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Narcissa turned to look at her master. "He's dead."

"No! Harry!" the Boy-Who-Lived heard Hagrid's voice cry out.

"Shut up, you oaf! You get to carry him," Voldemort barked at the half-Giant. "Carry him back to the Aurors. Show them their hero," he mocked and all of his followers laughed.

"Show them what has become of their savior. The Boy-Who-Died."

Chapter Ten

Courage

The Aurors and students of Hogwarts stood to attention as they saw Voldemort and his followers walking back toward the castle. What they saw behind the evil Dark Lord shocked them. It was their beloved half-Giant friend Hagrid carrying Harry Potter. No one could describe what they were feeling at that moment. Only Ron, Luna, and Hermione knew that Harry had decided to give up himself to save them.

"Harry Potter...is dead!" Voldemort shouted.

Hermione was the first to react. She just couldn't believe that Harry was actually dead.

"No!" she exclaimed running over to Hagrid and the limp body of her love in his arms. Ron and Luna grabbed each of her arms and held her back. She struggled. "NO! HARRY!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. Her voice echoed throughout the courtyard, making the others' hearts break. Tears were pouring out of her eyes furiously.

"Silence! Stupid girl!" Voldemort began to walk closer to her and the rest of Harry's followers. "Harry Potter is dead. From this day forth, you put your faith...in me." He smiled a toothy grin at them and then turned to his followers and walked back to them. "Harry Potter is dead!" They all laughed. The Boy-Who-Lived was dead and the Light side was now going to be their slaves. "And now is the time to declare yourself. Come forward and join us. Or die."

No one moved. No one. No one made one move. And this made Lucius Malfoy a little angry. "Draco," he called to his son, who was standing next to his fellow classmates. They looked at him, wondering what he was going to do. But he didn't move.

"Draco..." his mother repeated his father's words. "...come."

But Draco just stood there defiantly. He hesitated but then shook his head. "No."

His classmates gasped. Everyone knew how much he looked up to his father. How dedicated he was to his parents. To Voldemort. To being a Death Eater. Now, he refused to move. What the hell happened that made him defy his parents?

Voldemort shook his head disappointingly. "Draco, Draco, I expected more from you."

Then, shocking everyone, even his classmates and teachers, even Ginny, Neville Longbottom limped forward toward the Dark Lord. The Sorting Hat in his hand. Noticing his limp, Voldemort said, "Well, I must say I'd hoped for better," which made the Death Eaters laugh. "And who might you be, young man?"

Refusing to look him in the eye, he replied, "Neville Longbottom." His name made the Death Eaters laugh again.

"Well, Neville, I'm sure we can find a place for you in our ranks."

"I'd like to say something." This was the real reason why Neville had stepped forward. He finally raised his head and looked at Voldemort in the eye. His face showed strength and confidence. The real he was put into Gryffindor.

"Well, Neville, I'm sure we'd all be fascinated to hear what you have to say."

"It doesn't matter Harry's gone," he started and immediately after he said that, Seamus interrupted him.

"Stand down, Neville."

But Neville turned around and looked at him. At Dean. At Ginny. At Ron. At Hermione. Luna. At all of the people he fought alongside with. All of the people he went to school with. The professors that taught him everything he needed to know about magic. All of the people he loved. And in that crowd, he saw his Gran, who wasn't actually there. But he saw her. She had raised him to be caring and loving. And next to her, he saw his parents. His parents who loved each other. Who loved him more than anything else. He was doing this for them.

"People die every day. Friends...family. Yeah...we lost Harry tonight. But he's still with us...in here." He raised his hand over his heart. He looked at George. "So's Fred...and Remus...Tonks. All of them. They didn't die in vain." He looked back at Voldemort. "But you will." Voldemort began to chuckle at the boy's words. "Because you're wrong. Harry's heart did beat for us. For all of us!" He unsheathed the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat. "This is not over!" he yelled.

Just then, there was a thud. A body fell to the ground to the left of Voldemort. Everyone looked and watched as Harry Potter fell to the ground. He grunted and jumped to his feet as he pointed his wand at Nagini and yelled, "Confringo!" The spell bounced off of her and hit a group of Death Eaters.

The Order, the students, the teachers, Hagrid, they all grinned with relief that Harry Potter was alive. But Hermione had the biggest grin of them all. Her love was alive and nothing else mattered.

Harry gave one look at her and smiled. Then, he ran through the courtyard toward the cloister, jumping through the window into the walkway, wanting Voldemort to follow him. Away from anyone that could get hurt. Voldemort was furious. He channeled that through the wand and tried to blow Harry into pieces.

But Harry was young and quick. His playing possum act gave him the opportunity to rest a bit. Now, he felt reborn. He ran over to Ron, Luna, and Hermione as the Death Eaters apparated to find a victim to battle. "I'll lure him into the castle. We have to kill the snake," he told them.

"You'll need this!" Ron told him, giving him a Basilisk fang. He took it gratefully and looked at Hermione and gave her a brief but passionate kiss. "I love you!" he cried before he ran off.

Neville raised the Sword of Gryffindor high, but Arthur Weasley yelled, "NEVILLE!" as Voldemort shot a spell toward the young boy. Neville flew back and landed in the Great Hall, out cold. Then, the Dark Lord apparated, following his enemy.

Harry went through the castle, feeling Voldemort following him. Dust was everywhere, making it very difficult to see. He heard a hissing nearby and he ran behind a wall next to a staircase. He could hear Voldemort walking up the stairs. He panted waiting for the most opportune moment. He closed his eyes, seeing Hermione's face in his , he snapped his eyes open and ran out onto the staircase. Wanting to catch him by surprise. He shot a spell at him, only for Voldemort to block it. Harry didn't see Nagini by her master.

'Fuck' he thought to himself. He only hoped that Ron, Luna, or Hermione had another basilisk fang.

He and Voldemort dueled back and forth several times. The Killing Curse coming out of Voldemort's wand every time. Harry blocking each and every one of them. Voldemort apparated suddenly, taking Harry by surprise. He recovered quickly and spun around just in time to block Voldemort with a Disarming spell. Their spells locked, foaming shooting out of both red and green. Harry fell to the ground from the power of the Dark Lord's magic.

He heard a hissing sound behind him. He turned his head and saw Nagini making her way up the stairs toward him. He needed to get rid of her.

Now.

Acting quickly, Harry raised his wand up, and their spells shot up to the ceiling, breaking it. It sent a huge load of debris raining down on Voldemort.

Harry stood and ran down the stairs toward the snake, fang raised. But before he could destroy her, he spotted Voldemort on the staircase above. And he was angry. With a furious yell, he forced the Killing Curse toward Harry.

But the Boy-Who-Lived-Again was quicker. He jumped off of the staircase onto another one. He rolled down a few steps and the fang flew out of his hand. Before he could go after it, it was illuminated with a green aura. And then it disintegrated.

Harry now knew it was up to Ron, Luna, or Hermione to defeat the snake. He apparated away.

And Voldemort followed.

Nagini slithered around trying to find her master. He had been dueling the wretched boy and then had just disapparated without her. What she did not expect to find was a young woman about the boy's age standing at the foot of the staircase she was at. The girl raised her hand a threw a rock at her.

'Missed' she hissed at her.

It was then that Neville had woken up in the Great Hall. Fighting was going on all around him. He turned his head and saw the Sword just lying there under a hospital stretcher. There had to be a reason why the Sorting Hat put him in Gryffindor and Neville would prove that to everyone.

Nagini had Hermione back up to a wall. But Hermione wasn't afraid. She had witnessed her former Potions professor die from this wretched creature but she showed no fear. It was all part of the plan. Then, Luna came up behind the snake and shot a spell toward her. It bounced off and hit the wall. Nagini turned and hissed at her. And that was when Ron ran up from the side with a basilisk fang. However, Nagini was too quick. She saw him out of the corner of her eye. She reared back and struck. The fang fell out of his hand over the side of the banister.

Draco could not believe he had done that. He had defied his father. Defied his mother. Defied Voldemort. But what had happened to him tonight gave him the courage to do what was right, instead of what was easy. He knew that Harry Potter would leave him in the Room of Requirement. He had expected him to. But, he didn't. He had went back for him and Blaise. All his life he had wanted to be just like his father. A Death Eater. Hunting down Mud-Bloods and executing them. He grew up believing that Mud-Bloods had stolen the Pure-Bloods' magic. But he didn't want to do it anymore. He didn't want this life anymore. He wanted a better one. One where he lived alongside Mud-Bloods and blood traitors. One where he embraced them instead of torturing them.

"Draco!" he heard his father yell at him in the Entrance Hall. He saw students and teachers fighting Death Eaters. His father's friends. People he used to look up to trying to destroy people he used to attend class with. He wanted them all to stop. He didn't want anyone else to die. "Why did you do that?" his father spat at him. Draco panted nervously at what his father would do to him. He had gotten many punishments before. But this was over the top. His father might even put him in Azkaban for siding with Harry Potter. Draco's eyes moved over to a pretty Seventh Year girl dueling alongside a Fifth Year Hufflepuff boy against Nott, Sr. He knew her from when the Slytherins would have Astronomy together. He knew she was a Mud-Blood. But he didn't even know her name. For that, he hated himself. But he felt drawn to her. He wanted to defend her against Nott. His father saw where his eyes went. "A girl?" Lucius choked out incredulously. "You did this for a girl? Draco, you know of your arranged marriage with Astoria Greengrass."

"I do. But I don't want to marry her. I want nothing more to do with her. I want nothing more to do with you. Nothing more to do with Voldemort. With the Death Eaters. With all of this. What I was bred and raised for. I want to defend the people you always persecuted. They don't deserve this."

"Draco, stop this righ-" his father began.

"IT'S ENOUGH!" he yelled in Lucius' face. "It's enough."

Lucius stood there dumbstruck at his son. His own flesh and blood turned on him. For a girl. He turned to look at the girl and apparated to Nott. He shoved his fellow Death Eater away and grabbed the girl, looking at his son. The Hufflepuff boy noticed Draco's father and ran away, running to aid another student. Lucius held the girl facing Draco, with his wand tip at her temple. "This girl, Draco? You'd go against your father for this girl? This Mud-Blood?"

Draco's eyes widened and he raised his wand, a wand he nicked from a fallen Death Eater. He pointed it at his father. Right between the eyes. "Relashio! Expelliarmus!" he yelled strongly. The wand he used shouldn't have responded to him as powerfully. But it did. He had wanted to save the Ravenclaw girl. From his father. He had wanted to get to know her. He had wanted to ask her out on a date. And if she rejected him because of who he was, he wouldn't give up on her. He just wouldn't. He would persist. Press on. Asking her again and again until she said "yes".

He watched as his father's hands released the girl. He watched as his father was disarmed and his wand flew into his hand. He watched as his father flew back and slid on the ground. He walked up to his father and broke his wand in two right in front of his face and threw it at him.

"It's enough," he repeated strongly.

He could have ended him. Ended his father's life. With just two words. But he would never do that. Lucius may not be his father anymore but he wouldn't kill him. That was too hypocritical. So, he turned around and left the Order members to deal with him and Nott.

"Thank you," the girl replied shocked that he had done that.

"Don't mention it." He held out his hand. "I'm Draco. Just Draco." His last name disgusted him. He might accept it again later on but for now, he just wanted to be "Draco" and no one else.

She shook his hand. "Isabelle. Just Isabelle. Very nice to meet you, Draco."

"Very nice to meet you, too, Isabelle. Now, come on."

From then on throughout the whole Final Battle, they fought side by side.

Harry had apparated to the Astronomy Tower. He ran to find a place to catch his breath. But Voldemort apparated soon after he did, which meant he could not rest for one second.

A spell was thrown at Harry and the chains that were holding the walking bridge that Harry was on broke loose and Harry fell to the ground below it. Thank goodness it was only a few feet. Voldemort charmed two long strips of his rope to grab both of Harry's wrists and constrain him. Another soon went around his body and chest.

Once Harry had had enough torturing, he let him go and then smacked him across the face. This action led to the young man falling to the ground. Harry crawled away, moving backwards, using his hands and feet to push him back. "You were right..." he told Voldemort as he kept hitting and kicking him. "...when you told Professor Snape that wand was failing you. It will always fail you." This made Voldemort angry and he pushed him angrily out onto the balcony.

"I killed Snape."

"But what if the wand never belonged to Snape? What if its allegiance was always to someone else?" The Dark Lord had the Boy-Who-Lived back up against the broken balcony wall. There was nothing between him and the abyss below but a mere few inches.

"Come on, Tom," Harry said, using the Dark Lord's real name. "Let's finish this the way we started it." He wrapped his hands tightly around Voldemort's neck and pulled him.

"Together," he said as he jumped off the ledge into the abyss below.

TBC...

Well, there's chapter 10. Hoped you liked it. Sorry for the cliffhanger. Literally. Ha. Anyone, as you can see, I added that Draco joined Harry's side instead of going back to his father and Voldemort. And I'm incredibly happy about it. And I just had to do the whole thing with Isabelle.

The title is in reference to a plethora of amounts of courage and bravery in this chapter.

Anyway, about 2 chapters left, I think. I don't know when they will be posted, though. As I've said, I've got college and all of that. Plus tumblr which, btw, is addicting. Haha. I plan to not fail a class like I did last semester. But I will try to come back on my account every now and then and write a little bit at a time.

Pleez review!

DREWHHR