Yes, this chapter is short because it's a prologue, but the other chapters will hopefully be longer. ( I don't know, I haven't written them yet, xD) I'll make an effort for them to be longer than this at least. Hope you enjoy.
"Severus, please." The old man whispered, his body shaking, and his hair whipping in the wind.
The man in black steeled himself and gave the slightest of nods. To Albus Dumbledore, it was the comfort he needed, knowing that Snape would complete the tasks he had been set. Dumbledore closed his eyes and felt 157 years of life catch up with him. He let a single tear fall as he went over all the mistakes he had made in his life, and all the things that would happen after his death. Only in this moment of death did he recognise the world for what it truly was. It was dark. It was twisted. It was disgusting.
It was evil.
But then he thought of the light, and the good. He remembered Harry and his friends, and all of the wonderful students he had taught. He remembered the good times with Gellert Grindelwald and the fun times with Nicolas Flamel, he remembered his sister. Arianna. That nod comforted him there would be no more Arianna's, no more innocents caught in the cross fire of a divided world.
All of this passed his mind within the space of a second, and a small shred of a smile made his way to his face as he heard his most trusted ally intone the killing words.
"Avada Kedavra." Severus Snape whispered, fuelling his hate for Voldemort into the spell, and watching in horror as his mentor blasted through the railings of the Astronomy tower and fell, almost in slow motion to the earth.
Harry swallowed roughly and clenched his fists. Anger bubbled and writhed within him as he watched a man he had trusted for so long being murdered by a man he hadn't. He watched Bellatrix Lestrange laugh at the death of the greatest wizard of all time and he felt rage. Pure, unbridled hatred. He knew he couldn't take them on, and made a decision to turn and get as many people to help as possible.
He turned on his heel and silently hurried down the steps and ran headfirst into Malfoy, who had started down the steps before him, sending the pair crashing down the remaining ten steps of the tower.
Malfoy stared at Harry, and Harry stared at Malfoy. The look in Malfoy's eyes was horrible. It made Harry want to curl up and cry. Malfoy may have been a bully, but there was a difference between being a bully and being a Death Eater. Malfoy knew that. The tortured look in his eyes was that which washed away six years of torment between the two for the briefest moment.
"Oh Draaaacoooooo!" Bellatrix cackled. "What was that noise?"
Malfoy didn't look away from Harry's eyes. "I tripped, Auntie." He called back up. "Go. Now." He added in a harsh whisper to Harry and Harry nodded, before silently sprinting down the corridor.
Harry skidded to a halt in the seventh floor corridor and raised his wand at the two Death Eaters in front of him.
"Diffindo!" He roared, knowing the battle would start sooner or later, and the element of surprise was one he needed against vastly more powerful and more experienced wizards without a care to make them falter.
The lilac spell sliced through the air, and kept on slicing through the air, straight through the first Death Eater's wrist, taking his wand hand from him. His partner jumped around in shock, crushing his friends disembodied hand and wand, snapping the fragile stick in two.
The death eater fired silently, but Harry knew it wasn't good and rolled forwards out of the way as the Death Eater broke into a sprint firing curse after spell repeatedly. The ground behind him exploded and the ceiling caved in, and spells splashed against the aged stonework of the thousand year old castle. Harry jumped and kicked off the wall without thinking, and fired a Confringo into the Death Eater and watched in horror from above as the man was blown apart in a violent, fiery, explosion.
Unused to his instinctual manoeuvre, Harry landed his jump wrong, and instead of bending his knees and rolling like he should have, he kicked his legs in fright at the rapidly approaching ground and seriously twisted his ankle and fractured his leg on the landing. Harry crawled forward on his knees and threw up at the carnage before him. The smell of burning flesh permeated the air and the sizzling charred left arm of the Death Eater fell in front of him. Harry watched the Dark Mark scream in pain as it was consumed by the fire, and started to retch, as there was nothing left to come up.
He managed to crawl away from the man he had just killed. Jesus. He couldn't get over that. He had killed a man. It left him feeling cold and awful. He was sixteen, and he had killed a man. And not in a clean way either. He propped himself up against the wall after two minutes of crawling. He looked back and saw the man who's hand he had cut off collapsed on the floor unconscious, holding his cauterised stump. The heat from the blast had cauterised it. Harry managed to find something else to violently eject from his stomach as he thought about the graphic details.
Remus Lupin, Ginny and Ron Weasley as well as Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom emerged from around a corner and ran to his propped up form.
"Harry!" Hermione asked, panic in her voice. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"I'm not hurt." Harry croaked out, before looking at her, and then up at the others. "I just killed a man."
There was a gasp from the two Weasley's and Hermione who wrapped him in a tight hug, sobbing into his shoulder. Remus just looked at him with sad eyes.
"I'm so, incredibly sorry you had to do that, Harry." Remus said lowly, his head hanging. "It's not a good experience and it doesn't get better." He looked up at him. "But you do. As a person. You learn that it is necessary in this war and you move on and you mourn and think about what you've done later." Remus crouched down as Hermione pulled away and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "We need you to be strong Harry. Get through tonight."
Harry stood up shaking and wrapped the were-wolf in a hug of his own, before turning to his two ginger friends and Neville. He gave Hermione a slightly longer hug subconsciously, before letting out a deep breath. "I've probably drawn the attention of Bellatrix and Snape. We need to go."
"Snape?" Ginny asked. "He's a Death Eater? Properly?"
Harry felt his heart drop as he realised that as of yet, no-one but him knew of Dumbledore's death. Remus and his best-friends were waiting impatiently for his response. "Yes," Harry managed to get out, tears filling his eyes as he said the next part of the story. "He killed Dumbledore."
Neville shook his head. "Are you sure, Harry."
"I'm not bloody making it up, am I?" He said angrily, wiping away tears with his sleeve."We need to move. Now."
The three ran ahead leaving Remus and Harry to follow. "Mourn later, yeah?" Harry looked at him.
Remus gave him a sad smile, and Harry noticed how old he looked. "Mourn later."
They chased after the other three and cursed as a cloud of impenetrable darkness clouded them.
"Peruvian Darkness Powder," Harry shouted out, grabbing Remus's hand and pulling him towards him. "Remember the D.A!" Harry called, and everyone got back to back in a small circle facing outwards.
Footsteps raced across the corridor and Ron took them out with a well placed Stupefy, which Hermione followed up with an Incarcerous. Remus and Harry took out another two of the mystery figures, and Ginny and Neville ganged up on another. Flashes of scarlet spell fire briefly shone through the darkness.
"For fucks sake, were friendlies!" The unmistakable voice of a Weasley twin cried out.
The darkness cleared and the six could see what they had done. Tonks lay stunned and bound behind them, and George Weasley was stunned on the floor near her. Emmaline Vance was across the room, and Bill Weasley and Fleur Dealcour lay stunned beside each other. Moody, Charlie and Fred Weasley went about reviving them.
"Excellent formation Potter, and well done for not panicking." Moody growled out. ",But there isn't time for praise. I dunno if you've heard but Dumbledore just went down off the Astronomy Tower, and that bastard traitor Snape and his mangy Death Eater dogs are making their way to the Forest. We need to get going."
With everybody revived the group made their way down and out of the castle just in time to see Hagrid's hut burst into flame. The roof caved in and the gentle-giant ran out with his cross-bow. He didn't look so friendly as he lined up his eyesight and fired a crossbow bolt through Snape's leg with deadly accuracy. A bit of wall knocked him down, and Charlie ran to drag him away from the burning hut as the rest pressed on. Harry exchanged curses with Snape, firing his own Sectumsempra at him, causing Snape to turn, his face a mask of anger.
"You simply don't understand, Potter." Snape roared, firing a string of non-lethal curses that would still put him out for the count.
"I understand plenty!" Harry screamed, not half as reserved with his spells, forcing Snape to throw up a shield and go onto the defensive. He was so engrossed in his rage-fuelled battle withe Snape to notice his surroundings, and was taken off his feet by a swinging branch of the wailing Whomping Willow.
Fenir Greyback fired a spell at Hermione, who threw up a shield and deflected it into the castle, leaving a deep scar in the wall. She retaliated with an Incendio, causing him to jump out the way hissing, and she moved on to a different Death Eater as he scurried away. Remus and Fleur were battling three Death Eaters as one, whilst Tonks and Moody used their Auror training to brutally, quickly and permanently take out some of the lower skilled Death Eaters. The Weasley twins battled as one dynamic machine, never stopping, never faltering and becoming a blur. One Death Eater was sliced clean in half from his shoulder to his hip and slid apart and they didn't stop to look.
Harry got to his feet clutching someone's hand for support. "Thank you," he got out and Emmaline Vance nodded before her life was whisked away by that sickly green spell. Harry jumped back in shock. The fight was coming to a close as they got to the Quidditch field, pressing the Death Eaters back. Greyback, currently in a duel with Bill tossed his wand to the side and lunged forward, tearing half of the eldest Weasley's face off.
Bill let out a blood curdling scream and he clutched his face. Fleur screamed and ran to him as Greyback raised his sharp-nailed hands already stained with Bill's blood and flesh to deliver the killing blow. Fleur's powerful Bombarda struck him in the side and he went flying almost fifty feet back in the span of two seconds. She dropped to her knees by her boyfriend's side.
Harry was sweating and panting and tired. He gritted his teeth for the final push, and uttered one last Stupefy before they reached the ward-border, and the Death Eaters, including Bellatrix, Dolohov, Rabastan, Rodolphous, and of course, Snape dissaparated. Greyback, who had been launched out the wards stood to his feet groggily. Charlie ran at him with scary speed and roared out as he went:
"Reducto!"
Greyback's eyes widened at the incoming doom and dissaparated a second before the tree behind him was torn to splinters.
"Fucking Hell!" Charlie screamed in rage at losing the were-wolf.
The tree creaked and collapsed, smashing into the ground loudly. The grounds behind them were a war zone, and the air stank of ozone and magic.