Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own Harry Potter or anything else that is owned by someone else that I put into this story.

Chapter 4

The Final Battle

Katharine's eyes opened wide as she saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione come out of the trees. She stood there for less than a second, completely amazed that Harry was standing just over there smiling back at her... Then she remembered why she had been running and she sprinted to the astonished trio, grabbing Harry's arm and dragging him a few feet over.

"What are you doing here? You all shouldn't be here! We have to go! Now! We have to go!" She spat over her shoulder as she glanced back to see if anyone was coming. All of her thoughts were spilling out of her mouth as she kept rambling on and on, attempting to get the three out of the forest.

"Oh Katharine, look at you! What-" Hermione began.

"Never mind, we just have to go NOW!" She started to run backwards and the three started to follow, but it was too late.

"If I were you Potter, I would have listened to the mudblood," came that icy voice from behind them.

There, standing on the other side of the treeless circle was Voldemort, the Death Eaters, and Draco. Katharine's eyes lingered from Draco, to Voldemort, then back to Draco. His hands were bound and his father had a tight grip on his arm. He looked up at her and shook his head in disappointment... Dammit, she was so stupid for wasting time!

Harry then grabbed Katharine's arm, spun her around, and stood in front of her. He kept a firm hold of her forearm as she looked over to see that Ron had done the exact same thing to Hermione. Even at a time like this, Harry and Ron made Katharine smile.

"You've tortured Katharine enough and I swear if you take one more step—,"

"You'll do what?" Voldemort interrupted as he took one step forward, teasing Harry.

Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was so tired from climbing this mountain but his adrenaline was high and he felt like he could take on ten mountain trolls. He then opened his eyes and looked at Voldemort.

"I'll kill you," he simply said.

Harry was now holding Katharine's arm so tightly, that her hand was turning blue. She placed her other hand on top of his to comfort him and to loosen up a bit.

"We'll see about that," Voldemort said, laughing as he took one more step forward.

Harry instinctively ripped out his wand and held it high towards Voldemort. Unfazed by this, he smiled and snapped his fingers towards Lucius Malfoy. Lucius obeyed and dragged his son over to Voldemort, untied his wrists, and threw him down in front of the four teens.

"He has apparently helped your little mudblood friend escape from me. He is no longer of use to me and I will, just to be kind, give you another hand," Voldemort sneered.

Harry looked around to Katharine and gave her a questioning look.

"It's true. If it weren't for him, I'd be dead by now." She and Harry simultaneously shivered at the thought.

Harry then let go of her wrist and stretched out his hand for Draco to grab, whom clearly sighed with relief as he took hold of Harry's hand and stood up. Then they all assumed posistions side by side facing Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Harry straightened up and grinned, "Well then, let the Final Battle begin."

A numerous amount of things happened at that exact moment. Harry threw a spell at Voldemort who was ready and deflected it. Katharine ducked from a spell sent to her by Snape. Hermione took a spell hard from Bellatrix Lestrange but got right back up and threw another one back at her. Ron sent a spell towards Crabb who wasn't expecting it and flew backwards to the ground. Draco took on his father in a duel.

Several more Death Eaters joined in and it now became pretty much a two-or-three-on-one duel. Spells were flying everywhere and bodies were flying everywhere. All you could hear were people screaming and shouting spells, loud crashes and big bangs, and at other times it went silent. Later on it became difficult to see. Bright sparks and smoke filled the air and it became harder for everyone to breathe, see, or aim their spells.

About an hour or so had passed and the Battle had slowed down a bit. Harry was still in an exhausting duel with Voldemort and could barely stand anymore. Hermione had killed two Death Eaters, one by sending him backwards high up into a tree, causing her neck to break; and the other by bursting him into flames - which Katharine had to admit that was pretty epic. Draco had stunned his father and killed another Death Eater as well. Ron had stunned three Death Eaters at the same time after an exhausting duel with three on one.

After a long and difficult duel with Snape, surprisingly, Katharine managed to stun him. After she had bound him up tightly, she turned around to look at her surroundings. She saw Draco and Ron through the smoke not far off dueling with two Death Eaters and saw Hermione a little closer taking a breather behind a tree. She searched through the smoke for Harry and Voldemort and found Harry hiding behind a tree. She leaped into the woods and raced to him through the low branches.

"Come on out, Potter, and fight me like a man! Don't be a coward and hide from me!" Voldemort hollered behind them.

"Harry-," Katharine breathed heavily as she fell next to him. "It's going to be alright. You're doing great, we will get through this." She encouraged, grabbing his head and resting her forehead against his. He was in a cold sweat and was trembling terribly.

Harry exhaled deeply as he felt the warmth of her skin against his cold, sweaty forehead. He grabbed her hands and gently pressed his lips against them, exhaling again. "I will now get through this knowing that you're still alive."

Katharine smiled and squeezed his hands in response. She pulled him up to his feet and was about to bring him back around the tree to face Voldemort again, when Harry pulled her back and kissed her strongly.

"Whatever happens, Katharine, please know that I love you with all of my heart. You're my everything," he said as they broke apart.

"I love you more than anything else, Harry. Nothing is going to happen. I am right here, by your side from now on." They hugged each other tightly for one last time, Katharine barely paying attention to the grinding pain of her ribs. Then, very slowly, they revealed themselves from behind the tree. They stood side by side in front of the sneering Voldemort with their wands in their hands and their other hands intertwined.

Then, like complete idiots, Harry and Katharine weren't ready and their wands flew straight out of their hands towards Voldemort, whom caught them easily.

"Well, isn't this sweet? Now the Famous Harry Potter and the Great Katharine Parker will die happily together. Just think of a happy place where you two can be together forever, then it will all be over soon," he laughed.

Trembling and knowing there was now nothing they could possibly do, Katharine's eyes started to swell up and Harry tightened his grip on her hand as he felt her shake.

For some reason, Hogwarts suddenly flashed across Kat's eyes and it made her realize just how much she missed it there; where she was most happy, where she had felt complete.

As if it happened in fast forward yet again, Katharine saw Voldemort point his wand towards Harry, heard him cry, "Avada Kadavra!", and instinctively let go of Harry's hand and leaped in front of him. She saw an enormous green light and then felt a sudden sharp, searing pain melt through her chest like knifes were seeping right through her skin. Something warm began to trickle down her chest when she fell back and landed in Harry's arms, whom was repeatedly crying out her name in agony.

As her mind slowly began to process through how it was possible that she still had all of her senses when it thought she should be dead, a sudden amount of force rammed against her and she felt her body leave the earth. The last thing she saw was Harry's watery green eyes...

Spinning, and spinning, and spinning, she thought she was going to be sick. She couldn't breathe. It felt like two gigantic hands were closing around her neck and ribs, squeezing her tighter and tighter. She tried to open her eyes, but the impact of spinning and the force on her body made it difficult to do anything. She felt her barf come up even though she had nothing to barf up, until she suddenly and very painfully, slammed against the ground.

Huffing and puffing, her vision still spinning, she rolled over as her insides finally came up. She coked, coughed, spat, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She rolled onto her back and tried to slow down, tried to stop spinning. She dizzily clutched her searing chest but let go immediately, yelping out loud as she felt something tear deeper into her skin. As her vision began to clear up, she looked at her hand that had clutched her chest and saw that the tips of her fingers were bloody. Her eyes fluttered shut. She just couldn't move anymore. What the hell has happened and why is everything so quiet?

Moaning in agony with tears streaming down into her matted hair, she all of a sudden felt a weak vibration in the ground underneath her. She instantly tensed up and clutched the earth with her finger nails, fearing that Voldemort had realized that she was still alive and was coming after her to finish her off.

The vibration felt stronger and stronger, and then she could hear it. It sounded like running footsteps. She heard people yelling, but she couldn't comprehend what they were saying. She was so scared and she couldn't even find her feet to run away.

Then, her view of the starry sky above her was obstructed by a black figure. She blinked her eyes several times, trying to focus as the person cowering over her spoke to her. She shook her head to try to focus that way, but that only made her more nauseous. Then, three more black figures closed in around her and she panicked that she couldn't do anything. They yelled at her but she felt deaf to what they were saying.

Eyes tightly shut with her hands clasped over her ears, she yelled, "Stop it, please! Stop! Don't touch me! Leave me alone, please!"

She felt someone grab her wrists and pull her arms down to her side. She slowly opened her eyes and was finally able to clearly make out four boys kneeling and hovering on either side of her. They were positively NOT Death Eaters.

The one who had hold of her wrists was nearly on top of her and looked oddly familiar. He was a tall and handsome, nicely muscular boy with messy, jet black hair and hazel eyes behind thin, circle rimmed glasses. The one next to him was handsome, and had black hair that sat on his shoulders and pale gray eyes. The first one on her left was a bit skinny, had messy, sand colored hair and brown eyes. The last one was a short, pudgy boy with light brown hair and small brown eyes.

Katharine's conscience and senses came back to her at last and she was becoming aware of what was going on around her. The sandy haired boy kept asking her if she was alright, but she couldn't keep her eyes off of the boy right above her. He looked so much like him...

"Ha-Harry?" She softly asked.

The boy looked confused but answered, "I'm sorry, you must have me confused with someone else. My name is James Potter. I'm here to help you."

"Wh-What?" She choked out as she attempted to sit up.

Suddenly, all hands were on her and held her down as the Harry-Look-Alike spoke again, "Miss, please lie down. You are in terrible condition. I need to get you to the Infirmary-,"

"James Potter?" She repeated.

"Yes Ma'am, I'm James Potter," he said awkwardly and gave her a questioning look.

Within the next second, Katharine fainted.

James quickly slid his arms under the girl and cradled her. He ran as fast as he could, with his other three companions trailing behind him, to get this poor girl help. Whatever she's been through has been pretty much like hell.

He looked down at her poor bruised face. One of her eyes was so swollen, it was almost shut and her chest was bleeding badly - not that he was looking at her chest, but it was a little hard to ignore the blood seeping out of it.

She was extremely malnourished, practically skin and bones. Her clothes were grungy and her hair was so matted, it looked like it hadn't been brushed in weeks.

And for some reason, he felt some instant connection with her...

They ran across Hogwarts' grounds as fast as they could and ran to the big oak doors. Remus quickly pulled open one door and let him run through with the limp girl in his arms. Running down corridors, taking short cuts, taking steps three at a time up the stairs, the boys finally reached the Hospital Wing.

They barged through the doors as they hollered for Madam Pomfrey. Remus and Peter ran to the back of the Wing to her office.

"Thank goodness no one is staying in the Hospital Wing tonight," James said to Sirius, looking around before he gently placed the girl on a bed closest to the medicine cabinet.

Remus, Peter, and Madam Pomfrey came hustling back to the girl's bedside.

"Oh, dear! What on earth happened? She looks awful! The poor thing!" She cried as she bustled through the cabinet.

"We don't know. We were just walking on the Grounds when we saw her appear in mid-air," Sirius explained.

"In mid-air?" Madam Pomfrey asked, still going through all of her supplies.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Is she a witch? Muggle?" She asked as she began preparing an IV for the unconscious girl.

"We don't know," Peter squeaked.

"She didn't say very much until she fainted. She had thought that James was a boy named Harry and when he told her his name, she fainted," Remus explained.

Madam Pomfrey turned to watch James intriguingly before saying, "Alright. Now, I need you four to go get the Headmaster immediately.".

The four boys nodded obediently and hurried off to get their Headmaster.