"Fiendfyre, cursed fire, it's one of the substances that destroy Horcruxes, but I would never, ever have dared use it, it's so dangerous "how did Crabbe know how to?"
"Must've learned from the Carrows," said Harry grimly.
"Shame he wasn't concentrating when they mentioned how to stop it, really," said Ron, whose hair, like Hermione's, was singed, and whose face was blackened. "If he hadn't tried to kill us all, I'd be quite sorry he was dead."
"But don't you realize?" whispered Hermione. "This means, if we can just get the snake"
But she broke off as yells and shouts and the unmistakable noises of duelling filled the corridor. Harry looked around and his heart seemed to fail: Death Eaters had penetrated Hogwarts. Fred and Percy had just backed into view, both of them duelling masked and hooded men.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran forward to help: Jets of light flew in every direction and the man dueling Percy backed off, fast: Then his hood slipped and they saw a high forehead and streaked hair.
"Hello, Minister!" bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"
"You're joking, Perce!" shouted Fred as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee.
"You actually are joking, Perce... I don't think I've heard you joke since you were"
The air exploded. They had been grouped together, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and Percy, the two Death Eaters at their feet, one Stunned, the other Transfigured; and in that fragment of a moment, when danger seemed temporarily at bay, the world was rent apart, Harry felt himself flying through the air, and all he could do was hold as tightly as possible to that thin stick of wood that was his one and only weapon, and shield his head in his arms: He heard the screams and yells of his companions without a hope of knowing what had happened to them"
And then the world resolved itself into pain and semidarkness: He was half buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a terrible attack. Cold air told him that the side of the castle had been blown away, and hot stickiness on his cheek told him that he was bleeding copiously. Then he heard a terrible cry that pulled at his insides, that expressed agony of a kind neither flame nor curse could cause, and he stood up, swaying, more frightened than he had been that day, more frightened, perhaps, than he had been in his life...
And Hermione was struggling to her feet in the wreckage, and three redheaded men were grouped on the ground where the wall had blasted apart. Harry grabbed Hermione's hand as they staggered and stumbled over stone and wood.
"Yes, yes yes!" someone was shouting. "Yes! Fred look! Yes" And Percy was shaking his brother, and Ron was kneeling beside them, and Umbridge's eyes stared without seeing, the ghost sound of "hem hem" echoing in the silence.
The dead lay in a row in the middle of the Hall. Harry could not see Umbridge's because the Weasley twins surrounded her. George was kneeling at her head; Fred was sitting by her arms his body shaking with laughter. Ron stood above them, tears of laughter flowing down his face. Harry strode over, only to find Umbridge's body, the twins having transfigured her to look more like a toad then she already was, a tongue hung out of her mouth and her eyes were even more bulbous then usual.
Without a word to Harry, Ron and Hermione walked away. Harry saw Hermione approach Ginny, whose face was red and flushed with excitement, and hug her. Ron joined Bill, Fleur, and Percy, who flung an arm around Ron's shoulders. As Ginny and Hermione moved closer to the rest of the family, Harry had a clear view of the bodies lying next to Umbridge. Bellatrix and Voldermort, pale and still and peaceful-looking, apparently asleep beneath the dark, enchanted ceiling.
The Great Hall seemed to fly away, become smaller, shrink, as Harry reeled backward from the doorway. He could not draw breath. He could not bear to look at any of the other bodies, afraid he'd scream with excitement. He could not bear to join the Weasley twins, in case he burst out laughing in this scene, it would not do to appear mad...
He turned away and ran up the marble staircase. Bellatrix, Voldermort... He yearned not to feel in case the happiness ripped him apart. There was a crack next to him and Dobby and Winky appeared. "Master Harry, Winky and I are off to our honeymoon" The Sirius stepped out of the shadows, Hedwig sitting on his shoulder. Three more shadows appeared. Albus Dumbledore, smiling down his crooked nose. And the two others, they seemed to merge together, creating a mirror image of him. He stepped forward;
"Mum? Dad?"
