At Neville's outburst, Voldemort kept his voice quiet, and it was more frightening than if he had shouted. Auden could hear evil in every word. "Very well," he said flicking his wand, "If that is your choice, Longbottom, we revert to the original plan. On your head be it."
Auden flinched, expecting something terrible to happen, but nothing did. Neville's eyes were wide with confusion, but then everyone heard it. There was the sound of something rushing through the air. Auden looked up and saw a dark, tattered object flying towards Voldemort's outstretched hand. It was the Sorting Hat.
"There will be no more Sorting at Hogwarts," Voldemort said, as he caught the hat. "There will be no more Houses. The emblem, shield, and colors of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice for everyone. Won't they, Neville Longbottom?"
Before Neville could answer, Voldemort waved his wand and performed a nonverbal Body Bind Curse. Neville grew still, unable to move, with his hands pinned to his sides. Voldemort then stuck the hat onto Neville's head. Auden tried to move, but George grabbed her arm and shook his head slightly.
"Neville here is now going to demonstrate what happens to anyone foolish enough to continue to oppose me," Voldemort said, his voice still low. He flicked his wand and the Sorting Hat burst into flames.
Screams rang out across the lawn and Auden started running, but this time nobody stopped her. They were all running too. It seemed like the whole school was tearing across the lawn towards Voldemort, screaming and yelling all the way. Even Grawp tore around the side of the castle, the ground shaking under his massive feet.
Arrows were flying through the air from the centaurs and the ground shook as giants ran across the lawn. It was complete chaos, but Auden managed to fight her way through the crowd to Neville. She froze a few feet away from him. Neville broke free of the Body Bind Curse, and flung the burning hat off of his head, pulling from it a long, shiny, silver item with rubies on the handle.
Auden stared in shock as Neville, without pausing for a second, swung the sword through the air and sliced the head of Voldemort's snake clear off. Voldemort let out a yell of rage. Whatever happened next, Auden wasn't sure, because Hagrid was yelling "Where did Harry go?"
Sure enough, Harry was gone, but Auden found that she didn't have time to wonder where he had gone. Death Eaters, wizards, giants, thestrals, and centaurs were raging across the lawn and Auden narrowly missed getting hit by a centaur's arrow.
Somehow, everyone was moving back towards the castle, so Auden followed the crowd, shooting curses and jinxes at any Death Eater she saw. At the foot of the castle steps, however, one of Voldemort's giants reached down with a huge hand and picked Auden up, clenching her in his fist.
Auden screamed as she was pulled up, up, up, until she was even with the giant's face, about twenty feet off the ground. She couldn't move her hand to fire a curse at the giant, because her arms were pinned to her sides.
The giant began to laugh, an ugly, stupid sound, as he squeezed her tighter and tighter. Auden couldn't breathe and she was starting to feel lightheaded. She was going to suffocate.
Suddenly, the giant let out a roar and let her go. She was falling quickly and she braced herself to hit the ground. This wasn't going to end well either, if she even survived the fall. She didn't hit the ground though. Someone had cast a charm that slowed her speed. Gently, she was lowered onto the ground. She looked up at the giant, who was rubbing his eyes.
"Conjunctivitis Curse," Percy said, helping her up and giving her a half smile. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, thanks" Auden answered. Percy nodded before running into the castle, waving his wand around and shooting curses left and right. Auden followed him, hitting a Death Eater with a well aimed Stunning Spell.
Once she reached the Great Hall, she looked around and saw George and Lee dueling with a Death Eater named Yaxley. She raced over to join them. All three of them sent a curse straight at the Death Eater, knocking him to the floor unconscious.
Auden, George, and Lee stared down at the unconscious man, all breathing heavily. Their moment of victory was broken by someone yelling, "Not my daughter, you bitch!"
Auden whirled around to see Mrs. Weasley storming towards Bellatrix Lestrange, who was dueling with Ginny, Hermione, and Luna. She stepped in front of them and began skillfully shooting jinxes at Bellatrix. Voldemort was dueling against Kingsley, McGonagall, and Professor Slughorn a few feet away, but all other duels had stopped. People were lining the walls, watching the two fights in silence.
"What's going to happen to your children when I've killed you?" Bellatrix asked with a cackle. "You must know one of your sons have gone missing. If I were you, I wouldn't bother searching for him. He's probably dead, and what are your children going to do when the same happens to you? When Mummy's gone the same way as Freddie?"
Auden lunged towards Bellatrix, but George held her arms. "Don't, unless you want her to kill you too," he yelled, his voice strained.
"I don't care, not after what she just said," Auden answered. She struggled against George's grip, but he was too strong. Eventually, she just sunk to the floor, giving up the fight as George crouched beside her, still keeping his hands on her arms, but in a looser grip.
"You will never touch our children again!" Mrs. Weasley screamed at Bellatrix, her face contorted with rage. And with that, one of her curses flew directly at Bellatrix and hit her straight in the chest, sending her toppling over backwards, her evil smirk frozen on her face.
Everyone in the room cheered, except for Voldemort, who gave a cry of fury and turned his wand on Mrs. Weasley.
"No!" Auden and George yelled.
"Protego!" cried an all too familiar voice, and Auden's breath caught in her throat as Harry appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the hall.
"He's alive!" Lee exclaimed.
"I don't want anyone else to try and help," Harry said loudly. "It's got to be like this."
"That isn't how it works, Potter," Voldemort hissed. "Who are you going to use as a shield today?"
"Nobody," Harry shrugged one shoulder. "There are no more Horcruxes. It's just you and me."
"You think you will be the one to survive? The boy who has already survived countless times by accident and because Dumbledore was pulling the strings," Voldemort hissed.
"Accident was it, when my mother died to save me?" asked Harry. He and Voldemort had begun to circle each other, their wands pointed in each other's faces. "Accident," Harry continued, "when I decided to fight in the graveyard?"
"Accidents!" yelled Voldemort.
"You won't be killing anyone else tonight," Harry said. "You won't be able to kill any of them ever again. Don't you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people-,"
"But you did not!" Voldemort cut him off.
"I meant to, and that's what did it. They're protected from you. That's why none of the spells you put on them are binding. I know lots of things that you don't know. Want to hear some before you make another big mistake?"
"Is it love again?" Voldemort sneered. "Dumbledore's favorite solution…love. It didn't stop me from killing your parents and nobody seems to love you enough to run forward and take my curse now, so what will stop you from dying?"
"Just one thing," Harry answered.
"If it isn't love then you must believe that you have magic that I do not, or perhaps a weapon more powerful than mine?"
"I believe both," Harry said.
Voldemort laughed. "You think you know more magic than I do? I have performed magic that even Dumbledore never dreamed of."
"Oh he did," Harry responded, "but he knew more. He was a better wizard and a better man."
"I brought about the death of Albus Dumbledore!" Voldemort screeched.
"You thought you did," Harry answered simply.
The people in the hall were sharing glances with each other. What was Harry getting at? Auden watched Harry and Voldemort continue to circle as Harry explained to his enemy, and everyone else listening, that Dumbledore had planned his own death ahead of time with Severus Snape.
Auden's eyes widened as Harry explained that Snape had been on Dumbledore's side all along and was acting as a spy; that Snape had been in love with Lily Potter and had turned a spy for Dumbledore the moment Lily had been killed.
Harry continued to talk about an Elder wand and how Dumbledore wanted to prevent the wand from choosing a new owner by planning his own death.
"The true master of the Elder Wand isn't you," Harry said. "It's Draco Malfoy."
"What does it matter? We duel on skill alone and I can attend to Draco later."
"You're too late. I took Draco's wand from him weeks ago." Harry's hand holding his wand twitched and Auden's eyes flicked to the wand that had once belonged to Draco Malfoy. "That means," Harry explained, "that I am the true owner of the Elder Wand."
There were small gasps throughout the crowd, but neither Voldemort nor Harry seemed to have heard.
There was a brief moment of silence before both wizards acted at once.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
The spells connected in a flash of red and green light, and the sound was like a cannon as the two spells collided. It seemed to happen in slow motion. Voldemort's wand flew from his hand, spinning in the early morning sun shining through the windows, towards Harry, who caught it as Voldemort fell backwards and hit the floor with a thud, a cloud of dust puffing out around him.
Auden's heart leapt. Harry had done it. It was over. Voldemort was gone and he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone ever again.
The Hall was filled with the kind of silence that pressed against eardrums, but it only lasted a second before the crowd was cheering and running towards Harry, trying to hug him and congratulate him. Mrs. Weasley and Auden's mother were crying with joy and hugging each other, Ginny threw her arms around Harry's neck and kissed him, Sirius was doing some kind of victory dance, and Bill was spinning Fleur around.
Auden wove her way under arms and around bodies until she reached Harry. She threw her arms around him. "You did it, you really did it," she whispered in his ear.
He beamed back at her, looking like he had just won a long, grueling marathon. In a way, he actually had.
As the crowd around Harry thinned, Auden noticed George slipping through the Great Hall doors. She followed him and saw him sitting on the staircase in the entrance hall, which was now almost destroyed, with huge chunks missing.
"George?" she asked tentatively, sitting down next to him.
"What do you think happened to him?" he asked, looking straight ahead. Dirt and tear tracks were covering his face.
"I don't know," Auden answered quietly. It was finally sinking in that Fred was missing, nobody knew where he was and he might not be coming back. The battle had kind of numbed her brain to the thought, but now in the calm and silence, it was finally registering.
"I wonder who it was that Disapperated," George said, punching his palm with his fist, "and why they haven't sent Fred back yet."
"Percy thinks it was a Death Eater, but there are no theories of why a Death Eater would leave the battle."
"He was probably being a coward. The Death Eater I mean," George said.
"George? Do you think he's alright?" Auden asked as her stomach clenched. The war was over, but it didn't feel like it. It wouldn't feel right until Fred was back.
"I hope so, I really do. He just can't be…" George trailed off and shook his head. "He can't be. He's my twin, my other half. He can't leave his family. He can't leave me—us." George gestured to himself and Auden before sighing, running his hands through his hair and burying his head in his arms.
Auden slid her hands around George's arm and rested her head on his shoulder. She rubbed his back as he began shaking with silent sobs. She wanted to cry, too, but she couldn't. She felt that she had to be there for George first. Her voice was shaky as she spoke. "He'll come back, George. We found a way back from the Snatchers, so Fred can find a way back to us now."
George raised his head and rubbed the back of his hand across his nose. "I hope so," he whispered. "But do you think we can be that lucky twice?"
Auden swallowed. "I don't know, but I certainly hope so."
Just then, Katie came out of the Great Hall and looked at George sadly. Auden stood up and walked over to her.
"Sit with him," she whispered, smiling sadly. "He's devastated and he needs someone right now."
"What about you?" Katie asked. "Do you want company or would you rather be alone?"
Auden shrugged. "I don't know what I want right now. Besides Fred coming back, I mean."
Katie pulled Auden into a hug before letting go and heading over to George while Auden went into the great hall. It was early morning by now and it was decided that one large funeral would be held the next day for everyone who had died. Nobody was planning on leaving Hogwarts and returning the next day. Sleeping arrangements were made for everyone for that night, and most people spent the day sitting in the Great Hall comforting each other. Despite having been up all night, nobody seemed to want to sleep just yet.
Auden joined the Weasleys and her family at the Gryffindor table. Ginny was sitting with her head on her mother's shoulder.
Ben gave his sister a small smile as she took a seat next to him. She slid closer and rested her head on his shoulder. He put his arms around her. "I'm so sorry about Fred, Aud," he whispered.
"You say that like he's dead," she said.
"That's not what I meant," he replied gently. "I'm sorry that he's missing. I want him back, too. We all do."
They sat in silence for a few more minutes until George and Katie re-entered the room and joined them. "Search parties are going out tomorrow to look for Fred," Mr. Weasley said hoarsely as George and Katie sat down.
"Why not today?" George asked.
"George, everyone's just been fighting all night. You can't expect-," Mrs. Weasley began.
"I just don't want to waste any more time. Nobody knows where he is, who he's with, or what they're doing to him."
"I know, dear," Mrs. Weasley reached out and put her hand on top of George's. He kept his face expressionless and his eyes downcast, staring at the lines in the wooden table.
Mrs. Weasley's eyes were rimmed with red and she sounded as if she had a head cold. Mr. Weasley's face was as solemn as Auden had ever seen it. Percy was sitting with his forehead pressed against the table and his eyes squeezed shut. Bill was staring at the ceiling and rubbing Fleur's back as she slept against his shoulder.
It was strange to see the Weasleys this way. They were usually so happy and full of life. Mrs. Weasley could be strict, but the majority of the time, she was in a good mood. Fred's absence was a reminder of how close the Weasley family really was. A missing child would be hard for any family, but for the Weasleys it was a lot more than that. Fred had affected so many lives that nothing would be the same without him.
Later that day, after she had gotten cleaned up and changed her clothes, Auden sat on the common room couch, her knees pulled to her chest as she stared into the fire. She was surprised that she hadn't started crying yet at Fred's disappearance, but even now, in the silence, the tears weren't coming. She just felt...empty. Her heart was broken, that was for sure, and it hurt, but other than that,s he couldn't let herself cry or fully comprehend that Fred was gone.
She turned her head and looked down at the couch cusion next to her as she ran a hand over the soft material. How many times had she and Fred sat here, studying talking, cuddling...even kissing? How many times had they played chess or Exploding Snap in front of the fire? It was like no matter where she looked in the room, it brought back some memory of Fred. Finally, she turned her head and buried it in her arms as she tried to remind herself that it was totally possible that Fred would come back. It was that last sliver of hope that kept her holding on.
A/N: The song I used for this chapter is When You're Gone by Avril Lavigne. Thanks for all the reviews and to anyone who's added this story to their favorites or story alert. :)