Chapter 26

7 days ago…

When he had first left the castle, Dumbledore had every intention of seeking out another of Voldemort's horcruxes. He'd left the castle determined to rid the world of one more evil object and to help Harry in the only way he felt he really could any longer.

Things, of course, had not gone according to plan. He had barely made it into Hogsmeade when a sound like thunder echoed around the village and a fantastic light display lit up the night. The ground beneath his feet rumbled and he turned back to look toward the castle with his heart beating a terrified race in his chest.

The wards around Hogwarts had fallen and he was sprinting back toward the castle as fast as his frail body would allow. But he was old and, though unwilling to admit it, quite sick and he hadn't made it far before he saw a golden light snap up and over Hogwarts forming yet another ward. One he had not even known the castle possessed.

Then he had rounded a bend in the road and his heart had very nearly stopped. He had passed through not five minutes before and then it had been quiet, there hadn't been any strange sounds or movement that had put him on his guard. What he'd seen upon his return was a completely different story. Pressing, as close to the new wards as possible, were dozens of giants, Death Eaters and more Dark Creatures than Dumbledore had ever seen in one place.

Worse, though, they were organised. He had never, in his many years, seen an army of such scale with so many different species filling ranks and looking organised. The sight was almost as bad as the knowledge that they were gathered under Voldemort's orders to take the school.

Dumbledore couldn't help but wonder what the scene would have looked like had Harry not insisted on turning the students into such a force. Would Voldemort have needed all of these men and creatures or would he have merely snuck into the castle through some unknown route and taken them all while they slept?

It took him a while to confirm there was no way for him to slip through this new ward and even longer for him to decide whether or not to continue on with his plan for the evening or to go in search of aid. He felt certain if he went to the Ministry or even to the Order they could have people ready quickly to fight back. He was equally certain that Harry would have already taken those steps. He had no way of knowing how, but he was forced to acknowledge that Harry was a force to be reckoned with, he was clever, strong and he had certainly built up a wealth of skills that Dumbledore could never hope to learn about.

He made the decision to turn his back on the fight Voldemort was beginning and instead continued on his journey to destroy another horcrux. This, he knew, would be of far more help to Harry than simply running to the Ministry or the Order.

That decision seemed like days ago now, even if the reality was much more likely to have been hours. Getting to the cave Voldemort had once seen as a child had been simple enough and though the small swim had been taxing his desire to rid the world of Voldemort and save Harry had given him the strength to push through the pain.

He had barely paused when the wall demanded a blood sacrifice and it had only taken him moments to discover the little boat chained to the shore. He'd taken the slow journey to the middle of the lake as a chance to recover his breath and his equilibrium after the cold of the ocean swim. He was tired and bone weary but he knew what he was doing was right, that it had to be done.

His faith wavered slightly with the terror that came from the knowledge that he had to drink the poison in the basin. He could see no way around it and it was too late to send for help. He wasn't sure anyone would even come.

But Dumbledore believed in his research, he believed that what he was doing was in the name of the future and the safety of the wizarding world. He strongly believed that his faith would get him through, would push him to continue drinking even as the unknown substance destroyed his mind.

The first cup was easy, though it didn't come without pain or fear. The second was harder, the third harder still. The fourth, he dropped twice back into the basin before he could drink it.

He would never remember the fifth. He would never know the sixth.

Albus Dumbledore would never know that the real horcrux had been stolen long ago. He would never know that it was stolen by a Death Eater and recovered by the son of one, both desperate to stop Voldemort and his reign of terror.

He would never know that Ron Weasley had once lay in this very place or that he had survived only because he had surrounded himself with people who loved him.

Albus Dumbledore would never understand that by standing alone he made himself vulnerable to death.

He would never get to know a world without Voldemort.

Now…

After the massacre at St Mungo's Ruby had made an offhand comment – purely for academic reasons – that she would have loved to have seen Harry lost to his power and how it was he completely destroyed Voldemort's forces.

She wanted to take it back now. Someone up there had been listening and she now felt like she was the butt of some higher power's joke.

She wasn't getting to see Harry in all of his glory because Harry was dead. Watching him flame in front of the killing curse meant for his best friend would be an image permanently seared onto her eyeballs. She would see the way the life simply went out of him for decades to come.

It was watching Ally that would give her nightmares.

If she'd thought the grounds of Hogwarts had been chaos before it was nothing to now, in the aftermath of Harry's death. Where before there had been fighting and screaming and the sound of blood and battle and people falling – both friend and foe – now there was only terrified screams and the sounds of running.

Ruby had lost sight of her best friend early in the battle, the fiery blonde had gone straight for the giants and the tougher Dark Creatures, leaving the Death Eaters and remaining forces for those more capable of coping with the weaker threats. While her eyes may have lost track of Ally and instead locked onto Harry in his final moments, the whole school, perhaps even Hogsmeade, found her when Harry fell.

The sound that had erupted from Ally's mouth had silenced the battle like nothing else could. It was more animal than human, more song than words, but the sound had crept inside Ruby's very soul until it made her feel as though she could never be happy again, as though a very part of her being had been ripped away.

The haunting sound of anguish had carried across the battlefield, driving students and Death Eater's alike to their knees. Ruby had felt tears streaming down her cheeks before she was even aware she was going to cry. The air filled with the last gasping breaths of those who lay dying and the mournful song of a phoenix without her mate.

And then Voldemort began to laugh.

Later, Ruby would wonder if perhaps Voldemort was no longer human enough to feel the cry of the phoenix, that perhaps he hadn't realised just what it was he was inciting. His high cold laugh cut through the phoenix song and Ruby could only watch, struck rigid with terror and awe as her best friend exploded in a fiery ball of flame that shot thirty feet into the air and just as far in a full circle around her.

Ally's clothes simply crumbled away, even the dragon hide unable to withstand the temperatures of her flames. She stood, a burning pillar of flames in a circle of charred remains. Anyone unlucky enough to be in her path had died instantly; Ruby could see the hulking form of a troll simply drifting away as the wind caught the ashen remains.

And then Ally began to move and finally Ruby was able to force her body to obey commands. Her hands reached out and she grabbed her husband with one arm and a seventh year by the other, 'Run!' she commanded with such certainty that the seventh year was off like a shot.

Demonstrating one of the many reasons she'd married him, Sirius flung a spell into the air creating the glowing form of an owl in the sky. The creature's wings spread and it swooped over the grounds. It was a sign to retreat.

Everyone had heard the rumours about St Mungo's by now and as she turned and ran, Ruby could see members of the ADADA and those they tutored scrambling away from the approaching form of their old DADA professor.

Encouraged by Voldemort's laughter, a number of Death Eater's began to fight again. The creatures that had not felt the phoenix song were only too eager to chase after the retreating students.

Ally cut them all down. She moved so fast it was impossible to guess where she would be next. The violence she used in cutting down her opponents was horrific and the picture it was building in Ruby's mind of the night Harry had arrived at the hospital was making her sick.

Still she ran, in this state, she didn't trust that her best friend would recognise even her in amongst her enemies.

Sirius reached down to haul a young girl to her feet and only as he encouraged her to move quicker, did Ruby realise the robe she wore marked her as a Death Eater. She looked petrified, tears streaming down her face and it was that look of fear that saved her from Ruby's wrath. She couldn't have been more than seventeen.

Something sharp dug into her side and she stumbled. Heat blazed up her chest and down her leg. She didn't want to look down, afraid of what she might see. Sirius didn't look either; he scooped her up into his arms and continued to run toward the safety of the castle.

Emmy's defensive half circle was open to let the fleeing students and adults in. Her team was expertly picking off any Death Eaters or dark creatures in pursuit.

It was Emmy who took down the young Death Eater Sirius had dragged to her feet. Catching the terrified young girl in the chest with a killing curse. Through the pain in her side and the screams of terrified witches and wizards, Ruby could do nothing to prevent the attack.

Later, when she considered the young girls crimes she may even be thankful for that.

'Close in!' Emmy shouted, as Sirius carried Ruby up the steps and into the strangely quiet castle.

'I want to see,' Ruby sputtered, blood bubbling up her throat to dribble down her chin.

Knowing she wasn't talking about the wound to her side, Sirius carried Ruby over to a window where he could sit her on the ledge and tend to her while she watched what was happening in the grounds below.

Ally hadn't made it to Voldemort yet, seeming content to take out all of his men first. The castle grounds were a mess and though she couldn't see it all in the growing darkness, Ruby knew that come morning the grass would be soaked red with blood or burned black where Ally had waged her war.

Ron and Daphne were still outside.

Beyond Harry's back, Ruby had seen Ron cut through Nagini with the sword of Gryffindor and the knowledge that Harry was dead meant they could finally kill Voldemort. It looked like that was what Ron and Daphne were trying to do.

They fired spells at the Dark Lord but he dodged and skilfully blocked almost all of them. The ones that made it through his shields barely seemed to leave a mark. As Ruby watched, Stephanie joined them and then a lanky figure Ruby thought might have been a boy called Dean. Then the Longbottom boy joined the fray and another girl Ruby didn't know. They formed a circle around Voldemort and in an instant she realised what they were doing.

They were a distraction. These kids had braved Ally's flames and their own fears to face off against Lord Voldemort just to buy Ally the time she needed to finish off the rest of his forces.

But Voldemort seemed to be only toying with them. As she watched, eyes growing heavy from blood loss and not even feeling the hands working at her side, Ruby saw Neville and the girl at his side fall. She saw Dean falter before he too crumpled. She saw Stephanie take a spell to the leg that sent her flying backward. She didn't get back up and Ruby couldn't tell if she was dead.

Ruby was crying again, black spots crowding her vision until all she could see was a blur of red and blonde she knew to be Ron and Daphne.

This was a fight none of them should ever have been involved in, a war that should never have touched them safe in their school. It was a sight they should never have seen, a terror they should never have felt.

But that safety was an illusion, it was a goal, the hope to which they were all fighting toward. These kids, these brave stupid kids, were giving up everything they had, everything they could have been to fight for a future they may never have the chance to see.

Daphne fell. Ruby could imagine the sound of agony that escaped the young Slytherin's lips as her legs failed beneath her.

It was just Ron now, spells, growing weaker and weaker, his body sluggish as he tried to move and dodge the spells that Voldemort lazily curled back toward him. Something gave way beneath Ron and he started to fall. Voldemort leaned forward as though he was speaking to the fallen boy and Ron shot a spell right into Voldemort's face.

Voldemort reeled back, whipping his wand in Ron's direction and Ruby wanted to close her eyes, to block out what she knew was about to be the spell that ended Ron's life.

But the last thing she saw before consciousness escaped her was a tall flaming figure suddenly appearing between them, one hand gripped securely around the Dark Lord's throat. She must have been hallucinating because that figure had looked like -

'Harry,' Sirius croaked.

It was nice, the last thing she would hear being her husbands voice, even if it was calling someone else's name.