A/N: Here's the Final Battle, spread out over 2 chapters. After these, there are only 2 other chapters left for the whole story. I REALLY had fun writing these chapters, so I hope you enjoy them.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

THE SILVER CASTLE

Ten minutes later, Harry, Hermione and Draco were standing in front of Barnes' fireplace along with a group of battle-ready Aurors. Barnes and Marcus were on their left.

"You all know what to do," Barnes instructed them. "This needs to be clean and simple, which isn't that challenging since The Silver Castle is invisible to all wandering eyes, not just Muggles. We need either Ron or Garrett alive." The last statement he directed more toward Harry and Hermione more than anyone else.

Harry gazed at Barnes over the top of his glasses. "It's not Garrett you need to be worried about."

Barnes returned Harry's stern stare. "Harry…"

"We're not making any assurances," Harry said. "But we'll do our best with Ron."

Knowing that was the most he was going to get out of them, Barnes nodded. "This may be our only shot at regaining The Book." He went back to addressing everybody. "There's no room for error, and I feel I don't need to remind any of you of the stakes. Part of an Auror's job is to yield results, so make sure the ones today are positive rather than negative."

Considering the situation, that was the best motivational speech the Aurors were likely to get. Harry refocused his gaze on his backup, all of whom raised their wands to their heads and disappeared completely in a matter of seconds. The stealth part of the plan was now set.

Across his back, Harry wore the case that Jones had concealed Excalibur in only hours before. True to their word, they were bringing the actual weapon along because they all knew that Excalibur was the only thing capable of defeating The Book. The only issue was figuring out how to string along Ron and Garrett long enough to use Excalibur to their advantage. As far as that part of the plan was concerned, Harry and Hermione were still working on that.

"Good luck," Marcus offered encouragingly as Harry, Hermione and Draco all moved closer to the green flames. The three of them nodded their thanks right before they stepped into the flames.

Once they did, the trio felt their bodies being tugged forward and their heads spun at a dizzying rate until all the movement ceased and they found themselves in a new environment.

This environment was very spacious, lit by both candles adorning the walls and sunlight that streamed in through windows high above and fell across the floor. The foundation of the building that wasn't covered by enormous crests or fabric banners was obviously pure silver, which glinted in the light. Whether it was bricks forged from silver or a flawless mold of the material itself, Harry wasn't sure, but all that mattered was that they were where they needed to be.

Ahead of them was a grand staircase which led to the upper level of the Main Hall. But above that second level were many more levels that seemed to stretch to the sky itself. At the tip top of the inner workings of The Silver Castle was a skylight composed of multicolored pieces of stained glass, and it was sending a rainbow spectrum of assorted colors spreading around the Main Hall, casting it in a shower of different colors. However, that wasn't the only thing Harry noticed upon looking up. The most curious parts of all those upper levels were staircases that were angled in every possible direction; up, down, sideways, you name it, they were so.

"You made it with time to spare, I see." Garrett's voice echoed ominously throughout the castle. He was standing at the top of the main staircase behind what looked like a podium with The Book open on top of it. At the bottom of the stairs stood Ron, who carefully started to approach the trio, wand in plain sight.

At the same time, Harry felt a quick shift in the air behind him that signaled the arrival of their reinforcements.

"Show me the sword," Ron ordered, his wand aimed directly between Harry's eyes.

Calmly, Harry slipped the strap of the case off of his shoulders and placed the large box at his feet. Reading Ron's expression, Harry kicked the case over to Ron, who bent down while never letting his glare leave his targets.

Ron lifted the lid back to reveal Excalibur, its brilliantly bright appearance made even more so in all of the light. With a ginger touch, Ron grazed his fingers across the blade.

"Ian and Ann?" Hermione asked pointedly.

The question made Ron tear his gaze away from Excalibur and straighten back up. He inclined his head to the right, where two men had suddenly appeared. Those men turned into an archway and each produced two people in their grasp: Ian and Ann. They looked to be relatively unharmed.

"As promised," said Ron. "Now, you can kindly take your sheep and return to the barn."

Harry quickly shot a glance to Ian and Ann that made his intentions clear. They gave the subtlest of understanding looks.

"You honestly expect us to walk away from this?" Harry posed sarcastically. "Two powerful artifacts in the possession of a group of dark wizards…sorry, that's grounds for sticking around."

Ron smirked, and the confident gesture was reflected in his eyes. "Yes, but do the math." Even more Brotherhood members materialized out of the shadows. "You're outnumbered."

Harry casually let his eyes take in all of the fresh figures, and a smile of his own cracked his lips. "You might want to crunch those numbers again."

Just as he expected, the other Aurors lifted their Invisibility Charms at that moment and all raised their wands.

"Give up," Harry stated simply.

Ron cast a quick look up toward Garrett, who had his face contorted in a way that suggested he was amused with all this. Garret gave Ron a brief nod. "You know, Harry," said Ron as he turned his head back, "the old me would normally comply with your threats, but it's a new day."

Both Harry and Ron shot spells out that sprang forth from their wands like tendrils, and they collided with each other forcefully enough that it sent both casters spiraling through the air in opposite directions.

This action sprung everybody else into it, as the Main Hall was flooded with a wave of noise and violence. Spells flew through the air and Hermione fired off a few of her own as she dashed over to Harry to help him back up.

Harry and Hermione raced over to the archway where Ian and Ann were currently elbowing the Brotherhood members who had been holding them in place. As Harry and Hermione were racing for cover, they noticed two things. One, Draco was occupying himself with dueling various Brotherhood members during his trek toward Garrett and two, Ron had recomposed himself and was readying an electrical spell with his wand.

The instant Ron sent it their way, Harry and Hermione directed their wands at the ground and caused a column to rise up out of nowhere and block the spell. Along with Ian and Ann, Harry and Hermione dived into the shelter the archway provided right as the ricochet of a stray spell licked at their feet.

"Nice to see you again," Ian greeted mock-pleasantly once Harry and Hermione picked themselves up.

"We're just glad you're both alive," said Harry through deep breaths.

"Believe me, we are too," Ian remarked.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Ann asked straightforwardly.

Harry peeked out around the arch, but pulled his head back to avoid a red flash. "We need to get Excalibur back before we concern ourselves with Garrett." Making sure to keep his head out of range of anyone, Harry looked over at where Garrett was. It appeared as if he was reciting some sort of incantation from The Book, and at the same time, his robes billowed around him in a strong wind. Meanwhile, Ron was fighting off an Auror while holding onto Excalibur.

"So we need to get it from Ron first." Hermione voiced what Harry was thinking.

"Hermione and I will handle Ron." Harry fixed Ian and Ann with a firm stare. "You two handle the help." He gestured out at the henchmen.

"You got it." Ian leveled his wand.

Harry and Hermione flanked both sides of the archway, their wands angled down. "Okay, you're gonna need to lay down some cover fire," said Harry.

Ian and Ann came to the center of the archway and lunged out into the fight, immediately firing off a barrage of spells. Harry and Hermione ducked out behind them and made their way for Ron.

Harry conjured up a shield that blocked the line of spells that came his way. Harry extended his wand arm out from the shield and fired off his own spells, each one sent in various directions by gusts of wind sent out by Ron. Thinking fast, Harry flipped the shield up so that he held it like a Frisbee and tossed it through the air. During its flight, Harry ignited the shield in flames before casting another spell that made the shield explode once Harry judged it was close enough to Ron.

But Ron was quick enough to throw up a Shield Charm that had the flaming debris bounce away and impact hard against the walls and one nearly hit Garrett, who swerved out of the way just in time. The fireballs that smashed into the walls caused explosions that rocked the air and sent silver debris in all directions.

Ron halted some of the silver debris in midair and transformed the pieces into lethally sharp spikes. He swept his wand arm and threw the spikes toward Harry and Hermione. As the spikes rocketed through the air, a silver-blue light shone around the weapons as a result of their high speed, glowing menacingly.

Harry and Hermione leapt backwards to avoid the first few spikes, which were drilled into the ground with such force that cracks formed in the areas around them. Harry then blew up the spikes still flying at them and they exploded in a shower of miniscule pieces.

Next, Harry brought his wand down much like a tennis racket during a power serve, and a wild succession of energy balls fell in a perfect line in front of Ron's feet. This inspired Harry, Ron and Hermione to trade spells the traditional way, with each of them casting and blocking as rapidly as they could.

Draco, meanwhile, was faring as best he could, albeit more physically. Whenever he wasn't hitting Brotherhood members with spells, he was using his fists. During one of those altercations, Draco's wand was knocked out of his grasp and flew over the side of the staircase he was standing on. This left Draco to tackle the legs of the current Brotherhood member and propel him over his shoulders so that the Brotherhood crony went sliding roughly down the stairs. Draco turned to the side and jumped over the side of the staircase and landed beside it to scoop up his wand. But he had to block a spell that came his way. The effort shoved Draco back a few inches while digging his feet into the floor a good ways. Draco absorbed the spell with his wand and redirected it at the caster, who was sent soaring and hit the ground immobile. Draco jumped back into action.

Not too far away from Draco, Ian and Ann were in the midst of a furious duel of their own. The Brotherhood members they were fighting had abandoned wand usage and had pulled out gleaming swords. In response, Ian and Ann cast the spell that made their wands become shining swords of themselves and engaged the Brotherhood members in combat.

The swords met at specific arcs and clanged loudly enough to be heard over the roar of chaos in the Main Hall. Ian's sword was blocked at a downward angle, but the young Auror thought fast and head-butted the Brotherhood member. Ian ignored the bursts of pain in his head as he adjusted the sharpness wand sword and brought the blade down against his adversary's leg. The instant the sword made contact with the leg, dark green ropes sprang forth and wrapped themselves tightly around the Brotherhood member, who fell heavily to the ground. Just for good measure, Ian roundhouse punched the member in the face, which knocked him unconscious.

Ian twirled around to face his next opponent, but felt his left arm get sliced just above the elbow joint. Ian, who had been dueling with that arm, tossed his sword into the other hand and pressed on in his attack. But after a few good lunges and parries, Ian found his other arm to be cut with a sword, this gash deeper than the previous one. Before he had time to fully register the pain, Ian had his legs kicked out from underneath him.

"Ian!"

Ann had seen what happened and she quickly dispensed of her current fight partner by sending him into the far wall with a strong gust of air. She then skidded across the floor and collided hard with the Brotherhood member leering over Ian. Ann pulled Ian to his feet carefully, making sure not to open his wounds any more. She tore off pieces of her robes to apply over Ian's cuts.

As she did, more Brotherhood men began to surround the two of them. Ian and Ann both noticed this at the same time. Without a word spoken between them, Ian and Ann hugged into each other and blasted the Brotherhood members with a combined spell that sent them crashing very hard into the walls. Once they did that, Ian and Ann leaned away from each other while regarding each other awkwardly.

A stray spell shook them out of their stupor and they refocused on fighting off Garrett's men.

Harry and Hermione were still busy fighting Ron, and the battle was getting more heated by the minute. One spell aimed at Hermione was parried quite easily, but another, more unanticipated one exploded violently enough against Hermione's shield to send her twirling in midair and landing hard on the ground. Ron then lashed out at Harry with a shockwave of magic that emanated from his hands after he brought them together in a resounding clap. By now, Ron had stuffed Excalibur into his belt.

Harry blocked the shockwave and bounced it back on Ron, who was thrown down when the spell hit him. While Ron was picking himself up, Hermione did the same and with a look of ferocity in her eyes, she conjured up a rope that tied itself around Ron's legs. The other end of the rope connected with an overhang of an upper level of the castle and dangled Ron upside down. While Ron was in that position, Excalibur slipped out of Ron's belt and clashed against the floor beneath him. Harry immediately raced over to the freed sword, but Ron snapped the rope and dropped in front of Excalibur before Harry could get close enough to it. Ron delivered a swift kick to Harry that sent him staggering back far enough so that Ron could point his wand to the floor and cause another column to rise up from it, pushing Ron up closer to the upper levels of the castle.

Once Harry ha regained his composure, he and Hermione followed Ron's example and lifted themselves up into the air by way of a column of their own. Both columns rose up above the flashes of spells until they finally stopped beside the hallway of a new level. Ron leapt off his column and onto the new level; Harry and Hermione were right on his tail.

Harry and Ron faced each other down on the platform of the overhang.

"You know," Ron sneered, "there are advantages of being with The Brotherhood."

He shot out a burst of flame, which Harry and Hermione ducked under so that it exploded against the far wall.

"How about we show you some of the disadvantages?" Hermione said before she fired a green disc at Ron.

Ron used his wand to smash the disc in its center so that it disintegrated into many more discs that flew out all over the Main Hall and sliced into the walls and any other smooth, solid surface. Some narrowly missed Aurors and Brotherhood members.

Ron began drilling Harry and Hermione with spell after spell while driving them back into the sun-filled hallway. The spells bounced away from Harry and Hermione, due to some expert wand maneuvering, and devoured chunks of the walls they hit. But the real kicker came when Harry, Ron and Hermione all connected their spells in a massive explosion that threw them into opposite directions of the hallway. Ron was hurled back onto the platform as Harry and Hermione crashed through the door of a room at the other end.

Harry and Hermione shook their heads as they lay sprawled across the floor of what looked to be a closet of some sort. The ground was covered in a layer of a dark, powdery substance that ran through Harry's fingers. Harry didn't need the accompanying smell to tell him what it was.

It was gunpowder.

The walls of the small room were hidden behind stacks of barrels that no doubt were filled with the stuff. This gave Harry an idea.

"Hermione. We need to get these barrels out there."

"Which way do you prefer? Roll or throw?"

"Whatever works."

They began by rolling them across the length of the floor. Actually, Hermione rolled them out while Harry stood by the smashed door and waited until each barrel got close enough to the platform before shooting spells that caused them to blow up with great force.

Eventually, a few of the barrels rolled over the edge of the platform just as they exploded, making them rain down upon the people fighting below like huge droplets of fire. On ground level, people including Draco, Ian and Ann all had to dive out of the way of the flaming debris more than once. Ian and Ann especially took the opportunity to knock out the Brotherhood members they were fighting. However, Draco met the same fate as a Brotherhood member suddenly hit him across the head with a piece of debris. Draco dropped like a lead weight, a trail of blood streaking down the side of his head.

Back up top, Ron was forced to dance around awkwardly in order to avoid the exploding barrels. So he was adequately distracted enough that Harry was able to come up on him and tackle him to the floor. The two former friends struggled heatedly with each other, landing punches to as many inches of their bodies as they could. Their wands lay discarded beside them.

Ron managed to overpower Harry and roll them over so that he was on top as they continued to fight. Ron placed his hands over Harry's throat and began to apply pressure. Harry started to desperately gasp for air.

"I'm disappointed, Harry," Ron sneered. "You're a better fighter than this. What's holding you back?"

Harry brought his elbow down hard against Ron's arm joint, which relinquished the tight grip on his throat. "I wasn't aware I was holding back. In that case…"

Harry jabbed Ron in the chest and then decked him firmly in the jaw. Ron was propelled back…back into Hermione's waiting hold. As Harry got up, Hermione locked Ron's hands up, rendering him immobile. Harry picked up his wand, but then spotted Excalibur a few inches away. With his free hand, Harry picked that up as well.

"Congratulations," growled Ron, who was still in Hermione's hold. "But now the question is…what do you do with it?" He abruptly broke free of Hermione's grip and shoved her against the wall, a knife appearing in his other hand. Ron placed the tip of the knife against Hermione's smooth cheek. "Do you save the woman you love…or do you stop the man whose heart the blade of that sword is meant for?" Ron motioned with his eyes toward Garrett, who was still in the midst of his ritual from The Book. By now, a line of blood was dripping down from Hermione's cheek where the knife was pressed.

Harry looked both fearfully and uncertainly at Hermione. She gave him a look back that told him she could take care of herself.

"Oh," Harry said as the faintest of smiles came across his lips, "I'm not worried so much for Hermione's safety as I am for yours."

Swiftly, Hermione shoved aside Ron's knife and kneed him in the gut. It looked like Hermione had taken it upon herself to train in not just wizard combat, but hand-to-hand as well.

"Go," Hermione told Harry confidently. "You have a battle of your own to fight…and I have mine."

Harry and Hermione shared one more look with each other that spoke their words of concern for them. Finally, Harry gripped Excalibur tighter and started running up a set of stairs toward the next level.

You're going to make it out of this, Harry thought to himself. For her.

Hermione was Harry's driving force. Not just for defeating Garrett, but from everything to this to life itself. She had already experienced the heartache of losing someone she loved already, and Harry was not about to put her through that again.

Harry reached the top of the stairs and found that he was in a perfect position above Garrett to surprise him, since Garrett was still occupied with his reading of The Book. Taking a deep breath, Harry tucked Excalibur into his belt on his right side and backed up a few steps.

In that instant, Harry realized that he wasn't just about to fight for Hermione. He was about to fight for Ginny as well.

That thought guided his feet forward until they had left the platform and were sailing down through the air toward Garrett.