A/N: This is written for International Women's Day Challenge at The Golden Snitch Forum. Prompt: Malala Yousafzai: Write about a character standing up to an enemy despite all odds stacked against them. Bonus prompts: (colour) emerald green, (word) hero, (word) defiant, (word) surprise, (object) school book, (object) wand

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling.

The Final Battle

Padma Patil reading a school book when she had heard the news. She, like all the other students, had been surprised. They all knew an attack was coming— they had been preparing for it daily— but they had alway thought their hero— Harry Potter— would be there when it happened. But the Golden Trio was missing, and the students, especially the young ones, were scared out of their mind.

She knew she had to fight— it was what she had been preparing for since Harry had started Dumbledore's Army in her fifth year— but as her peers left the Room of Requirement to face the Death Eaters, she couldn't help but feel tingles of fear rush throughout her body. She was never as brave as her Gryffindor sister— she would choose reading over fighting any day— but she knew she had to muster whatever courage she had within her. Yes, despite the fact that she knew she'd be risking her life out there, she knew she had to fight.

She followed her fellow classmates to what could be described in one word: chaos. There were colored streams of lights flying in every which direction. Snakes, acromantulas, dementors, house elves, thestrals, and, most surprisingly, centaurs had joined in the battle. She shivered as she could feel the unhappiness in the air created by the dementors. She was extremely thankful that Harry had taught them how to cast a Patronus Charm during his fifth year.

She watched horrified as a dementor tried to suck out the soul of a terrified first year. As she shook out of shock, she pulled out her wand and sent her Patronus, a lioness, towards the dementor sending far away.

She rushed over to the boy to help him, and was surprised when she saw his emerald green tie— the dementor's were on Voldemort's side, and the Slytherin's were on Voldemort's side— but when she looked into his hazel eyes, she recognized him. He was a muggleborn, yet he was sorted into Slytherin; in fact, he was the first muggleborn to be sorted into Slytherin in almost five hundred years. She had heard terrible stories of how the boy had been treated within his house. The poor boy had no friends and was often covered in bruises— not that his head of house did anything about it.

That's when she saw Lucius Malfoy— one of Voldemort's inner circle Death Eaters. She had heard of the awful deeds he had committed and of the power he possessed— which hadn't passed on to his arrogant son.

He shot an unfamiliar orange curse at the boy, which made him scream so loud it pierced her ears. "Stupid mudblood, tainting the noble house of Slytherin," Lucius Malfoy loudly said to himself.

Padma pulled herself together before shooting the disarming charm at Malfoy. Malfoy deflected it with the flick of his wand. "Stupid Gryffindor, it would be a shame to waste any pure blood. Get away while you can."

But Padma stood defiant— she wasn't going to let Malfoy torture a defenseless first year. She knew she wouldn't be much help— Malfoy was much more powerful than her and he had much more experience, but at the very least she'd be able to hold him off.

Strings of spells, possessing colors from the entire rainbow, shot out of Malfoy's wand towards her. She tried a combination of shooting spells and dodging the array of curses coming from Malfoy's wand. All the while, the first year Slytherin stood— frozen— as he stared up at the two with a mix of awe, fear, and horror.

Padma knew she couldn't hold him off much longer— she was sweating buckets, was bleeding in multiple places, and was running out of breath, while Malfoy was just standing there, lazily flinging curses from the tip of his wand.

She felt lightheaded from the blood loss, and was screaming at the first year to run away— and he finally managed to shake himself out of his shook and he took off as fast as he could— which wasn't fast at all in Padma's opinion.

Malfoy soon turned red and shot the Imperious curse at Padma— try as she might, she knew she couldn't dodge it. While Malfoy stormed off to take his anger on the first year— who wouldn't last nearly as long as her— she was overtaken by a sense of calm.

"Just relax," the voice whispered in her head. "Why would you want to do anything but relax? Just take a deep breath and let go of all your worries— there's nothing you need to worry about anyway. Just take a deep breath. Breath in; breath out."

And Padma listened— the voice felt so comforting, so relaxing. Why shouldn't she listen to the voice? Why shouldn't she—

But while the voice tried to take control, her eyes could still clearly see the image in front of her. She saw streams of many different colors flying through the air. Men and women dressed in black with tattoos of a skull and snake upon their arm. But against the ruthless fighter were soldiers— school children with scars lined across their bodies and tattered clothes Their faces smeared with dirt and the faces screamed of pain. But it was there eyes that stood out to her— they showed resilience and courage. She knew they would fight until there last breath. But the question was what was she doing here?

"That's a very good question," the voice encouraged. "You should leave here as soon as possible— get out of this chaos before you get hurt."

'Why not?' thought Padma. 'It seems like the logical thing to do.' So, she turned around, towards the castle. "To safety," the voice reminded her.

But then her eyes saw a similar scene, but it felt different— she felt more connected to it. A young boy, wearing a similar outfit to her, but with an emerald green tie, was weakly defending himself against a man with blonde hair which reached his shoulders. She felt like she needed to do something here— she just couldn't put her finger on it.

"The only thing here for you is danger," the voice reminded her. She nodded to herself— it made sense.

She almost turned around until she heard the man shout, "This is for disgracing the noble house of Slytherin!" and saw a familiar green light shoot out of the man's wand. She jumped in front of the light without thinking, and right before she met the light, she smiled— at least the boy would be safe.

Word Count: 1096