Aquila Deadlocke had barely slept in months, making it all the more disorienting to be rudely awoken by a Slytherin house prefect's stinging hex. It was annoying that her one night of dreamless sleep was being interrupted.
"Get up, report to the Great Hall," snapped Pansy Parkinson before she continued on waking up Aquila's roommates.
"Why are we reporting to-" one of her roommates asked.
"We're evacuating" snapped Parkinson. "Stop asking questions."
At Parkinson's snappy but worried tone, Aquila immediately began changing into a robe and traveling cloak.
"Pack" Aquila snapped, and with a wave of her wand everything she owned funneled its way into her trunk in a disorganized heap. She shrunk the trunk and put it in an inner pocket. Another wave of her wand had her dark brown hair up in a braid atop her head.
"I'll help you with the first and second years" Aquila said, already moving as Parkinson gave her a wary look before moving on to the next dorm. Aquila knew that Winter was unlikely to be remotely pleasant at this time of night to the younger years. After shocking the third years into bleary awakeness, Parkinson began corralling the second years and Aquila gathered the three first year girls before fetching the boys. Other than making sure they had their wands and a cloak, there was little that could be done except to herd them up to the Great Hall.
The hall was packed with nearly every resident of the castle in under half an hour. Not everyone had been informed of the evacuation until they were at the Great Hall.
Professor McGonagall stood upon the raised platform of the Great Hall, with the remaining teachers and several strangers who appeared ready to fight. The famous Order of the Phoenix, Aquila deduced.
"It is time to evacuate Hogwarts. The evacuation will be overseen by Mr. Filch and Madam Pomfrey. Prefects, when I give the word, you will organize your House and take your charges, in an orderly fashion, to the evacuation point."
Aquila pursed her lips in thought. This was the chance to escape. If the ensuing battle did not end well, she would leave Britain forever. Her brother had fled as soon as the Dark Lord's return had been announced. Her parents had stayed, but Aquila had not heard from them since they had dropped her off last September. Letters she had sent had returned unopened.
Ernie Macmillan stood up at the Hufflepuff table to shout, "And what if we want to stay and fight?"
Some foolish students applauded.
"If you are of age, you may stay," said Professor McGonagall. "The important thing is to get out of here safely."
A thought occurred to Aquila.
"Where's Professor Snape?" she shouted.
"He has, to use a common phrase, done a bunk," replied Professor McGonagall, and every house but Slytherin cheered.
Aquila watched as Harry Potter moved within the ranks of the houses. She hoped, but would not be so damnably optimistic to assume that he would take care of Britain's Dark Lord problem.
"We have already placed protection around the castle." said Professor McGonagall. "But is unlikely to hold for very long unless we reinforce it. I must ask you, therefore, to move quickly and calmly, and do as your prefects-"
Her final words were drowned out as a high, cold and clear voice echoed through the hall, sending shivers down everyone's spine.
"I know that you are preparing to fight. Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not wish to spill magical blood."
Silence resounded through the hall, the oppressive feeling of doom lingering in the halls.
"Give me Harry Potter" said Voldemort. "And none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight."
Silence swallowed the hall. Every student looked at Harry Potter. Aquila knew that the Dark Lord would never leave the school untouched. Pansy Parkinson rose from the Slytherin table like the fool that she was, and in an extreme moment of stupidity pointed a shaking arm at Harry Potter like a Gryffindor.
"But he's there. Potter's there! Someone grab him!" Parkinson screeched.
Every house other than Slytherin rose to protect Potter from Parkinson, and suddenly she had a lot of wands pointed at her.
"Thank you, Miss Parkinson." said Professor McGonagall. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If the rest of your house could follow." Slytherin house rose as one to leave. If anyone wanted to stay and fight, that option had now been taken from them. Aquila carefully herded the first and second year Slytherins through the castle. Once they had left the castle and were in Hogsmeade the townsfolk very carefully took groups of students into their homes. As the Battle of Hogwarts began in earnest, Aquila traded off watching the castle with some of the prefects.
Whispers came through far after midnight.
"They need help up at the castle. They can't do it alone…."
Aquila joined the Battle of Hogwarts in the thick of battle. She knew that despite what was said of Slytherin house, she was no coward. She fought the tail end of the battle side by side with centaurs and houselves. She knew that when a cutting spell left her wand it killed the man it struck. She gave herself a moment to throw up before feeling numb. There were giants and death eaters and finally she fought her way into the great hall, briefly seeing Bellatrix LeStrange fall at the hand of Molly Weasley. A sense of victory filled her, her mother had no love for her sister-in-law, who brought out the very worst qualities of her brother.
The Dark Lord reacted with a scream, blasting the Professors and others backwards. From her vantage point Aquila watched as a shield charm grew in the middle of the hall, protecting before Harry Potter whipped off his invisibility cloak.
"HARRY! HE'S ALIVE!" rang through the hall before falling into a silence.
"I don't want anyone else to try to help." Potter said, his voice ringing through the hall. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me."
Voldemort hissed in response.
"Potter doesn't mean that." he said, red eyes wide. "That isn't how he works is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter?"
"Nobody, There are no more Horcruxes. It's just you and me. Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good…"
"One of us?" jeered Voldemort. "You think it will be you, do you, the boy who has survived by accident, and because Dumbledore was pulling the strings?"
"Accident was it, when my mother died to save me?" Potter asked as they circles each other. "Accident, when I decided to fight in that graveyard? Accident, that I didn't defend myself tonight, and still survived, and returned to fight again?"
Potter returned from the dead Aquila thought to herself. That was more than a little frightening.
"Accidents!" screamed Voldemort as the entire crowd of the Great Hall watched. "Accident and chance and the fact you crouched and sniveled behind the skirts of greater men and women, and permitted me to kill them for you!"
"You won't be killing anyone else tonight," said Potter as they continued to circle each other. "You won't be able to kill any of them ever again. Don't you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people-"
"But you did not!"
"-I meant to, and that's what I did. I've done what my mother did. They're protected from you. Haven't you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can't torture them. You can't touch them. You don't learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?"
"You dare-"
"Yes. I dare,"said Potter. "I know things you don't know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things you don't. Want to hear some, before you make another big mistake."
"Is it love again?" said the Dark Lord as they circled each other with a sneer. "Dumbledore's favorite solution, love, which he claimed conquered death, though love did not stop him falling from the tower and breaking like an old waxwork? Love, which did not prevent me stamping out your Mudblood mother like a cockroach, Potter -and nobody seems to love you enough to run forward this time and take my curse. So what will stop you dying now when I strike?"
"Just one thing." Potter replied, keeping the Dark Lord busy.
"If it is not love that will save you this time, you must believe that you have magic that I do not, or else a weapon more powerful than mine?"
"I believe both" Potter replied with far too much confidence. Voldemort laughed in response, a truly terrifying sound.
"You think you know more magic than I do? Than I, Lord Voldemort, who has performed magic that Dumbledore never dreamed of?"
"Oh he dreamed of it, but he knew more than you, knew enough not to do what you've done."
"You mean he was weak!" screamed Voldemort. "Too weak to dare, too weak to take what might have been hism what will be mine!"
"No, he was cleverer than you, a better wizard, a better man."
Aquila watched, riveted, and frightened that Potter would lose and they would all die.
"I brought about the death of Albus Dumbledore!"
"You thought you did, but you were wrong."
"Dumbledore is dead! His body decays in the marble tomb in the grounds of this castle, I have seen it, Potter, and he will not return!"
"Yes, Dumbledore's dead." Potter replied calmly, "But you didn't have him killed. He chose his own manner of dying, chose it months before he died, arranged it months ago with the man you thought was your servant."
"What childish dream is this?"
"Severus Snape wasn't yours. Snape was Dumbledore's, Dumbledore's from the moment you started hunting down my mother. And you never realized it, because of the thing you can't understand. You never saw Snape cast a Patronous, did you, Riddle?"
The Dark Lord did not answer as they continued to circle each other.
"Snape's patronous was a doe, the same as my mother's, because he loved her for nearly all his life, from the time when they were children. You should have realized, he asked you to spare her life, didn't he?"
"He desired her, that was all, but when she had gone, he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthy of him-"
"Of course he told you that, but he was Dumbledore's spy from the moment you threatened her, and he's been working against you ever since! Dumbledore was already dying when Snape finished him!"
"It matter not! It matters not whether Snape was Dumbledore's or mine, or what petty obstacles they tried to put in my path! I crushed them as I crushed your mother, Snape's supposed great love! Oh, but it all makes sense, Potter, and in ways you do not understand! Dumbledore was trying to keep the Elder wand from me! He intended that Snape should be the true master of the wand! But I got there ahead of you, little boy- I reached the wand before you could get your hands on it, I understood the truth before you caught up. I killed Severus Snape three hours ago, and the Elder Wand, the Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny is truly mine! Dumbledore's last plan went wrong, Harry Potter!"
Aquila paled, feeling sorry for the man that had been her head of house. As mean as he appeared to those outside of Slytherin, he knew how to bring out people's strengths, how to goad them into to doing what he wanted them to do. She would miss him. Of course, he never had patience for some people.
"Yeah, it did. You're right. But before you try to kill me, I'd advise you to think about what you've done… Think, and try for some remorse, Riddle…"
"What is this? The Dark Lord asked, his eyes narrowing into thin slits.
"It's your last chance, it's all you got left… I've seen what you'll be otherwise… Be a man… try… Try for some remorse…"
Aquila was not sure where Potter was going with this.
"You dare-?"
"Yes, I dare, because Dumbledore's last plan hasn't backfired on me at all. It's backfired on you, Riddle."
Both trembled for a moment.
"The wand isn't working properly because you murdered the wrong person. Severus Snape was never the true master of the Elder Wand. He never defeated Dumbledore."
"He killed-"
"Aren't you listening? Snape never beat Dumbledore! Dumbledore's death was planned between them! Dumbledore intended to die undefeated, the wand's last true master! If all had gone as planned, the wand's power would've died with him, because it had never been won from him!
"But then, Potter, Dumbledore as good as gave me the wand! I stole the wand from its last master's tomb! I removed it against its last master's wishes! Its power is mine!"
"You still don't get it, Riddle, do you? Possessing the wand isn't enough! Holding it, using it, doesn't really make it yours. Didn't you listen to Ollivander? The wand chooses the wizard… The Elder Wand recognized a new master before Dumbledore died, someone who never even laid a hand on it. The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never realizing exactly what he had done, or that the world's most dangerous wand had given him its allegiance."
Voldemort's rage built as he aimed his wand at Potter.
"The true master of the Elder Wand was Draco Malfoy!"
Shock showed briefly on the Dark Lord's face, and even more on Malfoy's when Aquila turned to look at him.
"But what does it matter?" the Dark Lord asked softly. "Even if you are right, Potter, it makes no difference to me and you. You no longer have the phoenix wand: We duel on skill alone… and after I kill you I can attend to Draco Malfoy…"
"But you're too late. You've missed your chance. I overpowered Draco weeks ago. I took this wand from him."
Aquila recognized Draco's wand in his hand.
"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it? So does the wand in your hand know its last master was disarmed, because if it does… I am the true master of the Elder Wand."
The red-gold glow of the rising sun burst across the ceiling of the Great Hall as the pair screamed their two spells.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
There was a bang, and shooting golden flames before the Elder Wand flew out of the Dark Lord's hand into Potters. Voldemort fell to the floor, dead.
People flocked to the boy-who-lived, the defeater of the Dark Lord as the sun continued to rise. Those on the side that lost began to flee, Shacklebolt was named Minister of Magic, and Aquila helped move the dead. Body after body, some more recognizable than others. Death Eater's and students alike, haunting her mind forever at the loss of so many.
Aquila made her way back into Hogsmeade to help gather the students too young to fight, and those that had the self-preservation not to.
"The battle is over, the Dark Lord has been defeated. The Wizarding World shall recover and rebuild" she told the younger Slytherins. Parkinson had long since fled, but the Greengrasses and even Nott helped herd students back into the castle. Aquila looked at Nott, he smelled of the battle, but she said nothing as he helped herd the students back to the castle.
The battle had severely damaged Hogwarts, cracking walls and rubble was everywhere. The Slytherin dorms remained untouched by the battle, and students began packing. The term was over, over half of the castle was uninhabitable. Many students were filled with joy that the Dark Lord was defeated, others were devastated by those who had been lost. There was food in the Great Hall and a celebration of victory. Harry Potter was surrounded by well wishers. Aquila eyed the Malfoys who looked particularly out of place, and decided to sit at the same table at a safe distance.
Parents poured into the hall to reunite with and collect their children. At the end of the day Aquila joined the students taking the train into London and began the long journey to the Deadlocke house. Unreachable by floo since the war began and unplottable so the Knight Bus could not find it, the manor had its own tiny island off of the Cornish coast. If not for being perfectly capable of catching the ferry at Penzance to the Isles of Scilly and being capable of transfiguring a usable row boat to get to Deadlocke Isle, the house may have been unreachable. The Deadlocke's had long done their very best to go unnoticed by any local populations since taking over the island in the late 1700's.
The old granite castle was empty of inhabitants. Not even the house-elf seemed to be home. There were still breakfast dishes from months ago on the table. A feeling of resignation settled over Aquila. Her parents weren't here, and they had not been for quite some time. With a wave of her wand she hooked the floo-network up and removed the anti-owl wards. There was no need to be cut off from the rest of the world.
As a child Aquila had always admired the calm atmosphere of the Deadlocke house. Her father would read her and her brother stories in the sitting room by the fire and her mother would come in and listen after a long day of work at St. Mungo's. As soon as Leon was old enough, he would curl up by the fire with a book of his very own. The library had long ago reached full capacity, and the sitting area and even the staircase were filled with books. As a family of reclusive readers and spell creators, the small ballroom held a duelling platform with targets and quite a bit of dust instead of an actual dancing floor.
Aquila did not sleep in the house on her first night back. The castle was cold, with a lingering feeling of recent inhabitants. The next day she made her way into to Diagon Alley. She very carefully choose common day robes and a cloak that would cover her head if necessary to blend in.
The Leaky Cauldron was packed with people, but Diagon Alley itself was still more than half empty of stores. Gringotts looked like it was doing some reconstruction on it's roof, and the goblins all seemed extremely annoyed. The queue was extremely long, and started outside of the bank. It took a good hour to reach the front of the line.
"I wish to make a balance inquiry, a withdrawal, and a conversion of about 50 galleons to pounds." Aquila stated.
"Name?" asked the goblin, sounding bored.
"Aquila Deadlocke."
"Key?"
Aquila produced her key. It had taken an hour to find the main vault key in her father's study.
The goblin very carefully inspected the key.
"Ironfang, escort Ms. Deadlocke to Stonebane's office."
"Is something wrong?" Aquila asked as a grim looking goblin escorted her from the counter down a long marble hallway. Ironfang did not deign to reply, and left her at the office of Stonebane.
"Come in Ms. Deadlocke." called the goblin.
Aquila entered the office and sat primly on the chair in front of the goblin's desk. "May I ask what this is about? I merely came to do some ordinary business…"
"Ms. Deadlocke, the war has claimed a number of lives. This makes the process of inheritance a bit… tricky." Stonebane gave her a somewhat frightening smile, exposing a lot of teeth.
"Are you aware that both of your parents are deceased?"
Aquila sighed. "I am now. The house was empty. I'm not sure what happened to them…"
"We do not know here at the bank how they died we merely know that they have done so. Your brother, who traveled to America, suffered a quick death at the hands of a hidebehind last month."
Aquila sucked in a breath. "My brother is dead?"
"Yes," the goblin replied unsympathetically. Aquila's mind began to spin. There was a reason that the house felt so empty. She was the last Deadlocke.
"Are you aware that your mother was a LeStrange?" Stonebane asked.
"Of course, though it is not something that was brought up frequently in my household since she was disowned for marrying my father." Aquila said coldly.
"She was never officially disowned. None of the LeStranges survived the Battle of Hogwarts, leaving you the closest heir to the LeStrange fortune."
Aquila barely restrained herself from sneering at the name. "Before you respond, consider that the entire fortune will either be claimed by the ministry… or the Malfoy's if you do not accept it."
"Very well. And what does excepting this fortune entail?" she managed to get out.
"Quite a bit of paperwork and a good deal of money."
"Then perhaps we had better get started." Aquila replied.
Several hours later, Aquila had completed all of her business at Gringotts and was in the possession of rather a large fortune acquired through dubious means, as well as a fortune she never would have been entitled to if her brother had loved. Without having to do much math, she knew that the LeStrange fortune made her one of the wealthiest people in England.
Annoyed at spending so much of her day at the bank, Aquila made her way to Flourish and Blotts to purchase new reading material. She had a feeling that it was going to be a very long summer. Hopefully by the end of it she would be able to take her O. and return to Hogwarts.
A/N: I'll warn you now that I'm not sure where I'm going with this but I have a few more chapters already written.
