Prologue

Everything seemed dark and quite for moments. Then came the sound of approaching feet, many of them. The rustle of robes in the wind. The gentle breathe through the leaves. But the steps… the steps were truly terrifying, like a giant silent colony of ants, making their way to a struggling big but helpless insects. Fear hung in the stiff summer air. Everybody heard the steps but no one knew where they came from, how far they are and how many were there…

The night was dark. Full moon covered by the unseen clouds. But in an instant, in a single moment it came out. Its dark crates created the unmistakable image of a skull, a red skull in the starless sky… The reddish-yellow light swept the plain ahead. It seemed so safe and empty until… until the darkness swelled reviling the most terrifying image the great insect of Hogwarts has ever seen. Tens upon tens of black-hooded figures were approaching the castle, hundreds hollow eyes of the masked faces staring ahead without hesitation.

There was a terrified intake of breath in the humble crowd on the other side of the great plain but no one, even the smallest of those, who stood there, abandoned their place. There was about thirty of them in the group. There were about ten adults, teachers obviously. The rest were students, starting from fifth year and finishing with graduates. They stood together, mustering all the courage they had in them for one of the greatest wizarding battles of all times. A woman in the front row stood out in the mass, tall, spectacled, with fierce blue eyed. She wore emerald robes and a high pointed hat that covered her grey hair fixed in a tight bun. Her whole posture illuminated nobility and courage that inspired the rest of the crowd. They were determined to hold back the Deatheaters to the end… at least, till the help would arrive, for they all hoped it to happen sooner.

The Deatheaters were now about fifty feet away… that's when the first spell hit the crowd… that's when the fight began…