dumbledore ordered, Remus nodded and fell away just as the flames burst to life.

“Professor,” Sirius panted. “Five missing, all third years.”

“Wake Mr. Longbottom and go after them, and see if you can-” Dumbledore was cut off by the flames sputtering and a frantic looking Flitwick poking his head in.

“Albus!” He screeched in his little voice. “Albus, the children!”

“Missing?” Dumbledore interrupted.

“Yes!” Flitwick gasped. “About half, maybe less.”

“Stay there, wake the children and keep them in the common room, I'm sending someone up.” Dumbledore didn't wait for a response before switching back to the Gryffindor firecall. “Sirius, are you still there?”

“Yes,” Sirius answered. “I've got Neville with me.”

“Put him on.” Dumbledore waited while Neville and Sirius shuffled around.

“Yes, Professor?” Neville asked, nervousness and uncertainly lacing his voice.

“Neville, I need you to wake all the Gryffindor's and keep them in the common room. No one is to leave and no one is to enter without my consent, do you understand?” Dumbledore asked seriously.

“Yes,” Neville answered, “But don't you think you should get someone more like Harry to do this?”

“Neville, you are more like Harry than you will ever know. I believe in you, and now you must believe in yourself. I trust you Neville, the school is in grave danger now, and I need your help.”

Neville looked down for a moment before looking straight into Dumbledore's eyes with a new since of determination and confidence. “I understand.”

The head master smiled. “Thank you, Neville, it's an honour to have you help protecting our school. Now, would you please put Sirius back on?”

“Yes,” Neville said before Sirius's head replaced his.

“Transform, follow their scents; Remus will be with you, but for now you need to go. Find the missing Gryffindor's, as well as the twelve Hufflepuffs, and about half of Slytherin and Ravenclaw. I have a feeling they're heading through the Forbidden Forest.” With that Dumbledore turned to the two staff members in his office with a grave look.

“It's begun.”

+++

Snape's robes billowed behind him madly as he headed down to the dungeon, his thoughts racing as he did so.

He had been summoned, the Dark Mark on his arm burned like fire, twisting and withering on his arm making his skin crawl. It was getting more intense now, with the Dark Lord's impatience, Severus felt a trickle of perspiration slide down his forehead, but he ignored it, instead focusing on the task at hand.

He reached his destination and flung open the door without any hesitation.

“Draco, come with me,” he sneered into the room, his eyes sweeping past the other occupants and landing on his Godson. He turned swiftly, catching a glimpse of blond hair moving in the corner of his eye.

He kept his back turned to the door and heard Draco shut it behind him.

“What is it, Severus?” Draco drawled in a perfect imitation of his father. He really was the perfect little Malfoy, Snape thought absently.

“I've been summoned, and I need you to do something for me,” Snape drawled, still facing the corridor behind in which he came from.

Noticing the tenseness of his Godfather, Draco slowly put a hand on the man's shoulder; it went rigid with his touch. “Sev?” Draco whispered.

“It's begun, Draco, and I honestly don't know what the outcome will be, but I need you to do two things for me.” Snape paused, gathering strength to say the next few words. He sighed, closed his eyes and said slowly, “You must survive; you must survive and protect her.”

Draco instantly knew the `her' Snape was speaking of. He hid his surprise, not that the man was looking at him and replied. “Of course.”

At this Snape turned his head slowly, looking over his shoulder at the blond behind him. “Thank you,” was all he said. And then he was gliding away, robes flying behind him like a black sea.

Draco watched him for a moment, letting the knowledge that his Godfather, a man he always assumed had no feelings, no emotions, just like any other good ickle Death Eater, and only cared for power and control...wasn't that at all.

His mind briefly wandered to his father, and the story he told him about he and Harry's father. He was suddenly filled with anger, anger at Voldemort, his father, and more importantly himself. Voldemort, who turned them into little statues of himself, who made them unable to break free from the cold Malfoy name and facade, even when it mattered most. His father, lost James, and he, so close to losing Harry. And perhaps had it not been for the Vow, he would have eventually lost himself as well.

He realised, though, that had his father rebuked Voldemort, he would have never had Harry, and so, that was the only thing he'd ever be grateful for to that no nosed tyrant.

“Draco?” Harry's head poked out from the door of the empty classroom where his aunt was learning magic (with the help of Hermione, and Mr. Ollivander), and the rest sparing.

Draco turned to face Harry, noting the worried expression on the other boys face. “Harry, come out here for a moment.” The blond waved him out.

Harry didn't look surprised, simply shut the door behind him and went into Draco's waiting arms. “Snape...,” he began, but Draco knew what he wanted to say without him finishing it. “It's happening, isn't it? He's summoned them.”

“Yes,” Draco answered, resting his chin on Harry's head, his body curved to allow room for Harry's stomach. They didn't speak, they didn't need to, instead they simply held one another, desperately wishing this wasn't happening, knowing it was, and praying against all else that the other survived.

+++

Dumbledore entered the Great Hall, his gaze sweeping over the mass of people crowded in the space. He looked upon them; the mothers trying to send their children to safety, elderly refusing to leave, just because they were too old or sick to fight, those too young trying valiantly to stay, their faces face in a stubborn mask, trying to hide fear. Haunted faces, worried eyes, anxious glances, watery smiles.

Terrified.

They were all terrified. For that Dumbledore did not blame them, he'd be more concerned if they weren't. Yet, he could not let fear inhibit their ability to fight. He walked over to Professor Burbage to inform her he was ready. She nodded and began setting up the equipment and casting the necessary spells.

Before Minerva had come to see him, Snape was telling Dumbledore details of the attack he'd just found out. Instead of attacking the castle with everything he had, Voldemort was staging several large scale attacks across the world. His plan was to take over the strongest Wizarding communities at once, and pick off the weaker ones as he went along. For this reason Dumbledore had been in touch with the most powerful heads in the international Wizarding community, he'd spoken to the head of the United Wizarding Nations, and various other heads of countries. All had agreed to let him speak to their people through a machine Professor Burbage had put together. It would project his image to various places around the world, so that every witch and wizard may hear him.

Albus stepped up to his podium and cleared his throat, Burbage nodded, sticking her head back down to look at something through the machine.

Dumbledore cast a spell to translate his words into the language of the hearer and began. “It's a grave task in which I ask you all here today, I wish it weren't so, but it is.”

Heads turned, simultaneously, people around the world stopped, their eyes fixated on the man in front of them.

“Today, the most powerful Dark wizard of all time will stage an attack on Wizarding humanity. The attack will take place at various locations around the world, ministries, schools, any place of power. Governments will be overthrown, people will be endangered, violence will overtake us. It will spread, when those nations fall, England, France, Spain, Africa, Bulgaria, Russia, Iran, China, Japan, Australia, America, Canada, Brazil, Peru...from those nations it will spread darkly like the malignant disease that it is. We shall all be infected if just one of us is affected.

“Voldemort cannot win. He cannot have our lives, or our children's lives, or their children's, or theirs. Yes, some of us may leave this world during the fight, but Voldemort will not have taken you life, he will have taken your breath, your heartbeat, but never your life; your soul, your love, your passion. Today, many of us may be preparing to say goodbye, goodbye to those we love, to those we've never met, to those we shall never have the chance to. Today, many of us are crying, crying for the lost chance, for those about to leave us, for those we may never see again.

“Today, say goodbye not only to those around you, but say goodbye to an end of an era, an end of terror, an end to Voldemort. Today, cry not only for your those you love, for those chances you never got to take, but cry for joy, joy that because of you, we can overcome.”

+++

“Remus?” Sirius, came into an abrupt stop, changing back into his human form in one smooth motion. “Remus?” Something wasn't right. The other man stood stock still, staring at Sirius, his face a mask of trepidation. His eyes were wide, and Sirius could see sweat trickling from his forehead.

“Sirius,” Remus whispered, voice shaky and broken. “I don't understand.” He was changing, Sirius could see that now. Something had happened, it wasn't even a full moon, this shouldn't be happening. “Run!” Remus yelled, and then doubled over in pain.

“Remus!” Sirius rushed forth, grabbing onto the suffering man. He knew he shouldn't, knew what Remus was like during transformation. But he couldn't help it, this wasn't a normal transformation.

“Get back,” Remus gasped, pushing the other away. “Go! I don't know what I'll be like when I transform.” Sirius, stood staring and his lover stumbled over to a tree, grasping it for support, his eyes shut tight, face screwed up in pain. The werewolf noticed Sirius was still standing there and barked, “Go!”

The black haired man shook his head once, before transforming back into a large black dog. He whimpered when he heard Remus' clothes rip, the guttural cry that tore from his throat, the cracking of bones to become awkwardly shaped and grotesquely large.

Sirius looked on as the werewolf caught his breath, and then suddenly his head whipped around to face Sirius. He began to growl, the cold eyes glinted in the dark forest, Sirius heard a howl in the distance.

Slowly, the beast moved forward, his tongue lolling out, dripping with saliva.

Sirius ran.

+++

Harry sat down heavily on the couch they had conjured in the empty classroom. He sighed and looked down at the sleeping figure beside him. Smiling slightly, he reached out and brushed a strand of hair away from Draco's face. He let his hand rest cupping Draco's cheek, tears welling.

“Harry?”

Harry pulled his hand back as if hit by a stinging hex, trying and failing to wipe at his eyes without anyone noticing what he was doing. “Wot?” He asked much too quickly, looking up into the concerned face of Hermione.

She smiled tensely and sat down next to him on the couch. “I know this is hard for you, it is for all of us, that's why you shouldn't hold back right now.”

Harry stared at her, eyes calculating in a way Hermione had never seen, then he turned back to look at Draco and spoke, “I never wanted children, really, I thought for awhile perhaps I did, but deep down, I never really wanted any.”

Hermione looked surprised, she hadn't been expecting Harry to say anything like that. “Why?”

Harry continued on as if he hadn't heard her. “If I survive this I hope our child looks like Draco. I don't want them to look like me, or rather, I don't want people to think they're me. At least, if our child looks like Draco there's less of a chance people will look at them and see me. I don't want that for our child, constantly having to live in my shadow. It's like with Sirius. I love him, but sometimes I wish he'd remember that I'm Harry. I'm not some reincarnation of my father, and I'll never be my father.

“The last thing I want is for my children to go through that. All my life I've been a name and a face, never a person. Perhaps, I really did want the Potter line to die out, and anything associated with me. Maybe that's why I made such a fuss about Bonding to Draco. When I think about it, there really wasn't much I was I didn't like about him. Besides the fact that he was a selfish prick and a Malfoy. But, even then...that's just a name, right? And after a few weeks I realised he wasn't such a prick.”

He turned to Hermione who was staring at him with an odd expression. “Did I say something weird?”

Instead of answering, she leaned forward and pulled him into a tight embrace. “No, not at all,” she said over his shoulder. “Don't worry so much, Harry, I'm sure you two will pull through.”

“We'll all pull through,” Ron said walking over to the three, leaving Petunia to discuss something with Mr. Ollivander, and Pansy resting. “So don't look that way.” Ron smiled a big dorky grin.

“I suppose you're right.”

At this point, Draco began to stir, looking blearily into six eyes. He sat up quickly, almost knocking Harry in the forehead. “Why didn't anyone wake me?”

“Sorry, we thought it best to let you sleep,” Hermione answered. “After all you've been through-”

“I've been through a hell of a lot less than you three,” Draco said, sufficiently cutting her off. “If anyone should be resting it's you three.”

“Now, you listen here, Malfoy,” Ron began, but the blond dismissed his spluttering with a hard tone.

“None of you will be any good if you aren't properly rested. You can't just take a Pepper-Up potion and go marching off into battle. You need to be focused, calm, and alert. You can't do that if you don't sleep.” No one was given any chance to argue as Draco walked away, heading over to where Pansy was trying to teach Petunia a complicated spell that they were all fairly certain was Dark, but weren't even going to go there.

“He's got a point,” Hermione said finally.

“Well, he should speak for himself,” Ron grumbled.

“Ronald, you can't expect to keep up with Death Eaters when the only thing you can think about is the inside of your eyelids. Can he, Harry?” Hermione turned to Harry for support.

“Sorry, Herm, I'm with Ron on this. I think we're all old enough to know our limits. If we needed rest, we'd rest.” Harry stood and turned to Ron. “Come duel with me.”

“Harry! Ron!” Hermione called, before sighing in defeat. She picked up a book and began reading once more about uncommon spells that they may be able to use.

“Ron! You're shielding too late! Keep up!” Harry yelled, flinging another hex at the red head.

Ron would have replied, but he was panting to heavily to get anything coherent but spells out. Instead he threw a nasty hex, and immediately shielded afterwards, then fell to the ground and shot another spell at Harry which hit him in the leg.

“Augh!” Harry fell backwards, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

“What the fuck did you hit him with, Weasely?” Draco barked when Harry hadn't gotten up after a few moments. Harry lay paralysed, almost as if he'd been petrified, but different. Suddenly, Harry began screaming in pain, and the flesh on his legs began to eat away on itself, as if being burned away by fire. The tan skin gave way to large red patches of tissue, which also began to disintegrate, even down to the bone.

“What the fuck!?” Draco screamed, casting every healing spell he knew. Hermione rushed to his side and started inspecting Harry for other wounds to heal. After a few tense moments it seemed the flesh was healing

“I..I,” Ron started, but the words died on his lips as Harry sat up slowly, face clouded by hair.

“Good one, Ron,” Harry told him, standing shakily. “What was that? It felt like a leg locker, but...”

“Ron, did you mispronounce the hex?” Hermione asked slowly. The red head thought about it, before nodding that he had. “How?”

“Locomotor Furnus. I don't know what happened! I meant to say `mortis' but, that came out instead!”

“Wow, Weasely, seems you were able to be useful for something,” Pansy said with a smirk, and then to the rest of the room. “Memorise it.”

+++

Sirius felt the wind whipping around him, twigs crunching under foot, branches caressing his body painfully, and most importantly, the heavy footsteps of his pursuer.

He wasn't particularly sure where he was going, or how many of them there were, or when they had gotten there, all he knew was that they weren't human and wanted him...probably on a silver platter with a fucking apple in his mouth. He had taken off once he realised that Remus wasn't going to recognise him, and others in the forest had heard them, they came running.

Who they were, Sirius had a more than good idea about. But, why they would put up such a chase over him, he didn't know. Perhaps, just instinct, perhaps they were just like Remus and had been caught in the tangles of something bigger than them, something they hadn't thought of.

Or perhaps they were doing this voluntarily.

Suddenly, Sirius broke through the trees, Hogwarts note far in the distance, but something was rushing towards him quickly, a giant blur of dark in the night time.

He let out a yelp and turned swiftly to the left, only to catch the blur collided with his pursuers out of the corner of his eye.

It was those vampires Harry had brought back with him. They were beating the wolves back, using brute strength alone. One of them, who looked strangely like James, was showing Remus no mercy. Sirius began barking madly and jumped between the two, biting the vampire on the arm.

Roy flung Sirius off with a small flick of the wrist, sending him flying into a nearby tree. Remus let out a roar, snapping his jaws in the directions of Roy's head.

Sir Yamiko yelled something at Roy and the man nodded, pulling out a wand and casting a confinement charm on Remus. Sir Yamiko did the same, trapping the wolves that he could while the leader beat two back. The two took off into the trees when the vampires were too much for them, leaving behind four of their companions.

Sirius switched back into his human form and stomped over to the pale men. “What the fuck are you doing out here?”

“Dumbledore asked us to patrol the area when we returned from out errand, we've only just arrived back,” Roy answered, his monotone voice and expressionless face frustrating Sirius.

“Nice fucking timing, I suppose it would be too much to ask to have you here when the students ran off,” Sirius barked by way of a thank you, heading over to where Remus paced in a cage. “Merlin,” he breathed when he took in the wounds of his lover. “Did you have to be so brutal?”

“Perhaps,” Roy said with a smirk, “You shouldn't interfere with other's fights.”

“Now, now,” Lord Keita interjected. “This is no time for this; Dai, I believe you have something to say?”

“Yes,” Dai answered, looking at Sirius. “The Death Eater's are coming, I can see them, they aren't far. These wolves, the bonds won't hold when they get here, and they're bringing more.”

Sirius's face fell, he glanced at Remus' sneering muzzle. “How long?”

“Not long at all. Within the hour,” Dai answered gravely.

“One of you carry me, I've got to tell Dumbledore.”

+++

“Sirius, what's happened?” Dumbledore quickly clamoured to his feet, striding towards the shaggy headed man, Arthur Weasely and Kingsley Shacklebolt, looking after them.

“One of the vampires is a Seer,” Sirius began as Dumbledore put his hands on his shoulders.

“Which one?” The headmaster looked past Sirius's head to the two vampires standing behind Sirius.

“I am,” Dai answered, stepping forward.

Dumbledore let go of Sirius and moved to Dai, mimicking his earlier move with Sirius. “Tell me what you saw,” he said quickly.

“Him and his followers are approaching, quickly. They will be here within the hour. They have many werewolves with them, and once they arrive the charms placed on the ones we caught will wear off and they will join as well.”

“You caught some?” Dumbledore asked.

“Remus,” Sirius interjected. “We were in the forest when he suddenly stopped. It was like a switch, he just changed and he couldn't recognise me. There were others in the forest, they heard us and Remus called to them I guess and they chased me, when I had just left the forest is when these guys interfered. The placed some sort of confinement charms on them.”

`It's a special charm that holds werewolves by making an invisible cage of solid woflsbane,” Sir Yamiko explained. “But it won't hold a werewolf for long, the wolfsbane wears off, when the others get here those wolves will go insane and break it down.”

“Right,” Dumbledore said, letting go of Dai and moving back towards his desk. “I trust your men are circling the perimeter?”

“Yes, twenty. It's more than sufficient.”

“And Lord Keita?”

“Japan. He'll be back before the attack.” Sir Yamiko quietly reached out and pulled Dai closer to him, not liking the way Sirius was eying the boy.

“Kingsley, are there enough guards at the Ministry?” Dumbledore asked, turning to the Head Auror.

“I believe so, most of our staff is there. They sent the Unspeakables here, and the Dementors can be set loose at any moment should the need arise, although I don't think we need to go that far,” Shacklebolt answered, shooting a look at Arthur.

“How goes it with your plan, Arthur?” Dumbledore asked.

“It's been prepared, but sir, you are aware of what these things are capable of if fallen into the wrong hands...?” Arthur asked.

“Unfortunately, yes, but it may be our only hope.”

“We could always have Charlie bring in the dragons,” Arthur laughed tensely.

“Yes, we could,” Dumbledore smiled in spite of himself. “Sirius, would you go and inform Harry and the rest of what's happening? They're in the dungeons.”

+++

“Hey, do you hear something odd?” Ron asked, lowering his wand. “Like a...rumbling?”

Harry's eyes widen in panic. “What do you mean Ron? From where?”

Draco moved closer to Harry and Ron and said, “I hear it too, it sounds like it's coming from below.”

“But we're in the dungeons,” Hermione said, “How could it possibly be coming from below?”

“Haven't you ever heard of-” Draco was cut off by a loud rumble and a shriek from Petunia, as the ground underneath her feet began to crack and fall away.

“Repario!” She screamed at it to no avail.

“Aunt Petunia!” Harry cried, reaching out to grab her away from the crumbling floor, only to miss her hand as she fell backwards. Pansy, who had been showing Petunia a spell, leaped forward, grabbing the woman from danger and pulling her to the other side of the room.

Suddenly the rumbling stopped and all that was left, was the sound of a rock or two falling.

“What just happened?” Pansy asked to no one in particular.

“Power, greatness, achievement, control,” came a voice from the rubble, which actually uncovered a staircase. A boy came forward, his hair long and swept over one eye, the visible one was rimmed with black, adding to the boy's already dark colouring.

“Blaise?” Pansy blanched.

“In the flesh,” Blaise answered. “And hey, I brought friends.” On the staircase behind Blaise all the missing students stood, wands at the ready.

“What the hell are you thinking?” Pansy asked.

“That the Dark Lord will rule, and filthy blood traitors and mudbloods like yourself will die. Painfully. Isn't it so lucky that we happened upon you?”

Draco took a careful sweep of the students and Blaise. Not one had a Dark Mark.

“Don't worry Pansy, this is just a little boy trying to play with the big boys. He can't do anything,” Draco said coolly.

“Shut up, Draco!” Blaise barked. “You think you're better than me? Well, look, all these people followed me, not you, me!”

“Pathetic,” Draco spat. “What minuscule numbers. Besides, you were only able to scrounge up these useless shits after I was out of the picture. Not much of a leader, are you?”

“Shut up!!!” Blaise roared, storming forward. “One more word and you're all dead! Not that we aren't going to kill you anyway.”

“I'd like to see you try,” Draco breathed into Blaise's face.

Blaise let out an animalistic cry that signalled his lackeys to attack. At once, Hermione threw up a shield charm to cover all of them as the backed out of the room, the other's hexing when they saw an opening.

Blaise stayed focused on Draco, hurling every Dark curse he knew, and failing miserably.

“What the hell?” Sirius entered the room and saw the battle that had begun and immediately joined in, hexing the children without mercy, even laughing while doing so. “I haven't had this much fun in awhile!” Sirius barked.

“I see sadism is a Black thing!” Draco called, sending a curse at Blaise that bordered on Dark.

“And dirty tricks are a Malfoy thing!” Sirius laughed back.

“Shut the fuck up!” The Italian boy screamed, before casting the killing curse. It narrowly missed Draco's left shoulder, a protection curse shouted by Petunia saving him just in time.

“Draco!?” Harry called, not taking his eyes off the advancing Slytherin attacking him.

“I'm fine!”

“I think it's time we moved this,” Hermione called. “You all know what to do, right?”

“Yes,” Pansy answered. “Black, follow us.”

“Right!” Sirius affirmed, knocking a first year out cold.

“On three, everyone,” Hermione instructed. “One, two, three!”

Petunia fell back and ran out the door, followed by Pansy, Ron, Sirius, Draco, Harry and finally Hermione. Hermione quickly cast several locking and anti-breakage spells on the door, hoping it would keep them there for awhile, if not forever.

“Come on, to the Great Hall!” Sirius cried running down the corridor. “Voldemort's on the way, but I guess we've already tasted a bit of that.”

“How long do we have?” Harry asked, speeding up to keep in time with his Godfather.

“Within the hour,” Sirius answered, rounding the corner and racing up the steps.

“I'll meet you there!” Harry yelled, abruptly turning and running down the corridor.

“Harry!” Draco screamed. “Where the hell are you going?”

“Just go!” Harry called back, then disappeared.

Draco stopped, debating on whether to follow the brunette or continue on to the Great hall, it was Sirius that was his deciding factor.

“Come on, Malfoy, he's got a job to do.” Draco took one last look at the empty hall, hearing the shouts from Blaise's little army, and headed up the stairs.

+++

Harry skidded to a halt in front of a portrait of lion, seemingly out of place in the dungeons.

“Password?” the lion asked.

“Courage,” Harry answered, panting. The lion nodded and swung open, exposing a moving staircase.

“Floor?” the lion asked.

“7th.”

The portrait swung shut and the staircase began moving upwards in a circle, making Harry a bit sick. When it stopped he hopped out, almost, falling in his haste. When he reached the door to his and Draco's room he shouted the password at Helga, and practically ripped her off her hinges, ignoring her protests.

He went into the bedroom and opened his trunk from the foot of the bed, pulling out two items. He then went to the corner of the room and grabbed his broom. Racing back outside, he mounted and took off, flying his way down the first floor.

Suddenly, around the third floor, Harry felt an immense pain travel through his head, and throughout his body. He doubled over on the broom, but managed to keep flying. Voldemort was here, he could feel it. His scar had been burning for awhile, but now Tom was calling him.

Harry dismounted on the second floor, and threw his Invisibility Cloak over himself. He could hear spells coming from the floor up, anguished cries, and blood curdling screams. When the battle came into his vision he saw countless dead bodies, and was assaulted by the smell of blood and sulphur.

The battle spilled out onto the lawn and was quickly moving up the stairs. Harry hexed from under his cloak, his arm going unnoticed in the chaos. He saw followers of Blaise spouting off Dark magic without mercy, first years lay motionless on the ground, their eyes rolled into the back of their heads.

The Great hall was in disarray. Molly Weasely was duelling two Death Eaters at once, her large form moving quite gracefully. Everywhere there were sparks of red, green, orange, black, and blue. The vampires Lord Keita had brought back were outside fight the werewolves, he could hear them, and a cry that strangely sounded like Remus. Ron and Hermione stood back to back fighting off multiple Death Eaters, while Aunt Petunia and Draco were nowhere to be found.

But Harry paid the surrounding chaos no mind, at the front of the room, Dumbledore hung from the ceiling.

Dead.

“Harry!” Voldemort hissed in Parseltongue above the noise. “Harry, look what I've done. Look what I've got.” He waved Dumbledore's wand, at the corpse, making it spin. “Come stop me, Harry!”

Harry's vision went red, his footfalls became quicker as he moved towards the front of the room. He was hit by a stray curse, but he didn't feel it. And then there was Aunt Petunia, being lifted by an invisible force, guided by Lucius Malfoy. He watched in horror as she clutched at her neck and screamed.

She flailed violently before suddenly waving her wand fiercely and screaming
Locomotor Furnus!” at the blond man. Lucius flew backwards into the wall, and slid down slowly, a trail of blood behind following behind him, his skin began to rot away and his muscles slowly revealed themselves and then they too collapsed in, leaving nothing but bones. Harry looked away, trying to find Draco, desperately needing to know if he was alright.

“Harry, you're taking much too long!” Voldemort screamed. “What do I have to do to get you attention!?” He flew into the air and hovered high above the destruction. “I know! Zabini! Bring me Draco.”

Harry followed Voldemort's line of vision and saw the two battling. Draco looked unharmed, which put Harry a bit at ease. The brunette cast a sonorous charm on himself and spoke.

“You won't win this, Tom.”

“Ah, Harry, I knew you were here. Do you like what I've done with the place?” Voldemort swept his arm across the blood spattered hall. “Really brings some life into it, don't you think?”

“This ends here, Tom, you die here, and you'll stay dead,” Harry called, then took the sonorous charm off.

“Oh, really?” Voldemort replied. “Well, let's just add a little morale booster, shall we? Zabini, you take too long.” The snake man cast the killing curse and Blaise fell to the ground in a limp pile. Draco was being dragged forward, and was getting dangerously close to Tom.

Harry was already summoning his broom, it came zipping in, and he took off immediately. Voldemort paid it no mind, instead his mouth already forming the words for that fatal curse, hand and wand pointed at Draco. The cloak fell away from Harry's body, and it seemed everything went still, Tom turned to look at him, his wand by now pointing at Harry, Harry screamed and held tight to the Sword of Godric Gryffindor.

It was over, in one fell swoop. They were falling, all of them, Harry, Draco, and Tom. Only, Tom was falling in two.

“HARRY!!!” He'd been hit. He was falling; the last thing he saw was Draco's panicked eyes, and hand reaching for him.

A/N: If you're wondering about the `machine' Dumbledore used to speak to the other nations...it was a camera powered by magic. They waves, which are powered by magic, turn any clear surface into a magical T.V. I know, totally plausible, right? Uhm...FORGIVE MY RANDOM TWILIGHT FIGHT SCENE! Right, so next chapter is the last one!