So a couple days turned into a couple months. Oops. There was a bit of Potter Canon that didn't line up in this chapter, and I really really didn't want to do that but I also didn't want to rewrite it so, yeah. That's why it took so long. If you catch it, whatever.

I gotta say though, I'm so elated to have this finished. When I started writing this, I had no idea that it was going to be a two year project. Losing all my work didn't help much either. But this really was so much fun to write. I don't think any of you quite understand how important Harry Potter is to me. And Kingdom Hearts holds a special place for me as well. Writing them together came so easily to me. I just, ugh, I love it.

Anyway, I really hope you guys liked this story as much as I liked writing it. Here you go, finally, the conclusion.


YEAR SEVEN PT. 2

Axel seemed to visit often, but never as often as Roxas would have liked. Most of the time when he dropped by, he and Neville buried themselves in the corner, talking quietly with their heads together.

Occasionally he brought food, and what an occasion it was. With the help of a few willing participants, Axel was able to expand his school bag to just over twice its regular size. The magic wasn't as good as it could have been, but it allowed Axel to cram in enough food from the kitchens for everybody to have a plateful. He'd come back the week after, just after dinner, with fresh, steaming hot food for everyone. Most of the D.A. warmed up to him after that.

All in all, Axel came around maybe a few times a week, or sometimes every other day if something particularly interesting happened. Once he appeared with a beaten first year over his shoulder, begging them to take him in and heal him.

Then it happened. Axel hadn't shown up for a while, and they'd run out of food when the passage to the Hog's Head opened up. Aberforth gave them what he could, but hope had nearly faded by the time the day came when Ariana came to them.

The painting that her tunnel lie behind was occupied by a sleepy, ill-mannered goblin, so when she came, it didn't take long for people to notice her politely trying to excuse herself to the front.

"Aberforth has requested your presence," she told Neville gently, after they'd finally hushed the angry goblin enough for her to speak. Her face was serious, but her tone seemed happy enough. It was impossible to tell whether the news was good or bad, or whether there really was any news at all.

"Maybe he's ordered a case of butterbeer for us!" Seamus suggested hopefully.

"Or maybe he's found a way to smuggle us out through the village!"

Barely a minute had passed since Neville disappeared, yet the room was buzzing with excited whispers.

Roxas took hardly any part in it. He didn't see the point, since whatever Aberforth had to say probably wouldn't really affect their situation. The end of term was very near; unless something drastic and unexpected happened in the near future, it was only a matter of time before they were either caught or starved. If Axel had been stopped (or worse) they'd have to start sending out their own eventually. Since escape from Hogwarts was near impossible even for one person, as a whole the D.A. didn't really have a whole lot of options.

Roxas was, for the hundredth time that day, beginning to imagine all the terrifying things that may have happened to Axel, when something drastic and unexpected did happen.

Neville re-emerged from the portrait hole, and he was not alone. He hopped down cheerfully and was followed by Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter.

Applause erupted deafeningly from every student in the room, even Roxas.

For weeks, Neville had been telling them that it wasn't over, that Harry was going to come help them take back the castle, that he hadn't abandoned them; he was out fighting you-know-who. Scraps of news of Harry made it to their ears from time to time: rumors about the trio infiltrating the Ministry of Magic, about breaking into Gringotts and escaping on a dragon. They seemed more like legend than fact, and Roxas never would have believed it. But with the world in the state it was, nothing was truly too far-fetched anymore.

Roxas' galleon seared in his pocket, as did nearly everyone else's. Pulling it out, he saw that it only read one word:

POTTER

When the cheering died down, however, it soon became very clear that Harry didn't really know what he was doing, or what was going on in the castle. And he certainly wasn't there to lead a battle. Many people flared up in anger, but Roxas wasn't among them. He had been without hope for far too long to gain it all back at once like that. Even if Harry had come for revolution, it wasn't as though they were going to storm the castle in riots. No, Harry's approach to things was usually more indirect.

But that hadn't stopped people from answering the call. One after another, old members of Dumbledore's Army were stepping through the portrait hole, and even a few students that had graduated years ago.

Harry'd had to repeat at least a dozen times that he was searching of something of Ravenclaw's. Roxas, who knew very little about Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, kept silent but did listen keenly for any other student's response that may have become lost in the sea of voices. It was Luna that finally offered to just bring Harry up to their common room so he could check things out himself.

Harry's arguments against fighting, although insistent, didn't seem to deter anybody from preparing. Naminé and Olette excitedly began practicing hexes in the far corner; Seamus Finnigan was changing all of his bandages, wrapping them tightly. There was more life within the room than there had been for weeks.

It was as though they hadn't been waiting for Harry to charge in and lead them, really. It was that he'd become the symbol of hope, and siege. Everyone had been assuming that he wasn't just in hiding, that he'd been actively fighting you-know-who. In the end, seeing it confirmed was all it took to give them the courage to act on their own.

Adult witches and wizards were now clambering through the passage, including a man and woman with such bright red hair that Roxas at first mistook them from Axel's parents. When a clan of redhead teenagers followed, however, Roxas quickly realized his mistake, and promptly pointed them out to Ron, who was standing nearby. To Roxas surprise, the family was directly followed by one of the old Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, Remus Lupin. If Harry was really set on avoiding confrontation, he was doing a terrible job in preventing it.

About a half hour later, Harry burst through the door, announcing that Voldemort was coming, and that they were fighting. Roxas didn't stick around to find out anything more. He probably wouldn't have been able to stay even if he'd wanted to. There were too many students pushing and shoving to get out.

But Roxas' only mission was to find Axel, so the crowd was inconvenient only in the sense that it limited his visibility. The corridors were littered with Ravenclaws, Gryffindors, and Hufflepuffs, but the Slytherins all seemed to be missing.

Roxas racked his brain, trying to think of where the Slytherins would go if it were announced that there was going to be a battle at Hogwarts. His first thought was that they'd try to put as much distance between the castle and themselves as physically (or magically) possible. But there was no way out, not unless they used the Room of Requirement. And Roxas would have seen them pass through. Anyway, Roxas reasoned, even if they had all ditched, Axel wouldn't. So where would he have gone?

"Come on, Roxas!"

Although the voice was not the one he searched for, Roxas welcomed it nonetheless. Sora, happy as ever and thankfully unharmed, was bounding towards him, Hayner Finnigan at his tail.

"Hayner! How did you get—"

"Seamus," Hayner said shortly, waving his hand (which contained a gold galleon) impatiently. "We gotta get to Great Hall; McGonagall's going over a battle plan. You should have seen it, Rox, Snape jumped out the wind—"

Hayner's voice was drowned out by a cold, high pitched whisper, magnified to echo through the halls of Hogwarts as though its owner were only inches away. Roxas had never heard the voice before, but there wasn't a single question as to who it belonged to.

"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 want to spill magical blood." There was a pause, and in it an enormous silence. There had to be a but in there somewhere. "Give me Harry Potter, 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."

His voice died away, and panic was beginning to rise among the students. Some, after hearing the voice of Voldemort, turned right around and marched right back into the Room of Requirement, presumably to escape back through the way they came. Roxas didn't blame or resent them; hearing Voldemort in person inflicted a type of fear that not even the Carrows could replicate. Had he not been so hell bent on finding Axel, Roxas might have been among them.

"I can see Seamus!" Hayner cried happily. "Come on, let's go!"

Sora and Roxas followed the brothers into the Great Hall, but by the time they got there, most of the students were already gone. Only those of age, it seemed, were allowed to stay. The Slytherin table was completely deserted, but Roxas could tell by the pushed out benches that they had been there since the house elves had tidied up after dinner.

McGonagall was standing at the headmaster's podium, and was directing students to different parts of the castle. As the group approached her, Harry sprinted by, apparently off to do whatever he'd originally come to Hogwarts to do.

"Finnigans! If you could please join the Weasley twins in the third floor corridor," McGonagall instructed briskly. Seamus and Hayner's faces split into identical grins as they took off, wands drawn. "Strife, you would do well on the Astronomy Tower, Professor Flitwick—"

"Professor," Roxas interrupted, "I'm sorry, please, I'm more than willing to stay and help, but I've got to find someone first. Where's Slytherin House?"

McGonagall looked rather surprised and a little affronted. "Filch escorted them to an evacuation point on the seventh floor. Really, Roxas, I doubt any of them stuck around."

"No, he would have left," Roxas muttered, furious with himself for not just staying where Axel could have come to find him. "But I didn't see them on the main staircase, do you know which way they went.

McGonagall scoffed. "This is Filch we're talking about." Her nostrils flared, a sign that Roxas had long ago learned to recognize as a loss of patience.

"…all right," he said, giving up. "I'll come back!" he shouted over his shoulder.

If Filch had taken the Slytherins through a secret passage or on some obscure route, and Axel had slipped away from the crowd, he could be anywhere in the castle by now. Midnight was approaching fast, and nobody seemed to be giving Harry up to Voldemort. He had to get to Axel before it was too late. He just had to.

~o~

Axel was faring no better than Roxas. It was nearly eleven o'clock when Professor Slughorn was shaking him awake, along with the other Slytherin boys in his dormitory. For one paralyzing moment, his body flooded with terror at being called back down into the dungeons with the Carrows. He jerked violently, causing Slughorn to startle as well.

"Merlin's beard, I didn't mean to scare you!" Slughorn apologized quickly.

"S'going on?" Demyx asked, flopping back down onto his four poster.

Now that he looked around, Axel decided that he wasn't being called for a second interrogation after all. The rest of his peers were rousing as well, which meant that Slughorn wasn't here specifically for him. Axel exhaled slowly, the way Madame Pomfrey had taught him to do if he felt that he might start going into a panic attack.

"The time has come," said Slughorn. "He-who-must-not-be-named is coming to Hogwarts, and we must evacuate."

"But he wouldn't attack us, would he?" Demyx piped up

Slughorn's eyes flashed toward Axel, a regretful expression on his face. "It's true that our house is known for only the purest of blood. But you-know-who isn't going to stop and consider what color tie you have on. I don't think even the heir of Slytherin himself would stand a chance against you-know-who on a night like this."

"But what if we wanted to stay and help him?" another boy asked.

"Pucey!" Slughorn exclaimed, aghast. "This is the Dark Lord we're talking about! You could be charged with conspiracy, with accessory to murder for talking like that! I'll pretend I didn't hear that just this once, and you will be first in line at the evacuation point."

Axel gritted his teeth, but said nothing. He was used to the other kids talking like that. Some them, he knew for a fact, actually did have parents within you-know-who's inner circle. But most of them were just big talkers.

"Now, follow me. You are not meant to be gathering any possessions, but I suppose… if you can keep up… well… best just follow me," said Slughorn uncomfortably. "Ah, but make sure to change into travelling cloaks. I expect you all in the common room in two minutes.

Axel didn't bother taking books or knick knacks, but he did bring his wand. Even if Hogwarts wasn't on the verge of siege, Axel would never risk leaving his wand anywhere, not after his night with the Carrows. He wasn't the only one; he could see Demyx trying to hide his unusually long wand within the sleeve of his cloak, and another boy putting his in his pant leg.

By the time Slytherin House arrived in the Great Hall, nearly the entire school was already there, but nowhere in the throng could Axel make out that familiar tuft of blonde hair.

A hot pain flashed suddenly against Axel's leg. He lifted his robe aside to reveal a hole burned right through his pocket, and his D.A. galleon clinked to the floor. Having finally gained the attention of its owner, the coin was quite cool when Axel picked it up again. His eyes widened at the message. If Harry Potter was here, it meant revolution. And if Lord Voldemort was indeed on his way, then maybe, just maybe, it would mean an end to this whole mess, the entire war.

His heart thumped heavily in excitement and fear. While it was true that hanging around in this miserable limbo was in no way pleasant, he'd at least had assurance that way that their side had not lost entirely. If Harry died tonight, there was a good change that the scales would tip to the point of no return. But, if Voldemort died tonight, the war would be won almost instantaneously.

Axel didn't have to wait long to see the message confirmed. He had only been scanning the room for a moment when his eyes fell on that lightning scar. As soon as he did so, the hall boomed with Voldemort's request to hand Harry over. So it was going to be tonight.

When the voice faded away, several low voices could be heard; students fearfully whispered to each other as though afraid that if they spoke too loudly, Voldemort might hear them.

"But he's there! Potter's there! Someone grab him!" Pansy Parkinson shrieked.

Axel groaned out loud. Here was Slytherin House's one chance to finally prove that they weren't just one big bag of dicks, and Malfoy's stinking girlfriend had to open her fat mouth and ruin it all in one shot.

In one massive movement, all three of the remaining houses stood to move between Pansy and Harry. Axel wished he could be standing among them, but he was too deep in the crowd to reach the other side in time to distinguish himself from the rest of the Slytherins.

And even if I could, Axel mused, anybody who's not involved in the D.A. would probably just assume that I'm after Harry.

The Slytherins were promptly escorted from the Great Hall after that. Apparently, extending the offer to stay and fight Voldemort was only a waste of time in the eyes of Professor McGonagall. Axel didn't particularly disagree with her, but giving him the outright choice to stay would have saved him a whole lot of backtracking.

And so Axel was dragged back up over a half dozen staircases by tired, grumbling students. He was stuck in an unfortunate spot right in the very center of the crown, and, as if knowing he might try to cause trouble or otherwise disobey instructions, Professor Slughorn was marching only a few feet behind him.

When the Slytherins reached the corridor, they were not taken directly to the room of requirement, like Axel thought they'd be. They were deposited into a classroom.

"Please wait here while the details of the evacuation are worked out," said Slughorn. "I leave the Prefects in charge."

But the prefects didn't really seem interested in taking charge, so Axel decided that now would probably be the best time to bail. Many students were weaving around the classroom, all trying to reunite with their friends and siblings, so it wouldn't draw any attention if Axel began making his way towards the door. At least, that's what he thought.

After some patient maneuvering, Axel had gotten himself close enough to the door to grab the handle. But before he could reach out to let himself out, a long, thin arm suddenly threw itself in his path, blocking the exit.

"Not so fast, Axel."

The arm and voice both belonged to Axel's former best friend, Demyx. The two had never necessarily had a falling out, but they had grown apart considerably since Axel had started seeing Roxas.

"What?" Axel said flatly. "Could you move please?"

Demyx did move, but in the wrong direction. He now leaned his entire body up against the door, blocking Axel's path completely.

"Where are you going?" he asked with his arms crossed.

Axel snorted. Demyx could perform a meteojinx powerful enough to make it rain in the common room for hours, but he wasn't exactly dangerous. Picture a bobcat trying to block the path of a coyote.

"What are you, my mom?" Axel challenged. "Get out of my way, Dem, I got shit to do.

His old friend didn't budge. "You're going to try to fight, aren't you?" he hissed. "You're gonna go join your disgusting muggle friends and make sure that wizard kind has to stay in hiding forever, aren't you?"

"Let me pass," Axel growled.

Demyx drew his wand. "I'm afraid I can't do that. We're all tired, Axe. Aren't you tired? They're a lesser form of people, and they've been in power for too long. It's time to step forward, lead a revolution, and start steering humanity towards an all wizard race. This? This is a step backwards for you. A betrayal of you own blood."

Axel laughed out loud. "You're gonna fight me? You? I've seen you try the Cruciatus Curse on a mouse, you couldn't even wake it up. You're gonna duel me in the name of you-know-who? You've got a sister out there! She's in the castle right now, preparing, and you want to stop me from helping her? Who's really betraying their blood? You really want him to take over? You want your sister to die?"

A jet stream a water from Demyx's wand missed Axel's ear by a fraction of an inch, severing a small handful of hair at the crook of his neck. The spell gained the attention of the other students, but rather than joining either party, they all parted so as to not get hit by a curse.

As pissed off as he was, Axel still didn't have any real intentions of hurting Demyx. But he had to get him out of the way. Quickly juggling through spells, Axel roared, "Levicorpus!" but made the wand motion for a stunning spell. As a result, Demyx was blasted backwards, or he would have been had the door not been in the way. Instead, he slid up the door, then the wall, and knocked unconscious against the ceiling. He hovered eerily above the door.

"Anybody else!?" Axel demanded. "I'd rather it be here than out on the battlefield because I promise I won't be as nice!"

When nobody stepped up, Axel assumed them all to be spineless cowards. But he didn't realize how truly frightening he looked. He was tall, taller than anyone else in the room, his bright red hair as wild as ever. His eyes blazed ferally, the only green he adorned, as he'd discarded his Slytherin badge and tie altogether. With an expression like that, and a fellow student, a friend, hanging ominously over his head, none of Axel's classmates even considered crossing him.

With an exasperated sigh, Axel lowered his wand and stormed out of the room, leaving Demyx to fall in a crumpled heap between the rest of the Slytherins and the way out.

Siege had broken out in the time it took Axel to get away from his peers. As he sprinted in no direction in particular, he could see students and teachers grouped at windows. Most of them appeared to be aiming spells at the unseen ranks below. His path in the fourth floor corridor on the east wing was blocked by tentacular pods, but it didn't matter; he had no direction and he and Roxas had thoroughly lost one another by now.

Like the walls around him, Axel's morale was beginning to crumble. What if Roxas had left through the room of requirement, expecting to see Axel on the other side? Axel wasn't one to believe Roxas to do anything so cowardly, or to expect Axel to have done, either. But now that he was scurrying through the shaking castle, dodging jinxes every now and then from the forces outside, the idea that Roxas had left him to head for safety was fast becoming a comfort.

Axel decided to go to the entrance hall and work his way up. Even though there were a handful of corridors per floor and a maze of staircases, he figured that taking direct route to major parts of the castle was his best bet.

But when he arrived at the entrance hall, it had been bombarded so heavily it was nearly beyond recognition. All of the iron suits of armor had gone, perhaps to help out in battle, or perhaps to flee and save their own metallic loins. At least half of the columns had crumbled, and bits of the ceiling lay in dusty graves on the floor. Only Neville, and another elderly witch remained to support the enchantments keeping the vast structure together.

"Neville!" Axel blurted. He had never been so pleased to see the round faced boy in his life.

Neville didn't turn around, presumably to keep maximum concentration on his spellwork. But he did reply, "Is that Axel? Did McGonagall send you and Roxas to help us out?"

"Sorry, no," said Axel, feeling guilty for not being more helpful to anyone. "I'm actually still looking for Roxas. Do you have any idea where I might be able to find him?"

"Last I saw of him he was running around looking for you. I think he went up the main staircase, though." He paused his spell for a moment, turning around to look Axel sincerely in the eye. "I really hope you find him, man."

His tone wasn't necessarily encouraging, but Axel was flooded with relief. He now knew that Roxas was still in the school, and they were both looking for each other. Neville had seen him fairly recently, and Axel's original plan to find him on a direct path may just hold.

"Thanks a lot," Axel said honestly. "For everything you've done for me, Roxas, and everybody else too. If I see any D.A. members, I'll send them you way, alright?"

Neville grinned, and held his hand out for Axel to shake. If this was to be their last encounter (and both boys were assuming it would be), Axel was glad it was on these terms. He was remembering their first day on the Hogwarts Express, and he was sure Neville was too.

Axel gripped Neville's hand and shook. Neither of them knew it, but for the first time in many centuries, the bond between Gryffindor and Slytherin had been restored.

As Axel ran from the hall, the coin he'd now been keeping in his sock burned for the second time that night. He knew it couldn't have been from Neville. There simply wasn't time for the modification to have been made. The message in the serial number was quite a bit longer this time:

BANSHEE BANTERING BY BARNABUS

Barnabus the Smarmy! Axel realized with excitement. The statue he and Roxas had accidentally turned into an ice sculpture in their second year! That had to be Roxas.

Axel once again broke into a sprint. He would join the fray wholeheartedly, once he and Roxas were together.

~o~

Roxas' chosen spot of rendezvous wasn't exactly the wisest, but it was the most prominent and easy to recognize spot he could think of. However, it was only one corridor away from the Death Eaters' first point of penetration. He knew ambush was imminent, but he stayed put.

From his spot in the corridor, he could see some of the action going on nearby. A small group of men had managed to climb into the castle through the window, and were advancing on the ranks standing guard. One man had lingered behind, perhaps to watch the window. If Roxas could just stun him…

"Stupefy," he whispered.

The perfectly executed spell jetted out from Roxas' wand at the exact moment that the Death Eater turned his head to scratch at an ear. Alerted now to Roxas' presence, he charged.

Roxas thought he may have recognized the man's face from the daily prophet, but it didn't really matter. There wasn't time for that now. The guy, though built like a tank, was fast. Curse after ruthless curse he aimed at Roxas, getting closer all the while. Roxas, while able to block each spell with shaking hands, simply didn't have the time to perform any offensive magic of his own.

"Protego! Protego! Protego! Expelliarmus!" he cried frantically. He successfully disarmed his opponent, but at a cost. The last curse hit him full blast, causing painful red sores to burst out over his hands and neck. The Death Eater retrieved his wand a moment later, but Roxas was unable to grip his own wand properly.

Kicking ferociously, Roxas scurried into a corner, but it was no use. He'd sacrificed the use of his wand for the wrong spell, and now he was going to die here. Next to that goddamn sneering statue that he'd always hated so much. Axel never knew, but Roxas had picked that spot to duel on purpose, with hopes that they'd be able to damage it somehow. All he could do now was cower next to it, holding his hands above his head protectively as the Death Eater raised his wand.

"No! Bombarda!"

The explosive jinx struck the Death Eater so hard and so directly that he was blasted right through the stone wall, leaving a vaguely man-shaped hole in his wake. Roxas turned his body frantically to see whether his savior was friend or foe. It was entirely possible that the jinx had been meant for him.

"Axel?" he choked in relief.

It was Axel, and he was clearing the space between them quickly. Without missing a beat, Axel skidded to his knees and pulled Roxas into a tight hug.

"I found you…" Axel murmured. He was shaking. "Damn it, Roxas, what if I hadn't found you?"

"It's okay," Roxas said, repeating himself occasionally. "Everything's fine, we're fine. Come on, you big baby, we still have work to do."

When they let go and stood up, Axel kissed Roxas on the forehead. Roxas tried not to smile. He failed.

"Here," Axel murmured gently, gingerly taking hold of Roxas' injured hands. He muttered a few quick spells, and Roxas' open sores drained themselves and closed. With another quick swish, loose bandages materialized and wrapped themselves around Roxas' hands delicately. Axel kissed both of them, too.

"That'll have to do for now," he said sadly.

It was more than enough. Roxas could grip his wand properly again and the pain had become much less distracting now that the wounds were not so tender. He began leading Axel back towards the Great Hall, going into detail about how Harry had shown up out of the blue and accidently started a war, and that McGonagall needed them and so on, but Axel seemed distracted.

Granted, there were plenty of reasons to be distracted. Stone gargoyles that had once stood guard high on the walls now lie crumpled in broken heaps on the floor. Windows everywhere were shattering or had already shattered. Jets of light from flyaway spells rebounded through the corridors every so often, and scared teenagers ran by, calling for their friends and loved ones.

These were the same walls that Axel and Roxas had moseyed through, half asleep, on their way to their first classes of the day. The same walls that, all the way through till their fourth year (and sometimes even after, just for sport), they had dueled in. Even though the school had seen its fair share of danger in their time, something about the warm, fire-lit corridors made Roxas feel protected. And now they could very well be his grave.

"Axe? Babe? What's wrong?" Roxas asked, now wishing he could find a distraction himself. "I mean, I know we're in the middle of a war and everything, but I mean, besides the obvious."

Axel hesitated, as though he were thinking over his words very carefully. "That guy…" he said finally, motioning behind him to the hole in the rubble at the end of the corridor. "D'you think… do you think he's dead?"

Both of them knew the answer, and Roxas knew that Axel had only asked to temporarily postpone that certainty. As if saying it of the form of a question would shroud it in ambiguity, keep Axel in the grey.

Roxas was having none of it. Not today. They had too much to lose.

"He was trying to kill me," Roxas said firmly. "He willingly took part in an attack on a school which, as far as he knew, was full mostly of innocent kids. I hope so."

"But Rox I—I killed him!" Axel exclaimed. "I killed a person. I didn't even think about it! I just saw him, and I saw you, and I panicked, and—"

"I forgive you, all right?" said Roxas, "It's not like we're out on some random muggle street, okay? We're in battle, and you did the right thing."

~o~

In the time it had taken for Roxas to leave the Great Hall, find Axel, and return, Professor McGonagall's hair had fallen from its tight bun for the first time in student memory, and there were tied up Death Eaters here and there, leaving a bread crumb trail to her position. She and the other teachers were apparently doing all they could to ensure that the protective enchantments around the castle continued to function.

When she saw Axel and Roxas, her expression became nothing short of livid.

"Strife!" she barked, drawing herself up to full height and rounding on him. "What did you think you were doing, running off like that on your own!? Nobody knew where you went, you could have been killed! If Hogwarts is still running after this, you're going to be in detention until you graduate."

"It's all right, Professor," said Roxas brightly. "A Death Eater got in through the North wall, so Axel blasted him through two layers of stone. We think he's probably dead."

McGonagall stood quietly, mulling over what she'd heard with an expression somewhere between confusion and mild shock. "Ahh, well… fifty points to Slytherin," she stuttered. Roxas couldn't tell for sure, but he could have sworn she sounded impressed. "You boys would do well on the Astronomy Tower, I think."

"Thanks Professor," Roxas said, grinning.

"And for goodness' sake, stick together!" she called after them.

Roxas wasn't sure what he was so happy about. It could have been the adrenaline, he supposed, or the fact that nobody seemed to be concerned about him towing around an overgrown Slytherin around anymore. Maybe he was just pleased because for the first time, finally, he could fight back.

~o~

Hours came and went, and over time, the glee of the battle dissipated as the Death Eaters infiltrated the castle completely. The once protective walls of Hogwarts had transformed into a battleground, and they weren't winning. More than once they'd been forced to pass over the corpse of a fellow student. Neither of them had really expected the duels to end in death. Roxas noticed that Axel was considerably less reserved about taking down Death Eaters after that.

At first, they'd kept to the Astronomy tower, as McGonagall instructed. From the high perch, they and a small group of other students were able to stun, paralyze, or otherwise curse Death Eaters approaching over the grounds or the walls. It also worked out nicely because there was only one door in or out.

It was easier work than Roxas ever would have guessed. He had a very wide view of both the castle roof and the grounds below, and probably could have achieved the same thing throwing stones, to be honest. A simple stunning curse was enough to permanently incapacitate those who were attempting to climb, and a good full body bind kept those on the ground still long enough to magically tie up or handcuff them.

Not everyone on the tower was as kind to them as Roxas. Professor Flitwick often sent them hurtling into the forbidden forest, and Ernie MacMillan actually used the killing curse on the Death Eaters that had murdered his cousins. There was a strange sort of solidarity to it.

But it didn't take long for the pile of unconscious and/or dead enemies to grow conspicuous. The trail of bodies drew more attention to them than they could handle. As more Death Eaters made it up the stairs and onto the observatory, they were forced to flee.

"Take my hand!" Axel shouted as they sprinted down the spiral stairs three at a time, ducking and dodging an array of curses of an imaginative variety.

"Are you mad!?" Roxas bickered back, swearing as he nearly lost his footing. "We're fighting a war! You kind of need to keep your wand out!"

Axel aimed a jinx high above his head and shot it over his shoulder. They couldn't stay to see if it found a target, but a moment after firing, a loud blast and a high-pitched shriek sounded from above. Roxas decided he didn't want to know which spell Axel had chosen. He wanted to remember as little of this as possible.

"Left-handed, baby, got it memorized!?" Axel replied gleefully. "Surprised you never noticed before, to be—"

He was interrupted by a deafening bang as the door at the base of the staircase bust open, revealing somebody… not quite human.

Roxas, having been raised in a muggle environment, had never seen the man before and kept his wand at the ready as though he were facing any other opponent. Axel , however, had been taught to recognize and fear that face a long, long time ago. Axel and Roxas stood face to face with the ruthless, child-biting werewolf, Fenrir Greyback.

Axel knew that Greyback would rely on the paralyzing shock of his victims to fabricate an attack. Without hesitation, he thundered, "Stupefy!" blasting Greyback off his feet in an instant.

"Come on," he said quickly, shoving a dazed Roxas in the back as a way of telling him to get a move on. "That won't keep a werewolf down for long."

He was right. As Axel was running by, Greyback's hand shot out like a viper, taking ahold of the hem of Axel's pants. His strength was no match. Axel was pulled to the ground in one yank. Feral, inhuman claws ripped Axel's shirt down as the wolf, still in his monstrous human form, crawled over Axel so as to get closer to his neck.

Roxas had just now noticed that Axel was not right behind him, and was beginning to double back.

"Roxas…!" Axel coughed; his breath had been knocked out of him when Greyback took him to the ground. "Rox, go!"

A set of teeth sank deeply into the part where Axel's shoulder merged with his neck. Greyback had stricken directly over a nerve, probably by design. Axel's right up spasmed reflexively, then went still.

"Oh, I don't think so," Roxas snapped, rearing up on Greyback. His expression was murderous. It was the same one he used to wear when they dueled in the hallways, when he lost the Quidditch match that decided he'd be going to the ball with Axel. The same one he wore when Axel caught him writing that list in the room of requirement. That, Axel thought, is the last face that I would like to see.

"Avada Kedavra!"

A jet of green light, that spell that neither of them had ever dared to try and use, burst from Roxas' wand and hit Greyback on the back of the head. He flew off Axel immediately and slid until his head cracked on the lowest step to the astronomy tower.

"Don't you dare tell me to leave you behind again," Roxas hissed, hoisting Axel to his feet.

~o~

It was over. They'd lost. It had been less than an hour since Voldemort had called off his ranks, and it was already over. Here Roxas was, doubled over from the shock and silenced by Voldemort's spell.

All this, Roxas thought, A whole ministry, a whole society of wizards to their knees, because we can't kill one guy. It's not exactly like he's hiding. Any old muggle could walk right up to him and shoot him in the face. Merlin's beard, we're fucking useless.

Then it happened. Roxas didn't see it directly, there were too many people. The Boy Who Lived sprung to life once again. One moment he lie limp in Hagrid's arms, the next he stood, facing the greatest enemy wizardkind had ever known. They had another chance.

It was impossible for Roxas to hear what Harry was shouting; a great eruption of cheers and applause had arisen from all those present in the entrance hall. At the same time, shouts, jeers, and cries of shock and disdain came from Voldemort's followers. Nobody made a move to touch either of them. It was like everybody had known, all along, that it would come to this.

Harry and Voldemort circled one another, talking. How Harry had faked his death right under the thumb of the dark lord was unexplainable, lost even to Voldemort himself. His impossibly red eyes were wide and blazing, his expression manic as he demanded, loudly enough for everyone to hear, why his magic wasn't working.

Unlike Voldemort, Harry was calm and composed, and so his response was not loud enough for Roxas to make out.

And then they were dueling. Roxas' heart thumped as heavily in his chest as it ever had, the anticipation ripping through him. What if Harry lost this fight as well? Had brought all their hopes back up for nothing?

Really, Roxas considered, Harry's army was so much bigger than Voldemort's. Couldn't they all just aim for him at once and utter the spell? Would that work? Roxas was prepared to try it if he could.

But he didn't have to. Both Harry and Voldemort tried to curse one another and their spells connected. Roxas had never seen anything like it. It looked more like a battle of souls than a battle of magic. Harry's wand vibrated so hard his entire arm shook, but the dark lord's was doing the same. It was his spell that seemed to be winning, and then it rebounded all at once.

Voldemort was hit in the chest by his own spell. He dropped to the ground as though he were a puppet whose strings had been cut. There was no dramatic exit, no cry of defeat, no explosion of dark magic. When it all came down to it, Tom Riddle was just a man, and the man was dead.

Silence boomed through the entrance hall as it dawned on everybody just like that, that the dark lord was no more.

And then the silence ended, and there was a cacophony of celebration, the likes of which had never been heard at Hogwarts before, nor shall ever be heard again.

Some of the Death Eaters were furious. Others looked quite insane. But most of them, almost unsurprisingly, looked relieved.

Roxas did nothing but laugh, and laugh and laugh and whoop and crow. For a long time, he couldn't stop. He would have cried, but he was simply too dehydrated, too happy, too buzzed. The laughter, like tears, began abruptly, and were quite out of Roxas' control.

Axel was jumping up and down, one hand raised high in the air, the other kept on his side. Despite the excitement, he'd at least had the good sense not to raise his bad arm and risk tearing open his sloppily created stiches.

Then as though pushed by a force of gravity, the two moved at the same time to kiss the other. It didn't matter that everyone was there, or that they weren't out yet. All that mattered to Roxas was that Axel was still there, still alive. That he was still able to gently cup Roxas' neck as he was doing, that he could still press soft kisses to Roxas' mouth as he was doing, as though he was the most treasured thing on the planet.

It didn't matter, because things weren't black and white anymore. Axel and Roxas weren't a Slytherin and a Gryffindor anymore, muggleborn and pureblood, or even boy and boy. They were simply people, and could finally be recognized as such.

Hogwarts was finally at peace.