CHAPTER SEVEN

Utter Demise

"Excellent Hermione," he allouded. "Let us try something different. I want you to try and summon upon an outside power source," he said leaning against one of the trees in his tuteledge.

"What kind of outside source?" she queried, still giddy from her recent successes.

"You've heard of summoning the four corners?" he bemused.

"Of Course I Have, any witch a year in Hogwarts knows that!" she threw her hands up in frustration at his cryptic nature.

"Summon from the Entities of the Corners, not the corners themselves," Hermione's eyes grew wide. "The corners are neutral, the entities within them although are very finicky."

"You can do that?" she stuttered

"No. I am afterall very male, and the goddesses don't answer my call, but they may answer yours. Do you know the chant to call them?" he stood strait now, adjusting his poet shirt's sleeve like it was the most interesting thing since pensives.

"I think so... " she worried her bottom lip a bit.

"Flow with the music in your mind, the music of the nature around you, seek it's power, but do not command it, ask it," he said pushing a hand through his hair. "If you master this, we can take a rest, it's getting dark soon. Dusk is the perfect time to learn to feel the auras of the entities of the four corners," he said as if he knew she could never truly fail.

Hermione let herself relax, clearing her mind as much as she could. Her hands splayed out, her fingers spreading as if trying to feel her way over a wooly animal of some kind.

"Isis," she whispered. She curled in one of her fingers.

"Astarte," she whispered. Curling in a second finger.

"Diana," her fingers danced over nothing, but a third curled inward to it's cradle in her palm.

"Hecate," a shiver passed over her spine, another finger curling in.

"Demeter," another finger.

"Kali," now even he could feel the darkness surrounding her. Another finger.

"Innana," the last finger curled, the wind zephyred over her hair. It was now or never, she would either reach them or she wouldn't. He watched as she drifted, her body swaying slightly, as if building power. A pulsing sensation ripped through the air, as if a melody had just turned into a heavy metal band. Then suddenly it was gone, in a flash she was just Hermione in the glade of Sakura petals blowing in the night's wind.

"I think I missed the mark on that one," her eyes closed thoughtfully.

"Why?" he asked.

"They asked if I was a woman, I was actually pretty put out by the question. I mean isn't it obvious I'm a woman," she started. "I said yes."

"Okay," he tilted his head slightly and furrowed a brow in thought.

"Then the black skinned woman with many arms.."

"Kali," he answered in her haste to explain.

"Right, anyway, she said that they were not needed here, and they left," Hermione quirked a brow.

"Ahh, they do not like to be summoned upon frivolously, even if just for training then," he replied sagely.

"Oh," she replied softly.

"Come Hermione, it grows darker, and I wish some time for us before we must return tomorrow. Tomorrow will be filled with enough questions. We'll try to meet to train these new skills as much as possible," he offered his arm to escort her back into the cabin.

"Such a mystery you are," she giggled and took his arm. Walking back inside to the warmth of the indoors, she realized exactly how chilled she really was.

He drank down another of the potions, his hour was up and he had to make it at least two more hours. As he did so, he smashed the glass of the Quidditch shop store front, taking the Firebolt out of the window. With a moment of silence for the dead shop keep, he straddled the broom and was off. Draco had to make it back to Hogwarts, it was time to make his stand. Mounting up on the Firebolt, he was gone, flying the winds fast and with little caution. This seeker would find it's prey and deliver it's package, to Harry Potter before Voldemort got that chance.

Severus found himself in a rather desperate situation trying to show down the new DADA professor. She had not only foiled his attempt at the Adava Kedavra, but had successfully managed to deflect just about everything that had been thrown at her and the students in her classroom.

What remained of Bellatrix lie at his feet. Blown apart with even more ferocity than was dealt to Minerva not too long ago. Severus was going to have to do something and do it quick. This woman was far too confident in her skills to have been taken so lightly by the little informant Slytherin that had given them much about her. The Ministry didn't have much on her either other than years of recommendations from parents of students she had home tutored.

Catherine Bruce was proving herself to be a fatal flaw in the plan of the Dark Lord.

The dementors refused to come near the room, and the wizards were ill prepared to deal with blue eyed, brunette that threw spells easier than she probably spoke her own name. She radiated and ancient power that Severus actually feared. Something akin to Dumbledore's power was loose and angry in the presence of a traitor trying to kill or maim her students. Her defenses in this room were infallable.

"You will leave, now," she said calmly, as her hand splayed out in dramatic flair at the greasy git she saw as nothing more than an inconvienience. The spell shot forth from her palm and he realized too late what he was dealing with. A pureblooded druid, for only they and a select few could cast with such accuracy the spell that shot him out the door of the DADA classroom sealing him from bringing harm at the same time. He was charmed and helpless to do harm unto anyone, even those that would bring him harm.

Severus made the decision at that moment, it was best to retreat for now, and report what had come to pass. Perhaps the Dark Lord could remove this charm, for he had never felt such a passive feeling in his life and it was truly unsettling.

A dementor floated to one of the windows, in it's mangled hand lie a simple rock. Without thought it threw the rock in the open window, without entering. Catherine gave a short relieved laugh and tossed the rock back to the dementor.

"Thank you friend," she said. And with that, the dementor left with rock in hand.

Hagrid set loose every animal in his care, shooing as many away as would go. The rest fell into the battle, fighting for the students they had come to love or hate. Hagrid was a menacing thing when he was angered, and right now he was fuming! His massive figure was a sight to fear as he came into the battle wielding spell after spell. As if his size alone dictated his power, he ruled the field for a long while before his two griffons grasped him in their taloned claws and flew away with their caretaker, effectively removing him from the battle. Hagrid wanted to protest, but he saw immediately why they had come, the dementors were retreating away from the school. And the Dark Lord was going to be making his big move soon.

"Blaise..." she whispered trying to push his form off of hers. Being a star bludger for the Slytherin Quidditch team didn't make him a tiny man. Infact he was heavy to her arms, even with all the brothers she had been raised with. Ginny finally gave a large shove, forcing the body off of hers. "Blaise..." she shook him, and he did not move. "BLAISE!" she shook him harder. Ginny didn not move. It was as if her body had ceased along with his. Harry would have been so disappointed in her, she thought to herself. But still she could not move.

Blaise's body was cold to the touch, but she held his hand. He had covered his body with hers to save her from the deadly spell cast, the unforgivable. She would not leave him alone now.

She sat for a long while. Blaise's body had gone stiff now, giving the illusion he was holding onto her hand. Ginny knew it was just rigor mortis, but still she sat unmoving in a hallway full of death, almost afraid that if she moved she would have to look at the other bodies around the room. And knowing they were there, and actually seeing them were two entirely different worlds all together.

"Ginny," the soft voice came from behind her. Ginny didn't look up just sighed. "Ginny this is no time to lose your nerve. Hold his hand tightly..." Ginny complied, sure that death was upon her. She felt two warm hands on her shoulders, and the magic flowed through her arms into Blaise's body. Blaise stirred, and Faulks flew away. Ginny refused to look from Blaise, as the hands left her shoulders and Professor's Bruce's skirts swished by her heading for the main entrance.

"They are retreating," she said softly.

"Yes, but they will return, they do not see this as a defeat," the whispered voice came from the shadows.

"Go then my son, warn me of their next attack," she whispered. "And for Diana's sake, be careful." Professor Bruce watched as the children of Hogwarts lie dead, dying or wounded strewn around the whomping willow tree. Many had been taken, those that were still alive and could be moved. Obviously meant to be used as assurance to some sort of plan of the Dark Lord's.

The night at Hogwarts went on painfully. Removing the dead, fending off the incessant verbal attacks of a very put out MadEye Moody. Fending off parents. Professor Bruce was at her wits end dealing with the wailing parents. She adored these children, but she absolutely could not stand the politcal bullshit of their parents. Everything was all about them, not their children. As if their children were little more than pawns in the game of Voldemort. There were reasons that he was "He who should not be named". They would have to look in the mirror at themselves if they gave that monster a name, and if it had a name, they might see a bit of him in their reflections.

The body of Draco Malfoy had been found atop the rubble of the North Tower, he seemed to have been duelling with a very powerful wizard and lost his hand to it. What had Bruce in a stupor was he had been apparently fighting the Death Eaters, not with them. All that remained recognizable of him was the Firebolt broom, his wand, and that Malfoy white hair crested atop his mummified corpse.

Draco wasn't such a git afterall, and it would absolutely devastate Hermione when she found out, unless she too was amongst the dead in the North Tower.