Story Title: Harry Potter and the Fall
Rating: M
Author: Jaing
Contains magitech.
A/N:
Hello all. This is my attempt at rewriting HPatDoH - which apparently, for all my lack of ability to properly write Honor, is a good story. Let's see how it fares now without her, shall we?
Chapter 1: The Castle Crumbling
The skies were dark, and clouds covered the moon. The air was hushed except for the wind - not one animal, not one creature of the night bayed, yelped, sang or roared. Atop the mountaintop lay a castle, a wonderful, beautiful structure of masonry, sky-scraping turrets, high arched windows and stained glass. A magical place. The castle was known as Hogwarts, and it was truly a magical place, for it was the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Within it, students milled about, though no laughter chimed the hallways; no gossip sang through the air, conveyed by boys and girls alike. Professor Slughorn escorted most of one group of student through a portal in an ever-changing room to safety; the majority of the rest were preparing to fight.
Siblings hugged, crying; The younger ones knew that their older brothers and sisters might never come home again, never tell them goodnight, never argue with them and their parents, never laugh or cry again. The older ones lamented all they stood to lose, but they also knew their cause was just - the evil that lay outside these hallowed halls had to be stopped, or all they knew and loved might fail and be destroyed. So they sent their little brothers and sisters through the portal, knowing full well they might never see them again, because they could not bear the thought of their dying, or their families' deaths.
Teachers divided up the older children, and set them to tasks, fortifying the castle and preparing for war. The castle's suits of armor came alive, marching in their silent regiments and divisions with ancient weapons in hand, down through the hallways towards Professor McGonagall and the castle's main door, a massive oaken construction nearly a thousand years old. Professor Flitwick wove a tapestry of defensive spells worthy of Merlin himself, creating a bubble of magical shielding that covered every inch of the castle.
But while all this preparation was going on, three students destroyed an artifact of the enemy's power ahead of the ordained time, and everything in that universe changed forever. And as Hermione smiled broadly at Harry, holding a basilisk fang in one hand and a destroyed diadem at her side, all hell broke loose.
Outside the walls, a vast horde lay in waiting to assault the castle, and almost as one their wands flared with destructive energy and spells arced from their tips. Like thousands of miniscule suns, the spells rose and fell in the air, a howitzer barrage of hatred and death. And then they hit the shield; the night lit up like daytime as tiny stars were born and then died on the shield. But it held. Another barrage, and it held. On the third, cracks started to form in the shielding - the upper portions completely vanished, and occasional spells impacted the tallest tower and let masonry rain upon the grounds below. The students and teachers in the tower shielded it as best they could, and it, too, held.
Then, the rest of the horde began to advance.
Not all of the Dark Lord's forces were witches and wizards; he counted among his allies mountain trolls and giants, giant spiders, deadly werewolves, vampires and Dementors. Those of his wizards who were more close-combat inclined rushed forward with the other creatures, flinging curses into the shielding as they advanced towards it. More holes appeared in it, and Neville Longbottom smiled grimly as they began to advance on his chosen side bridge. His wandtip was pointed at a bundle on the bridge's supports, and he waited.
Other portions of the horde advanced on the castle's main approach, a massive stone arch-bridge that was the quickest route to the heart of the structure. On that bridge, they met the armies of suits, and a slaughter on both sides commenced as the suits waded through trolls and spiders, and the giants returned the favor, wading through the suits while wizards blasted them with spells. Crashes and booms reverberated across the grounds, explosions casting their eye-tearing brilliance upon the world as buildings and bridges alike shook like the Earth itself were attacking them.
Neville waited until the Dark Horde was three quarters of the way across the bridge, and then... "Incendio!" he whispered, and a ball of fire scorched through the air into the bundle while he stood and ran, pursued by the spells of the Death Eaters on the bridge... but only for a moment, for when the fire-spell hit, the entire bridge exploded, and Neville continued running, whooping with excitement and laughing as he sped away as fast as his feet could carry him.
But the war at the front of the castle fared far worse. As the last suit died, spells rained from the towers all around onto the Dark Horde. Giants picked up boulders and rubble, and Death Eaters raised their wands, and both threw or fired faster than any normal being should have a right to. Spells and stones crashed into the ancient building, destroying the protective masonry and exposing the all-too-vulnerable defenders within - and they began to die. McGonagall and Lupin began their retreats into the castle, up the stairs to the seventh floor.
Harry, Ron and Hermione rushed into the Great Hall just as this was happening, smiles long since having been erased at the sounds of combat and death. The first thing Harry saw was Ginny locked in combat with Lucius Malfoy, and his blood boiled as he raised his wand, only to lower it again when Ginny finally landed a hex, cuts erupting all over Lucius' body, soaking the ground with blood.
"ALL STUDENTS TO THE SEVENTH FLOOR! ALL STUDENTS TO THE SEVENTH FLOOR!" boomed McGonagall's voice, and Harry, Ron and Hermione began to fight their way through to the staircase, raining curses and fury upon the Dark Horde forces before and beside them, fighting as the perfect team. Where one was weak, another took up the slack. Where one was strong, the others supported them and made the group, as a whole, virtually invincible.
But where they were mowing through the forces of the Dark Lord, their classmates were not. Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Slytherins alike died under the wands, teeth and clubs of the enemy; Cho Chang went down under the jaws of a werewolf, latched to her throat- her last, dying act was to direct all her rage and hate, pain and sorrow into clearing her mind and thinking two words, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" as she jammed her wand into its' belly, and as Bellatrix Lestrange once pointed out, you have to mean it- and she did. Thus ended the lives of Cho Chang and Fenrir Grayback. One a hero, the other less than dirt.
When they reached the seventh floor corridor with the Room of Requirement, McGonagall was waiting with the rest of the survivors, shuffling them through the portal to the Hog's Head as fast as they could. The old woman was clearly in pain at the sight of her beloved castle in flames, and it showed in her spellcasting. The most vicious possible curses and transfigurations flowed from her wandtip, and the Death Eaters in the great hallway below targeted her especially. But for all her advanced age, none could stand against her for long and live.
Harry ran down the corridor, turning to fling curses down the staircase every so often to stymie their pursuers, and skidded to a stop infront of the door, caught from falling by both of the Weasley twins. "I think that's everyone!" Fred shouted as Ron and Hermione filed into the room, and Harry went to the door to help pull it shut. But just as the door was about to close, a small redheaded figure rounded the corner in a flat-out sprint, legs and arms pumping faster than an engine piston.
"WAIT!" Ginny shouted, as Angelina Johnson and Seamus Finnigan followed her hot on her heels, on either side of her, Death Eaters following closely behind them. Harry slammed his shoulder into the door, adrenaline providing him strength he usually didn't have; he beckoned them in, and the trio put on more speed, running for the safety of the room.
Bellatrix Lestrange suddenly loomed from the crowd, and a sickly violet curse flew from her wand and flew towards them. Harry opened his mouth to shout a warning, but it arrived before he could begin to speak, and Ginny fell, skidding to a stop in a crumpled heap on the floor as the other two flew apart, slamming into the walls on either side of her.
For Harry, time stood still about him as he moved, shouting Ginny's name. He stopped in front of her, and the air crackled with lightning and the smell of ozone. Light splintered down his wand, sixty four channels of blue energy spilling towards the wandtip, the purest manifestation of its owner's deadly fury. "Confringo!" Harry roared, and a blue-white ball of energy slammed down the hallway, through the torrent of return fire, and directly into Bellatrix Lestrange's chest.
Ron, Hermione and the Twins joined Harry, carrying the fallen into the Room of Requirement, all the while keeping up a steady hail of Blasting Curses and Tripwire Jinxes to slow the Death Eaters' advance. The doors finally slammed shut and they went through the portal, the door to the Room vanishing to the outside world finally as they reached the Hog's Head, the fallen students carried between them.
Only then did they look about themselves, and the tense students occupying the Hog's Head were blast-scarred, bleeding, charred and defeated. Tear tracks ran down most of their faces, and a number of them had the wide-eyed look of a shell-shocked person.
"We've lost..." more than one person was heard to mutter as the group sped through them, laying the wounded on the tables. Harry had a tight grip on Ginny, and her breathing was shallow. Blood ran from a corner of her mouth, and he cradled her head while Madame Pomfrey rushed over with her potions and equipment.
"Out of the way, out of the way!" She ordered, and shooed them away from their friends."There's nothing for you to do here, and standing about hovering won't make them heal any faster! Shoo!" she said again, and Harry & Co. dejectedly left the room, walking out of the Hog's Head to stand with the majority of the rest of the living students, watching as their world burned. Harry was numb, and all he could think about was the beautiful girl lying on the table inside the bar; Ron and Hermione held eachother tightly, watching Harry watch his only home come crashing down.