IT ALL ENDS HERE
Craters litter the floor. Their like tiny dots on a map, each has its own story but each also contributes to a greater picture. These stories are sinister, and sometimes somebody's final story, but the overall picture is one of the most memorable of our generation.
Cracks are embedded in every wall, looking almost like dark fingers slowly clawing away what remains of the wall. Banners hang down left attached by merely threads; they cling so tightly it almost looks as if their shielding the walls, trying to protect, what has been their sanctuary for so many years. Their once elaborate designs have been shredded the little colour that remains in them is hidden beneath a thick blanket of dust and rubble. The great hall, if you could call it great now, lies in tatters. What once symbolised unity and friendship lays defeated. As slowly its previous occupants are returned, dead.
Their bodies are carefully arranged in rows, their eyes shut and their hands clasping their wands are crossed over their chests. Some look peaceful, almost sleeping, whilst others have bodies damaged so badly they're beyond recognition. There are others too who have yet to be put to rest, they wait in the doorway, frozen in their last battle stance. Wands still out, their last battle cries hanging in the air around them, one even has the ghost of his last smile, etched upon his face.
A boy, Peter, sits in the corner; his knees are drawn up to his chest and he clings to his legs so tightly, the tips of his fingertips are as white as a corpse. He slowly rocks back and forth on the spot, like he did when he was a child. He's trying to erase images from his mind, images which seem as if they've been burned into his memory forever, images of death, torture and bloodshed. Tears fall down his face in great cascades, cutting little rivers though the dust clinging to his face. He's not here really he's in his mind, being continuously tormented, reliving the deaths of his friends.
In the distance explosions can be heard. They constantly sound above the screams, a constant sound of doom, soundtrack to the battle. It's almost as if the castle is screaming in pain, as curse after curse destroys it from the inside out.
A boy with light blond hair and lopsided glasses walks over to the dead by the entrance way. He can only be around 12, judging on his size, his arms look like twigs that could be easily snapped. His trousers are ripped and bloodied, and there is a gash above his right temple, smearing blood down his grimy face. Even though a body is too heavy for the boy to carry he grabs one under its arms and slowly pulls it genially across to the dead at peace. It's his one way of showing respect to his fallen comrades.
Peter is intrigued by the boy, the boy is about half his age and yet he is still helping, and not being a coward like himself. Peter sniffs and wipes some of the tears off his face, why can't I be more like him he wonders I bet he's just as scared as I am, but he's actually doing some good here. Why am I so scared? Slowly Peter begins to rise, holding onto the wall for support, as his legs shake uneasily beneath him.
Movement grabs Peter's attention over by the door. As he watches a Death Eater with long dark hair enters the hall. Her skin is even grimier than most, it gives the impression that she has been in plenty more battle before this. She doesn't acknowledge Peter's existence at all, she only watches as the boy struggles with the weight of the dead. As Peter watches open mouthed she draws her wand. Her hands are even dirtier than her face; the long nails have a rim of black around and under them. Her wand still has patches of its original light brown by where she grips it but the rest is covered in what looks like, ash dust and blood. A solitary jet of green light erupts from its tip, too fast for Peter to watch.
Peter doesn't even have to turn to know what has happened, he mealy watches as the woman cackles manically a maddening glint in her eye then turns and flees.
Peter watches her go, dumb struck, he slumps his shoulders defeated, and it takes almost too much effort for him to stay standing. He slowly rotates his head to the direction where the small boy lays, preparing himself for the devastation that will great him.
What he sees is far worse than he imagined, the boy and the body lie tangled on the floor, surrounded by so many of the dead like them. Far too many like them. The boy's eyes are still open; the only light left in them is the reflections of stars from the ceiling above. They stare lifelessly upwards, a slight expression of shock left etched on his face. Peter walks hesitantly over and gazes down into the boys eyes, the boys glasses lay open next to him knocked off by the force of his fall. Slowly Peter reaches down a hand, and closes the boy's eyes.
Pure anger builds up inside him making a ringing in his ears. His head screams at what he just witnessed, and what he didn't do to stop it. A strong urge to fight overwhelms Peter and an eerie calm settles over him as he walks towards the door and out of the hall. The explosions in the distance now sound like a drum beat, the beat is almost identical to one of an army's footstep, helping Peter place one foot in front of the other as he begins his battle.
More destruction greets Peter in the entrance hall, the grand staircase has collapsed, and rubble lays strewn across the floor. Peter watches as his quarry walks across the entrance hall and down the steps to the castle's grounds, unknowing to Peter's pursuit. It doesn't take Peter long to urge his feet faster and he begins to run, his footsteps echoing of the bare walls of the entrance hall.
He runs straight though the doors to the castle grounds, he can now see his quarry ahead. His feet make squelching noises in the mud under foot alerting the Death Eater to his pursuit. The Death Eater looks over her shoulder and her eyes widen gleefully as she sees Peter. A malicious laugh escapes her and she taunts "Coming to kill me are we?" and with a witch like cackle she starts to run too. Her dress and hair billows out behind her giving an effect similar to that of black smoke surrounding her.
Increasing speed again Peter follows, and they sprint across the castle grounds. The once green lawns which surround them are scorched and flattened; mud is all that's left of them. In the dim light the mud looks almost like blood as it partially reflects the flickering red light of the burning castle. Battles are being staged left right and centre, chaos is in the air almost adding a static that makes everything set on edge. Screams and sobs are as loud as the explosions now, there are so many that it's hard to distinguish which direction they come from, they make a continuous wall of sound pressing in at all sides. As the pair race past the lake Peter catches a glimpse of the castle reflected on the water's surface. The sight of it shocks him; he almost stops in his tracks as he looks on open mouthed.
He can only see the castle's darkened silhouette as dawn breaks over the horizon but, in places the brickwork is visible behind an endless array of flickering fires. Some of the castle's turrets and towers have collapsed whilst great snakes of black ashy smoke climb up toward the sky. The castle looks defeated, broken even, but the worst part for Peter is knowing he never did anything to try and stop it.
Ahead the Death Eater stops suddenly, and wheels around on the spot to face him, sending tiny fireworks of mud up from the damp soil beneath her feet. "Come on boy," she screams at him "we both know it all ends here". She's right thinks Peter, it will all end here, and he meets her eyes with his as a grin plays across his lips but not for me.
He raises his arm and watches as the Death Eaters smiles falters slightly she doesn't think I can do it. Peter doesn't hesitate, it's his time to act, before the Death Eater has chance to draw her wand. He closes his eyes just as green light flashes across the inside of his eyelids.
Peter freezes; numbness takes over him and travels right to his very core. He opens his eyes to see a body slumped on the floor in front of him, a manic smile still frozen on its face. He can't feel anything; he doesn't even panic at his lack of emotion. He simply stares at his wand aghast at what he's just done.
How is Peter so different from the woman now? They've both killed for the side they thought was right. Peter cannot bear to look at the body that lies before him for a moment longer. He turns and begins to walk away, whilst all around him battles continue and more lives are taken.
He continues walking as people cross his path locked in epic duels, and people fall to his right and left. He pays no attention to what goes on around him he simply stares at the wand in his hand as his feet take him away from his crime.
"That was my sister," Peter is shaken from his reprieve suddenly to find a great hulk of a Death Eater blocking his path onwards, facing Peter with his wand arm outstretched. Peter mealy stops and watches as the Death Eater whispers "your dead."
Yes. Thinks Peter, I am. Peter however was dead long before he encountered the second death eater. He shows no resistance he simply throws his wand away from him. It was his last chance of defiance, he just made sure it was an entirely muggle act. The explosions in the distance slow as he faces death; they become almost a heartbeat to Peter, a dull bumb bumb, bumb bumb that reverberates inside his chest.
"It all ends here"Peter whispers to himself as a solitary tear falls down his cheek. He spreads his arms wide as a flash of green light momentarily lights up the sky.
As Hogwarts burns, in a night that will be remembered throughout all of wizarding history. Peter's corpse lies on the floor. His body is broken, a single body amongst a massacre. Even though his body was defeated, he was at peace; he was already on his next great adventure. The murderer became the murdered, the avenger the avenged. The battle was eventually won and the war was over. It all ended here.